by R K Dreaming
“Rodan mentioned something else. He was talking about a key? To a safe-deposit box, I think? Or a locker? Do you know what he was talking about?”
She shook her head. “Sorry. No idea. It probably wasn’t important.”
“You’re right. I just thought I would check with you. Polliver’s team are sure the murderer was after Marilyn and that poor Rodan just got in the way. It can’t be anything to do with Rodan’s key. Why would someone kill him for that?”
“Exactly,” she said.
“Anyway, just forget I said anything. Though, I’ll have to mention it to Polliver. The sentinels like to cover all their bases. He’ll probably want to do a thorough search of Rodan’s place to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Maybe his office at yours too. I’m sure he’ll call you.”
I walked away, and I was sure I could feel her eyes on my back.
Nicely done, I thought. Now I had to wait and see.
Chapter 23
CHARMING
Garrett Clooney rolled to his side on the ground, groaning as Charming secured him in a pair of sentinel handcuffs.
“You!” he said in shock as he saw Charming, who had returned to his usual form. “What the hell are you doing, man? This isn’t fair.”
Garrett managed to regain his footing, but Oberon blocked his way and Charming swept his leg out from under him.
“Sorry buddy, but you’re not going anywhere,” said Oberon.
“You tricked me!” Clooney yelled, and called Oberon a rude word.
“Hey, that’s no way to speak to a lady,” said Oberon.
“So you’ll be glad to hear he’s no lady,” said Charming.
Clooney looked thunderstruck, and then furious as Charming stuffed a gag into his mouth.
Oberon’s phone rang. He grabbed it from his handbag and, taking a look at the screen, answered it.
“Sorry Sigourney. Can this wait? We’re in the middle of something.”
Then a short pause later, “Yes, this is Oberon. I know I sound different. I’ll explain later. You wanted Charming?”
He handed the phone over. Charming thrust the struggling Garrett at Oberon, and moved away a little to get some privacy, eager to tell Sigourney the good news.
“Hi, Sig—”
She cut him off, speaking urgently into the phone, “I’ve got her, Charming! She was married to Mockingbird too. I think I know why she did it. She was oh-so-convincing with her nice-girl act, but I’m sure I’m right!” Her voice was low, like she was worried about being overheard.
“Sigourney, what are you talking about?”
“Bridgit Corkmony, of course. You have to come to Rodan Hale’s house because everything is about to happen.”
“Are you there now?” he asked sharply.
“Not yet. Meet me there as soon as you can, okay? Just you. I’ll send you the address.” She sounded odd, and more than a little strained.
“No I will not!” Charming growled. “Stay away from that house, Sigourney. There’s no need to take a risk. I’ve caught the killer.”
“You have not!” she said impatiently. “I have. I don’t have time to explain it. Are you going to meet me there or not? I need you.”
“I have the killer in handcuffs,” Charming said, biting off each word tensely. “I’ll explain it to you later. You should go home and think about what your last—” he lowered his voice — “wish is going to be. Because this whole thing is going to be over tonight.”
“For heaven’s sake, Charming! Oh crap. I’ve got to go. Just meet me there, okay?” She hung up.
Charming was frustrated, but he didn’t call her back. It could wait until later tonight. He would explain everything to her when he got home for the last time.
With a heavy heart he realised he would be going there to tell her goodbye.
He returned to Oberon, who had Garrett pinned to the ground and was sitting on him. “It’s no fun being not me,” he complained. “I’m barely heavy enough to hold this one down!”
Charming handed Oberon’s phone back to him. “Listen buddy, you had better be off. You don’t want to be around for this next part.”
Garrett had bodily thrown himself away from Charming the moment Oberon had gotten off him.
Charming caught him easily and hoisted the thrashing Garrett over his shoulder like a sack.
Through his gag, Garrett complained furiously, seeming to scream that he was a star and that he would have Charming’s job for this.
A serious look came over Oberon’s face. “What are you planning to do?”
“You don’t want to know.”
The last item Charming had got from the witch earlier had the magic to do what needed to be done. There were limitations to what Charming could do as a genie, but this should work and he was determined to see it through.
Amelie needed her justice, and Charming was going to give it to her.
“Are you sure about this?” said Oberon, looking worried. “What did Sigourney say?”
“I’ll tell her later. Don’t worry about her. I won’t get her tangled up in this.”
Oberon looked both relieved and uncertain. “Maybe she wants to be tangled up in this.”
“I think it’s best if she isn’t. Trust me. Look after her for me, will you?”
Oberon looked alarmed. “Why? Where will you be?”
“Around,” said Charming vaguely. Saying goodbye was too hard. He made do with clapping Oberon on the back.
Charming walked away, carrying Garrett deeper into the grounds of Hardwick Hall, far from the security people, until he found a spot that was secluded and dark enough for his liking.
He wanted an explanation first before he used the magical weapon the witch had given him. He knelt on Garrett’s chest, warned him that screaming would do him no good, and then removed his gag.
