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CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

Two Wolves

Spring of Four

‘We were seduced ! Seduced by the glamour of having our very own Wundersmith again, right here in the Silver District!’

Morrigan flicked all the switches on the wall as she burst back into the Receiving Room, flooding the huge space with light again. She threw her reach into the centre of the floor, where Tobias was holding court, and doused the golden glow of the dragon boat. It disappeared instantly, leaving only a trickle of embers floating towards the ceiling. (If this murderous liar wanted to put on a show, she wasn’t about to let him use her dramatic lighting.)

‘STOP TALKING,’ Cadence ordered, but once again her voice was lost in the din.

‘Morrigan Crow was never really one of us , though, was she?’ Tobias bellowed, waving up at the banner. Morrigan cast her reach out once again, snatched down the black silk and let it float to the ground, just for the pleasure of hearing the room gasp.

‘No,’ she agreed, stepping into the circular clearing to face her uncle. ‘I never was. Glad we sorted that out.’

‘Now she dares to accuse her own aunt!’ Tobias valiantly ploughed on, raising his voice above hers as he continued his oration. ‘The aunt who took her in and gave — ’

He was silenced by the black silk banner tightly wrapping around him like an enormous ribbon, from just below his elbows all the way to his mouth.

‘You’re right, I was wrong to accuse Aunt Margot,’ Morrigan announced, without missing a beat. ‘So let’s talk about you, Tobias. Specifically about how you were covered in blood after you killed Dario. After you stabbed him in the back three times …’ – she paused just long enough to see the satisfying fear in Tobias’s eyes; he hadn’t expected her to know that detail – ‘… you were drenched in his blood. All over your hands, all over your suit.’

Cadence sidled close to her, whispering, ‘Um, hi. What are you talking about?’

‘Play along; I’ll explain later,’ she whispered back.

Tobias objected to this in a passionate but incoherent stream of muffled words. At a pointed look from Cadence, Morrigan sighed and unravelled the black silk with a flick of her reach, to just below his chin. (She supposed Inspector Gravely would have allowed her suspects to object.)

‘—libellous, unfounded NONSENSE!’ Tobias finished in a splutter, turning to appeal to his wife. ‘Margot, you saw me at the fireworks! Did it look like I was covered in blood?’

Margot’s forehead creased in a frown. She began to say something, then bit her lip, as if trying to remember.

‘Of course you weren’t,’ Morrigan went on. ‘Because you’d gone back to Darling House to clean up and change your suit by then.’

Tobias scoffed. ‘This is another fascinating fairy tale you’ve concocted, Morrigan, but there’s a problem with your little scenario – how did I manage to murder Dario, then cross Darling Bridge to go home and change my clothes, somehow getting past the crowd of our friends and neighbours gathering to watch the fireworks … without anyone noticing that I was covered in blood?’ He gave a strained, angry laugh, looking around the room for support.

There was an uneasy titter from the guests.

‘Because you didn’t go home via the bridge,’ said Morrigan. ‘You arrived in a wooden kayak when you murdered Dario. After you killed him, you paddled around to the other side of Darling House and crept inside to change your clothes. After that, it would have been easy to slip into the crowd on Darling Bridge and pretend you’d been there all along.’

‘I WAS there all along! I was with my wife. ’ He looked to Margot again for corroboration. ‘ Tell them , darling!’

But Margot said nothing. She was looking anywhere but at her husband’s face.

‘Only for the last bit,’ Winifred piped up, frowning.

‘Oh, how would you know?’ Tobias snapped at her.

‘Because Miriam, Modestine and I were with Margot the whole time,’ she snapped back. ‘The four of us walked over together from the Glade.’

‘That’s right,’ Miriam said quietly. ‘You didn’t come with us. I turned around at one point and you were there, standing behind Margot … but that was right at the end. Just before … just before Dario’s boat …’

Tobias rolled his eyes. ‘Yes, Miriam , I was late because I was checking on your unwell mother, if you recall? She had a headache, and Margot was busy rounding everyone up for the cake-cutting, so I was doing—’

‘Son-in-law duty, yeah,’ Morrigan cut in. ‘Very good of you. It’s true that you went to see my grandmother – one of the maids saw you leaving her room. But I don’t think you were helping her. I think you were doing the opposite. I think …’ She considered for a moment, imagining the scene in her head. This was the part, she realised, where the detective had to wade into unknown territory. To throw out some educated guesses on a fishing line and see what she could catch. She looked at Cadence, who gave her an encouraging nod. ‘Lady Darling saw you, didn’t she? You’d rushed back to Darling House, covered in Dario’s blood, in shock at what you’d done … and she saw you before you’d had a chance to get changed.’ Morrigan frowned, unsure how to proceed.

