Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
Ishook William’s cold, dry hand then barrelled out of his office. Lady Penelope rose to her feet but I ignored her and sped to the front door so I could get back to the market. Before I did anything, I wanted to talk to Trilby and look for that cat.
I heard the vampire call after me but I ignored her.
The marketplace was busier now but as I drew close I could already see that Trilby had left their stall.
There was no sign of them anywhere. Next I cast around and searched for the silver Maine Coon.
Frustratingly, there was no sign of the handsome moggy either.
‘You are most tiresome, Ms McCafferty,’ Lady Penelope said as she caught me up.
I turned to face her. Her arms were folded and her eyebrows were raised. ‘Do you often get cats down here?’ I asked.
‘No.’
‘But…’
She cleared her throat to interrupt me. ‘You have been marked and given permission to travel around the Understream. My duty is done and I shall take my leave. Good luck, Ms McCafferty. I hope you find out what has happened to our friends.’
I nodded distractedly, still determined to locate the Maine Coon. As Lady Penelope turned away, my thoughts cleared. ‘Wait!’
She gave a long sigh but didn’t turn around. ‘What now?’
I manoeuvred myself in front of her. ‘Thank you for escorting me to the Bureaucratic Suite,’ I said.
‘You are welcome.’
‘You’ve been very helpful up till now.’
Her eyes narrowed. I pressed ahead. ‘I have a map.’ I waved the paper William had given me. ‘And I have a plan.’
‘Good for you,’ she said drily.
I hoped I wasn’t making a terrible mistake. ‘But I will have more success if I have some real vampiric support. I’ll find places more quickly and people will be more inclined to speak to me if you are with me.’
She stared at me for so long that I wondered if I’d mortally offended her but finally she spoke. ‘You are asking for my help?’
‘Yes.’ To succeed in my task, I needed to have the vampires on my side.
As cold as she appeared, and despite our bickering, Penelope had given me brief glimpses of a warmer side to her nature and she was obviously respected by the other fanged creatures.
Plus, her presence would go a long way towards ensuring the other vampires trusted me.
‘What is it in it for me?’ she demanded.
‘Finding your friends,’ I said quietly. ‘Regardless of what reward I might reap for completing my Minor Investigations course, this investigation isn’t about me. It isn’t about you either, even though this is your home. It’s about finding those missing worms, the ones you call friends.’
Lady Penelope paused again. ‘I am not often surprised by creatures from above ground,’ she said finally, ‘but you have surprised me, Ms McCafferty.’ She nodded. ‘Yes, I will accompany you.’
I grinned. ‘Fantastic!’
‘I reserve the right to withdraw my support at any time.’
‘No problem.’
‘I am only agreeing to this because I care deeply for our friends and I do not wish for any more of them to vanish.’
‘Understood.’
‘And you will do what I say when I say it.’
‘We can negotiate that part.’
She tutted loudly but she also smiled. It was a tiny movement that barely lifted the corners of her mouth, but it was enough for me.
I jabbed at the map in my hands before she changed her mind. ‘I want to go here first. To the worm stables.’
‘A wise decision,’ she murmured. ‘Very well.’ She turned left. ‘They are this way.’
My smile widened. I was winning the hearts and minds of the local population in order to advance my investigation. Captain Montgomery would be proud.
It didn’t take long to reach the stables where the worms lived when they weren’t working – they were less than fifteen minutes from the marketplace.
From the direction we took, I worked out that we were beneath the Belladonna Hotel.
I spared a thought for all those well-heeled guests who had no idea that they were sleeping on feather beds above a can of giant worms.
‘The Princess and the Pea on crack cocaine,’ I whispered. Lady Penelope looked confused. Rather than explain my odd thoughts, I focused on more pragmatic matters. ‘Tell me about the worms,’ I said. ‘How long is their typical life span?’
‘About three hundred years.’
My mouth dropped open. ‘Really? That long?’
‘They are well cared for.’
All the care in the world wouldn’t allow the likes of me to live beyond a hundred. Cat sith or not, I didn’t possess nine lives – and I didn’t want to. ‘Nice to know,’ I said blandly. ‘How old were the four who went missing?’
It wasn’t Lady Penelope who answered. ‘They range from a mere babe at fifty-two to the eldest at 260 years old.’
A grey-haired man had shuffled out of the entrance to the worm stables.
He was definitely a vampire, the oldest presenting vampire I’d ever seen.
He had a long, straggly beard above gaunt cheeks; he looked more like a senior citizen who deserved to see out his days by a warm fireplace with a lazy cat than a predator with sharp fangs who could rip out my throat at a moment’s notice.
‘Good day, Anthony,’ Lady Penelope intoned politely. ‘This is Ms McCafferty. She is here to investigate the worms’ disappearance.’
He looked at me then his mouth turned down in obvious disapproval. ‘We are relying on sun dwellers now to fix our problems?’ he grunted.
‘It’s a long story,’ I said. I stuck out my hand. ‘Lovely to meet you.’
He ignored me. ‘I have been petitioning for someone to take my poor lost worms more seriously and this is who you give me?’
‘It was supposed to be Alan,’ Lady Penelope began, ‘but…’
‘Alan? Alan Vennington? That limp wanker?’
‘He has been completing a training course with the MET above ground,’ she told him. ‘He is learning how to investigate crimes more effectively.’
