Curse of the Werebottom

Chapter 37

The brandy slobbered down her chin as she greedily took a large swig to help calm her nerves. "This isn't right," she wailed. "This isn't how it's meant to be!"

Larry stepped forward and dropped to his knees so that he was the same height as she was. "We know most of it already Cherrydale," he began.

He deliberately left out the prefix of 'Miss' to demonstrate his lack of respect.

"You started off blackmailing poor Mr Durgle. You made him think that you still had a relationship with and influence over Lord Meanwhistle. You let him believe that if he didn't use his machine to vandalise property and plants of others so you could win the Flowers in Bloom competition regional final you would have hime evicted from his home.

You remembered his skills from years ago when you were the Lady of the Manor and in charge of all the staff. You knew more than anyone that he could build some form of contraption to do exactly what you wanted. Unfortunately Mr and Mrs Pringle also felt the effects of your sabotage that night and it cost them a stay in the hospital. Did you feel any guilt when you learned that they had been poisoned and infected by the foul smelling gas?"

Miss Cherrydale shook her head and sobbed again in response.

Larry continued. "But you became drunk with the power of commanding another person to do exactly as you wanted. The first sabotage on the nursery wasn't enough! You wanted, no you needed, more control. Not only did you deliberately ruin Eddie's mother's garden when you visited, you sent Durgle out to deliver invites to the other main players in town who just might ruin your chances of winning.

The Major's beautiful garden and Mrs Miggin's sensory garden couldn't be destroyed as well as Eddie's mother's garden. That would be far too easy for people to link together, and once a trail was created it just might lead back to you. You decided to target the people instead!

You just needed them both in the same place and at the same time. When you decided to do that you also figured that you may as well cut off the town's supply of gardening equipment, fertilisers and weed killers as well through inviting Everyshop Bob and Mr and Mrs Faith! There were no excuses that time because that was no accident. You intentionally harmed those people!"

"I told Durgle to lower the dosage and the potency of the gas mixture," she protested. "I only meant for them to become ill! I never intended to hospitalise them! On my life, I truly didn't!"

"You overheard us in the library yesterday, didn't you? And when you realised that we suspected a werebottom you seized the opportunity to use our own theory and have Durgle disguise his machine as a monster that could be observed in public."

"I wish we could stop all this werebottom nonsense," said Reginald. "You have absolutely no idea how much it upsets me!"

Larry ignored him and continued his verbal attack on the humbled teacher.

"You knew that it offered you an opportunity to create one final act of destruction. You purposely sabotaged all the floral and topiary displays in the park. The final threats of competition were eliminated in one final master stroke. All the blame would have been diverted towards a monster that didn't even exist, meaning that you would never have been caught.

The only flaw in the plan were us three children. You knew that we intended to have a snoop around and you tried to scare us off. You must have been absolutely livid with us when you realised that we disobeyed you! Is that why you attacked us and locked us away overnight? Well, was it? WAS IT?"

Larry's voice had risen to a yell as he finally challenged his abductor.

"No!" she screamed in response. She looked at all three children with regret and shame in her eyes.