Chained ⛓ NEW CHAPTER
A Klaus Hargreeves murder mystery
A/N: Not me making you wait two months for an update. Sorry folks, my personal life has been kinda nuts lately and I’ve not had the time or brain capacity to focus on writing as much as I’d like. However, I am still chipping away at this story and the result is this fully loaded chapter which is CHOCKFULL of clues.
Many thanks to @ramblingluna aka @helunar1 for the absolutely glorious artwork, which I have been saving especially for this chapter. And thanks as always to @allisoooon for the patient beta read and unbending support. 😘😘
Thanks so much for reading and remember: your comments and kudos mean the world to me (and help to keep the writer’s block at bay) so please do lemme know your thoughts and theories.
Snippet from Chapter 28 Nancy Drew:
Klaus returns the glare for a moment longer, remembering the time he won a staring contest with a particularly pugnacious Yorkshire terrier that time he attempted to steal meds from a vet’s office and somehow ended up in the quarantine kennel.
But then the discomfort becomes unbearable and he can hold it in no longer. “Can I help you with something, Inspector Clouseau?”
Wesson nods, mostly to herself. “That’s a great question, Mr Hargreeves. A great question.” She reaches into a leather messenger bag by her side and pulls out a white spray bottle, placing it on the table in front of them. “Do you know what this is for, Mr Hargreeves?”
Klaus looks at it. The bottle has a label. Red writing, lots of warnings. Something scientific. Although he can’t make out the whole name from this angle, it looks like surface spray. He shrugs. “Cleaning your bathroom?”
Wesson reaches forward and wraps her hand around the bottle, squeezing it in her big fist. “This,” she says, “is a chemical called luminol.” She holds the bottle up to her face and admires it, turning it in her hand as she speaks. “Great little invention. It allows us to see traces of blood, even when it’s been cleaned up.”
Klaus gulps.
Ben looks at him.
Wesson continues. “We used this all over Mr Templeton’s house and do you know what we found, Mr Hargreeves?”
He knows what she found. He can’t let her know that though. He tucks his arms even tighter around his body and slouches against the red leather of the booth, cocking his chin at her in a way he hopes comes across as confident and defiant and not at all guilty as sin. “No? Surprise me.”
“Bloody footprints. All the way down the stairs. In the hallway, in the bathroom. Traces of blood all over his shower. We found blood on the door handle, on the nightstand. We even found it in the sink.”
Klaus decides to switch to his preferred tactic; feigned idiocy.
It works every time.
Well, it works some of the time.
It works about 30 per cent of the time, if he’s being honest.
“And what the hell is that supposed to mean to me, hmmn?”
Wesson lowers the bottle and leans in, penetrating him with her stare now.
He thinks of the dog at the vet’s office. How Klaus had poked his head through the doggie door and the beast had bared its teeth at him, its tiny body shaking all over with unchecked rage.
“It means,” she growls, “that someone was in the room when Mr Templeton died. That they were there when his throat was cut. That they got all covered in his blood and that afterwards they attempted to clean it up.”
Klaus freezes.
Ben’s eyes dart from Klaus to Wesson to Klaus again.
Wesson is still holding his gaze, attempting to snap him open, to break him like a dry twig.
He waits a beat.
“Have you ever seen Heat?” he asks. “Amazing film. Robert deNiro at his best.”
Read the rest on AO3
Tagging in the hopes you might reblog please pretty please: @badsext @softforklave @anglophile-rin @neist @purblzart @maerenee930 @firstpersonnarrator @allisoooon @cemeteryklaus @super-unpredictable98 @courtneytarynofficial @mokolataddict @pickledbeefwastaken @love-is-dirty-baby @rina-cydonia @inspiremeandsetmefree @jender123 @vonkimmeren @sylvertyger @merrilark @rob-private @pietro-t1me @not-oscar-wilde @squishitude
144 notes
·
View notes