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THE NEXT TWO WEEKS were remarkably calm. The children were well-behaved, and with Maddy at the other house, Danny returned to following the boys around, and once Arroo had healed, she returned to playing with Cannon and the other boys.
After three months, each of the boys and Maddy received a puppy. While she knew Pete, Cannon, Ham, and Danny would be loving to their new pups. Vic still had concerns about Maddy. However, when she offered Maddy a little girl pup, Maddy cried with happiness and promised she’d take great care of her puppy. While she still hated the other dogs and the boys, she seemed to love her female puppy with all her heart.
That left three puppies to give away. She gave one to the fire chief, who helped them discover the fire on their roof before it caused any damage.
Stone admitted he would like the giant pup, insisting it would be the most troublesome of the lot. To ensure the pup would be doomed, he named it Trouble.
That just left a sweet little female who loved to provide kisses. Vic decided to keep the cherub for herself.
Now that the pups all had their special owner, they played together with perfect manners. Including Trouble. Yes, he continued to outgrow the other pups, but he was so gentle and protective of his pack that she convinced Stone to give him a new name. After considering the matter, he added, “No” to the front of his name. “No Trouble” seemed to like his new name.
Stone would often state it was a shame that Vic couldn’t follow in No Trouble’s footsteps.
Not surprisingly, that only resulted in Vic growling at Stone.
Unfortunately, when they would go to a park to train the pups, other children wanted to pet and sometime try to steal the pups. No Trouble was not having it. He kept a sharp eye on the pups and intervened with barks for assistance if a little dog napper wouldn’t set the puppy back down. While this normally caught the attention of the mothers of said children, some parents had the audacity to scold No Trouble. If Stone had come out with them, which he often did, he would scold the parents. Otherwise, Vic would provide the scolding. But to be honest, Stone was by far the better scolder.
Vic was shocked upon discovering Claire picking up one of the puppies, as the children and pups played in their favorite park. Normally, No Trouble would bark at the person, but he didn’t with Claire. Instead he sniffed her, then whined at Vic.
“This is a cute fellow. May I have him?” Claire asked.
“Sorry, but they already have owners,” Vic replied.
Claire rolled her eyes. “I just want one of them.”
“They all have owners.” Vic repeated.
Claire’s eyes narrowed. “I see you’re as selfish as always.”
“I’m not trying to be, but I am not going to give you a puppy that someone else already loves.”
Claire sighed, then slipped the puppy into her large purse.
Before Vic could object, No Trouble secured the pup and carried it away. He had been so clever about it, that it was likely that Claire still believed the pup was inside her bag.
“Why are you here, Claire?”
“I’m here because you keep trying to put me into institutions. I am not insane. A doctor declared me rational. You’re the problem, not me.”
“How am I your problem, Claire?”
“You’ve convinced everyone to hate me.”
“Claire, I still love you. I will always love you. But honestly, you would be better off in an institution.”
“I am not insane. I’m just smarter than you, and that makes you jealous!”
“You are smarter than me, but I’m not jealous of you. I just dearly want you to be well. I’m sorry that I have caused part of your problems.”
“How so?”
“I sent you to an evil mesmerist. I had thought he was a good man and would help you. Instead he made you much worse.”
“That’s a lie. You killed him out of jealousy. But I forgive you. It turns out that I am happier without him than with him.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I truly want you to get better, but you’ll need help in doing this.”
“Are you offering to help me, Vic?
“No, you need a professional.”
“But I had a professional, only you killed him.”
“He was not a good man.”
“You should be in jail for that, but somehow you have everyone wrapped around your fingers. They dance like puppets to your tune.”
“No, I just have rational friends.”
“You are the most selfish person I know. You steal and kill other people’s husbands. You are a terrible person. Honestly, you are the one who should be locked up.”
“Claire, it is very clear you remain angry with me. If you don’t wish to be put in a quality institution, then go somewhere far away where you can forget me and move on with your life.”
“Why should I bother? Wherever I go, you will show up. You are always chasing me down.”
“Claire, the last time I chased you down, I believe I was six years old.”
“No, it was last week. When I was visiting MY daughter!”
