The Case of the Haunted House, page 15
part #2 of Katy Kramer Cozy Mystery Series
‘That’s it?’
‘That’s it,’ she said with a nod.
≈
It was strange to look at a man like Jim McGinty, and not want him to be banished. But once he was gone, I had no doubt that we were next. And then … then there’d be no one left who knew the truth.
I watched his spirit begin to spin in the centre of the circle. He did not go gently. He screamed, he roared … and finally … finally he whispered in my ear.
His spirit was cold as ice, his breath even colder, as he uttered his last words to me. There were so many words, more than he should have had time for. It was almost as if icy tendrils were creeping through my brain, filling in the gaps of the story. Telling me the things that Jim would never have time to tell, before he screeched away to nothing.
‘He said something to you!’ Denton bellowed. ‘What did he say?’
I smiled sweetly. ‘Does it matter? It’s not like I’ll get a chance to repeat it.’
‘Hm. You know, you’re right. You won’t. Now, Debbie will be allowed to leave with me as long as she signs the house back over to the Lodge and keeps her mouth shut. And never paints a room pink again.’
Debbie simpered at him. ‘Oh, Denton! I knew you loved me.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘But as for the rest of you … well, some fun is coming your way.’ He opened up a small wooden box on the mantelpiece, and pulled something out. His back was turned to me as he fiddled with whatever it was, so I eased closer to Cullen.
‘You know him, what with being all buddy-buddy with him in the Warlock Society,’ I whispered. ‘Do you have any idea what horrors he might be about to subject us to?’
Cullen groaned, as Denton turned around, a teeny tiny pistol in his hands, and shot something at Luca. It wasn’t a bullet, but a very small dart. A dart that had made its way into Luca’s left shoulder.
‘That,’ said Cullen, ‘is a dart filled with one of the many horrific potions men like Denton use to force werewolves to stay in their wolf form.’
Denton grinned, then began to recite an incantation:
‘From now you’ll turn without the moon
That way you’ll stay, lest death comes soon
All of these people you shall attack
Except me and the one that I protect.’
As Luca began to change form, his eyes deep yellow, his teeth horrifically sharp, I couldn’t help but say, ‘You know, your last two lines didn’t rhyme.’
Denton snorted. ‘Oh well. You can report me to the jury for bad poetry. Oh wait … no you can’t. You’ll be dead.’
He grabbed onto Debbie, clicked his fingers, and left the house.
27. A Leap … and Some Faith
Luca was growling and snarling, his teeth bared as he looked at us all. The most frightening thing wasn’t the fact that we were about to be killed. It was that I could still see Luca in there, desperately fighting to free himself from Denton’s magic. He was shaking his head, backing away from us, trying his best not to attack. But he couldn’t keep it up for ever.
Hamish – bless his brave wizard-dog heart – was growling and snarling, standing in front of us all with his hackles up. He didn’t look very menacing, but at least he was trying.
‘I’m not sure what’s going on in your head right now, laddie,’ he said. ‘But you dinnae have to do this, ye ken?’
The werewolf paused, blinking in confusion.
‘He’s gone more Scottish than usual,’ Ned explained. ‘Because he’s stressed. What he said was that you don’t have to do this, you know?’
The wolf growled, lunging forward. Ned and Hamish darted away, with Luca hot on their heels.
‘Well, on the plus side, it looks like we’ll get to watch your friends being ripped apart before we get our turn.’ Cullen gave me the grimmest grin ever. ‘So that’ll be fun.’
As I shot him a filthy look, he sighed and said, ‘Fine. I’ll go try to help them.’
He ran from my side, putting himself between Luca and my friends, his arms wide. Luca couldn’t hold himself back (could anyone, when faced with Cullen’s smug grin?) and he lunged forward, snapping at Cullen’s right shoulder. Cullen managed to duck in time, avoiding the bite.
Cullen continued to duck and dodge, leading Luca around the room. As they played their game of chase, the room was getting destroyed. Tables and chairs were being broken as Luca walked on top of them, or hurled them aside. Cushions and couches were getting ripped apart by Luca’s teeth as Cullen used them as ineffectual shields.
‘This isn’t right,’ I said. ‘Denton doesn’t get to get away with this. We might live in the most messed up enclave in all of Ireland, but we do not let the bad guy win this time. We just don’t.’
