been bowing down to me. I did everything. I even read to Daddy when he got sick. But he couldn’t even see that I was his daughter. I looked just like him and he couldn’t see.”
Jane’s heart froze in her chest. “What the… You killed Friedrich, didn’t you?”
“I smothered him with a pillow a few months ago,” Heidi admitted as she took a menacing step towards Jane. “He was dying already. I did him a favor and put him out of his misery. I told him who I was right before he died. You should have seen the look on his wrinkled old face.” Heidi laughed, the sound echoing through the hall.
Jane stumbled backwards, desperate to get away from Heidi and the ax in her hands.
Her gaze shifted for a moment and she saw Gabriel lift his gun to point it at Heidi. It was clear that he was trying to find a way to take a clean shot without getting Jane hurt.
Swallowing hard, Jane realized that she had to keep Heidi talking. That was the only way to keep her distracted long enough for Gabriel to stop her. “So you’ve been planning this for months?”
“For years. I was hired as a maid so that I could get closer to my father. But then I thought I wanted more than that. I wanted this castle, and so I decided I was going to kill him to get it,” Heidi said with a cruel smile. “But then stupid Otto brought out Daddy’s stupid will. Some strangers were going to get this castle before me. How is that fair?”
“It isn’t fair,” Jane said, her voice shaking.
“Otto started making all these phone calls to other heirs,” Heidi spat out. “He invited you and Gabriel’s client. I decided I was going have to get rid of everyone in the way of me getting my castle. But only you were coming here, Jane. So I had to be incredibly careful how I got rid of everyone. Otto needed to go, of course. I was starting to suspect he knew who I was, and I couldn’t let that secret get out until the time was right. First I had to die so none of you would see me coming.”
“You faked your own death. Fell down the stairs—”
“I didn’t fall,” Heidi said with a roll of her eyes as she took another swing with the ax.
Jane screamed, scrambling out of the way as the blade snagged the fabric of her coat. “You didn’t?”
“I just took a dose of the Night’s Bane, dropped the bowl of stew, and lay down on the floor,” Heidi responded, rolling her eyes again. “Stupid Berta fell for it. You all did. Thank you for taking my body outside, by the way. It made it so easy to hide from you while I went through the secret passages in the castle.”
“Where is Berta?” Jane asked desperately. “You took her, didn’t you?”
“I came into the kitchen to strangle her but she started babbling about a password. Babbling that Otto had secrets that could destroy me on his mobile phone and only she knew the password,” Heidi said. “She was probably lying to save her own skin, but I had to be sure. So I tied her up and dragged her down to the catacombs to scare the password out of her. Buried her in one of the unused tombs.”
Jane gasped in horrified realization. “The claw marks—”
“I heard you and Gabriel coming down into the crypt so I had to drag Berta out of the coffin and hide her,” Heidi said, cutting her off. “She still wouldn’t give me the password, but I could kill the rest of you while I waited. Stupid, arrogant, greedy Timothy was next. He wanted the castle, too, I could tell. So he had to go. That leaves the other servants, but they’re old and frail and useless, so I’ll deal with them last.”
“You cannot seriously think you’ll get away with this,” Jane said angrily.
“I will. Because I’ll kill you all and then frame Gabriel’s client.” Heidi grinned, the lines of her cherubic face turning hard. “All I’ll have to do is pretend there was a massacre here. Say that Gabriel’s client paid him to kill everyone and I’ll look like the sole survivor. Then, at last, Wintergarten will be mine.”
“You were going to frame Gabriel?” Jane asked in disgust.
“Someone had to take the blame. I chose the strongest man in the castle.” Heidi lifted the ax high over her