Counsel for the Dead

[SFX: Dictation machine starts. Paper pages turn]

NARRATOR: Ada found Gideon's missing message in the least secret place in the house: the solicitor's dictation machine. Gideon had recorded over Leon's blank legal cylinder, knowing Leon would carry it away without checking. Imogen fitted the cylinder and lowered the needle.

GIDEON'S RECORDING: Ada Mercer, if you hear this, my lock worked and my judgment did not. Leon Vale has taken money from the trust. I changed my will today. Celeste and Imogen inherit equally. The evidence is inside the bell that cannot ring.

LEON VALE: That recording proves accusation, not murder.

CELESTE MOURNING: It proves you lied about the new will.

NARRATOR: The phrase inside the bell sent them back to the tower. The great bell had no clapper, but its hollow bronze body contained a waterproof ledger wrapped around the central bolt. Transfers, signatures, and account numbers documented twelve years of theft.

[SFX: Bell metal struck. Papers removed]

IMOGEN ROOK: Why leave the evidence where nobody could reach it?

ADA MERCER: Because Gideon expected the false bell to make us examine the real one. He knew Leon had learned the house's tricks, so he turned the tricks into directions.

PETER BELL: Then Master Gideon knew he was in danger.

ADA MERCER: He knew Leon would search and threaten. I do not think he expected poison.

NARRATOR: Leon locked the ledger in his case, claiming his duty as executor. Ada stopped him. The case was a Vale Security model produced after Leon claimed he had never entered Gideon's workshop. Its key carried the same machine oil found on the practice-bell cord.

LEON VALE: Shared oil proves a servant was careless.

ADA MERCER: It proves your case sat on the winding bench while you prepared the mechanism. Your mistake was bringing a clean object into a dirty machine.

[SFX: Generator stops]

NARRATOR: The house went black. In the darkness, metal screamed through the walls. Leon was no longer beside them, and the counterweight above the music room had begun to rise.