“I’m not too clear on what a truthspell entails,” said Dorimant hesitantly. “How does it work?”
“It’s really very simple,” said Gaunt. “Once the spell is cast, no one in this room will be able to tell a lie for a period of about twenty to twenty-five minutes. The duration of the spell is limited by the number of people involved. You can of course refuse to speak, or even evade the question, but that in itself tells us something. For as long as the spell lasts, nothing can be said but the absolute truth.”
“If we’re going to do some serious talking, how about a little wine to wet our whistles before we start?” said Stalker. He held up the bottle of white wine he’d been using to fill his own glass.
“Hold it,” said Hawk. “I’m not too keen on wine at the moment. Gaunt, can you check it hasn’t been tampered with?”
“Of course,” said Gaunt. He gestured lightly with his left hand, and the wine seemed to stir briefly in the bottle. “It’s perfectly sound, Captain. Not one of my better vintages, but...”
Stalker shrugged. “With your taste in wine, it’s hard to tell. Now; who’s for a drink?”
It seemed everybody was. Gaunt passed round the glasses, and Stalker poured the wine. People began to relax a little. Stalker left Hawk to last, and gestured with his head that he wanted to speak privately with him. They moved away a few feet.
“Just a thought,” said Stalker quietly, “about the locked room. You staked a vampire earlier today, right?”
“Right,” said Hawk. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Think about it,” said Stalker. “Vampires are shapeshifters, remember? They can turn themselves into bats, or even into mist.”
Hawk nodded slowly. “Right ... a locked door wouldn’t stop a vampire, not once it had been invited into the house. It could turn to mist and seep through the cracks round the door! No, wait a minute; it doesn’t work.”
“Why not?”
“The undead don’t usually need to stab their victims with a knife. And besides, vampires don’t eat or drink; they can’t. But everyone here was invited to dinner, and I’ve seen everybody with a glass in their hand at one stage or another. No, it’s a nice idea, but there are too many ways a vampire would have given himself away by now. Thanks anyway, sir Stalker.”
“You’re welcome. It was just a thought.” Stalker moved back to rejoin the others.
“If everyone would care to take a seat,” said Gaunt, “we can begin.”
Hawk and Fisher and the guests pulled up chairs in a rough semicircle facing the sorcerer. He waited patiently till they were settled, and then made a sweeping motion with his left hand. Time seemed to slow and stop. Gaunt spoke a single word of Power and there was a sudden jolt as the whole room shook. There was a vague tension in the air, and then everything snapped back to normal. Hawk frowned. He didn’t feel any different.
“Who’s going to ask the questions?” said Gaunt.
“I will,” said Hawk. “I suppose we’d better start with a test. My partner is ...” He tried to say the word short, and found he couldn’t. His mouth simply wouldn’t form the word. “Tall,” he said finally. “Your spell seems to be working quite efficiently, sir sorcerer.”
Gaunt nodded calmly. Fisher gave Hawk a hard look, and he smiled awkwardly. He looked quickly round the assembled guests, and braced himself. All right; in at the deep end.
“Sir Gaunt, let’s start with you.”
“Very well.”
“You are a sorcerer.”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill Blackstone and Bowman?”
“No.”
“Did you bring about their deaths indirectly, by use of your magic?”
“No.”
“You have an acquaintance, who helped you in the Hook. Is that person in any way associated with the murders?”
“That is ... highly unlikely.”
He didn’t say it was impossible, thought Hawk. Let’s push this a little further.
“You were once sorcerer to the King,” he said carefully.
“Yes.”
“You quarrelled with him.”
“Yes.”
“Was it about your acquaintance?”
“In a way.”
“What happened? Why did you leave the Court and come here, to Haven?”
Gaunt hesitated, and then sighed jerkily. “The King wanted her for himself, and I wouldn’t give her up. I couldn’t. So I came here, to ... work things out on my own.”
“Wait a minute,” said Lord Hightower. “Who are you two talking about? What’s this woman got to do with anything?”
