A Little More Dead

by Jordaina Sydney Robinson

  “Sure,” he said with a nod. “Did you happen across Katie’s body as well?”

  “Katie’s dead?” I asked and felt Sabrina pause in her fussing of Warren to listen without distraction.

  “Yes. Did you kill her?” Officer Leonard asked.

  “That’s offensive,” I said, and pointed directly into his face. “You take that back. You should know better. Alex tried to kill both Sabrina and me. Do you see him lying dead with his head caved in?” Officer Leonard didn’t say anything. “Please tell me he’s not dead.”

  “Would it upset you?” Officer Leonard asked.

  “Yes! Of course it would,” I snapped at him.

  “I didn’t realise you and he had become close.”

  “We haven’t but if both he and Crazy Katie are dead then that makes me a pretty good suspect.”

  “It does,” Officer Leonard agreed with a nod. “Do you have anyone else who can corroborate your alibi for the last ten minutes?”

  “Is my word not good enough, Officer Leonard?” Sabrina asked. “I’ll have you know that I’m an exemplary member of the afterlife community.”

  “I’m well aware of what you are, Ms Shaw,” Officer Leonard said and I was pretty sure he didn’t mean that Sabrina was an exemplary member of the afterlife community. “Why didn’t you alert your GA leader when you found the body?”

  “We had no way to,” I said.

  “Your GA leader gave you instructions on what to do if there was an emergency while you were inside the maze at the beginning of the activity.”

  I exchanged a look with Sabrina, who shook her head. She hadn’t heard that either. And neither had Anna. Or Alex. Unless they simply hadn’t wanted us to get out of the maze. The expression on Sabrina’s face said she’d just made that leap too.

  Warren tutted at us. “You two never listen.”

  “I didn’t hear you explaining how to call an end to it,” I said.

  “I was having a panic attack. Remember?” Warren said, with a hint of scorn that told me he wasn’t all that happy I’d used that as our excuse.

  “Officer Leonard?” Oz called as he jogged over. He was speaking to the GB but he was checking me over for damages as he spoke.

  “We were just catching up,” Officer Leonard said before Oz could throw any threats of impropriety his way. Officer Leonard held his hands up and backed away. “I’m needed elsewhere but we can do this officially later.” Officer Leonard inclined his head and walked toward the group of very distraught looking GA members.

  “Sabrina, are you okay?” Oz asked and she nodded. Oz pointed to Warren. “And him?”

  Sabrina nodded again. “We’re both fine. We’re going to get some coffee and biscuits. I’ll bring you something.” Sabrina dragged a still complaining Warren off and away from Oz’s unhappiness.

  “Where’ve you been?” he asked and I opened my mouth to tell him but he shook his head. “Don’t give me the excuse you just gave Leonard. Tell me the truth.”

  “I was going to,” I snapped at him and he arched an eyebrow at me. “I was!”

  “Why?”

  “Y’know, you’re incredibly hard to please. Not happy when I lie, not happy when I tell the truth, not happy when I don’t say anything,” I said and Oz simply stood there waiting for me to explain. “Okay, now, you asked me for the truth, so just remember that when you hear something you don’t like.”

  “I’ve become accustomed to that since there’s very little you tell me that I do like.”

  “My medium friend was reading Lily’s diary and summoned me out of the maze to tell me that Lily had been having an affair with Timothy, her GA leader.” I examined Oz’s face for clues as to his emotional state. His face gave none away.

  “Uh-huh. And at what point during that did someone try to strangle you?” Oz asked as he reached forward to move the collar of my jumpsuit out of the way so he could get a better look at my neck.

  “That was in the maze. We found Alex on the floor. We thought he was dead. I tried to wake him up. He thought I was trying to kill him.”

  “So he tried to strangle you and you just left this out of the story?”

  “Well, it had nothing to do with how we got out of the maze and it was an accident anyway,” I said.

  “He accidentally tried to strangle you?”

