I dared a look. Gerald lay sprawled on his chest in the middle of the floor, moaning with pain. A bloodstain spread outward from his side, where Heathcliff had stuck in the knife. Heathcliff knelt on Gerald’s back, but his predator eyes still searched the room. He lifted a huge fist and pounded it into the back of Gerald’s skull.
“Don’t you… ever… raise a knife… to Mina… again,” Heathcliff panted, punctuating each phrase with a slam of his fist.
“Young man, stop that!” Hayes rushed in. It took him and two of his officers to drag Heathcliff off Gerald. “What are you doing to this man? This is assault!”
“I think my ribs are broken,” Gerald moaned, trying to roll on his side.
“What I’m doing is your job,” Heathcliff boomed. “That man is the Argleton Jewel Thief, and the murderer of Professor Hathaway and Alice Yo.”
A collective gasp rose through the gathered crowd.
“What?” Gerald’s face crumpled. “That’s not true.”
“So it’s not true that I just saw him stealing Mrs. Lachlan’s jewelry, and it’s also not true that I had to stop him before he stabbed Mina with that knife?” Heathcliff struggled against the cops. “If you don’t believe me, check his pockets.”
Gerald moaned, his head dropping onto the marble. Hayes bent down and dug around in his pocket, pulling out a handful of gold and diamond-encrusted necklaces and earrings. “What the—?”
“My jewelry!” Cynthia rushed forward, pawing through the jewels. The gasps turned to murmurs as she pulled more and more pieces from Gerald’s pocket. “This was Grey’s grandmother’s necklace. He gave it to me when he proposed.”
Cynthia’s face twisted in rage, and she bent down and slapped Gerald across the face. “How dare you? You rotten, despicable little man—” she bent down to slap him again, but Hayes grabbed her wrist.
“Ma’am, you need to step back, or I’ll have my officers restrain you, too.”
Reluctantly, Cynthia stepped back, clutching fistfuls of her own jewels and staring daggers into Gerald.
“Listen, I can explain,” he pleaded.
“No, you can’t,” Heathcliff shouted. “We know you’re guilty. You overhead Christina looking for her jewelry before the ball. You spiked Professor Hathaway’s drink with sleeping pills so you could steal the jewels, and then staged the scene to look as though the thief had escaped out the window. When you did that, you accidentally tore your shirt. We know you hated Hathaway because you claimed he plagiarized you and he hurt your girlfriend—”
“Alright, I stole the jewels!” Gerald cried. “I’m the Argleton Jewel Thief. I wasdesperate. I was hoping to pay to finish my postgraduate degree in another country, somewhere where my name wasn’t ruined by Hathaway’s lies. I hated him, sure, but I never killed him!”
“Then why was your shirt torn?” I cried. “And you had blood on your trench coat. I saw it.”
“I told you, it wasn’t blood, it was red wine jus,” Gerald’s eyes blazed as they met mine. “Besides, how could I have done it when I was outside until after the first dance finished?”
“Outside?”
“Yes, I’d just received some distressing news, and I went out to have a smoke and collect my thoughts.” Gerald frowned at Lydia. “She was hanging around in the hallway snogging some bloke and I couldn’t deal with that right now, because it made me think of the other thing, so I went back inside for a drink.”
“Gerald’s telling the truth,” Hannah stepped forward. “I told him I was pregnant, and that I decided to keep the baby.”
“That’s why I was so upset at the bar. How was I going to support a baby? My consulting role barely pays my bills. That’s why I was trying to get the jewels today. It was a risk, but I figured that in the chaos no one would think to miss them for several hours.”
“But Gerald, I told you that it wasn’t your responsibility,” Hannah cooed. “I found someone else I wanted to be my baby’s daddy.” She fluttered her eyelashes at Heathcliff.
“Keep her away from me!” Heathcliff resumed struggling in earnest.
“We’ll see how the rest of your story checks out,” Hayes said. “Gerald Bromley, you’re under arrest. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court…” The police dropped Heathcliff and swept in to surround Gerald.
I rushed to Heathcliff’s side. “I can’t believe you did that. Are you hurt?”
He shook his head. “Luckily, Gerald’s sizable girth broke my fall.”
“Morrie, call an ambulance. I’m going to get you checked over.” I hugged Heathcliff tight. “Please don’t ever do that again. Leave the flying to Quoth, okay?”
“Careful,” he winced. “You’re jabbing ribs into soft places.”
There were no soft places on Heathcliff, except for his heart. I pulled away. Heathcliff tried to get to his feet, but I pushed him back down. “At least you managed to catch the jewel thief,” he muttered. “Now maybe we can leave the rest of the detective work to the real detectives.”
