Goodly and Grave in a Deadly Case of Murder Page 10

  “You weren’t that clever. You left the earring behind when you murdered Angus Reedy.”

  “That was deliberate, you silly girl. To keep MAAM thinking there was a woman involved.”

  Lucy remembered the sparkling web-like strands she’d seen the night of the break-in and at Roland Mole’s. “What about the magical traces? You didn’t mean to leave them behind, did you?”

  “That was rather inconvenient, I must admit. But I wasn’t to know you’d be able to see them.”

  In a flash of inspiration, Lucy suddenly understood the reason she’d found a trace of magic at the scene of the break-in. It must have been blown in from outside when she’d opened the front door that gusty night. “You shortcut from your room to the outside of Grave Hall and then broke in, didn’t you? To make it seem like a real burglary and not an inside job!”

  Rivers smiled. “Well deduced, Miss Goodly. I was a lot more careful to tidy up my magic behind me after my shortcut left a trace at Roland Mole’s too.”

  “But why? Why are you doing all this?”

  Rivers dropped the disguises carelessly to the floor. “You already worked that out, clever Miss Goodly! For Mortimer Thorne, of course. He was … he is like a father to me. When he was so unfairly imprisoned, I swore I would set him free. But I was too young; my skills were too immature to do anything. So I spent years improving myself. I travelled all over the world, learned many types of magic. The golem is the result of all that learning and hard work. This little, or should I say enormous, beauty is going to free Mortimer. And then we might even make a visit to Grave and the rest of MAAM. Settle a few scores. It’s their fault Mortimer was imprisoned in the first place.”

  “You’re really going to bring that … thing to life?

  “No, of course not.”

  Lucy wilted with relief. Perhaps Rivers wasn’t a reckless lunatic after all.

  “You are.”

  “Me? What do you need me for?” Lucy said. Horrific thoughts flew though her mind. Was Rivers going to kill her? Maybe the golem needed blood to come to life!

  “You see, there are some skills that even I struggle with. One of them is animation. But you … such talent, Miss Goodly. Grave was right to take you under his wing. You’re quite extraordinary. I only wish I’d discovered you first.”

  Lucy stepped backwards. “No. Never! I’ll never help you bring that thing to life!”

  “I’d much prefer you agreed to do so. I’m not a bad man. I’m simply keeping a promise to someone I care about, the promise I made to Mortimer.”

  “Promises shouldn’t involve murdering people!”

  “I never really planned to kill anyone. But Reedy and Dolores wouldn’t give me what I needed voluntarily. So I did what I had to. The end justifies the means.”

  “Well, I’m not going to help you reach any ends. I won’t!” Despite her brave demeanour, Lucy quailed inside. Would Rivers hurt her, force her into helping him?

  “Let’s settle this. I want to show you something. You see I guessed you might need persuading, so I made some preparations.” Rivers dropped to his haunches and grabbed a metal ring. Lucy realised it was the handle of a trapdoor. Rivers opened it and gestured for Lucy to come over.

  “I’m not going near that. You’ll push me down there or something.”

  “Why would I risk breaking your neck when I need you?”

  Lucy edged closer to the trapdoor, making certain she had Rivers in plain sight all the time. A flight of narrow steep stairs ran beneath the trapdoor and into a cellar. Lucy peered through the gloom. There were two bulky shapes lying on the cellar floor. Lucy gasped as she realised the shapes were human beings. As her eyes adjusted to the dimness below she cried out in terror and anguish. The two lifeless bodies were the people she cared most about in the world.

  One was her mother, the other her father.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  NO CHOICE

  The cowshed tilted sickeningly around Lucy and she sank to her knees, hands covering her face, hot tears trickling between her fingers. She would have screamed, but the scream stuck in her throat. She felt Rivers patting her on the shoulder, as though he was comforting a distraught friend. The feel of his touch made her sick. She wanted to break every bone in that filthy, murderous hand.

  “No, no. Don’t be too upset. They’re not dead, just sleeping. A simple sleeping charm. Watch.”

