Free The Prince's Secret (The Royal Biography Cozy Mystery Series Book 2) by Julie Sarff Page A

of Erlington’s tomb was reinterred at the cemetery at Greyfriars Kirkyard on the southern edge of the old town section of Edinburgh.
    I am just packing up my things and getting ready to drive for an overnight trip to Scotland when my doorbell rings.
    “Lady Jones,” I exclaim with surprise at the sight of the woman on my doorstep. She brushes back a stray grey lock.
    “I’ve something for you.” She thrusts out a piece of paper in my direction.
    “What’s this?” I ask startled.
    “Agnes Tannebaum’s address. She was Margery’s sister,” Lady Jones answers without a smile.
    “Come in.” I motion.
    She steps through the door looking both uncomfortable and highly irritated. No sooner do I shut it behind her than she snaps, “Look, I have no idea what happened back then --with the death of the Prince. I know Scotland Yard investigated it thoroughly and up until you showed me that piece of paper, which looked like an authentic memo, well, up until then I thought that this was a cut and dry accident. But when I saw that memo, I knew there was more to the story. If everything was cut and dry then why the need for ‘Top Secret’ stamped across the top? Like I said, it seems like an absurdity to stamp ‘secret’ on top of something you want to keep confidential, but who knows how they did things at Scotland Yard? All our classified information was encrypted somewhere and couldn’t be printed out at SIS. Anyway…it just seems strange to me. And who takes a memo typed ‘Top Secret’ and places it in the Prince’s files? That’s another question. Why would someone do that?”
    I shrug. “Maybe it was in his memorabilia by mistake. I don’t know.”
    “Well, I made some calls to some friends who worked on the case for Scotland Yard. Found out three out of four of them have died, God rest their souls. But my old friend Ted and I, we cooperated on cases for 15 years. Well, we got together for a drink and I told him about the memo. I didn’t tell him who had it or how I’d seen it. Anyway, Ted looked nervous, really nervous. Then he broke down and told me that things had gotten so heated over Prince Albert’s death, that Margery’s whole family received death threats.”
    I sigh again. That doesn’t surprise me. Hidden behind their computers, people willy-nilly send out crazy, sometimes threatening messages. I heard the other day some actress received a death threat for tweeting in favor of her alma mater’s hockey team. Don’t even get me started about the hateful reviews people leave about my biographies on online sites.
    Yeah, it’s easy to imagine that Margery and her family received death threats.
    “Anyway, after Margery committed suicide and her parents died from serious bouts of cancer that were probably brought on by stress, Ted said he was assigned to put Margery’s sister in a program.”
    “A program?”
    “Yes, a program. Something like a witness relocation program. That is, the sister was given a completely new identity and relocated to…” She motions at the piece of paper she has just handed me.
    I open it and read aloud, “564 High Street, Portstewart.”
    “That’s right. She was given a house and a new identity. I asked Ted for her new name, but he said he never knew that part --he was just the one who found her and purchased a house for her. But the name she chose after she moved to Northern Ireland was only known to those who reissued her documents. Ted only told me this when I informed him it was the Prince who was searching for Margery --Ted felt distraught about that. If Margery told anybody what happened, it would have been her sister. But this information is confidential. I must have your word on that. It is to be kept between you, me, Ted and, of course, the Prince.”
    I agree wholeheartedly and two minutes later I shut the door behind Margaret, scrambling for my cell phone.
    “Lizzie, how are you?” the voice at the other end asks.

Chapter 16

    I’m not sure if