“No one’s been in his bedroom or his office.” he strode towards them, trying not to bump into servants who were each engrossed in their own tasks, “Damn this fellow kept a lot of people.”
“Well his party is tonight so I'm not surprised there's a lot of bustling around.” Atticus looked around.
There were apparently two floors in the main building, while the other building had rooms for the servants. There were paintings hung on the walls as soon as you entered the house, and potted plants were kept on each side of large doors. Each one led into either halls, the living room, dining room and kitchen. Other rooms were decorated with antiques and knick-knacks from around the world, proudly put on display for anyone to see. As he looked around, a young woman walked up to them, with a tight bun and tiny glasses. She wrinkled her nose at Lorie.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped, “Don’t you have anything important to do?”
“I was helping out the inspector-” Lorie stuttered but the woman cut her off.
“I’ll be helping them out so get back to work. Winston let you shirk your responsibilities as much as you wanted but he's not here anymore.”
Lorie’s eyes filled with tears and she turned and went up to the second floor.
“Hey now, there wasn't any need to be harsh like that.” Shutter looked at her coldly, “Who are you anyway?”
“Secretary, I assume.” Atticus said, glancing at Lorie sympathetically.
“Yes, I'm Anya Strausford.” she held out her hand and withdrew it when they made no move to shake it, “Don't take to me unkindly, gentlemen. That girl has her head in the clouds unless someone pulls her down.”
“Perhaps the reason people take to the clouds, Ms.Strausford, is because the ground is pulling too hard.” Atticus stated and she studied him coldly.
“I’m quite familiar with Mr.Shutter here, but I don't have a clue who you are.”
“Atticus Sherrinford. I suppose you can call me a detective.”
“A detective?” she looked at him surprised, “Why a detective? Don't you normally call animal control or something?”
“We would, if an animal was involved.” Atticus said gravely, “Whoever cut off Mr.Winston’s arm was certainly a beast but not a four-legged one.”
Ms.Strausford put a hand to her mouth in horror.
“Cut off? Who? Who did it?”
“That's what I'm here to find out. Now will you please show us Mr.Winston’s office and bedroom?”
They headed upstairs into a large room with a canopy bed in the center, a balcony and a shelf full of books.
“Not many antiques in here.” Shutter commented.
“Yes, he wanted everything in the rooms downstairs to be shown properly.”
Atticus went to the balcony and looked out.
“Shutter, come here. Isn't the crime scene right there?”
Shutter strolled over and nodded.
“Yeah, you can see it from here it seems.”
“Ms.Strausford, did Mr.Winston usually go out alone?”
“Never.” she shook her head, “He’s received death threats in the past so he always had someone accompany him everywhere.”
“Death threats? Who would send him those?”
“Oh, I'm not sure. He wasn't a pleasant person, I'm sure he's made many enemies.”
“Specially bidders, Atticus.” Shutter commented and Ms.Strausford shot a glance at him, “Winston used to outbid every single person at every auction. Sometimes through threats or bribes. I'm sure that got him some fans.”
At this Ms.Strausford chuckled and waved her hands.
“Oh I'm sure that's got nothing to do with this.” Her smile didn't reach her worried eyes.
“Why do you say that?” Atticus inquired, noticing the change in attitude, “This could very well be the work of someone who got jealous or angry at his unfair methods.”
Ms.Strausford blinked and opened her mouth to say something when her phone rang. With what seemed to be a sigh of relief, she took it out of her pocket.
“Yes? Yes. I'll have to look for it, let me get back to you.” putting her hand over the mic she said, “Funeral plans. I thought I'd taken care of it but there seem to be things left undone.”
“That's alright, we'll get Lorie to help,” Shutter grinned, “Where is she?”
“Room opposite this one, Winston's office.” Ms.Strausford grumbled and quickly exited the room.
Atticus and Shutter looked around some more but after finding nothing of interest they headed across the floor to the room Lorie was in. She had her sleeves rolled up and was scrubbing the desk in the middle of the room. Atticus noticed how the sunlight behind her was making her hair glow and for a second, he thought he’d rather just stay silent as not to disturb her. He also noticed a mark on her right arm. It looked almost like-
“Lorie!” Shutter called as they went in and she looked up in surprise, “You’ve been assigned to us again, the other lady had to arrange the funeral.”
