Beneath my hands, Bert suddenly moved his head away and roared, “She didn’t fly! I watched her, and she didn’t fly! I think I hurt her. I didn’t mean to hurt her. That man told me she wanted to fly! He said she would fly if I picked her up and dropped her.”
He moved his big head from side to side in agitation. I reached out, placed my hands on him and sent soothing energy his way. His head stopped moving but he started to cry. Huge tears landed on my feet.
I stroked Bert’s head. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean to hurt her. Who told you to pick her up?”
“That man at the Caterpillar place. That man who’s always smiling and laughing. He said she wanted to fly.” More tears flowed and I discreetly moved my feet out of the way.
I said, “Can you remember his name?”
“No. Is it Bert? No. It’s not Bert. That’s my name. I never forget my name. I don’t think he told me his name. Did he? I’m sleepy. I’m going to sleep now.” He closed his eyes and rested his head on the ground.
Stanley said, “Are you going to look into his memories again and see if you can find the smiling man’s name?”
I looked at the sleeping dragon. “I don’t know. I don’t want to upset him any further. Let him rest for a while.”
A light green Brimstone butterfly appeared at my side. I knew from its colour that it was a female butterfly. I held my hand out and she landed on my palm. She opened her wings and revealed a message for me. I read it and then said to Stanley, “It’s from Astrid. She wants us to meet her at the retirement home immediately.”
“Does she now?” Stanley’s eyes narrowed.
I looked at the sleeping dragon. He was snoring quietly and had a smile on his face. “We can come back here later.” I gave a reply to the butterfly to say we were on the way.
As we headed away from Bert, Stanley voiced my reluctant thoughts and said, “Do you think Astrid’s grandad is the smiling man? He does smile a lot.”
I sighed heavily. “I do think that. If it was him who asked dragon Bert to pick Dana up, I suspect Astrid is somehow involved too.”
Chapter 26
Astrid was waiting at the reception desk of the retirement home with a red-faced Cody at her side. Astrid looked furious. It was a look I’d seen many times and I found it strangely comforting. It was better than seeing her with a weird smile on her face.
Astrid jabbed her thumb at Cody and snarled, “Grandad’s medication has been stolen! There’s only one bottle of Memory Mist left! The rest of it has gone!”
I moved towards Cody who was trembling and asked, “Is this true?”
He gave me a nervous nod. “I only found out ten minutes ago when Astrid told me to check on Bert’s supply.” His hand shook as he aimed it at a cupboard to the side. There was a key in the lock. “There’s one full bottle of Bert’s potion at the front, but the ones behind it are empty. There are five empty bottles. I had no idea. I didn’t think to check the bottles behind. I saw the tops of them and presumed they were full.”
Astrid banged her hand on the reception desk. “That’s not good enough! You should be doing a regular stocktake! What sort of place are you running here?”
Cody trembled even more and muttered, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“So you should be!” Astrid snapped. She sounded more like her old self. “You’ll pay for this, Cody Yinran.”
I shot Astrid an irritated look. “You can stop shouting. I’ll deal with this now.”
Astrid let out a heavy sigh and said, “Of course. Sorry.” She put that unnerving smile back on her face and aimed it at the terrified elf. “Sorry Cody. I lost my temper. I know you’re doing a great job here.”
Cody wrung his hands together and looked wistfully towards the exit doors.
I said to him, “Are there any signs of forced entry to the cupboard?”
He shook his head.
“Have any other medications been taken?”
He glanced nervously at Astrid and said, “I haven’t checked them all yet. But I will do. And I’ll do a proper stocktake from now on.”
“Who else has access to this cupboard?”
“All the staff who work here. We all have keys. Do you want to ask them about it? I can get them all together if you like?”
I said, “Perhaps later. Would you mind having a quick check now to see if anything else has been taken?”
Cody lowered his head and scuttled over to the cupboard. He was soon pulling bottles and jars out and counting them.
While he did so, I said to Astrid, “How long has your grandad been taking the potion?”
“For about a year. It helps him when he forgets things. But his memory is getting worse and I know the potion won’t help him for much longer.” She hesitated as if weighing up her next words. “I know Mrs Tarblast supplied this potion illegally, and I know I should have told Blythe about it, but you should see the effect it has on Grandad. It makes him remember who he is. He deserves to hold onto his memories for as long as possible.”
“I can appreciate that,” I said. “But this potion is dangerous. Mrs Tarblast told me what it can do. We can’t have things like this in Brimstone.”
Astrid’s head dropped. “No, we can’t. If I’d have told Blythe about this, then Dana might still be alive. This is all my fault.”
Cody stood up straight and announced, “Nothing else is missing.”
I said to him, “Did you know Memory Mist is an illegal substance in Brimstone?”
He set off trembling again. “Is it? Mrs Tarblast said Blythe knew she was supplying it to us. Did she lie?”
“She did. I’ll have words with her later about that,” I said. “Cody, I’ve seen photos of the funerals and farewell parties that have been held here. Astrid’s grandad is in them and he’s talking to a dragon called Bert.”
