Chapter 17
Who is this butler?
A few weeks earlier…
After a lot of hard work, Charles' lifelong project was
finally finished, sadly he wasn't here to witness it. She was
happy but at the same time upset, Nicholas didn't even
contribute anything towards this. Tanyah was out here
juggling her work as an assistant by day and detective by
night. It wasn't easy but it was really paying off.
While doing some digging she found out there was
someone staying at the Amar'e family mansion by the name
of Beth, and she had been in contact with the Sinclair family,
specifically Charles. She was sending letters to the Sinclair
mansion in the hopes of befriending and getting to know
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Nicholas. However, because of family tensions, she has been
keeping her communication discreet and on the low.
This person, Beth, was trying to get close to Nicholas for
some unknown reason, and she was also the one in
possession of the Amare family seal. With that sea in her
hands she had a lot of power and control, whatever she
wanted and said could come true with a simple stamp of ink
from the seal.
Now all that's left is to find Betty and ask if she knows
about the family seal and what's happening with Beth. All
Tanyah knew was that she resided somewhere in Kelsus and
she had an important place within the powerful families in
the city who were called the Alquix.
Tanyah then opened the letter which she had gotten
from Victor, she also took out a letter which she managed to
retrieve from the archived files in the library. The letter was
from the Amar'e family to the Sinclairs decades ago. The
writing was a bit worn out but the contents and seal were
visible. She also took out the letter which she picked up
outside when the butler dropped it. It didn't take a detective
to see that these letters were the same but two of them were
from an imposter.
She made a threat to scare Victor so he could stop
attempting to reopen the investigation, which was really
bold because Victor is from a powerful family and if she was
found he would surely kill her. From what she could guess,
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Beth expected Victor to chicken out and close everything
down and she would never be detected.
She forged a signature and stole a family seal, which
were crimes that could put her away in jail for a long time.
But now only one big piece was missing, the connection to
Charles' death. Why would she try to cover up the
investigation, and go as far as to block the Lieutenant from
giving the case to anyone.
Now that she had enough evidence, she had to hunt
down Beth like a hound before anything further transpires.
She didn't know why, but lately Tanya has been having a
terrible feeling about what was going to happen. It was as if
with each day that passed it was getting closer to the final
boiling point and everything was just going to unravel
themselves.
The truth would be brought to light and she could
finally know what happened to Charles and why it was
being obscured and covered. The truth. That's what she
came here for. Even though she was getting close, it felt like
it was there all along and everything she has done so far will
end up being a slap in the face.
She decided to go and talk to Nicholas about his uncle. It
might be a bit difficult but she had to find a way to talk to
him about Charles and Beth while staying within her
boundaries. Just then, the prints that were found near
Charles' body came to her mind. She hoped that she had an
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answer because the last she wanted was to chase after
ghosts.
She entered Nicholas's office but he wasn't there. She
was about to go to check the library but a letter on the desk
caught her attention immediately. She quickly went to the
desk and she confirmed it, it was from Beth. She started to
rummage through the other papers to see if there were any
other letters from her and what she wanted from Nicholas.
There were nine other similar letters, however they
weren't for Nicholas. The letters were from some time ago
and being addressed to Charles. She quickly opened them
one by one and her hands were now shaking, but she had to
do this quickly before anyone entered the office and saw her
going through the things on the desk.
The first few letters were friendly and enquiring about
Charles' life, health and how he was doing. The others that
followed had shifted the tone and atmosphere. The last ones
were ominous words as they were predicting Charles' death
and how he is supposed to be prepared. How he would be
killed by the curse his family and ancestors carried for
decades.
She then opened a letter which was addressed to
Nicholas. The letter only said, '...want to find out.' She
prayed he wasn't dumb enough to follow through with all
this.
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As she kept looking at the papers on the desk and
drawers she was startled by a cold voice that instantly made
her freeze on the spot.
"May I know what you are doing?"
Tanyah almost jumped out of her skin when she heard
the voice but didn't need to turn around to know who it
was. The butler.
"As far as I know you are not allowed to go through Sir
Nicholas's papers without permission, detective. Even if you
are doing your job."
"I apologize, please..."
Wait, did he call her detective? But how?
Tanyah looked at him in confusion, surprise and a lot of
questions with the main one was how did he know? For how
long, and does Nicholas also know?
"How did you know?"
The butler didn't answer but pretended as if he didn't
hear her. A strange feeling of warning quickly started to
creep in on her as she stood face to face with the butler.
"Since you already know who I am, and what I'm doing
here, would you please tell me about Beth?"
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This time it was the butler's turn to be taken by surprise.
