The young members of Secreta stood outside the compound of the Jackson’s mansion.
Alice envisioned that that mansion would probably be something like this. A typical estate far away from the eyes of ordinary people.
Although it appeared to be much older than what she thought, it wasn’t built during this modern era.
There were traces of amazement in the eyes as the young woman scanned the high stone wall structure and the brick mansion. The overgrowth that surrounded the entire area hid the tall stone walls exceptionally well, so no one would know that a mansion existed here unless they looked at it.
Daisy was at the tall iron gates, speaking to a small black box plastered to it.
“The Jackson’s are well fortunate, aren’t they?” Elaine remarked, having the same observation the way Alice had.
“Not really. My family’s villa is far bigger than theirs,” Betty was the only one that seemed unimpressed by all the architecture. “And we got more than this. However, as they are not Nobles, they are still a bit tiny but impressive.”
“Elaine, is yours also something like this?” Alice asked.
Betty had a tinge of red on her cheeks, seeing that she was completely ignored.
Elain glanced over the petite girl before answering. “Yes, Alice. I lived there with my few maids. So it makes the entire area look much bigger since there’s so few of us.”
“Hmmm…”
The group had come in a specially made car that the princess used for going incognito. Due to convenience and security concerns, they decided to travel in the car while doing such investigations ever since the princess had joined them. Everyone didn’t mind it because they would save extra money on taxis. Although it looked like what a Commoner would use, the princess’s car has additional features that came with it.
Daisy was taking some time talking through the speaker.
A minute later, it was only then she returned.
“Sorry, that took a while. They don’t want to think that a random group of young ladies are simply strolling by and trying to play-pretend detectives about the incident.”
Alice raised her eyebrows, “But isn’t that what our club is? Playing detective because we got nothing better to do with our lives?”
“That’s true, except that we are detectives. Just that it’s a specialised and secret one,” Daisy laughed at her friend’s statement.
Elaine chuckled, whereas Betty only stood there, unamused and wanting to get in quickly.
With that, they went through the massive iron gates and headed towards the main building. Betty looked around the compound.
“It’s eerily quiet. Like a horror movie.”
“This part of Hill Street is rather isolated from the rest,” Daisy explained. “So people have no reason to come here.”
“Perfect place to kill someone,” Alice was also doing the same, seeing if there was any way an outside culprit might be involved.
Elaine nodded. Betty decided to change to another topic. The mansion’s atmosphere was getting on her nerves.
“Normally, when both of you do this, how would the police or the people know who we are?”
She turned to Daisy. Although this question also included Alice too.
“They don’t.” the tall woman replied. “All they know is that there are a bunch of women detectives investigating this incident and that we have authority to do it. And they are not allowed to interfere nor question what we do. Especially when we have had a VIP with us since recently.”
The woman nodded toward the highest-ranking person in the group.
Elaine raised her eyebrows, having only a slight hint of worry.
“Like the previous cases that me and Betty before, I doubt any of them will recognise me. We never met.”
The tall woman made a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, Princess. You are not easily recognisable as long as they don’t examine you closely and look at you for a long time.”
Despite that fact, as a precaution, the princess lowered the black cap she was wearing when she went incognito.
Two police constables were standing guard at the door. They gawked at them, wondering when the police had hired beautiful, youthful-looking girls into their forces. Their morale would improve drastically by having such people where they posted.
Fortunately, one of them recovered quickly and opened the door.
Betty guessed the IO must have told them, as they barely gave a glance. Meanwhile, Daisy grinned knowingly at the constables.
As soon as they stepped foot inside the mansion, what greeted them was an even more eerily and dark hallway.
A staircase was in the middle of the hallway, leading to the high floors. Two large doors were on the corner of this hallway. Meanwhile, there were two corridors by its side, leading to more rooms.
Betty looked up and saw the vast variety of oil paintings that lined up the walls, wondering who drew them. They all didn’t seem worthy to be putting them up here. But she kept this thought to herself.
“They all don't look good at all, do they, young lady?” an elderly male voice came from the right corridor.
He had seen Betty’s expression. The young woman quickly hid behind Elaine.
“Mr Sebastian,” Alice greeted. “We are detectives and here is my club.”
When Alice finished introducing their names, Sebastian waved a hand, “Just call me Sebastian. I’m a butler of the late Mr Jackson.”
