„Love and friendship are a fake invented by humans”

He died a dog’s death, as he lived,” Keen murmured, squatted next to Albert’s body who was found by the police at the edge of a forest a few days after being killed.

Even if at the first glance it looked as if he fell victim to a potshot when he was turning back home, the detective knew very well that it was a plan in perfect tune to hide someone’s madness and it couldn’t be anybody else than Emily Davis.

On the one hand, Keen was feeling a certain peace, knowing that Albert was out of the game because the teamster was a real beast when he had to kill someone, but on the other hand, he felt sorry that Albert ended his life this way when he had been so loyal to Emily for so long.

„He’d been poisoned,” the forensic doctor told Keen, making him suddenly wince. „He still has some traces of cyanide on his lips.”

„Then, it wasn’t a heart attack as they planned this to seem like, isn’t it?” Keen asked the doctor after standing up and looking at the short and chubby doctor who was cleaning his hands with alcohol to disinfect them after he touched the dead body.

The forensic doctor was a man about 40, disheveled, a sign that he was on his own and that no woman was around him to take care of him and it was also visible looking at the baldness that was covering half of his head.

„Who killed him tried to wrap up everything like a toby, but it seems that they didn’t even think that the doctors aren’t stupid and that we can make the difference between heart attack and crime. Look at the color of the lips and of the nails. Even if they are purple as in a heart attack case, the silver doesn’t lie,” he said, showing to Keen the thin needle that he took out of Albert’s mouth after testing it and that was completely black. „If this fellow would have had a natural death, this little friend would have been cleaner than innocence itself. But it looks more like the devil what gives me a 100% conviction that someone just got rid of him: nice and clean.”

„They got rid of him,” Keen mumbled and once again looked at Albert that was lying on the ground, face up and with his hands clasped on his chest as the doctor put them on carefully because despite his careless physical appearance, the doctor John Krane was a sensitive man and he had mercy for the dead ones, especially for those that were left to sink or swim and he buried somebody, paying from his own pocket for the funeral, not just once.

„Eh, this life is so tricky: one lives with someone for years, being true to his master’s salt, worse than a dog, to be found, at the end, dead, at the edge of a forest - lonely and cold.”

„I’m sure that he doesn’t feel the cold anymore now,” Keen said at random and gave a soldier a nod to approach and to take the body from there on a stretcher.

„Maybe you are right, detective Keen, but: it’s still sad all this. More knowing that nobody will ask for his body to bury him.”

„I’m more than sure that it’ll be someone who’ll ask for his body,” Keen told Krane, confident because he knew very well that Miss Davis will put on an act, but, despite all her secrets and the secrets that were rounding the teamster’s death, she’ll take care of him to be buried like any other normal human. „Anyway: I’ll take care at least that the guilty one for his death to take care of his body too. See you later, doc, for the report,” he told Krane, and then he started to slowly walk behind the stretcher on which Albert was being carried on.

Even if he could have passed by and entered his carriage, stopped not that far, Keen yet preferred to slowly walk behind the stretcher, with his hands stuck in his pockets while staring at Albert’s barefoot soles on which was carelessly thrown a white material. „Wait a minute!” Keen told the two soldiers that raised the stretcher from off the ground.

Approaching the stretcher, Keen hesitated for a few moments if to touch or not the white cloth that was covering the body. Eventually, he took his left hand out of the pocket and carefully covered the soles with the material because he felt a strange sensation in his chest as if he was under the duty to take care of that man. After this, he slowly shook his head and the two soldiers moved further, toward the mortuary carriage, stopped a few meters only from Keen’s carriage.

The detective instead stood in the same place. He only looked for a few seconds at the fingers of his left hand, that touched the cloth and which he was slowly touching one of the other, moving them in small circles. Then, he took the kerchief out of his pocket, shook it in the air to untuck it, and he carefully cleaned each of the fingers.

Finishing that little ritual of „cleaning,” Keen wondered what to do with the kerchief, in the end: to put it back in the pocket… it was something unthinkable, and he also couldn’t just throw it away. Only when Keen saw the Krane’s hand-stretched toward him, he awoke from his daydream: „if you don’t need it anymore, give it then to me,” Krane said, kindly. „What is useless for others, it can be more than perfect for me. And … it looks to be a new one. It only needs a good wash and disinfection and any possible smell or filth will vanish.”

It wasn’t about smell there: it was about feelings, that were making Keen shudder - he touched someone’s body that he had known while still being alive. Even if he and Albert hadn’t a fast friendship, he knew how he looked, how he smiled, and, seeing him lifeless, it was more than he could imagine.

But… he told nothing to Krane that took the kerchief from Keen’s hand, put it right away in the pocket, and hurried toward the mortuary carriage because he couldn't be left behind as he hadn’t the slightest desire to walk on foot to the town.

