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‘Is everyone here?’ Kendrew asked, and we all double checked then confirmed we were. He nodded. ‘Good, because we have some important information for you all. There’s been a development. Last night we made three arrests as part of the investigation into Bob Pascoe’s death.’
‘Pascoe? Was that his name?’ Sky asked. ‘Well, I never knew that.’
‘Hush, Sky. Go on, Kendrew,’ Iliana urged.
Kendrew looked nervously at his fellow High Council members. Aveta gave him an encouraging nod.
‘We have arrested Marco Golightly, his wife Ariadne Golightly, and his sister-in-law—’ he paused then added heavily, ‘—Ursula Pascoe.’
‘Pascoe?’ We all gasped. ‘Are you saying…?’
‘That’s right,’ Amlodd said, nodding furiously. ‘His own wife, if you please.’
‘But why?’ Star demanded. ‘Why would Bob’s wife kill him? And why was she working with the Golightlys?’
‘Ahem.’ Aveta cleared her throat then said awkwardly, ‘We’re trying to establish a motive for his murder, but perhaps you should know that Ursula Pascoe and Ariadne Golightly are sisters.’
‘Sisters?’ Castor glared at her. ‘And did you lot know this? Cos I’m sure I never heard so much as a whisper about it.’
‘Of course we knew about it,’ Aveta admitted uncomfortably.
‘And you did nowt about it?’
‘What did you expect us to do? There’s no law against being related to a Golightly,’ Amlodd blustered.
‘And we had no reason to suspect that Ursula agreed with her sister and brother-in-law’s opinions, although it now appears she must have, because what other reason could she have had for conspiring to murder her own husband if not?’
‘Are you quite sure about this?’ Raiden asked, frowning. ‘It all seems very strange to me. Why kill Bob, of all people?’
‘Perhaps he knew something about what the Golightlys were planning,’ I suggested. ‘If he confided what he knew in his wife, maybe her loyalty to her sister took over her loyalty to her husband. It’s one explanation anyway.’
‘Or maybe,’ Keely said, her eyes wide, ‘Bob was about to tell the High Council what really happened to Zephyr!’
Amlodd looked uncomfortable. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Well,’ Keely said, ‘supposing Bob had confided to his wife that Zephyr and Trinity were going to be in Whitby that day. She tells Marco and her sister, and they tip off the Pendragons somehow. Then Bob finds out what they did and threatens to tell the High Council. That would explain why Marco and the two women had to get rid of Bob, wouldn’t it?’
‘It hardly seems likely,’ Kendrew said with a shrug. ‘For one thing, I can’t imagine Bob being so careless as to tell his wife such confidential information. And for another, why would Golightly help the Pendragons? He hates them.’
‘But he must have known that the murder of the leader of the High Council and one of the Pendragon children could spark a war between fae and witches,’ I pointed out, thinking Keely’s theory might not be perfect but it was better than anything else I’d heard. ‘That’s just what he wants—almost as much as the Pendragons.’
‘Sounds like nonsense to me,’ Kendrew said dismissively. ‘Anyway, we people in this room will now be the only people at the funeral, so we’ll be back here the day after tomorrow. Is everything in hand?’
‘It is,’ Emrick confirmed. ‘We’re getting to be dab hands at funerals here these days.’
Aveta sighed. ‘I’m sorry for the inconvenience,’ she said. ‘It’s been a very trying time for all of us. We’ll bid you good day.’
With that they vanished, leaving us all in a state of confusion. Bob’s wife! But she helped him run their nice little hotel near Tintagel. They were ordinary people, living mostly ordinary lives. How could this possibly have happened?
‘Fear begets hatred, and hatred leads to death,’ Castor said, shaking his head. ‘When folks are scared of other folks they stop seeing them as living, breathing creatures, with thoughts and feelings of their own. They see only “other”, and they want to destroy it, before it destroys them. Reason and compassion go out of the window.’ He gave me a worried look. ‘I hope everything works out right for you when you go back, young ‘un, because honestly, you’re our last hope. Everything’s riding on you now.’
Wonderful. Just what I needed to hear. Even so, I didn’t correct him.
The fact was it was true. It all depended on me. I had to get this right.
Chapter 36
Romy
