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Chapter Forty-Two

I didn’t want to leave Maddie but Old Jacobson had started chanting. If Yanni heard him, she’d ask what was going on and there was no way I’d be able to think of a believable explanation in my current state of mind.

‘I’ll keep an eye on her. We both will.’ Fraser gestured to Eva, who was sitting behind Jacobson and watching his every move.

‘Okay. I won’t be long.’ I moved into the kitchen. Only when I had closed the door did I answer the call. ‘Yanni?’ I tried to keep my voice as neutral as possible. ‘Is everything okay?’

‘Not exactly,’ she said. ‘We’ve had the forensics back on Angelica and Toby’s murders.’

‘Okay.’ It was hard to shift gears from black magic to murder most foul. ‘Was it like we thought? A silver bullet and blood loss from a bear-shifter attack?’

‘Dove was right about the silver bullet… ’

‘But…?’ I suddenly had the feeling this wouldn’t be as straightforward as we’d first thought.

‘Angelica wasn’t killed by a bear shifter. Her wounds were inflicted with a knife,’ she said grimly. ‘A knife designed to mimic the patterns made by a bear’s claw.’

‘Someone was trying to frame Toby and make it look like he was responsible,’ I said darkly,

‘It would appear that way.’

My head spun. It was almost too much to take in, but I forced myself to focus. If that was the case, there was a good chance that the killer was still out there with three kills under their belt and feeling cocky as fuck.

‘That’s not good,’ I said in the understatement of a century. ‘It has to be someone who wanted both Toby and Angelica out of the picture – and someone that Warren trusted enough to turn his back on.’

‘It looks that way, yes.’

The answer hit me like a physical weight. ‘It’s one of his children. It has to be.’ The divorce wasn’t finalised; after Warren’s death everything would pass to Angelica, so she had to die too. Toby was collateral damage, there to neatly wrap up the case so that the killer could slink back to their house and count their new inheritance.

‘That was my thinking. I’ve already seen Jennifer – she was at Mrs Brown’s when I told them the news about Toby. She was in pieces. It turns out that the person Toby was in love with was her – they’d been seeing each other secretly again. They’d planned to elope once the merman drama calmed down. There’s no way she would have killed him, and she had no idea why he would have been with Angelica. She said Toby hardly knew her.’

‘So someone lured them both there?’ Who would have the power to do that?

‘Rory?’ I tried it on for size: Angelica would surely meet her own son. ‘Do you think he’d kill his own mother? But no, I don’t see it,’ I murmured, thinking aloud.

That was when I remembered what Mrs D had told me.

‘Gilbert hated that Warren made them stand on their own two feet, and he was furious that his dad was paying Angelica money that he thought was his inheritance. He was angry that Jennifer was “selling out” their family line by going with a land shifter. He worked with his dad in the yachting business, meaning he would have had access to his emails. I bet he’s the one who sent that email to Mrs D saying there would be no more donations, then he siphoned the money off himself! He’s trying to frame Angelica. I’m betting he logged into his father’s email account on her computer to make her look guilty.’

‘I came to the exact same conclusion,’ Yanni said grimly.

I chewed my lip. ‘Yanni, if we’ve both figured it out that means Jennifer and Rory might do the same. They could be in danger.’

‘We need to find Gilbert before he can hurt anyone else. Can you come? It would be useful to have another pair of fighting hands if things get messy – we’re woefully understaffed for things like this.’

I look at the closed kitchen door behind which Maddie was lying unconscious on the table. There was nothing I could do here. Jacobson was working around her and he’d said that he needed space.

I had to stop Gilbert Storcrest from hurting anyone else; besides, maybe using him as a punchbag would help work off some of my anger. I was willing to put that theory to the test.

‘Just tell me where to go,’ I said grimly.