Page 59 of Secrets of the Eternal Flame

‘Sure.’

While Fraser drove me towards the beach, I called the Watchtower Hotel to speak to Orion. He assured me that no one matching my grandmother’s description hadchecked in during the last few weeks. There had been a few business delegates but everyone else had checked in as couples. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Grandmother Dearest had a new beau, but none of the women matched her description.

As was often the case when I was struggling to find a lead, I headed back to the scene of the crime. I wasn’t expecting to find physical evidence, helpful as that would have been. With tourists traipsing in and out of the shop all week, they’d almost certainly have destroyed any remaining clues.

What I was hoping was that Gwen might offer something she’d not previously thought of – maybe some repeat customers who had suddenly stopped showing up, or a customer who had asked questions specifically about the cup and the grimoire. Her memory clearly wasn’t as bad as we’d all thought because the items that she’d sworn were going missing really were being stolen by Archer.

And I also needed to speak to her about destroying the grimoire when we recovered it. I refused to think in terms of ‘if’.

Fraser dropped me off and I waved him away. When he disappeared from view, I ducked into Grimoires and Goblets. As always, the bell jangled above me, but to my surprise nobody came to greet me.

‘Hello,’ I called. ‘Gwen, are you here?’ There wasn’t a note on the door saying she was out to lunch and she would have locked up the shop if that were the case. I knew she was slower at greeting customers than Scarlett, but this was ridiculous even for Gwen.

I went to the counter and called into the back. ‘Gwen? It’s Beatrix. I want to ask you a couple more questions.’

Still nothing, and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end. Something wasn’t right – and I wasn’t the only one who felt it. Eva was sniffing the air, and the second she stopped, she gave a high-pitched whine. Before I could ask her what was wrong, she squeezed her way through the piles of grimoires and papers that led to the back room.

I followed. It only took me a moment to find what she wanted me to see.

Lying on the floor, her eyes rolled back into her head, was Gwen. She was obviously dead and, judging by the awkward angle of her neck it hadn’t been an accident.

She had been murdered.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Yanni’s gaze rested on Gwen. ‘Poor woman. It looks horrible. Obviously we’ll wait for the coroner’s report but I’m pretty confident her neck was snapped. Why would anyone want to kill Gwen?’

Although I didn’t say it out loud, the miserable old goblin was hugely judgemental and seemed to hold all sorts of prejudices so no doubt she’d made plenty of enemies; any one of them could have had their fill of her bullshit. That made me think of Scarlett. Gwen had treated her like shit – but lots of employers treat their staff like shit and their employees don’t go around murdering them. I moved Scarlett down the suspect pile, though notoffit.

Whoever had stolen the Codex and the goblet was my main suspect. They had obviously gotten away with the theft, so why return and kill Gwen – and possibly leave more evidence that could lead back to them?

I went cold.To open the Codex.

‘The thief,’ I whispered. ‘They needed a death to unlock the Codex.’

Yanni swore. ‘That’s not good.’

‘It’s really not.’

I tried to quash my panic andthink.Gwen’s body was still warm and I couldn’t shake the thought that if only I’d got there sooner I could have prevented her death. Or joined her in it.

I examined the body, trying to spot clues, but there was nothing to be seen: no signs of a struggle, no signs that Gwen had put up a fight. One moment she’d been alive and then she was dead, just like that.

This was getting me nowhere. After Dove had taken my statement, I decided to leave her and Yanni to get on with their work and see if I could dig up any leads of my own. ‘I’m going to scoot home,’ I announced.

‘Before you go, do you have any other ideas about the thieves that I need to know about?’ Yanni asked. ‘Archer’s out on bail, but he didn’t give us anything useful about the cup or the grimoire.’

This didn’t feel like the time to tell Yanni about my concerns about my grandmother. She had enough on her plate – and, unlike Ernie, she would totally lock me up somewhere if she thought it was necessary to keep me safe.

‘No,’ I lied. ‘Sorry. But I’m still on it. I’ll let you know if I find anything.’

The bell jangled behind me as I left. While I thought about my next steps, I scanned the beach in front of me. Like every other day I’d been down here, it was packed with people enjoying the sunshine, swimming or reading a book as they lay on the soft sand. One of themhadto have seen something, but where the hell did I start?

I had decided to start by questioning the neighbouring shopkeepers when my phone vibrated in my pocket and an unfamiliar number flashed on the screen. ‘Hello?’ I said as I answered.

‘Is this Beatrix?’

‘Scarlett?’ I recognised the voice immediately.

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