The man wore the trademark butler suit of black and white with the typical black bow. He stood upright as he always was trained when he greeted guests. His hair was white, showing his age given the number of years he has worked for this family.
“What do you mean by those paintings, Sebastian?” Daisy asked curiously.
“Like what this young lady,” Sebastian pointed towards the still hidden Betty, “The drawings and colours of the paintings here aren't good at all.”
Daisy tried to see through the dark lighting. She understood why now.
However, Alice wants to move on quickly. “Sorry, Sebastian. Can you bring us to the location of the incident?”
“Sure, Miss Alice.”
The white-haired woman grimaced at the way she was being addressed but said nothing else. The rest followed along with them.
The old man opened up the large door on the left.
“I hope you girls don’t mind the state of our mansion. Things have been busy lately with the death of my master.”
“Also, I hope you prepared for the smell.”
Betty took a long deep breath the moment she heard those words.
I hope I won’t faint along the way...
“This is the study room,” the old butler announced.
He lifted the cordoned tape and slipped beneath it. The girls followed.
They stepped into the most extensive study room that Betty had ever seen. Even compared to hers, this was far larger. She was expecting a dead body smell to engulf the room immediately, but instead, there was a small faint one that was left behind.
“The police had this cleaned up quickly, so it wasn’t that bad. That scares you a bit, didn’t you, little girl?” Sebastian smiled as he looked at Betty.
The petite girl wasn’t going to acknowledge it and instead walked around the room like the rest of her club, exploring each place to see if they could find out anything. It was a bit dark as there weren't many windows, but they could still see it quite clearly.
Besides the level of shelves and table on the side, what stood out was the armchair in the middle of the room.
The girls started to survey the immediate area since there was nothing else except the place where Harold Jackson last sat. A slight trace of dried blood could be seen on the front of the chair. Besides that, everything else had been cleared.
“Aah!”
Everyone turned to see Elaine exclaim at the cat’s sudden appearance, sliding between her feet and clothes.
The white cat looked curiously at the newcomers before jumping at the small table right next to the armchair. The creature purred loudly before resting on it.
“This is the late Mr Jackson’s cat, Gilbert. He’s been with the master since he was a kitten and always stays by his side.”
Alice had paced to the long windows that were facing the outside compound. She tried to open it, but it was tight shut. Tracing its frame, she saw some screws sticking to it.
“Was this shut recently?”
“No,” Sebastian replied. “They had been locked a long time ago. Mr Jackson doesn't want anyone to have a chance of getting in, such as a burglar. Nor does he want to have the wind disturb his books and papers whenever he works.”
“So that eliminates the chance of someone entering from outside,” Betty said quietly, only heard by Elaine. “The only way is through the hallway.”
Alice examined the nails that secured the window frames. Some were encrusted with rust. Then, she turned to face the butler with a severe expression.
“Sebastian, on the night he died, Harold was in here alone, right? With all the lights off?”
The other girls picked up the conversation and also immediately paid attention.
Sebastian stood close to the cat. “Mr Jackson likes to stay up late for his work and studies. He usually stays till midnight before going off to sleep and sits at his favourite chair with Gilbert for company. As for the lights, he always switches on the one right above him. Though on that night when we came in, we found it turned off.”
Gilbert hissed, but once it smelled the hand, it stopped and let the butler pet it.
“I suppose the poor cat must have missed its master, right?” Elaine asked, slightly surprised at the creature’s sudden hostility.
“Of course. Now that he’s gone, he’s been quite agitated towards the rest of us, and we couldn’t do anything besides feeding him.”
Alice continued, “Sebastian. When Daniel came in her on the night of the murder, he should be able to see the area around him?”
“I expected so. But it was turned off when we found the body. I suppose Daniel might have done it so no one could see and find the body quickly.”
“I see…” Alice nodded. Then she spoke, somewhat to herself, “Then the murderer might be in the room and not able to be seen by either Daniel or Harold.”
The old butler overheard it and almost shouted, “I don't know what you’re going on with this, Miss Alice. I mean no disrespect to the police or you. But aren’t you all looking for him because it’s been determined that he’s guilty? Who else could have killed him?”
Alice kept a neutral face, calmly explaining, “Perhaps. But we are exploring all possibilities of what might happen here.”
That was when Sebastian showed a drop in his upright posture with a hint of irritation. “I thought the real police would be sent here. Not a bunch of girls playing detective.”
