by Ruby Loren
“Marie said you had snakes before? Surely you’d know he wasn’t large enough to be able to pass anything like that. Anyway, something that solid… I doubt it would be okay for any snake,” I said, horrified I was even having to contemplate this kind of animal abuse.
George sighed. “I know. It was a bad thing to do, but I was desperate. I did something that I regretted and tried to run away from my problems. This is where it’s landed me.”
“How about you tell me the whole story, right from the start?” These bits and pieces weren't exactly painting a picture. “I think I’ve got time to hear it,” I added, dryly.
George was still hesitating.
“Come on, man! I deserve to know why the hell I got shot!” Mr Crawley piped up. It seemed to do the trick, because George started talking.
“The first thing you should know is that I’m Harold Snidely’s son,” he said.
“I’m sorry, what?” I couldn’t help interrupting. I’d pieced a few things together already but I had not seen this one coming.
“Yes… he had a mistress and I’m the result of it. He promised my mother that if he never had children, I would be the heir to the Snidely fortune. In return, she had to stay quiet about it and never let anyone know who I was.” He sighed. “She was too trusting. A few years ago, she got cancer and slipped away faster than I'd ever imagined. I was left with no family to turn to, apart from the Snidelys. Remembering her promise that I was the heir to an incredible fortune, I went to find my father.”
“Let me guess… he didn’t want anything to do with you,” Mr Crawley cut in. I privately wondered if we should have kept the belt in his mouth.
“Yeah, that’s right!” George said. “But, my mum wasn’t as trusting as I’d thought. Lord Snidely had signed papers that legitimised me. When I turned up, he was forced to accept that I was still the heir. Although I could tell he didn’t like me, he said he’d give me a job here at the manor and in time, perhaps he’d tell his wife.”
He rubbed his hair. “You know, I’m not sure if he ever got round to telling her. Anyway, the job was okay, but it wasn’t the riches I’d imagined when mum told me to go and find my father. I wanted more and then Trinity came along…”
“Trinity?” the vet asked.
“A cousin,” I filled in for him. “Acts like she owns the place.”
“Yeah, she does, doesn't she?” George agreed. “It was Joan Snidely who brought her in. I don’t know how Trinity managed to weasel it, but it was clear to everyone that she was being treated as the the next in line. That bothered me a lot, so I decided to have it out with her.”
“You told her who you are?” I said, struggling to believe that anyone would be so…
“Yeah, of course I did. I wanted her to know that she wasn't the one who was going to inherit it all. Boy, she was not pleased about that.”
“No kidding…”
“I guess she thought she was going to get it all, the whole kit and caboodle when the Snidelys turned their toes up. Too bad,” George said and I could tell he was smiling - despite being locked in a basement by the very woman he thought he’d pipped to the post.
“How did you get the snakes?” I asked, but I thought I already knew where Mr Limey had come from - and it wasn’t the black market.
“I like snakes. They have loads here and when I was learning to look after them, I kind of took a few home. No one even noticed. I just wanted some new pets.”
“What about the drugs?” I asked.
“When I found out what Jackie and Marie were doing, I was so angry,” he said, his voice turning dark. “They got some crazy idea from a YouTube video that they could milk snakes for their venom and sell the stuff to people who want to get high. That’s not even how it works! You have to dry it into powder, and it's really difficult,” he said, and I wondered where he’d got the information from. It was probably better not to ask.
“The main reason I didn’t want them doing it was because if they got caught, the police would be round in no time, asking questions about where they got the venom from.”
“But they did get caught,” I said, wondering what had happened.
“Yeah, and they seized my snakes! All of them except Mr Limey. I managed to hide him.”
I frowned. “Didn’t you get in serious trouble for that?" I asked.
“No, it was fine. I'd told the girls that it was on them if they got caught so they said the snakes were theirs. They took the rap for it.”
I took a minute to process that and wondered if the punishment had been light due to a plea of extreme stupidity. “So… the emerald,” I prompted.
“Yeah… the emerald,” George repeated with a sigh. “Trinity did some research into my whole legitimacy thing. I’m guessing she wanted to see if there was a way she could get rid of me, but she found something really interesting. The Serpentine Emerald, in keeping with the myth, belongs to the direct descendants of the Snidely line. Trinity is way too distant, but as the heir, I count as a direct descendant, meaning that the jewel is just as much mine as it is my father's.”
“You’d have inherited it anyway,” I pointed out, and I thought George nodded in the gloom.
“Yeah, but I needed money sooner than that. Why should I waste my young years struggling, waiting for the Snidelys to die and leave it all to me? What if they found a way to bypass me and give it all to Trinity instead? As neither of us knew what was going to happen in the future, we figured out a plan to split some of the wealth between us right now. So, we took the emerald.”
“But it’s still there. I saw it!” I said.
“It’s a fake,” George said and I thought he was probably smirking now. “It was all Trinity’s idea. She said because of the curse that people thought the jewel carried, there was surprisingly little security in place. As soon as she was promoted to building manager, she knew she could get access to it. She had a good copy made, swapped them, and there you have it!”