  Lucy took her hands from her face and scrubbed at her cheeks. Rivers flicked his fingers. Sparks trickled from his fingertips in a steady stream, filtering down into the cellar where they encircled her parents, who both awoke. They sat up, blinking bleary-eyed at Rivers and Lucy.

  “Lucy? Is that you, my dear girl? What’s going on? Why are you in Venice? This isn’t the casino, is it?” asked her father.

  Lucy’s heart turned over at the sound of her father’s voice. But before she could reply, Rivers flicked his fingers again. The sparks sputtered out and Mr and Mrs Goodly fell asleep once more. Rivers closed the trapdoor.

  “So, Miss Goodly,” he said as he stood up, “are you going to help me?”

  And of course, Lucy had no choice but to agree.

  The sun had clouded over again now and the cowshed grew dark and gloomy. Rivers lit the lanterns hanging from the beams crisscrossing the ceiling. He then took out two bags from the cupboard where he had kept his disguise. One bag held the two Emerald Eyes, the other the notebook. Lucy shuddered as she watched Rivers carefully embed the jewels into the golem’s blank face, positioning them where eyes would reasonably be expected to sit if the creature had been human. Lucy remembered what Roland Mole had said about Emerald Eyes being able to bestow the gift of sight. She understood now why Rivers had wanted them – to allow his monster to see. Next, Rivers took a dagger from his jacket. It was the same design as the daggers that had killed Angus Reedy and Mrs Charm; Rivers clearly had quite the collection. Lucy jolted with fear, but Rivers simply cut a slot for the monster’s mouth, before stepping back to admire his grotesque handiwork.

  “And now, we animate it. Or rather you do.”

  Lucy was no coward, but this was so terrifying, she couldn’t help sobbing with fear. “No. Please.”

  Rivers sighed. “It would be easy enough, Miss Goodly, for me to deepen the sleeping charm on your parents. They wouldn’t die, but they’d never wake up. And they’d have the most awful nightmares while they sleep. Endless, endless nightmares. Imagine how they would suffer. Worse than dying in many ways, don’t you think? But if you help me, they’ll be free to go and so will you.”

  Lucy gathered all her courage. She would have to go along with Rivers’ demands. There was no other option.

  “A few adjustments and then we’re ready for the off,” Rivers said, as though the three of them were about to embark on a pleasurable jaunt to the seaside. “There! Finished! Over to you, Miss Goodly.”

  Lucy began to focus all her energy on the golem. She imagined it sitting up, imagined the green eyes glowing with life, as they had in the sketch that Reedy had made before Rivers murdered him. She imagined harder than she had ever imagined before.

  The golem’s head jerked from side to side.

  “It’s working,” whispered Rivers. “You are a most singular magician, Lucy.”

  Lucy didn’t bother acknowledging the compliment. She was too busy being extremely frightened, but she mastered her terror and held on to what courage she had, which felt like very little. She concentrated even harder.

  The golem sat up.

  “And now the command,” Rivers said. He took out the notebook and wrote something in it, then tore out the page and handed it to Lucy. It said:

  Obey Jerome Wormwood

  “You need to put it in the golem’s mouth. It has to be you as you are the animator,” Rivers said.

  Lucy gasped in horror.

  “Oh, don’t worry, it’s toothless. It’s a shame. I attempted several techniques, but none of them worked. Perhaps I should have tried Dolores’ ridiculo
us wooden teeth.” Rivers sniggered.

  Lucy wished she was bigger and stronger, because she would have dearly loved to slap Rivers for making such a horrible, cruel joke. Mrs Charm had been a kind, harmless person who hadn’t deserved to die in the horrible way she had done.

  “Come along, Miss Goodly. Remember your parents.”

  Lucy stepped closer to the golem. She noticed another delightful detail; it was earless, although it had two holes either side of its head. It seemed to be able to hear through these holes as it turned to face Lucy when she approached. The golem gave a low-pitched snarl.