Victor instead continued standing in the same place, keeping his hands in his pockets and looking at the forest while a lot of questions were spinning in his head, but what was amazed him the most was to wonder how Albert got to the edge of that forest - it was too far from Lorenne's property. Was it to confuse the police? If so, it wasn’t a very clever movement because it was even more obvious than before. But yet, Albert was found in a haunt, loved by adventurers and nature fanciers.

Suddenly, Keen winced: „they tried to send a message - who betrays us ends as he did”. But… did Albert betray Emily Davis, eventually? If yes, how? It was a so big mystery, even bigger than the teamster’s death. „Let’s make a call to the famous Miss Davis!” Keen said, grinning, but not because of pleasure because a kind of nausea was felt in his stomach when he thought about the woman who tried to seduce him once by entering his hotel room, but who resulted to be a woman of no scruples, capable even to kill her faithful dog just to send a message to the others.

It was already late night when Keen finally got into his carriage and ordered his teamster to go to the town and he got himself in hand because he needed time to think about what to do next and especially if it's worth his attention for solving that murder case.

***

A slight knock on the door made Lorenne wince and she suddenly turned toward the door. That unpleasant surprise made her shudder and she was just about to get out of hand the candle, half-burnt.

„Who’s at this late hour?” Lorenne wondered, in a whisper, staring at the door and loudly breathing, even if the knock on the door hadn’t been violent and nothing was portending a danger, either. Yet, Lorenne was afraid - she was alone in the house after she sent all the servants with business and she did this only to be alone for a few days to think about Albert’s death that turned everything upside down and this made her feel baffled, insecure and… afraid, something she never felt before.

„Ms. Fabeau, are you home?” she heard Keen's voice, calling her name and she understood that he was in front of the door.

Lorenne grimaced, unhappy because the detective was the last person she would have liked to see in her house.

Eventually, she deeply breathed in, trying to recover her self-confidence, and, approaching the door, she half-opened it at first and looked through it, but due to the weak light she barely saw Keen’s face. „What are you doing in this part of the world, detective Keen? And… at this late hour in the night. I don’t think that it’s a proper time to pay a visit to a lonely and helpless woman.”

Keen grinned. „Helpless?!” he murmured in mockery. „It isn’t a social call, anyway. I’m here for businesses. Can we talk? Inside?!”

„Businesses? What kind of businesses?” Lorenne acted the fool, but this didn't impress Keen, at all, because he was aware of her artistry.

„Let’s not beat around the bush, Ms. Fabeau! We both know and very well actually, that Emily Davis’teamster is dead and I think you know better than me who killed him.”

„And I insist that I don’t know what are you talking about,” Lorenne said confidently and tried to close the door.

Unpleasantly surprised with her reaction, Keen pushed the door and sneaked inside the house, despite Ms. Fabeau’s attempts to make him leave her property.

Arriving in the living room, Keen stopped and waited for Lorenne to catch up with him and when she came, the weak candle barely illuminated the room, but even so Keen saw the tautness on her face. So, both preferred to stay in silence - Keen turned his back to her, in the end, keeping his hands in his pockets as it was his will and Lorenne - holding the candle at the level of her chest, staring furiously at the man’s back that was seen as a big stain in front of her because of the weak light.

„If you look for Emily… she’s not home,” Lorenne said, barely heard.

Listening to her, the detective finally turned to look at Lorenne, but still keeping his hands in his pockets because he thought that this way, he’ll look more confident in her eyes and he’ll make her respect his authority.

„And… where is she? I mean, where I can find Miss Davis,” Keen asked in a severe tone, yet controlling his anger.

„I don’t know. The last time when I saw her was four days ago.”

„Four days ago? Something happened then?”

„Albert… he turned back.”

„He turned back? Wherefrom?”

„I don’t know. All I can tell you is that Albert helped Eva leave this house.”

Lorenne’s words made Keen stare at her in amazement: Albert helped Eva to run away. But… why? From what he knew, Miss Davis was Eva’s teacher, or… was it everything just a lie? A kind of game?

„That’s right,” Lorenne whispered, and, painfully sighing, she sat down on the sofa. „You are right: Eva had been a captive here.”

These words brained Keen and he felt it like a painful stroke. He managed yet stay still, seeming so confident in himself, even if he felt that everything was collapsing inside him. Eventually, he took a chair, put it two steps from Lorenne, who was sitting on the sofa, supporting her hand on her palm and looking so confused and so afraid that even her hand was slowly shaking and this was clearly seen in the light dance of the small candlelight as if a weak gust of wind was blowing inside the house.

