Page 79 of New Blood

“Good. Cause I need to know if you saw Eve leave her room while you were guarding the master bedroom. She’s three doors down from it.”

“I know where her room is. After she disappeared into her room, I didn’t see her come out. Have you checked with Parker? He relieved me around 3 am.”

“Not yet. Do you know where he is?”

“Perhaps taking a nap somewhere?” Grant guessed. “Why don’t you call him?”

Jude pulled his cell from his pocket and navigated to Parker’s number. He let it ring, but it instantly went to voicemail. He disconnected the call.

“His phone is switched off.”

“Or out of range,” Grant said. “I noticed that in some areas of the estate, you don’t get a cell phone signal.”

“I’ll check his room,” Jude replied and left the library.

Recalling the floor plan Parker had made, he headed to the new wing of the mansion. After a quick knock at the door, he entered Parker’s room. The curtains were drawn, and the room was dark. The sound of running water came from the ensuite bathroom.

“Parker?” Jude called out and closed the door behind him, stepping farther into the room.

A moment later, the water was turned off.

“Parker? It’s Jude.”

“What?” came Parker’s reply.

A second later, he exited the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his lower body, his skin and hair still dripping with water.

“Sorry to disturb, but it’s important,” Jude started.

“Shoot!”

“When you were guarding my bedroom, did you see Eve leave her room?”

“Eve? No. Not her.”

“What do you mean by not her? Did somebody else leave?”

Parker wiped water off his forehead. “Well, I saw Violet. But I couldn’t see where she went. I only saw a glimpse of her on the stairs. You know, her room isn’t on the same floor as yours, so I don’t know for sure where she was coming from. But I definitely saw her going downstairs.”

“What time was that?”

“About five in the morning. I figured she probably went for an early morning run.” He shrugged.

“Thanks, Parker.”

Jude turned away, contemplating his words. Why had Violet left her room at 5 am? Was she an early riser? Or had she used the time to sneak to Danielle’s car to tamper with the brakes?

Danielle would probably be able to answer the first question, but he didn’t want to worry her. She was still shaken about the accident, and he didn’t want to contribute to her anxiety.

However, there was one other person who could tell him about the habits of the Gallagher family members: Priscilla. As a servant—how much he hated that word—she was one of the first to be awake to get breakfast started. If anybody knew whether Violet was an early riser, and leaving her room at 5 am was nothing unusual, it was Priscilla.

He searched the house for quite a while, because he didn’t want to ask anybody about her whereabouts, so as not to make the Gallaghers aware of the fact that he suspected that one of them was responsible for the so-called accident. Since searching the house was a bust, he strolled to the cottages Danielle had shown him previously. He passed the burnt-out cottage, then reached the second one. He knocked at the door and called out Priscilla’s name at the same time.

The door was ripped open within seconds, and Priscilla stared at him, a book in her hand, clearly startled.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just needed an hour to rest. And there wasn’t anything urgent to do in the house. But I can come back right now. I’m sorry.”

She couldn’t stop talking, clearly intimidated—and possibly scared. He suspected instinctively that Flora probably didn’t approve of Priscilla taking breaks.