The Humbug Murders by L. J. Oliver
Author:L. J. Oliver
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pocket Books
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
LORD RUTLEDGE SAT in the leather chair in the center of the library, face slack, eyes unseeing, his fine suit ruined by a dozen slits, his white silk shirt and cravat now ruby red. His wig had slipped partly over his face, the bottom curls dark with the sticky blood slowly trickling from his gashed neck. Streaks of blood decorated the books, the ceiling, floor, walls. A figure I had first dismissed as a lunatic’s ravings stood near the open double doors leading deeper into the mansion, one bony hand dripping with gore and blood. A painting had been torn from one wall, and the killer’s signature now resided there.
HUMBUG
Streaked and dripping in blood.
I caught only a glimpse of the black-cowled figure before it whipped towards the door and fled into the darkened hall. A heavy black veil had obscured its face, and a blade the length of a man’s forearm, flecked and still trailing red, was gripped in its hand.
No, not it, I told myself, my fear and disgust pressing down on me, threatening to bring me to my knees. Humbug was mortal. A man. Had to be.
And men could be brought low.
“After him!” Crabapple shouted from the door behind us.
Though the rational thing would have been to part for the police, let them do their jobs, Dickens and I sprang ahead, spurred by the command. We had only a short lead on the police, who trounced behind us, while ahead Humbug flew into the amber-lit main hall. A startled footman bearing a tray filled with wineglasses turned a corner, and the murderer crashed into him. The tray flew, glasses shattered, and the footman stumbled back and fell flat on his backside. Humbug whirled with surprising grace, spinning in mid-stride to avoid faltering. Regaining his footing, the killer sprinted ahead and leaped over a marble table to avoid two more startled servers.
“The last time I saw anything like that it was a troupe of Chinese acrobats,” Dickens said, puffing, out of breath.
On we ran, following the killer up the main staircase, along the hall braced by the second-floor railing, through spacious and stunningly appointed bedrooms, and finally into yet another hidden passage, this one accessed by tilting a painting of a dour old man at a precise angle. Into the dank and murky darkness we ran, the sharp clatter of the killer’s footsteps ahead. We wound down a spiral staircase with no thought to the trap Humbug might have set simply by stopping unseen at the first-floor landing and waiting for us blade in hand.
A door cracked open, light streamed in, and the man in black darted through it. We followed, Crabapple and his men laboring, shouting, cursing, but no longer at our heels. We raced into a main gallery and stopped dead, panting, clutching our knees. Humbug was gone. The walls surrounding us were lined with rows of portraits of those responsible for the mansion’s history. They ranged over almost three centuries, with the emerald eyes of Lord Dyer staring at us from the end.
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