“Because I don’t think you killed him,” I said. “And because I know what it’s like to be the outsider. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and we’ll go find Detective Stewart.”

Just then I heard the key in the lock of the library door. Harry popped up from between his shelves and hissed, “Someone’s coming!”

Harry’s sudden appearance made Sunny yelp, which I was certain could be heard from the door. Sunny shot up from the settee and dashed behind it as if she feared Harry was some sort of maniac there to kill her.

“It’s okay, he’s with me,” I said. I tried to grab her hand but she backed away.

“Go!” she said. She waved her hands in the direction of the tunnel.

The doorknob started to turn and Harry grabbed my hand and pulled me across the library to the tunnel door. We dashed through, closing it almost all the way just as Detective Stewart swooped in and grabbed Sunny.

“Gotcha!”

I supposed we could have gone back inside the library, but how would that help Sunny? It wouldn’t. Harry put a finger to my lips, clearly having come to the same conclusion.

“I’ve been looking for you, Ms. Bright,” Detective Stewart said. “I have a lot of questions.”

“Are you going to arrest me?” she asked.

“Did you murder Dooney Portis?”

“No!” she cried. I peeked through the tiny sliver of an opening in the door and watched. Sunny looked stricken, and it seemed to soften the detective just a little bit.

“If that’s true,” he paused, “then I won’t arrest you.”

He looked around the library and asked. “How did you get in here?”

“The door,” she said.

She didn’t say which door. She knew Harry and I were hiding in the tunnel, and she was covering for us. If Detective Stewart found us, I had no idea how we’d explain our presence in a way that would sound even remotely reasonable.

“Why have you been hiding?” he asked.

“Because there’s a murderer in the castle and I’m afraid they might kill me or my baby,” she said.

Good answer! No one could fault the lover of a murdered man who was also pregnant with his child for being afraid for the safety of her baby, especially when he was about to marry someone else. Wait, that didn’t sound good for Sunny. Mercy, this was complicated.

Detective Stewart scratched his chin. “Or you’re hiding in here because you murdered Dooney Portis and you’re afraid of being caught.”

“I didn’t,” she cried. “I didn’t do it. I would never. He was the father of my child.”

“He was also about to marry someone else,” Detective Stewart said. “That’s quite a motive to murder him.”

“I didn’t,” Sunny said. Her voice was soft.