‘Oh?’ Cullen was running behind me, drawing Luca his way. ‘And what do you suggest? You’ve already …’
His voice petered out, becoming a distant shout as he was forced to jump across one of the couches away from the werewolf. But I knew what he’d been about to say. I’d already told him I’d left most of my Toolkit at home. I’d even left the binder locked into the chest in my bedroom, so sending Luca to the Dimension of the Damned wasn’t an option.
I’d taken the knife Aunt Jude gave to my father, but according to Uncle Faster, it had just slipped off a werewolf’s hide when Dad threw it. And given my terrible progress with learning the ropes, could I really expect my knife throwing to be any better?
I watched as Cullen grabbed Hamish and Ned, throwing them into a cupboard and quickly piling some furniture across the door before leaping once more away from Luca. Cullen really was quite nimble. And quick. And jumping over a candlestick. No, wait … he was running back to the candlestick, picking it up, and brandishing it at Luca.
‘Why isn’t he interested in you?’ shouted Cullen. ‘I mean, not that I want him to be, but … y’know.’
That was a good question, actually. Luca had come nowhere near me this whole time. Maybe he sensed I was a hunter, and was keeping well away. Or maybe he just wanted to avoid the hairballs – because let’s face it, I came with a large side of frizz.
‘There’s another cupboard underneath the gramophone!’ called Cullen. ‘Get yourself into it and I’ll block it off. Then I’ll fight Luca off with … with something.’
‘With that candlestick?’
He shrugged. ‘I can’t find any other weapon, can you?’
‘Well, yeah,’ I mumbled. ‘But …’
But what? Was I really going to accept my dad’s word over Aunt Jude’s? Sure, I’d never actually met her, but it was blatantly obvious that she was far wiser than my father would ever be. And Peter Müd said the knife was more than just your average OAP. It had turquoise magic all over it. It was meant to be used by a hunter. It was hardly Aunt Jude’s fault that my dad had a useless aim.
I pulled it out, looking at the inscription:
To Henry. Use with a true heart, and your aim will be just as true. Love, Aunt Jude.
I might not have the best aim in the world, but I did have a true heart, didn’t I? Sure, I’d been going against that true heart a lot of late, what with all the lying. But I was lying for good reasons. True-hearted reasons. Or were they just reasons of self-preservation? Honestly, I didn’t know.
What I did know was that, right now, Luca was bearing down on Cullen again – no, scratch that, Luca had caught Cullen, and thrown him against one of the windows. Now would have been a nice time for Denton’s spell to end, wouldn’t it? For Cullen’s body to smash through the window, leaving a nice gap through which we could all escape. Well, a jagged, dangerous gap filled with broken glass and sharp edges, but a gap nonetheless.
Either way, there was no smashy-smashy. Cullen’s body bounced off the window and fell to the floor. Oof! That was gonna hurt.
‘Get yourself into the cupboard!’ I screamed, running towards him. He was incredibly bruised, and one of his wrists looked broken.
‘No! It won’t fit two. You go into the cupboard under the gramophone, Katy. I’ll keep fighting him off.’
‘What? With a gammy wrist and a banjaxed body?’
He laughed, clutching his chest and saying, ‘Ow! It hurts to laugh. But I can’t remember the last time I heard someone say banjaxed. Where’s Luca now?’
I looked across the room. I couldn’t see Luca, because he was currently somewhere in amongst the pile of furniture Cullen had erected to protect Ned and Hamish. Oh fluff!
‘I have something,’ I whispered. ‘But I need a clear line of sight. We need to draw him away from Ned and Hamish again, get him in full view.’
Cullen sat up, wincing. ‘No problem.’ He rubbed his lower back. ‘Hey, Luca!’ he cried. ‘Luca! Over here! I’m nice and tenderised for you now. I’ll be ever so tasty. Come get me!’
A coffee table thumped to the ground and Luca’s head appeared. I lifted the knife, but he moved too quickly, bounding towards us so fast that he was a nothing but a snapping, snarling, saliva-dripping blur.