Cody’s face lit up. “Dragon Bert! Yes. We love it when he comes here. He’s very popular and he talks to everyone! Absolutely everyone!”
My heart sank. I was hoping that dragon Bert had only spoken to a few choice residents and that Cody would provide me with their names.
Astrid said, “Cassia, can I have a word with you outside?”
Cody gulped and said, “Are you going to talk about me? Are you going to banish me from the town? I truly am sorry for not noticing the potion had been stolen.”
“It’s alright,” I said to him. “We’ll talk about this later. It might be a good idea to only give a few members of staff access to the cupboard.”
Cody nodded so vigorously that I thought his head was going to fall off. “Good idea. Excellent idea. I’ll do that straight away.”
We left the nodding elf and walked out of the building. Stanley remained silent as he walked at my side.
Once we were a good distance from the door, Astrid said, “I know what this looks like. It looks like either Grandad or I could have taken that potion and used it on Dana. We know how the potion works. But when I arrived here a short while ago, I saw the key to the cupboard was in the lock, and when I questioned Cody, he said he often forgets to remove the key. Anyone could have taken that potion. I have a theory about who’s behind this. I have some leads to follow which support that theory. Is it okay with you if I go ahead?” There was an intense look in her eyes which caused me to take a small step back.
Stanley said, “You can do whatever you like. That’s what you’re going to do anyway. Cassia and I have got our own leads to follow.”
Astrid looked as if she’d been slapped. “I don’t know what you mean, Stanley.” She held her hands up in a defensive manner. “I know you still don’t trust me. I can understand that. But I’m going to change your minds. You’ll see.” She flashed us a smile before walking away.
I picked Stanley up and said, “What’s going on with you? Why did you say that to Astrid?”
There was fear in his eyes. “She is up to something evil. I can smell it on her. She’s going to do something awful. Truly awful.”
C
hapter 27
Stanley was so upset that I took him back to the apartment and told him to have a nap. He resisted, so I put him on a big cushion in the bedroom, stroked his back gently and sang him a lullaby that Gran used to sing to me. Stanley drifted off to sleep. I could have used magic on him to make him fall asleep, but singing to him had helped to calm my frayed nerves too.
I crept out of the bedroom and went into the living room. I sat at the table near the window and opened my computer. Once I had a blank document ready, I opened Fiona’s notes and typed up the names of her clients from The Caterpillar Retirement Home. There was a date next to most of the names which went back two to three weeks before their funeral occurred. I assumed that’s when Dana told Fiona she’d spoken to the client at the retirement home and had given out Fiona’s details.
Once I’d typed everything up, I printed it out and looked at the names. That was weird. There was a discrepancy. It concerned Ralf Gnubles. There wasn’t a date next to his name which meant Dana had never told Fiona about him. I recalled my conversations with Mitchell Gnubles. He’d told me Dana had spoken to Ralf about his upcoming death. What if that hadn’t been the case? What if Fiona had spoken to Ralf and claimed she was speaking on Dana’s behalf?
No. That didn’t make any sense. Why would Fiona do that? What would she have to gain by Ralf dying?
It didn’t make sense, but then I remembered Fiona hadn’t told me about the businesses she had set up in other towns. She’d kept that important information from me.
A soft knock at the door took me out of my thoughts. I didn’t want Stanley to wake up, so I dashed over to the door before my visitor could knock again.
It was Astrid. She wasn’t smiling this time.
She said, “I won’t stay long and I won’t even come in. I’ve been looking further into the business dealings of Fiona Fairfax. We know she had businesses in other towns. I’ve been over there and I’ve spoken to some of the vampires who work for her. They said she had plans to expand even more, and that she was waiting for certain buildings in prime locations to come up for sale.”
“Oh? Did you find out where those buildings are?”
Astrid nodded. “I did. And I found out who they belong to. Or rather, who they belonged to. Fiona bought all of the buildings about an hour ago. Six buildings altogether. They belonged to the same person. Ralf Gnubles.”
I put my hand on the door frame to steady myself. “Ralf Gnubles?”
“Yes. He owned six joke shops in prominent positions. I know that other retailers have made him offers on the buildings over the years, but he would never sell. He was often heard joking that he would die before selling his buildings.” She gave me a grim look. “And that’s happened, hasn’t it? He is dead, and now Fiona Fairfax has got her hands on his property. Cassia, are you alright? You’ve gone a peculiar colour.”
My knees felt weak and I gave her a small nod. “I need to sit down. Come in. I want to show you something.” It must have been the shock about Fiona which made me act so civil towards Astrid.
I went over to the table and sat down. Astrid sat next to me. I pointed to the sheets I’d printed out and said, “I suspect that Dana Murphy never spoke to Ralf about dying. I think Fiona might have done that. She might have used Memory Mist on Ralf so he’d think Dana had told him. She might have convinced him to set plans in motion to sell his properties to her.”
Astrid nodded. “A strong enough dose could convince him Dana had given him the news.”
I remembered something else. I found the photos I’d enlarged earlier and showed them to Astrid. “These were taken at Ralf’s funeral. There’s Dana in the background standing next to Fiona. I thought she looked bemused at first, but now that I look at it again, I think Dana looks confused.”
