by Morgana Best
Lucas stroked my hair. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t that I was deliberately keeping him from you—it’s just that I hadn’t got around to telling you my life history. Lorcan’s always been trouble. He was a wild teenager and he hasn’t improved since. I thought he was still in Europe.” Lucas rubbed his forehead.
“Has he always been on the wrong side of the law?”
Lucas nodded. “Pretty much. He’s always resented me. He was born a few minutes before me, but I’ve always thought of him as the younger brother. He used to be into the party scene quite heavily, and he has never held down a steady job. He usually finds a wealthy woman and lives off her money for a while, until she discards him, and then it’s on to the next woman.”
I was aware my jaw dropped open. “He says he didn’t murder Collier or Barnabas, or try to kill Aunt Agnes.”
“I do believe that, because he’s the type of person to gloat about it if he did do it. The thing is, since he didn’t murder them, who did? We’re back to where we started from.”
I sighed and gingerly poked my head to see if a lump had formed. “Yes, we are all out of suspects now. Lucas, could you call the aunts and tell them I’m safe?”
Lucas looked shamefaced. “Oh of course, forgive me. I was so relieved to find you that I didn’t give a thought to your poor aunts. They must be worried out of their minds.” He whipped his phone out of his pocket. “Would you like to call them?”
I shook my head. “No, could you please do it? I’m not up to a lot of questions.”
“Sure.” As soon as Aunt Agnes answered the phone, Lucas said, “I found Pepper, and she’s fine. I’m bringing her back to the manor now.” I couldn’t hear the conversation on the other end of the phone, but Lucas said after an interval, “Yes, he’s my twin brother, but I don’t believe that he killed those people. He was working for whoever did do it, however, but I have no clue who that is.” He spoke a bit more and then hung up. “Pepper, your aunts say that they are still waiting for Barnabas’s lawyer to call them back.”
“Hopefully as soon as he does, he will tell us who Barnabas’s relatives are, then we’ll all know who the murderer is.”
Lucas nodded. “Quite so.” His eyes twinkled. “And now on a personal note, my brother mentioned that you kissed him.”
“Err, um,” I stammered. “That’s not entirely true. He kissed me, and I started to kiss him back, but it wasn’t a nice kiss so I pushed him away.”
“So you knew it wasn’t me kissing you?” Lucas’s tone was teasing, but I could tell he was angry with Lorcan.
I frowned. “I must have known on a subconscious level, but I had no idea that you had a twin.”
“Now that my twin is in Australia, I think you need more practice kissing me,” Lucas said. I knew he was teasing me, but I didn’t mind. I placed my hand on his shirt.
“Do you just?” I said.
Lucas grinned. “It’s the only sensible option, really. Kissing. You and me. Right now. Just in case my brother ever impersonates me again. If he does, and he tries to kiss you, you’ll know at once.”
“That does sound good. Scientifically, I mean.” The material of his shirt felt rough and warm beneath my hand. “For science reasons.”
“Exactly.” Lucas raised a hand and lifted my chin so that we were looking into each other’s eyes. My stomach twisted. “For science reasons.”
He leant toward me, pressing his lips against mine. My hand slipped up towards his collarbone, and his skin felt soft and warm. I wasn’t standing any more. I was floating, but I came crashing back to earth as Lucas’s text tone broke us apart. He looked at the screen.
“It’s your aunts,” he said. “They know who the murderer is.”
CHAPTER 23
L ucas’s car was outside the gate to the property, parked down the road. I was glad that Lorcan hadn’t crashed into it or slashed the tyres on his way out. No doubt he had been in a dreadful hurry to escape from Lucas.
I was on a high from kissing Lucas, and from the fact that everything was all right between us once more, but I was worried on account of the murderer. The aunts seemed to be taking the matter a little too calmly, and had refused to bring the police into it. That worried me.
Lucas brought his car to a stop directly outside Mugwort Manor. I was about to get out, when he restrained me. He lifted my knuckles to his mouth and kissed the back of my hand. “Don’t worry, Pepper. I’m here now.”
