Page 65 of The Little Shop of Curiosities, The Music Box Part 2

“Blood magic.” He sits back in his chair and sucks his teeth as he thinks. “You said you have your mother’s post-mortem report?”

I reach into my leather satchel and pull out a copy of the case file Maddie gave Danny. Grumps flips through to the post-mortem report and skims the handwritten notes.

“It says here that your mother died from exsanguination, but that the blood found at the scene, although substantial, was insufficient for the cause of death. Which means the killer must’ve collected some of it.”

“According to Maddie, Scotland Yard are leaning toward the assumption that Viv may have been killed somewhere else and staged on the floor of her shop.”

Grumps frowns. “Well, I’m working on the assumption that the killer took her blood.”

“That’s pretty much the same conclusion I came to. It also points to the person who created the trap as being Constance Crawshanks, the middle sibling. Since blood magic was used to seal the trap, it can only be opened with the blood of a direct descendant. If the killer bled her, it stands to reason that they’re going to attempt to use Vivienne’s blood to set the demon loose.”

“I think I’m beginning to understand why Vivienne spiked her gin.”

“What?” I frown.

“Dosing herself with magic would contaminate her blood. What if she knew someone could attempt to use her blood to open the trap? By drinking the spiked gin, it basically rendered her blood useless.” He mutters, “Clever girl.”

“The killer might not know her blood is tainted,” I point out.

“We better hope they don’t.” Grumps scowls. “Because the next in the direct bloodline is you.”

I swallow hard. “We better pray they don’t know about me then.”

“I never thought I’d say this after encouraging you to be open and truthful with your friends, but it’s probably a good thing that you haven’t told them about your connection to Vivienne.”

“But what about the adoption? Won’t there be a paper trail someone can find?”

“Um, well, we might have fudged that a bit using magic,” he admits a little sheepishly. “Trust me, no one will find you through your adoption records.”

“But Sam...”

“I’m sorry, Harry. I know I’m changing my tune, but I don’t think we can afford to let anyone know right now. For your safety, we can’t risk the wrong person finding out.”

He’s got a point, but I feel even worse continuing to keep this from Sam, especially after…well, we got closer.

“I know it’s not ideal, Harry,” Grumps says sympathetically. “But we’ll figure it out, I promise, and to be honest, having met Sam, I have a feeling that boy will figure it out soon enough.”

“What?”

“Harry, he’s intelligent, he’s a seasoned investigator, and he has psychic gifts, one of which is psychometry. It’s really only a matter of time before he figures out the truth about you, whether by deduction or by touching just the right object.”

“Then maybe I should just tell him.”

He contemplates me for a moment, then finally shakes his head. “Not yet, I’m trying to buy us some time. Right now, the only people who know are you, me, and your dads, and it needs to stay that way until we identify Viv’s killer.”

I nod slowly as he picks up the book he was looking at before I interrupted him. “Here, take a look at this.”

He lays the open pages in front of me, and I draw in a sharp breath. It’s a colour illustration of a creature with a wreath of flowers around its head, pale blue skin, and eight arms, each ending in curved, needle-like claws.

“That’s him. That’s what Ishaan looked like in his true form, right before Cordelia got him to pop Dr Whyte like a ripe pimple.”

Grumps frowns. “I was hoping it wasn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because this is no ordinary run-of-the-mill demon. Ishaan is a demon lord, cast down into Naraka, the place of eternal torment, by Shiva. He is incredibly old and powerful, and exceptionally vicious.” He rubs his forehead in frustration. “Your bloody birth family don’t do things by halves, do they?”

“What I don’t understand is how the killer even knows about the demon,” I muse. “If this is the Crawshanks secret being protected at all costs, they wouldn’t have let that information outside of the family, would they?”