I heard a click
somewhere behind me, but nothing happened. Everything was still dark. Two more
presses of the switch changed nothing.
“The light’s busted,” Louis said, his voice
echoing around the organ room.
“You think it’s because of the storm?” Ashley
said.
“Could be.” A sudden flash of light blinded me.
After a few seconds my eyes got used to the change and I saw Louis use his
phone as a flashlight. I fiddled in my phone and did the same, Ashley and Wei
following suit. Four streams of light were now illuminating the large brass
construct in the back of the room. Pipes glistened as if covered in a thin
layer of ice, forming a twisted jungle of metallic icicles.
“Impressive,” I said.
“A bit too rococo for my tastes, but Francis
wanted it that way.” Louis approached the organ. Though I didn’t suspect him of
being the culprit, what De Silva said made me question many things. I decided I
needed to keep an eye on my co-investigators, just in case. And so I followed
him and took a look at the instrument. Oddly enough, the keyboard was covered
and locked.
“How do you open and then lock this up in the
time that it takes for one person to leave the dining room, kill a person, and
come back? Oh, not to mention play a whole sonata in the meantime?” I said.
“The solution is quite simple, really,” Louis
said as he pushed a switch on the side of the organ. The pipes blared the
opening notes of Bauer’s masterpiece, only to be shut down once Louis pressed
the switch again. “Hardly anyone plays this nowadays. Francis mostly just uses
his little piano in the basement. But he did devote a lot of cash to deck this
organ out with some snazzy programming. He was never really able to distribute
his money, properly, that sweet brother of mine.” Louis furrowed his eyebrows.
All the love and support he had for his brother – the only trait he seemed to
exhibit from the time of the murder – seemed to have temporarily disappeared as
he lost himself in though. He then went back to his usual expression, brutally
brought back to Earth by an obnoxious voice.
“That almost gave me a heart attack,” Ashley
called from the other end of the room. “Jesus. You guys could’ve warned me.”
“Personally, I found that performance quite
moving,” Wei called from the middle of the room. “That solves one of our
mysteries, then. But I think there is one thing you might want to see.” He
beckoned us and soon all four of us were standing in the center. Wei pointed up
and flashed his light at the ceiling.
“I don’t see anything,” Ashley said.
“Exactly,” Wei smiled. “If you look closely,
there’s a small link of a chain hanging from the ceiling. The only remnant of
what was once-“
“The Chandelier,” Louis said in a whisper. His
breath became fast and unsteady, and I could feel mine become the same.
“But wait,” I said, realization hitting me like
a truck. “You don’t mean-“
Wei only smiled at me. As if on command, we all
shone out lights on the floor. There could be no mistake – the floor was
covered in blood. Blood that formed a trail leading halfway to the doorway, but
then suddenly disappeared.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Ashley said. “So
this is the actual scene of the murder?”
“I’m not our detective, but I’m pretty sure
that’s a safe bet,” I said. “But what happened to the body? How did it get
transported like that? I didn’t see any blood on the way?”
“Admittedly, none of us were looking at the
floor when we were coming here,” Louis said.
“No, Mr. Ram has a point.” Wei scratched his
chin and pointed at the place the trail of blood ended.
“Someone either lifted
the body there or cleanly wiped the floor, which I doubt there was enough time
for. Furthermore, I did take quite a good look at the place where the body is presently
located and no trails leading into the pool of blood Ms. Van was lying in.”
“I guess that pretty much confirms this was the
work of more than one person,” I said. “I don’t think one person would be enough
to just carry a crushed body and a huge chandelier downstairs on their own. But
the blood trail still bothers me…”
“I can see why,” Wei said. “None of the guests
seemed to be covered in blood when they appeared downstairs.”
“Wait,” Louis said suddenly, in an urgent tone.
“I think I know something… As I mentioned earlier, Francis likes to spend
excess money on stuff he doesn’t really need. Some time ago he mentioned with
great pride that his castle even has trap doors and hidden passages.” He
hesitated. “But then again, just because he knows, doesn’t mean the killer
does.” His face suddenly went pale. “Unless…”
“Hey, now, let’s not jump to conclusions,”
Ashley clasped his hands together and put his chin on them. “Maybe they’re
easier to figure out than you’d think. Let’s take another look around.” As he
finished that sentence, I noticed that he was looking at me and motioning in
the direction of the corner. Hardly subtle, as I’m pretty sure Wei noticed it
too, but even if he did, he didn’t follow us. “Look what I found in trash,” Ashley
whispered as he pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.
“A paper ball. That’s quite a find.” I rolled
my eyes, but Ashley was having none of it. He shook me by the shoulder and
forced me to look at the unrolled piece of paper. It was Francis’ will. “Okay.
Weird, but still, I don’t think it’s anything special. He isn’t exactly young,
I mean, so maybe he was making a draft?"
“I don’t know, it looks pretty clean to me,”
Ashley said. “But that’s really not the point. There’s something kinda weird
about this. Read it.”
I pulled the paper closer to my eyes and
flashed the light from my phone on it. Ashley was right. For a person with such
a huge fortune, this will was incredibly short. According to it, Francis was
planning to give all his money to his daughter Van and “little Maurice”.
“Gotta agree with Louis. Mr. Bauer really doesn’t
know how to manage his money right.”
“Yeah, that’s the whole point. I mean, someone
with as big a fortune and a family so close would be expected to devote some
more money to other members that just his adopted daughter. If you know what I
mean.”
My heart sank. “No,” I whispered, my mouth
agape. “You really think Louis could?”
“Not so loud! He’s right here in this room!”
Ashley covered my lisp with his hand. I shoved it away in one swift, angry
motion.
“First of all, I’m fucking whispering, so I can’t really get much more quiet than that.
Second, don’t touch me.”
“Sorry.”
“Third,” I took another look at the paper. “Who
the heck is this Maurice person?”
“Beats me,” Ashley said. At that moment we both
heard a sound. It reminded me of that one time my mom put some hideous shoes on
her little Pomeranian, Hubert. The poor thing awkwardly lifted every paw high
up as it walked, failing to comprehend why it can’t feel the ground normally. I
turned around to see a little face staring at me from the double door leading
into the hallway. I was utterly confused. The resemblance to Van was uncanny –
round, freckly, decidedly Asian face, but the hair was a curly auburn mess. As
it spotted me, it disappeared, its feet awkwardly tap tapping as the little person made their way down the hallway.
“Did you see-?” Ashley began but I was already
dashing to the door. As I threw it open, I ran down the hallway, trying to
catch a glimpse of the little peeping tom. I heard steps behind me, but didn’t
have the time to look back and determine who was following me. I looked left
and right, up and down, until I reached the stairs. No one was there, and there
was no sign of anyone ever being there. It was as if I was chasing a ghost.
“Did you get him?” Ashley heaved.
“He got away,” I said.
“Who were you two chasing?” a voice came from
behind Ashley. It was Wei, smiling at us, as usual.
“We saw someone,” Ashley said. “I think it was
a little kid.”
“A child?” Wei’s smile disappeared. He fell
silent for a few seconds and soon asked with a somber expression, his eyebrows
furrowed: “Are you certain?”
“Yes, there can be no mistake,” I said. “I
think he was around two or three. Must have had some help, since he disappeared
so suddenly.” I stopped to think for a second, wondering if it was appropriate
to share such wild speculation with them, but in the end, I saw no reason to
withhold that. “I think that might have been Van’s child.”
