Drowning Pool (Miss Henry Mysteries) Read Online Free Page A

comforts. That was lovely when it was being used for your benefit.
    But experience had taught her the capacity for ruthlessness was always there under the surface thoughtfulness. Somewhere near puberty it began to rise up, creating the next generation of tyrants. That these instincts were sometimes glossed over with education and good manners and excellent taste did not mean that the ruthlessness was not there and fully functional. And the wealthy could be very dangerous, because they had little experience at being thwarted and tended to over react in swift and decisive ways when angered. Then there was the matter of greed. Unchecked, it started making decisions—usually bad ones.
    Von Hayek’s army was dressed up as footmen and chauffeurs and probably gardeners and maids, at least when other people were around, but she was willing to bet that they didn’t spend a lot of time doing domestic tasks like the real servants.
    Oh well, at least they were being chauffeured in style to their doom.
    There was a road of sorts that led to the castle, a rutted track that had probably been in use during the days of Cortez. The limousine drove beside it, followed by the armored car. Eventually they began to climb as they mounted the spur of stone that had thrust up in the middle of the desert. Mountain tops were always popular locations for castles. They had good views and it made the edifices more impressive.
    The castle was only reached by passing through a thick wall so tall that they could not see over it from the road. She caught only a glimpse of what she thought was a bird, but told herself she might well be mistaken because of the failing light. Still, a part of her was sure that she had seen a giant raven and the symbolism added to her unease. The choice to put up a wall around the castle might have been an aesthetic one, recalling the ancient days of battles and fortresses. Coupled with the armed guards, it might also suggest paranoia that such an attack could happen again.
    The castle itself , when finally in view, was doing a good impression of being abandoned in the last century until the security lights popped on, flooding the earth and sky with light that could probably be seen from space. It also pointed out graphically what a strange building it was. The size was expected but not the unorthodoxy. It was startling enough to catch her off guard.
    Juliet had been expecting something that felt like a theme park castle, a recreation that had the general outlines of something medieval but which would feel fake close up. But that was not the case. Von Hayek’s castle felt genuinely medieval—just not medieval Europe. Whether it had been built on the remains of an older temple that was already in situ, or if the builder had incorporated Aztec carvings brought in from somewhere else, it was an authentic creation, a hybrid of architecture that felt both real and monstrous, a testament to strength and not harmony. There were crenellations and towers but also a pyramid. The designer had to have been schizophrenic or else trying to please two masters.
    There were carvings in the stone that had been fretted by the wind and sand and heartless time, but this particular figure had been deeply scrivened. The foundation to the left of the massive doors was sporting a snake eating a skeleton. Or perhaps regurgitating it. Neither option was one Juliet wanted to see and she thought it rather lacked something as a welcome mat, which might have been intentional.
    She glanced up at the gargoyles perched in their unneeded flying buttresses where they could leer down at the people below. They were not dragons or horned demons of Notre Dame but instead representations of the god Quetzalcoatl.
    What she could see no sign of were the solar panels that her research assured her were used to power the castle. This idea had pleased her but perhaps it was misinformation. Certainly there had been no warning about the abortion of taste that was the castle