“Apparently nothing,” said Hawk. “Please relax, my Lord; we’ll get to you in good time. That’s all for the moment, sir sorcerer. Now then, sir Dorimant ...”
“I didn’t kill them,” said Dorimant quickly.
“I have to ask the question,” said Hawk politely. “Otherwise your answer won’t mean anything. Did you kill Blackstone and Bowman?”
“No. No, I didn’t.”
Hawk looked at him narrowly. Dorimant was sitting awkwardly in his chair. His smile was weak and his eyes were evasive. He’s hiding something, thought Hawk. I wonder what?
“You said earlier that Visage was with you at the time of the first murder,” he said slowly. “Was that true?”
“Yes,” said Dorimant, though he didn’t look too happy about admitting it.
“Why was she with you?” said Hawk.
Dorimant looked at Visage, who bit her lip and then nodded unhappily. Dorimant looked back at Hawk. “She was the first one to find William’s body,” he said reluctantly. “She’d gone to his room to talk to him, and found him lying dead on the floor. She came to me for help.”
Everyone sat up straight in their chairs. Hawk felt a sudden rush of excitement as he finally put two and two together. He looked at Visage.
“The room wasn’t locked when you found him? You just walked right in?”
“Yes,” said Visage. “It wasn’t locked.”
“Of course,” said Hawk happily. “That’s it! That’s what I’ve been missing all along!”
Fisher looked at him dubiously. “What are you going on about, Hawk?”
Hawk grinned. “I’ve finally worked out how the murder took place in a room locked from the inside. Simple: the door was never locked to begin with!”
“Of course the door was locked,” said Fisher. “You had to break it down with your axe! I was there, remember?”
“How did you know the door was locked?” said Hawk. “Did you try to open it?”
“Well, no ...”
“Exactly. Neither did I. Katherine came down and told us the door was locked. We went back with her, but she was careful to get to the door first. She rattled the door handle convincingly, told us again that it wouldn’t open, and ordered me to break the door down. Afterwards, the lock was such a mess we couldn’t tell it hadn’t been locked. And that’s why we found the key on the floor, and not in the lock.”
Everyone looked at Katherine, who stared at the floor with her head bowed.
“Is this true?” asked Gaunt.
Katherine nodded tiredly. “Yes. I lied about the door being locked. But I didn’t kill William.”
“If you didn’t, then who did?” said Stalker.
“No one,” said Katherine, looking up for the first time. “He committed suicide.”
“What?” said Fisher. “You have got to be joking!”
Everyone started talking at once. Hawk yelled for quiet, and went on yelling till he got it. The voices died away to a rebellious silence as Hawk glared impartially about him.
“Let’s take this from the beginning,” he said grimly. “Visage, you found Blackstone’s body. Tell us what happened.”
Visage glanced briefly at Dorimant for support, and then began her story in a low whisper.
“I wanted to talk to William. There was something about Gaunt’s house that made me feel uneasy, and I wanted to be s
ure he was wearing his amulet of protection.”
“The one you designed for him,” said Hawk.
“Yes. Stalker gave me the idea. He’d seen something like it in his travels.”
Hawk looked at Stalker, who nodded. “That’s right, Captain. They’re very common in the East, and with all the recent threats I thought the amulet might be a good idea. I explained the theory to Visage, and she made the amulet for William.”
“All right,” said Hawk. “Go on, Visage.”
“I went to William’s room and knocked on the door. There was no answer, but the door was ajar, so I pushed it open. William was lying on the floor. I ran over to him and checked his breathing, but he was already dead.”
“Did you touch the knife?” asked Fisher.
