by Morgana Best
Aunt Agnes chuckled. “I’ve already filled out the forms. Let’s go to the post office now.”
“What about Maude?” I asked.
“Oh, I forgot all about her,” Agnes said. “Dorothy, why don’t you go and get her?”
Dorothy did she asked. “So, that will tell us if it was arsenic or one of several heavy metals,” I said to Aunt Agnes, “but how we are going to track it down if it’s another type of poison?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Agnes said. “Jezabeth is a wealthy woman. She could have easily stayed in a motel. I thought she was only staying in one of our cottages to bother us because that’s the type of thing she would do, but maybe she wanted to stay in the cottage so she could remove any evidence of poison in her mother’s cottage.”
I thought it over. “That doesn’t add up, because she said she couldn’t stay in her mother’s cottage. If she was the murderer, then she would have made some excuse and asked to stay in her mother’s cottage. Then she would have had all the time in the world to hide the evidence.”
It was Aunt Agnes’s turn to disagree. “No, I don’t think so, because at that point the police hadn’t ruled it natural causes and the cottage was out of bounds.”
“I suppose you’re right,” I said. “Who do you think it was, Aunt Agnes?”
“It’s obviously someone we’re overlooking,” she said.
Chapter 13
“I don’t think we should take in any new boarders until this whole matter of Gorgona’s murder is solved,” Aunt Agnes said. “It makes me nervous, what with Lucas away and everything.”
The mention of Lucas made me sad. I had been missing him dreadfully. “We don’t have any bookings for a while, anyway. I’ll put a notice on the website saying we’re full for the next two weeks.”
Aunt Agnes nodded her approval. “That’s a good idea.”
I couldn’t get to sleep, and I was certain that it didn’t have anything to do with the coffee I’d had late that afternoon. I had an uneasy feeling something was going to happen. I had sometimes felt that way in the past and nothing had happened, but that was no consolation.
I tossed and turned, and then wasn’t sure whether I had drifted off to sleep briefly, or whether I had been awake the whole time. I was groggy and uncomfortable.
I debated getting up and making myself a cup of tea and a Vegemite sandwich but decided against it. Sometime later, I looked at the phone beside my bed. It was 1.30 in the morning. I was missing Lucas, and the uneasy feeling hadn’t gone away. If only I was able to be in contact with him, but it was too dangerous. We couldn’t take any chances that The Other would track down my parents.
With the realisation I wouldn’t be able to sleep, I staggered out of bed. I didn’t put on my lights, because I figured it would be just my luck that one of the aunts would see my lights, think something was wrong, and come over, and then I’d never get any sleep.
I looked through my herbal teas—I wasn’t going to risk the caffeine in normal tea—and decided upon a lemon and ginger tea. I dropped the tea bag in my coffee mug and boiled the electric care jug. Now that I was up, I wasn’t really hungry. I wondered whether I should make some Vegemite toast or maybe eat some chocolate chip biscuits. Maybe both.
I was thinking it over when I thought I heard rain falling lightly. I walked to the front door to look out. It was then I noticed movement over by the Game of Thrones cottage. Maybe, it was a kangaroo. I was shutting the door when I saw a light flicker inside the cottage. Well, that certainly wasn’t a kangaroo.
I ran back inside and grabbed my phone and called Aunt Agnes. It rang out. I called Maude next, but it went straight to voicemail. The same happened when I called Dorothy. Surely, they hadn’t turned off their phones in the night? I debated what to do.
If I ran to the manor, the intruder would likely see me because mine was the furthest cottage from the manor. I figured I could skirt behind the other cottages. Still, this was an opportunity to catch the murderer. I had vampire speed and, hopefully, the murderer wasn’t involved with The Other. I was of the opinion the murderer was a blackmail victim of Euphemia and Ethelbert’s. And I figured the murderer was at the cottage to destroy evidence.
With a sudden burst of bravery, I ran to my front gate. Once through it, I ran towards the beach with vampire speed, skirted around behind a clump of banksias trees, and came up behind the Game of Thrones cottage.