And just like that, I was wrapped in a cloud of security, protection, and happiness. Still, I said, “It’s not my own safety that I’m worried about. It’s Aunt Agnes’s. What if the murderer gets to her this time?”
Lucas shook his head. “Don’t underestimate her. She is a very smart woman. They allow only the best on the Council, you know.”
I knew he was only saying that to cheer me up, because the position was hereditary and so not based on any particular skill set. I thought back to Barnabas. “Barnabas was nearly on the Council, and that gives me no confidence.”
Lucas frowned by way of response. “Let’s go and see your aunts,” he said.
Aunt Agnes was sitting in the living room, having a cup of tea with Bella Barker. “Oh there you are, Valkyrie. I was beginning to get worried about you. Why are you wearing Lucas’s coat?”
“Lucas and I are about to go for a walk along the beach, and maybe have a swim,” I told her, “and I didn’t have a wrap to put over my bikini, so Lucas offered me his coat.”
Aunt Agnes nodded. “Quite sensible.”
“Where are Aunt Maude and Aunt Dorothy?” I asked her.
“You just missed them,” she said. “They went into town for lunch. There’s a big five course meal on at the local pub for half price.”
I smiled. “That sounds tempting.”
“Yes, but I decided to stay back alone and make a nice lunch for Bella. She’s been through a lot, what with all the murders here. I wanted to show her my appreciation.”
I smiled at Bella, and she offered her best impression of a tight-lipped smile back.
“Come on, Pepper,” Lucas said to me. “We had better take that dip in the water before it turns cold again. Goodbye, Agnes. Goodbye, Mrs Barker.”
I gave them both a little wave as we left the room. “Have a good time, you two,” Aunt Agnes called after us.
Lucas and I walked into the foyer, and then took a sharp left into the narrow corridor. “It’s here,” I whispered, as we approached a concealed door.
Aunt Maude and Aunt Dorothy were already in the secret viewing room, looking at the screens on the wall. I had not been in this little room for ages, but the aunts used it from time to time to spy on people in the living room.
Dorothy and Maude beckoned us in. Soon the four of us were squashed into the tiny space. Lucas had his back to the wall, and I was pressed against him.
“I could get used to this,” he whispered in my ear.
I gave his arm a playful slap. “Behave.”
“We might be old, but we’re not deaf,” Aunt Dorothy admonished us. “It’s not the time or place for hanky-panky.”
“Hanky-panky later,” Lucas whispered in my ear.
“It’s a date.”
Aunt Maude held her finger to her lips. “It’s time.”
Aunt Dorothy pulled her phone from her pocket, and punched in some numbers. Soon, the landline rang.
Aunt Agnes stood up. “Oh dear, please excuse me, Bella. This could take a while. It’s a difficult customer who told me he’d call back now for a booking. He’s quite hard of hearing, so it takes a while to get things through to him.”
I saw Aunt Agnes hurry from the living room. It afforded me a good view of Bella, who was seated in a Victorian mahogany grandfather chair, directly facing the monitors that fed to the screens in the room.
Aunt Dorothy hung up as soon as Aunt Agnes answered the phone. I could hear Aunt Agnes speaking in a loud voice into the landline, slowly and carefully.
Aunt Maude elbowed me in the rib
s. “Look!”
Bella looked around the room furtively, and then pulled something from her purse. It looked for all intents and purposes like a perfume bottle. She leant across and poured the entire contents into Aunt Agnes’s teacup. She picked up Aunt Agnes’s teaspoon, and gave the cup a good stir, and then set both cup and teaspoon back in the saucer.
Aunt Maude nodded to us, and then opened the door to the little room. Lucas went ahead of us. By the time the aunts and I reached the living room, Lucas had taken Aunt Agnes’s teacup from the coffee table and had put it on the mantelpiece. He was standing between it and Bella—I expect he thought she would try to destroy the evidence.
“So, you’re Barnabas’s successor, are you?” Aunt Agnes said angrily.
Bella cowered in her chair, and clutched her purse to her. Lucas strode forward and snatched the purse from Bella, and looked inside. “There’s no knife or gun, but who knows what poisons she might have in there,” he said. “I’ll hang onto this.”
