The Twelve Days of Murder by Andreina Cordani

Author:Andreina Cordani
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

14

SHONA - TWELVE CHRISTMASES AGO - 6.10 P.M.

THE WHITE LADY HOVERED IN THE CORNER OF THE ROOM, watching the Masqueraders as they enjoyed their cocktails. She was a filmy presence, a shape that the others might have said was the mirror on one wall reflecting light onto the panels opposite, but Shona knew she was there. She was more like a sketch of a person than a fully fledged human form, but Shona could clearly see a facial expression and, if asked, would have described it as confused.

Ever since Leo had proposed a Christmas masquerade at Fenshawe she had hoped to catch a glimpse of the Manor’s famous White Lady. This spirit was a true Christmas ghost, not a twee Dickensian one. She was only ever seen at midwinter, gliding through the corridors causing family arguments and rifts as she went. In the early 1700s a duel had been fought over her in the grounds. A century later she was sighted on the night the earl’s eldest son eloped with his own stepmother. And once a chambermaid was found in the Countess’ dressing room having seen the White Lady and ‘taken fright so much that she died’.

It occurred to Shona that frightening someone to death would be the perfect murder, provided you could persuade the ghost to act as your accomplice.

None of the other Masqueraders, or the sexy mixologist, had given any sign they could see her, but Shona was not surprised by that. She had long been aware that she saw things differently to other people. As a child she had lain on her bed concentrating hard until she levitated out of her body, and as she grew older the ‘haunted happenings’ as she called them, grew more frequent. Nobody had believed her and she had soon realised that most people, even her childhood friend Sam, didn’t have much patience for things they couldn’t see for themselves. This fed nicely into Shona’s sense of superiority – the world was full of dull, ignorant fools who were blind to the darkness and wildness of the world around them.

She felt the ghost’s gaze move over to her, and looked the White Lady direct in the hollows of her eyes, acknowledging her with a discreet nod of understanding. The two of them were kindred spirits, both attracted to trouble.

And this room positively crackled with it. There was tension, delicious tension, everywhere. She could see it like a spiderweb in her head stretching taut between Pan, Gideon, Sam, Ali, Leo and Charley – all leading to Karl at the centre. There was even a thread tugging at her, although she tried to ignore it. Karl knew about Shona’s affair with Dr Pike. And Professor Khalid. And the judge from the university’s Young Artist Prize. He black-mailed cheerfully and without malice, and what was worse, he made you like him afterwards. That took a special kind of charm.

As someone who relished tormenting people, she had always admired his ability to provoke, pressurise, needle and infuriate the people in his life while still never losing their loyalty.

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