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"MEDDLING, SMUG, stupid little" Mr Crepsley snarled He was pacing the hotel roo the name of Mr Blaws The school inspector had left and Harkat had rejoined us He’d heard everything through the thin connecting door, but could ht and bleed him dry," Mr Crepsley vowed "That will teach hi his nose in!"

"Talk like that won’t fix this," I sighed "We have to use our heads"

"Who says it is talk?" Mr Crepsley retorted "He gave us his telephone number in case we need to contact him I will find his address and-"

"It’s a h the him do? Somebody else would replace hier"

"We could ested "Find a new hotel"

"No," Mr Crepsley said "He has seen our faces and would broadcast our descriptions It would make matters more complicated than they already are"

"What I want to know is how our records were subnatures on the files weren’t ours, but they were pretty dareat forgery, but adequate"

"Is it possible there’s been a mix-up?" Harkat asked "Perhaps a real Vur Horston and his son sent in the forms, and you’ve been confused with them"

"No," I said "The address of this hotel was included and so were our room numbers And" I told the "Murlough!" he hissed "That was a period of history I thought I would never have to revisit"

"I don’t understand," Harkat said "How could this be connected to Murlough? Are you saying he’s alive and has set you up?"

"No," Mr Crepsley said "Murlough is definitely dead But someone must knoe killed him And that someone is almost certainly responsible for the humans who have been killed recently" He sat down and rubbed the long scar that marked the left side of his face "This is a trap"

There was a long, tense silence

"It can’t be," I said in the end "How could the vah?"

"Desmond Tiny," Mr Crepsley said bleakly "He knew about our run in with Murlough, and must have told the vampaneze But I cannot understand why they faked the birth certificate and school records If they knew so much about us, and where we are, they should have killed us cleanly and honourably, as is the vampaneze way"

"That’s true," I noted "You don’t punish a h," I added, reo schooldays, "death can sometimes seem preferable to double science on a Thursday afternoon"

Again a lengthy silence descended Harkat broke it by clearing his throat "This sounds crazy," the Little Person said, "but what if Mr Crepsley didsubain?" I said

"He ht have done it in his sleep"

"You think he sleep wrote a birth cert and school records, then submitted theh

"Things like this have happened before," Harkat mumbled "Remember Pasta O’Malley at the Cirque Du Freak? He read books at night when he was asleep He could never recall reading them, but if you asked him about them, he could answer all your questions"

"I’d forgotten about Pasta," I ht

"I could not have filled in those forms," Mr Crepsley said stiffly

"It’s unlikely," Harkat agreed, "but we do strange things e sleep Perhaps you-"

"No," Mr Crepsley interrupted "You do not understand I could not have done it because" He looked away sheepishly "I cannot read or write"

The vaawped at him