Diana Spaulding 01 Deadlier than the Pen by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Author:Kathy Lynn Emerson [Emerson, Kathy Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Mystery
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 2004-10-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Another telegram awaited Ben in Boston. He swore when he read it. The crisis was over. Aaron was no longer missing. There had been no need to rush home, no need to leave Diana so soon.

Better this way, he tried to tell himself. He would go back to New York for her when everything had been resolved. He needed to settle a few things before he could be completely honest with her.

First among his problems was Aaron, who had taken a very long time to get home. According to this latest telegram, he’d told their mother he hadn’t been caught in the storm. But neither had he been able to recall much of what had happened to him since he’d left Manhattan a week ago. He’d remembered arriving in Stamford and then, much later, in Boston.

Could he have returned to New York in the interim?

Ben did not like the direction of his thoughts. Surely it was a coincidence that Aaron had been in Philadelphia when that woman had been killed. And even if he hadn’t left New York after all, or had gotten off the train, or had returned from the first stop, he’d have had no reason to hurt Diana.

But Ben remembered his brother’s concern in the park that they do something about being followed. By the time they’d met in the coffee shop and Ben had put Aaron on the train for home, Aaron had been acting as if he’d forgotten all about Diana. But with Aaron, one never knew.

This is crazy, Ben thought, not without irony. Aaron was no killer. And he certainly could not carry out a series of pre-mediated crimes. Besides, Aaron had never been to San Francisco, where that other woman had been murdered.

Bone-weary, he scraped a hand across his face and took a seat on a straight-backed wooden bench to wait for his train. Briefly, he considered finding a hotel and getting some sleep before he continued on to Bangor. There was no rush now, but neither was there any reason to delay going home.

The moment he rested his elbow on the iron arm rest, new doubts assailed him. His brother had seemed in perfect command of himself when they’d parted company. Ben had let his guard down. Aaron was smart enough to get himself home on his own, but he was also clever enough—devious enough—to have made new plans, especially if he’d believed he had a good reason to.

He’d had a strong reaction to Diana Spaulding. Ben wondered if she affected everyone that way. In spite of his concern about his brother’s whereabouts he had himself been unable to get her out of his mind on the train journey from New Haven to Boston. If Aaron had been similarly obsessed, and beset by an irrational dislike of the woman, could he have felt driven to slip back into New York and attack her?

Ben rubbed his pounding temples. Aaron could have been the man in the alley last Saturday night, but he could not have been on the train with them.

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