  “I live for these moments, Miss Sway!” Johnson said as he came over and stood close to Oz. Immediately, Oz moved to stand opposite him and slightly in front of me.

  “What do you want, Johnson?” he asked.

  “So many things,” Johnson said, shaking his head and smiling at the sky. “But I’d settle with a statement from each of you.”

  “Why do you need a statement from me?” Oz asked.

  “How about you come right this way and I’ll explain?” Detective Johnson gestured for Oz to follow him.

  “I’ll look after Ms Sway while you’re gone,” Officer Leonard volunteered as he walked back over to us.

  “Come on, Salier. Chop chop.” Johnson beckoned Oz after him, already walking away.

  “Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute, okay?” Oz said and I nodded.

  “She’ll be perfectly safe with me,” Officer Leonard said and Oz threw him a look that plainly said he doubted that.

  “What’s that about?” I asked Officer Leonard as Oz, with his long-legged stride, easily caught up with Johnson and they headed to a makeshift interrogation area on the far side of the grounds.

  “Has no one told you?” Officer Leonard asked.

  Nothing good ever followed that question. “Told me what?”

  “There wasn’t just one body in the maze. There were two.”

  “Who was the other?” I asked.

  “Katie, Officer Salier’s previous ward.”

  ∞

  An hour later, when I had finished giving my statement to a regular officer and was waiting for Johnson to come back and accuse me of something else, I flopped onto the ground next to Sabrina.

  “So.” Sabrina stared out over the gardens filled with police and GA members. “Where do we go from here?”

  “My preference would be home,” I said and she gave me a flat stare. “I told Oz about Lily and her murderer.”

  “Figured you would,” Sabrina said. “There’s not really much we can do about that anyway really, other than pass it along. Is that what Oz’s going to do?”

  “I’ve no idea what he’s going to do. I didn’t get to speak to him about it much before Johnson whisked him away to question him about Crazy Katie.”

  “Yeah, they asked me a few dead questions about her. It was weird,” Sabrina said.

  “What are dead questions?” I asked. We were all dead. What sense did that make.

  “Like if I’d seen her in the maze. Did I know if she had any enemies. Would anyone want to harm her.”

  I grabbed Sabrina’s arm. “You know she’s dead, right?”

  “What?” Sabrina screeched. “You’ve been with Oz, Officer Leonard or a constable since I left you. How did you manage to find another body?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t find her. Officer Leonard told me they’d found her body in the maze.”

  “So who found her?” Sabrina asked as she scanned the crowd. “I didn’t notice the police or GBs paying special attention to anyone but you.”

  “Ms Sway, there you are,” Officer Leonard said as he walked over to me. “I thought I might accompany you home.”

  “I’m pretty sure I have to wait for Oz. But thank you,” I said.

  “He’ll be a while, I think. There’s no point you staying here. Ms Shaw, you’re free to go as well, I believe. I’ll drop you off on the way.” Officer Leonard offered me his hand.

  Sabrina turned to me. “Is it just me, or are you getting a stranger danger vibe right now?”

  I shook my head. “Not just you.”

  “Ladies, I’m a member of law enforcement. I’m trustworthy.”

  Sabrina barked out a laugh.


  “Y’know, if you really were trustworthy, you wouldn’t need to tell us because we’d already know,” I said.

  “You don’t find me trustworthy, Ms Sway?”

  “No. Don’t get me wrong, I like you, but I don’t trust you.”

  Officer Leonard smiled like I’d just given him the right answer to a question he hadn’t asked. “I can insist, ladies, but I’d rather not.”

  “Let me just tell Oz,” I said.

  “He’s being interviewed. He won’t be able to speak to you.” Officer Leonard looked between us. “And it’s not as if you ladies are defenceless.”

  Sabrina and I exchanged a glance and silently agreed. Officer Leonard tunnelled us to Sabrina’s house first. Her house was eerily similar to my own. We waited until she’d gone inside and then Officer Leonard tunnelled us again. I was expecting to land in my garden but instead we landed in an average-sized room with metal walls. It definitely wasn’t my garden.