‘Then where is he?’ Anthony swung his head, pretending to search for Alan. ‘I don’t see him here.’
‘The course leader decided that the students should swap cases. He is investigating Ms McCafferty’s case and she is investigating this one.’
He rolled his red eyes. ‘I think we all know why she’s really here, don’t we?’
Lady Penelope stiffened. I eyed Anthony with interest. ‘Do tell,’ I said.
He didn’t deign to look at me. ‘Nicola, Solly, Fields and Tiger,’ he hissed at Lady Penelope.
‘I know the worms’ names, Anthony.’
He raised his voice and repeated, ‘Nicola, Solly, Fields and Tiger! Our friends!’
‘Ms McCafferty will search for them.’
‘She is not one of us!’
This wasn’t going well so I cleared my throat; it was time to take charge and bring Anthony to heel. ‘I want to find the lost worms,’ I said. ‘When did the first one vanish and how did it happen?’
Anthony turned to Lady Penelope with a pained expression. ‘When did the first worm vanish?’ she asked. ‘And how did it happen?’
So much for me taking charge of the situation.
Briefly closing his eyes, he clenched and unclenched his fists before finally replying. ‘Nicola went first, three months ago. She was due to return for her midday snack. It was a Friday, which was her favourite day because Fridays are fish days, but she didn’t come back from her route.’
I was tempted to ask if she was a Christian worm and was that why she liked fish on Fridays but I refrained. ‘I thought the worms were herbivores.’
Lady Penelope’s brow creased. ‘So did I. Do they all eat fish, Anthony?’
‘I supplement their diet as and when required.’ He sniffed. ‘Omega 3 is important for heart health.’
Worms had hearts? Who knew? Every day was a school day. I changed tack. ‘What was Nicola’s route?’
Anthony looked at Lady Penelope and she repeated my question while I suppressed my irritation. ‘Migden to the groves and back,’ he muttered.
‘We follow roughly the same geography in the Understream as above ground,’ Lady Penelope told me. ‘Most areas down here are tunnels rather than meeting places such as the marketplace. It helps with the geography to think about what lies above.’
Anthony snorted but didn’t comment. He was obviously planning to continue ignoring me so I looked at Lady Penelope. If she was willing to play the role of pointless interpreter then I supposed it didn’t matter as long as my questions were answered. ‘Ask him about the other worms.’
It took some time to winkle out the information and little of it was useful. All four had vanished at different times and on different routes. The only common denominator was that they were all giant worms.
‘William suggested there were other creatures lurking down here beyond the mapped tunnels. Could some other creature be preying on them?’ I asked.
Lady Penelope frowned at my question but when she repeated it to Anthony, he smirked.
‘Impossible,’ he said. ‘Only a fool would ask such a question. I expected better of you, Penelope. You know what lurks in those tunnels. There might be things out there that would attack a stray vampire who has ventured too far beyond the city boundaries, but nothing would dare come close to the mapped tunnels.’
From out of the corner of my eye, I saw Penelope stiffen. It was a subtle movement but noticeable. Hmm.
Anthony continued blithely, ‘There is certainly nothing that would attack a worm.’ He raised his eyes to the ceiling. ‘Honestly. What a ridiculous notion!’
His denials were too elaborate, particularly when coupled with Penelope’s physical reaction. ‘Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much,’ I said.
For the first time since we’d met and he’d registered that I wasn’t a vampire, Anthony turned to me. ‘How dare you?’
‘Enough.’ Lady Penelope’s tone was sharp. She looked at me. ‘It is true that there are creatures down here to be feared, but I promise you that none of them would be bold enough to take down one of our worms, Ms McCafferty.’
I would take that under strict advisement.
I nodded then curtsied to Anthony because I knew it would annoy him even more. ‘Thank you for your warmth and precious time,’ I said. ‘You have been too kind.’
‘Well, that was fun,’ I remarked, as we walked away from the stables.
Lady Penelope released a long-suffering sigh. ‘Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.’
‘People always say that without knowing the second part of the quotation,’ I told her. ‘What Oscar Wilde actually said was that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence.’
‘That silly foppish man was a fool.’ She sniffed dismissively.
I glanced at her. ‘Did you know him?’ Stranger things had happened and she certainly would have been alive during Wilde’s lifetime.
‘Is the answer important to your investigation?’
Obviously not. I held up my hands in mock surrender; clearly anything of a personal nature, however mundane, was out of bounds. ‘Never mind,’ I said.
She sniffed again. ‘Where to now?’
‘I want to retrace each worm’s route,’ I replied. ‘If any of them were attacked, there’s bound to be some evidence.’
‘We have already checked that, Ms McCafferty. There is nothing to see and no evidence of any attacks.’
I handed her the map. ‘Tell you what. Mark out each worm’s route for me and I’ll investigate them on my own.’
‘I am not refusing to come with you, I am merely stating that it is a waste of time.’
I didn’t say anything. Eventually, when the silence grew too much even for Lady Penelope, she clicked her tongue. ‘I will summon another worm to take us.’
I grinned. ‘Nope. I want to do this on foot otherwise we might miss something.’
The vampire looked horrified. ‘There are several miles to cover.’
I patted her shoulder. ‘Then we’d better get a move on.’