I could see a light flickering inside. I was in bare feet, so I moved more carefully this time. It wasn’t sand here and some of the undergrowth was quite prickly. I moved as quietly as I could. When I was just outside the cottage gate, which thankfully was open, something dug into the tender part of the ball of my foot. The pain made me cry out, so I clamped my hand firmly over my mouth.
I rubbed the underneath of my foot before creeping up to the window and looking inside.
To my utter surprise, there was a tea light candle flickering away on the kitchen table. As I tried to process what that could mean, something heavy hit me over the back of the head.
Everything went black.
When I awoke, I saw a dragon on the ceiling. I was surrounded by fire. “I must be in King’s Landing,” I said aloud in my confusion.
It took me a while to realise what had happened. I was in the Game of Thrones cottage and it actually was on fire. My head hurt and my lungs ached. I crawled towards the front door, just as it opened, and Aunt Agnes and Aunt Maude pulled me outside. Aunt Dorothy was already hosing down the building.
They pulled me outside the front gate and sat me down on the grass. “What happened?” Aunt Agnes asked me.
I gulped fresh air before answering. “I saw a light in the cottage so I called you all, but you didn’t answer so I decided to investigate. Someone hit me from behind.”
“Did you see who it was?” Aunt Agnes asked me.
I shook my head. “Ouch, my head hurts!”
“We’ve called for fire and ambulance,” she said.
“I’m fine,” I said, but Aunt Agnes had already left to hose the building with a garden hose. I wanted to help, but I figured there were only three garden hoses.
Breena appeared in her human form. “Fire, bad,” she said.
I felt sick to my stomach. “Yes,” was all I could manage to say.
The aunts put the fire out just as the fire engine arrived, followed soon after by the ambulance. I didn’t hear what the fire fighters said to the aunts, but they all went inside the cottage while a paramedic shone a torch in my eyes.
“How long were you unconscious for?” she asked me.
“Um, but how would I know?” I asked. “I suppose it wasn’t long because I figure whoever hit me over the head started the fire, and the aunts seem to have arrived pretty much soon after.”
“We’d better take you to hospital for observation. You likely have concussion.”
“No, I’ll be all right,” I said. She tried to talk me into going with them, but I flatly refused. The two paramedics went over and spoke with Aunt Agnes and gestured to me throughout. I certainly hoped she didn’t try to make me go with them, but to my relief, she didn’t.
After the fire fighters and paramedics left, Aunt Agnes and Aunt Maude helped me into the house. Aunt Agnes insisted I lie on the antique Victorian chaise in the living room. “You’ll have to stay here all night,” she said. “One of us will sit up with you just in case you do have concussion. Still, the witches’ brew will put you to rights.”
“How bad is the cottage?” I asked her.
“It hasn’t been affected structurally, but it’s pretty bad inside. Maude is in the kitchen calling the insurance company right now.”
“Did you see who it was?” Breena asked me.
I looked at her in shock. It was the most she had ever said.
“No, I didn’t see anything,” I said, “but they must have seen me.”
“Obviously, because they hit you,” Dorothy said. “If they didn’t see you, they wouldn’t have hit you.�
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I clutched my head with both hands. “I didn’t mean that. I meant, they must’ve seen me sneaking around.”
Aunt Agnes handed me a goblet of witches’ brew. “Drink up!”
I took a large gulp of witches’ brew and then said, “I saw a light inside the cottage. I saw someone outside the cottage and I thought it was a kangaroo or something, but then I saw a light moving around inside the cottage, so I went over. When I got there, I saw somebody had put a tea light candle on the kitchen table.”
“Why would they have done that?” Dorothy asked me.
“I expect so I would sneak up and look through a window, just like I did,” I said. “Obviously, they were behind me all the time.”
“You don’t think it was the tea light candle that you saw from the old cottage?” Agnes asked me.
I shook my head and then said, “Ouch.” I would have to stop moving my head. “No, I could see the light moving through the cottage. And you know what! I used my vampire speed to come up behind the cottage and I only stopped when I reached the cottage.”
