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TheDevilsTrick — Privateer Chapter 115
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Published: 2024-03-31 14:09:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 1602; Favourites: 5; Downloads: 0
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[Agatha Kristie]
Clyde sat with Belix as the others in the room stood over Rio’s body. They’d taken him to the dining room, lain his body across the table, and Drucilla had departed to check on her daughter.
“So…” Ecchs wondered, scratching his head, still visibly shaking, “How do we…”
“I’ll send word to the council in the morning,” Cryak told them.
“That’s not your place,” Kyo insisted.
“You think he can do it?” Cryak gestured at Ecchs, “Does he even know how?”
“I can send a message… I’ll… I’ll go do it now,” Ecchs insisted, wandering out of the room.
“That’s settled,” Cryak muttered, then turned to Belix and Clyde, “What about them?”
“Big brother has the seat now,” Kyo stated, that’s up to him.
“Uh-huh,” Cryak nodded, “So what if they’re involved?”
“That’s for big brother to decide.”
“Well, he’s fucking this one.”
“You jealous?” Belix snapped.
“I’m just saying, how can we be certain that he can be objective, Hell, maybe HE was involved and…”
“Maybe you were involved,” Clyde muttered back, leering at Cryak who sputtered into silence, “Not so fun when everybody starts pointing fingers, is it?”
Cryak backed away and started pacing the room.
“Well what the Hell are we supposed to do?” he demanded, “They’re gonna want an answer!”
“So they’ll investigate,” Kyo shrugged, “Why are you freaking out about this?”
“Because My Brother Is Dead!” Cryak shouted, “Because it’s… Because I’m…”
“Because you think they’re going to blame you,” Belix supplied for him.
“She’s not wrong,” Drucilla shouted as she stomped into the room, “He was hardly a good brother to you, practically treated you like a dog on a leash.”
“You know he’s not here to protect you anymore Dru,”
“I am,” Kyo insisted, stepping next to his mother.
“Oh, and that just scares me to death,” Cryak rolled his eyes, “Like I wouldn’t have enough problems without your blood on my hands…”
“Alright, enough!” Clyde shouted, standing from his chair, “If we’re going to stay up all night screaming at each other, let’s at least try to be productive.”
He paced around the room until he was standing beside Rio, and let out a frustrated sigh. He leaned over the table, looking down into the horrible cavity that had been torn into Rio’s chest.
“What do we know?” he demanded.
“I know you’d better step the fuck away from my brother before…” Cryak began, only to get cut off.
“KNOW!” Clyde shouted back at him, “Not what do we want, what would be convenient, What Do We Know?!!”
“That someone tore out his heart?” Kyo offered, hugging his mother when she stifled a whimper.
“No, they didn’t,” Clyde corrected him, he lifted his hand, thought about reaching into the hole in Rio’s chest, but just pointed instead, “Those are bones, I’d say, at best they skinned him open…” he paused, considering it, “Is that something your people can die from?”
“Not… generally,” Cryak told him, “I mean, I wouldn’t advise it but…”
“Did he have something in his chest?” Clyde asked, circling the body and examining it for other marks and abrasions, “A plate or embedded medallion?”
“Why do you ask?” Cryak demanded.
“Is this not something I’m supposed to know?” Clyde wondered, then pointed to the wound, “This didn’t come from slashing or clawing, and any kind of battle where this might happen would have drawn attention, that says to me…”
“That was their target,” Drucilla muttered under her breath.
Clyde decided to ignore the comment and continued examining the body, finding no cuts or bruises on his arms, he moved on to Rio’s head.
“More to the point,” he mused, “If the chest wound didn’t kill him…” he stopped mid-sentence, seeing a clutch of blue veins surrounding the old man’s mouth, nearly hidden by his mustache, “Hang on a second… Just a thought, but what kind of poisons work on you?”
Kyo and Cryak moved closer, noticing the veins, and the closer Clyde looked the more he found, though most seemed centered around his mouth and throat. Both of the men stepped away, nervous looks on their faces as they scratched at their necks.
“Well,” Cryak finally commented, “I guess that’s the girl’s smoking gun huh?”
“Fuck you,” Belix rolled her eyes.