„Even if at first Emily brought Eva here to protect her and all this seemed more like a maternal help, unselfish, everything was just a true lie, and Eva eventually found out that secret. It’s because of this she ran away, helped by Albert.”

„She found out… what exactly?”

„That Emily helped her for the baby: Emily wanted that baby for her and she’d decided that once Eva will give birth, she’ll send her away from her and she’ll register that baby as hers.”

Keen gnashed his teeth: he knew that Emily was a woman with no scruples, but… to get till there to act as a mother for a chance child even when that child’s mother was still alive, bereaving him of maternal love only for selfish interest… it was too much, even for a woman like Emily. „What about Albert? Why was he killed?”

„I don’t know,” Lorenne murmured without watching him. „Maybe it was because he helped Eva run away. It was a betrayal for Emily.”

„That’s why you helped her to get rid of the body,” Keen told her reproachfully, but he’d been so amazed to see Lorenne staring at him, fearless.

„You are wrong, detective. Nobody helped Emily to kill Albert, at least not in this house. Actually, in the night when I suspect that she killed him nobody else was on the property, except Albert and Emily.”

„Can you prove this?”

„Of course. I and half of Brighton can confirm this because it had been a big party that night, at Lord Stewart’s property. He was celebrating the birth of his first granddaughter.”

„And yet, you must have turned back home the next day.”

„And you are right, but when I came home, I didn’t find any of them… nor Emily, neither Albert and … none of them turned back till today. Even if I expected that Emily will turn back because her stuff is still in her room.”

„And yet… you weren’t surprised at all when I mentioned that Albert had been killed. Why?”

Lorenne kept silent for a few moments. Then, she deeply breathed in and stood up. „Follow me!” she told Keen and headed toward the servants’rooms.

When both arrived in Albert’s room, Lorenne lighted a few candles more and illuminated the room this way: everything looked as when Emily and Albert spent the night together and they disappeared somewhere later. Almost everything, because Lorenne closed the window when she turned back home the next morning and, entering Albert’s room, she saw what happened.

Keen stared in amazement around, but nothing was smacking of that there had been a fight between Albert and Emily or at least an argument. Per contra: it was too clean, too perfect. Only the limp bedding was betraying a past movement. „She gave him pleasure before death,” Keen thought and smiled because it was something he had never expected or thought about: to find out that Emily and Albert had been lovers. „It’s true what is said: the one you love the most will kill you in the end,” Keen said loudly.

„Probably, but … even if Albert had been always in love with Emily, she never gave him a chance or entered his bed.”

„Not exactly the same thing is revealing what they left behind, Ms. Fabeau: that bed is an alive testimony that what you say is a perfect lie.”

„Maybe, but … even if something happened between them it happened only once… that night.”

„Why?” Keen said, gimleting at her. But Lorenne knew as much as he knew and she was asking herself the same questions: why did Emily choose to spend the night with Albert before his death? Why did she kill him, in the end? Why didn’t she just punish him because Albert had been the only faithful man in Emily’s life and he never betrayed her, except in the case of Eva’s running?! But… Lorenne hadn’t whom to ask about it because Albert was dead, and Emily… well, Miss Davis’location must be a secret, a very well kept one.

Eventually, Keen’s eyes stopped on the small cyanide bottle that was still seen on the dressing table. „You could have got rid of it,” he told Lorenne in a whisper.

„Why? To be a suspect later? Of Albert’s death?”

„And because of this did you betray Miss Davis so easily? For being afraid not to be considered responsible for Albert’s death?”

It was Lorenne’s turn to bitterly smile. „And you are wrong again, detective Keen - I didn’t betray Emily, never. I just preferred not to lie about this crime because if she would have decided to keep in secret Albert’s death, she wouldn’t have left behind so much evidence. Trust me: Emily Davis is a very caring person and if she decides that something must be a secret for everyone, then it won’t be ever found out.”

„There isn’t a perfect crime in this world, Ms. Fabeau as there isn’t a secret that won’t be ever found out. At least not while there are still smart people, capable to investigate such complicated events and I assure you that Albert’s death won’t remain a secret.”

„You have my permission to investigate this if this was what you were looking for: my permission, but I’ll ask you to go now because it’s late already and I told you more than I should have told you.”

Keen said nothing else. He just stared for a few moments at Lorenne, trying to see something weird in her glance, and the fact that she was fighting with herself to look so cold and so calm betrayed the fact that she was hiding something and that she knew more than she was saying, and this was a fact that she could be even more dangerous than Emily Davis was.

Then, he left the room and hurried up toward the exiting door.

Lorenne continued in the room till she heard the slam of the door behind Keen. Then, she slowly smiled and looked around at that room that was the place where a great mystery took place because something that started as an act of simple revenge, ended up in a crime of passion and Lorenne knew everything, or at least she was trying to find out about this, something Keen was also sure about such as he was more than convinced to reveal it to the whole world.

