Peter ignored him. "Come on," he continued. "What are you all waiting for? Stand up and be counted. You don't have to be afraid anymore. I know one of you did this. There's no shame in that. It's not a crime. You've done a great thing. Now do another great thing. Come on, all of you, let's show Nicholas..."

But still nobody moved. The crowd was still and silent.

Peter swallowed hard. "Nobody, huh?" he murmured.

"Of course," said Nicholas, whistling through his teeth. "Now that it's obvious none of you actually support Peter in what he's done, if any of you were at this secret meeting and wish to step forward to testify against him..."

Peter glared at him. He could have killed him right there.

"What? Nobody?" Nicholas said when no one moved. He frowned and turned to Peter, whispering patronisingly, "Are you sure there was a meeting, Peter? Perhaps you dreamt it. Whilst you were oh-so-conveniently sleeping, perhaps?"

Peter snorted and shook his head. "Conveniently," he muttered.

"Yes, actually, maybe I was wrong," Nicholas admitted. "That's not a very convenient alibi, is it? In fact, it's a very inconvenient lack of an alibi." He paused and yawned. "From your perspective, anyway."

Peter glared about the crowd. He couldn't believe so many had betrayed him. Had something happened whilst he'd been asleep? All of a sudden he regretted leaving them to their own devices. As he looked at them, many of them averted their eyes guiltily. A lot more, however, just looked back at him blankly, as if they believed they were entirely innocent, and knew nothing of the secret meeting. For a second Peter toyed with the idea that it had just been a dream. But only for a second.

One thing he did know, however, was that he hadn't killed the human being. That meant someone else had. And if nobody was going to take the flak for him, he wasn't going to take the flak for them. He turned to Nicholas. "Do you actually have any witnesses of me doing this, Nicholas?" he asked. "Or are you just picking on me because I'm the most obvious candidate?"

Nicholas curled his lip at Peter. "Actually, yes, Peter," he said. "We have several witnesses. Now, where are they? Daniel and Gibson, where are you?" He looked out over the crowd. "Hazel, have you seen them?"

The grizzled old bruiser stood behind Nicholas, sneering at Peter throughout and breathing in that aggressive snorting wheezing kind of way. "Gibson! Daniel! Front and centre! On the double!" he barked, in that usual slovenly dialect of his, with clipped consonants and strangled vowels.

Two small voices piped up amidst the ever-growing crowd. Somehow the instigators of this whole mess had ended up relegated to the back. They were trying to get through to the front, but nobody wanted to lose their ringside seat.

"Let them through! Let them through!" ordered Hazel.

The crowd finally parted to let Gibson and Daniel squeeze to the front. As soon as they passed, the crowd closed in again. By the time they reached Nicholas at the front, they looked battered, bruised and exhausted from the ordeal.

"These are your witnesses?" Peter scoffed.

"They saw you kill the human, yes," Nicholas said.

"Well... actually..." Daniel began, between deep breaths.

"Don't tell me," Nicholas snapped. "I've already heard. Turn to the crowd and tell everyone else that you saw Peter kill the human."

Gibson and Daniel looked at each other in that idiosyncratic way of theirs, suddenly both aware that perhaps their theory wasn't so solid as they had at first imagined. Gibson licked his lips, then turned to the crowd.

"We didn't actually see Peter kill the human," he admitted.

Nicholas shot them a glare. That's not what they'd told him when they came running in a panic to report the human dead. The crowd started to look suspicious. A murmur rose from the back and swept forward.

"But Sebastian did!" Daniel quickly added.

"That's what we tried to tell you," Gibson whined to Nicholas.

"So where's Sebastian?" the patriarch demanded.

Both Daniel and Gibson shrugged and shook their heads.

"Okay, so just what did you see?" Nicholas snapped.

"We didn't actually see anything," Gibson admitted.

"Ha!" went Peter. The crowd began to titter with him.

Nicholas gave him a look that was both fiery and icy. "Okay, then," he said, trying to keep his cool. "So why did you come up to me and tell me that Peter killed the human if you didn't even see him do it, huh?"

"Because of something Angus said," Daniel squeaked.

A few of the elders exchanged concerned glances at this.