“I’m just saying, poison’s a woman’s tool and…”
“Cowards,” Drucilla corrected him, her arms folded, “Cowards use poison.”
Cryak huffed angrily, but said nothing further as Clyde stepped away from the body.
“So, is there anything specific that someone might use against you?” Clyde asked, “A certain herb or…”
“Iron Pharite,” Kyo supplied.
“Fools Gold?”
“Our bodies don’t react well to it.”
“But then why not just make a knife or…”
“It’s a surface allergy,” Cryak reluctantly explained, “The edge of a knife’ll cut but the area around won’t be directly effected.”
“So… what?” Clyde wondered, holding out his hands, “They shoved a rock down his throat?”
“Or they powdered it,” Belix mentioned, then blew a breath across her hands, “Ground it down fine enough and blew it in his face…”
“Then, when he was trying to wash it off,” Kyo nodded.
“They just held him under the water until the bubbles stopped,” Cryak agreed.
“But then, why wouldn’t he transform?” Clyde wondered, then saw the curious looks the other men were giving him, “Yeah, another thing I know about, I’m just thinking, if he’s transforming, he’d be bigger, stronger, that’s usually how these things work anyway.”
“No wrong,” Cryak admitted, “But I don’t see…”
“Unless they mixed it with his food, or his wine,” Belix mused, “In the dark outside, he probably wouldn’t even notice a difference…”
“This is Bullshit!” Cryak shouted, “We’re just standing around speculating and…”
“And that’s still more productive than screaming at each other,” Drucilla insisted, “I’ll talk to the staff, have them search the area, they might come back with something.”
“Whatever, I’m going back to bed,” he snapped, trying to push past her only for Drucilla to shove him back.
“No,” she ordered, “If you want to sleep then do it on the floor, None of us is leaving this room until…”
“You can’t be serious!”
“You want to know who did it?” Drucilla snapped, then continued sadly, “Well, we’re all suspects now, so sit down and wait for the report.”
“And what about the boy?” Cryak demanded, “We already sent him off!”
“Then I will collect him,” Drucilla looked around the room and finally pointed at Belix, “You, come with me.”
“Why her?” Cryak snapped.
“Accountability!” Drucilla shouted back, then to Belix, “Come along.”
With a shrug, Belix hopped out of her seat and followed Dru out of the dining room. They passed their time in silence, winding through the halls until Belix simply couldn’t take it any more.
“So,” she asked, finally breaking the silence, “How’re you holding up?”
“I am anxious, worried, and if I stop moving for too long I may just fall to my knees and start crying,” Drucilla responded bluntly, “Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“...no…” Belix admitted, then, trying to change the subject, “He was a good man, wasn’t he?”
“He was a bastard,” Drucilla snapped before she could control her tone, “But… but he had to be…”
Finally stopping her forward charge, Dru stood still in the hall, shoulders slouched, head hunched forward, she barely seemed to be breathing.
“I did love him,” she admitted, “I… I’ll always… do you know… why he was retiring?”
“Um...bit of a Segway but…” Belix scratched her neck, “He was retiring?”
“Yes,” Drucilla nodded, “And it’s not a revolving door you know, they would’ve never allowed him back, but he was going to do it, turn his back on All of them, so that we could be together, honest and true, for the first time…”
“That’s…” Belix searched for the right word, “I’m sorry…”
“It’s not your fault dear,” Drucilla assured her, seeming to collect herself at last, “You didn’t ask to come here… you just took the opportunity as it was presented…”
“No…” Belix groaned, biting her lower lip, “No I didn’t.”
Dru turned to face her again, seeming to glare through her tightly shut eyes.
“Your son, Ecchs, he didn’t invite me here to get married,” Belix continued, “I’m here to look into your brother-in-law.”
“Cryak?” Drucilla raised an eyebrow, “What has he been…”
“You notice how Greta’s been… out of sorts lately?” Belix winced at her own words.
“No…” Drucilla backed away, shaking her head with a desperate terror, “No, you can’t be…”
“It’s what your son suspected.”
“...so… he was looking for proof?”