“Oh, of course.” Lorie’s smile turned sad.
“Were you and Mr.Winston very close?” asked Atticus carefully, “I’ve heard he treated you more gently than others.”
“Yes, he was kind to me,” said Lorie, rolling down her sleeves and wiping her hands, “I don’t know why though. There isn’t anything special about me.”
“Interesting,” Atticus commented, “Now, Lorie, would you be as kind as to bring the person who discovered the body up here? While you do that, we’ll have a look around the office.”
“Oh yes, of course.” Lorie walked out, “I’ll be quick!”
Atticus went to the desk. A computer, some important documents, a cellphone and stationery. Atticus looked at the cellphone. It didn’t have a passcode. The messages had nothing of importance, but the call logs had a few names Atticus was curious about. He handed over the phone to Shutter.
“Find out who he’s called over the past week. I’m curious about something.”
As Shutter handed the phone over to an officer with instructions, Atticus searched the drawers.
“Nothing good?” Shutter asked, walking over to him.
“There might be.” Atticus said, taking out the whole lower draw and emptying out the contents, “There’s a fake board here. Easily made if you hammer in two nails and place wood over it, if the draw is deep enough. Oh? What have we here…”
The drawer was full of envelopes. Letters, Atticus realized as he opened them, from a woman. And he knew who it was.
“I think she’s coming, better put this back, Atti.” Shutter whispered and Atticus gave him an annoyed look.
“We’ve talked about the nickname, Shutter, it’s terrible.” He quickly put everything back and inserted the draw into the desk.
“I can’t help it, Atticus makes you sound like a knight from a fantasy tale. Besides, Atti sounds cute.”
“It does not-”
“I’m back!” Lorie entered the room, dragging a tired looking boy in his twenties along with her, “This is Marvin. Marvin, this is Inspector Basil Shutter and Detective Atticus Sherrinford.”
“How did you come across the body, Marvin? Start from the beginning.” Atticus leaned against the desk.
“Well uh...I was walking the dog-”
“Apple.” Lorie interrupted.
“Yeah, Apple.” Marvin scratched his arm in annoyance,“I was walkin’ along near the back of the house around where the body got found, and it ran off in the forest. So I found-”
“When was this exactly?”
Marvin scratched his head.
“Um...around 5:30...I think, yeah.”
“You’re usually walking her in the morning?”
“Yeah.”
“Carry on.”
“So I went off after her, and found her barkin’ at the ol’ man and he was layin’ on the ground all dead, and I ran straight back to the kitchen-”
“The kitchen?”
“I work in the kitchen, yeah, and the back kitchen door is was the closest door.”
“Interesting. Carry on.”
“So I went in the kitchen, yeah, and I told Pete the ol’ mans bleedin’ in the forest and he said to call the ambulance and the police-”
“Who’s Pete?” Shutter asked and Marvin looked at him in frustration for being interrupted constantly.
“He’s the head chef and a butcher, he’s in charge of us. He was in the kitchen at the time so I went straight to ‘im.”
“And what exactly did you say?”
“I says ‘Pete, the ol’ mans bleedin’ out in the forest!’ and he says ‘what!’ then he turns to Stew and says to call the police and the ambulance and says to me ‘lets go get him’ and then we both go out to the forest and carry Mr.Winston back in and then the ambulance arrived. Come to think of it…” Marvin thought, “Pete knew the way.”
“He knew the way?”
“Ye, we was walkin’ together but he sometimes went ahead of me like he knew exactly where to go. I thought he was followin’ the dogs barkin’ but I didn't hear nothing.”
“Did you notice anything unusual when you saw the body?”
“Nah, all I saw was a lotta blood and Winston layin’ all still like, I thought he been killed and I got outta there real fast.”
“You left Apple there by herself?” Lorie asked indignantly.
“Ain’t my fault, she was over somewhere barkin’ up a tree or somethin’ till we came an’ dragged her off.” Marvin grumbled.
“She was barking at a tree?” Atticus leaned forward, “Was the tree on the left side of the body by any chance? If I assume correctly, you came up to it from the direction of the house.”
“Yeah, it was on the left.” Marvin looked at Atticus curiously, “Why you ask?”
“It was another piece of this puzzle which fits right in.” Atticus got up, “That’ll be enough, Marvin, thank you.”
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