“And yet, instead of visiting her, you tied up an old woman and don’t try to claim it was Maddy who did that. When I untied her, I recognized the complicated knot that you used.”
“No, it was Maddy who tied her up. Just ask her.”
“You’ve no doubt threatened her into claiming she tied the knot, but yesterday I asked her to show me the knot she tied, and she couldn’t do it.”
“She’s just playing you for a fool,” Claire insisted.”
“Claire, not even I can tie that knot. Which means you broke into Vivian’s house and assaulted her. And if you ever come near any of my family again, I will call the police.”
“How dare you threaten me!” Claire screamed. “She had no right to be there!”
“She had every right. It’s her house, Claire.”
Vic sighed. “We aren’t making any headway. So, I’m going to grab the children and take them home.”
“You do that. Let’s just hope you have a home to go to.”
Vic met Claire’s angry glare. “I’m sorry!”
“For what?
“For not protecting you better. I was the eldest. I should have gotten you better help sooner.”
“No worries there. Your concept of protection doesn’t appeal to me at all. I rather enjoy doing whatever I wish,” Claire assured her.
Her words sent Vic into tears, which prevented her from seeing, nor warning Claire to run before Barns and Meyers secured her arms behind her back.
“What are you doing?” Claire demanded.
“Claire Hamilton, you are under arrest for the murder of fifteen young men.”
“You have no proof that it was me. All those deaths were different, which means different people killed them.”
“While the deaths were so brutal that we assumed it was a man at first, you failed to kill victim number sixteen. He not only told us we should be looking for a female, but he gave us your name as well.”
“You lie! I didn’t leave any of them alive.”
Vic focused on Claire in horror. “You killed sixteen young men?”
“Of course not. You killed those boys, Vic. It is solely your fault that they died. The one I wanted to kill was you. Only Tubs keeps you protected. I was furious to learn that the idiot I had married hit Tubs on the head but failed to finish him off! By the time I arrived, he was already back protecting you.”
“How can you hate me this much?” Vic cried.
“How can I not? You are so selfish. Whatever Victor wants, Victor gets. But nothing for Claire, despite that I am the smarter of us.”
Vic forced herself to look away from her sister and focus on Barns. “What will happen to her?”
“She’s killed fifteen people, Vic. She’ll hang for this.”
Claire’s face paled. Then she focused on Vic. “Vic, it isn’t true. All those people were alive when I left them. If they died later, it’s not my fault.”
Vic turned to Barns. “You are certain Claire did this?”
“Absolutely. While each fellow died in a different manner, she always placed a ‘get well soon’ card on their palm. She’s guilty, and she will hang.”
Be careful. She’s brilliant. Without a doubt, she has an escape plan. I suspect she picks locks as good as Jacko.”
“How dare you accuse me! I would never do something so foolish.”
Barns glared at her. “You forget, we have a living victim who also received a card and knew your name?”
“It wasn’t me who killed them! It was Victor!”
“Barns be careful. Claire is most clever. If you put her in a jail cell, she will escape.” Vic warned.
“I won’t lose her.” Barns promised. “Here’s Xavier. He’ll take you, the children, and the pups home.”
Seeing Xavier exiting his carriage, she called her massive parade of pups and children to the carriage. Once inside, she took a headcount. Four boys, one girl, eight puppies, and a worried husband. Sighing with relief, they headed home.
When Xavier didn’t question what Claire had done this time, she realized he already knew. When tears fell down her cheeks, Xavier pulled her tight to his chest and kissed her temple.
Upon arriving home, Gregory gave her a hug as well.
“So, you know what Claire has done as well?”
“No. I hugged you because something has hurt you to your core.”
Vic nodded and hugged him harder.
“What did Claire do?” Gregory asked.
Vic looked up at him. “It will break your heart, but you have to know.”
Gregory gripped her shoulders and stared at her with great compassion. “Tell me.”
“Claire will be charged for the deaths of fifteen young men and one attempted murder. She killed them, for no other reason than they looked similar to me.”
“Dear God! Why would she do that?”