“Okay, okay!” Garrett burst out, the moment he could speak. “Look, I should have told you that I flew back to England early from Ireland. I came to see a girl. Why should I stay on set while Noah was having fun with Jenny? She was only trying to make me jealous because I dumped her. The poor fool didn’t even know it. But my other girl didn’t answer my calls okay? She didn’t want to see me, so I flew back to Ireland.”
Charming gave him a cold look. “You think that’s what I want to know?”
“Was it my fingerprints?” gasped Garrett. “Oh man. Okay, I admit I was in Marilyn’s bedroom, but it was one time. She found me there and threw me out, all coy, as if we hadn’t had an affair for months! She couldn’t get enough of me. How was I supposed to know she would suddenly turn so cold?”
“So you admit you were having an affair with Amelie?” said Charming.
“Who?”
Charming gave him a grim smile. “You know exactly who. Marilyn Hepburn.”
“So what? We’re consenting adults!”
“And the baby was yours?”
“She lost it, man. That’s when it all went wrong. I loved her but she didn’t want anything to do with me after that.” Garrett was crying now, his face crumpling as tears poured down his cheeks. It was very convincing.
“I said I’d leave my wife for her,” he sobbed. “We could get married, but she said Noah was her true love. Can you believe it, man? Why would she say that?”
“The final nail in her coffin, was it?” said Charming. “You decided you didn’t need the baby there to see it. You would do it anyway?”
“It wasn’t me!” Garrett wailed. “It was Noah. He must have found out. He was so possessive. He’s just a boy. It’s not like he was going to be able to keep her. She would have got bored of him in the end. I think he knew it. He wanted her money. He was always jealous of my money. My fame. Now he gets to play the tragic husband. The press is lapping it up!”
Charming thrust his face menacingly close to Garrett’s. “Don’t play the fool with me. You and I both know what you are.”
A look of shock crossed Garrett’s face, and Charming nodded in grim satisfac
tion. “Yeah, I know. So you might as well admit it. I want to hear you say it.”
“Hello?” shouted a voice behind Charming. “Where are you? I saw you come this way. Garrett? You there?”
Before Charming could clamp his hand over Garrett’s mouth, Garrett had yelped.
The sound of jogging footsteps approached. “What the hell is going on?”
A panting Noah has emerged from among the trees. He looked astonished to see Garrett on the ground in cuffs, with Charming kneeling on his chest.
“Why are you arresting him?” he cried.
Then a look of suspicion crossed his face. He leaned around Charming to look at Garrett.
“Was it you, you bastard? Did you kill my sweet precious Marilyn?” He looked baffled, like he couldn’t quite believe it.
“Your sweet precious Marilyn?” Garrett scoffed. “You didn’t even know her. I knew who she really was. Only me! She was mine.”
Noah’s face went red. “It really gets your goat that she loved me, doesn’t it? And I loved her. You think I never guessed about you and her? But it was finished! I know it was!”
“The hell it was.” Garrett snapped. “She was already bored of you. Poor naïve little Noah. You’re just a kid and she was regretting ever marrying you. She only did it to make me jealous. I was speaking to her every day on the phone, did you know that? I bet she never told you.”
His eyes glittered. He was relishing the pain on Noah’s face.
“I’ve had her in ways you couldn’t dream of.” Garrett sneered. “I knew all her secrets. She loved every bit of it. She said I was a real man. I had such plans for her, but you ruined them.” His eyes glittered in victory.
Noah’s face went puce. “You bastard!” he choked out. “I’ll kill you!”
“You’ll have to get in line,” said Charming, shoving Noah off Garrett.
Grabbing Garrett, he etherhopped away.
Chapter 24
SIGOURNEY
I didn’t have time to call Charming back.
He would meet me, and if he didn’t, I would darn well summon him and then he would have to come, no matter how angry he was about it.
I knew exactly where Bridgit was in the ballroom, and I made sure she wasn’t looking my way when I exited. Nothing to make her suspicious.
Once I was out, I hurried down the stairs, cursing my high heels and glad of the long split in my dress. I hailed a cab from among the long line of them waiting outside the hall and gave them the name of Rodan’s street.
Fifteen minutes later, we pulled up outside a row of ordinary terraced houses.
“You don’t live here, do you, Yer Grace?” said the cabbie doubtfully, as if the property was beneath me.
“Just visiting a friend,” I said airily.
I paid the cab off and waited until it was out of sight before approaching the house. All of the windows were dark.
I hurried around the side of the house and heaved myself over the gate that led into the back garden, tearing my dress in the process.
Unlike the front door, the back door had no police tape on it.
I hurried to it, praying there were no magical alarms on it because I would need to smash a window to get in. But when I got close, I saw that the pane of glass above the doorhandle was already broken.
I only had to reach in to unlock the door. The key had been left in it. Someone had already been here.
“This is too easy,” I muttered to myself. “What do you reckon, Squeaky?”
Squeak squawked in agreement.
“Listen, no laying eggs in there and no complaining, okay?” I whispered to her.
I didn’t have time to feel worried, and I didn’t have my psychic music to tell me if all was well.
I walked into the house, locked the door behind me, and then crept through the kitchen into a hallway, and up the stairs, all the while keeping my ears open for any sounds in the house.