  “This isn’t …” I spun in a circle, pointing at the metal matchbox walls as I went. A sudden and very heavy weight pulled my stomach to the floor. “This is Mendall Asylum.”

  “Yes, Ms Sway, it is.” Officer Leonard walked over and knocked three times on the metal door. “You’ve experienced a number of highly stressful situations in recent times. I thought you might benefit from talking to someone about them.”

  I folded my arms and scowled at him. “Last time I talked to someone about it she tried to kill me.”

  “You do make a very good point.” Officer Leonard nodded. “Still, maybe a break from the trials of everyday living might be helpful for you.”

  “Do you know what would be helpful?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “Not finding dead bodies anymore.”

  “But then we would never get to spend any time together,” Officer Leonard said.

  “Okay, if this is you hitting on me, I’m very flattered but I think it’s somewhat inappropriate.”

  Officer Leonard laughed and it echoed ominously back at me from all four metal walls. If I blew Oz’s whistle would he be able to come and save me from this?

  The metal door swung open and Officer Leonard flashed his badge at the guard. The guard stepped aside and gestured for him to go through the door. Officer Leonard turned to me. “After you, Ms Sway.”

  I walked over, looked the guard in the face and pulled the metal door closed, shutting Officer Leonard and I back in the metal matchbox. Officer Leonard watched me with an amused expression. The guard on the other side of the door yanked it open.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, scowling at me. His hand rested on a leather pouch clipped to his waistband. Great. He was armed and ready to use his extendable stick on me.

  “I think we just need a moment,” Officer Leonard said and pulled the door closed again before the guard could say anything else. Officer Leonard motioned for me to speak.

  “Are you admitting me here?”

  “Temporarily,” Officer Leonard said.

  “How temporary is ‘temporarily’?”

  “We’ll see how it goes.”

  “How what goes?” I asked. “My therapy? Are you putting me into therapy?”

  “Do you feel like you need therapy?” he asked.

  “How can you admit me?” I asked. “Don’t you need—” I gasped and stepped back, pointing at him. “You got Anna to admit me!”

  “Not exactly.” Officer Leonard lowered my accusing finger to point to the floor. “It was more like she suggested a break might do you good. As your adjustment companion she can make those recommendations. Usually, they need a parole officer to co-sign unless we feel there is a pressing case.”

  “You think someone here is killing everyone?” I frowned at him. “Are you using me as bait in here?”

  “Bait?” Officer Leonard raised an eyebrow at me. “No, I believe you’re much higher up the food chain than bait,” he said, then he opened the door and walked through.

  “What does that mean?” I asked and followed him out of the metal matchbox. “Like, the exact definition.” He didn’t answer, just kept walking along the corridor, expecting me to follow. “Officer Leonard? Officer Leonard!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “So, I know it’s a little late in the day and you’ve had a very eventful couple of hours,” Dr Mendall said, closing his office door behind him as he came into the room and handed me a mug of tea, taking his own coffee to his desk and settling back behind it, “but I like to do an intake evaluation with all new patients so we can gauge where you are in terms of adjustment.”

  “That’s nice,” I said, wrapping my hands around my drink and allowing the comforting warmth to seep into my palms.

  I was still far too annoyed at Officer Leonard to really focus on what Mendall was saying. I knew I should be paying attention but really I was just hoping Oz was going to show up any second and save the day.

  Dr Mendall’s office was small, clean and OCD tidy. None of my rooms have ever looked this tidy. Not even my office at work when I’d been alive and I had been obsessively tidy. Several different certificates hung on the walls like every other doctor’s office but that was the only decoration. Apart from his desk, two visitors’ chairs, a filing cabinet and a wastepaper bin, there was no other furniture around. Except for the potted plant in the right-hand corner on my side of his desk. The walls were an off white, giving the impression of clean but not clinical.

