The Big Bad Wolf Murder by P. G. Bell

Author:P. G. Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

* * *

An hour later, the scow had left the northern end of the canal and ventured onto the choppier waters of the Fenris River. It was quiet here, the noise of the city softening to a distant hum.

Ruby watched the rainbow swirls on the river’s oily surface and wondered about Marceline. Was she alive? If she was, how badly hurt? Her guilt continued to gnaw at her, but with it came other questions, and she finally put one of them to Fillan.

“If Marceline didn’t kill Alarick, who did?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “But the more I think about it, the more I wonder if his death is linked to the paper mill somehow. It was a big secret for him and Marceline to be keeping.”

Ruby considered this. It certainly seemed logical. “She said Alarick gave it to her as an apology.”

“That’s right.”

“But they can’t have made up. I’d know about it. Heck, everyone in the city would know.”

Fillan thought on this for a moment. “They didn’t sound very friendly at the press conference this morning. I could hear them from the corridor.”

A memory intruded on Ruby’s thoughts—the momentary quiver of Marceline’s lip when she had broken the news of Alarick’s death in the locker room that morning. Ruby had written it off as her imagination. But what if it hadn’t been? Could Marceline and Alarick really have rekindled their friendship without telling anyone? In short, had they lied to the world? To her?

The idea was unsettling, so she banished it. “What sort of an apology is a ruined old building anyway?” she asked. “It’s more like an insult.”

“It has something to do with the future of Tooth and Claw, so it must be important,” said Fillan.

“Important enough for someone to try to steal the deeds,” Ruby replied.

Fillan looked away quickly, and she knew he was thinking about the bite he had inflicted on the intruder’s hand. She hurried to change the subject.

“We should focus on finding Charlotte. Marceline said she knows what’s going on.”

“Who is she?”

“A sports reporter. She was outside Marceline’s apartment this evening.”

“Can we trust her?”

“Marceline thinks so.” She watched the distant lights of the police airship, still roving over the Narrows. “What about that Hardulph? What’s his deal?”

Fillan directed a dark look out across the water. “He said someone sent him. It obviously wasn’t the NCPD, which means somebody else out there is after us.”

“Somebody wants us dead, you mean,” said Ruby. “Maybe it’s Alarick’s killer. They want Hardulph to stop us before we can uncover the truth.”

They watched a seagull bob past with a limp hot dog in its beak. It eyed them warily until it passed out of sight.

“All the more reason to find Charlotte,” said Fillan. “Where does she work?”

“The Netherburg Gazette, but I don’t know where their offices are. And even if I did, we can’t just walk into a building full of journalists—we’re trying to keep a low profile, remember?”

They pondered their predicament in silence, until the tone of the tug’s engine shifted.

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