‘You went to her for help, didn’t you?’ Cadence stepped up beside her, adopting the familiar detective’s stance. Morrigan shot her a quick, grateful smile, relieved the professional was here. ‘You were so upset and panicked that you went to see Lady Darling, and confessed everything, hoping she’d help you cover up your crime. But it didn’t quite go the way you’d hoped, did it Tobias? Did she threaten to tell the police? To tell your wife ?’

It was all conjecture, Morrigan knew. But it didn’t much matter if they were guessing, because she knew for certain what happened afterwards, and everything else was just a stick to poke the bear.

‘This is preposterous,’ spat Tobias. ‘Who are you and how did you—’

‘You had to shut her up, didn’t you?’ Cadence went on.

‘You were the son Lady Darling never had,’ Morrigan added, remembering how her aunts had said Tobias was the favourite. ‘You were a Darling, and you’d given up so much to become one. Your family business … even your own name . You thought that meant something. You thought being a Darling meant you were protected. That being Silverborn ’ – a wave of scandalised whispers erupted, and Morrigan had to fight the urge to roll her eyes – ‘meant being shielded from consequence. But you’re not really Silver born , Tobias, are you? Silver married doesn’t count, does it? You learned that, when you realised your mother-in-law wasn’t going to cover up your crimes. It never mattered what you gave up, how much you dressed and talked and acted like them. Lady Darling was never going to forget where you came from.

‘And that’s why you’ve been poisoning her all these months,’ she finished, to looks of horror from all four of her aunts.

‘ P-poison? ’ Tobias choked out an unconvincing laugh. ‘How dare you accuse me of something so outrageous ! Margot, you can’t think that I would ever— ’

‘Not exactly poison, you’re right,’ Morrigan continued, taking the little green bottle from Cadence. ‘It’s an unnimal sedative from Eldritch Murdergarden – just one dose, but they sell them by the dozen. The same sedative Cosimo Rinaldi fed to his dragon.’ She tossed the bottle lightly to Miriam, who caught it with ease. ‘Read the warning label on the back, Aunt Miriam. Do those side effects sound familiar? Agitation, memory loss, confusion, disorientation. Doesn’t it sound exactly like your mother’s symptoms? Hasn’t she been deteriorating at a rate of knots, ever since the wedding? You thought it was the shock and stress of Dario’s death. But it was much more sinister than that, wasn’t it, Tobias? You still had it in your pocket after the murder … it must have been easy to slip that first drop into Lady Darling’s tea. Just enough to shut her up.’

Miriam and Winifred squinted down at the fine print on the bottle. Tobias was gazing pleadingly at his wife, but Aunt Margot’s face was cold and unyielding.

‘It’s Tobias who’s been blackmailing you, Cosimo,’ said Morrigan, watching as Cosimo’s look of confusion turned to fury. ‘But only after he tried, and failed, to blackmail your brother.’

‘He tried to blackmail Dario ?’ said Modestine. ‘I don’t understand, what could Dario possibly—’

‘Tobias threatened to tell you about Gigi,’ Morrigan said simply.

Modestine’s eyes widened as she looked at Sunny Ghoshal, who was hovering protectively nearby as always. Confused murmurs rippled through the room, but Morrigan didn’t need to elaborate. Her aunts all knew exactly what she meant, and why Tobias’s threat would never have worked. She could say it out loud right now, reveal the Darling–Rinaldi sham marriage and Silver Assembly plot to the entire district. Perhaps she ought to.

‘ Alights on the Water was such a sure bet to top the leaderboard,’ Morrigan continued, ‘that anyone who bet against her would stand to make a fortune if she lost. And you needed money, lots of it, to try to buy back your family business from the Vulture.’ She paused for a moment to untangle what she knew, trying to fill in the gaps. ‘I wonder why you didn’t simply ask your wife for money? Was it because you knew that, despite appearances, Darling House didn’t have any?’

