With the conversation finished, both went their separate ways again. Once in a while they’d stop by the clock, checking the time, and when the end approached, both naturally appeared near the gate.
The funeral was finished. People were talking to each other, embracing and crying. The gate was opened by the servants, who bowed low when the visitors left.
The unmarried woman stepped through the gate and past the end of the scenario.
The world collapsed.
Aspen clapped his hands together and expectantly looked at River, who inhaled deeply and sorted everything they knew.
“We have to let the family stop her from leaving, which is very likely linked to proving to them that she murdered the grandfather. We need a motive, a witness and evidence, ideally.”
“The witness is probably that little girl? That means we’d have to make her talk.”
“The girl and the aunt have a good relationship, I believe. There are hints that she often buys the children toys. She probably won’t talk without a good reason, but if she has seen something, there might be a way to frighten her into telling the story to her parents.”
Aspen tapped a finger against his crossed arms. “There was something off about the way she reacted when her mother tried to talk to her.”
River nodded in confirmation. “We should check that. Next, we have to find out what the old man did wrong – this should be either a hint in his or the woman’s possession. Evidence would likely be the murder weapon… The woman might have hidden something.”
“Let’s start with the girl? I’m sure we missed something about the way she acts. There’s gotta be something we can see.”
They went to watch the same scene as last time.
The little girl sat alone in the courtyard, then her mother came and called for her.
At first she jumped up and looked excited, then she suddenly tensed. At her mother’s further approach and coaxing, she pushed her away and started to run.
“Mmmh…?” Aspen tilted his head and squinted his eyes. “What’s this? This doesn’t look as if she was planning on avoiding her mother from the start.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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River watched him, mildly surprised. He would have thought they’d be painful, but Aspen looked very relaxed, as if they were toys. Distracted for a moment, he did not notice Aspen stepping closer to him and looking up at his face. “Follow her?”
“Ah? Yes…” River nodded, then looked into the direction of the girl.
He saw the same scene that Aspen had seen before, how her father came and coaxed her. They wasted some time watching nothing happening, until the man went to carry her to her room.
The girl was wiping her eyes and quickly picked up a small plushie to hug to her chest.
The father squatted down, conversing with her, then reaching up to the table where the mother had placed the same tray that River had seen here before. He gave her a bun on which she nibbled peacefully for a moment… Until she looked up.
Seeing the tray, she froze. Her hand opened, letting the bun fall down, and she began sobbing again. Troubled, her father went back to coaxing her.
River stared at the tray.
“Let’s go back to the old man’s room for a second”, he said slowly and retreated from the two shadows.
“You have an idea?”
“Yes.”
On the other side of the building, River confirmed his suspicion. The old man’s table held his cup and the flask with water.
Unsurprisingly, the mansion used the same tableware everywhere. That meant that the cup was identical to the one that the mother had tried to give her daughter.
River picked it up and looked inside. If there had been remnants of fluid inside, they were dried up by now.
“You had a little sibling, right?”, River asked and Aspen nodded. “If a child watched someone take a cup and then something bad happens… Would they be scared of a similar cup, even knowing it’s not the same one?”
“Is possible”, Aspen leisurely confirmed. “Once bitten, twice shy. The kid at my place used to avoid things as long as he had a bad memory with them, no matter how often my parents told him that it wasn’t the same. Depends on the age, too.”
“If this was the murder weapon, she might have noticed her grandfather dying after drinking from it. That’s enough reason for bad memories to resurface when she sees it.” He turned the cup in his hands, then placed it back.
“Under which circumstances would she actually say something about it? What could be done to make her reveal she’s scared of the cup?”
River closed his eyes to think and pursed his lips. “Reenact the scene. She is very young, it might frighten her into talking.”
“So… she would have to see her aunt giving a cup of water to someone?”
“Ideally her parents. She’s the most likely to panic when she assumes her family to be in danger.”
“Okay. Should we plan that now?” Aspen cracked his fingers, already thinking on what to do to make such a scene happen. However, River shook his head.
“Ideally, we need to plant other evidence first. People have to notice that there is something unnatural about his death first before they’d make the connection to what the girl says.”
“What now, then? We still need evidence and the motive, since we have a witness now.”
They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. For some reason, they felt that the other was inexplicably similar, and yet an opposite.
Where River’s eyes were a thick layer of glass hiding a flickering flame, Aspen’s were purposefully wild and messy only to hide the silence within.
At the same time, both turned to the locked cabinets.
“In the end, it comes down to opening those after all.”
“I will create a distraction at the other end of the building”, River suggested. “If you break it open at the same time, they should not notice.”
Aspen’s eyes narrowed but he did not reject the suggestion despite its obvious danger. “…How would I know when you are going to start?”
River wordlessly pointed at the ticking clock on the wall.
“And how will you know the correct time?”
“I’m accurate.” To say that River sounded confident saying this, it wasn’t right. Correct would be to say that his voice lacked any hint of uncertainty, no different from saying he could breathe.
“I’ve heard people say that confidence is handsome. Today is the first time I’m inclined to agree.” Aspen laughed and gave River a single pat on the shoulder. “What time?”
River twitched once at the contact but gave no further sign of displeasure. “Twelve. Should be enough time for me to find something useful to cause a distraction.”
Aspen checked the time again. Judging by the fact that they had long passed noon, he automatically assumed River must be talking about the minute hand. “Nine minutes left? Sure.”
River left the room, leaving Aspen behind.
The youth went back to looking at the cabinet and its locks. Then he took the iron out of the fireplace and waited while sitting on the bed.
He rarely felt as relaxed as he did right now. He liked wasting some time trying to solve the puzzle completely rather than brute-forcing a result. They could fake another case or make someone kill the aunt, but they chose the harder way.
Aspen was aware that they weren’t doing it for the story. They weren’t doing it like this because of a sense of guilt for the characters or whatever. It was as simple as River wanting to solve this puzzle perfectly and Aspen wanting to go along with whatever the other man wanted.
However long their cooperation would last, Aspen decided he might as well enjoy it as long as he could.
With a sweet smile, he stared at the clock. His feet waved over the ground playfully, like a little child impatiently waiting for his game to begin.
When the minute hand reached twelve, he dutifully used the iron poker to work on the cabinet. With enough force, the wood around the locks gave away, breaking it open. Hearing the noise, Aspen deliberated leaving the room – if shadows had heard this, they’d come running and he’d be in trouble.
He discarded the idea immediately. He liked the thought of believing in River’s words better.
Thanks for the chapter ❤️
Aww he trusts river
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️