CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE AUTOPSY INTRIGUE
PERCY’S SURGICAL THEATER
AMFITEATRUL DE CHIRURGIE AL LUI PERCY
brAN CASTLE
Prince Nicolae appeared paler than the corpse Percy was carving into as he handed the professor toothed forceps and coughed, turning away from the incision. It was odd behavior for the normally fearless prince. Perhaps he was coming down with an influenza.
Certainly it couldn’t be the nearly unrecognizable body from the tunnels making him ill. Though Percy had unveiled the body during our lesson two days earlier, Moldoveanu had recollected it before any of us could better inspect it and had released it to class only that afternoon.
Our headmaster had been oddly quiet and contemplative during our previous lesson, his mind seemingly stuck somewhere else.
I wondered if the royal family was pressuring him to forensically solve or link the murders, or lose his position as both royal coroner and headmaster.
It was also possible that his distress was completely unrelated to the body.
Perhaps he was worried about Anastasia’s true whereabouts.
He had to have concluded she was not in Hungary by now.
I could not imagine what else might cause him such worry.
Percy placed his blade down on a tray, leaving the Y incision incomplete.
Most of the girl’s features had been ruined by hungry bats, so her face was covered with a small shroud—a kindness for either her or us.
Though I didn’t believe Percy would shy away from exposing us to the brutality of our chosen profession.
Death didn’t always come peacefully, and we’d need to prepare ourselves for when it waged war.
“The carbolic steam spray, if you please.”
Percy waited for Nicolae to fumigate the surgical theater.
Our professor took the same pains Uncle did to avoid contaminating a scene, though other scholars still claimed such measures unnecessary while studying corpses.
I’d never seen a device like the carbolic steam spray before and couldn’t wait to tell Uncle all about it.
He’d surely order one for his own laboratory.
Nicolae took aim, spraying the room down in a fine mist. Wisps of gray fog drifted through the air, smelling of sharp antiseptic that tickled my nose.
“We’ve gotten permission from the family to perform this autopsy…”
Something about Percy’s statement troubled me, but my mind drifted back to Ileana while the professor continued with our lesson.
I couldn’t figure out what her motive would be in any of the murders, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been involved.
In fact, I no longer believed she’d been working alone.
Anastasia hadn’t returned to the academy when she’d said she would.
I wondered if she had somehow played a part in the crimes, too.
Despite their difference in station she and Ileana were friends.
They’d both gone missing within a week of each other.
I’d initially believed Anastasia’s note about investigating the scene at the house in the village. Now I wasn’t so sure.
Maybe I’d come too close to uncovering their secrets and they’d fled.
I’d learned that trusting those who appeared innocent only led to heartbreak and devastation.
Monsters could wear the smiles of friends while secreting away the rotten soul of the Devil in the darkest crevices of themselves.
I thought back to the times we were all together in my rooms, and a new idea elbowed its way into my mind.
If Anastasia and Ileana were working together, then perhaps each encounter and action had been a well-crafted act.
They might have scripted their reactions, leading me purposely down the wrong path.
“Miss Wadsworth, are you with us today?”
I snapped into the present, face burning as I glanced around the theater. The Bianchi twins, Noah, Andrei, Erik—all had their attention fixed upon me, even Thomas.
“Apologies, Professor. I—”
Moldoveanu strode into the surgical theater, hands clenched at his sides. I had no idea he’d sneaked into the room. His robes were the exact color of his silver sheet of hair and hung as severely as the look he leveled at me.
“I require a private word with you. Now.”
Andrei snickered and said something under his breath.
Erik also chuckled as I walked past them.
The thought of stepping on his foot with my heel was enough to distract me from actually doing it.
Cian caught my eye, offering a hesitant smile.
It was quite the show of support, as the Irish boy had barely acknowledged my existence in the past. Noah must have put in a good word for me.
I picked my way down the stairs, hugging the walls of the surgical theater, and exited into the hallway where the headmaster was waiting, foot stomping the seconds away as if they were roaches he was exterminating.
