Page 54 of All of Us Murderers

“What about you?”

“I’m quite sure I was brought here to get at you. He’s barely given me a thing to do, and once you leave, he’ll have no further use for me. The important thing is to get you out.”

“Right,” Zeb said. “How?”

Gideon’s lips parted. He was probably thinking about high walls, locked gates, obdurate chauffeurs, and miles of empty, wintry, misty moor. Zeb certainly was.

“I don’t know,” he said at last. “Maybe the mist will lift tomorrow. We’ll find a way.”

We. Zeb and Gideon wereweagain. Withwein his pocket, Zeb could face down Wynn or anyone else. And Gideon would come back to London soon rather than an indefinite time later,and everything really was going to be all right as soon as they both left this blasted, cursed, haunted house.

Haunted. “What about the ghost business? Do we think he’s behind that too?”

Gideon stretched in that way he had that seemed to elongate his already long body by about eight inches. “Surely. It’s intended to put you all on edge, I suppose.”

“But it’s been going since you got here, well before we arrived.”

“This has obviously been long planned. Where do you think the spiders came from?”

“Hell, like all their kind.”

Gideon gave a pointed sigh. “You can’t just nip outside and collect an entire crateful of spiders in an afternoon. Can one breed spiders? Either way, it must have taken time and work. This is a long-term, elaborate scheme that involves quite a few people.”

“It must, but who? Everyone was downstairs at the point I saw the ghost.”

“No, they weren’t.”

“They were. You were with Dash and Bram and I heard Wynn and the women—”

“There are plenty of other people in the house.”

Zeb had a sudden, terrifying image of Walter’s last wife, now a withered old spectre huddled in an attic, creeping the corridors in silent shadows, picking spiders off the walls. “What do you mean, other people? Where?”

“The staff, Zeb. It’s very clearly the staff.”

It took a second for Zeb to digest that. “Why on earth would Wynn’s servants dress up as ghosts or collect spiders?”

“Because he ordered them to?”

“Come on. Would you do that for an employer?”

Gideon made a face. “It might depend how desperate I was for a wage. And—have you noticed that this house is grossly understaffed? Wynn let go three maids and a footman just before the family arrived, for no offence I could discern. All the staff we have left are notably unfriendly, relatively new to the house, and not very good at their jobs.”

“Especially the cook.”

“Indeed. So I have to wonder what they were hired for. I suspect it’s this.”

“Can you hire people to be awful to your guests?” Zeb asked.

“I expect you can hire people to do anything if you pay enough. Which—I don’t suppose you have a large sum in cash on you, for bribery?”

“Only about three quid. Who do you want to bribe?”

“The chauffeur, to get you out of here. I doubt three pounds will do it, but let me see.”

“Or I could talk to Wynn. Say I know what he’s up to, and demand to leave.”

“You could,” Gideon said slowly. “I’m not sure you ought to, without an exit available. Perhaps I’m being overly cautious.”