I saw no vehicles that would have signaled how the ATF guys got there. But then they would have hidden the vehicles. I looked in the bay door that was open. There was the banged up dark gray Suburban Hudson had been using. Hudson’s spy car. It sat alongside the Rolls, his butler car. He was a man of many talents.
“Hello?” I said in a hoarse whisper. “Any body here? Hello?”
I checked out the Suburban. My carryon luggage was in the back where Jake had thrown it when we left the hotel. Hudson had followed us here. But then he knew where the rifles were hidden. Had Jake helped him organize the sting? How much had they both known about the set up? I wondered if they had the bad guys in a room with their hands held high.
I could leave. I could take the Suburban and leave. I checked for the keys. Not in the ignition. Not in the glove compartment, nor the center console. They were under the floor mat. I had the airline ticket to Sydney in my purse. I had transportation. I could be off in an instant. As I was about to climb into the driver’s seat, I heard my name.
“Fiona, where are you going? I’ve been looking all over for you.”
I paused in my getaway and looked around. Jake came around the back of the car and stopped. We stood looking at each other.
“Jake Manyhorses, you have some explaining to do.”
He nodded and his hands came out to embrace me, but my lethal stare stopped him mid-air.
“Fiona,” he began but his voice trailed off.
“How did you know those rifles were in the shed?”
“I helped Hudson put them there. The rifles you discovered in the basement were half the cache. We had already removed most of it to the shed.”
“You knew about the rifles. You led me astray on a number of occasions. You used me.”
“It may look like that but really I was trying to keep you out of harm’s way. But you kept getting in the way. I didn’t want anything to happen to you. This whole thing kept playing like some bad movie.”
“Bad movie all right with live ammunition,” I said. “Ratko said he’d been blackmailing Albert. Did you know that?”
“Not exactly. I knew Albert was being blackmailed but I didn’t know who.”
“But I did.” Hudson walked through the open bay door and came to stand beside us. His hair wasn’t even disheveled. “I knew someone was getting to Albert but I couldn’t find out who it was. When Cody came into the picture and started helping him, he was freer with information than Albert. I was able to get names. When they started showing up at the house after Albert’s demise, we were able to close in. I had to hold back some of the rifles so we could set up the sting.”
“What was the blackmail?” I said. I stood with my arms folded tight across my chest, not feeling kindly disposed toward either of them.
“Alice,” said Hudson. “She insisted on a cut when she found out Albert was dealing arms. Instead of turning him in, she wanted a cut. If she got a cut, she wouldn’t turn him in, would she?”
“And,” I said. “Albert was sleeping with her. Maybe in love with her and married to another woman.”
“Yes,” Hudson said. “Albert had the hedged clipped like a suit of cards for his love, Alice Wonderland. That’s when Olivia knew Albert was involved with Alice because she was, too. Olivia knew the connection with Alice in Wonderland. You cannot imagine the row that ensued in the Lodge household. I think it ultimately caused Olivia’s stroke.”
“We are back to square one,” I said. “The reason I got caught up in all this trouble. Who killed Albert?”
Hudson said, “Albert killed himself with an overdose of his meds. He’d been despondent over Olivia’s death, and Alice’s double cross. I found the empty bottle of medication he had mixed with his evening toddy in the kitchen when I tidied up.”
“You didn’t share that information with the family. Why?”
Hudson’s shoulders slumped. “I tried to tell Miss Opal, but she was convinced that someone in the family murdered him and insisted that Jake find out who it was. Then things started spinning out of control. We had to set up the sting operation to break up this end of the arms trafficking.”
“Then all of this was an elaborate scheme about an arms deal. It wasn’t about people like me and Opal and Jake.”
Hudson sighed and looked away over my shoulder. “I know it sounds cold and heartless but Albert was mixed up in something that sucked innocent people in.”
I shook my head. “We’re lucky none of the innocents were hurt.”
Hudson gave a faint nod.
“Poor Albert,” I said. “Why would he get mixed up dealing arms?”
“He had huge debts. You can imagine with two women and one blackmailing you. Plus Ratko somehow found out about Alice’s involvement. He started blackmailing Albert. Those were the entries that Jake found in the ledger. Ratko had his men torch the study to burn the evidence. I’m guessing the evening of Albert’s demise Ratko had demanded more money, a lot more money. Albert didn’t have it. Ratko had slowly bled him to death, you might say.”
“Where is Alice? What will happen to her?” I asked.
“Alice is being held for questioning though she will probably get off. There are entries in Albert’s ledger that showed payments to someone, but he used a coding system, and we don’t know who. We might not have enough evidence to charge Alice.”
“Ratko was extorting Alice, too, because he said she wasn’t making payments.”
Hudson’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Miss Marlowe. That is valuable information. We will follow up. You are a superb detective, and I heartily thank you for your valuable service to the cause.”
I smiled at the idea of being a superb detective. I felt more like the superb bumbler. I turned to Jake. “And you were nervous the night of the party because Alice was there and you knew who she was and you didn’t want any of her ears to hear what we were talking about.”
“Yes. That was the problem all along. You were good at figuring things out. I wanted you out of harm’s way, but I wanted you close to me, too.”
“There is irony in that,” I said. “And Cody?”
“He’s still on the loose,” Jake said.
“I guess that’s the end for me then. I’ll leave Cody in your capable hands. I have a plane ticket to Sydney, and I’m going to be on the flight.”
Jake exchanged looks with Hudson, who cleared his throat.
“Miss Marlowe, I’m terribly sorry, but I need to ask you for that ticket and the check that I believe you said you had. You see, that is evidence against Alice. We’ll need your statement as to what transpired in your conversation with her.”
There went that paid vacation. I searched in my purse and found the ticket and voucher and handed it to Hudson. I felt strangely defeated. The worse feeling was being a pawn in the game. “Let’s get to the paper work. I’ll be free to leave then, won’t I?”
“Yes, I believe so. Shall we step into the kitchen and have tea? Just like old times.” Hudson gave me that gallant little smile that always won me over.
“Why not? Tea is always so civilized.”
“Right this way,” he said with a gentlemanly flair of the hand.
We entered through the infamous back entrance where it seemed all the real intrigue with the family took place. I guess, though, that Hudson wasn’t part of the family as much as he was part of the intrigue.
* * * * *
Jake gave me a ride home in the Rolls Royce which was a nice touch since I had never ridden in one. The interior was all burled wood and tan leather. It had that wonderful old car smell, but I hardly could appreciate the luxury, I was so out of it. I had duly signed a statement that might keep Alice on the hook. I signed a statement that I was a witness to the happenings at the Lodge house that morning. My part in the whole woeful affair was over.