Bella looked deathly afraid, like a kangaroo caught in a shooter’s spotlights.
“The game is up,” Aunt Maude said. “We know all about you, Bella. Barnabas’s lawyer called us and told us that you’re his only known relative.”
“That’s right,” Aunt Agnes added. “You thought you would succeed to Barnabas’s seat on the Council. How many more faction members are going to try to kill Council members?”
Bella mimed zipping her mouth.
“I’ll get it out of her,” Lucas said.
Bella laughed, a short barking laugh.
“He’s a Cleaner,” Aunt Agnes told her.
The smile fled from Bella’s face in an instant. Finally, she spoke. “When do the police get here?”
Aunt Agnes tapped her chin. “The police? You’d like that, wouldn’t you? No, we won’t be calling the police. This is a job for a Cleaner.”
Bella looked even more afraid. She gripped the sides of the grandfather chair.
“It will go easier on you if you tell us the truth,” Aunt Agnes said in a convincing tone, although something told me she wasn’t being entirely truthful. “Was it you who poisoned Barnabas and tried to poison me?”
Bella nodded, and then shot a sidelong glance at Lucas.
“And you stabbed Collier Cardon?” I asked her. Before she had a chance to respond, I said, “That was a bit daring, wasn’t it? It was broad daylight. Didn’t you think you’d be seen? And how did you have time to have that note prepared, the note threatening Agnes?”
Bella looked at me through slitted eyes. She reminded me of a tiger snake, coiled and ready to strike. I thought she wasn’t going to answer, and I was surprised when she finally did. “I knew Collier and Barnabas had been speaking in secret, and I suspected that they were onto me. I had been listening into Barnabas’s phone conversations, so I knew when Collier was coming.”
“What, you were hiding in the cottage?” I asked her.
She grunted. “No. Barnabas always spoke loudly, no matter where he was painting. I just hung around and listened to what he said. It really wasn’t hard,” she added derisively. “Anyway, I knew Collier was coming to the manor that day to speak to Agnes, so I waited for him. I had already put the knife through the note and I had it in my shoulder bag. When he walked up to the stairs, I stabbed him. You appeared around the side of the house then, Valkyrie, so I just melted back onto the porch. When you saw me, you assumed I had come out the front door, but I’d been standing on the porch the whole time.”
I thought it over. “Wasn’t that risky? You had a very narrow window of time in which to stab him, and what if the aunts had been out the front when Collier arrived?”
A look of exasperation passed across Bella’s face. “That was not my only opportunity to kill him. So what if your aunts met him on the porch? I would have killed him another time. The important thing was that he was in town, so I had plenty of opportunity to kill him. It’s just that I took the first opportunity that I had. After that, Barnabas was easy.”
Aunt Agnes stepped over to her. “You’ve been planning this a long time, haven’t you, Bella? A very long time. You pretended to be a cleaning lady just to work at Mugwort Manor so you could keep an eye on me.”
Bella did not respond.
“What happens now?” I asked Aunt Agnes.
Lucas was the one who answered. “Agnes, you will tell the police what happened, and keep it as close to the truth as possible. Tell them you invited Bella to a light lunch, and when you left the room, the other two aunts walked in and saw her pouring something into your cup. Tell the police you at once removed the cup from Bella, and challenged her. Say that she confessed to killing them both.”
“What if they ask me why she killed Collier?” Aunt Agnes asked Lucas.
He shook his head. “Don’t think you have to have an answer for everything. Just say that she confessed to killing Collier and Barnabas. Tell them that Barnabas was a relative of hers, and she thought she would inherit something. Just keep it vague.”
“And what if the detectives ask me her reasons for trying to kill me?” Agnes said.
“Don’t tell the police she had any reasons for you or Collier. Just say she admitted to it. Tell them that you’re sure they’ll find 1080 in the teacup. Her fingerprints will be all over the bottle of poison. Say that after she confessed to everything, she ran out of the house and disappeared, leaving her purse behind.”
