Endgame by Jeffrey Round Page B

hands. Crispin, Verna, and David headed upstairs immediately. Sami Lee and Max left next. Janice remained standing in the room with Spike and Pete.
    â€œDo you really think the video caused it?” Janice said.
    â€œIt’s impossible to say,” Edwards told her gently.
    â€œBut why would Harvey accuse us all of murder?” She shivered. “He was as much a part of it as anyone —”
    Spike gave her a sharp look. Janice broke off.
    â€œNobody’s guilty of murder,” Pete said forcefully. “It was an accident. We all agreed —” He, too, left his statement unfinished.
    â€œIt’s awful,” Janice said, looking down at the dead man. “I can’t believe he’s gone, just like that. I suppose it could happen to any of us, really.”
    â€œI used to see it at the hospital,” Sandra told her. “You never really get used it, but it happens all the same.”
    Janice sighed. “I suppose. But I’m far from used to it.”
    She put a hand to her head. “I’m getting an awful headache. Do you have anything for it?”
    Sandra nodded and stood. “Yes,” she said. “Come with me. I can fix you up.”
    The two women went off together.
    After they’d gone, Edwards looked at Pete and Spike. “I hate to ask, but would you mind helping me move the body?”
    Pete’s head hung down on his chest. He was waiting for the Voice to speak. It had been oddly silent all this time, but something felt imminent.
    â€œWhere do you want to put it?” Spike said.
    Him , the Voice said at last. It was almost a relief when it finally spoke. The Voice’s silence unnerved him almost as much as the things it told him to do.
    â€œHim,” Pete corrected.
    â€œYeah, sure. Him. It. Whatever,” Spike said in a subdued tone.
    Edwards drew a deep breath. “There are no vacant rooms. For now, we should just bring Mr. Embrem upstairs and put him on his bed.” He shook his head. “I doubt there’s much chance this will turn out to be a mistake and he’ll wake up in the middle of the night, but if he does, I think he’d want to be somewhere comfortable rather than out in the boathouse or somewhere like that.”
    The three men carried Noni’s body up the stairs. They had just placed him on his bed when Max appeared in the doorway watching them.
    â€œHarvey will pay for this,” he repeated malevolently then turned and went back into his room.
    Downstairs , the Voice said unexpectedly to Pete. For a moment, he looked around to see if anyone else had heard it, but of course no one else ever heard the Voice. He waited a beat then slipped back down to the drawing room.
    At first, everything appeared as it had when Noni fell and died. Outside, the wind whined fiercely in the trees and thrashed around the chimney. The storm was on them at last. Pete looked around the room, wondering what the Voice wanted him to see. Then he spotted it. A second chess piece — a black knight — lay on its side next to the white pawn. Ten figures remained upright.
    Pete thought about it for a moment and decided he wouldn’t say anything about it to anybody else. Not unless the Voice told him to, of course. It might not mean anything to anybody else. Of course, someone could have accidentally knocked against the board in all the confusion after Noni fell. But he didn’t think that was what happened. To Pete, it was clearly a sign of something.
    Something bad.

Chapter 11
    P ete stood in the middle of the room staring down at the ivory pieces. How often had he felt like a pawn on the chessboard of life? Even when he’d acted the king, he knew he wasn’t one. Still, everyone had taken from him as though he were some kind of monarch with bottomless pockets — first his mother, then later his girlfriends. But when the fame faded and the money dried up shortly after, they’d all left him. It