"Angus?" said Nicholas, surprised. "What's his role in all this?"

"He was the first rabbit to find the body," Gibson explained.

"And he told us not to tell anyone," Daniel continued.

"Especially not you," Gibson quickly added.

Nicholas' eyes narrowed. "And why did he tell you that?"

"Because he wanted to find Sebastian himself."

"Because Sebastian saw Peter kill the human," said Daniel.

"Did Sebastian tell you that?" Peter quickly interjected.

Nicholas growled at him. But the crowd was with Peter again.

"Well, no," Gibson admitted awkwardly.

"So who did?" Peter snapped.

Gibson and Daniel looked at each other.

"Well, no one," Daniel said.

"We just worked it out," said Gibson.

"I see," said Peter, daring to move from the spot where he had been sleeping for the first time. "First of all you assumed I killed the human and then you assumed that because Angus wanted to find Sebastian first that's because he has some sort of loyalty to me and wanted to stop Sebastian from telling anybody what you thought I'd done. Tell us, just what did you think Angus would do?"

Gibson gulped. "Kill Sebastian?" he suggested. "Bury the body?"

"Ha!" went Peter again. The crowd chuckled uncertainly. "These are your great witnesses, Nicholas? Pathetic! Not only did they not see me kill anybody after all, but now they're making up stories about Angus. Who, I can assure you, is more on your side than he'll ever be on mine..."

Nicholas pawed at the earth angrily.

"Perhaps," Peter said slowly, unsure whether to take his defence onto the offensive instead. "Perhaps, we should be looking toward Sebastian for your great murderer, Nicholas. He was the only one alone with the body long enough, after all."

"You can't say stuff like that!" Daniel cried.

"Yeah, Sebastian would never do something like this!" Gibson added.

"Actually," said a voice from the back. "He would."

Mark had just joined the crowd and was standing up at his full imposing height to shout over the heads of the rabbits in front of him. Peter smiled. The tide was finally turning. His first great ally had appeared. Nicholas groaned quietly.

With his misty blind eye and fresh scabs, Mark made his way through the crowd quicker than Gibson and Daniel ever did. The rabbits parted before him and watched him cut through with a mixture of fear and intrigue.

"You have something to add?" Nicholas said stroppily.

"Yes," said Mark, once he reached the front. "I'm going to be your star witness, Nicholas. Because I saw what happened, and I can tell you neither Peter nor anybody else who was at our little meeting has anything to do with this."

Nicholas snorted. "Oh, and who did?" he asked.

"Sebastian," Mark said. "Like Peter said."

The crowd began to mutter amongst themselves again.

"And we have to take your word on that, do we?" Nicholas sighed.

"Not at all," he declared. "When Angus finds Sebastian he'll bring him before you and then you can tear a confession out of him with tooth and claw. All you need know now is that none of us had anything to do with this."

Nicholas looked at Hazel. Hazel was the kind of fierce looking rabbit who could growl with his eyes. Nicholas gulped. Their plan to finally evict Peter Rabbit from the colony was collapsing at their feet.

"So," he said slowly. "How did Sebastian kill the human?"

Mark began to explain about the foxglove. The rabbits all listened intently. Hidden away at the back, where none of those at the front could see, let alone recognise him, was Sebastian's cousin Morgan. As he listened to Mark's statement, he broke into a sweat and began to quake all over. It wouldn't be long before his name was brought up, and then those rabbits all around him would jump on him and he'd be dragged to the front to answer for his part in it all. Exile would inevitably follow. Morgan felt physically ill at the prospect. He had to tell Sebastian.

As Mark was just getting to the part about him, Morgan slipped away under a creeping bramble and headed back through the hedgerow. Sebastian had already primed him about three possible hiding places. Morgan headed for the first one, in the cornfield, beyond the oak tree, close to the forty-metre limit. To get there he had to go via the dead paramedic. He regretted it all now. He hadn't known about any secret meeting. Perhaps he should have done what Sebastian had said and left it up to Peter in the first place. As he ran past the body, he spotted the pink foxglove flowers sitting by the little pile of shrivelling mushrooms and toadstools.