“Disappeared?” Bella repeated in a small voice.
Lucas ignored her. “Pepper, you weren’t here at the time. Okay?”
I nodded. Lucas turned back to the aunts. “Ladies, don’t call the police just yet—give me time to get away. Go over and over your stories until you’re sure you’ve got everything straight, just in case the police ask you to repeat your accounts several times.”
Aunt Agnes nodded. “Sure thing. This isn’t our first rodeo.”
CHAPTER 24
L ucas pulled out my chair when we arrived at our table in the restaurant, the soft flicker of candlelight bringing out the gold in his hair. The wall beside us was a long glass window, and from our cosy corner we could see the moonlight playing across the waves that crashed onto the pristine white beach.
Lucas ordered the champagne. I was sure that chocolates were to come, and probably kissing. Yes, more kissing.
I was happy with my appearance, for once, too. I was wearing a silky deep green dress which clung to my figure, and strappy heels that showed my legs to their best advantage.
I couldn’t be happier. I brought my gaze back to the table, to see Lucas looking at me. My stomach did a thousand somersaults. I needed to pinch myself. I actually had a date, with Lucas, no less. I had given my heart to Lucas once I had seen what lay beneath the brooding façade he presented to the public at large. I had never expected my feelings to be reciprocated.
“You look beautiful, Pepper.” His eyes were soft.
“You look beautiful, too,” I mumbled. I could not drag my eyes from his strong jaw, his intelligent eyes, his well muscled body.
He reached for my hand. “I’m sorry my brother upset you.”
“Well, at least he didn’t tie me up,” I said, “looking on the bright side.”
Lucas shook his head. “No, I meant…” He hesitated, as if searching for the right words. “I meant he was consorting with prostitutes and kissing other women, while you thought he was me.”
My cheeks burnt. “Oh, that.”
He was still holding my hand. “Yes, that. If the tables were turned, and I had seen someone I thought was you behaving like that, I would be devastated.”
His comment warmed me from the tips of my toes. “You would?”
“I would.” His expression turned serious for a moment. “Pepper, you know I would never do anything like that. I take relationships very seriously. I take our relationship very seriously.”
“Relationship?” I squeaked. We hadn’t actually discussed anything, not put it into words. At least, not un
til now. Our time together had mostly been Lucas rescuing me from people who were trying to kill me. Not that I minded, of course. He did the ‘save the damsel in distress’ thing very well.
Lucas nodded. “It’s about time I put it into words. So far, our dates have been me rescuing you from murderers.”
I stared at him. “Are you a mind-reader?” I was only half joking.
“Maybe,” he said with a smile. His fingers stroked my hand, sending tingles coursing through my body. “And now I must apologise in advance. This dinner won’t pan out exactly the way I had planned it.”
I gasped. “Are you really psychic?”
Lucas laughed, and trailed one finger over the inside of my wrist. I gulped. “No. It’s a surprise, one I had no part in, believe me.”
“You’re being mysterious.” Surely not that, I thought. How would he know?
Lucas smiled. “All will soon be revealed, but right now, I want you to promise me you will have dinner with me again later this week, just the two of us.”
“But it’s just the two of us now.” No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I heard the horrible yet familiar strains of someone singing Happy Birthday To You. I swung around to see a smiling waiter carrying a large cake. So much for our cosy corner.
I shrank in my seat. “No, no!” How had Lucas known it was my birthday? I had told the aunts I didn’t want any fuss. I didn’t like birthdays, not since my parents had gone missing.
I looked back at the cake again, and to my relief, it was for a table across the other side of the room. I felt my whole body relax.
“Pepper, your aunts told me it was your birthday.”
I gasped. “They didn’t! I asked them not to tell anyone. I don’t like birthdays.”
Lucas looked somewhat pained. “I know. They told me that, too.” He reached under the table and produced a large box of a dozen red roses.
I gasped. “They’re lovely. Thank you!”
He smiled. “They’re thornless. Pepper, think of this as your birthday dinner, and then we’ll have a lovely romantic dinner later in the week. Just the two of us.”