A Little More Dead

by Jordaina Sydney Robinson

  “The evidence was overwhelming,” Oz said softly. “She had the temper. She would’ve killed Petal if I hadn’t been there.”

  “That wasn’t what I asked.”

  “Why are you being so honest with me right now?” he asked, pulling himself back into the present.

  “I have absolutely no idea,” I said with a shake of my head. Maybe it had something to do with sharing at the GA meeting. It had loosened my honesty mouth muscles. Or he was drugging me. “Just with a homicidal ex-housemate on the loose it seems like the right thing to do,” I said, though I’d already thought of a way to catch Katie.

  A slow smile spread over Oz’s face. “I like this less defensive version of you. Maybe I should stop trying to catch her.”

  Before I could even think of an awesome comeback about my defensiveness Petal screeched Oz’s name. Oz grabbed my hand and dragged me behind him toward the house. I barely kept up as we sprinted across the grass and into the kitchen.

  “Petal?” he yelled out, still dragging me behind him as he raced through the kitchen.

  “Up here!” Lucy shouted.

  He didn’t even let go of me as he charged up the stairs. He took two at a time and my legs were Road-Runnering as I tried to keep up. I think I could probably have stopped trying and he would’ve just dragged me behind but then, I was a little panicked about Petal too.

  “Petal? Lucy?” he yelled again as we reached the first floor.

  “Here!” they shouted in unison.

  Oz dragged me up two more flights of stairs to a landing outside my room and came to an abrupt stop. Lucy and Petal were hovering by my open bedroom door.

  “Where’s Pam?” I asked.

  Petal pointed inside. “I wasn’t snooping. It was open when I came up.”

  Pam? Something had happened to Pam? Oz looked between them and then stepped forward to push my door open. He didn’t let go of me.

  “I don’t think much of this will be salvageable,” Pam said from the far corner of the room, holding up my stolen bed T-shirt that was now more slashes than material. “I wanted to tidy it before you saw it. I didn’t want you to be upset.”

  “How were you planning to tidy this before I saw it?” I asked Pam as I looked around the room.

  Ripped sheets and towels were scattered all over the floor. All of the bedding had been shredded. Strips of purple material were all that was left of my uniforms. Tufts of mattress stuffing protruded up from underneath the destroyed bedding like little volcanoes. The walls had deep gouges in them. The wardrobe was lying face down, its doors lying detached either side of it. The chest of drawers was also face down but someone had pulled out all of the drawers first and stomped on them.

  Pam held up a piece of shredded denim. “What’s this?”

  Oz turned to me and said, “Do you remember those shorts you were pestering me for?”

  Chapter Eight

  “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming to breakfast again this morning,” Sabrina said as I joined her, Pete and Charlie in the canteen. “You look tired.”

  “I had an eventful evening,” I said and flopped down in the seat next to her.

  “That sounds promising. Where’s Evil Barbie?” Sabrina asked, looking over my shoulder and then to the food line at the other end of the hall.

  I shrugged. “Off stealing someone’s firstborn child to cook for supper probably.”

  “You mean like a Lamia?” Sabrina shook her head. “The way she is with food I see her as more of a harpy, myself.”

  “I’d agree with you on the harpy,” Charlie said with a nod.

  I looked to Pete, who didn’t even pause in the devouring of his porridge to shrug at me.

  “Okaaaay, and back here at the none University Challenge table …”

  “Aren’t you familiar with Greek mythology?” Sabrina asked.

  “No, I had boyfriends,” I said, pressing my lips together apologetically. “But the harpy is in the corridor, so we’ve only got a short while to be uncensored. How about we use that time to talk about illegal things?”

  “I prefer Greek mythology,” Charlie mumbled.

  “Oh, so you’re not interested in hearing that my room was ransacked last night?” I asked.

  “Someone ransacked your room?” Sabrina asked and I could’ve sworn I heard excitement in her voice.

  Pete tapped the table to get my attention. “Was anyone hurt?”

  I shook my head. “Oz had done a round robin and collected everyone from their GA meetings so everyone was out when it happened.”