As I wiped some of that saliva from my forehead, Cullen somehow stood up and ran, leading Luca away again. Now, every time Cullen dodged and ducked, he winced along with the motion. He couldn’t keep fighting much longer. He had a side table in one of his hands, using it like he was a lion tamer, while his other arm hung limply by his side.
As I ran towards them, they both disappeared again, dashing behind the pile of furniture which Luca had recently knocked to the ground. I took a deep breath, and kissed the hilt of the dagger. ‘I have faith in you, Aunt Jude,’ I murmured. ‘This is going to work.’
I leapt up onto the pile and, finally having a decent view of Luca, I flung the knife through the air, whispering, ‘Please don’t die, please don’t die, please don’t die …’
Unlike when my father threw the knife, my throw did not bounce off a werewolf’s hide. Instead, it sunk straight into his heart.
Luca fell to the floor, crying out in pain, his body thrashing and twisting, growing smaller, growing smoother, until there was no more wolf, and only Luca, lying on the pink carpet.
By now, his clothes were completely torn asunder. Cullen grabbed a blanket and threw it across Luca’s lower body. As he did, the knife fell from Luca’s chest, leaving nothing behind but a quickly healing scar.
‘Wow,’ said Cullen. ‘That was …’
‘Yeah,’ I said, picking up the knife and looking at it with awe. ‘It was.’
All the while, Ned and Hamish had been peeping out through the broken door of their cupboard. They pushed their way out through the piles of splintered furniture and ran to Luca’s side.
‘He’s still breathing!’ Ned stared at me. ‘He’s unconscious, but he’s alive. His heartbeat is strong, too.’ She looked down at the thin line on Luca’s chest, where the knife had been. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said, staring at the knife in my hand. ‘What is that thing, Katy? I saw it go into Luca, and now it’s just fallen out of him, leaving behind no injury to speak of. And not only that, but it’s turned him back into a bloody man! That’s … that’s impossible.’
‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘It’s not impossible. It’s …’
It was what? Was I really about to tell her, after all this time? I took a deep breath, deciding. Yes. I had to tell her. I had to tell them both. Lying had put us all in trouble today. Had I been able to be honest about who I was, I wouldn’t have just had that knife with me. I would have had all my tools. Tools that a disempowerment spell wouldn’t have been able to stop, because their magic was so very, very different.
‘I …’ I began. ‘Well … it’s like this … I …’
Cullen placed a hand to my arm, then looked steadily at Ned. ‘It’s my knife. A special Wayfarer creation. It’s designed to turn a werewolf back into their human form without harming them. I didn’t want to tell any of you this, but, well … I’m a Wayfarer. A secret agent.’
Ned gazed at him, agog, while Hamish didn’t look nearly as surprised as he ought.
‘You?’ said Ned. ‘You? Are a Wayfarer? So why did Katy have your knife?’
He held his arm up, and his wrist dangled at a very odd angle. ‘Because I hurt my wrist fighting the wolf off the last time it came at me. I asked Katy to throw it.’
Ned frowned. ‘So you’ve been spying on us all this time? Katy, did you know about this?’
Cullen shook his head. ‘Katy knew nothing. And I’m not spying on you guys. I’m infiltrating the Warlock Society. That’s my whole job. Nothing else.’
Again, Hamish stayed oddly silent, while Ned kept shooting questions. ‘But if all you’re supposed to be doing is infiltrating the Warlock Society, then why are you going out with Katy? Why are you here tonight? Did you suspect Denton?’
Cullen swallowed. ‘I’m ashamed to say I had no idea about Denton. And I shouldn’t have been here tonight. I was ordered to stay away from Katy. But … I fell for her. Hard.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Katy, I’m sorry. I should never have started anything with you. Whatever it might have been, it has to end now. And I’m asking you – all of you – to keep my secret. I could have the Wayfarers mess with your memories. But I don’t want to do that. I want to have friends I can trust on Samhain Street. People I don’t have to lie to every single day.’
Ned sighed. ‘Fine. Whatever. We’ll keep your secret. It’s not like I’m a big fan of warlocks. And it’s also unlikely that we’re going to get out of here, anyway.’
Hamish stood up, his ears pricked. ‘Actually, we might,’ he said. ‘Do you guys hear anything?’
