'You can have him.' His entourage followed suit, the investigator slit eyes watched them with foreign countenance. When they were close enough, Doran's side eye met with Mowes. 'It won't forever be this way, Crow.'
There was a chill in the breeze during that moment. Alexus stared intently at the unfamiliar side of Doran, was it anger? There was an unsettling sinking feeling in the back of his mind, he didn't know the inspector, and it was a startling realisation he was with a stranger albeit friendly but a stranger nevertheless. The meaning of such an expression and his thoughts about who the investigator was felt world's apart by contrast. The moment felt strange and stirred something in the detective, he looked at the root of evil, calm and unbothered. He knew how it worked, a person untouched by the law, they couldn't take him into custody and they couldn't damage him, a part of Hagford will crumble away to the bureau, the man to the distaste of many was one of the pillars holding the states independence. A useful demon.
'You will fall to reckoning.'
'Humph' The crow continued along his way without sparing a glance at the investigator.
Alexus finally became aware of one thing in his surroundings although later than expected. He was curious about the investigator, he wanted to know who he was and he wanted his secrets. He unlocked his fingers and took a pinching bite on his nails considering his options to get what he needed, he wasn't good at making conversations comfortable for people to confide in him, there was a backdoor method he was shown when he took the title of the house but it was too shady and he wasn't ready to deal with those cobwebs yet. The detective had found something interesting to tinker, a rare event indeed.
He walked out of Dorans shadow, moved forward and turned to look squarely at him, but his demeanour had changed and now had a strained smile. The investigator didn't linger on the detective and moved to the last man kneeling under the pergola. He had bent forward and seemed as though he was praying, but his shoulders trembled and tears of relief fell on his lap.
'Ernold?' The investigator inquired.
The man shook his head and looked at the body on the left, Doran hissed. Their objective had been killed already due to his carelessness. Everything so far had led to this dead end.
He pinched his eyes and took a deep breath, all his build up and crumbled and he started to think of what he did wrong, there could have been a better way to preserve Ernolds life. But what good was that? There was an unpleasant taste in the back of his throat, there had to be something to rectify things.
The man kneeling had begun to rise but was knocked flat on his stomach by the wind. Alexus took the lead. 'Ernold is gone, rest be to his soul, but we still have you and I advise if you don't want to join him you answer our questions truthfully.'
The investigator hand wrapped around his mouth and watched Alexus do his thing in silence. The detective took purposeful strides and walked around the individual whose limbs were humiliatingly spread apart.
'Are you Ernold?'
The questioned tried to shook his head but realised he couldn't do that, with a trembling voice he denied the identity again. 'No.'
'How do you know Ernold?'
'I'm his secretary.'
'How did Ernold know Mowe?'
He hesitated, the detective stepped on his fingers. The secretary muffled a cry.
'Jewellery! Jewellery trade!'
The detective's hard sole tapped lightly on the crushed fingers in warning.
'Explain.'
'Mowe, funded the excavation to the Queen's tomb—'
Both men's eyes turned harsh, the detective foot came down hard on the hand beneath. The secretary yelled and moaned.
'You grave robbed our mother?' The investigator's eyes stared dangerously and the lain body, as if trying to burn him to ash.
'No! I mean— we didn't take anything. We couldn't go far.
'What do you mean?' The pressure on the hand didn't let up and the secretary feared the numbness he was beginning to feel from it.
'Lord Ernold was approached by Mowe five months ago about a once in a life time opportunity. When he told us it had to do with the Queen, we refused of course, we would never desecrate our mothers burial ground but, Lord Ernold changed his mind.
He said he could now see the prospect and told me that in fact it will be of every use to the Queen. I thought he was already blinded by greed, to willingly partake in such blasphemy.'
The secretary took in some rough breaths and the detective put his foot to the side but still tapped it on the ground in warning.
'Over the years Lord Ernold had been to many places, he knew many and many owed him. We gathered some experienced men but Mowe supplied us with two sorcerers. I never saw them but I know they're the ones who opened the Queen's tomb.
Lord Ernold insisted on being with the team and said he had to see it all for himself. It was going fine yet then, he refused to tell me what we came for because he had long admitted he wasn't after wealth. I was curious but it wasn't my place to know everything, I followed him and as we got closer to the heart of the tomb it was as if we were going mad.'
He paused, the secretary's eyes took on a glassy look and stared into the past.
'I remember, scratching, itching at my neck like I was wrapped in chains, I bled yet I didn't stop. Everyone else also battled something we couldn't see, one out of eight men shot his foot then shot another person and then emptied the gun into himself.
I knew everything was happening, everyone was wrong but I watched, I didn't stop, no one stopped but the man I thought was out of it the most who had begun to talk of invisible voices suddenly stopped and told us to turn. We could go no farther, Lord Ernold, his will broke our curse and the journey that felt like days to get to that point took minutes to get out of, we were led by greatness.
He shouldn't— this... this isn't where it was supposed to end. LORD ERNOLD!'
The man below roared, passion burning in his eyes looking at his master's motionless husk of flesh.
The investigator cut the grieving short. 'Yet, you had the brooch.'
'The brooch.....' the man whispered and again he looked into the past in a trance.
'He was chosen. The brooch found him, waiting for his return he saw it and knew his destiny, he talked of the queen. That she would be pleased and find greatness by her side, I still don't know the meaning but he informed Mowe that he had the jewellery, the old Crow wanted him to hand it over, he refused and today he was supposed to negotiate he didn't want to get payment, he didn't want the money. He was after destiny, a future he could see and know will prosper.
Mowe had a plan, but even Lord Ernold wasn't fully aware that's what he wanted in on. The vision was in sight until—'
His expression stormed and could have spat but resisted careful that it could touch the detective's shoes.
'— the stupid, stupid girl. She took it, she took the brooch. She stole it! She stole his life, his future! She took it all!'
They both knew he was talking of Sarah Voluch. Alexus thought to continue and ask how the brooch had found Ernold in the first place but the look in the secretary's eyes says that he was losing grasp of logic. So he stepped away and released his spell on him.
The man once freed crawled towards his master moaning in woe and grieving for what could have been. He walked closely and looked at the face of the victim, his face was peppered with bruises from the pellets and one of them in the white of his eye but he might have bought into the secretary's story too much when he thought, even in death the man's eyes were bright and still showed the remains of ambition.
He moved from the body to the next but his eyes stared too long into the deceased's before forcefully looking away. The second man's expression was locked in surprise, shot from the jugular the pellets spread out from the bottom of his face, Alexus somberly reflected on his own life there were many scenarios he was possible to get into because of his job that could end in this outcome. And he remembered his cut off mark, he wanted to at least live till twenty-one.
If he could make it so far— he imagined black fluffy hair and fresh green eyes— the detective blinked fast back to reality and looked hard at the dead victims to remind himself of his purpose. The investigator lumber to the side of the detective whose mouth corked a smirk at him.