Page 13 of The Devil in Oxford
Ruan held my gaze for several seconds, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Last night…” Leona hesitated, staring at the reddish tiles of the floor. “On the way home after leaving the Ashmolean, I saw the commotion outside Harker’s museum. At first I thought Julius had shown himself and done something truly outlandish.” Her voice trembled. “But then the police told me that Mr. Mueller had killed Julius… that they were going to arrest him.”
I paused at her words. Leona lived on the far side of town closer to the castle. The Ashmolean lay between her home and Harker’s museum. There was no path she could have reasonably taken that would bring her back to the scene of the crime on her way home—unless she was returning there for some reason. I kept my worries to myself and crossed the space between, clasping her wounded hands in my own. “You have to tell us everything that you know about Harker. Mueller. All of it.”
Leona tensed.
“Ruby…” Ruan’s voice carried a warning edge.
“Ihavetold you everything I know!” Her lovely brown eyes grew wet. “I begged the police not to arrest him. I told them he was harmless—that he’d have no reason to harm Julius. But they refused to listen to me. Why would Mr. Mueller be foolish enough to expose his own crime publicly? It makes nosenseand yet they threatened to arrest me if I didn’t get out of their way and mind my own business.”
“You’ve had a shock, Leona. You should go home. Get cleaned up and get some sl—”
“Do not speak to me like I am a child, Ruby Vaughn,” she snapped, wiping hastily at her tears. Even Ruan was startled by her sudden flash of temper. “I am not some delicate creature to be coddled. A man was brutally murdered and his killer is still out there—”
I opened my mouth then snapped it shut.
“I thought you of all people would help me.”
I pointed to my chest before gesturing wildly. “Me? What exactly do you want me to do? I don’t know this town. I don’t know these people.”
“Has that stopped you before?” She jabbed at me with her forefinger. “You’ve solved at least two separate crimes. All I’m asking is for you to help me prove Mr. Mueller is innocent. Surely that cannot be difficult.”
I gave her an incredulous stare. “Leona… I had no choice in either matter. In Scotland I was accused of the blasted crime and in Lothlel Green…” My gaze drifted absently to Ruan, whose own breath was caught in his chest observing the interplay between us.
“In Lothlel Green you helped because it was Tamsyn?” Leona whispered softly, finishing the sentence with words I refused to utter.
Her words dug their way between my ribs. But she was right. Tamsyn had been my dearest girlhood friend, and somewhere along the way we became a great deal more than that. She’d been my confidante, my best friend, my lover. Then she walked away. I’d fancied myself in love with her, but now I wondered if that was so. If instead it was infatuation, grasping for stability, for purpose, formeaning.
I took a step toward Leona and swallowed hard. She was right. “What would you have me do?”
“You could start by being a little less dismissive and by trusting me. I came here to ask myfriendto help me.”
Guilt gnawed at me. “It’s only that I’ve been in your shoes more times than I care to admit and often the best course of action is to not get involved—I have been poisoned, I’ve been shot. Nearly drowned. Please trust me. You donotwant to go digging into things if you don’t have to.”
“But Imust. Mr. Mueller is innocent, and I cannot let him suffer for my—”
My ears pricked. “Yourwhat…?”
She shook her head angrily, slamming the teacup down on the table with a crash, and stormed to the door, flinging it open, before looking back over her shoulder. The cold wind rushed in, pressing her filthy skirt to her legs. “You’ve changed, Ruby Vaughn.… Suspicious and skeptical, and I’m not sure I like who you’ve become.” She turned and hurried out into the night, leaving the door wide open in her wake.
What in the world had happened?
I crept across the kitchen and stepped into the alley after her but Leona had disappeared into the inky night. The icy cobbles stung my bare feet as I glanced down the lane, to where a great beast ofa dog stood sentinel. From this distance I could not tell what sort of a dog it was, beyond the fact it had to weigh well over eighty pounds with dark fur. It was illuminated by a gas streetlamp. Was this the dog I’d heard?
There was something altogether menacing about the creature when it turned its head to stare at me. I stepped backward into the lane, then darted into the house, stumbling over the threshold, and closed the door tight behind me, heart hammering in my chest.
“Are you all right?” Ruan asked.
I wasn’t sure. I wet my lips, staring at the doorway. “In the folk stories. In yourotherworld…what does a great dark dog mean?”
Ruan sniffed, picking up one of the long-forgotten tea sandwiches, and took a bite. “Death usually. Why do you ask?”
I swallowed hard, pushing the image of the creature illuminated by the gaslight from my mind. “No reason.”
He narrowed his gaze but let my lie pass. There had been a time not so long ago when Ruan could scarcely keep from being close to me. The casual brush of his hand. A soothing hug. A touch of my cheek. But now he kept a full room’s length between us.
I closed my eyes, regretting every single minute of my conversation with Leona. She had known something. Her concern for Mr. Mueller was beyond friendship.