“No, actually… no…” Belix tapped her chin pensively, “I was, I mean, he wanted me more as a lure than anything else, get him to act…”
“He wanted you to be assaulted,” Drucilla surmised, shaking her head in disbelief, “Why would he want that?”
“… he said he was trying to protect Greta, that…”
“Cryak has made no move against Greta,” Drucilla shook her head, “My husband watched him quite closely, he would not have tolerated such action.”
“But…” Belix sighed, “Look, I got no answer for you, I’m just telling you what he told me.”
“Hm…” Drucilla nodded then turned away, “Something to be discussed, but not now.”
She walked away and Belix followed, both of them lost in their own heads, wondering what answers this night might afford. They came across Ecchs, running in the other direction, clearly in a rush and drying the tears from his eyes. He slid to a halt after seeing them and tried his best to smile as he waved to them.
“Ah, I… I didn’t worry you, I hope…”
“Someone poisoned your father to death,” Belix interrupted him harshly.
He glanced over at his mother who remained silent.
“No… no that… how?”
“We’re thinking ‘Fool’s Gold’ in his wine, closed off his windpipe and choked him to death,” Belix saw both of them flinch when she said that, but refused to soften her words, she folded her arms and waited for him to respond.
“That… no, that...that’s impossible,” Ecchs insisted, “He wouldn’t just take a drink from a stranger, let alone an intruder in the dead of night…”
“Yeah, that’s why it’s the only thing that makes sense,” Belix sighed, “Someone passed him a cup, then tore open his chest to get that… whatever it was he had below the skin…”
“You… know about…” Ecchs shook his head, “There’s still the problem, he wouldn’t…”
“It was one of us,” Drucilla insisted, “Come with us and join the others.”
“But… but, I didn’t… there’s no way…”
“I didn’t either,” Drucilla told him, “Have you contacted the council?”
“Yes, why?”
“They will turn their eyes to the outsiders first, that includes myself, Greta, and your friends, whether we did anything or not, we will be raked across the coals, until they stumble across the true culprit, They might even take Rin away from me.”
“I would never allow them to…”
“You may not have a choice!” Drucilla shouted tearfully, “Come join us, I would prefer to have a culprit for them by the time their envoy arrives.”
Ecchs opened his mouth, but Belix shook her head and nodded towards the dining hall. A few minutes later, they had rejoined the others with Clyde standing awkwardly off to the side while Cryak and Kyo were have a rather spirited but quiet conversation.
“What’d we miss?” Belix wondered dryly.
“Nothing too special,” Clyde admitted, “Kyo doesn’t want to tear up the corpse anymore, Cryak wants me to dig deeper to find more clues.”
“That ‘corpse’ is my father!” Kyo snapped.
“And he would want us to find his killer and bring them to justice,” Cryak insisted.
“It’s a moot point,” Clyde admitted, “I’m no kind of doctor, I just happen to know my lacerations.”
“But we could still…”
“We Might still,” Drucilla corrected him, then turned to Clyde, “You’re certain you couldn’t find anything else?”
“Unless the killer left a signed affidavit in his stomach,” Clyde shook his head, “From what I can tell, all the wounds were superficial, relatively speaking, and external, I’m willing to bet that’s about as far as the examination can go.”
“Alright, fine,” Drucilla waved dismissively, “Then we leave him.”
“But…” Cryak started incredulously.
“We leave him,” Ecchs supported his mother, stepping next to her and giving Cryak a stern look, “Deal with it!”
“Fine,” Cryak complained, “Did the servants get back to you yet?”
“No,” Drucilla admitted.
“Right, well, what do we know so far?”
“He was killed,” Kyo stated bluntly, “Poisoned by the look of it.”
“There was no shouting, no screaming, until Belix found his body,” Clyde smirked as she huffed at him, “And there’s no signs of a struggle.”
“Oh…” Ecchs face became downcast, then he glanced at his mother, “So that’s why…”
“It had to be one of us,” Drucilla agreed, “Someone who would offer him a poisoned cup that he would readily accept.”
“That rules us out, doesn’t it?” Belix wondered, pointing between herself and Clyde, “I mean, we’re strangers here, there’s no way he…”
“He was a gracious host,” Drucilla insisted, “And he liked you.”
