Minister Greenfield wasn’t Academy Leader Darkwater. He didn’t jump up to deny the murder accusation. He didn’t give me any reaction to work with other than mild contempt. That was fine. I could do just as much with his silence as I could with an emotional outburst.
“Minister Greenfield has concerned me from the very beginning,” I said, more in sorrow than in anger. “Because he started everything off with such an obvious lie.”
I took a slow two steps in front of the table, all eyes on me. “We have all seen how he cannot tolerate the curtains being open in the Chasm View sitting room for even a second, even in daylight. He had clearly not entered the room at all before the ceremony. But he claimed he had been, back before we had even concluded that Candidate Bethany had been murdered. Later, we learnt that Candidate Bethany had died during the purification ceremony, so I set that suspicion aside. I thought that he was just concealing how little work he did personally. After all, we all saw how poor a job he did on the second ceremony when he no longer had his assistant to do it for him.”
Some of the audience did a bad job of concealing their laughter. That did, oddly, provoke a flare of anger from Minister Greenfield. I accused him of killing, and that didn’t bother him. But I accused him of being bad at his job, and he reacted. I guess some people have odd priorities.
“Later,” I said, “when I considered the possibility of the ice maker, I started to think. Minister Greenfield provided his excuse before I knew the time of death, and before he had known the time of death. I considered that if I was the culprit, I wouldn’t be entirely certain at how long it would take the ice to weaken and the body to fall. I’d be like Minister Greenfield. Establishing an alibi that covered both before and after the expected time. But that was only one small thing.”
Two steps sideways, making eye contact as I went. “Then other things pricked at me, like thorns on a vine.”
Such as Minister Greenfield being so desperate to inform me about how suspicious Assistant Altengart was. That had been out of character, and uncharacteristically amateurish of the man.
> We believe that His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator, does not mention this aloud because this would have damaged Assistant Altengart’s reputation. Assistant Altengart’s innocence in the murder would not have changed his family connections.
“Such as the registration of intent forms,” I said. “They were found by Minister Greenfield’s assistant at a table in the middle of supper. There were swarms of people in that dining room, taking food. The forms were not small or easily overlooked. Why was he the first one to notice them? Perhaps because he was the first one that could see them. That the person ahead of him was the person to set them down, either accidentally or intentionally. That person was Minister Greenfield, but he didn’t have any access to the forms. I set that theory aside. It was only another small thing.”
I shifted my gaze, one by one. I wasn’t consciously recognising who I was making eye contact with, just forcing them to pay attention.
“The easiest way to resolve my concerns would be to ask Minister Greenfield’s assistant,” I said, lifting my arms in a half-shrug. “But he is not here for us to question. Minister Greenfield sent him away. Minister Greenfield sent him away immediately after everyone agreed that no one would leave. Minister Greenfield sent him away immediately after we determined that Candidate Bethany’s death was murder. Minister Greenfield sent him away before he could hear the gossip about the murder and start to wonder.”
My throat was starting to feel the strain of talking for so long. I wished I’d thought to ask for a glass of plain water in addition to the prop I had prepared.
“I began to wonder what his answers might have been. Did he ever even see Minister Greenfield leave the viewing platform? Or was he the one that shut the door behind Candidate Shanelly, leaving Candidate Bethany and Minister Greenfield alone behind him?”
I returned back to behind the table.
“Because it’s an horrific thought for me,” I said. “That Candidate Bethany was detained while we were right there, still within earshot of any scream or scuffle. That she reached the top of the stairs, only to rendered unconscious to quickly to react. That we walked straight past her when we left, her still living body hidden in the shadows. How close had we come to accidentally noticing her? If something had gone slightly differently, could we have saved her?”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I didn’t have to fake my emotions. It was genuinely horrific thought. Most of the audience cringed in reaction. Candidate Shanelly had started crying, quietly and painfully. I felt bad – I should have suggested she be sent away after her testimony. On the other hand, Minister Greenfield’s self-possession was on another level. He wasn’t going to react, and he didn’t.
“If you please Academy Leader Darkwater, could you come forward?” I asked. “Now is the appropriate time for you to provide your testimony.”