“Oh, I see what you mean. Dana attended Ralf’s funeral. She was probably approached by his relatives who may have thanked her for her services.”
“Yes. But Dana never provided a service to Ralf. It was Fiona. Dana must have worked that out. What if she confronted Fiona and threatened to expose her? Fiona wouldn’t have wanted that. But would she have killed Dana to silence her? Fiona claims they were best friends.” I looked at the photo again. “But she could have lied about that. Fiona hasn’t been honest with me from the beginning.”
Astrid sighed. “I think you might be onto something. What are you going to do?”
“I’ll have to get some evidence together before confronting her. You said the sale of the buildings went through an hour ago. Can you find out when things were first put in motion? Contracts would have been drawn up a while ago, wouldn’t they? I’d like to know when Ralf agreed to the sale. It can’t have been long after Fiona had a chat with him to convince him he was dying soon.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
I continued, “I still want to talk to Fabrice Fairfax. He’s expecting his business to improve soon? Why? I wonder if he’s working with his sister on expanding their businesses together? Their dislike of each other could be an act to cover up their actions.”
Astrid said, “I could try to track him down and then hold onto him for questioning.”
“Yes. That’s a good idea. Thanks.” I was still deep in thought and didn’t fully register that I was accepting help from Astrid. That only hit me later.
Astrid stood up and said, “I’ll get on with those things straight away. I’ll keep in touch.”
I gave her a distracted nod and heard her walking away and then leaving the apartment. I searched through the photos again until I found the ones with dragon Bert in them. Oh. Look at that. Fiona was standing next to Bert in some photos and smiling happily at him. Dragon Bert had said a smiling man had told him to pick Dana up. What if he’d got confused and it was actually Fiona who ordered him to do that after using Memory Mist on him?
Stanley padded into the room and over to my side. He said, “I needed that sleep. I feel much better now. I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that Astrid was in here again. She was talking to you like you were friends and she was offering to help you. And you were being nice to her; you even said thank you. Isn’t that weird? Like that is ever going to happen!”
I picked Stanley up and settled him on my knee. “Stanley, there’s something I have to tell you. Well, there are many things I have to tell you.”
Chapter 28
Stanley huffed and puffed with indignation as I told him about Astrid’s recent visit. His indignation turned to surprise and then shock when I told him about Fiona.
He shook his little furry head. “I can’t believe it. Why would Fiona do something like that?”
“Money. It can cause people, and vampires, to do evil things. It happens all the time in our world.”
“But I thought Brimstone was different. I thought there was kindness here.”
I stroked his head. “There is, but there are other things here too. Fiona could have been acting under the influence of that black magic. Or she could be a hard-faced businesswoman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Including murder.”
Stanley’s face creased in disgust. “She didn’t have the decency to commit the murder herself; she got that confused dragon to do it.”
I nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that. Fiona had it all planned. She must have called on Dana early in the morning and injected that Memory Mist into her. Then she convinced Dana she could fly. When Bert came along to help her do that, Dana would have gone willingly without calling out in distress. I imagine Fiona would have been a regular visitor to Dana’s cottage. Regular visitors tend to become invisible to the neighbours.”
I glanced out through the window to the town square. A shifty-looking character got my attention. He was handing out fliers to residents who were doing their best to ignore him.
“Stanley, look, it’s Harry, Fabrice’s butler. Let’s have a word with him.”
We were out of the apartment and down on the street within a minute. We walked up behind the bent-backed butler a
nd heard him saying to a young goblin, “It’s never too early to plan your funeral! Anything could happen to you. You could suffer a terminal illness! Or an unsightly disease that causes your family to disown you! Or be attacked by a ferocious werewolf who rips your face off! Take a leaflet. We’re doing a special on last year’s coffins.”
The goblin fled in horror and Harry looked as if he were going to run after him.
I put my hand on his shoulder and said, “This is harassment. You will stop this immediately.”
Harry said, “I’m giving out valuable information. We should all be prepared for that final day when we give up our daily struggle. I’m performing a valuable service for this town. You can’t stop me.”
“I can. I know the laws of this town.” I played for time as I tried to recall what those law books had said about these kinds of situations. I couldn’t remember them. “I’m sure you’re well aware of the laws too, Harry.”
Harry gave me the smallest of smiles. “I do know them. I apologise. I shouldn’t be harassing people with this information. I will desist immediately and return to my master’s home.” He put the leaflets inside his jacket.
“Speaking of your master, is he at home?” I asked.
“Alas, no. I only have my own miserable company tonight. He’s left Brimstone and gone to another town on business.”
“Oh? Did he say where and what his business was?”
“Regretfully, no. And I wouldn’t ask. It isn’t my place to ask. He assured me he would be home tomorrow.” Harry looked skywards. “The night is drawing in. I must return home immediately.”
“Why?” I asked. “Is there something you have to do there?”
Harry looked over his shoulder before saying, “I’m scared of the dark. Some peculiar species come out at night-time in Brimstone.” He shuddered. “They give me the heebie-jeebies.”
I stared at him for a moment. “But you work with a vampire. At a funeral home. You talk about death all day.”
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