He stopped. It was evidence. He looked around, but there weren't any rabbits to see. They'd all been drawn to the roadside trial by the noise and kerfuffle. So Morgan picked the foxglove flower up in his teeth, careful to bite down on the stalk and not get any of the flower itself in his mouth. Then he looked around once more and ran into the corn, breathing fast and shallow.

He didn't see Angus spot him run past.

Sebastian had been hiding in the corn for several hours. Usually he would be asleep at this time of day, but there was too much on his mind. The afternoon sun was hot on his back, but instead of being comforting and relaxing it was making him hot and uncomfortable. His stomach turned knots in his belly and he flinched every time he thought he heard someone coming. He defecated often. When Morgan finally burst into the hiding place Sebastian was almost sick with fright.

"They know everything!" Morgan cried, dropping the foxglove flowers in front of Sebastian. "They know everything! They know we did it! Mark saw us! He was hiding in the bushes! Everyone believes Peter!"

Sebastian threw up over his own droppings.

"What are we gonna do, Seb?" Morgan wailed. "I mean, what the fuck are we gonna do? They're gonna exile us for this! Nicholas told Peter he was gonna exile him when they thought he did it! It won't be any different for us!"

Sebastian gulped. "We have to calm down," he said.

"Calm down, he says," Morgan muttered to his feet. Uncontrollably, tears began to well up in his eyes and as he looked down, teardrops began falling onto his forepaws. Then his nose started to run. He sniffled.

"Maybe we can still blame Peter," Sebastian said.

"They won't believe us." Morgan sighed.

"Well, I don't know, then," Sebastian snapped.

Morgan swallowed. "They'll torture us to confess, won't they?"

"Yes." Sebastian sighed. "Then exile us."

"I don't want to be exiled!" Morgan wailed.

"No," Sebastian murmured. "Neither do I." He watched Morgan's arched back heave as he sobbed. Then he spotted the pink foxglove flowers out of the corner of his eye. "Well, I don't know about you, but there are alternatives to exile..."

"What?" Morgan looked up. "Anything!"

"When your brothers and sisters died," Sebastian began slowly.

"You mean when they ate the foxgloves?"

"Yes," Sebastian said. "How long did it take?"

Morgan frowned. "It was instant, Seb. Just seconds."

Sebastian nodded. "Well," he said. "That's not too bad, is it?"

"What isn't?" Morgan was confused. Then he remembered the foxgloves he'd brought him with and looked down at them. "Sebastian, you can't be suggesting what I think you're suggesting. That we... eat the foxgloves?"

Sebastian didn't speak. He just nodded.

"I don't want to die!" Morgan cried.

"Exile's worse, isn't it?"

Morgan paused, looking from the foxgloves on the ground to Sebastian and back again. Tears streamed down his face. His nose was blocked. So was his throat. He couldn't speak. He just nodded.

"Pass some here, then," Sebastian whispered.

Morgan tore a couple of buds off for himself and then pushed the rest of the foxgloves over to Sebastian with his foot. A tear fell off and landed on one of the petals. Morgan watched it trickle into the heart of the flower, and looked up at Sebastian. Sebastian licked his lips and looked back sorrowfully.

"I'm sorry," he mouthed.

Then he opened his mouth as wide as he could and bit down on the foxgloves. He got two full buds into his mouth. He picked up the rest of the cutting in his teeth and shook the stalk away. Then he began to chew. Quickly, Morgan followed suit. The pair of them sat there eating their poison. Morgan swallowed first.

Suddenly, Angus burst into the little clearing behind the oak tree. He hadn't jumped so far and so fast in years. He landed on top of Sebastian and kicked down on to him. The last thing Morgan ever saw as he was gripped by convulsions was Sebastian being winded and spitting out one of his flowers.

"Spit it out! Spit it out!" Angus screamed.

Sebastian wouldn't. He couldn't breathe with Angus jumping up and down on top of him, let alone swallow. He felt a rib crack as Angus bore down on his lungs. He wanted to scream out in pain, but didn't see much point. What was pain now? If he didn't do this, Nicholas would probably crack the rest of his ribs, and then let him live in agony outside the warren for the rest of his days.

"Spit it out!" Angus cried again.