  “Who would know that?” Sabrina asked but I got the feeling she was talking more to herself than me.

  “Did they take anything?” Charlie asked.

  “I have nothing to steal.” I wasn’t quite up to talking about the death of the shorts that I very nearly owned. And I doubted Charlie would properly understand my grief.

  “Morning,” Anna said as she placed her bowl of porridge at the head of the table and moved a chair like usual.

  Pete and Charlie acknowledged her and Sabrina gave her a grudging head nod.

  “Did you call the police?” Charlie asked.

  “Is Charlie referring to the incident last night, because you can’t talk about that, hon,” Anna said, stirring half a jar of raspberry jam into her porridge.

  “Why not?” I asked. “It’s not job-related, it’s not adjustment-related, it’s just something that happened last night.”

  Anna looked up from her porridge for a moment as if trying to think of a decent reason.

  “She’s got you there, hon,” Sabrina said to Anna before turning to me. “So what happened?”

  “Do you know who did it?” Pete asked.

  “I think the general consensus is the escaped crazy person,” I said, getting up.

  “Where are you going, hon?” Anna asked.

  “I’m going to get more tea.” I showed her my empty cup. “I wasn’t aware I needed permission for that.”

  “Just be quick,” Anna said and pointed in the direction of the tea station. As if I didn’t know where it was.

  I left Sabrina gulping down her coffee so she’d be able to follow me over. I was just filling my cup when I felt someone behind me.

  “Fancy seeing you here,” Gary said as he moved beside me. He took a sachet of sugar and stirred it into his tea.

  There was so many ways I could answer but all of them were unnecessarily mean and Gary had an oddly likeable quality about him. It was in his eyes. I still got a bit of a sleazy vibe from him, but a kind sleazy vibe. It was very confusing.

  I nodded. “Fancy.”

  “I wasn’t sure you’d be here today,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “I thought your PO might have been keeping tighter tabs on you with the whole drama yesterday.”

  “I still have the barnacle adjustment companion so thankfully he considers that enough. How’s everything at the asylum?” I asked and he inclined his head in a non-committal response.

  “An escaped patient and a dead nurse in a matter of days? Not great.”

  “Do they have any suspects for the murder?” I asked, silently noting he’d admitted to Katie’s escape.

  “The escaped patient,” he said. “They think she hid somewhere around the asylum for the night, waited for a chance, killed him and escaped during the confusion. Do you want to go out sometime?”

  “Oh. I’m newly dead,” I reminded him, the abrupt change of topic catching me off guard. I focused back on the part of the conversation I was most interested in. “So they’re admitting she escaped now?”

  “I don’t mind,” he said with a shrug, obviously focusing on the part of the conversation he was most interested in.

  “Where do they think she hid? Surely everywhere was searched.”

  He shook his head. “Who knows? If you’re determined enough to hide you find somewhere. So, dinner?”

  “Dating for me is illegal, right?” I asked. I couldn’t think of
a decent excuse and swearing at him seemed so rude.

  “We could just talk,” he said with a grin that told me talking was not what he had planned.

  I was about to revisit my take on swearing and then my tired brain realised, since he worked at the asylum, he might come in handy. Information wise. I gave him my best, coy smile. “I guess that would be okay. Everyone needs someone to talk to. Speaking of, did Katie ever talk about someone named Lily?”

  Gary rolled his eyes. “Did she ever.”

  “What did she say?”

  He grinned at me like I was a sure thing. “Give me a call and I’ll tell you the whole story.”

  Gary pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to me. It had his name and a mobile phone number written on it. In the real world, if the hairy wrists hadn’t been enough of a red flag, when he’d whipped out a pre-written phone number I’d have been running for the hills.

  “Can’t you just give me the highlights now?” I asked, tucking his number away in my pocket and trying very hard not to grab him and shake the information out of him.

  “I’d be happy to give you the highlights. We’d need to go somewhere more private, though,” he said and I was pretty sure he was using the term “the highlights” as a euphemism for sex. Which was not something I wanted from him. Ever.

