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Chapter 4
The lock clicked and a moment later the locked door leading to the parlour opened. Christine led the way and stood right beside the door and let the two men pass. I myself stopped undetermined. Would they be able to find something, some hint which would show them it was me, who prepared the tea? Perhaps Christine even cared for them finding something. So I had to find it just before they did.
I followed the two detectives and my eyes scanned the room carefully, while I could feel my wife’s cold stare in my neck. On the small ash wooden table there still were standing two of our cups of white china with the golden rim. Just beside them, there was the teapot filled with black tea. Only one of the cups had been filled with poisoned content, that cup my beloved sister drank from, as she never did. Not to mention Christine usually emptied the teapot all by herself. Could this have been an accident or had she known it right from the beginning? Just at that moment I realized: She had known it, and if she had, she would have had the opportunity to send my sister to death. She was guilty of her death! It struck me like a flash of lightning, that went through my whole body and took my breathe away.
„What had the deceased done, before she collapsed on the floor,“ Mr. Cemford wanted to know und my wife answered immediately: „She took a cup of tea with me, take a look, there are still the dishes.“ Like the two superintendents I glanced at the two cups. Did she want to foist the murder on me? It was possible, since I had planned that murder up to the tiniest detail, only the wrong person suffered on it. “Oh yes, I see… and which cup did the deceased use?” Christine pointed at one of the cups. “Oh yes, thanks… Andre, please secure all of those dishes as evidence and take care that the cups won’t get mixed up.”
While Mr Cemford was speaking, he leaned forward and waved the smell of the tea to his nose with his flat hand. His face darkened and without turning away from the cup he took a glove out of his coat pocket, put it on and carefully ran his fingertip over the inside of the rim and stared at his soiled finger. „We will get this analyzed as well, because I assume, milord, milady, Miss Sophie didn’t die a natural death, but was most likely poisoned – with this.“ As he spoke the last word, he pointed at the tea pot and my wife stammered with a false expression of shock, which only I recognized as what it was: „But... I drank from the tea myself... you surely don’t mean..., do you...?“ „Please calm down, milady. The theory, that the tea might have been poisoned, is only one of my conclusions, which will be substantiated or rejected, when the death certificate and the report about the pot and the cups are at hand. In spite of that I have to ask you how you feel now and when exactly did you take the tea with Miss Sophie.“ He glanced around shortly and continued gesturing vastly: „But there a other conclusions to follow, as my investigation has just begun. So, where was the deceased lying and in which position?“
The picture of my dead sister was burning inside me and again the weight of guilt seemed to overwhelm me. I collapsed onto one of the chairs, feeling all energy being ripped from my body, leaving nothing but emptiness which was eating me up. I heard the commissioner continuing his walk through the room, but did not take even one look; again I covered my face with my hands , while the tears kept streaming down.
How could I be that stupid? What made me assume, that she, who was that unsound herself, would not recognize, if I imitated her? But I had been that stupid and my stupidity cost her,Sophie my beloved sister’s, life.
„Don’t you want to come with us, darling“, a soft voice reached my ear, so tender, that it made a cold shiver running down my spine. She smiled at me from the door in a superior way, the two men standing behind her and thus could not see my wife’s scornful face, but smiling coldly she made sure I understood that I was completely in her hands. So she thought herself able to frighten me whenever she wanted. Only a suggestion, some tiny hint, something she might have just recognized – and those commissioners would be on my heels. But neither I could nor I wanted to run after her like an intimidated dog and to wait glancing fearfully, if she might say anything which meant my doom.
I shook my lowered head and did not look up for the only reason, that I did not want to provoke her even more, because by then my situation doubtlessly would have been hopeless. If I wanted to protect dear Scarlett, I had to find a way out of this imprisonment and assure I would not be imprisoned again, where I would be shut away from the most important, the only person, who gave my life any sense – Scarlett.
I sat up numbly and strolled through the castle; at last I reached the door of my chamber. Immediately after entering the room I shut up myself and my thoughts.
The first question, that came to my mind, was: How can I get ot of this? Does she really want to deliver me or to torture me with the certainty, she could? Anyway it was possible, that she did not want to give me away, but to use her knowledge for her plans. Certainly I mostly obeyed to her without resisting, but sometimes it welled up and my will and courage, which I had thought lost long ago, grew within myself and I stood up to her, even though only a short while, until she scotched my wrong-doing. But for a fairly long time she has known my weakest point, my family which I loved earnestly and effortlessly from the bottom of my heart, my father and my daughter. How on earth should I ensure that both of them were save from Christine, if I really would be arrested? I knew for sure she would even try to torture me in prison by using my weakest point.
I was in her hands and for sure she had the choice, when to deliver me, either right now or within some weeks, or after a month, or after several years. She would use her knowledge against me, until I would not want to follow her any longer, any kind of resistance would reveal my little secret and separate me from my daughter.
Suddenly somebody knocked on my door fiercely. Reluctantly I sat up and said irritably: „Who is there?“ „Honourable count, it’s me, Andre, the commissioner’s assistant. I beg you to let me in, it really is most important, sir. Otherwise I would not dare to disturb you.“ So, could that be the time? Had he come to fetch and handcuff me? I could not let this happen, I had not thought about anything – so what should I do now?
„I do not feel like receiving anybody... Whatever you want, please apply to my wife.“ „I beg your pardon, but I think you will be interested in what I have to say to you. It’s concerning your father.“ „My father?“ Immediately I jumped towards the door, the keys at hand. „What’s up with him,“ I tried to ask the man even through the closed door, but he insisted to enter first, to tell me face to face. So I unlocked the door and let the small man enter. Like before he seemed to be nervous and tense, but the fact that he was on his own made me calm down again. „So, what’s the matter with my father“ I repeated resolutely, after I had shut the door. „Now then, my honoured count, I am sorry to inform you about this, but your father has been found dead in his domicile.“ I was lightning-struck, I sank onto my bed, neither able to answer anything nor even to think any clear thought, I just felt empty.
The pain which took over, the pain of having lost another beloved person hardly let me breathe. I sobbed, buried my face in my hands and tried to hold back the pictures of my father and my sister, but like the pain they overwhelmed me filling my heart with even more sorrow.
„In fact it’s not really my job to tell you, Sir, but it looks like your father has being murdered, too, poisoned like your sister. My brother... ehm... say... my boss Mr. Cemford judges it now impossible that one of them chose death for himself. He even thinks, that both murders are connected. Thus Mr. Cemford suggested to guard your domicile, the castle, for it could be some kind of revenge against your family.“ I only noticed half of his words. It might have been an eternity, while both of us remained silent.
„So, I will turn to my job again; I think you might appreciate, if we solve both murder cases as fast as possible.“ „Wait... did you find out, what killed them?“ „No, but we do our utmost to recieve the results as fast as possible. Excuse me, please!“ Then he turned around and left me deeply in sorrow; and although my sorrow overwhelmed me in my loneliness, I preferred it from having someone around me.
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