“She said it was because Tubs protected me too well for her to kill the one who she truly wished to kill.” Vic threw her arms about Gregory. “If only I had realized sooner that the doctor was making her worse, not better.”
“Thank God you killed that monster.”
“But not soon enough.”
Xavier spoke softly behind her. “Vic you could not have stopped this. These deaths began almost a year ago.”
“But she was in the asylum for much of this year!”
“She was supposed to be, but it turns out the doctor not only let her roam about outside the gates during the day, but they had many night excursions as well. But since the doctor always accompanied her, the guards never reported the issue to anyone.”
“Is it possible he killed some of the young men rather than Claire?” Vic asked.
“During the early attacks, perhaps, although there is no proof of it. I have assessed the crime scenes and talked to the locals. In all but the first case, someone did remember a beautiful young woman smiling at the corpse then grasping the dead man’s hand. A moment later, a carriage would stop. The driver would climb down, assist the frail young miss inside, then drive off. Only in two cases, did anyone notice a man in black, seated in the back with the young woman. However, I expect he had come with her for all but the last one, in which the boy lived.”
Vic sighed “She no longer had the mesmerist to assert his will, for I had killed him. So why would she keep killing even after I killed the mesmerist?”
Xavier sighed. “Because she couldn’t stop. The compulsion that he created inside her, to kill you, remained firmly in her brain. Since her carriage burned in the fire, I have no idea where she obtained another one. She then entered the pub where a young man, who looked like you, celebrated his wins on a horse. Claire probably whispered that she wished to go home with him. He, no doubt jumped at the chance to bed such a fine lady. The moment they entered a dark alley, she would have injected a needle into the base of his neck. The fellow would have been knockout in seconds. Then she would slip the card into his left hand and return to the carriage.”
“So how did the young man survive?”
According to Sergeant Meyers, he found the young man in the alley and believed him to be yet another dead Vic. He placed the body in his carriage planning to take it to the morgue that Scotland Yard uses. Only a few moments later, the young man sat up, certain he was being kidnapped. Making the possibility even more likely, he quickly discovered his camera and money were gone.
Sergeant Meyers had the driver head to Scotland Yard as he explained to the young man that some fellow was going about killing thin young men with blond hair. “We thought you were the sixteenth victim. And I still think you were meant to be, only the fellow must have done something wrong this time.”
The young man’s response changed everything. “Well, first of all, it wasn’t a guy. It was a young woman named Claire Hamilton. And I’ve no idea what she did to me, but it knocked me right out.”
When they arrived at Scotland Yard, Sergeant Meyers took him to Barns right away.
“I want charges pressed against Claire Hamilton. Once she knocked me unconscious, she stole my money and my camera.”
Once Barns got more information about the camera, he checked the back of the young man’s neck. Upon sniffing it, he told the fellow he needed to scrub the back of his neck intensely, or he still might die.
Thirty minutes later, the young man returned with a very red, but clean neck.
“Did she leave anything in your hand?” Barns asked.
The young man sighed. “Yeah, a card. I gave it to your sergeant, I was so weak, that I feared I would drop it.”
“Excellent. You are the first out of sixteen men to survive. He then shared the pictures of the other fifteen men.”
“Wow, they all sort of look like me.”
“Yes, and since we were looking for a man as our killer, we would have never discovered the true killer, if not for you.”
“Honestly, if Claire hadn’t jabbed me in the back of the neck with a needle, I wouldn’t have believed her to be a danger to anyone. She seemed so sweet. Hell, I had invited her to come home with me.”
“Well, according to Dr. Connors, your camera strap saved your life. But you will need to buy a new strap.”
“Doesn’t matter now. I no longer have a camera.”
“Actually, you do. When we picked up Claire, she still had your camera and your money. We’ll be returning both to you. But Dr. Connors is quite certain you will die if you keep the camera strap that you currently have.”
The fellow grinned. “While I’m not happy about that, at least, I’ll have the money to buy a new strap.”
“That’s the spirit. We will also need you to testify, of course, since you are the only survivor. However, we’ve got your information, so right now, you can go and enjoy your day.”
A moment after he left, Vic stormed past the desk on the first floor, thundered up five flights, and burst into Barns’ office. “I want to see the proof that my sister killed these men.”
