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She flinched at the mention of the Ronin name. Clearly she knew all about the vampires, and she was terrified of them. I could tell that without even without the frenzied waves of feeling that she was exuding towards my psychic senses. She would be no good to me in a panicked state like this.
So I changed my tone to a softer one, and said, “It’s okay. I’m not here because of them. I’m here for Leonie. I want to find out who really killed her.”
This did nothing to calm the woman. She stood there trembling with rage and fear, the vase still raised up like a weapon above her head.
“Do you have any tea?” I asked her. “I’m really parched. And I would really appreciate if you could tell me just a few things about Leonie and then I’ll be on my way.” Now she knew what it would take to get me to leave.
“I don’t want to talk about her,” said the woman. “It’s all in the past. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
I could tell that it did matter to her, but she was too afraid to speak of it.
“The sooner we talk, the sooner I’ll be out of your hair,” I said lightly. “I promise. And I promise that nobody else knows that I’ve come here.”
This wasn’t exactly true. Audriett Ronin must suspect I had been planning to come here. But telling this woman that fact would only make her crumple into a sobbing mess. And anyway, Audriett Ronin had been absolutely certain that I would find nothing of interest at this address. So she certainly was not aware of whoever this comically frightened woman was.
My words had only reassured the woman a small amount, but nevertheless she agreed to make some tea. I followed her towards her kitchen, staying several feet behind her so that she wouldn’t feel threatened. I wanted to ask her name, but I thought that if I did do that, she would know that I hadn’t a clue who she was and clam up even more.
As she tinkered away in her kitchen, boiling the water and preparing the teacups, I stayed in the hallway outside. I found myself looking at a few framed photographs placed on a side table. One was a wedding photograph showing an entire wedding party assembled around a young bride and groom. The bride was this woman, and the groom a handsome tall young man with his arm around her, lovingly looking down at her face. Standing next to him was someone I recognized. It was the woman from the vision that I’d had of Leonie Ashbeck back in Ronin’s creepy rose garden. She was unmistakably the Constance Ashbeck, the aunt who had been telling Leonie off in my vision.
Which meant that the woman in the kitchen was Joshua Asbeck’s wife. I was stunned. This woman had to be Leonie Asbeck’s mother! She seemed the right age for it, and she had certainly married Joshua at a young age according to this wedding photo. And yet, there were no photos of Leonie on the side table. Not one.
Instead of making me doubt that this was Leone’s mother, this fact made me even more certain. Because I already knew a mother who had gotten rid of every photo of her child when that child’s memory became too painful to look upon. Beneath the side table was a basket of old mail. I shamelessly rifled through it to find out the woman’s name. It was Darya Palmer.
As she came out of her kitchen carrying a tray of tea cups and biscuits, I said to her, “You’ve reverted to your maiden name?”
She nodded stiffly. “I didn’t want them to find me. Stupid, isn’t it? But I couldn’t afford to move away. I can’t even leave this house, knowing that they’re out there.”
“You mean vampires?”
She flinched at the word vampires.
“But they can’t travel in the sunlight,” I said. “You’re safe from them in the day. And I don’t think the Ronins even know that you live here. They’re really not coming after you.”
“Says you,” she said angrily. But even her anger was restrained and full of fear.
I was astonished. Had she really been living here locked up in this house ever since Leonie had died? I didn’t have to ask it to know the answer. She really had, with only her dog for company. And now it appeared the dog was sick, and the poor woman would shortly be alone. This was not what I had expected to find here.
I took a seat on the sofa and picked up my cup of tea to take a sip. She followed my example. She never said a word, clearly resentful at my presence in her house.
“I’m sorry about your loss,” I said. “Leonie, and your husband Joshua. He died in a car crash, didn’t he?”
“Car crash!” she said bitterly. “He died because they killed him. Joshua loved Connie. He never told me what she was. Never! Or I would never—” She cut herself off abruptly.
“Never what? Married him?”
She shrugged angrily. “I never knew that she was a blood slave for the vampire. I knew about otherkind, of course. But they never seemed real to me. I certainly didn’t know that my husband’s twin was consorting with vampires. And by the time I found out, it was too late. Joshua was already dead.”
Every word out of her mouth was tinged with bitterness. I couldn’t understand how it was possible that she had allowed Leonie, her only child, to go and live with vampires since she was so clearly terrified of them.
“I thought you were dead,” I told her. “They told me that Leonie had gone to live at the Ronin nest after her father had died, so naturally I assumed that her mother was already dead and she had nowhere else to go. And yet here you are, very much alive. I can’t understand why you let Leonie go and live in that place.”
“I had no choice,” she said harshly. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“It is none of your business,” she snapped. “Why should I speak to you? I already spoke to the police all those years ago. Who are you?”
“I’m just an interested party who is determined to find the real killer.”