“There wasn’t any knife,” said Visage flatly. “When I found William, there wasn’t a mark on him. I saw the wineglass by his hand, and I assumed one of his enemies had poisoned him. I didn’t know what to do. I know I should have gone to you, Captain Hawk, but I was afraid to. I was the one who’d found him, and I thought I’d be blamed.... I panicked, that’s all. I ran back to Graham’s room and told him what I’d found. He was kind to me. He said that we’d go and tell you together, and say that we’d both found the body. We were just getting ready to go downstairs when we heard you breaking down William’s door. And then ... well, we heard about the knife and the locked door, and we didn’t know what to think. Graham never doubted me, but ... In the end, we decided to say nothing. I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me, and I didn’t want Graham to get into trouble by supporting me.”
Hawk waited a moment, but Visage said nothing more. He looked at Dorimant. “Is this true? You conspired to conceal evidence in a murder case? Even though the victim was your friend?”
“I had to,” said Dorimant. “You and your partner have a reputation for violence. I had to protect Visage. William would have understood.”
“Let me just check that I’ve got this straight,” said Fisher. “Visage found Blackstone’s body before Katherine did. Only then, the door wasn’t locked and there was no knife wound. Katherine finds the body later, brings us up to see it, but fools us into thinking the door is locked when it isn’t, and never was. And when we find the body, there’s a knife in Blackstone’s chest.” Fisher looked at Katherine. “I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”
Katherine Blackstone looked at the glass of wine in her hand. She hadn’t drunk any. “Captain Hawk was right about the locked door,” she said finally, “But I had to do it. When we first left the parlour and went upstairs to change for dinner, I went to visit Edward Bowman in his room. We were lovers. When I returned to my own room, I pushed the door open to find my husband lying dead on the floor, a half-empty wineglass lying by his hand. Like Visage, I thought immediately of poison, but I knew it wasn’t murder. It was suicide. A few days ago I finally confessed to William about my love for Edward. I was going to divorce my husband, in order to marry Edward. William threatened to kill himself if I left him.” She looked pleadingly at Hawk and Fisher. “Don’t you understand? I couldn’t let his death be suicide! The scandal would have destroyed his reputation, and everything he’d achieved. People believed in William; he was Reform. The truth about me and William and Edward would have been bound to come out, and William’s enemies would have used the scandal to undo everything he’d achieved. My life would have been ruined, and Edward’s political career would have been at an end. I had to protect my husband’s reputation, for all our sakes. So I took William’s knife from his boot and thrust it into his chest, to make it look like a murder. As a martyr, William could still serve the party he founded. Particularly, if no murderer was ever found. And how could the killer be found, when there never was any murder?”
There was a long pause. Hightower stirred restlessly.
“That is possibly the most ludicrous story I have ever heard,” he said finally.
“But true,” said Gaunt. “Every word of it. The truthspell is still in force.”
“So William killed himself,” said Dorimant.
“I don’t think so,” said Hawk. “I can see how it would have looked that way to you, Katherine, but I still believe your husband was murdered. You see, the wineglass has mysteriously disappeared from Blackstone’s room.”
“The wine wasn’t poisoned,” said Gaunt. “I checked. I even tasted it myself.”
“It still has to be significant,” said Hawk stubbornly, “or it wouldn’t have been taken. But we can come back to that later. Katherine, is there anything else about your husband’s death that you haven’t told us? Anything else that you’ve concealed from us?”
“No. There’s nothing else. I didn’t kill my husband, and I didn’t kill Edward.”
Hawk thought a moment, and then turned to look at Visage. “Did you kill Blackstone and Bowman?”
“No,” said the witch quietly. “William was already dead when I found him. And I don’t know anything about what happened to Edward. Although ...”
“Yes?” said Hawk.
Visage frowned. “There was a funny smell on the landing....”
Hawk waited, but she said nothing more. He turned to face Lord Hightower. “My Lord ...”
“I object to this whole proceeding.”
“Just answer the questions, my Lord. Did you kill Blackstone and Bowman?”
“No,” said Lord Roderik. “I did not.”
