fel: this has just been sitting here on my computer. sorry
They didn't waste more than a few hours before Yuri decided to drive up to Estelle's manor and check the state of things for himself. He's not good at patience as much as his job really relies on that sort of ability to make a successful heist and while Patty promised his information before the day was out he couldn't stand the idea that Estelle was trapped with whatever kidnapper had her longer than was possible.
Raven gave a whistle at what was essentially a small castle, "What a home. This the old imperial palace or something?"
"Nah, that place is a historical monument near the uppermost levels of Zaphias." Zaphias was a city built on the side of a small mountain range with the building for the rich being built further up than the rest of the city. They'd barely gone up a slight incline to reach the manor that was closer to the Lower Quarter of the city. "This place is old but it's still pretty new as far as the family goes. Maybe a few centuries back."
For a crime scene there's no one around and while the house is marked off that's really the extent of it and it makes a fair amount of sense. They can keep an eye out all they like but the likelihood that Estelle will just show up here is minimal at best. It's easy enough to slip inside through one of the windows since they're all unlocked upon inspection. Geez, no wonder she was kidnapped with how awful this home security is. How did he ever have a problem with this?
"You'd think they'd make it harder to get in," Karol says as he somewhat clumsily hoists himself onto the marble floor. The inside is spotless and there's an immediate sterile wealth in the scrolling on the walls and the light flooding onto the polished floors.
All Yuri can offer is a small shrug as he heads further and further inside the building. It's beautiful, all the art on the walls and the architecture of the house but it feels less like a home and more like an office building that nobody actually wants to work at. It doesn't even feel like a museum or a grave- just building with art inside. No wonder Estelle always wrote about how she never looked forward to coming home.
Yuri peers into all the rooms and notes that somehow there's some curry in the fridge and it's pretty tasty. Hmm, pineapple, no his first thought flavor wise but it works very well.
"What are we looking for, even?" Raven asks as he idly scratched at some of the gold leafing in the doorway to the study proving its authenticity. Clues of any kind- which is vague on the grounds that Yuri's not sure.
It's once they're in the study and Yuri looks out the window that a thought slowly crawls into his head. Well, he hasn't been here in a long time but still... Is it still here? His fingers glide across the bookshelf as he waits for that familiar texture of a hidden lever that's so distinctive once you know it. Third shelf from the right, red book. That should be it. He taps the spine and stops and leaves the room to walk further down the halls. He stares down the paintings and the artifacts before calling to the others that it's time to leave.
"Aw, cm'on!" Karol calls as he's got his hands caught in a jewelry box. "We just got here. Can't we look some more?"
"No." Yuri grabs his hand. "Something's wrong here."
"Like how this place has got a being watched sort of vibe," Raven says as he looks around carefully for invisible eyes that Yuri knows could be there. In near silence, he pulls them out of the house and waits until they're a distance before pulling over in a ditch and pulling out a pair of binoculars. If he's right it should be... No.
"That's not the house," Yuri says stuffing them to the side and looking at the road map and trying to draw on his memory. "Or at least... it's been meddled with. A lot."
Karol tries to spy for what it was that caught Yuri's eyes but it's a mystery to him. "You're talking like you've been there before."
"I have. Back when I first started I decided to cut my teeth on the legendary Heurassein trove and well, let's just say it didn't go too well. I was a dumb kid who thought it be a big fun score and well… Let's just say it wasn't." Yuri laughs as he thinks on how he got tripped up on what in hindsight was a very easy home security system now that he knew better. What has him curious is how the house looks the same and yet there has been clearly some remodeling done if the roof is anything to go by.
"Here's the thing… that house has like nine secret passageways and none of them would open or the trigger was missing." Yuri mutters and tries to figure out a passable reason.
"Houses change," Raven shrugs.
"But that's where they kept the good stuff." Well, this keeps getting better and better. "It's also where I would hide a princess you didn't want anyone to find."
Yuri is intimate with that manor after that first attempt to steal from Estelle and he can safely say that none of those passages are easy to meddle with. The keys are integral for the actual architecture of the house in most cases and are easy to replace if missing otherwise. Someone wants him to know she's not there. Someone wants him to follow a bread trail and he's never liked that sort of situation. Too often it leads him into trouble and means he has to play against more than just the cops as his enemies.
God knows Judith has led him into those sorts of situations more than once whether to potentially play off him for her own greed or because she's gotten herself into a mess she can't hope to weasel out of so easily. Sometimes she just thinks it's fun and while it's usually true it doesn't mean he likes to get involved with them when innocents are on the line.
"Let's wait on Patty before we go charging off into another mansion," Raven starts to pull the car away and Yuri reluctantly nods as he stares back at the house. Estelle... what the hell have you gotten into? He pulls another cigarette from his pack and frowns when he sees it's almost empty. Damn. And you can't get this brand out here.
He hopes Blondie hasn't made that much progress since they last saw each other. It sucks if that guy was ahead of him because Yuri really wanted to rub it in his face. God, it was such a punchable face too. Like some baby-faced Captain America apple pie type hunk wannabe.
Whatever, Yuri's shit at metaphors. Wait, no- that was a simile. Eh, not like anyone cares that much.
Point is that he really wanted to beat Blondie. Probably, should get his name sooner or later if Yuri wants to properly gloat over him it's not like this is Leblanc who just screams his name every five minutes. "Bet it's something stupid."
"You say somethin?" He shakes his head and Raven goes back to the road.
The warrant was issued and handed to Flynn the next morning and he set out with full intent of catching his lead and Yuri Lowell the third in the process. He'll investigate on the manors of these families and do what he can to pull out the potential skeletons in his closet. Someone was harboring Estelle and with the right poking and prying he'd find her even if they did their best to stash her away while they still had time. Flynn was good at what he did and well, he didn't have the reputation he did for nothing.