Sebastian used all the effort he could muster to push upwards, lift both his weight and Angus' on top of him, then duck his head down so he could swallow. Angus bellowed "Nooo!" on top of him, but by then it was too late. When the foxgloves finally paralysed his lungs, Sebastian couldn't tell. It felt much the same as having Angus ride on top of him, except then it all went dark.

Angus climbed off Sebastian and stood looking at the bodies while he caught his breath. He didn't know what to do. Sebastian's lifeless corpse finally stopped twitching reflexively and Angus sighed. Hopefully some predator wouldn't come along and feast on this evidence that was a testament to Sebastian's guilt. Angus snorted angrily, then turned sharply and went back into the corn.

Angus was drawn to the roadside by the shouting. He recognised Peter's voice and Nicholas was hollering too, but they weren't shouting at each other, thankfully. As Angus went down into the warren to skip beneath the hedgerow he met Daniel and Gibson scurrying the other way in tears. By the time Angus surfaced, Nicholas had turned his attentions back to Peter. Angus pushed to the front.

"No guessing what's going on here," he murmured.

"Angus," said Nicholas. "So glad you could finally join us."

"Look, Nicholas, Peter's not responsible," Angus told him.

"Yes," Nicholas said slowly, narrowing his eyes. "So we keep hearing. I gather you've been to bring us some proof of that, Angus." He glanced at the rabbits behind Angus. "So where is Sebastian, then?"

Angus swallowed. "Dead," he said.

"Dead?" said Nicholas suspiciously.

"Yes, he killed himself. As did Morgan."

Nicholas glanced at Hazel. "Oh, really?"

"Yes," Angus went on. "I couldn't stop them in the end. They realised you knew the truth and that they'd be punished for it. They couldn't face exile, so they swallowed some of the same foxglove they used to kill the human."

"And you actually heard them say that?"

"Yes, of course," snapped Angus.

"Hmm," went Nicholas. "So at the end of the day, we're back where we started again. There's no proof either way. It's all just one group of rabbits' word against the word of another group of rabbits. Who can I believe?"

"Me," Angus growled in a low voice.

"It's obvious they did it," Peter spat.

"Perhaps," Nicholas crooned. "Perhaps. I haven't forgotten you disowned your own sons before, Angus. I know you have a vested interest in seeing justice done, but I'm also tempted to believe you're not in full possession of the facts."

"Oh, please, I'm not senile," Angus cried.

"No-one's saying you are, Angus," Nicholas said condescendingly. He was sounding more and more like Alexander every minute. "But you haven't heard some of things we've been hearing in the last half hour, either."

Angus raised both bushy brown eyebrows.

"About secret meetings and covert plots," Nicholas continued. "And Peter's freely admitted to being at the heart of all that. Isn't it possible, then, that he's managed to pull the wool over your eyes just like he has ours?"

Angus frowned. "Possible, but unlikely."

Nicholas took a sharp intake of breath. "I'm not so sure," he said quietly. Then he stood up taller and looked over Angus' back. Hazel was standing right behind him now. "Hazel, would you care to bring forward our next witness?"

Hazel nodded. Peter, Mark and Angus all exchanged frowns.

"You see," Nicholas explained. "As soon as Daniel and Gibson came forward and told me Peter killed the human, I had someone else come up to me and corroborate Peter's involvement. Peter may not have put the foxglove in the man's mouth, but that doesn't mean he didn't make Sebastian do it."

"Oh, that's bullshit!" Peter snapped.

"Is it?" Nicholas asked.

Hazel reappeared with the witness.

"What do you think, Travis?"

NOTES:
After all the trouble I had with the last chapter, this one was done and dusted in the space of two days, with the first 2500 being managed in two sittings of an hour each. I'm still going to take a break after the sixteenth chapter, however. As you can probably tell, things are just about to take a turn for the worse.

I've known Travis would be a turncoat since his uncertainty about killing humans established with his self-disgust at the start of the fifth chapter. I didn't want him to be a traitorous betrayer, but I've tried to make it seem like the most important thing to him is to return to the warren, and do whatever it takes. I don't want him to have to lie about Peter's involvement, because that would make him a bad little rabbit. That's why I had him sleep throughout the murder, so that he truly believes what he's about to tell them.