Contents (94)
- Villain
- Caro Savage
- Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- Acknowledgments
- More from Caro Savage
- About the Author
- About Boldwood Books
‘What’s that?’ asked Rick, frowning.
‘Looks like a snake to me,’ murmured Nancy as she studied the miniature cobra.
The rest of the gang peered at the tiny pendant swinging on the gold chain.
‘This has to be something to do with Mister Snigiss,’ she said.
Stephen craned his head forward curiously. ‘So the snake thing was real after all?’
‘Apparently so,’ she replied.
‘What’s she doing with that in her bag then?’
Nancy shrugged, inspecting the pendant in more detail. The stone was slightly translucent, dark green in colour, pitted with age. But there were clear markings inscribed on the back of it. They looked like…
‘These are Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, if I’m not mistaken.’
‘Egyptian what?’ said Rick.
‘Never mind,’ murmured Nancy.
She stared intently at the snake pendant twisting slowly on the gold chain. A curious frown settled on her face.
‘Now, when we were chatting one time,’ said Nancy, ‘Bailey told me that her sister was into the Ancient Egyptians.’
‘You mean the missing sister who’s actually alive?’ said Stephen.
Rick looked perplexed. ‘What are you getting at, Mum?’
‘Well, on the one hand we’ve got Mister Snigiss who’s into snakes, and on the other hand we’ve got Bailey’s sister who’s into the Ancient Egyptians. Put them both together and you’ve got this,’ she said, scrutinising the pendant.
‘Are you saying what I think you’re saying?’ asked Stephen.
Nancy nodded, her eyes narrowing. ‘We know that Bailey was looking for Mister Snigiss because of her sister. We know that Bailey met Mister Snigiss and we know that Bailey’s sister is alive. And we know that, for some reason, Bailey was protecting Mister Snigiss. I mean, she was willing to undergo torture rather than reveal Mister Snigiss’s identity.’
They all stared at her in silence, awaiting her next pronouncement.
She gazed around the table with her dark close-set eyes. ‘Bailey is protecting Mister Snigiss because Mister Snigiss is Bailey’s sister,’ she announced.
‘Wait a minute, I thought Mister Snigiss was a bloke,’ said Rick.
Nancy shook her head with a canny smirk. ‘Mister Snigiss is just very good at misleading people.’ She turned to Stephen. ‘Bailey told me that her sister was two years older than her. And assuming she wasn’t lying about that, then that would make Mister Snigiss a woman in her thirties, right?’
Stephen nodded slowly.
Nancy continued. ‘Didn’t you say that one of the people who owned cobras was a woman in her early thirties?’
Stephen nodded, a smile spreading slowly across his face.
‘And you know where she lives, right?’ said Nancy.
Stephen’s smile grew even wider as he nodded again.
Nancy smiled as well now, a dark evil grin descending upon her face. ‘I think it’s time to break out the power tools.’
77
The woman who’d once been the little girl known as Jennifer Morgan stood in front of the glass vivarium stroking the small white mouse in her hand. It quivered nervously in her palm. She whispered gently in its ear to calm it.