Page 85 of Slouch Witch
Price swung his head towards Winter’s car, obviously praying this was someone who would rescue him from the mad blonde witch who’d kidnapped him. Winter, however, merely got out of his car and crossed his arms over his broad chest. His headlights illuminated both Price and me. When he stepped forward into the light and Price realised who he was, his shoulders sagged in defeat. ‘It was an accident,’ he mumbled. ‘I didn’t mean to do it.’
Triumph coursed through me. ‘Go on,’ I said, keeping my voice even although it was difficult not to fist pump the air.
‘I went to him to ask for help. I’d found the Cypher Manuscript in my drawer but I hadn’t put it there, I swear! I’d never have taken it. But when I realised what it was, I knew no one would believe me. I begged Diall to do something. At first he told me he’d look into it but then nothing happened. He didn’t do anything. You lot were crawling over everything and Diall had left me hanging. It was only a matter of time before I was fingered. So I went to see him again. He told me it was too late, I’d been an idiot and the smartest thing I could do was to come clean. All he worried about was himself and how this would reflect badly on him,’ Price said helplessly. ‘He said he’d made a mistake helping me to get this job, that I was going to screw it up after everything he’d done for me. He didn’t want anyone looking into my files too closely because they’d incriminate him. He told me that I had to confess to taking the Manuscript to save everyone else. He never cared about me! He only ever cared about himself!’
I stared at Price. Everything he’d said sounded like the truth. He was too anxious and panicked and it seemed like he wanted to get it all off his chest. Had he really been set up from the start? If so, by whom?
‘What did you do with the Manuscript?’
He dropped his head again, the picture of misery. ‘I planted it in Oscar Marsh’s desk. He’s a drunk and an idiot. Diall had complained about him often enough so I knew he’d be perfect. If someone was going to blame me then I’d blame someone else. I burnt one page, went to his house and left a fragment there for someone to find.’ He stared with wild, writhing eyes. ‘It was only because I didn’t have a choice! There was no other way out! You’d never have believed me if I’d told you the truth.’
‘Did you kill Adeptus Exemptus Diall because you didn’t have a choice?’ Winter asked so quietly that it took a moment for his word to register.
Price gazed back at him. ‘It was an accident! When I told him I wouldn’t confess to something I hadn’t done, he tried to arrest me! He was going to use a spell against me and turn me in so I grabbed his knife to try and hold him off. I didn’t mean it to hurt him.’
‘Itdidn’t hurt him, Price,’ Winter said. ‘Youhurt him.Youkilled him.’
Price dropped to his knees and started to sob. ‘I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to. Oh God, please help me.’ His shoulders started to shake and he covered his face with his hands, unable to say another word.
Winter had no sympathy. He reached into his car and drew out a set of handcuffs. ‘Adeptus Major Price,’ he intoned. ‘You are under arrest by proclamation of the Hallowed Order of Magical Enlightenment. Any attempt to use magic to provoke, conceal or avoid taking responsibility for your actions will be held against you, regardless of your guilt or innocence. You are entitled to legal representation and to apply to the non-magical courts for consideration.’ He snapped the cuffs round Price’s wrists and pulled him up to his feet. Then he glanced at me. I gave him a smug smile. Yeah, I’d solved Diall’s murder.
In your face, Order Boy. In. Your. Face.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Winter drove Price back to the Order headquarters in his car while I followed. It was probably just as well the poor murdering witch didn’t have to travel with me because I turned up the music so it was blaring out deafeningly. Yeah, it was the middle of the night but so what? I’d just solved a murder. I deserved it. Of course, that didn’t stop Winter glowering at me when we finally arrived back at the Arcane Branch building.
While Price was being processed and the police were informed, Winter drew me into a small room down a narrow corridor. I looked round. ‘Is this your office?’ I enquired. ‘It’s kind of pokey. You should try out for Human Resources. I hear there’s an opening.’
He ignored my words. ‘What did you think you were doing back there?’ he enquired icily.
‘Your job,’ I said, hopping up onto his desk and swinging my legs. ‘I’m kinda hungry now though. You got anything to eat?’
Winter gritted his teeth. ‘You could have been hurt, Ivy. If Price had turned on you…’
‘He tried and he failed. He was never going to get the better of me. And I never would have managed it if you’d not used culver root to try and get rid of me.’
‘A cornered animal…’
‘Yeah, yeah. My methods might have been unorthodox but I got results. Quit complaining.’ I punched him lightly on the arm. ‘All’s well that ends well.’
‘Is it?’
I looked at him. ‘You believe that Price was telling the truth about the Cypher Manuscript,’ I said. ‘That it was deliberately left in his office by someone else and he just panicked when he found it.’
Winter didn’t say anything.
‘It’s possible,’ I admitted. ‘He doesn’t appear to have the intellectual power to put a plan like stealing Volume 9 into place and the way it was nicked was pretty damn intricate. It didn’t take much to get him to confess, either. It was as if he wanted to tell me what he’d done. But if Diall took the Manuscript, he might have planted it in Price’s desk because he wanted to get rid of him. His little protégé wasn’t working out as well as he’d hoped and he wanted to get rid of the dead wood. Instead, he just ended up dead himself.’
Winter rubbed his chin. ‘No. In that scenario Price would have given Diall up in a heartbeat. Don’t forget that Price said that Diall didn’t want to be incriminated if the HR files were looked at too closely. There must be details in there that prove that Diall used his position to get incompetents promoted beyond their station. The only way to avoid scrutiny of the files would have been for Price to give himself up. It wasn’t the plan at the start, though. Price also said that Diall had promised to help him when he went to him the first time.’
I snapped my fingers. ‘Because Diall thought he had the inside track onyou. You wanted to investigate Diall, you told me that yourself. He must have known you were onto him and was already taking measures against you. He was afraid you were going after him. When Price went to him the first time, he’d already sent Bell End and Alice on their mission against Eve. They weren’t there because of Volume 9, they were there because Diall was worried about you and what you were up to. But when Bell End and Alice didn’t come back…’
Winter jumped in, warming to my theory. ‘He must have known something was wrong. He didn’t know about you but that didn’t matter. He thought the gig was up. His only saving grace was that there was no sign of either Bellham or Fairclough so he couldn’t know for sure what had happened to them. Maybe he thought he could blame Price for everything. If Price was charged with stealing Volume 9, anything could be laid at his door and the world would probably believe it. In any case, Diall would have wanted as much deniability as possible so he was prepared to walk away from Price and whatever deal they’d made. With his only ally abandoning him, Price would have been desperate. We know that he used the HR files to find Oscar Marsh. He was being set up and, unable to see any other way out, he set up someone else in the process.’
‘But,’ I pointed out, ‘Price was being set up for stealing the Cypher Manuscript. If Diall didn’t take Volume 9 and Price didn’t take Volume 9, then who did?’
‘Someone with a grudge against Price.’ He paused. ‘I spoke to Maidmont. He doesn’t think that the Manuscript has been touched apart from the single page that was burnt. Maybe we’ve been going about this wrong way. We focused first on the idea that it had to be a higher-level witch who was the culprit and then that it was someone related to Diall who was tired of being used by him. But what if it’s the opposite? What if it’s someone lower down the scale who wanted to see a witch like Price get his comeuppance for being given a position they didn’t deserve?’
