Chapter 3

Jessica was sitting in a comfortable armchair, slowly drinking the rest of her tea when Lady Bolyer entered the lobby of her suit, carrying a peach shoebox. Thea was looking at it with tenderness and agitation. She landed on the sofa across the coffee table. She opened the box, took out a pair of women's boat shoes, they were wiped clean, and seemed unworn. She put the shoes on the sofa behind her back and carefully pulled out a piece of carton, which probably served as a hide. Jessica came over and sat next to her. By that moment, Thea very carefully dragged out a pack of photos and handed them to Jessica.

Jessica's heart played a trick as soon as she laid her eyes on the first shot. It was a woman sitting in front of the piano, smiling very warmly and cheerfully at the camera. However, woman's face made Jessica speechless - she could have sworn she was looking at herself!

The same age, maybe a bit younger, blonde curls, same haircut, eyes, chin, complexion, facial expression! Even Jessica's cousin Emma wouldn't favor her as much as this lady cheerfully holding her hand on the piano. Jessica switched to the next photo, where she saw the same woman comfortably seated on the bed, reading a book, her legs laid under, and the same position in which she used to read back in Cabot Cove, near the fireplace. Then a picture in a size of a CD album where the woman was sitting at the piano in a beautiful red gown with bare shoulders. Finally, a very beautiful portrait photo, that looked just like Jessica. She turned the last picture around and her temples stiffened with strong pulsation. On the back of the photo, she saw a handwritten note that favored hers as well, in English: "To my dearest Thea, with love from Eva"...

Jessica raised her eyes at the girl who was showing a storm of emotions deep behind her actor's facade. Besotted with another mystery, 'lady detective' was going to open her mouth to say something significant, but she realized that her confusion is taking over too strongly, when Thea breathed in deeply to calm herself and said:

- This is my beloved teacher, Eva Siddons whom I have to thank for everything in my life. She taught me to sing, she taught me to act, she taught me to love...

Jessica finally regained her concentration and the vital piece of the puzzle jumped out right through her mouth. Rather an assumption, but she could not hold it for any longer:

- She is dead, isn't she?

- Yes… I found her in my dressing room in Vienna, after a performance, two years ago. She was dressed in a beautiful red gown, her head laying on my makeup table, and her right arm silently holding an empty glass. Later the doctor claimed that she had a stroke that caused her death. Nevertheless, I know for sure - she committed suicide…

- Thea, I am so sorry...

Thea put her eyes down, and kept silent for a moment.

- What makes you think that she killed herself?

- The glass in her hand had a disgusting smell and, under the table, I found a void bottle that looked like poison, and then... Eva left me a note. This strange and terrifying note I found next to her body...

Then Thea dragged a piece of paper from the bottom of her box and handed it to Jessica.

- "Trust Him, my dear Child... " - what does it mean? I am sorry, I just have never seen a suicide note like this before... I mean, people usually are asking to forgive them or explaining their motives, but this sounds more like a mandatory will... Thea, this is very personal. I shouldn't ask you about that, I am sorry...

- That's alright. Eva was a friend of my parents, who both passed away short after my birth in our house in Manetin. Eva raised me because I had nobody else in the whole world, orphan. She was single. She never married and had no children of her own. All her life she devoted to teaching singing to youngsters like myself. She was a brilliant musician, former opera singer.

Eva truly believed that I had a great voice to be mastered. She taught me to sing. Later I graduated the Conservatory, and soon enough Vienna blessed me with a triumph, despite my age, they casted me as the Queen of the Night in the Opera House, all thanks to Eva! After that, each part I got brought me more and more success. I was only eighteen, when after a scheduled rehearsal with Vienna Philharmonics Orchestra I was introduced to Sir Charles Bolyer, my future husband - twenty five years my senior. I was frightened and I didn't like him at all, while he has developed a serious intention to marry me. Eva knew about it. She was trying to protect me from insistent pursuits of this influential and dreadful man. She always told me that I should marry only if I fell in love. Clearly, she didn't mean to give me away to Charles. But that night, when she died, I was going to turn him down. And when I read that note… when I saw her dead over these words… I felt nothing but terror, because I believed that those words she meant as her last will. Next morning all Vienna's newspapers were full of sensational forthcoming matrimony: "Bohemian nightingale ala Bolyer". I hated myself ever since, but I couldn't disobey Eva's last will.

While telling this, poor girl's eyes dimmed with painful delusion.

- Was there any police investigation?

- No… No. On the night of her death, Charles found me in my dressing room, shortly before the doctor arrived. He saw the bottle with poison, and the glass. He immediately understood that Eva has done it to herself, and explained to me that he will not allow this scandal to harm me. Then he got rid of any evidence that might point to a suicide, except the note, hidden in my pocket, he never knew about it...

- Was there any particular reason to conceal the truth?

- I clearly don't understand why, but he was thoroughly convinced that Eva's suicide might destroy my career. At any rate, he managed to deal with the theater staff to keep Eva's death private.

- This is very strange! Surely, he had to think at least that the autopsy would discover poison in her blood!

Thea smiled with tears watering her eyes:

- You don't know my husband... he is very... influential… , after gasping for some air to calm herself, she continued, - I very much suspect that Charles bribed the doctor, because, after few days, I received an official conclusion on Eva's death as 'raised by a heart attack', no poison mentioned. Short after that, without any suspicions, Eva was buried… there were only two of us at her coffin... 'Husband and wife to be', as she desired...

Thea lowered her head and squeezed her arms in terror:

- In the meantime, I just couldn't get over her death. It seemed so wrong, so irrational... She seemed to have absolutely no reason to do something like that… She always told me that life is the most precious gift one can receive, and this gift has to be taken a great care of. Yet her last note, the place and time she chose to terminate her life, were all pointing at a great trouble. Although I will never know for sure why did she do this, ever since that terrible night I carry a painful sense of loss ...she was a true mother to me...

Thea stopped, trying her best to rain up her emotions.

Jessica took her hand gently and nodded with sympathy:

- When you saw me today, it must have been quite a shock for you, assuming my almost frightening resemblance to Eva!

- Yes, for a moment I thought I have lost my mind! I couldn't believe my eyes! I am so very sorry if I made you feel embarrassed.

- Of course not, child! No harm done!

After a moment of silence between them, still holding girls hand, Jessica sighed out - Now, you have to rest! Tomorrow night is a big night in Carnegie Hall. I will be there too. And I need to get back to my writing, I have ten more pages to deal with by tomorrow afternoon if I am going to hear you singing.

Ready to get out, Jessica gently grabbed Thea by the shoulders:

- My room is right across your door. Please don't hesitate to call me if you need any help, all right?

Thea smiled in response, her eyes shining with a touch of pure joy making its way through the waves of pain still burning her from the inside.

- All right. Thank you, Jessica! Thank you!

Jessica smiled very softly and pressed the girl to herself in a tender embrace. She could feel girl's tremble, along with cold in her thin pale hands.

She left the girl with a strange feeling of compassion and yet thoroughly disturbing noise somewhere at her 'mystery solving apparatus', giving a clear signal to her system - "Something is very wrong here!".

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