“When is the last time you spoke with the maid Ileana?”
My heart pounded. Seemed Thomas and I weren’t the only ones who thought her behavior suspect. “I believe it was two days ago, the evening of the thirteenth, sir.”
“You believe so. Is attention to detail not critical to being a student of forensics? What other things might you miss that would be detrimental to a case? I ought to strike you from the course now and save us both time and energy.”
I bristled at the bite in his tone. It was harsh even for him.
“I was being polite, sir. The last I saw her was the thirteenth. I’m certain of it.
I’ve had a new chambermaid since then. She’s informed me Ileana’s on duty elsewhere in the castle, though I no longer believe that to be true.
Perhaps you ought to speak with her and see what she might be hiding about Ileana’s whereabouts. ”
Moldoveanu inspected me with the squinty-eyed look of someone staring at a specimen under a microscope. I pressed my lips together, no longer trusting myself not to snap at him for taking so long to speak again. “And what, exactly, do you believe to be true about Ileana now?”
“I believe she knows something about the murder of Mr. Wilhelm Aldea, sir.” I hesitated before voicing my next concern, worried that if Anastasia returned unharmed, she would murder me when she learned I’d betrayed her trust. “I—I also wonder if she knows where Anastasia is. Anastasia left a note for me… begging not to tell you where she’d gone, but never offered any further details. ”
Moldoveanu’s hand flexed at his side, the only outward sign of how furious he was. “Yet you didn’t bother to inform me of your suspicions. Do you recall anything out of the ordinary over the last few days? Anything substantial to confirm your claims?”
There was the matter of the two people I was certain I’d seen dragging a corpse through the woods. I’d already told him about that, and he’d sneered. I wasn’t about to subject myself to further scrutiny. “No, sir. Just a feeling.”
“A feeling. Otherwise known as a nonscientific finding. How unsurprising for a young woman to be ruled by her emotions instead of rational thought.”
I slowly inhaled, letting the action calm the flames of my own annoyance. “I believe it’s important to incorporate both science and instinct, sir.”
The headmaster curled his lip away from his pointy incisors.
It was truly remarkable that a man could be in possession of such animalistic teeth.
I was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t a medical condition he ought to have checked out when he finally clicked his tongue against those instruments of impalement.
“We’ve already spoken with your new chambermaid. She’s been dismissed from her duties. I suggest you stay away from Ileana if you do see her again. You may return to class, Miss Wadsworth.”
“Why? Do you believe she has something to do with Anastasia’s disappearance? Have you searched the tunnels?” The expression the headmaster offered was nothing short of terror-inducing. If I’d thought his teeth were intimidating, it was nothing compared to the depthless loathing in his icy gaze.
“If you were a wise girl, you’d stay out of those tunnels and any chambers located in them.
Heed my warning, Miss Wadsworth.” He glanced into the surgical theater, gaze landing on the corpse.
I could have sworn there was a flash of sadness before he turned back to me, eyes full of rage.
“Or you might find yourself under Percy’s blade next. ”
With that, he pivoted on his heel and marched off, leather soles slapping the floor. Snakes seemed to slither through my intestines. Somehow I made my way back into the surgical theater and sank into my seat. I went through the motions of taking notes, but my mind was torn in half.
I needed to know how the girl on Percy’s dissection table had perished, if not solely from the bats’ depredations. But I needed to sort out the mystery of both Ileana’s and Anastasia’s whereabouts as well. Thomas watched me over his shoulder every few moments, lips pressed in concern.
Percy’s next words pierced my racing thoughts. “Clearly Miss Anastasia Nádasdy succumbed to the wounds she sustained.”
All thoughts were tossed from my head as if a washbasin had been thrown out.
I stared at Percy, blinking disbelief away.
He couldn’t mean—My gaze traveled from my teacher to the corpse laid out before him.
He tugged the shroud from her face. Little gears clicked and turned, hissing as this new information fitted into place.
The young woman who’d been attacked in the tunnel chamber by vampire bats was Anastasia?