Marvin nodded and shuffled out of the room, almost bumping into the officer Shutter had given the task of finding out the phone numbers to.
“Here they are, sir.” he said, giving back the phone and reading off the paper, “We’re still finding out a few numbers that are from outside the country, but a few calls were to businessmen of similar status.”
“Let me see the names,” Lorie peered over the officer’s shoulder, “Yes, these are familiar. They’re part of a wine club Mr.Winston was part of, they held meetings here.” Atticus nodded thoughtfully.
“And then most calls over the past week are to a Ron Lefferts, who we identified to be the late Thoman Stevenson’s secretary.”
“Oh?” Atticus’ eyes lit up, “Now that is some interesting information.”
“Mr.Winston hated that man.” Lorie said gravely, “He’s the only bidder that managed to outsmart him using his own dirty methods.”
“Excellent!” Atticus grabbed Lorie’s shoulders, “I see now! It makes sense. Shutter, do you understand?”
“That you’re a lunatic? Yes.”
“Tell me, Lorie, how did Winston react to Thomas Stevenson’s suicide?” Atticus asked, his eyes shining.
“Um, well, um.” Lorie’s face was flushed due to Atticus being right in her face. Shutter got up and dragged him away with a sigh. “Well, he was pretty happy. Because of Mr.Stevenson’s suicide, he was able to get his hands on something he’s been keeping an eye out for in the next auction. To finish his collection, he said.”
“What was it, what was it?” Atticus asked shaking himself out of Shutter’s hold, “Show me!”
Lorie led them down to the rooms where Charles Winston kept his antiques. Some were in glass cases, while some hung on the walls. Others hung from the ceiling. Each room had a theme of whichever country the items were from, and the one Lorie led them into had the recently given theme of Africa.
“Here, these masks.” Lorie pointed at a set of three big masks, carved into abstract and a bit horrific human faces. The hairy cotton eyebrows furrowed down on top of the holes made for eyes, and the foreheads reached up higher than the head would be behind the mask. Stuck behind them were ribbons of different vibrant colours, green, red, yellow, purple and blue. There were also beads decorating the sides.
“I see…” Atticus almost danced as he studied them one by one, “I see! I see it now!”
“He’s like this sometimes,” Shutter said to Lorie, “What do you see, O wise one?”
Atticus happily opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it.
“No, no, Shutter, I must solve the whole thing first. There are still loose ends.” Atticus grumbled, “I need more information. Oh, this is so exciting isn’t it?”
He turned to the blank faces staring back at him.
“Right. Well, it will be exciting soon, I assure you. What next, what next…”
“That Pete guy yeah?” Shutter asked, scratching his beard, “Say, shouldn’t we jus’ round everyone up and get their alibis? It’ll make everything way simpler.”
“No need, Shutter.”Atticus grinned, “I already have an idea who did it.”
“What?! Who?”
“I don’t want to spoil it.” Atticus walked out with his head held high.
“You sadist.”
“It’s easy enough to figure out, Shutter, if you use your brain a little. Lorie, where can we find this Pete person?”
“Ah, I’ll get him for you,” Lorie said, “He works in the kitchen.”
“No need, I’ll accompany you. I want to check out the kitchens myself.”
They headed through a hall and towards the last door on the right. The kitchen was alive with clattering pans, sizzling pots and cooks rushing about with various ingredients. A man stood in the middle, shouting orders and occasionally stirring in a pot and looking over at other cooks’ work.
“Hey, Pete!” Lorie called out to him, and he looked up. A shadow passed over his face when he saw the inspector and detective behind her. He came over cautiously. Atticus noticed he was limping slightly.
“What’s this for?” He asked in a low, gruff voice.
“Oh, you don’t know.” Atticus said, studying Pete’s face, “Your boss, Charles Winston, was murdered.”
“Oh, was he now?” Pete stared at Atticus, “How terrible.”
“Indeed. We’d like to hear where you have been before and after you discovered the body with Marvin.”
“You suspecting me or something?”
“Not unless you give us a reason to.” Atticus replied calmly and Shutter chuckled. Pete growled.
“Sure, I’ll tell you where I been. Get out of the kitchen though, you’re disturbing the work here.”
“Well, let’s go out back then, shall we? I heard there’s a door leading out.”
After yelling at the men to keep working, Pete led the way outside. The crime scene was around the left side of the house along where Winston’s balcony looked out from.