  It took every scrap of courage Lucy had to slip the command Rivers had written on the notebook page into the golem’s mouth. Just as she was about to do so, she noticed that Rivers had accidentally torn two pages out of the notebook instead of only the one he had written the command on. For a moment, Lucy considered putting the blank page in the golem’s mouth. But it was too risky. If she tried to trick Rivers and failed, there was no knowing what he might do to her parents. So she quietly pocketed the blank page before inserting the command into the golem’s mouth. The golem might not have any teeth, but Lucy still feared for her fingers, snatching her hand away as soon as the awful deed was done. In the same moment, the parchment burst into flame, burning to ash in a few seconds.

  The golem made a howling noise.

  Rivers stepped towards the golem’s slab. “Silence, golem! I am Jerome Wormwood and you have agreed to obey me. Do you understand?”

  The golem nodded slowly.

  “Good. Now on your feet.”

  The monster swung its enormous legs over the side of the slab and did as Rivers ordered. It immediately banged its head on the cowshed ceiling, which was far too low for it to stand up straight. The golem growled in pain or anger or both and Lucy saw fear flit across Rivers’ face. He’s worried he can’t really control it, Lucy thought. Was this a good thing or a bad thing?

  Rivers began to make a new shortcut. In other circumstances, Lucy might have admired his skill, as he had the shortcut opened in seconds. What lay on the other side of the shortcut was a sad and terrible sight. A prison yard full of male prisoners exercising under the grey afternoon sky, overseen by four guards dressed in black uniforms and hats. The men shuffled dejectedly around in a circle, each wearing a hood with slits for eyes. No one seemed to have spotted the shortcut opening; Rivers must have shielded it.

  “Golem, go through the opening,” Rivers commanded.

  Grunting, the golem did as it was told, bending itself almost in two so it could fit through. As soon as it had done so, one of the prison guards began shouting.

  “They can see it!” cried Lucy.

  “Of course they can! Did you think I was going to shield it? What would be the point of doing that?” Rivers said, grabbing Lucy by the arm and yanking her into the prison yard.

  Although the golem wasn’t doing anything in particular, apart from standing at the edge of the exercise yard growling to itself, the prison guards were yelling and shouting and blowing their whistles. Two of them roughly herded the startled prisoners against the bare brick walls of the prison, while the other two seemed to be considering approaching the golem.

  “Golem, get rid of the guards!” ordered Rivers.

  The golem looked at Rivers and grunted. The grunt almost sounded like a question.

  “The ones with the hats!” Rivers said, pointing to his own head and then sketching a hat in the air.

  The golem grunted again and clumped towards the nearest two guards. One of them hightailed it immediately, but the other stood his ground, although that ground was soon cruelly snatched from under him when the golem grabbed him by the arm and lifted him into mid-air.

  “Where is Mortimer Thorne?” Rivers shouted to the struggling, squirming guard.

  “Get this thing off me! It’s going to pull my arm off!” the guard screamed.

  “Golem, put the nice man down now,” Rivers said.

  As the golem obeyed and dropped the man, the two guards who had moved the prisoners away began to approach. Rivers held up a warning hand. “Stay where you are or I’ll set it on you.”

  The guards froze. “What is it you want?”

  “I told you. Mortimer Thorne.”

  “He’s kept in another part of the prison. We don’t guard him.”

  “Tell me how to get there!”

  As the terrified men blurted out directions, another guard, dressed in a bright-red uniform and brandishing a musket, belted at full speed into the yard.

  “It’s a golem! Get away from it!” The guard pointed his gun at the monster and fired, but the bullets ricocheted uselessly off it, as though it was protected by an invisible shield. The guard dropped the gun and flung his hand out, letting loose a flurry of sparks. But whatever spell he was trying to cast failed, the sparks dying as soon as they hit the golem’s baked-earth body. The golem turned its monstrous attentions to the red-uniformed guard, who shot another shower of sparks at its chest, but again the magic had no effect on the golem. It raised its mighty arm, the talons at the ends of its fingers glinting in the sun that was beginning to break through the clouds. It snarled as it prepared to slash the guard to pieces.

  “Don’t hurt him. Bring him to me!” Rivers ordered.

  The golem picked the guard up by the leg and carried him over to Rivers before depositing him in an untidy heap on the ground.

