Page 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

A VERY ONE-SIDED CONVERSATION WITH A SKULL

L eo pulled out a notebook and clicked his pen into action, drawing Althea’s, “How are you this organised?”

“I’m a P.A. It’s what I do.” She continued to look askance at him as he straightened the skull to symmetrical with his own and ignored the un-ignorable curtain of curls that covered half an eye as he leaned forward. “Are you called Cleo?”

“Herrrrr,” Cleo hissed.

Leo let out an excited laugh at the new amusement.

Althea wrenched the skull away from him and spat, “Why did you bleed me like that?”

To which Cleo made no reply at all.

“Yes or no, Al,” Leo reminded her softly, not attempting to remove the skull from her furious grip.

“Um. Did…” She stared hard at the skull, her voice weakening. “Did you torture me?”

Two grunts ground out in response.

“She’s clever,” Leo observed. “We didn’t even need to explain the system.”

Althea kept her attention on the old bone, irritated as she was. “Well, if you didn’t torture me, then who did?”

“Yes or no…” Leo whispered.

“Ugh!” She shoved the skull back at Leo. “If you’re so smart, you get some answers out of her then.”

Leo, used to dealing with the whims of someone far more temperamental than either Althea or Cleo, accepted the challenge with reassuring grace. He looked into Cleo’s eye-holes, and in quick-shot, fired off, “Do you know what’s inside Joe?”

“Herr.”

“Will it hurt Percy?”

“Herr.”

“Can we get it out?”

“Herr.”

“Did it come from your basement in Barmiston Hall?”

“Herr.”

“And are you the same Cleo I’ve met before?”

“Herr.”

“So, something trapped you in there?”

“Herr.”

“And you know what it was?”

“Herr.”

“I’m going to name every supernatural being I can think of, and you make a noise when I get to the right one, okay?”

Althea sat back in astonishment, less bewildered perhaps by the supernatural nature of the event than by her companion’s unexpected skills, which made that ever-burning flame in her heart flare a little brighter.