“I woke up early in the morning, around 5 am like I usually do.” Pete started, leaning against the door as they shut it behind them, “I started giving instructions to the other cooks of what to cook and stay there till everything is running smoothly. There’s a party tonight as you know, and it was a specially busy morning. Then around 5:30, Marvin came running to me saying Winston’s bleeding out in the forest. So I follow him there and take him back inside the house, thinking a bear or something ate off his arm after he got trapped in a bear trap.”
He paused, looking out to the forest.
“After the ambulance came and left with Winston, I headed to down to the local market to buy some things we didn’t have. I returned two hours later and been in the kitchen ever since.”
“I see.” Atticus said thoughtfully, “You are the cook in charge. Do you usually go out and buy ingredients by yourself?”
“Hmph. No, but today was a big day and I can’t afford anything messing up. I thought I’d go myself instead of sending someone else.”
“Interesting. And how did you get to the market?”
“I have a van I use for transporting meat. I took that.”
“Would you mind if we take a look in it?”
Pete’s eyes sparkled with controlled anger but he took out a key from his back pocket and tossed it to Atticus.
“Go crazy. Am I done here?”
“Yes, good luck with your work. Would you mind sending out the person named Stew who works in the kitchen? Marvin mentioned him.”
“What for?”
“Just a few questions.”
Moments later a scared looking man came out the door, wiping his hands on his apron.
“Yes?”
“Name, sir?” Atticus asked with a comforting smile.
“Stewie Randall.”
“Tell me Stewie, has there been anything unusual happening today in the kitchen?”
“Oh, let’s see…” Stewie relaxed a bit, realizing he wasn’t in trouble, “Yes. For one, Old Pete went out alone for a long while by himself.”
“He said he went to buy ingredients.”
“Yes, but the things he brought back were either already in stock or not very important at all. We’ve been prepared for this party for quite a while, y'know.”
“Interesting! What else?”
“Well, he changed up a recipe. Mr.Winston usually gives us meats he brought back from his trips, stuff you wouldn’t find around here, and he tells us exactly the dishes he wants. Now Pete, he strolls in this morning with a new kind of meat and tells us to chuck it in there. Says Winston forgot to inform us about it, and that it was ostrich meat.”
“Ostrich?” Shutter exclaimed in disgust.
“Oh that’s not too strange, he’s brought back things like crocodiles, giraffe and elephant meat as well.” Lorie cheerfully informed Shutter who once again mouthed the word ‘Lunatic’.
“Is that all, Stewie?”
“Yessir.”
“You can go then, thank you very much.”
As he left through the door, Atticus held up the van keys cheerfully.
“Off we go then!”
They followed him towards the parking lot where a few cars were parked. Lorie directed them to Pete’s van, which was white, dirty and scratched and had a horrible smell of something rotten.
“He does transport meat in it a lot, can’t blame the smell.” Lorie smiled apologetically as Shutter held his nose.
Atticus unlocked the back doors. It was empty, save for one cloth in the back. Atticus took it out and opened it. It was quite ordinary and clean. Atticus smelled it and then rubbed at a few spots on the cloth.
“What is it?” Shutter asked, but Atticus ignored him and crawled inside the van, holding out his phone’s flashlight.
“Aha…” he mumbled, holding something up and putting it in his pocket. He shuffled back out and turned to Shutter.
“Right, well I have everything figured out, Shutter.” Atticus smiled, “Lorie, what time will the guests be coming?”
“Um, around 5pm, I think.”
“Well, we’ll have this solved and put away to rest before anyone arrives, I’m sure.” Atticus said.
“I knew you could do it, Atti!” Shutter thumped Atticus on the back with a grin, “If your solutions correct, which I have no doubt about, I’ll buy you a drink after this!”
“Atti?” Lorie chuckled, “What a cute nickname.”
“You shouldn’t be drinking, Shutter, didn’t they give you a warning already?” Atticus took his arm off with an annoyed look.
“Oh come on, it’s the weekend.” Shutter laughed, “I’m surprised I’m not drunk yet. How bout it Lorie, you can come with us too!”
“Oh um.” Lorie looked at the ground awkwardly, “After tonight’s party, I’ll probably be kicked out by Ms.Strausford...I’ll have to look around for somewhere to work, but I’ll maybe join you another time!”
Atticus and Shutter looked at each other, and Shutter clapped his hands.
“Well, we’ll help you take care of that afterwards! For now, Atticus, let’s go inside and gather everyone shall we?”
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