“Ms. Claire!” I shouted as I rushed out of the room. “Did you hear that just now?”
“Pardon?” Claire, who was just climbing the stairs to the second floor, turned around in surprise. “What sound?”
“I heard a noise from beyond the wall where the clock was hanging!”
It was faint, but I definitely heard it. A dull thud.
*Thud!*
The moment I heard it, the first thing that crossed my mind was a secret passage. A passage completely hidden from view but secretly connected, allowing only sound to pass through. I had seen such passages in the Northern Region.
‘If there is a secret passage in the child’s room, the culprit might have entered and left the house through it!’
If that were the case, the suspect wouldn’t necessarily be limited to someone the maid would open the door for. It would also explain why the maid was murdered in the child’s room.
“Please tell me. Is there a secret passage beyond this room?”
“…Are you sure you heard a noise? From beyond the wall where the clock hangs?” Claire asked back as if she couldn’t believe it, then muttered to herself. “But that’s impossible…”
“Impossible?”
Claire seemed to deliberate for a moment, but soon answered firmly.
“Yes. There is nothing there.”
“Is there really no such thing as a secret passage?”
I asked, unable to let go of the idea, but Claire remained firm.
“Of course not. I am the designer of this house. There’s no way there could be a space in this house that I don’t know about.”
…It was a valid point.
“Rather than that, Mr. Hayes. Are you absolutely certain the sound came from beyond the wall where the clock hangs?” Claire questioned me this time. “Was it not a sound from the window or beyond another wall? If it was from a wall connected to the outside, perhaps the culprit is still hiding out there and made a noise.”
Unfortunately for Claire, it was my turn to shake my head.
“No. It was definitely a sound from the wall where the clock hangs.”
“…Well, I suppose so. That was a completely irrational question. It’s already been three days since the incident. To think the culprit might still be hiding outside is just a delusion.”
Claire cast her eyes down and exhaled a short sigh.
“If the direction of the sound is certain, there’s only one thing the noise you heard could be.”
“What is it?”
“The sound of me climbing the stairs.”
Claire spoke while standing in the middle of the stairs leading to the second floor.
“As you can see, Adriel’s room is attached to the staircase.”
That was true. Thinking about the room’s structure, the wall where the clock hung shared a border with the stairs.
“As I was climbing the stairs just now, I stomped a bit because I was upset by the Inspector’s behavior. I’m a bit embarrassed.”
So the thumping I heard was just footsteps?
‘It certainly was a dull sound, like that kind of noise…’
I thought I had finally caught onto a crucial piece of information, but for it to just be the sound of someone climbing the stairs. I felt a sense of hollow disappointment.
“In any case, if you’ve finished looking through Adriel’s room, would you like to see the upper floor together? Actually, the second floor likely doesn’t have much to do with the case, but since the Inspector went up to investigate…”
“I can’t just stand by and let Inspector Serret damage important evidence like that again. I’ll go and take a look as well.”
I followed Claire up the stairs to the second floor.
***
The second floor was simpler in structure compared to the first floor.
“On the right side, there’s a storage room we don’t use now and my workshop. On the left are Adriel’s playroom and Dolores’s room.”
“Where is the fish room Adriel mentioned?”
“The playroom.”
A faint smile appeared on Claire’s lips.
“Adriel loves the sea, so I decorated the playroom like the ocean.”
So that’s why it was called the fish room.
“I’d like to check that room first.”
Actually, the victim Dolores’s room was more important, but searching it would likely take more time. It seemed better to take a quick look at the child’s room first before moving on to the victim’s.
“The fish room is here.”
“It’s wonderful.”
It wasn’t just small talk; I meant it. The room had a refreshing yet cozy atmosphere. The blue wallpaper was embroidered with various marine creatures, and the warm flooring felt like the sand of a beach. Various toys were also visible.
“It’s a room where I can feel the love.”
However… something didn’t fit.
“Wait, you said this is the playroom?”
“Is there a problem?”
“No matter how I look at it, this looks like a bedroom.”
I saw a bed and a sofa. They were still custom-sized for a child, but significantly larger than before. I saw a bookshelf filled with fairy-tale books, a closet, and a lamp, desk, and chair suited for Adriel’s height. To summarize, if the room on the first floor was for a toddler, this room was for a growing boy.
“If I had seen the room without an explanation, I would have misunderstood and thought you were raising two children. Why are there two children’s rooms whose purposes aren’t even divided?”
Claire answered with a short sigh.
“Actually, I wanted to move Adriel to this room a long time ago. I had everything ready, but Adriel didn’t like this room. He said he hated it because there’s no wall clock in here.”
Thinking back, I remembered Adriel saying something similar. Had he mentioned that the fish room was quiet because there were no clocks?
“But why were you trying to move the child’s room to the second floor?”
“…Well, the room on the first floor is a bit small, after all. I wanted to move him to a slightly larger and more comfortable space.”
Is that so? I didn’t think the room on the first floor was that small.
‘Besides, didn’t she say she designed the child’s room even before Adriel was born?’