My eyes lit up. I did hear something. I heard a whole lot of somethings. There were sudden shouts, and flashes of light from beneath the drawing room door and outside the windows. Then the door crashed open with the biggest flash of all.
Cleo pranced through the door, followed by at least a dozen Wayfarers. ‘Miss me?’ she said, hopping up onto a torn cushion and smirking at us all. ‘Wait, let me guess – you didn’t even notice I’d gone, did you? Typical.’
28. The Stubborn Bunch
Sometimes, all you want to do is sink into a couch, say ‘Phew!’ and fall asleep. Unfortunately, all of the drawing room’s couches were destroyed, and there were a whole lot of questions to answer – and to ask – before I could find a place to snooze.
While Ned and Hamish were busy talking to the Wayfarer’s healer, Finn dragged Cullen and me aside. He didn’t bother with the fake shouting and gesticulating, thank goodness. Instead, he quickly told us everything that had happened while we’d been trapped.
Cleo – the canny little kitty – had slipped out before the drawing room door was shut by Denton. She’d made her way through the mirror, and from there found her way to the Wayfarers. I had a feeling she’d be enjoying the fanciest food Ned could get her hands on for quite some time to come.
‘Gail’s been unfreezed,’ said Finn. ‘Or should that be unfrozen? Either way, she’s tucked up in bed with no memory of you guys being in her house.’
‘And Debbie and Denton?’ questioned Cullen.
A wicked grin spread across Finn’s face. ‘Debbie was in the middle of lighting Denton’s cigar when we burst through the doors and disempowered them. I get the feeling that they really didn’t expect to be caught for this.’
‘They probably thought our murders would be blamed on poor Luca,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I just can’t believe stupid Debbie agreed to stay with him when she found out the truth.’
Cullen shrugged. ‘She’s been abused and bullied by men all her life. Staying with what she knew – a man just like her husband – probably seems preferable to either being eaten by a werewolf or getting chucked into Witchfield. Except now she will be in Witchfield anyway. I kind of feel sorry for her, yet I also hate her at the same time. It’s a real mixed bag of emotions, I’m telling you.’
‘And while we’re on the subject of your mixed emotions …’ A hard edge came to Finn’s voice, and he turned to stare at Cullen. ‘I’m fairly certain that I warned you to stay well away from this house tonight. I told you to leave it up to Katy. How did you even explain your being here? And why did you come here.’
Cullen reddened. ‘Well, I … I just … never mind why I came. I’m bad at taking orders, you know that. Anyway, I sort of said me and Katy were a couple, and Ned and Hamish let me in. So … sorry boss.’
My mind began to race. If Cullen really was warned away from being here tonight, then why had he come? To stop myself from hopping on that uncomfortable thought train, I focused on Finn. ‘It’s a good thing Cullen was here. Ned and Hamish would be dead without him. He fought Luca off until I could throw the knife. He was amazing, actually.’
Finn raised a brow. ‘Gee, I never thought I’d hear you compliment Cullen. Whatever went on here tonight, I’m glad it’s stopped the two of you hating each other’s guts. Other than that …’ He eyed us both for a few seconds and said, ‘well, other than that, maybe it falls under the title of none of my business. But what I am curious about is where does Larson Grand come in? Why did he kill Jim and Sophie?’
‘Ah. You see, the thing is, he didn’t,’ I said. ‘Before Jim was banished, he told me some things.’ I scratched my ear at the memory of his cold, dead breath. Come to think of it, how did he even have breath? ‘According to Jim, there’s a secret passage between Denton’s house and here. It comes out in the linen cupboard at the top of the stairs. Denton used it to sneak through and kill Jim and Sophie. As to why he killed Sophie, well … I’m just guessing here, but Denton really wanted to force Debbie to sell. And if she got her hands on the money that Sophie found, she might have changed her mind. So he pushed her down the stairs and scarpered, same as he did with Jim. But he took a little souvenir from both – Jim’s ring and Sophie’s necklace. Jim says you’ll find both at Denton’s place, in a box by his bedside. The Lodge members always did like their trophies.’
Cullen tutted. ‘Why in the stars didn’t Jim just tell Ned all this, the stubborn bugger? Think about all those bruises I wouldn’t have if he didn’t like to play games with his wife. And I still don’t get what any of it has to do with Larson.’