  “I can’t right now.” I jerked my head in Anna’s direction.

  “Later, then.” He picked up his mug and waggled his eyebrows at me before he moved away.

  “I wouldn’t have picked him as your type,” Sabrina said as she took his place.

  “He’s a nurse at the asylum. Katie talked to him about Lily,” I said, turning back to see Anna staring at us. She pointed to me and then the empty seat next to her. I nodded and smiled but didn’t move.

  “And you just let him walk away?” Sabrina asked in a tone that called me a disappointment to the sleuthing profession.

  “He wants to give me ‘the highlights’ over dinner.”

  “That sounds like a euphemism for sex. But we need to know so I’m happy for you to make that sacrifice.” Sabrina patted me on the arm. “Go team.”

  “So my choices are have sex with a hairy wristed man to find out information on an escapee homicidal mental patient or possibly be murdered by said escapee homicidal mental patient?”

  Sabrina laughed and filled her mug full of coffee. “Sucks to be you. So what didn’t you want to say in front of Anna?”

  “Everything.”

  “Specifically.” Sabrina rolled her eyes at me.

  I turned my back on Anna and added a tiny bit more milk to my tea. “I think whoever trashed my room was looking for something.”

  Sabrina paused in stirring her coffee. “Why?”

  “It was weird. The wardrobe had been moved forward, the doors pulled off and then tipped over. Same with the chest of drawers. If I’m a crazy person in a crazy frenzy then would I take the time to move the wardrobe forward, rip the doors off and then tip it? Wouldn’t I just destroy it where it was?”

  “Look at you.” Sabrina nudged my shoulder with her own. “That’s some good observations. Do you think they found whatever it was?”

  “I’ve no idea. They found my hiding spot but I couldn’t see any new ones they’d uncovered.”

  “Maybe ask your housemates if they know what someone might have been looking for,” Sabrina suggested.

  “Worth a try, I guess. Also, it only just occurred to me while speaking to Gary but why would Katie hide the night before the escape? Why wouldn’t she just escape that morning? And why specifically this week?” I stirred my second sugar into my tea. “And, I realised last night, why don’t we just get Madame Zorina to summon Crazy Katie?”

  Sabrina frowned at me. “I don’t know why any of that didn’t occur to me. I think I’m turning into a mush-for-brains dead person.”

  I shook my head at her. “I’m just not that lucky.”

  “Hey!” she said, nudging me with her elbow. “So, I’ll find out what I can—”

  “Yeah, I agree. I think they’re definitely making the coffee from instant,” I said.

  “Fresh coffee has such a different smell,” she agreed without missing a beat.

  “Alright, ladies, stand down. I come in peace,” Burt said as he approached from behind Sabrina.

  I affected my most innocent voice. “I’m quite sure I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I’m quite sure you don’t,” he said and grinned at us both before focusing on me. “I couldn’t help but notice you talking to Gary.”

  “You couldn’t help but notice?” Sabrina asked.

  “All right. I was purposely watching as he came over to talk to you.” Burt smiled self-consciously.

  “Why?” I asked when he made no move to explain.

  “Gary is …” Burt hesitated as though searching for the right word. “He’s a nice guy, don’t get me wrong,”

  “He’s just not a good guy?” I asked.

  Burt pointed to me. “Exactly. Just watch yourself around him, okay? Or better yet, just don’t be around him.”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sabrina’s internal bloodhound twitch. “Why? What makes you say that?” she asked, oh-so-casually.

  “I work with him so I know what he’s like with women and I don’t want Bridget to get in trouble. Or more trouble,” he added, throwing a small smile my way.

  “Well, I appreciate the heads-up, Burt,” I said, completing ignoring the fact that he thought the trouble I was in was my fault. “Have you heard anything else about the girl who escaped?”

  Burt glanced over his shoulder and stepped closer to us. “The detective investigating Jason’s murder found a timetable of the nurses’ shifts in the escaped patient’s room when he searched it so I think the working theory is she killed him to escape.” He raised his eyebrows and pressed his lips together. “Scary stuff.”

