Chapter 824: SMILED LIKE A WINNER
ONCE Luo Yan and ‘Sofia’ walked in, every gaze inside the drawing landed on them. If this was any other time, some might find them being together as suspicious. But everyone’s nerves were still frayed by the two consecutive deaths that happened within hours of each other. So, everyone was undoubtedly on edge right now.
He nodded to ‘Sofia’, indicating that ‘she’ could sit somewhere with the others. After that, Luo Yan looked around and sure enough, aside from George and the footman, Edward and the fake Sorcha were also not there.
“Have anyone called Mr. Edward and Miss Sorcha?” he first asked.
“S-sir, I did call the missus but she’s not in her room,” the maid said.
“Father is also not in his room,” Harry said with almost no energy.
“Eddie is not in his room? That’s odd. He’s clearly there when I woke up,” ‘Sofia’ said. “Maybe he’s just in one of the rooms? After all, this manor is too big.”
Harry seemed to be triggered by what ‘Sofia’ said. He turned to ‘her’ and almost growled, “Do you think I don’t know that? That’s why I only said that he’s not in his room. Did you hear me say that he’s not in this house?”
“Okay, let’s not let out emotions get the better of us,” Luo Yan said. “Why don’t we all search for them. With all of us here, I’m sure we could search the whole place and find them in no time. What do you say?”
Although some grumbled, the rest still agreed. So, it was quickly decided that they would go around the manor to search for the two. They decided to do it in pairs and divided their search area to make everything faster.
Of course, Luo Yan made sure that the area he would search involved the fake Sorcha’s room. And he also partnered with Daphne. This way, he could ask the other about how they found Catherine’s body.
“I’m sorry to ask you to search around like this despite what just happened,” he said first when they started their search.
Daphne shook her head weakly. “It’s fine. With few people around, it’s important that we all work together.”
“Do you know who first found your mother’s body?” he asked.
“It’s me,” Daphne answered. She was silent for a few seconds, a sad expression on her face. “My room is on the third floor. I didn’t want to go out after what happened last night. So, I had been staying in my room. I was looking outside the window when I saw a body suddenly fell. I looked outside the window, when I saw the body, a bad feeling quickly filled with me. I didn’t even think much and I just ran downstairs.
“Some of them probably saw me running like crazy so they followed. When I arrived where the body fell and when I saw the clothes, I- I just knew it’s my m-mother. I was truly out of it. I probably only understood the severity of what happened when that maid screamed her lungs out upon seeing the b-body.”
So, it was the maid’s scream that Luo Yan and ‘Sofia’ heard. “May I ask how are you so certain that it was your mother? You saw how badly mangled the body’s face was. Honestly, it could be anyone.”
“I- it’s the clothes. I’m very familiar with my mother’s nightgowns. So, I knew it was her.”
Luo Yan nodded. “When you looked out of the window, did you notice anything? Aside from the body, of course.”
“No, not really.” Then, as if she remembered something, an expression of ‘enlightenment’ appeared on her face. “Wait- there was something. I didn’t think much of it because my mind was just filled with that body, but I think I saw someone’s shadow. They were standing at a corner, so I could only see their shadow. But there was definitely someone there. Do you think they had anything to do with what happened to my mother?”
This corner should be the corner of the manor near where the body fell. From Daphne’s perspective, she truly wouldn’t see whose shadow it belonged to. So, while she was running down the stairs to reach where the body fell, the owner of this shadow smashed Catherine’s face with maybe a stone or something. And then, they joined everyone when they gathered around the body. Thus, making an illusion that they also just got there.
With this, it’s certain that at least two people were working together to stage everything that had happened so far. One of them was most definitely William Harcourt. He already had an idea who the other one was. He just had to look for more evidence to make sure that he was correct.
“I’m not sure,” he said in response to what Daphne said. “When you arrived at the spot where the body was, did you still see the shadow?”
Daphne was silent for a moment as if thinking back to that moment. “No, I don’t think I did.”
Luo Yan nodded. That was to be expected. With how careful they were, it’s probably only an accident that Daphne even managed to see a shadow.
He and Daphne continued on with their search. As expected, they hadn’t found the two they were looking for. Until they finally reached the fake Sorcha’s room. Upon entering, the room was empty as expected.
“She’s not here just like the maid said. Should we go to another place?” Daphne asked.
“No, there’s something I need to check first.”
Daphne only nodded and didn’t ask much question. Luo Yan then walked to the bathroom. He looked around at every corner to see if he could find anything. And there, just beside the vanity mirror, the medicine cabinet was slightly opened.
He didn’t hesitate to open it. Its content was pretty normal. First-aid kit and all that. But the one thing that attracted his attention was the shaving cream inside. The one that men used to shave their facial hair.
Luo Yan smiled like a winner when he saw that.