From The Ashes (The Ministry of Curiosities #6)(26)

"Who is Thomas Rampling?" I asked.

"A dead man who may know the identity of the killer. Didn't you tell her, Fitzroy?"

"There hasn't been time." Lincoln stood by the fire while Seth, Gus and I sat in the armchairs ranged around the hearth. He looked tired. It didn't detract from his handsomeness.

I studied my clasped hands in my lap to keep my gaze averted from the distraction, and to hide my sore palm.

"You had the entire journey from York!"

"Seth," Gus hissed. "Shut it."

I could feel their gazes on me so I looked up and mustered some defiance. "Our compartment was full," I lied. "We had no opportunity to talk at length about the murders. And when we did…we had other things to discuss."

Lincoln shifted his stance from one foot to the other. I glanced at his face and caught him looking at me. A small crease connected his brows.

"Then you best get comfortable, Charlie," Gus said. "We've got quite a tale."

They told me about the circus strongman's murder, and how Lincoln's informant led them to a gunman named Jack Daley who'd pulled the trigger. Somehow they managed to get Daley to divulge the name of the man who'd hired him—Thomas James Rampling. I suspected Lincoln had employed his usual method of coercion to force Daley to talk, since he avoided answering my question about it. Unfortunately, Rampling had drowned before they could speak with him and it was his spirit they wished me to raise. Hopefully he could identify the mysterious man who'd hired him. All they knew was that he was a toff and had sent Rampling to pay gunmen to kill supernaturals whose powers could potentially be developed to bring the dead back to life, something that Victor Frankenstein had tried, and failed, to do with my necromancy.

Seth leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Rampling's spirit is our only hope of finding the truth."

"What about Gillingham?" Gus said with a shrug. "You goin' to investigate him, sir?"

"It's unlikely that he's guilty," Lincoln said.

"What about Gillingham?" I asked. "Is he a suspect for any particular reason or simply because he's a turd not fit to grace the bottom of anyone's shoe?"

Seth smirked and Gus chuckled. I could swear the corners of Lincoln's lips twitched too. "Lady Gillingham is a shape-shifter," he said.

I sat back in the chair, the breath knocked out of me. "Bloody hell. You mean like the two girls I met at the school?"

"I suspect so. She turns into a…creature."

"Did she tell you this? Or her husband?"

"I overheard them talking and became suspicious enough to investigate. I climbed in through her bedroom window and watched her sleeping."

My fingers curled into the leather armrest. "I see."

"She was covered in fur and resembled a wolf, of sorts. Her heightened senses allowed her to hear and smell me. She attacked, stopping only when she recognized me. We talked and she told me that she was born with the ability to change at will between her human form and this other, but she's mostly the other creature during sleep. Her husband discovered this fact last summer." Around the time Lincoln kidnapped me because of my necromancy. It was soon after that the killings began.

I let the armrest go. Small half-circles from my fingernails dented the brown leather. "You said you don't consider him to be a suspect. Why not?"

"His wife disgusts him, yet he hasn't killed her."

"She can't bring the dead back to life though, or in any way reanimate body parts or raise spirits. If he's only killing those types of supernaturals, then he might still be the murderer."

Lincoln nodded and I suspected he had kept that fact in mind, but still didn't think Gillingham was the murderer.

Gus snorted. "He hates his wife."

"He's terrified of her," Seth added. "He doesn't like to be near her. He doesn't want their children tainted."

"Some people would consider a supernatural trait to be an enhancement," I said huffily.

"Not Gillingham." Seth sat back, crossed his legs, and flashed his white teeth in a smile. "That's why there's no fear that he'll want to marry you, if his own marriage ends. My apologies if that disappoints you, Charlie."

I rolled my eyes, catching Lincoln once again watching me intently. "I'll cope with the disappointment."

"I still reckon Gilly's guilty," Gus said. "I don't like him."

"If we killed everyone we didn't like, there'd be no one left on the committee," Seth said.

"I weren't talkin' about killin' him."

"How naive you are."

"No one will kill anyone without good reason," Lincoln cut in. "Not even Gillingham, if he proves guilty."

"Spoil sport."

It would seem there was only one option available to us then. Raise the spirit of Thomas Rampling. At least now I knew why Lincoln had fetched me back. He did need me, but not for his own happiness. He needed me to use my necromancy, just like he'd needed me in the beginning of our acquaintance. I wasn't surprised. Lincoln had very few needs for himself, either emotional or physical.

I may not have been surprised, but disappointment pierced my chest like a needle.