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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Seven Suspects

Since returning to Wunsoc, Morrigan had resumed taking Hometrain 919 with the rest of her unit, but instead of the glossy black door to her bedroom in the Hotel Deucalion, she now travelled through Mahir’s red door with him.

Mahir lived in Southey-Upon-Juro, only two Wunderground stops away from Ogden Town, in a house full of noise and happiness and chattering family. His parents never let Morrigan leave without several entreaties to share some breakfast or stay for dinner, and his younger siblings had endless questions about Wunsoc. Morrigan loved the detour, but it easily added an extra thirty minutes onto her school day, and as her evenings were still packed with Silver District social engagements, it was only adding to her exhaustion.

On Wednesday morning, after falling asleep on Hometrain for the third day in a row, she lingered at Proudfoot House Station when the others set off for the Whinging Woods.

‘ Please don’t be late today,’ Miss Cheery said as she gathered up tea mugs. ‘You know I’ll hear it from Rook.’

‘I won’t,’ Morrigan said quickly. ‘I just need to ask you something.’

‘Shoot.’

‘Would it be possible to move my station door?’

Miss Cheery stared at her questioningly.

‘It’s just that I’m living at Darling House … for a little while. And it’s quite a long trip from the Silver District to Wunsoc, so I thought—’

‘Oh, Morrigan,’ said the conductor, her voice warm with sympathy. She clapped a hand to her forehead, scrunching up her nose. ‘Right. Um … I know things are a bit tense at home right now. Jupiter mentioned—’

Morrigan narrowed her eyes. ‘ What did Jupiter mention?’

‘Oh, nothing really, just … never mind.’ She sighed. ‘Yes, I’m sure I can sort something out. I’ll speak to the Liminal Transport Department today. I mean … if you’re sure?’

‘I’m sure.’

‘You’ll want it moved back to the Deucalion at some point, of course?’ asked Miss Cheery gently.

‘Yeah,’ Morrigan agreed, wishing she felt as certain as she sounded. ‘Of course.’

Cadence had managed to mesmerise a senior scholar with the necessary skills to develop their stolen envelope of negatives into many boxes of photographs. The challenge then was to painstakingly sift through the hundreds of pictures, examining every face in every frame. It took her and Morrigan a full week of lunchtimes and stolen moments between classes, with some help from Hawthorne (who pointed out the guests he recognised as dragonriders, all of whom were present and accounted for) and from Anah, but they finally nailed down their suspect list. On the last Tuesday before the Christmas holidays, Cadence summoned Unit 919 for a briefing.

‘The good news is we’ve been able to cross four names off our original list: Crispin Stirling has a solid alibi, and now so do Modestine Darling and Cosimo Rinaldi – the photos prove they were present for the scheduled cake-cutting window. They both looked annoyed, but that was probably because Dario hadn’t shown up. Laurent St James is also cleared; he was at home.’

‘Shame,’ said Hawthorne. ‘I was hoping to send Mr Megaphone to prison.’

‘Are we sure it wasn’t him?’ asked Mahir. ‘He feels quite murdery.’

‘He does feel murdery,’ Morrigan agreed. ‘But he has an alibi.’

She recounted what Louis and Lottie had told her on the night they took her lintel-hopping, about waking their parents up straight after the wedding to tell them about Dario.

‘They could be lying to cover for him,’ suggested Arch. ‘He is their dad.’

‘They don’t have any reason to think he’s a suspect,’ said Morrigan. ‘Everyone in the Silver District still thinks the wedding planner did it.’

‘Our motive for Scumbag St James was pretty weak, to be fair,’ added Cadence. ‘If he just wanted to make life difficult for Morrigan, he’s already doing that. He didn’t need to murder some guy she just met.’ Leaning over the oval table, she unrolled a large piece of paper with the updated suspect list and weighted each corner with pencil cases and books. ‘Now, the less good news is we’ve added four new suspects, bringing our total back up to seven.’

Unit 919 gathered around to read the list.

SUSPECT

MOTIVE

OPPORTUNITY

ALIBI

The Rival House: Lord and/or Lady Devereaux (Noelle’s mum and dad)

Furious at Dario, Modestine and the Darlings because of Gigi Grand ‘prank’. Quote: ‘Someone is going to pay.’

Left the wedding early. Might have gone to seek out Dario.

?

The Missing Mistress: Georgette Devereaux AKA Gigi Grand

Jealousy. She and Dario were having an affair and she was tired of waiting for him to leave Modestine.