  “On your feet, man!” Rivers gave the man a not-so-gentle kick of encouragement. “Take me to Mortimer Thorne.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  MEETING MORTIMER THORNE

  The guard led them to a compact building, which lay some way from the main prison. It was two storeys high and had windows either side of the arched door, square on the ground floor, but round on the first. The round windows gave the building the appearance of a face with an open mouth, ready to devour anything that came near it.

  “He’s in there?” Rivers said.

  The guard nodded and pointed to one of the barred windows on the ground floor. A pale face was peering through the bars.

  “Mortimer!” Rivers shouted. “It’s me, Jerome! I’m coming to get you! Stand back from the window!”

  The pale face vanished. Rivers turned to the golem. “Break open that window!”

  The golem growled irritably. There was a tense pause during which Lucy began to fear that Rivers was about to lose control of the golem and that it would kill them all. But to her relief, the golem decided to do as it was told. It clumped over to the building and casually ripped the bars from Mortimer Thorne’s window before smashing its fist through the glass. Rivers then rushed forward to help the prisoner climb from his cell to freedom.

  “Mortimer,” Rivers said, his voice cracking slightly.

  Mortimer Thorne stared at Rivers. He had the sickly pale face of someone who had been inside for a very long time, although his dark eyes were intense and bright. He was short, but his broad shoulders and bulky arms gave him a look of immense power. He had his fists up, ready to fight.

  “Jerome? It really is you?” Thorne lowered his fists.

  “Yes. It’s me, I’m so very glad to see you again.” Rivers briefly put his arms round Thorne, who didn’t return the embrace, but stood staring over Rivers’ shoulder at the golem, which was now amusing itself by scraping its talons along the stone wall and watching the sparks fly.

  “You built a golem?” he said.

  “Yes,” Rivers said, releasing Thorne. “Now we must get out of here!”

  “Who is this child?” Thorne said, looking at Lucy as though he’d only just noticed her.

  Rivers shrugged. “She’s nothing. A hostage.”

  Lucy was about to protest, to say that she wasn’t nothing! He’d needed her to bring the golem to life! But she quickly decided not to. Her common sense told her it was better that Thorne knew as little as possible about her abilities.

  “Let’s go!” Rivers urged again.

  Thorne held up his
hand. “Wait. I want to have a look at your masterpiece first.”

  Rivers smiled proudly as Thorne walked over to the golem, which looked down at him and snarled. Thorne took no notice, but grabbed the golem’s thick wrist. Sparks erupted from Thorne’s fingertips, scuttling like a swarm of ants up the golem’s arm and on to its jagged skull, where they settled like a bright, sizzling cap.

  “What are you doing?” Rivers cried.

  Lucy’s stomach lurched. Even if Rivers didn’t understand, she did. Mortimer Thorne, a man who had once used a golem to brutally murder innocent people for no good reason, was taking control of the monster.

  A second later, Rivers realised what was happening too. He ran over to his creation. “You obey me! No one else. Mortimer, you can’t control it. I have this. You don’t have this.” Rivers took the notebook from his jacket pocket and waved in triumphantly.

  Thorne made a scoffing noise. “I don’t need that nonsense!”

  “Golem!” Rivers ordered. “Come with me!”

  The golem looked down at Rivers, considering the situation. It drew back its great foot and kicked him in the shin. There was a horrible crunching noise. Rivers screamed once and then fainted. Thorne threw back his head and laughed in a way that chilled Lucy. While he and the golem were momentarily distracted, she took the chance to try to dart away, but she was too slow and Thorne spotted her immediately.

  “Fetch her,” he commanded the golem.

  A moment later, Lucy was jerked backwards, her jacket collar tearing as the monster’s talons grasped at her. It dragged her over to Thorne, who studied Lucy for a few seconds. “What did Rivers want with you? You’re a magician, I know that much.”

  “He told you. He took me hostage.”

  “The truth. Or the golem will cut you to ribbons!”

  “He needed me to make the shortcut from Grave Hall. He’s no good at them,” Lucy said, too panicked to make up a more elaborate lie. But as soon as she had uttered the words, she knew she’d made a terrible mistake.