Isis’ tits, this is worse than I thought.A chill whipped through my veins. All the pieces had been right in front of me, but I hadn’t seen them. None of us had.
Grey LachlansaidMorrie was out of commission. He took Morrie out because he knew Morrie was onto Dracula.This all comes back to Dracula…
“Grey and I devised a plan. He would report Morrie to the government and have his accounts frozen, so Morrie didn’t have the funds to buy his way out of trouble. I learned a lot about death fraud from Morrie – enough that I thought I could fake my own murder. Grey said he could get me a body that looked a lot like me and had died from natural causes. If we bashed her face up good enough and the DNA matched, we’d make everyone believe it was me.”
That poor girl whose body you used didn’t die from natural causes. She was drained by Dracula, and then Grey finished her off with the mushrooms. He was covering his tracks in case someone clever like Jo figured it out. Oh, Jo. I’m so sorry I was so horrible to you. I thought I was being selfish by thinking of Dracula, but if I’d followed up on what you said about the autopsy, I might’ve figured this all out sooner.
Kate continued. “Grey stole the letter opener from the shop under the pretense of trying to convince you to sell the building. All that was left was to leave footprints at the scene with Morrie’s exact shoe print – easy, since I’d admired his brogues and he’d told me which exclusive London designer he used and exactly how much they cost. I simply rang them up and ordered another pair. I gave them to Grey after the fake-murder and he dropped them into the pile beside the shop door.”
“This wasn’t a fake murder, Kate,” I said. “Grey didn’t find some poor girl’s body who died of natural causes. He killed that woman himself, using the poison mushrooms from Barsetshire Fells thatyoutold him about.”
Kate paled. “That’s not true.”
“It is true. You have no idea of the monster you’ve been working with all this time.”Why haven’t the police stormed in here? Why aren’t they hearing this? They could arrest Kate and Grey, and Dracula would lose his faithful servant—
“Greycaredabout me.” Fresh tears welled in Kate’s eyes. “He wanted to help me, unlike Morrie. Morrie didn’t care about why I wanted to escape my life. All he cared about was the intellectual puzzle of faking my death.”
I mean, that does kind of sound like Morrie. On the surface. But that’s not the whole truth.
“Damn right. And there’s one piece of this puzzle that still has me stumped. The DNA on the body matched yours,” Morrie pointed out.
“That part was simple. I hacked into the morgue database and changed the DNA records on the corpse to match mine. Then I planted Morrie’s business card in the pocket so the police knew who to look for. Grey and I carried her into the forest, then I stabbed her with your letter opener and left her to be found.”
“But then Sam decided to move her.”
Kate nodded. “I was watching from a safe vantage point, and I saw him drag her away. I couldn’t have him hide her or destroy the body. I needed it to be discovered, and he was going to ruin everything. I had a male disguise in my rucksack, but the only clothing I had with me that could disguise my breasts was the Hogwarts blazer. I quickly changed my appearance and met Sam on the path. Now that he’d been caught, he had no choice but to report the body to the police. I stayed with him until he entered the police station, then I slipped away.”
“Very clever,” Morrie murmured.
“I should think so. Once I was certain the police were on the right track, I snuck into an empty property Grey offered me to wait for Morrie’s arrest.” Kate whirled to face Sherlock. “But I didn’t count onhimwhisking Morrie away. Grey explained that you lot would sniff around, but he didn’t anticipate quite how tenacious you’d be. I went to tell Dave everything, to beg him to come away with me before it was too late. But when he went into the kitchen to pour us another tea, he must’ve called you. He was going to tell you I was still alive.” Her whole body trembled. “And now… and now…”
Her face twisted with determination. She drew her elbows together, brought her knee to her chest, and thrust back, breaking Heathcliff’s grip and slamming her foot into his nuts at the same time.
CRACK.Heathcliff gasped as he collapsed to his knees, his face pale, his eyes bugging out. Sherlock lunged for Kate, but she scrambled away and pulled something from her belt, which she pointed at Morrie’s head.
A gun.
Shite.My blood turned to ice.She’s got a gun. Where the fuck is Inspector Hayes?
“Meow?” The door pushed open, and Grimalkin trotted in, her tail high and kinked like a periscope as she held one of Mum’s bloody oysters in her mouth.
“Grimalkin, not now,” I hissed.
I tried to relay to her through my eyebrows that she needed to run and find the inspector, but she just kept stalking toward us, staring at Heathcliff groaning on the floor and Morrie frozen and Kate with thatgunpointed right at his head with wide eyes.
Grimalkin’s whiskers twitched with mischief.I know you’re planning something, Grandmother. Now is not the time for you to decide to be a hero. Please, just get Inspector Hayes, or hell, even Earl Larson or Mrs. Ellis would do—
“Meeeeow.” Grimalkin bounded toward Kate.
Kate’s eyes widened. The barrel of the gun wobbled. “What’s that cat got in its mouth?”
“Meeeeow?” Grimalkin leaped onto the bookshelf and sauntered toward Kate.
“I’m allergic to shellfish,” Kate yelled, taking one hand off the gun to wave in Grimalkin’s face. “Go on, shoo!”
Grimalkin arched her back and leaped. She soared across the room and landed on the highest shelf, right above Kate’s head. She dropped the slimy oyster from her mouth. It landed on Kate’s face, sliding down her cheek before bouncing onto the rug.
“No, no, no…” Kate dropped the gun to swipe at the juice on her cheek. Morrie lunged for it, but Sherlock got there first, kicking it under the shelf. Kate spun toward the door and flung it open, but she was so disoriented that she pitched forward, sticking her foot into the oyster bucket I’d left in the hall.