  “When was this?” I asked.

  Burt looked between Sabrina and me, as if confused by the question. “When did he find the timetable?”

  I nodded. “Is that why he took so long getting around to interviewing us? He searched her room beforehand?”

  Burt shook his head, his attention still jumping between us. “I guess.”

  “Didn’t anyone search her room when you initially thought she’d escaped?” Sabrina asked.

  “Of course, but apparently the timetable was taped to the underside of one of her drawers. I guess none of us thought to look there.” Burt shrugged. “What’s with all the questions?”

  “Johnson’s a glory hog. I just thought you’d found it and he’d taken credit for it, that’s all,” I explained.

  Burt narrowed his eyes at me. “Why would you think I’d found it?”

  I waved away his question. “Oh, I just saw you go in Katie’s room as I was leaving. That was all.”

  “I didn’t see you.”

  “I was hiding,” I said with an apologetic wince. “Anna and I were supposed to tunnel home together but Officer Leonard asked me to use a different exit so he could talk to Anna alone. I got a little lost on the way and I didn’t want anyone thinking I was snooping.”

  Burt nodded with a smile. “I can understand that. No, after your parole officer voiced a concern that maybe Katie was still on the premises I wanted to double-check her room. I thought maybe she’d think it was safe to hide there while we searched everywhere else again. She used to like sleeping under her bed so I thought it was worth checking.”

  “Did you find anything else?” I asked.

  “No,” Burt’s smile widened as he emphasised the word. “Now, I’m just going to talk to Anna before work. You two take care of yourselves and stay away from Gary.”

  “Will do,” I said.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Sabrina said, watching Burt catch Anna on her way to us. “I thought you searched her room.”

  “I did. And I ran my hand across the underside of each drawer. I’m telling you, that timetable was
not taped to them. I’d have felt it.”

  “So either Johnson found it before interviewing you or Burt hid it after you’d searched it,” Sabrina concluded. “But what reason would Burt have for hiding that timetable? Unless he killed Jason. He is fond of Anna and you said her lipstick was on Jason’s collar.”

  “I said it looked like her lipstick but she was pretty convincing when she denied it was hers.”

  “But then why would Burt kill Jason or frame Katie?” Sabrina asked.

  “Maybe he did neither. Maybe he was checking Katie’s room like he said and Johnson found it beforehand,” I suggested.

  “Maybe,” Sabrina agreed, reluctantly.

  I shook my head at her. “Is there anyone you’re not suspicious of?”

  “Me. You.” Sabrina glanced around the canteen. “Yep, that’s it.”

  “I assume you’re done with breakfast, hon?” Anna asked me, coming up behind Sabrina and waving at Burt at the same time.

  I pointedly looked from her to my mug of tea. “No.”

  “Too bad. It’s time for work.” Anna took the tea from my hands and placed it on the table next to me. I was about an inch away from picking it back up and smashing it in her face when I caught Sabrina grinning at me from behind her own mug. It brought a little sanity back to me. I had no idea what it was about Anna that always made me want to smash things in her face. Oh wait, that’s right, it was because I didn’t like her.

  “Have a good day, Bridge,” Sabrina said and escaped back to the table, I assumed before Anna could take her mug away as well.

  “Come on, hon.” Anna ushered me out of the canteen and practically shooed me all the way to reception.

  “Bridget!” Alexander greeted me with his wide and oh-so-perfect smile. “I missed you yesterday. Where were you?”

  Alexander, or Alex version 2.0 as I liked to call him, was a devastatingly handsome man that I’d once considered less handsome because he was so handsome, if you follow me? But he had actually turned out to be a nice person. Admittedly, he had an irrational fear of dead people, but otherwise he was nice.

  He’d taken over the original Alex’s job on reception when the original Alex had tried to kill me and was incarcerated. That’s why homicidal Alex was the original Alex and Alexander was Alex version 2.0. The afterlife could get very confusing. And it didn’t help that they looked alike.