Missing since the night of the wedding, according to Modestine. Did she flee because she’s the murderer, or has something bad happened to her?

Left Dario at the boathouse but could have circled back after Morrigan left.

Not photographed at cake-cutting. Didn’t return to wedding after conversation with Dario at boathouse.

?

The Vulture: (Real name unknown)

Unclear. Didn’t RSVP but came anyway even though he obviously wasn’t welcome and doesn’t normally attend events. Wasn’t even dressed for a wedding so must have decided to come at the last minute. Why?

Update: Continues to show up to parties and events since the wedding. Is WEIRD.

Not photographed at cake-cutting.

?

The Ice Queen: Margot Darling

Unclear.

Not photographed at cake-cutting.

?

The Humble Tradesman: Tobias Darling

Unclear.

Not photographed at cake-cutting.

?

The Faithful Best Man: Sunny Ghoshal

Seems very devoted to Modestine. Is it out of duty to his deceased best friend, or does he have feelings for the bride? Could he have killed Dario to get him out of the way?

Only partially present for cake-cutting – seen at the beginning but quickly disappears from the photographs.

?

The Poorly Grandmother: Lady Mallory Darling

Unclear.

Not photographed at cake-cutting, but had gone home hours earlier feeling unwell.

?

‘If this Sunny Ghoshal chap was there at the start of the cake-cutting, doesn’t that rule him out?’ asked Arch, wandering over to the wall where Cadence had taped up her hand-drawn map of the Paramour Pleasure Gardens. He pointed from the Glade to Darling Bridge, where Dario’s body was first seen floating down the canal in the dragon boat. ‘We don’t know exactly where he was killed, but unless Mr Ghoshal has super speed, it doesn’t seem like he’d have made it in time.’

‘I agree it’s a long shot,’ admitted Cadence. ‘But Morrigan says he’s always hanging around Modestine Darling like a lovesick puppy—’

‘I didn’t say lovesick puppy .’

‘—and the Inspector Gravely books say the four strongest motives for murder are love, jealousy, greed and revenge. If Sunny’s secretly in love with Modestine and wanted her for himself, that’s love and jealousy: tick and tick.’

‘If Laurent St James’s motive is too weak to make him a suspect, then why are Aunt Margot and Uncle Tobias on the list?’ Morrigan objected. It was an argument she and Cadence had been having all week. ‘We don’t even have motives for them.’

‘ Yet ,’ was Cadence’s ominous response.

‘What if one of them discovered Dario and Gigi’s affair?’ suggested Arch. ‘They might have—’

‘Killed him in revenge for hurting Modestine!’ Cadence shouted, uncapping her pen to fill in the empty ‘motive’ boxes. ‘ Obviously. Why didn’t we think of that?’

‘Sorry,’ Arch murmured to Morrigan, who was scowling at him.

‘And what about Lady Darling?’ she pressed. ‘I’d love to know how you think my grandmother’s capable of murdering a fully grown athlete. If you’d seen her the other night – honestly, she looks like a gentle breeze would give her bruises!’

‘Then it should be easy to cross her off the list.’ Cadence eyed her shrewdly. ‘I know you’re growing fond of the Darlings, Morrigan, and you want to think the best of them. But if we’re going to find the truth, we’ve got to stay objective. Don’t go making it personal.’

Morrigan gave a short, incredulous bark of laughter. ‘There are three of my family members on this list, Cadence! It is personal! And don’t even get me started on all these stupid nicknames.’

The nicknames were mostly Anah’s contribution. She’d switched from grisly detective novels to the romantic, scandal-heavy Silverborn Saga , at Cadence’s suggestion. It had become clear Anah didn’t have the constitution for crime, but she was determined to contribute to the investigation, and so Cadence had assigned her the task of reading Gigi Grand, in case it told them something important about Georgette Devereaux. Anah devoured the novel overnight, quickly became obsessed and was now powering through the whole series.

‘At least Poorly Grandmother is somewhat accurate. But Humble Tradesman , Anah? Really?’ Morrigan asked, cringing at Tobias’s assigned moniker.

Anah practically swooned. ‘Oh! Terrance Deerling is one of my favourite characters. He’s so romantic and strong. Always chopping and hauling wood, just to keep his beloved Marguerite warm …’

Morrigan laughed at the thought of slender, bespectacled Uncle Tobias chopping wood in his extensive collection of three-piece suits. ‘Anah, you do know those books aren’t real, right? They’re just gossipy stories pulled from the tabloids and fluffed up with a bunch of fantasy rubbish.’