Academy Leader Darkwater was considerably more expressive than Minister Greenfield, and I could see his intention. He wasn’t going to be easy about this and immediately blame everything on Minister Greenfield. After all, Minister Greenfield as the chief culprit wouldn’t absolve Academy Leader Darkwater of the wrongs he had himself committed. Which is exactly why I had prepared my pièce de résistance. I checked I still had the bottle of dragon lure in palm and loosened the lid. Then I picked up the prepared bottle with the same hand. On my gesture, the searcher executed phase two. He brought a frame holding a set of robes up to the chairs.
“Are these the robes that you intended to wear at the bonding ceremony tomorrow?” I asked.
“Yes!” exclaimed Academy Leader Darkwater. “I do not appreciate—”
I shook the bottle in my hand to interrupt him. “This is water soaked in the petals of Night-Flowering Glory. I assume you all know what it does?”
Without waiting for a response, I threw half of it over the robes. Half, because I pulled back at the last second. The lid of the dragon lure was trapped by the webbing of my thumb, preventing any of it from being thrown at the same time. I would need the rest of the glory-water for my second try.
Except I didn’t.
Assistant Altengart had been right. The colour produced was a very lurid red. The robes must have been absolutely drenched in dragon lure to have that effect. Plenty enough to have rendered a dragon lure-drunk. While absolutely no-one was watching me, I replaced the lid on the vial of dragon lure, still full, and put it down on the table at the same time as the glory-water.
> I’m sure we can all agree how improbable it is that His Devotion, Saint Percival the Investigator, ‘just happened’ to plan to fake something, only to have it turn out to be true all along.
“You bastard!” said Academy Leader Darkwater, almost knocking over the witness table as he surged to his feet. “You wanted to kill me too!”
That was the most satisfying thing I had ever seen in either of my two lives. If I had thought we’d had prior moments of pandemonium, I’d underestimated the possibilities. Almost everyone was on their feet, including Minister Greenfield.
“I think,” said Minister Greenfield, his voice penetrating the uproar, “that it’s best if I spend the rest of this visit in my rooms.”
No one moved to stop him, not even House Holder Fairbanks, although the latter seemed to be considering it. I certainly wasn’t going to interfere. I did notice Assistant Oxenden make eye contact with one of the staff, so perhaps they sent someone to follow him.
In that brief silence, I asked Academy Leader Darkwater, “Shall we go through my previous questions again?”
Academy Leader Darkwater collapsed back into his chair, burying his head in his hands.
“Anneck?” asked Academy Leader Silver. “You conspired to kill that poor girl?”
Anneck? Academy Leader Darkwater had a first name. Who knew.
“I swear,” he said. “I swear I didn’t know he was going to kill anyone.”
From there, everything came tumbling out. How Minister Greenfield had offered to support him for ‘just a few favours’. How Minister Greenfield had asked to see every contraband or ward breaking item Academy Leader Darkwater had confiscated. How Academy Leader Darkwater had given Minister Greenfield a key to the stores. How Minister Greenfield had offered to get the bonding ceremony moved but hadn’t provided any details. How Academy Leader Darkwater had given him the registration sheets. How Academy Leader Darkwater had been horrified when he realised Candidate Bethany had been murdered, but it already being too late to do anything about it.
Not so horrified that he’d reported Minister Greenfield, even anonymously. Not so horrified that he’d stopped scheming for his own political gain. And not so horrified that he’d hesitated to try and frame Assistant Altengart.
Academy Leader Darkwater had too much ego to have realised the obvious – he had nothing to offer someone like Minister Greenfield. Minister Greenfield had been using him for his own purposes all along. A wiser man would have realised that Minister Greenfield would never have left a vulnerability like Academy Leader Darkwater alive behind him. But none of that was enough of an excuse to make Academy Leader Darkwater a victim.
My participation in the matter was officially over. Academy Leader Darkwater and Minister Greenfield would apparently be sent back to the capital with letters. It would all be sorted out behind the scenes. I thanked Assistant Oxenden one more time for the superlative work he’d done in all of this and disbanded the meeting. Most were inclined to stay, discuss the matter and console the Fairbanks. I couldn’t. I was lightheaded and hollowed out after the triumph. I didn’t care how it would look. Everything else could wait until I’d had a chance to lie down.
Memo to Self
- Survive [success!]
- Bluff my way out of my escape attempt
- - Distract by presenting a theory for Bethany's death [Success!]
- - Delay by abusing goodwill provided by trial