Alice decided to ignore the hidden tone beneath that statement. “Where were you on the night of the event?”
Sebastian, now losing all pretence, just snorted and indicated that they would follow.
While Elaine and Daisy didn’t react visibly to what Alice said, Betty internally was still worried. This might go the wrong way if the people in the mansion refused to talk to them and couldn’t investigate. But her curiosity overwhelmed her worries.
He led the way to the hallway and turned towards the corridor on the right of the staircase. A solid wooden door was at its far end.
It led to a small gathering room with the typical set up of sofas and a table in the middle. However, the butler didn’t stop there and opened another door which revealed what barely resembles an office.
“This is where I do both my paperwork and when I sleep,” the butler swept his hand across the room.
There was a simple table and chair in the middle room, littered with a lot of papers. In the corner, there was a simple bed with an ordinary white sheet with some pillows. A tall shelf consisting of files and paperwork was on its side.
“Forgive me for the mess, so much paperwork since my master is gone,” the butler stood right next to the desk fondly.
“On the night of the incident, I was here doing some last-minute paperwork for the day. Before I wanted to go off to bed, near midnight, I heard a shot. Then another two consecutive shots were heard again almost immediately after the 1st. Thus, I left the room and went through the room outside and out to the hallway. I managed to catch a glimpse of Mr Daniel back at the entrance as he opened it and ran out into the storm.”
“How long did it take for you to reach the hallway?” Alice asked.
Sebastian calculated in his mind, “Perhaps 3 minutes? Or maybe 2. I thought it was the thunder at first, but I hesitated since I was a bit tired. But my instinct immediately told me otherwise, and so I went out to investigate.”
“And you saw nobody else?”
“No, except for Miss Yui and Young Mr Jackson. Young Mr Jackson is Shiro by the way. That’s how I have to address to differentiate the brothers.”
“Their bedrooms are upstairs?” Betty spoke up.
Sebastian nodded, “They had a much better view than me from a higher vantage. We all saw him at the door, seemingly running away from something. I led the way to the study room and that’s when we found the body.”
The girls took note of what was being said and burned them into their memories.
However, Elaine was the one typing quickly on her phone. This was the usual arrangement that the club had gotten used to recently. Precisely because she was the Princess and barely had time to check her phone, she was trained to use her device quickly and efficiently. There was a heavy solid objection by a certain brown-haired petite lady before it was eventually settled.
Alice paced around, wanting to ask everything that was on her mind before they were let go. “We were informed that there was an argument the night before the incident? Is that true?”
“An argument? More like an assault towards my master!” Sebastian answered angrily. “It got extremely aggressive, but luckily, Young Mr Jackson was able to hold Mr Daniel back in the end.”
“What is it all about?”
“I don’t know how or why, but the late Mr Jackson found out about where all the allowances that he had given went. It was spent on wasteful things such as expensive cars, night bars and gambling. All that usual stuff that never gets paid off in the end…”
“On that night, Mr Jackson threatened to cut him off from his will, thus resulting in the argument.”
In the silence that followed, “I thought that would be the end of things. But in hindsight, I realised that Mr Daniel wasn’t done with him yet. Maybe due to anger or desperation, he decided to kill his father the following night.”
“What about his wills?”
“Which one?”
“There’s more than one?” Daisy raised her eyebrows.
“Of course, things always change throughout someone’s life. Mr Jackson can change it whenever he pleases to.”
“Then, now everyone gets a portion of each?” Daisy continued probing.
“Yes. All of his children will get it. His assets, money, the company and even this mansion.”
“What about you?”
“I also get a small portion of it too. Having been working for Mr Jackson for more than 20 years, he probably thought I deserved it. As for how I know, it’s because I occasionally oversee it when he makes it with his lawyers. Though what they get is highly confidential. Especially towards his children.”
Betty said her thoughts loudly, “There have to be millions or even billions of dollars involved.”
“You don’t say, young lady,” Sebastian chuckled, causing Betty to turn red slightly. “It’s into the millions and billions. I don’t mind telling you that with the amount I’m getting, I probably never need to work for the remainder of my old life.”
“That would mean you could also possibly kill Harold, right?” Alice immediately asked.
Sebastian immediately showed anger and slammed his gloved hand on his desk. “I can assure Miss Alice. I am no more of a killer than any of you here. So do the others. As all three of us witnessed, Mr Daniel seemed to be the guilty one here, and no amount of miracle can change that!”