Whispers spread through the room as the Silverborn reacted to this most scandalous news. Morrigan looked over in time to see Aunt Modestine and Aunt Miriam exchange covert, anxious glances. But it was Aunt Margot’s reaction she was most interested in.

‘You sold it … to the Vulture ?’ she asked Tobias in a horrified whisper. ‘You sold that wretched man everything we – everything I—’ Margot choked out a bitter, hysterical laugh. ‘You just … handed him all the ammunition he needs to ruin me? To ruin my family , like he’s always wanted?’

‘My brOTHERS sold it, Margot! You of all people must realise I had no legal say in that decision, since I was forced to leave the business when I married you. But I was trying to get it back from the Vulture. I was trying to protect you —’

‘By blackmailing Dario ?’

Tobias was sweating now, shaking his head over and over. ‘I – that’s not—’

‘Yes, by blackmailing Dario,’ Morrigan confirmed on his behalf. ‘But you made a mistake, Tobias – a mistake you fixed with Cosimo by keeping your threats anonymous. Since Dario knew exactly who was blackmailing him, it gave him the chance to turn the tables on you. He pretended to go along with your plan just long enough to do some digging of his own. To discover your worst secret. And your wife’s.’ She locked eyes with Aunt Margot, who was as white and still as porcelain. ‘ Don’t we all need a creative outlet? ’

Time seemed to slow as Morrigan and her aunt regarded each other, and she knew they were wondering the same thing.

Would she do it? Would Morrigan reveal the true identity of Hillary D’Boer to the entire Silver District?

Could she really throw her aunt to the wolves?

‘When you realised what you’d done,’ she went on, returning her attention to Tobias, ‘that in trying to protect your wife, you’d somehow made things even more precarious for her … you panicked. And you murdered Dario rather than risk him exposing the truth.’

‘What evidence do you have, you ridiculous child? A bottle you could have picked up from anywhere? Where’s this alleged blood-soaked suit, hmm? It doesn’t exist!’ Tobias was all bluster and bravado, but Morrigan could see his lip quivering, and he kept shooting nervous glances at his wife. ‘Margot, it isn’t true . You can’t possibly trust her , she’s a Wundersmith !’ The black silk banner had unravelled and fallen to the floor by now, and he lunged for Margot desperately, grasping her arms and shaking them as if trying to shake out a reaction. ‘Darling, she’s a LIAR, just like her lying, traitorous mother. It’s Meredith wretched Malcontent all over—’

With a guttural, anguished, wordless cry, Aunt Margot wrenched out of her husband’s grip and pushed him so violently away that he landed metres from her on the floor, cowering in shock.

‘Don’t ever speak my sister’s name again.’

She spoke in a hoarse whisper, but somehow every word was a thunderclap.

In the ringing silence that followed, Louis and Lottie ran breathlessly into the Receiving Room, bringing with them two plum-coated officers of the Silk.

‘Arrest this man, Sergeant Stokes,’ said Morrigan, pointing at Tobias.

The officers looked at each other uncertainly, as if waiting to be told this was all a joke. ‘Er … what for?’

‘The murder of Dario Rinaldi.’

Tobias laughed unconvincingly, sweat now dripping down his red, blotchy face. ‘Do you really think that’s how this works, Morrigan? I’m afraid you can’t just make up stories and expect the police to follow your orders. You can’t prove a single word of these wild accusations!’

‘No, I can’t,’ Morrigan admitted. ‘But she can.’

Following behind Louis, Lottie and the Silk, another group entered at a much gentler pace. Jack and Francis each held one of Lady Darling’s arms as she tottered along slowly, and Arch and Anah both hovered close by.

Lady Darling still looked frail and weak, but her glassy, confused expression was gone, and the moment she spotted Tobias her eyes sharpened.

‘Show them, boy,’ she ordered croakily, waving Arch towards the police officers.

Arch held out a white linen napkin, unwrapping it carefully to reveal the golden dragon tail. The point of its blade glittered in the light, though most of it was crusted over – not with dirt and rust, Morrigan now realised, but dried blood.

‘Do be careful with that, Sergeant,’ said Lady Darling. ‘You’ll want to preserve his bloody fingerprints.’