The landing above had several doors, so I tentatively opened them all one by one.
The minute amount of light coming in through the windows showed me two bedrooms, a bathroom, a study, and then finally a third small bedroom, clearly a guest room.
I went inside, shut the door, and then squeezed myself into the small gap between the back of the bed and the wall. There was no other place to hide in here.
With Squeak on my shoulder, I waited. I wished she wasn’t here, because what if she decided to make a fuss at the worst possible time? But there was nothing I could do about it now.
I was itching to get up and start looking for the key myself. See if it really was still here. But I did not know how much time I had.
Every time I heard a car drive by outside the window, its headlights briefly lighting up the room, I tensed up.
What felt like an eternity ticked by. Literally ticked. I could hear the second hand of the clock on the wall moving. Its sound wound me up slowly like a spring, filling me with tension.
And finally, just when I had begun to dread that I had got it all horribly wrong, a car drove down the street, and instead of passing, it parked up somewhere nearby.
Someone was coming.
Chapter 25
SIGOURNEY
The car’s door slammed shut. I stifled my urge to get up and look out of the window, and stayed in my cramped corner, waiting.
In the darkness and the silence, it was easy to hear the key being inserted into the lock of the front door.
So Bridgit Corkmony had a key to Rodan’s house. Or at least I hoped it was Bridgit.
The front door opened and then quietly shut. Then someone walked into the house, climbed up the stairs, and went into the room next to the one that I was hiding in. The room that was Rodan’s study.
I stayed utterly still, listening, my hand gently clasped over Squeak in the hope it would stop her from panicking.
I could hear the person moving around in there. Then a scraping noise against the wall that I couldn’t quite identify, and then small taps and shuffles, like she was searching, moving small objects aside.
I heard a voice mumble something. And then louder and more frustrated, “Where is it?”
The search continued. The sound was of things being shoved aside more angrily and carelessly now. Books being tossed off shelves. The desk creaking as it was moved, possibly to check behind it. All the while the person mumbled, and finally there came an angry crash, and a hysterical cry of, “Where is it!”
And then quiet.
I imagined Bridgit was scrutinising the room, trying to figure out where the key was that she wanted so badly. The sound of searching commenced again.
I got up from the floor, opened the door and walked to the open doorway of the office.
The light was on inside. I was clearly visible, just standing there.
Even so, Bridgit did not notice. She was on her knees, picking up books one by one to rifle through the pages and then tossing them aside.
The room was in disarray, the contents of the shelves now on the floor, the desk and chair askew. A large painting was propped against a wall. Above it, on the spot where it used to hang, was a hidden wall safe, now revealed, its door open.
Bridgit clearly had the combination to it. I wondered how she’d got it.
I cleared my throat, and Bridgit’s head jerked up. Seeing it was me, she looked comically relieved. She got to her feet.
“What are you doing here?”
“I hope you don’t mind,” I said. “I was so eager to begin the search that I decided to start tonight. But I’m surprised to find you here. I thought you were an intruder there for a minute.”
Her gaze dropped to my hands. I held them up, showing I was holding no phone. “Oh, I never called anyone. I heard you talking so I realised it was only you. But what are you doing here?”
“Same as you,” she said. “I was so intrigued that I couldn’t resist beginning the search already.”
“I’ll help. I’m pretty good at this, as you can imagine.”
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Bridgit watched me as I picked carefully through the things that she’d discarded from the wall safe.
I saw it in an instant, almost as if my psychic gifts were working the way they once had. It looked like a circular pendant that someone could wear on a necklace, made from a smooth piece of silver.
When I picked it up, it felt as cool and heavy as a flat pebble.
On both sides were those etchings, engraved sigils that looked remarkably like the ones on the Grey Queen’s symbol, but on closer inspection the pattern was different.
It looked like an ordinary thing, to have cost so much. A fortune in gold and two lives.
“I think this is what you’re looking for,” I said.
Bridgit scowled at the silver pendant.
“You said a key. The key to a safe deposit box.”
“But this is a key. You recognise it, don’t you?”
“It’s the key to a water sprite’s collar. It’s useless.”
“Not to the being it belongs to.”
“What do I care about that?”
“True. And anyway, you’re not really after a key, are you? What you want is the money.” My hand held up the silver disc. “This is the money. Doesn’t look like much, does it?”
“What are you talking about?” she said through gritted teeth. She was looking at the object in my hand as if it was a piece of rubbish.
“It’s all the money that Rodan embezzled from your charity, and that he got when he sold your business properties without your permission.”
She took in a sharp breath. “Did he tell you that?”
“Sort of. He used all of that money to buy this thing.” I tossed it. It spun end-over-end in the air like a coin and then landed back in my hand.
“Is this some sort of trick?” Bridgit demanded. “Why would he do that?”
“Because this key belonged to a special girl, one who apparently was the property of the Grey Queen.”
Bridgit scoffed in her little breathy voice. “The Grey Queen isn’t real.”
“I have it on good authority that she is.”
“Rodan would never spend that much money on one key. Why save one sprite, when he could save thousands? Rodan was all about saving the world. Or the Magicwild, at least.”