She put so much effort into deciding on the child’s room, yet she tried to change it just because it looked narrow? I felt a lingering sense of suspicion.
“If the child didn’t want to move because of the wall clock, couldn’t you just move the clock from the first floor to the second floor? It’s just a wall clock.”
“That’s…”
It was just a question to gain additional information, but Claire was at a loss for words.
“I was planning to do that soon. Sometime in the near future.”
The answer came late, and because I had already begun to doubt her, everything started to sound suspicious.
‘She didn’t delay installing all sorts of furniture like the bed and sofa on the second floor, but she delayed just moving and hanging the wall clock? Does that make sense?’
The Peter Herring Co. wall clock was a very simplified item that only required driving a nail into the wall and hanging it. Was that really so difficult? No matter how I thought about it, it was strange. Claire was hiding something from me. Furthermore, what she was trying to hide seemed to be related to that very wall clock. The wall clock where the child had a seizure and the maid died while embracing it.
‘This is driving me crazy. What is going on?’
The case is complicated, and the dark shadow is nowhere to be found. In the midst of this already tangled situation, the people who seem to know something are all keeping their mouths shut. Even though they clearly need my help! This was the first time I had encountered such an uncooperative case.
‘I just want to dump this on Mr. Walter and be done with it.’
Just as I was feeling a strange sense of lethargy.
“Aha! Look at this!”
Inspector Serret’s excited voice could be heard from over there. It was coming from the victim Dolores’s room.
“Did you find some evidence?”
“Not just some evidence! I’ve found decisive physical proof!”
I passed Claire and opened the door to Dolores’s room.
“Look at this!”
Something yellowish was shoved right in front of my face without warning. Looking closer, it was jewelry glittering in gold. Earrings, necklaces, and rings. Various accessories were sparkling with a golden hue.
“It’s all pure gold! I checked it myself!”
Clear bite marks were visible on the bracelet held in the hand of the Inspector, whose eyes were shining with excitement.
“Think about it, Mr. Master Detective. Why do you think a mere poor maid was hiding such enormous treasures?”
“I don’t know. Gold investment?”
“Of course it’s because they aren’t legitimate items!”
Inspector Serret ignored my answer and answered his own question. It seemed he already had a conclusion settled in his mind.
“Ah! Here she comes just in time! Mrs. Washers!”
The Inspector shoved the items in front of Claire’s face, just as he had done to me.
“What do you think? Don’t these look familiar?”
“Pardon? No. It’s my first time seeing them. What are these?”
“These are items your maid had. The kind of jewelry women her age would like. But how would a mere maid have the money to possess such things? So, in my opinion, these items must be familiar to your eyes.”
The Inspector spoke with a meaningful smirk.
“These are all your jewelry, aren’t they?”
So, the Inspector’s reasoning was as follows:
“The victim was suffering from financial difficulties. Mrs. Washers was kind enough to take in a friend in crisis, but that wouldn’t have been enough.”
“So she laid hands on her friend’s belongings?”
At my words, Inspector Serret nodded.
“Mrs. Washers worked outside from morning until evening. At that time, there was only the deficient child and the maid in the house. Stealing things would have been simple.”
As if it were obvious, the Inspector continued.
“She wouldn’t have stolen this many items from the start. As she kept stealing, she grew bolder and started touching even more things. To the point where the mistress finally noticed something was wrong. Soon, upon realizing the whole truth, the mistress trembled with a sense of betrayal toward the friend she had taken in. And thus!”
With a dramatic gesture, Inspector Serret mimicked holding a knife and stabbing.
“She stabbed the ungrateful maid to death.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
Claire immediately protested.
“First, Dolores was not such an immoral person that she would steal someone else’s things! Second, I told you I’ve never seen these items before! I am a scientist and perform many delicate experiments, so there’s no way I would wear metal jewelry on my body! Finally, even if Dolores had stolen my things, I would have gladly forgiven her. Dolly was my precious friend.”
It was a very long and logical rebuttal. On the other hand, the Inspector just snorted and said one thing.
“Everyone says that.”
“This is an insult to both of us!”
Claire snapped, unable to contain her anger, but she faltered at Inspector Serret’s following words.
“This gives us a second suspect for the case. I was certain it was entirely the brat’s crime, but this is a new development. At this rate, I’ll have to drop the charges against the demon child.”
“…The charges against Adriel will be dropped?”
“If you are the culprit, then obviously that brat isn’t.”
Claire fell silent, and I read an ominous sign in that silence.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake…’
It’s not, right? She’s not going to give a false confession to save her son, is she? I wanted to believe it wasn’t the case, but plausible logic was clicking into place in my head. In this world, the authority of the police was powerful. Inspector Serret could arrest Adriel whenever he wanted, and he looked ready to do so right now. If arrested, Adriel would be dragged to a confinement facility for the severely mentally ill and raised like an animal for the rest of his life. And Claire loved her child terribly. Enough to willingly tarnish her friend’s honor and push herself into the mud if it was for her child.
“Actually, I — that is, I killed Dolores —”
I slammed my hand over Claire’s mouth. Claire’s eyes went wide.
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