  “Bridget?” Mendall asked. “It would be nice if I could have your attention.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude,” I said, sitting straighter in the chair. “I’m just—”

  “Annoyed that you’re here?” Mendall said with an understanding nod. “I can see how you might be. I was aware of the tension between you and your adjustment companion during the tour. Try not to focus on that. Try to focus on how to get the most from this experience. This is only a forty-eight-hour observation hold and during that time I’m hoping we can equip you with the most necessary tools to start easing your adjustment.”

  “This is only for forty-eight hours?” I asked.

  Mendall laughed. “I guess I have your full attention now.”

  “You do,” I said and sipped some of my tea and gagged. It had the bitterness when the teabag had been left to steep too long. Non-tea drinker error. It was all I could do not to spit it back in the mug. But that would have been impolite, as well as uncouth, so I swallowed it and hoped the disgust didn’t show on my face.

  Mendall placed his hand on a manila folder on his desk that looked distinctly like the police murder folders. “This is your file. I haven’t read it yet. I prefer to see new patients with an open mind. Why don’t you tell me what’s in it?”

  “I have no clue what’s in it,” I said with a shake of my head.

  “Okay, let’s start at home. How’s your relationship with your parole officer?”

  “Fine.”

  “And your housemates?”

  “Fine.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “My relationships with them are fine. There’s no elaboration needed.”

  “Okay, so which one of your housemates do you think trashed your room?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  Dr Mendall leaned forward and repeated the question more slowly. “Which one of your housemates do you think was responsible for destroying your room?”

  “I don’t think any of them were.”

  “Well, it’s either your housemates or your parole officer.”

  I nodded. “Right. It couldn’t possibly have been anyone else?”

  “Okay then, you tell me who you think it was.”

  Who did I think it was? I’d thought it was Katie but why would Katie have been looking for Lily’s diary, other than to bring Timothy down. And Katie would have known where she had hidden it. Unless Lily had managed to hide it in Katie’s room without Katie’s knowledge, but then how would Katie know to look for it? Or Petal had stolen it from Katie�
�s room. Which was probably the most unlikely of all the scenarios.

  “I think it was whoever the killer is,” I said.

  “You think it was Alex?”

  “Alex? No, the killer,” I stressed. “The person who killed Jason and Gary and Ginger Curls and Timothy and Katie.”

  “Alex killed those people,” Mendall said.

  “No, he didn’t.”

  “Yes, he did,” Mendall said in an almost cajoling tone. “The police have arrested him.”

  “What?”

  “So you think Alex broke into your room and trashed it?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “But you just said you thought it was the killer and Alex is the killer,” Mendall reasoned and I opened and closed my mouth without anything actually coming out. “So why would he do that? He would have no reason to do that, would he?”

  Had there been any mention of Alex in the diary? Why hadn’t I taken the diary home and read it myself? I cursed my own short attention span for emotional drivel. I needed to check in with Madame Zorina. I sipped some more of my tea, stalling for time and having forgotten the tea was terrible.

  “Bridget?”

  “Has Alex really been arrested?”

  “He has.”

  “What was his motive?”

  Mendall leaned back in his chair. “I think we’re getting a little off-track here.”

  “You tell me his motive and I’ll tell you which of my housemates would be the most likely to trash my room.”

  Mendall thought about that for a moment. “Okay. His motive was simple. He was deeply traumatised by Bertha’s death. He made a friend in Katie and moved his fixation of his hatred of you to adoration of her. He killed Jason to create a diversion so she could escape. He killed Gary, Timothy and Greg because they worked out his involvement and tried to help him and return Katie to us. In fact,” Mendall said and pointed to me, “you might be right. Maybe Alex did trash your room. He could’ve seen you as replacing Katie in her old life and deemed you as a threat to her new one.”

  “Then why did he kill Katie?” I asked, a little disturbed by how logical Mendall’s explanation sounded.

  Mendall shrugged. “She rejected him.”

  “And who’s Greg?” I asked.