Page 34 of Dead and Gone

Kai shifts and crosses his arms. "Dale, give Violet the mole. She takes it back to the museum. Everything solved."

Grayson points at his face. "The mole's missing eyes?"

Kai shrugs. "The curator guy can find new ones."

I balk. "You are an idiotic boy."

"Don't talk to me like that," he snaps back.

"Living moles are blind creatures, but this one most certainly needs its eyes. I cannot return the mole to the curator without them." I cross my arms. "Dale?"

"I don't understand why you did something so dumb in the first place," says Rowan. "Stealing from the museum, then blackmail too,andyou intended to take the ransom money. That's disgusting."

"Fakemoney, by the way." I toss the envelope on the table.

Dale snatches hold and tips out the torn paper. "The curator didn't keep the bargain!"

"The curator didn't leave this for you, we did. And blackmail is not a sales transaction. Don't you want to avoid trouble with the police? Your father would not be happy if you tarnished the Sawyer name again, Kai."

He looks the other way, his jaw hard. These local male teenagers aren't known for thinking things through, but this is ridiculous.

"Dale. Where are the eyes?" I demand. "You maintain that you lost the mole and the eyes' fell out'?" He stares at the ceiling. "Good grief. Do you want me to use mind magic on you?"

"That's illegal," he retorts.

"So's theft," says Grayson.

Dale slumps back. "Fine. Some guy offered cash for the mole, no questions asked."

"What guy?" asks Kai sharply.

"Explain," I say stiffly.

"He sent Marvin a message on Insta. Wanted to buy the mole. Offered £400."

"What the hell?" asks Kai. "When?"

Grayson scoffs. "Why would somebody offer such a large amount for that thing?"

"He's a collector," retorts Dale.

"How did you know?" Rowan asks.

"S'what he said."

"Oh, for goodness sake." I shake my head. "I doubt there's a large underground market for taxidermy where someone would seek you out and offer large sums of money. This situation becomes increasingly worrying."

"I can't believe you went behind our backs with this, Dale. I bet we wouldn't know about the blackmail either unless I'd confronted you," snaps Kai.

"Show me Instagram," I demand, and hold out a hand. "Who is this collector?"

Dale scowls and pushes his phone across the table, and I frown in confusion, unable to comprehend what's on the screen. I hand the phone to Rowan, who studies what I struggle to decipher.

"Profile name LWRR601. But yeah, photos of an old guy with plenty of other stuffed animals in his feed." Rowan clicks across to the messages between LWRR601 and MarvintheMarvellous. "Nothing about a meetup here. How did you know where to go, Dale?"

Kai continues to glare at Dale. "And why the hell didn't you tell us? Should never've let you control Marvin's account."

He side glances Kai. "I arranged a time and place and deleted the messages."

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