Hawk looked at him thoughtfully. He couldn’t think of any more specific questions to ask the Lord Hightower, and he had a strong feeling that what answers he did get would be as unhelpful as Hightower could make them. Hawk sighed silently. He could tell Lord Hightower was edgy about something—it was plain in his face and his manner—but there was nothing he could do about it for the moment. If he did put the pressure on, and found nothing to justify his actions ... Hawk turned to the Lady Hightower.
“My Lady, did you kill Blackstone and Bowman?”
“No.”
Hawk looked at her for a moment, but her level eyes and the tight line of her mouth made it clear that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with her either. Hawk scowled. The truthspell had seemed like such a good idea at the time.... He turned to Stalker.
“Sir Stalker, did you kill Blackstone and Bowman?”
“No.”
Hawk sat back in his chair and frowned thoughtfully. He’d asked everybody outright, and each had denied being the murderer. That was impossible. One of them had to be the killer, so one of them must be lying. But since the truthspell was still in force, they couldn’t be lying.... He thought hard. He was missing something again; he could feel it.
“Sir Stalker...”
“Yes, Captain Hawk.”
“Whoever the killer is, he must have extensive knowledge of this house, to be able to move about it as freely as he has. Gaunt told me earlier that you had been very insistent in your attempts to buy this house. Perhaps you could tell me why this house is so important to you.”
Stalker hesitated. “I can assure you my reasons have nothing to do with killing Blackstone and Bowman.”
“Please answer the question, sir Stalker.”
“This used to be my home,” said Stalker quietly. “I was born here.”
Everyone gaped at him. Dorimant got his breath back first.
“You mean you’re actually a DeFerrier? I thought they were all dead!”
“They are,” said Stalker. “I’m the last, now. And I prefer to use the name I made for myself. I ran away from home when I was fourteen. My family had become ... corrupt, and I couldn’t stand it any longer. But this house is still my home, and I want it.”
Hawk thought furiously. He and Fisher had only lived in Haven a few years, but he’d heard of the DeFerriers. Everybody had. They were an arrogant and evil family, sexually perverse and heavily involved with black magics of the foulest kind. It took a long time to prove anything against them; they were after all an old, established family, with friends in high place
s. But then children began to disappear. The Guard finally forced their way into the DeFerrier house, and what they found there shocked even the hardest Guards.... Three DeFerriers were hanged for murder, and two more were torn to pieces in the streets while trying to escape. The others had all died in prison, one way or another. And this was the family that had produced the legendary Adam Stalker, hero and avenger of evil....
“Is that all?” asked Stalker. “I really don’t have anything else I wish to say.”
“Yes,” said Hawk, snapping alert again. “I think I’m finished now. I don’t have any more questions.”
“You may not have,” said Lord Hightower, “but I do.” He looked about him. “There are two people here who haven’t been questioned under the truthspell. Don’t any of you find it suspicious that these murders only began after Hawk and Fisher entered this house?”
“Oh, come on,” said Fisher.
“Wait just a minute,” said Dorimant. “We all know William had enemies. What better way to get to him than by the very Guards who were supposed to be defending him? Who’d ever suspect them?”
“That’s ridiculous!” said Hawk.
“Is it?” said Visage. “We’ve all had to answer under the truthspell. Why shouldn’t you?”
“Very well,” said Fisher. “I didn’t kill Blackstone and Bowman. Hawk, did you kill them?”
“No,” said Hawk. “I didn’t.”
There was a long silence.
“Well, that was a waste of a good truthspell,” said Stalker.
“Right,” said Dorimant. “We’re no nearer finding the murderer than when we parted.”
“It wasn’t a complete waste,” said Hawk. “At least now we know how Blackstone died.”
“And we know the murderer isn’t one of us,” said Visage.
“There’s no one else in this house,” said Gaunt. “There can’t be. One of us has to be the killer.”
“You heard the answers,” said Hawk. “Everyone here denied being the murderer.”
Gaunt frowned unhappily. “Maybe you didn’t word the questions correctly.”
“Grabbing at straws,” growled Lord Hightower.