Chapter Ten

A Corpse in the Wall, and an Urchin on the Rooftop

 

Ten students and three faculty gathered in front of the newly-discovered missing student. Miss Delancy immediately set the staff to retrieving the corpse. Heather’s remains were taken to the Biology lab where Professor Halestone, a coroner in his previous profession, would investigate the cause of death.

Miss Delancy had teachers stand at each end of the hallways, to keep other students out of the way. As luck, fortune, and high explosives would have it though more students were curious as to what caused the large mushroom cloud from the cricket pitch.

While that was going on, the witnesses were shuttled into the auditorium.

“Hope we don’t get stuffed into any walls,” Julia giggled to Verity, who took no comfort from that.

Miss Delancy stood on the front of the stage, along with a polished gentleman, bespectacled, wearing a very smart suit. He was definitely not part of the faculty, and he carried a clipboard. Verity did not like people with clipboards.

“You are the only students, faculty, and staff witness to this terrible event,” Miss Delancy began, her hands wringing nervously, “and considering what we saw—what we all experienced—I want to be crystal clear we are well enough to move on.” She took in a deep breath, shaking her head. “An incident like this can truly draw unwarranted attention, perhaps even damage the reputation of a school. Discovering the carcass of an elk, perhaps the antics of some subversive pagan cult when this school was first built, is truly shocking.”

Verity furrowed her brow, and looked over to Julia and Emma. They were there. It was not some dead animal they unearthed. The dead body was Heather von St James.

“Such a terrible sight can make young fragile minds confused. This is why I put a call into town.” She then motioned to the stranger in the smart suit. “Doctor Jacques R Hood is a physician from Quinne Asylum, and will be interviewing you all. I just want to make sure we all saw the same thing—a sad animal trapped within the walls of our fine academy—and that our minds aren’t playing tricks with us.” She paused, and stared down at her trembling hands. “I would so hate to refute any nasty rumours. Repeated refutations would, of course, indicate the pressures of the Delancy Academy have pushed you beyond the brink of sanity. This is why I have called in Doctor Hood here. He is most anxious to speak with you all.”

“Bloody clever,” Emma whispered.

“This woman’s got some Scots blood in her,” Julia added.

A brilliant play on Delancy’s part, and it would take all of her focus to fool this asylum doctor. “Emma, you alright?”

“I don’t think this Doctor Hood is here to find out what makes us tick. He’s here to make sure we all tell the same story.” Emma sat up and nodded gently. “And that is precisely what I mean to do.”

Verity blinked. “Are we just going to play Delancy’s game?”

“Telling the truth is not going to bring this James girl back from the dead,” Emma whispered. She then fixed Verity with a look. “And if I do, then it’s off to Quinne Asylum…where I will wish I were dead.” She looked back up to the stage. “No, thank you.”

This was the cost of survival then. Just as it was in the streets of London. Look away. Turn a blind eye. Otherwise, you become part of the problem. It is not a matter of eventually being removed from the problem. You will be removed. You will be forgotten. To survive, you have to look away. As Emma did.

As she did when talking to Doctor Hood from Quinne Asylum.

After wandering the library to lose herself in decades of literature and the comforting smell of old books, just to clear her mind and avoid any further discussion of the matter with either Emma or Julia, she finally returned to her room, hoping to enjoy some solace.

“Hey there!” Emma was sitting on Verity’s bed, swinging her legs and chomping on an apple she had undoubtedly stolen from the kitchens.

“Chew with your mouth closed,” she replied, even though she knew it was a lost cause.

Emma blissfully ignored her. “What’s the matter?”

Verity raised her eyebrow. “Well apart from the body in the wall, Henry has made himself invisible too. How can such a tall young man hide so completely?”

“Oh, he’s on the roof,” Emma told her, pushing her curls out of her face so she could chew the remains of the apple right down to the seeds.

Verity let out a long sigh. “I should have known.” She held a hand out towards the younger girl. “Please, stay here. I am sure you don’t want to hear more arguing with Henry.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “You’re right on that one.”

Though astronomy was not Verity’s cup of tea, she did appreciate the view the Observatory provided of the surrounding moors. She climbed the spiral stairs upward, opened the heavy door leading to the roof, and took in the autumn breeze with delight. Yes, this academy was an incredible learning place, but it was also somewhat claustrophobic. The wind caught at her hair and tugged it loose from her braid. It nipped at her ears and nose with its chilliness, but she didn’t mind.

Apparently neither did Henry. He had his back to her, and she was unsurprised to see he was fiddling with his ornithopter.