Did he think that no one saw him try to get rid of the letters?
Or did he think that she wouldn't notice that everyone who
worked in this place was quickly changed as soon as Charles
died.
"Did she kill Charles, and is she also after Nicholas?"
Tanyah blurted out the questions.
Instead of answering, the butler crossed his arms and
slightly tilted his head with a smile on his face.
Tanyah's eyes widened in shock at what she was
currently seeing. This man before her, during all the time she
knew him was always aloof and serious, he never dropped
his demeanor in the slightest or even smiled at anyone. And
right now of all times he was being nonchalant and smiling
down at her.
There were a lot of questions she needed answers to, and
judging by the person she was talking to, he wasn't going to
be giving her any answers just like that.
"And here I thought you knew that already. Even after
the plays and information I set for you. With all the
information you have been digging up all this time I thought
you would already have all the answers you need to figure
out what's happening. I'm now starting to doubt if Victor
made the right choice in choosing you for this."
"But…"
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He started walking towards the table where everything
was a mess, and started to arrange them in place. He was
playing mind games with her, she was convinced this whole
thing is playing with her mind.
On a fine sunny Saturday when the weather was just
right, Tanyah went to the mansion to have breakfast, and
just like the past few weeks she was served and ate with
Nicholas. She was quite disappointed because she wanted to
speak to the butler that day after he left her hanging after the
previous night's conversation.
After what he said about setting everything up and
mentioning Victor, Tanyah wanted to ask what he meant
and what was going on, however her words fell on deaf ears
and as soon as he was done with what he was doing he just
walked away. He didn't answer any questions or say
anything else to her after that.
While eating, Tanyah tried her best to place her thoughts
aside and focus on her food and Nicholas, who was being
chatty and happier than usual, and when she was done with
breakfast she quickly made her way back to her house.
Every step she took was filled with determination and
conviction because she would need it with what she was
about to do next.
In the quiet and secluded area of the Sinclair estate,
away from the mansion and main visuals of the estate, was a
hidden treasure specially hidden there. If anyone wasn't told
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of its location they would be able to find or know about this
hidden residence on the Sinclair estate.
Just like the design of the Sinclair mansion, this
residence also had a huge garden, but this one wasn't for
display. Inside a huge glass enclosure were many plants of
diverse species, shapes and sizes. They were limited to
where they were growing or being trimmed to fit a certain
space, all the plants grew freely and uncontrolled inside this
enclosed space
Stalin's Botanical Garden
Inside the garden, a man was walking around with a
notebook and a small shovel in the other hand, closely
looking at every plant and writing what he saw before
moving forward. And when he would see something
unusual he would stop to check on the plant and soil it was
growing on, take samples of the plants and soil, write a few
things down, and continue with what he was doing.
The garden was divided into four parts each according
to the type of plants being grown there. The first part was
the entrance foyer, which was the first part anyone sees
before going further into the garden. The entrance foyer had
flowers and shrubs which were indigenous to the land of
Kelsus and were easily recognized by anyone because they
were common in homes and gardens.
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The other three parts of the garden had rare, exotic
plants collected from different parts of the world. The sole
purpose of this garden was to house, preserve and observe
them in a semi-controlled environment similar to their
homelands.
The first of the three parts was for rainforest plant
species, and even though they came from different locations
they were able to thrive together in the makeshift home
provided for them in the garden.
The second part was for plants from deserts and dry
climate regions, because of their mechanism to adapt to their
environment, these plants didn't need a lot of water to grow
and could thrive with little to no water at a time. Some have
roots that can go deep into the ground for water, others have
water reservoirs for when water is scarce, thick stems and
thorns instead of leaves to avoid unnecessary evaporation of
water.
The third part was the Botanical River, where plants that
only grew in water were placed. This was the largest part of
the garden taking up almost half of the whole garden. It had
a large body of water where most of the plants were in, as
well as fountains and ponds with some fish living in there.
As the man was collecting sand from a certain portion of
land, he heard echoes around the garden which were caused
by the entrance being opened and closed. Due to the silence
of the garden he could also hear the light footsteps of the
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person entering and making their way through the garden.
Aside from the sounds of water coming from the Botanical
river and the man doing his work, the garden was
essentially quiet.
The man stopped what he was doing and made his way
towards the entrance foyer, the last thing he wanted was for
his plants to be disturbed or dropped to the ground. When
he got there, the person was surprisingly standing still in
one place and not touching anything.
The man let out a sigh and crossed his arms as he looked
at the person in front of him. "Detective, how are you doing
today? And what do I owe this 'unexpected' visit," said the
man, smiling to himself.
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