Barns sighed heavily but didn’t yell at her for her outrageous behavior.
“And why wasn’t Xavier and I involved?”
“Honestly, we had no clue who was killing people that resembled you.”
“Well, that in itself should prove Claire didn’t do it. If she wanted to kill me, she knew exactly where I was.”
“True, but with Tubs always keeping you safe, she had no chance of killing you. So, she appeased herself by killing those who looked similar to you.”
“And what is your proof!” Vic demanded.
“To be honest, if not for the cards left in the hand of the dead person, we wouldn’t have thought the murders had any connection to each other. None of them were killed in the same manner.”
“And what did the card say?”
He pulled a card and handed it to her. It read: Get Well Soon.
Vic stared at the card for several silent minutes. “I can’t believe she would do this!”
“I’m sorry, Vic.”
“She creates the perfect, unsolvable murders, all different, then puts a card in the dead man’s hand, which will prove they are done by the same killer?”
She met Barns’ sad eyes. “This means a part of Claire wants to die. She knows how much I love her. She knows I was supposed to look out for her.”
“Vic, Claire is insane. You cannot let her break you! You have too many people who love and need you to be strong,” Barns chided.
“I do. And I will hold to that. What I won’t do is watch her die. Her final punishment is that she wants me to watch her hang. To make me believe the death of the fifteen young men were my fault. But they aren’t. They are entirely hers.”
“I agree,” Barns replied. “And how do you plan to proceed?”
“I refuse to bear her torment for the rest of my life. So, on the day of her death, my very large family is going to come together in our home and celebrate our wonderful life. This party will begin in the morning and continue through the night. I know you have to attend to her hanging to ensure she doesn’t escape, but you are part of my family. I hope that you, Captain Meyers, and any of your men or women who wish to stop by will be able to find time to do so. I want to celebrate life. I need to move forward. I will remember my baby sister when she was but five-years old. That was the best year in her entire life!”
Barns’ pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s a good thing you have so much space between your homes, because I expect a great many of my staff will want to attend. In fact, I will probably have to ask one of the ladies to create a schedule for the day. Otherwise, we’d have to shut down Scotland Yard, and the members of Parliament would no doubt take away my bonus.”
“We can’t have that. So, I’m glad you hired all those competent young women to work for you.”
“As am I,” Barns stated. “Now go home, so I can get matters going from here.”
Vic stood and frowned. “How can you be absolutely certain Claire can’t escape? I don’t believe a normal jail cell will hold her.”
“I agree. So, she is in a concrete room with no window and the door is steel, with a thin slot through which food and water can be provided. The door is triple locked so even if she acquired a pick, slipped her hand out, and picked the complex locking system across the center of the door, there are still two locks that she cannot reach.”
“But someone outside her room could.”
“No, they can’t. I will not explain why, but I assure you, she cannot escape this jail cell.”
“And the day of her hanging? She will have to be let out then.”
“Yes, of course. Her feet and hands will be shackled. We will ensure she has no picks anywhere on her body. Then I will personally escort her to the stand.”
“Make certain her skin bleeds. The female mesmerist that we caught wore fake skin. Which meant both hands appeared to be cuffed and secured, but one of the hands was a fake. If not for me and Tubs, she would have escaped.”
“Yes, I recall the situation, and we will test both arms and legs while we remain in the cell with her. My men and I have learned a great deal from your efforts to keep our country safe.”
“Never forget that my sister is incredibly brilliant, far more than the mesmerist we caught back then. Despite all your good intentions, I fear she’ll still find a way to escape.”
“I cannot imagine how.”
“When you hang her, how will you know she’s truly dead?” Vic asked. “A hanging is a poor choice when wishing to kill a brilliant person, especially one so small.”
“Damn it all! You are right! Claire could very well survive her hanging! I need to speak to the judge at once!” He pushed out of his chair, gripped Vic’s arm, and hurried down the steps. Once outside, Vic insisted that she wished to go home in her carriage.
“Of course. Thank you, Vic, for your assistance today.” He then entered his own carriage and rushed off to speak to the judge.