Chapter 2 #2
Her eyes grew wide, and she studied me. “I thought your parents died several days after?”
I shook my head. “The council and my family agreed we’d announce them at different times and make them appear separate to avoid rumors and speculation. But they’re actually the same day.”
“Okay,” she said, soaking in the new information with relative ease. “So you believe that Moonrot has something to do with the death of the king and queen?”
“I think it has something to do with their murder.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and went a little rigid. “Wait, murder? I thought they died in a car accident.”
“I thought so too, but things don’t add up.
” I pulled up a couple of documents on my computer.
One was a coroner’s report. “You see? The estimated time of death doesn’t match up with how long they were supposedly driving in the car.
It only takes thirty minutes from Pemberley to get to where they died on the road. ”
“And the coroner says they died about an hour or two before that,” Lizzy examined the document. “So you think someone killed them beforehand and then staged the car accident?”
“Fae magic could make it seem like an accident without the killer needing to be in the car if you used a brief animating magic.”
Her hand landed on my arm. “Darcy, I’m so sorry.”
I clenched my jaw, a sense of resolve coursing through me.
“There has to be some connection between Moonrot and my parents' murder. The curse must have been released by the killer or as a result of their death.” I took a slow breath, trying not to show how her compassion made me want to confess my true feelings to her. Anyone would be compassionate after a story like that. It didn’t mean anything.
“I have a list of everyone who had been near my parents close to their deaths.”
At some point, Netherfield had added two mugs of hot chocolate on the adjacent table, and within the steam drifted tiny hearts with the initials D+L. The manor was anything but subtle.
Lizzy had slid even closer as she gazed at the list, her entire left side flush with my right. My arm itched to move and place itself around her shoulders, to invite her closer, but I refused to give in to the temptation, knowing she most likely wouldn’t welcome it.
“These are all members of the council,” she said.
“My parents had given the servants the night off. I’ve double-checked their alibis, and every one checks out.” There were three names. All had been interviewed after my parents' death; all had insisted it was an accident. One or more must be lying. I gazed over the list:
Mr. John Rittle (Council Member; Met with parents right before murder. Possibly the last person to have seen them alive)
Clara Ashchombe (Council Member; had a disagreement with my parents over a recent Tea Incident)
Sir Walter Elliot (Council Member; the meeting before Mr. Rittle. Disagreed with a lot of my parents' policies)
“So it looks like Sir Walter Elliot disagreed with your parents on policies?” Lizzy asked.
“Yes. My parents were very traditional. But Sir Walter is, well…
“Ancient?”
“Yes. Any policy my parents tried to implement that was new, he opposed. He was their strongest critic. He also met with my parents the night they died, though he wasn’t the last.”
“And John Rittle was the last to meet with them,” Lizzy said as she grabbed a mug, ignoring the hearts, and took a sip.
“Yes, he had the most opportunity.”
“Did you discover they were there because of the video feed at Pemberley?”
The video surveillance at Pemberley was extensive. I shook my head. “My parents turned off the video cameras that night. They did that sometimes when they didn’t want their meetings recorded.”
She raised an eyebrow at that. “Then how did you know these people were around your parents?”
“My parents' itinerary from that night notes who they met with.”
Lizzy leaned a little closer. “And Clara Ashcombe? She’s on the council and…”
“She met with my parents that night as well. Before Sir Walter.”
She squinted at the screen. “What is the Tea Incident?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. I wasn’t used to telling others about my parents’ drama.
But I trusted Lizzy. “One time, my parents invited a famous fortune teller to a charity event that both they and Mrs. Ashcombe attended. The fortune teller offered to read the tea leaves in Clara Aschombe’s cup.
Clara allowed the reading, and the fortune teller announced publicly that she was in a scandalous love affair.
Of course it was false, but that didn’t stop the gossip. ”
Lizzy grimaced. “And because your parents invited the fortune teller, she blamed them for her humiliation.”
“Yes. But normally, she and my mother were good friends. It was the only conceivable motive I could come up with. Clara Ashcombe texted me earlier today,” I told Lizzy.
“She said she has news about how my parents died and asked to meet at the Hearthside House Inn in a couple of days. But I called the place before my plane took off, and it turns out she already checked in.”
Lizzy set the mug aside and looked at me, clearly on the same track. “You want to try to catch her early?”
“Your father isn’t doing great, so like you said, we don’t have time to spare.”
“If we can find the person who killed your parents and maybe make them talk, then we might find out how Moonrot started,” Lizzy surmised. “If we figured out what caused it, maybe we can figure out how to undo the curse.”
“I thought the same thing.” I looked into her mesmerizing gaze and willed my heart to be steady.
“But I may be wrong. There’s a chance the coroner is mistaken about the time of my parents’ death.
Plus, the date of the curse and my parents' death may just be a coincidence. There’s a chance that there could be no connection at all. ”
Lizzy’s presence offered a sense of hope that we might find a solution to this mystery together. After all, we’d already solved a murder. But that one was recent, whereas this one was years old now.
Lizzy stared at the list on my laptop. “It’s the best lead we have.”
I leaned back and nodded. “Most of the Council members have already arrived for the festival and are staying at the Hearthside House Inn. The last of the representatives and their families should arrive tomorrow.”
Her hands curled into fists, and a determined set came to her jaw. “Then we start with Clara Ashcombe. It's too late tonight to try to talk to her, so I’ll meet you tomorrow morning at the Hearthside House Inn.”
The festival started the day after tomorrow and ran for six days, finishing on Valentine’s Day. That gave us only a week to find the killer and solve the mystery of Moonrot. For the sake of Lizzy’s father, there was no room for failure.