‘I understand,’ Hogarth responded.
Hair tucked neatly behind one ear, feet together, she looked up at him, clear-eyed.
‘You want the whole truth? Then here it is: I am no fit wife for a policeman.’
Hogarth looked at her in surprise. ‘Why not? Because you’re …?’
She held out her palms.
‘I have blood on my hands.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘On the stairs that night. I killed Mordren. It was me.’
‘How?’
‘He was raising his wand. Someone had shot down a woman in black. Her body was on the stairs, her wand still in her hand. Shilpa, Mimi and Roger were on the flight above, in his line of fire. I had to save them. I had to get them out. I had to keep the children safe. Any of them might have been any of us. They didn’t deserve to die. It was as though time slowed right down. So slow, I had time to pick up the wand and aim it, and I just … felt it. Felt the power, the energy; the spark burst out from the wand towards him, and it hit him … in the heart. I just meant to stop him, stun him. I never meant and … there was this flash brighter than the sun, than fireworks, than anything I’d ever seen before, and he burst into a million pieces. And then time speeded back up, and we got the children down the stairs and out of the door, running, running into the night.’
She paused, looking at him hopelessly.
‘Now you know it all. The best and the worst. I am a killer. And I can never go home. I don’t deserve to go home. And I don’t deserve you.’
She looked at her palm.
‘Out damned spot. Not all the waters in the depths of Dozmary Pool can wash it away ....’
***
Amanda’s eyes were welling up. ‘Oh, poor, poor Lucy! How terrible.’
‘So, the case was solved? Lucy did it. Then why are you asking us?’ enquired Trelawney, bewildered.
‘Solved? By no means,’ replied Hogarth. ‘Of course, they were there on the stairs that night. The Lucy family: the entire Lucy family. Five suspects. But which one of them fired the spell that killed Mordren Dowrkampyer?’
Amanda and Trelawney looked at one another, currents of speculation hurtling through their minds.
Chapter 28
The Unusual Suspects, and the Shore at Dawn
No sooner had Trelawney closed the driver’s door than Amanda asked eagerly.
‘Well? Who do you think it was?’
‘What do you think?’ He turned on the ignition.
‘I don’t know. Maybe it was Zoe. She is the only one who is adamant about not talking about the past. And think of how she dealt with the arachnid incursion. She didn’t think twice about it.’
‘True,’ Trelawney conceded, pulling out into the road. ‘Although, surely there’s a big difference between a man and a spider.’
‘Maybe not to Zoe. Both detestable and both a threat, if only a perceived one.’
‘Hm, maybe she did do it, and the whole thing was too dreadful to remember. On the other hand, Marielle has enough fire to ... well, even without a wand!’
‘Yes. Then again, Geoffrey’s job is to protect them all. Maybe he’s so serene because he believed he did the right thing,’ Amanda suggested.
‘But it was the other children, the students, who were in danger. That seemed to be the focus. Elodie did keep saying they had to save the children; they had to get them out.’
‘You don’t think it was Elodie, do you? She’d want to protect Zoe. I mean Elodie was created expressly for that purpose by Zoe. And there was a threat to them all. Surely Dowrkampyer would have turned on them once he’d dealt with the students on the flight of stairs above.’
‘Surely the older ones — Marielle, Geoffrey and Peter — would feel that even more strongly,’ countered Trelawney, slowing down to let another car pass in the narrow lane. ‘To protect the little ones as well as the other children in the house.’
‘Maybe it was the only rational choice in a pivotal moment.’
‘That sounds like Peter,’ surmised Trelawney. ‘Checks and balances.’
Amanda sighed. ‘So we’re no further forward.’ As if in acknowledgement, a long snore could be heard from the back seat, as Tempest, overcome by the tedium of their thought processes, had taken refuge in slumber.
She reached back a hand and rubbed his tummy. ‘Aww, Mister Cuddly-wuddles.’ Amanda then looked at the inspector’s profile as he concentrated on the road. ‘If you had to put your money on one, who would it be?’
He thought.
‘It may sound corny but ....’
She couldn’t resist a smile.
‘The femme fatale?’
‘Maybe it’s too obvious,’ Trelawney conceded.
‘Or meant to be too obvious.’
‘But you know, Miss Cadabra, all the evidence we have is the testimony of the Lucy family, as conveyed by Elodie and Peter, and the bits and pieces other people said. We have Mike’s summary of the fire and police reports, and the few words of the three, now grown-up, children who escaped. Silence mostly. I feel ... I’m sure there’s a bigger picture to all of this. Something that we’re just not getting.’
‘I don’t see how we can find out any more. After all, if Uncle Mike has been trying all these years ....’
‘Hm ... maybe he didn’t talk to the right people. Or, more correctly, they didn’t talk to him. However ... there are a couple of people who just might talk to me. Hm, I need to think.’
‘You go running on the beach for that, don’t you?’ asked Amanda.
‘I do. Ah. I tell you what. How would you like to see it, where I go? It would be an early start,’ he warned her. ‘It’s best at dawn.’
‘I’d love to,’ she replied enthusiastically. ‘What time? I’ll be ready.’
***
Amanda
