But she wanted Salt to know.
“So you have a grudge against me,” he said smoothly, which was ballsy but clever. Put your worst foot forward, admit to one bad thing so they think you’re honest when you deny another.
His attempt to cast the blame on Vince was unnervingly convincing. Salt had strung together enough parts for it to make sense, especially since the proof could cut both ways. And he was rich, which always helped, while Vince was a terrifying monster, even without the question of the murders.
The knowledge that she might not be able to turn this thing around ramped her nerves up even higher.
“Well?” Malik asked Vince. “Did you kill those people? We know you can talk.”
Vince looked at him expressionlessly. Charlie thought his assessment of the situation might be even more grim than hers. “I was Remy’s shadow. I would never have hurt him. And I didn’t touch Knight Singh.”
“Do you have anything else to add, Stephen?” Vicereine asked. “You have been acting strangely lately.”
“I haven’t been sleeping well,” Stephen said, looking at them. “I have a lot of nightmares.”
Bellamy touched his shoulder and he flinched.
“I understand my punishment,” Stephen told them. “All I want is to be done serving out my sentence.”
“Did you murder a gloamist?”
He shook his head. “No. I hunt Blights. Which is why I’ve been seeking Red. Just Red.” Halfway through that second sentence, Charlie thought she could tell that something else seemed to be speaking. It was a smooth transition, easy to miss if you hadn’t been looking for it.
“What made you so interested in the Liber Noctem?” Vicereine asked.
The Hierophant shrugged. “Lionel promised that I could read it. To help with my work.”
How long had this Blight been bound to a series of fuck-ups and ne’er-do-wells? Forced to hunt its own kind? Charlie would have felt sympathetic if she thought it was interested in something other than killing her.
Salt cleared his throat. “Red is a deceiver, a thing formed of envy and corruption and hatred that my grandson sought to slough off. It has poured honey in this poor girl’s ears. Let us end this ridiculous conversation and go back to the party. I will keep the Blight restrained, and you can determine what to do with him tomorrow or the next day.”
“Wait!” Charlie said. “I can prove I got the book from his safe. I can show you where it is, and I can open it.”
“I’m not sure that’s—” Malik began.
“I offered before,” Charlie interrupted. “And he barely even acknowledged it. Right now, I am the only one with any proof. I have the Liber Noctem.”
“Which could prove your point as well as mine,” said Salt. “And you forget, I have Red.”
“Let me show you,” Charlie said. “Please.”
Vicereine glanced at Salt. “Is it possible?”
“Absolutely not,” he said with a small smile. “My security is impenetrable. She has that book because the Blight stole it.”
Bellamy raised his eyebrows. “Then why not? A small demonstration and we can go back to the party.”
Charlie’s hands were sweating as she nodded to all of them. She set down the Liber Noctem on a table near where the Hierophant stood and ignored the way he moved automatically toward it.
“Very well,” Salt said. “Go ahead, thief.”
She walked to where Dante’s Inferno sat and pulled it. One of the bookshelves swung open.
“Interesting,” said Vicereine.
“Yes,” said Salt. “I rather like that little room.”
Charlie went to the painting and pushed it so that the safe was revealed. Then she went to work. She already knew the codes, but she needed to make something of a show of the first part, so she found the notches all over again for them. It was dramatic, and bought a little time. She could see they were impressed when the handle went down halfway.
“What are we going to find inside?” asked Malik.
“Gold, gems, the usual,” Charlie said.
Salt just smiled. He’d taken a few steps back from the others, one hand going to the inside pocket of his coat.
When it came to the digital part, Charlie keyed in the code carefully. She looked back at the Cabal, at Vince, took a deep breath, and turned the lever.
The alarm went off, filling the room with a sound like a siren. Salt punched in another code and the sound stopped.
“You did that,” she accused him.
He shook his head, eyes lit with the satisfaction of winning. “Don’t be ridiculous. You failed, that’s all.”
“Okay, so open the safe,” Charlie said, her heart speeding, a blur of hummingbird wings in her chest. “Prove you didn’t.”
“Very well, I will indulge you one last time,” he said, enjoying the moment enough to draw it out. He punched in what she could see were the same set of numbers that she’d used. The lever turned and the door to the safe swung open.
His phone. He’d slipped it out while she was working and activated the alarm as she finished. While she’d been showing off, he’d been finding a way to stop her.
“We’re sorry for doubting you,” Malik said to Salt. “But you understand we had to—”
“Wait,” Vicereine said, reaching past him. “I know that book.”
And from the safe, she took out Knight Singh’s notebook, papers detailing Salt’s crimes in his own hand shoved hastily back into the leather cover, edges sticking out. Right where Charlie had left it when she’d taken the Liber Noctem.
“I—” Salt began, but no words came.
Charlie had known the way to trap Salt since the day she’d spent with him. She’d thought it then, idly, not realizing how much it would matter. Let him dominate. Let him win. He’d be so certain he belonged on top that he’d never guess he was being drawn into a trap.
He’d honestly believe that she gave him all that time while she futzed around with the first lock for no goddamn reason.
He’d honestly believe that she could crack a safe but not be able to guess he had a security app on his phone.
“Ms. Hall must have put it there, whatever it is,” Salt said finally, recovering enough to realize he had to pin the appearance of Knight’s book on someone else immediately.
Lionel Salt was a planner. Charlie was sure he’d planned for being confronted with any number of his crimes. He’d be able to explain lots of true things. But no one can plan for planted evidence.
“I thought that I couldn’t get into your safe?” Charlie reminded him. “Isn’t that what you were trying to prove? Which is it: Did you hide the Liber Noctem in there, and I stole it while putting something else in your safe? Or did I lie about the Liber Noctem, and you’re lying now?”
Lionel Salt cut his gaze toward the Hierophant. Admitting to the first was less damning, but it meant admitting he’d been stringing along a very old and powerful Blight.
Vicereine was opening the papers stuffed into the top of Knight’s book, smoothing them out. Charlie wasn’t sure that Salt knew what they were, but she could tell by the way Vicereine’s expression shifted that she realized who’d written them.
Malik frowned. “I think it’s time the Cabal spoke with you and Stephen separately, Lionel.”
Salt reached into his pocket and took out his matte black gun, pointing it directly at Charlie. “You have made a very bad mistake crossing me, Charlatan—”
Charlie froze. Vicereine’s shadow cat roared as three shadows spread from Malik, their mouths full of teeth. Bellamy drew a sword of shadow.
“Lionel,” Malik said. “There’s no need for this.”
Behind Salt, Vince lifted his wrists and the cuffs came away, falling to the ground. He stepped forward with inhuman swiftness, pressing the point of a letter opener to Salt’s throat.
Adeline made a sharp sound that was almost a scream.
The sounds of the party seemed very far away.