He was going to inspect the Cumore household because frankly, Alexei Dinoia was from what he could tell from everyone a pillar in the community to a degree that really nobody could picture anything bad. There's suspicion there obviously because naturally, it's easy to suspect a great person is secretly evil but there's a point where Flynn has learned to not give into paranoia. Most people are not in his experience secretly evil and really just fine people who happen to be on the suspect list. As for this Cumore guy...
He just seemed like a huge dick.
When he'd told the local law enforcement about what he was doing nobody was surprised and one guy just straight up went on a five-minute rant about how Alexander Cumore was basically the worst man in Zaphias and had made a living as a landlord who charged ridiculous rent and seemed to think that for some reason his family name still held even the slightest ounce of clout.
"Like, hello, this is the twenty-first century we are not an empire and more importantly there's no nobility here. Just old rich families almost all of which are nicer than you," Flynn snorted at that comment.
"You think he'd have an ancestral grudge over Estellise?"
"The fucker has been trying to buy out the Heurassein estate for over a decade. He's convinced he needs to reobtain everything that was once owned by the Cumore's by any mean no matter how petty."
"But isn't that house the Heurassein's ancestral home?" Flynn was certain that was what he'd read in the guide book considering a lot of the estates were seen as a bit of a tourist attraction.
"It's not the original. During a war sometime around the sixteenth – maybe seventeenth century – I don't know, who really cares – the Heurassein's original home was lost to a fire and burned down. The ruins are still there under their name but the manor itself was built on land they purchased from the Cumore's."
Flynn stroked chin and wondered if this was all lining up a little too perfectly. "I mean, it can't be that obvious. I wouldn't have been called over if it was." There was almost too much motivation for Flynn to work with. They never make it that easy and when he asked if an inspection had been performed all Flynn got were a bunch of awkward shrugs. A mix of yeses but no conclusive evidence and that's why they were hoping that Flynn would find something. They were certain Cumore at the very least knew something about Estellise kidnapping.
When he asked Leblanc about it after picking him up from the airport the inspector pulled at his facial hair and leaned far back into his chair. "He'll be useful no matter what his stance really is in the case if Lowell's involved."
"Sir?"
"Lowell probably is already looking for information probably even has his by now and in that case, he'll come snooping there too. Estellise is our primary concern but if you can lay down a trap do it."
"Do you think he did it? Cumore, I mean."
"Who's to say. It's certainly all convenient."
Flynn enjoyed the ride up to the Cumore mansion and really mansion felt like a woefully incorrect word. This was closer to a small castle much like the Heurassein manor. They needed better ways to classify giant houses. Flynn was let in the gate and as he stepped out into the immaculate garden and strode up to a door that bordered on being ridiculous in terms of scale. For the life of him, Flynn had never been able to understand that aspect of rich people.
Who really needs doors that big? More importantly doesn't it get annoying when you need to lock up. It's like using the garage door to get into the house only the remote never works. It just doesn't seem worth it.
The servant who leads them in is a stuffy looking old man with a face that seems allergic to smiling. The place is very different from Estellise's home that while rather unlived in was warm and bright. This place... Flynn half expected to find out this Alexander Cumore guy was actually a vampire because by god open a window, somebody! It was absolutely ridiculous how much this place looked like the set in a horror film.
After turning past corners lined with portraits of old ancestors that seemed to watch from their frames they were presented with a foyer where a man in an Armani suit sat drinking tea or maybe coffee in a plush leather chair. The cup was set down with a rather loud 'clank' as Cumore stood up and gave a large grin that curdled Flynn's stomach.
"Ah, you must be the inspectors! Here to send the rabble to pillage through my stuff. Again." The man spoke with such snobbery and disdain as he looked at them. He leered behind as they went around the property. Flynn looked through every nook and cranny letting his fingers idly trail over walls as he pressed for any hidden passages or places one might be able to store a young girl.
"Mr. Cumore I was told by various people around town that you have been in pursuit of the Heurassein estate for some time now."
"Yes." Cumore sneers as Flynn knocks on a wall and notes that this one is hollow. "It has been an effort I've been trying to settle for a long time."
Flynn looks around for anything that could be a switch because he's come across a secret door or two in his time as an inspector. "Is it not true then that you stand to benefit in all this."
Cumore's expressions sours, "Ugh, this again." Flynn narrows his brow as he watches Cumore fold his arms in disgust. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you lowbred scum about land ownership but this is the exact opposite of anything I would ever want for myself."
"Really?"
"Zaphias land laws state that any property of extreme historical significance with no active private household ready to take over it will not be put up for auction but instead will be taken by the state and added to the collection of the historical preservation society." Cumore scoffs, "Frankly if the young miss doesn't turn up that property is out of my reach."
Sadly, that does all make sense and it had been what Flynn had been a little afraid of. A man with all the motive usually has a fatal flaw. "Not even mentioning, that if this was ever going to benefit me why would I leave a note? I know in saying this I incriminate myself but really, if I was going to do this I would have just killed her."
Flynn's not sure what to make of the fact Cumore has almost a smile on his face as he says those last words but he's definitely unsettled.
It's unfortunate to say but a whole day's worth of digging gets him nowhere. When asked if Cumore believed anyone had a grudge or an idea of a stolen Heurassein treasure the man just laughs darkly. "That family is one of disgusting thieves who desperately cling to finer titles than they deserve. Everything they have is stolen."
"But what do you believe is the stolen item?"
"I haven't the faintest idea." Flynn's eyebrow twitched and he could swear he smelled excrement.
Flynn left with a scowl on his face. Leblanc shook his head in frustration as well. It was practically a waste of time.
