The gun that was fired at the end of the previous episode turns out to be a gun that Julie shoots Maurice with, killing him. She says that she had found the gun in one of the wall lamps. Ned steps over to Maurice’s body, and throws away the gun, telling Julie to throw hers away as well. Julie complies, and everyone continues down the corridor.
As they walk down the hallway, Victorique give Kujo a very, very hard time about his earlier declaration about being the third son of an imperial soldier. Kujo states that it’s a matter of pride, and that he’s just as good as his older brothers. (Our boy sounds a little defensive.) Victorique decides not to let him hear the end of it.
Ned lets out a howl, and they find him at the bottom of the stairs, and without a pulse. Julie appears to be having a very severe reaction to this, saying, “it’s the same.” (If you will remember to the flashback of the kids in the ship, there had been a boy lying exactly that same way at the bottom of the stairs. Have an exposition anvil.) Victorique warns him away from the body. Kujo protests that they need to find out how Ned had died, but Victorique insists. When Kujo gets closer, she grabs him by his tie and tells him that they are in danger. Then she orders them to run. (It’s interesting that Julie is unnerved enough that she decides to go along with the orders of a teeny little girl.)
Victorique orders Julie and Kujo into the nearest room, to find weapons. Julie hears someone coming, so everyone hides. It turns out that Ned is either not dead, or not human (with not dead being far more likely). He is armed with a battle ax, and is not very sane, babbling something about being the hunting dog as he grabs Victorique. Kujo attacks Ned, and in the ruckus, the necklace that Victorique is wearing falls off, much to her panic. Julie grabs the necklace, while Kujo attacks Ned again, briefly knocking him out.
They lock the doors to the room behind them, and take off toward the radio room. They reach the upper deck, and have enough time to question Victorique on how she knew that Ned wasn’t really dead. Victorique states that Ned had used a ball he had been carrying to temporarily cut off circulation to his arm, so that when Kujo took his pulse, it would appear as if he didn’t have one.
Victorique and Kujo head for the radio room, but Ned has turned up again. He grabs Julie and throws her to the ground before stalking toward Victorique and Kujo. Kujo shoves Victorique into the radio room, and tries to hold off Ned by charging straight at him. This has very limited results since Kujo is much, much shorter than Ned is. (On the other hand, it makes it harder for Ned to use his ax.) Ned manages to knock Kujo down, and begins beating on the poor kid.
Kujo manages to get a second wind, manages to get out from under Ned, and fights back. Unfortunately, Ned is still bigger and stronger than Kujo, and Kujo ends up on his rear again. He is saved by Julie, who has come up from behind. She hits Ned with the ax, and he falls over the side of the ship.
Kujo runs off to the radio room, where Victorique is tapping out a message in Morse code.
In the aftermath of the rescue, Grevil turns up to arrest Julie, who it turns out have been responsible for the murders. She asks Grevil how he knew, but it’s Victorique who explains exactly how Julie had given herself away. (Grevil of course, pretends that he’s the one that is explaining all of this.) It turns out that Julie had been one of the survivors of the “box garden evening” held ten years before. She had been kidnapped along with a group of other children so that Roxanne could perform an augury for the outcome of the Great War. One of the children had been placed as the “hound” who had arranged for the deaths of the other children. Due to the extreme trauma, Julie had spent most of her life in a sanitarium. When Julie had learned that Roxanne was going to perform another augury, she decided to get revenge.
As an interesting point, it turns out that Roxanne’s Arabic-speaking maid Lee was also a survivor of the divination ritual. Toward the end, Julie and the maid are escorted past each other by the guards, and Roxanne throws the pendent she had been wearing to the maid. (In an earlier flashback, the pendant had originally belonged to the Lee.) Given how surprised they had looked to see each other, it seems likely that the maid had decided on murdering Roxanne at the same time that Julie had decided to hijack Roxanne’s augury.
The next day Kujo is extremely annoyed to discover that Grevil has once again taken all the credit for solving the case. Victorique is indifferent, calling Grevil an egomaniac. It’s revealed that Grevil Blois is her half-brother and that Victorique had spent most of her life in isolation on the family estate because of her mother, who had been the mistress of Grevil’s father. This angst-filled moment is broken by Victorique declaring that she is bored, and ordering Kujo to go find her another mystery which causes Kujo to flail in outrage. Victorique on the other hand declares that she may die of boredom, and that Kujo has so few friends that he can’t afford to lose one, which is oddly touching.
Though I think the mystery so far has been a little telegraphed (that pun was not intentional), I really like the characters, and the character interactions. I’m hoping that we’ll find out more about why Victorique’s mother was considered to be so dangerous they decided to lock up her daughter. I’d also like to know why Grevil goes to such extreme lengths to pretend that Victorique isn’t there.
