The Author is Dead by A. Carver

Author:A. Carver [Carver, A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-24T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Victimised – and Victim

No sooner had Vi spoken than he had pushed off from the doorframe and gone running back down the hall again – Yva was throwing herself over the bed to follow him, letting a sheet of wood panelling crash to the floor behind her – Alex, after a moment to recover herself, followed. She leapt out into the corridor, Cornelia straggling behind.

Footfalls thudded down the passage away from her, and Alex just caught a glimpse of Vi swinging himself around the landing by the banisters, Yva metres behind. The crime scene must have lain beyond the stairs.

Wait. From how Yva had laid it out, shouldn’t Vi’s bedroom have been in the opposite direction?

There was no time to think about it. Vi’s footsteps were already rattling even down the stairs, and she didn’t need Great-Aunt Cornelia shoving her in the back and hissing “Go! I can catch up!” to send her racing after them, though that was what she got regardless. Alex tore down the hall and caught up with Yva sooner than she’d expected, the two of them pounding down the stairs without looking at their feet, running on pure instinct where if they thought for a second about not moving automatically they would surely stumble and fall. But Vi was running faster still, taking the steps three at a time.

“Vi, what are we doing down here?!” Alex called.

He didn’t face her as he stormed downwards. “I’m only human!” came his desperate voice. “I thought I’d check on Victoria while I was out of the room! But the door wouldn’t open…”

“Good grief.” Yva’s strained mutter reached Alex’s ears, and for once she found herself agreeing. Endangering himself was one thing; embarrassing himself quite another. But still, if he had found a room that shouldn’t have been sealed –

Vi leapt the last few steps into the gaping hallway and sprang leftwards and out of sight. With a jolt, Alex realised he was heading in the direction of the armoury.

Victoria, Colin, Franny – was it one of them…?

She and Yva reached the corner and spun on the spot. Vi was standing just in front of the door to the armoury, the door Alex had seen closed when last she had passed. He had his phone out for some reason, pointed forwards –

“Wait!” Alex cried – but her voice was almost immediately lost in the crash of wood as Vi hurled himself against the door and through it, tumbling into the room. In moments, Alex and Yva were staring through the doorway after him.

The inner edge of the door was lined with tape, half-unpeeled where it had once been stuck to the surrounding frame, leaving long marks along the doorframe and floorboards. It was the hallmark of the murderer, just as Alex had seen on the door of her bedroom and the front door of Carver’s Rest. But even more had been deployed to swathe the figure lying prone against the weapon cabinets in the centre of the room, Vi kneeling beside her.

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