Anah’s face fell slightly.

Cadence thumped the table to bring the conversation back on track. ‘Anah, what have you learned from Gigi Grand ?’

It was a subject Anah was all too happy to discuss. It turned out she wasn’t just reading the books, she’d also joined one of the book clubs Cadence had mentioned – the ‘Silver Sleuths’ – and was researching the real Georgette Devereaux with their help.

‘And I thought the book was named after the band – you know, Gigi Grand and the Gutterborn Five – but she took Gigi Grand as her stage name after the book was published! The Sleuths say she was thumbing her nose at the author and her parents and everyone in the Silver District who shunned her. Isn’t that clever? And in the book, Gigi runs away to play her music in a place called “Scandalia”, where all the vagrants and vagabonds and starving artists live in flea-bitten hovels and do all sorts of shocking things, and the Sleuths told me that’s a real place, right here in Nevermoor! Only it’s not called Scandalia, it’s called—’

‘Bohemia,’ said Morrigan, as something else sprang to mind. ‘Dario talked to Gigi about coming to Bohemia with her next year, after the Silver Assembly. That must be where she lives.’

Cadence perked up. ‘Do you think you can get an address? Would your aunt know? Or Noelle, maybe?’

The thought of upsetting Aunt Modestine again by asking her about Gigi was almost as unappealing as having any conversation whatsoever with Noelle Devereaux, but even so, Morrigan reluctantly agreed to try.

‘Excellent,’ said Cadence, noting it down. ‘Your turn, Hawthorne. Tell us about the Winter Trials. Are we any closer to finding our mystery dragonrider?’

Hawthorne jumped up to stand at the front of the room, quite unnecessarily, and cleared his throat before launching into his report.

‘ Alights still hasn’t flown.’ He clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace. ‘But rumour has it the Rinaldis have done private tryouts with just about every high-calibre rider in the Seven Pockets. It’s all very hush-hush, all very Cosimo Rinaldi.’

Cadence frowned. ‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning he’s known for being precious about his family’s dragons. With Dario gone, I’m not sure he’ll think anyone else is good enough for Alights .’

‘But we know someone else is good enough,’ Morrigan reminded him. ‘The mystery dragonrider! So where are they?’

Hawthorne shrugged. ‘No one knows. But if they don’t appear soon then Cosimo will just have to go with the next best rider, ’cos Alights has to get back into the Trollosseum when the Winter Trials start again after Christmas, otherwise she’s disqualified. That’ll mean no tournament for her next summer, either, and the Rinaldis would never risk that.’

‘Why not?’ asked Francis. ‘It’s only one year, they should give her a break.’

‘Not a chance,’ Hawthorne chuckled grimly. ‘Nan says if Alights doesn’t fly next summer, all her sponsors will be demanding their money back – and we’re talking millions. Not to mention the betting companies, who’d probably end up suing the Rinaldis.’

Cadence looked up from the notes she was scribbling. ‘Why?’

‘Because heaps of people would have bet on Alights topping the leaderboard, yeah? She was basically a sure thing before opening flights, when betting closed. But right now, it looks like she’ll never manage it. Which means the bookies are about to make a ton of money on those bets … but only if she stays in the competition. If she’s disqualified, all bets on her are null and void – she didn’t win OR lose, so they’ll have to give a whole bunch of people their money back.’

‘Sounds like there’s a lot of pressure on the Rinaldis to find a rider,’ said Cadence, tapping her pen against her chin thoughtfully. ‘I thought you said every dragonrider and their dog would be lining up for the job.’

‘They are! You should hear the list of names they’ve rejected . Cosimo’s a control freak, but he’s running out of time – someone has to be in that saddle on the first Sunday after the holidays, and I’ll be there to see who it is.’

‘Good work, Detective Swift,’ said Cadence, and Hawthorne beamed with pride. The bell rang at that moment to signal the end of lunch, and as Unit 919 rushed to pack their things Cadence called out last-minute instructions. ‘Right, everyone else, see that last column in our table of suspects: ALIBI? Our job now is to fill in that column. We establish an alibi for every suspect until we’re down to one, and BAM. We have our murderer.’

‘And by “we” you mean me, yes?’ asked Morrigan. ‘Since I’m the only one with access to the Silver District and you’re about to go away for Christmas. Here, you might as well give me that.’

She took the suspect list from Cadence and tucked it safely into her bag with a sigh. It was a good thing school was about to be over for two weeks. She had her work cut out for her.