5 Murder by Syllabub by Kathleen Delaney

wheeled around to stare at Cora Lee. “I don’t know of any other way. Oh.”
    Cora Lee’s tight little smile said I told you so .
    “Right. The other passageway door.”
    I felt a little like Alice, minus the white rabbit, of course. “What other passageway?”
    “The one from the main house to the east house. It’s the twin of this one, at least it used to be until we remodeled.” Elizabeth’s face and voice were both thoughtful. “Why I didn’t think of that before, I can’t imagine.” She stopped and frowned. “No. That wouldn’t do him any good.”
    “What do you mean?” Aunt Mary turned away from the doors to look around the room, as if trying to locate the door to the passageway from this house to the main house. The one Elizabeth had locked. She looked puzzled, as if she’d forgotten there was another house, the twin of this one. So had I. Was Cora Lee saying that whoever was in the main house with Monty could have gotten out that way?
    “It means he could have gone through the east wing passageway to the staircase.” Cora Lee sounded triumphant, as if she’d solved the mystery.
    “Gone through the house? Which house? What staircase? ”
    “The main house. We know he was there, whoever poisoned Monty. What we don’t know is how he got out. The passageway between the main house and the east house has a staircase in the middle. It was put there so the servants could come up from the kitchen and the laundry below. If he left that way, all he’d have to do is go down the stairs and he’d be gone.”
    Cora Lee sounded proud of herself. I didn’t think she’d solved anything. That might be how the prowler—murderer—escaped, but a whole lot of other questions remained unanswered. Like, who was “he”? Why did he kill Monty, and what were they doing in Elizabeth’s dining room? The biggest question of all, at least in my mind, was who was Monty?
    “Good theory, but there’s one thing wrong with it.” Elizabeth put both hands on the table and leaned forward, with the tiniest trace of a smile.
    Cora Lee raised one carefully plucked eyebrow and uttered a quizzical, “Oh?”
    “The door that leads into that passageway from the main house is locked. So is the door leading into the east house. Our prowler may have tried to get into the passageway from the main house but, unless he has a key, he didn’t.”
    “How do you know that?” Cora Lee sounded indignant. A perfectly good theory shot down before she ever got it off the ground.
    “William and I locked both doors. We were exploring both houses not too long before he had his stroke, trying to decide what we wanted to do, and he locked the doors as we left. I remember specifically because we both laughed. We had no idea who we were locking out, but William said it was an old habit.” She paused and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
    Aunt Mary reached over and patted her hand.
    Elizabeth smiled at her and brushed the tear away. “Anyway, he locked them, and since I have the only key I know about, they’re still locked.”
    “So, how did the intruder get in? Or out?” I was getting more confused by the moment. Ghosts in the upstairs hall, dead men in the dining room, people coming and going through locked doors. None of this made sense.
    “I don’t know.” Elizabeth’s brow furrowed into a scowl. “I don’t know how Monty got in, or why he came, and I don’t know how the other person got out.”
    “Well, dear ...” Cora Lee shifted slightly in her chair and frowned. The frown was replaced quickly by a sly smile. “I think one thing is certain. What he drank was syllabub. What was in it, and who put it there, I don’t know, but I’m sure that’s what it was.”
    Elizabeth turned white. Now what?
    Aunt Mary was quickly at her side. “Elizabeth, I think you need to sit down.”
    “Yes. Maybe I do. This has been quite a shock.” Elizabeth left the French doors and headed for a square table that sat in the middle of the