***

Looking through the window at Keen’s carriage that was leaving the property in a hurry, Lorenne frowned: that „dog” had smelled too easily that something was stinking around and it made her decide quickly that it was the time to leave town and to leave it immediately.

When the noise of the carriage’s wheels and of the hoofbeats was heard far away from the yard, Lorenne pulled the curtains and climbed the stairs to the second floor, entering Emily’s room and starting to gather Miss Davis’stuff in such a hurry, throwing it later on the floor and pilling it up, no matter if it was clothing, books or jewelry. Then, she showed up at the head of the stairs and called the last servant that remained in the house with her and who was working also as Lorenne’s teamster. „Simon! Come on up!”

The 50-years-old man climbed the stairs in a hurry and entered the room, behind Lorenne, but he didn’t even manage to step over the threshold when Lorenne started to demand: „take everything out of this room. Everything that belonged ever to Emily Davis. Don’t leave anything behind. When you finish, come to my room and help with my luggage because we’ll leave Brighton today,” and she left the room.

Entering her room, Lorenne started to throw her personal things on the bed, trying not to leave anything valuable behind, especially paying attention not to forget gifts she received from different important men - jewelry, money, expensive figurines that could serve her later as a source to get money, if necessary, by selling them.

A half an hour later, Simon knocked on the door and she opened it in a hurry. „Did you see anything suspicious around?”

„No, ma’am. There’s everything as normal.”

„Then… let’s hurry up! Take these bags and get them into the carriage. The rest is… useless,” she said, pointing to the few pieces of luggage that were gathered next to the door.

Simon took two of them and left the room, leaving Lorenne to look once again around and to assure that she didn’t forget anything. When she understood that she left nothing behind, she practically ran out of the room first, then exited the house.

But she didn’t go straight to the carriage, but she went to the backyard and picked a few white chrysanths from the small flower garden. Whereafter, she went to a fret on her property, enough hidden from the curious eyes, under a big and rotated tree and she left the flowers on the ground that seemed to have been dug recently, but it could have also been an illusion because it had been heavy rain a night before and it also seemed like if someone had pounded the soil, only to make someone confuse if he got to wonder if someone or something had been buried there.

„You ruined us all,” Lorenne finally said after she looked for a few moments at the rank soil. „You could have swallowed your pride and fought for our cause and not for your own justice. But … you preferred to ruin us all and to leave total chaos behind you, Emily… a mess that others must work a lot to clean. I won’t forgive you for this ever, Emily Davis. I only hope that you’ll squirm in the ground for an eternity and that you won’t find peace there, ever,” Lorenne said and she left the place in a hurry when she saw Simon approaching her and understanding that it was everything ready to leave away.

The flowers had been scattered by the wind behind her, covering everything with small, white petals as if someone tried to give comfort to the one buried next to that tree: Emily Davis because the next morning, after she spent the night with Albert, Lorenne found them both dead when she turned back home… they were hugged, on the bed, but Lorenne couldn’t understand the why for all this and why they both died, in the end, because when Emily asked her to leave them alone in the house, Lorenne suspected that it was because Albert had to die, but she never thought that she’ll find Emily dead too.

Yet, Lorenne chose to save her own skin. So, she ordered Simon to find a few trustful men and to get rid first of Albert’s body, at the edge of the forest. At the teamster’s question „why not burry them together, just as they died?” Lorenne murmured irritated: „none of them deserves such a luxury. Not after they ruined my plans. Leave Albert unburied. It will be a good sent message for others and nobody ever will dare to betray me again. But we’ll burry Emily here, in the backyard, without telling anyone about her death because if she just is considered missing, everybody will think then that she killed Albert and we’ll be out of any suspicion.”

„But yet, Ms. Fabeau, she was your friend,” Simon murmured.

„Friend? Don’t be an idiot, Simon. Neither I nor Emily considered each other friends. We’ve been just parasites that lived in a perfect symbiosis, taking advantage of the other one. More than this: if she chose to die like this, it gives me the chance to be the one who chooses her own future, in the end.”

Thus, Emily Davis died eventually: alone, betrayed by everyone she considered close ever, and … buried in a foreign backyard, without even having a headstone on which to be written her name and this way to be remembered by others as someone who lived once in this world. But she deserved this betrayal because not only a few were those who died because she wished it and, as it happened with her, they’ve been buried somewhere, in an unknown place, where nobody ever will find them.

„They say you reap what you sow,” Emily used to say often and it was so because life is a perfect boomerang: it hits you heartily, asking you to pay for old debts when you less expect it.”