I thought about that for a second. “What went wrong?”
“A lot,” George said, happily. “Selling a stolen jewel is pretty damaging to the value, so Trinity wanted it to be legitimate. She gave me the jewel and I was supposed to go to this really fancy jewellers and sign a contract that confirmed I was a Snidely and therefore the rightful owner. We were both hoping that whoever the jewel was sold to, or even if it was broken down into smaller pieces, they wouldn’t be too interested in the history. No one would ever know that the Serpentine Emerald at Dracondia Manor is a fake. In return, I’d get half the money.”
“How did Marie and Jackie get involved?” I asked and George squirmed.
“Well, I…”
“He clearly opened his big mouth and told everyone about his little ‘get rich quick’ scheme,” Mr Crawley cut in.
At least he was feeling better.
“I told Jackie and she told Marie so then both of them wanted a cut, sort of as payback for them getting in trouble over the snake venom thing. Marie threatened to blackmail me. Luckily all I’d told her was that we were stealing the jewel and selling it, so I just said we wouldn’t get much at all but sure… I’d give her a percent. I went back to Trinity and told her what had happened. She gave me a loan and said to pay her with that money.” He hesitated for a moment, and I thought we were at the point where things went downhill.
“It was quite a decent wedge of money she gave me - ten grand in all. I gave two and a half to Marie and Jackie and they were happy with that. They’d never even seen the gem I’d been talking about. I figured there was no harm in me keeping the rest. I’d be paying it back in the end anyway, right?”
He cleared his throat. “So, Trinity did the swap and gave me the jewel. I was supposed to come up to the manor that night while some fancy party was going on and pass over her half of the money, including the jeweller's receipt and a loan repayment.” He laughed. “No one trusts anyone these days, am I right?”
I chose not to comment.
“Yeah, so
I was about to walk into the jewellers when I started having second thoughts. After all, I was the next Snidely in line! What was I doing splitting the money from selling something that was legally mine? The reason we were going to get so much money in the first place was because I would be signing it over to make it all official. I just thought… why should I share? If I kept all the money, I’d be set for life, until the Snidelys died and then I’d have even more.” He shrugged. “I took the jewel back home and tried to think of what to do. I decided I would just come clean with the Snidelys. I’d tell them I had the jewel and offer them the chance to buy it back. If they didn’t want to, I’d sign it over and sell it on, and there'd be nothing they could do, because I’m the heir. That way, I'd get to keep all of it. Why should Trinity get anything? She’s not next in line!”
I shut my eyes at the stupidity. Couldn't George see that if he'd just done as he was told, they could have sold the emerald, made the money and no one would have found out - potentially ever! Instead, he’d concocted his own terrible little plan that had resulted in two murders, a snake needing surgery, and my own kidnap.
“I shoved the emerald into a mouse and fed it to Mr Limey for safe keeping. I thought it was the last place anyone would think to look!”
“You also hid the cash in the bottom of the vivarium,” I added and George’s eyes flashed in the dark.
“You found it? Who has it now?” George asked.
“It’s in a safe place. How come you came to the critical care unit?” I prompted, wanting to gloss over the money. I thought I'd got Trinity's measure during the past hour or so, and I would not have put it past her to bug the basement.
“Well, I realised feeding Mr Limey the emerald was a mistake. He got all slow and unhappy and I really do like snakes. I thought you’d be able to help make him better and at the same time, I’d be able to go up to the manor and tell Trinity the deal was off. It was a win win situation,” George said.
I was glad I wasn’t anywhere near a wall because I’d probably be hitting my head against it by now.
“I wasn’t lying about getting kicked out by Jackie either. She spent her money really fast and wanted me to give her more. I grabbed Mr Limey and got out. She always calms down later, and she knew I was worried about Mr Limey. Jackie just thinks that he ate too much and got unwell. She's probably at home, wondering where I am right now," he said, and despite all that George had done, I felt a huge stab of guilt for not telling him right away.
He carried on talking before I had a chance to come clean.
“So, there I was, waiting for you and that guy to come back and make my snake better when I hear Trinity’s voice. I look through the window and see her getting out of the car with this couple, but the thing is… I recognise them! The guy is the one that made the fake jewel and the lady is the jeweller I was supposed to be selling it to.” He paused to let that sink in. “Now, I may not be the smartest guy ever, but I know a scam when I see one. And this was a scam.”
I pushed my glasses higher up my nose. Trinity really was the smart one! “I’m guessing she either bribed Eleanor Landy, or she might not be a real jeweller at all. She’d give you a far lower price, which you'd split unknowingly with Trinity. The real profit would then be made and split between them,” I concluded.
“Yeah… like that,” George agreed. “I didn’t know why they were in the car park by the care unit, but I figured it must be because they thought something was up. I started to feel a bit uneasy about the whole situation. Trinity had two people with her. What if she didn’t like my suggestion?”
“The suggestion that you keep all the money. Oh, this is priceless,” Mr Crawley contributed.
I wasn’t sure if pain was making him more bitter, or if he’d been like this from the start.