“Anybody else find it just the tiniest bit suspicious that she’s already trying to avoid prosecution?”
“Isn’t that what everyone’s doing?” Belix asked.
“I’m watching you,” Cryak glared at her, “Elf bitch.”
“Don’t instigate,” Belix brushed him off, “Or maybe I should point out how strange it is that you’re the one who keeps derailing us by picking fights.”
“I’m not… I wanted to examine the body!”
“Or you were pushing us to destroy the only piece of tangible evidence we have.”
“Stop!” Ecchs insisted, “This is getting us nowhere, let’s just focus on the facts.”
“Well…” Clyde shrugged, “For a fact I know, dust always leaves a trail, we could check everyone’s bags, see if there’s any residue.”
“And if it was her?” Cryak demanded, pointing at Drucilla, “It’s her house after all, how many hidey-holes and cubbies could she have stashed it in?”
“The same could be said for any of us,” Kyo insisted, “It’s not a definitive answer, it’s just a start.”
“Alright, so where do we start?” Cryak demanded.
“We got nothin’ to hide,” Belix said with a shrug, “You can start with me.”
Cryak glared at Clyde, but let out a frustrated grunt of agreement.
“Fine,” he grumbled, “But I’m the one who tosses the room!”
“Any excuse to sniff my delicates huh?” Belix smirked at him.
“No,” Ecchs stepped forward, pushing Cryak away, “Kyo, you do it.”
“Why him?” Cryak demanded.
“Because I don’t trust you,” Ecchs glared back, “You’ve got a temper and you’re likely to plant something to salve your wounded pride, or cover your ass.”
“Well, when you’re right,” Cryak looked at him and scoffed, “I knew my brother raised you well.”
“Stop talking!” Drucilla shouted, “Let’s get this over with already.”
Clyde led the way to their room and held the door open for Kyo as he entered, everyone else waited outside. They milled about, muttering and trying to their best to chatter while Kyo pulled out the drawers and overturned them on the bed. Belix stood cooly in the hall, arms folded, languidly staring at the wall and waiting for the inspection to end.
“Nervous?” Clyde asked her, and Belix only shrugged.
“Most of it’s not even mine,” she admitted, “Just crap Ecchs bought for me.”
Clyde nodded, then turned his head back to Kyo who was rifling through her dresses and underclothes.
“Nothing yet?”
“Don’t rush me,” Kyo leered back, still searching for pockets and rifling through them.
With the clothes now thoroughly searched, Kyo turned his attention to the suitcases and started looking through them, running his hand along the inseam and rummaging about in the pockets.
“You know what’s gonna happen if he does find something, right?” Cryak smirked at Clyde, who turned his head to glare at the other man, “You think you’re a tough guy?”
“You know your brother was intimidating,” Clyde mentioned.
“Yeah, you do,” Cryak approached, “Can you even imagine what the council will do when they get their hands on you?”
“Piss off,” Clyde brushed him off and turned back towards the room.
“Hey, wait, I got something here!” Kyo called out.
He walked out of the room, a small cloth pouch in his hand. Pulling open the strings, even in the dim light of the hallway, they could see a distinctive golden glitter shuffling about inside. Belix grew several shades paler and Clyde’s blood ran cold as Kyo dipped his fingers into the sack and they came out with curls of smoke wafting off of the tips. Cryak let out an almost giddy laugh as he spun about on Belix.
“I fucking knew it!” he declared.
“Oh, screw you!” Belix rolled her eyes, “It’s not mine.”
“All evidence to the contrary!”
“What evidence?” she demanded, “Why would I let you search my room after stashing that in my underwear?”
“It was in your luggage actually, outside, front pocket.”
“My point,” Belix pointed at him, “Why would I put that in there?”
“You’re an idiot!” Cryak scoffed.
“And I’m not arguing,” Belix admitted, “But I’m the one who found the body, are you saying that killed him, took the bag back to my room, and then ran straight back out to the lake… why?”
“To cover your tracks.”
“Why not just throw it in the lake?” she demanded, “Why run through the mansion, risk getting caught and… Gods, I took a piss outside earlier because I thought that would be easier than wandering through this fucking maze in the dark.”
