Maria looked startled. "This is absolute nonsense! The Demon sect is friendly, and they would do no such thing. This man is a fraud."
She reached for her pistol and aimed it at Ricky.
Within seconds, Alex drew his sword, hitting Maria's wrist with the side of the blade and knocking her gun to the floor.
A shot rang out, but the bullet missed its target and skimmed the thigh of one of Maria's bodyguards. The man screamed, held his leg in pain, and dropped to the ground.
"Get a grip, Maria," Alex said. "What do you think you're doing? Let the man finish his story. You complain about my rude entrance to the funeral home, and here you are, waving your gun around. Where's your own respect for the dead?"
He kicked the gun across the room, far out of Maria's reach. She looked at him, folded her arms, and rolled her eyes.
"You're one tough son of a bitch, aren't you!" she complained. "You think you can come in here and ignite a feud between my family and Beau's. But have you considered how all this will go down with the Demon sect? I can only see this playing out one way."
"Oh, and what might that be?" Alex asked, seemingly unconcerned.
"Not only will your plan to spread discord among our families fail, but you'll also make enemies of the Demons. I strongly recommend that you and your friend leave now, and we can forget this ever happened."
The Ghosts looked at Maria suspiciously; it was difficult to know who was speaking the truth.
"I mean it, Alex," she said. "You try to spark a war between the Thorntons and the Ramsdens, and I will make sure that your family is punished, too."
Alex appeared as calm as ever. "Sorry about the interruption, Ricky. Please continue. Tell us everything you know."
Ricky looked from Maria to Alex. He was trembling, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
"You don't have to worry," Alex said, leaning in closer to Ricky. "Whatever you have to say, I promise that you and your family will be safe. You'll have my full protection."
Ricky studied Alex for a moment, and then he nodded. "Sawyer told the Demons that he was planning to fight them, so they hoped the Ramsden family could get revenge on you and Sawyer, and then they wouldn't have to do anything."
He paused to cough. Then he took a deep breath and continued. "On Cam's orders, I made this mask to look like Alex. I put on some scrubs, and I drove to the hospital. Once inside, I found Gabriel. He was completely taken by surprise, and I stabbed him. With the mask on, everyone who saw me thought I was Alex. It was almost too easy."
He paused again, no longer looking afraid for his life. Alex waited for him to speak again.
"This may have seemed like a small mission—the sacrifice of just one man's life," Ricky continued. "But the consequences would be huge. Once Alex was framed for Gabriel's murder, there would be ongoing fighting between him and the Ramsdens. With all that going on, the Demon sect and the Thornton family could continue to prosper."
Maria's face flushed with anger. "He's obviously lying. Beau, I assure you that my family had absolutely nothing to do with any of this!"
Ricky smiled. "Really? That's funny. From what I remember, the Thorntons were well aware of this entire plot. In fact, it was your family who provided me with a map of the hospital, so that I could get to Gabriel's ward without delay. Without your help, it would have been tricky for the Demons to pull this off."
Maria felt like the walls were closing in, but she knew that she couldn't give up. This man was nothing, and she came from a respected family.
"This is a wonderful story," she said, rolling her eyes. "I congratulate you both on coming up with such a dramatic plot. But how can you prove it? Everyone who was there that night will say that they saw Alex kill Gabriel. Besides, cameras don't lie."
"I know I'm a criminal, but everything I've just told you is the absolute truth," Ricky said. "I have the map the Thorntons gave to me—maybe there are some fingerprints on it. And I have a room in the hospital. If you check it out, you'll find my collection of masks."
"You have no idea who you're messing with," Maria said. She had expected Beau to jump to her rescue, but everyone was still focused on Ricky. With the mask, his likeness to Alex was incredible, and they could see how anyone might be fooled.
For a moment, nobody said a word. Then, one of the bodyguards came forward. He pointed at Ricky's face. "That night in the hospital, I tried to stop him, and I cut his cheek. Look, you can still see the wound!"
Another joined in. "I stabbed him in his left arm. Can you see if he's wounded there?"
Ricky pulled back his left sleeve, revealing a bloodied bandage.
Maria shook her head. "This just gets better and better. You have some nerve to try to incriminate my family and the Demon sect. Don't you know how upset Cam is about Gabriel's death? When he comes here to express his sympathy to Beau and his family, you'll be made to look like a fool."
While Ricky had been telling his story, Maria had been afraid to look too closely at Beau. She turned to him now with tears in her eyes. "Please, Beau, this man is rotten to the core. He's just someone Alex has brought here to stir up trouble between us. You know what Alex is like. He just wants to destroy the harmony between our families, so he can enjoy more power."
Alex laughed. "Yes, I'd like to exercise my power to call the police and have you arrested."
Beau had been weighing both sides of the story, and it took him a moment to gather his thoughts. Finally, he turned to Maria and took her hand.
"You have nothing to worry about," he said. "How long have our families been friends? I also trust the Demon sect, and I know you wouldn't harm my brother. It's fine. I don't believe a word this man says."
"I should have known you'd stick together," Alex said. "You're not even interested in the truth, are you?"
"The game is up," Beau said. "You need to decide what you're going to do with your actor here. Either get him out of our sight now, or we'll bury him along with Gabriel."
Maria hadn't expected Beau to act so decisively, and she was relieved he seemed to believe her.
"You're all just as bad as each other," Alex said. "I don't know why I expected anything different. At least your bodyguards aren't denying the truth."
Beau fell silent. In his heart, he could not deny the truth, either. Ricky's story added up, and the bodyguards had no reason to lie. But that meant that the Thorntons and the Demon sect had conspired to kill his brother, and that sickened Beau to the core. He had an important decision to make.
If I accept this man's story, then my family will go to war with our oldest friends, he thought. Our status will be weakened, and we'll likely lose this medical license. We'll also make enemies of the Demon sect. But if I let Alex take the blame, it will help deepen our bond with the Thorntons. We'll get to open our Ghost hospitals. And everyone will hate Alex even more.
The solution was obvious. He would stand by the Thornton family and let Alex take the blame.