“I thought I’d best put Mr Limey somewhere safe while I made my proposal, so I shut him in one of the pens. Trinity and the others came in and, would you believe it? They already knew what I was planning! Come to think of it, that was probably because I never showed up at the jewellers.
“Anyway, I told them I knew they were trying to scam me and I didn't want anything to do with their shady little scheme anymore. The emerald belonged to me, fair and square. I was going to take it and sell it to a real jeweller and get myself a fair price. They could all go and whistle!”
“Clearly it didn't end well,” I observed.
George sighed. “No. They pulled a gun on me! I didn’t even think you could get guns in England?”
I tilted my head from side to side. “Well, you can. You just need a license, that’s all,” I said. “Oh, and there's always the black market,” I added, thinking about Lowell's contacts.
“Right. Well, they had a gun, so I got in the car and drove like they told me to and here I am!”
“All this time, you’ve been in Dracondia Manor. The very place you were supposed to inherit,” I said.
“How ironic,” the vet observed.
“Yeah, sure. Anyway, they thought I’d have the emerald on me. As if I'd be that stupid!” he scoffed.
I was glad it was too dark for him to see me look heavenwards when he said that.
“Then they tried to get me to tell them where I’d put it. I told them I gave it to Jackie, but they said they asked her. I said the only other person who might have it was Marie and that stumped them. For some reason they couldn’t find her. I guess Jackie must have told her that something had gone wrong and to lay low for a bit.” He sighed. "I hope Jackie isn't too worried.”
I shuffled my feet. “I’m really sorry, George," I said, knowing I should have done this a lot earlier. “Jackie’s dead. I think one of the gang killed her.” I decided not to go into any detail.
“What? But how? Why would they even do that?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I admitted.
I thought about George's version of events. “Whoever stayed behind to take your car away must have done it. I’m guessing Jackie turned up with Marie to look for you. Perhaps she saw someone she thought was stealing your car and things got out of hand.”
I could tell George’s mouth was gaping open and then shutting. “But Marie must have been with her! What happened to her?”
“She’d gone to lie down and fell asleep. I only found her the next morning, still sleeping in my office.”
“That’s lucky,” George commented. “She’s okay?”
“No, I’m sorry,” I said, feeling bad all over again. “Harrison shot her in order to frame my… friend… who's a detective," I said. Perhaps I could have said boyfriend, but after everything that had happened today, I wasn’t holding my breath that we’d ever be anything of the sort.
“She knew too much,” George concluded, sadly.
I wondered how aware he was that with Marie and Jackie gone, the only people who knew the whole truth about the theft of the Serpentine Emerald were in this very room.
I didn’t have high hopes for our life expectancies.
“Did they make you sign over the emerald?” I asked.
“No, I keep refusing. They don’t even have it,” he confided.
“Actually, they do. They walked in right after we’d finished operating on Mr Limey and picked it up. They'd already worked it out. Trinity saw Mr Limey and after I explained how I ended up looking after him, she put two and two together.”
“Well, I guess that’s that then. I should probably sign it over, so they’ll let us go,” George said.
“No, I don’t think you should do that,” I said, having a horrible vision of them killing us all and leaving us here to rot in the bowels of Dracondia Manor forever. I was certain that George’s demise would appeal to Trinity’s sense of neatness, but I wasn’t as sure how the vet and I could be made to disappear so easily.
George was a man accused of murder that the police couldn’t find any information about, beyond the empty, fingerprint-less car. I didn't know about Mr Crawley, but
I liked to think there would be people who’d miss me if I disappeared. But if they managed to frame Lowell for the murder of Marie, I figured they could just as easily accuse him of mine and Mr Crawley’s disappearances, too.
I shook my head. Coming up with how the bad guys were going to explain away my demise wasn’t helping anything. I had to come up with something that would save us all!
“Why shouldn’t I sign? They said they’d let me go if I did. They’ve got everything they wanted. They've won! I should just do what they say and we can all get out of here,” George was saying.
Fortunately, I didn't have to reply. Mr Crawley got there before me and started filling George in, rather graphically, on exactly why he shouldn’t sign.
While the lecture waged on, I decided to walk around the basement and see if I could think of anything that might help us out.
I reached one of the mysterious glass walls and pressed my face up against it. It might have been my imagination, but I thought I saw the shadow of something moving in the gloom on the other side.
I walked a little further on and discovered something remarkable. There was a door in the glass! I pressed down on the handle, expecting it to be locked.
“Stop!” George shouted and I froze, my hand still fixed on the handle. He must have seen my silhouette in the last dregs of twilight.
“There’s a door in the glass and I don’t think it’s locked,” I said to him. Even if it was, I had a needle, a hair grip, and a memory full of YouTube lock-picking videos. That practically made me a master burglar.
I heard the sound of George pushing himself to his feet.
“If you open that door, we’ll all die.”
11
Venomous
“You’re going to have to elaborate,” I said, wondering where all of this sarcasm was coming from. Was this how I dealt with my own impending death?
George arrived next to me and pointed through the gloom at the shadow I’d seen move. “On the other side of this glass, is a pit full of venomous snakes.”