Page 14 of The Devil in Oxford
I cannot let him suffer for my…
For mywhat?
I should never have spoken to her like that. She had every right to be worried and to ask my assistance, and here I was suspecting her motives.
I opened my eyes to see Ruan standing before me, waiting on me to speak. “What do you think?”
“That she’s hiding something.”
As do I.
Drumming my fingers on my hips, I paced around the darkened kitchen. “I don’t for one moment believe she was at the Ashmoleanas she said—but she seemed shocked that Reaver had not returned to Harker’s Curiosity Museum. So if not there, then where were they?”
Ruan raked his hands through his dark curls, resting his palms atop his head. “Harker was put into the box before the exhibition. It doesn’t matter where they were at the time of the discovery—what matters is where they were at the time of death.”
My mind raced trying to add up the pieces, not at all liking the cursory answer I reached. “Harker hadn’t been seen for at least two days before he was discovered. The body”—I winced at the recollection—“might have been dead that long. I didn’t get a good chance to examine him, but I am pretty certain he was put in there alive. Someone removed his tongue and sealed him inside.”
Ruan made a low growl in his chest, keeping stubbornly to the other side of the room.
“But why not kill him first? Why stick him in there to suffer?”
Ruan shifted, cocking his head to one side. “To send a message.”
“It does seem that way—but Leona is right on one thing. Mr. Mueller certainly did not kill him. That box was airtight. If Mr. Muellerhaddone it, he could have left him in a storeroom and Harker’s body would have turned to dust before anyone ever thought to open it. No one would have ever wondered upon his disappearance, assuming that he’d simply run off due to debts or some other scandal.”
“Unless whoever it was who killed him wanted Mueller out of the way too. It would tie things up neatly and send a message to anyone connected to them to not ask questions.”
“From stitching up injured children to pondering motivations for murder. I truly wonder at how your mind works.”
“I could say the same.” That deep divot of worry formed between Ruan’s dark brows. “I hate to say this…”
“We have another murder to solve, don’t we?”
“Indeed, and I don’t for one moment believe that this is astraightforward matter.” He took a step closer. Near enough that I caught the heady green scent of him. The warmth of his skin that I’d once had the privilege of sharing. But no more. He folded his arms across his chest, palms tucked against his body. I struggled to swallow.
If Ruan sensed the discord in my thoughts, his expression did not betray him. “I know you have your doubts about the other world. Aboutmyworld.”
I let out a huff of air and turned away before I did something absurd like touch him. “I will grant you that witches exist, and perhaps ghosts—”
“Perhaps ghosts,” he said with a dry laugh.
My brows rose. “I admit there may be some truth to your and Mr. Owen’s otherworld, but I am not a part of that world. I’m not like you, and despite the macabre display of Julius Harker’s body, this is not a curse or a haunting. This is murder, plain and simple.”
He wet his lips wanting to say something, but held his tongue, not wanting to belabor the point. “Perhaps, but I felt the lure of that world at the museum. It pulsed strong enough that I’d convinced myself it was simply your nearness that made mefeelthings that weren’t real. Surely you sensed it too?”
I shivered at his words, my mind returning to how uneasy I’d been inside the museum. How hot my body was, the panic that grew each time I allowed my mind to wander. I’d ascribed it to the crowd, but what if Ruan was right and there was something else at play here? Add that to the uncanny dog at the end of the lane. An omen ofdeath. I tugged my dressing gown tighter around my body. Not that the thin material stood a prayer of protecting me from what we were about to do.
“Leona said there were rumors that Harker was involved in the occult.”
Ruan grunted in agreement. “There were rumors about himresearching the otherworld when I was in school here. It’s my understanding he was interested in my kind. Those of us who live between the borders of the two worlds.”
“Witches?” I furrowed my brow, scarcely believing I was having this conversation at all.
“And… ah… other things.” He shifted awkwardly.
Ah. Right. As if this were normal pre-dawn conversation. “Do you think that has to do with why he was removed from his post?”
Ruan shrugged. “Whatever it was he was studying, he’d gotten in some sort of trouble over it and it was covered up. Be it the otherworld or simply a radical intellectual position. He’d crossed someone at the University, that’s for certain.”