“Interesting.” Aunt Agnes tapped her chin. “Well then, there must’ve been some evidence in the cottage, because whoever was there was trying to destroy it.”
“We should go and have another look,” I said.
“We’ll do it in broad daylight,” Aunt Agnes said, “in the morning. I doubt the intruder will be back tonight. And maybe they have destroyed the evidence already.”
“I hope not,” I said. “They wouldn’t have had much time, because I was at the cottage moments after I saw them going inside the cottage.”
“We can only hope.”
Aunt Maude walked into the room. “Agnes, they’re sending an insurance assessor.”
“Did they say when?”
Maude shrugged. “They’re calling us tomorrow.”
The doorbell reverberated through the house. “The police,” Aunt Agnes said. “They took their sweet time.”
She presently showed in Detective Oakes and Detective Mason.
“So, did the paramedics verify that you received a blow to the head?” Oakes asked me.
I glared at him. “Yes. There’s a huge lump there, and the skin is broken.”
Detective Mason yawned and rubbed his eyes.
“Would you like some coffee?” Aunt Agnes asked him.
“That would be great, thanks,” Oakes said. Mason simply nodded.
“So tell me what happened,” he added.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to make a cup of tea, and I thought it was raining. I stuck my head out the door to check, and I saw someone go to the cottage.”
“And what did you do then?” Oakes asked me.
“I ran back inside and called each one of my aunts in turn, but they didn’t answer, so I decided I should sneak around and peek from a distance.”
Oakes’s eyebrows shot skyward. “What? It didn’t occur to you that such actions could be dangerous?”
I felt too weak and sick to be lectured. “If I had tried to run to the manor, the intruder would have seen me. I wasn’t going to confront them, of course, but I thought I could snoop.”
Mason made a tut-tutting sound, while Oakes waved one hand at me. “Go on.” He looked back at Mason. “Are you writing this down?”
Mason pulled a notepad and pen from his pocket. “Yes.”
“I had seen a light flickering around inside the cottage and it was still flickering by the time I reached the cottage. When I looked through the window, the only light I could see was a tea light candle sitting on the kitchen table. That’s when someone hit me over the back of the head. That’s all I remember until I woke up inside the cottage and the aunts pulled me outside.”
“Are you certain you were hit over the head outside the cottage?” Oakes asked me.
“Yes, I’m absolutely positive,” I said. “I was outside looking through the window, wondering why there was a tea light candle alight on the table.”
“So, somebody dragged you inside when you were unconscious and set fire to the cottage.”
“Yes, Oakes. Obviously, it’s a case of attempted murder,” Detective Mason said.
Aunt Agnes returned and handed them each a steaming mug of coffee. “Are you now going to consider that Euphemia Jones was murdered, after all?”
Oakes looked most uncomfortable. “The two incidents might not be related.”
“Euphemia Jones was renting the Game of Thrones cottage, and tonight there was an intruder in the cottage. They clearly lured my niece to look through the window by placing a tea light candle on the table to make her think there was an intruder inside the cottage, and then they attacked her, dragged her into the cottage, and set fire to the cottage. Why would they have done that if they didn’t want to do away with my niece and most likely do away with any evidence of poison?”
Oakes rubbed his chin. “We will be in touch over this matter. Ms Jasper, I suggest you stay with your boyfriend for the present. Where is he?”
“He’s visiting relatives in Sydney,” I said. I hoped Oakes wasn’t working for The Other because now he knew for sure that Lucas wasn’t in town.
Oakes nodded slowly. “Shouldn’t you be in hospital?”
“Yes, she should, but she refused to go,” Aunt Agnes said. “The youth of today! Still, one of us will sit up with her all night to make sure she’s all right.”
“And where was your niece from France when all this was happening?” Detective Oakes asked Aunt Agnes.
“She and I were sitting together in the kitchen drinking cocoa,” Aunt Agnes said.
Oakes narrowed his eyes. “Wasn’t that a rather strange hour to be awake?”
