Free Blood Moon by Jackie French Page A

embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
    ‘No, don’t be. I suppose the full moon…’
    Dusty smiled. ‘You suppose the full moon is irresistible to a wolf? Not quite. I was out there anyway, and…’
    Eleanor frowned. ‘I said no one was to leave the house at night…’
    ‘I smelt something,’ said Dusty shortly. ‘Something wrong. And with Rusty not here…’
    ‘What sort of thing?’ I asked, alarmed. ‘The Matriach’s people again?’
    Again the not-quite-human shrug. ‘No. Not this time. I don’t know. Strange. Maybe animal. Maybe human.’
    ‘Are you sure it wasn’t Gloucester?’ asked Emerald.
    ‘I know Gloucester’s smell perfectly well,’ began Dusty.
    ‘Gloucester!’ I exclaimed.
    ‘He’s been patrolling the Valley every night since the Patriarch was killed,’ said Emerald.‘Didn’t you know?’
    ‘Yes, of course,’ I said slowly. ‘I suppose these murders bring it all back…Perdita’s death I mean.’
    ‘I suppose they do,’ said Eleanor quietly. ‘Now, what do you intend to do this morning? You have our full cooperation of course.’
    ‘Well,’ I said. ‘I’d like to question each one of you if you don’t mind. By yourselves,’ I added hastily, in case Eleanor decided to orchestrate each interview. ‘Just to see where everyone was. If you all have alibis then that proves you must be innocent.’
    ‘I’d have thought that finding the guilty person would do that even better,’ said Emerald quietly from the fireplace.
    ‘Darling, we know none of us are murderers. Danielle doesn’t. Isn’t that right, Danielle?
    I nodded, took a bite of chop. It was tender, but I was already sick of so much meat.
    Eleanor sipped her orange juice, and smiled at us around the table.

Chapter 14
    ‘ D on’t see why they need NetSchool,’ growled Dusty, sitting on his haunches and staring up at me. ‘Load of nonsense if you ask me.’
    I had intended to question the cubs first, to get them out of the way before school. But they’d tumbled out of the kitchen before I had finished my chop (Connie still with her bone in her hand) and I’d had to ask Dusty to round them up.
    ‘An education’s useful,’ I said mildly.
    ‘What Eleanor says.’ I’d noticed that Dusty’s speech grew more abrupt when he was preoccupied. He stood up—four legged this time, not two—shook himself, and trotted out the front door. I heard a long drawn out…yelp, is the closest word to it, then a more human ‘Bonnie! Connie! Johnnie! Get your tails down here now!’
    I sat back on the puppy-smelling cushions in the living room, and looked at my watch. Not yet seven. Plenty of time yet.
    NetSchool begins at 8 a.m. It’s mostly Realtime, even though it’s in Virtual. Back in the City kids are selected into nets according to their temperament and ability. I supposed in the Outlands people just formed their own nets with the kids around, but probably used the same programs too.
    I wondered if I were wasting my time with the cubs. Although it was just feasible that one of the cubs could kill a man—especially if they all worked together—itwas impossible to imagine them doing it and anyway they were too strictly supervised by the rest of the clan. But it was just possible they’d noticed something, without realising its significance.
    ‘Inside!’ barked Dusty, and suddenly they were scrambling onto the sofa in front of me, while Dusty trotted out to his lookout rock again, his shepherding duties over.
    The cubs sat in a line before me: three sets of dark eyes and three blunt noses. How on earth did you cross-examine children about murders? They stared at me, waiting for me to begin.
    ‘Er, right then,’ I said. ‘Did you ever meet Brother Perry or the Patriarch?’
    Three nods. ‘At the Christmas party last year down at Soggy Crossing,’ said Bonnie.
    ‘And the one before that too,’ said Connie.
    ‘What were they like?’
    Three shrugs. They were grown up. What else was there to say?
    ‘Did