“Are you trying to argue that you wouldn’t commit the crime because you’re lazy?” Kyo asked curiously.
“I’m saying that I wouldn’t do it because my head’s not just full of marbles,” Belix shook her head, “Someone planted that there and, frankly, I find it insulting that you’re all even considering that I’m this stupid.”
“Mother,” Ecchs leaned close to Drucilla, “I’ve known her for years, she wouldn’t…”
“People change my dear,” Drucilla warned him, “How can we be certain?”
“Because there’s no gain in this for her.”
“Not that you know of,” Cryak smirked, “She could’ve been working you, biding her time, for year.”
“Except she couldn’t because ‘I’ brought her here!”
“Yes so she…”
“No!” Ecchs snapped, “To Kill You!”
Everyone in the hall was silent, the smile was wiped from his face, he honestly looked hurt.
“You’d…” Cryak shook his head, disbelieving, “You want to kill me!”
“YES!” Ecchs shouted, “You’re a Goddamn Scumbag, a disgrace to our entire family line and we’d all be better off without you!”
Cryak could only stare back at him, bewildered, he scoffed, but couldn’t seem to form any words. Clyde let out a sigh of his own and glanced over at Ecchs.
“I was trying to kill you,” Clyde told him.
“Excuse me?” Drucilla demanded.
“That’s where I was when the body was found,” Clyde elaborated, “Your son and I were having a disagreement, and I was trying to kill him, Belix was wandering outside, trying to lure him out,” he pointed to Cryak, “Where were you?”
“...I was…” Drucilla shook her head, “I’d put Rin to bed, I was talking to the help about tomorrow's breakfast.”
“Easy enough to verify,” Clyde nodded, then gestured between himself and Ecchs, “We can vouch for each other.”
“We don’t know when father was killed,” Kyo insisted.
“He was alive at sunset,” Drucilla insisted, “We all saw him at dinner.”
“Relatively speaking,” Cryak grumbled, scratching the back of his head, nervously.
“Belix went outside an hour or so after,” Clyde insisted, “We stayed together until we separated, then I found him,” he pointed to Ecchs, and then looked at Kyo, “What about you?”
“I was with Greta,” Kyo insisted, “Then I left her in her room and... and I went to get a drink.”
“Kitchen or pantry?”
“Pantry.”
“Easy enough to verify,” Clyde shrugged, “Find the bottle he was nursing, talk to the staff…”
“And what the fuck does any of this mean?” Cryak demanded.
“Where were you?”
“I was… I was in my room!” Cryak insisted.
“Door locked, lights out?” Clyde asked suspiciously.
“So what if I was?”
“And you’ve been ordering liquor all day,” Drucilla raised her head.
“I’m on a liquid diet,” he insisted.
“You were the last one to show up after we heard the scream,” Kyo added.
“And you came down from the stairs,” Drucilla agreed.
“Oh, Fuck You ALL!” Cryak shouted, backing away from the group even as they began to surround him, “You are not gonna railroad me like this!”
“You’ve been pointing the finger at us since the beginning,” Clyde added, “Almost like you were trying to cover your ass.”
“Demanded to go through my things,” Belix agreed.
“Demanded that we desecrate my husband’s body,” Drucilla added.
Cryak stammered, glaring at the two women, then seeing Ecchs moving closer he tried to make a break for it only for Kyo to throw the pouch of iron farite in his face. The Uncle fell to his knee clutching his eye while smoke rolled off of his blistering skin.
“You… dirty… fucking…” Cryak growled while Ecchs raised a nearby lamp and brought it down hard on his head, silencing him.
“There…” Ecchs sighed, “There’s some chains in the cellar, they should hold him, mom?” he looked at Drucilla, “Can you go down there and get them ready, Belix, help her?”
“Sure,” Belix stepped forward and grabbed Drucilla by the arm, leading her downstairs.
“Let’s give them a minute,” Ecchs sighed, glancing at the now bent and broken lamp and tossing it aside, he squatted on the floor, letting out a mournful groan, “Well, looks like I got what I wanted.”
Neither Clyde nor Kyo said anything, they waited for Ecchs to collect himself before helping him to carry the body down to the cellar.