“We had been watching reruns of The X-Files and we were both too scared to sleep,” Aunt Agnes said. “I’d forgotten how scary some of those episodes were.”
“And between what hours were you having cocoa?” Mason’s pen hovered over his notepad.
“We started watching The X-Files just after eight. We watched several episodes in a row and then we both said we were too scared to sleep, and so we made cocoa,” Aunt Agnes said. “My phone had switched itself to silent and when I finally looked down, I saw that Valkyrie had called. She didn’t answer when I called back. That’s why I went outside and saw the cottage on fire.”
“So, your niece was with you the whole time.”
Aunt Agnes nodded. “Oh yes. She was never out of my sight.”
Detective Oakes had barely sipped his coffee, whereas Mason was slurping his greedily in between speaking. “Ms Jasper,” Oakes said, “it’s probably best if you don’t go back to your cottage at this point. Stay in the manor with your aunts until we can get to the bottom of this matter.” He turned to Aunt Agnes. “Have you been in touch with your insurance company yet?”
Aunt Agnes nodded. “They’re sending an investigator.”
Oakes waved his finger at me. “That was a very foolish thing that you did, Ms Jasper. Try to resist such impulsive urges in the future.” He turned to leave but then stopped and turned back to me. “You said you saw a figure. Could you see if it was a man or a woman, or whether they were tall or short?”
“No, it was too far away.”
He nodded. “That will be all for now, but we might have to question you again. Well, good night, ladies.” He pulled out a card and handed it to Aunt Agnes. “Call me if anything else happens.”
With that, Aunt Maude showed the detectives to the door.
“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all,” Aunt Agnes said. “I find it strange that someone would try to murder you, Valkyrie.”
“But somebody did murder Gorgona,” Dorothy pointed out.
Aunt Agnes shook her head vigorously. “They murdered Gorgona, sure. We know Ethelbert was murdered because he blackmailed Mrs Mumbles and Killian Cosgrove. We don’t know why Gorgona was murdered, but if she was murdered because she was blackmailing people, then why would her murderer try to murder Valkyrie?”
I was trying to make sense of it all. I drank the rest of my witches’ brew and Aunt Agnes immediately filled up my goblet. “That will help heal any concussion you have,” she said. “But you’ll have to take it easy all day tomorrow.”
I pulled a face.
“Then what are you thinking, Agnes?” Maude asked her.
“I’m thinking that somebody seems to have a particular grudge against Valkyrie, and I find that strange. I can’t see how that relates to Gorgona’s murder. After the intruder hit Valkyrie over the back of the head, they could easily have left, but no, they dragged her into the cottage and set fire to it. Something is wrong, very wrong.”
Chapter 14
Upon awakening, I looked around the room, disoriented, wondering where I was. It took me a moment or two to realise I was in the living room of Mugwort Manor and not in my own cottage. The events of the previous night flooded back to me.
Now that the witches’ brew had healed me, I could think more clearly. Sure, I could understand it if someone had knocked me over the back of the head in an attempt to get away, but this had been a deliberate setup. Someone had put the candle on the dining room table to entice me into the cottage. No doubt, they only did that when they saw me heading their way. The whole thing couldn’t have been premeditated, because I woke up on my own accord and only happened to see someone at the Game of Thrones cottage. Still, however, somebody had tried to murder me.
But that didn’t make any sense. Who would have a grudge against me and how was that connected with Gorgona? All right, we were related and we were both vampires, but I didn’t stand to inherit anything in her will, so it’s not as if a beneficiary had wanted me out of the way for financial gain.
I got off the chaise and walked to the kitchen, the delightful aroma of coffee beckoning me.
Aunt Maude looked up, surprised. “Valkyrie! You were out like a light when Cary and I checked on you only a few minutes ago.”
I headed straight for the coffee machine and dropped in a pod. It wasn’t until I was sitting down at the kitchen table with some caffeine in me that I spoke. “I was trying to figure out who would have wanted to kill me.”