Normally she wouldn’t have been able to sneak up on him, but he was so engrossed, she was able to reach out and tap his shoulder. Seeing him jump was rather satisfying.

“Verity,” he said, the alarm etched into his face melting into a scowl, “have a care. This is delicate.”

Fingering the fabric of the wing, she gave a shrug. “It shouldn’t be. Winds here look considerable. I’m sure you’ll make the necessary adjustments.” She watched him for a moment, waiting for him to ask about what happened. He appeared lost in his work. “I only came up here to get your report on the Boys’ Wing. Have you found anything out?”

“Not much,” he replied over one shoulder. “Found one curiosity though. Apparently all the staff are new. Only arrived last month—even tha’ terrifying Mrs Pyke. Delancy fired the previous bunch and got a whole new lot in.”

Verity shrugged. “I can see her doing that if someone put their foot out of line.”

Henry just grunted, but Verity deliberately ignored his signals that he wanted to be alone. Going to the edge of the roof, she leaned against the crenulations and peered out in the direction of the farmhouse where the rest of the Seven were staying. The blue-grey of the clouds made the scene seem very ominous.

Verity turned around and stared at Henry’s back as he worked. She had some ideas on exactly where the ornithopter needed adjustments, but with his rather cavalier attitude towards the Ministry, a gracious benefactor if there ever was one, she chose not to offer suggestions. She already knew how that would go.

“Did you hear about the dead body?” she asked conversationally, since she couldn’t think of anything else to break the silence.

Henry nearly dropped the left wing. “The what?”

“So you didn’t hear?”

“I knew about the explosion from the cricket pitch, but Seddon is a bit cracked in the head. But you’re saying she killed someone?”

“Yes,” and then she shook her head. “I mean, no—I mean…ugh…the dead body was a girl who has been missing for two weeks. She had been buried in the wall. I don’t think Seddon killed her.”

“A missin’ girl buried in a wall?” Henry said, twirling a wrench in his grip. “Well, guess Agent Thorne’s sent us to the right place then, now didn’t he?”

Verity crossed her hands in front of her and stared at him. “What is wrong with you, Henry? It was a girl, a student like both of us, just stuffed in there.”

He gave a shrug. “I didn’t know her, neither did you. She’s just a name and a mystery to me.”

All the frustration she’d been feeling building up against Henry in the last few weeks began to boil over. Verity’s cheeks grew hot, and despite where they were, she couldn’t let him get away with this.

“Henry Price,” she said in a low tone, “what on earth has happened to you?” When he merely blinked at her, it only increased her outrage. “You didn’t used to be like this!”

His jaw clenched, but she’d obviously hit a nerve because he couldn’t let it lie. “That’s rich that is! Coming from you, with all your secrets and lies. You never used to be like this either!”

“Well,” she said, advancing until she was toe to toe with him, “at least I’m not so cold that a girl’s death doesn’t affect me at all.”

His eyebrows drew together, and his features grew as stormy as the moors. “We’ve been on the streets a long time. We’ve seen more deaths than we’ve had hot dinners.”

“But this one is different!”

“Like you is what you really mean.”

They stared at each other for a moment. Verity tried to calm herself, but it was very hard. Finally, she replied as evenly as she could, “What if it were me, Henry? What if it were me stuffed in that wall? You need to practice this little thing called empathy now and then.”

“Always with the fancy words,” Henry muttered, and it was obvious he just wasn’t going to understand here and now.

Rather than biting his head off, she took a deep breath. Her words were, even to her ears, incredibly controlled. “We have a job to do.”

“I know.”

“Then do it.”

Henry finished tying up his ornithopter and hefted it over one shoulder like a rucksack. “Just remember something, Verity. We’re family. Beat up, squabbling, hand to mouth, but family. We come before the Ministry. Always.”

For a moment she wondered if he could read her mind, but she nodded. “I know that.”

“Good,” he said, walking away from her back to the stairs, “let’s go shake things up and find this bloke. We need to get out of this damn school before we all get too used to it.”

Verity tilted her head, and the words escaped her before she had a chance to think about it. “Would that really be so bad?”

The look Henry shot her blazed with fury. “Yes it would, Verity. London is home, not this academy. We don’t belong here.” He stuffed the ornithopter back into its bag, leaned it against the wall, and moved some boxes over so it was out of sight of both the doors and windows.

As she turned and followed him back down the stairs, she did manage to keep the words, Well you don’t at least, unspoken, otherwise the argument would have raged well into the morning, and she simply didn’t have the energy for that, right now.