6. Revenge… is a dish best served piping hot
It was early when the white service van turned onto Upper Oldfield Park. Most people were having a nice Saturday lie-in, but a few were awake to notice the three people in painters' suits who climbed from the van carrying drop cloths, bulky equipment bags, and paint buckets. One walked to the front door and rang the bell of number 23. When no one answered, he turned back to the van.
"You sure this is the place, Ed?" he called out. A second member reached back into the van for a clipboard, flipped through some papers, and called back.
"Sure is, Joe. Says if no one's home the back door will be left open." Ed placed the clipboard back in the van and slung a bag over his shoulder. He headed around the house to the back and soon reappeared and jerked his head for the others. "It's open, with a note. They want the kitchen done while they're gone so it has time to dry." The other two figures settled their caps more firmly on their heads, picked up their equipment, and followed Ed to the back door.
Once inside "Ed" pulled off his cap to reveal Severus Snape. He led Sean and Shelly to the basement, opened the door and stood back to allow his friends the full impact of the scene. Shelly gasped in shock and dismay while Sean's face went still and cold. Elizabeth lay in the same place, bruises darkening both her eyes, hand swollen to twice its normal size, leg twisted at an odd angle. The livid burn was weeping a clear fluid, while rivulets of blood had traced from the wounds on her back and knee and from her broken nose. Sean moved forward, drawing his wand. Shelly held up a hand, stopping him.
"Wait," she said, drawing her own wand. She waved it in a complicated pattern and muttered, "Inscripto." A white square appeared, floating in midair. Shelly's voice became clinical and remote. "Official record of investigation, suspected abuse. Rachelle Murray present with two witnesses to examine the home and health of Elizabeth Grey, minor witch," she said clearly, and the words appeared on the square. "I have entered the home of William and Ann Grey after a report of suspected abuse was given to me by a concerned party. The reporter observed ill treatment of Elizabeth, aged eleven. The parents, the aforementioned, are not present at the time of this investigation. Upon entering the home, I found a child, female, lying unconscious in the basement of the house. She is dressed in nothing but underclothes and exhibits multiple visible wounds. The child will be transported to Sulis Minerva Hospital, where further reports of the extent of her injuries will be recorded. Suspendo." The words paused in their flow onto the white square. Shelly turned to Sean and said, "You can begin now. I'll need pictures before you finish, of her and of the room, but I'll take Severus upstairs now." She pulled out a camera and motioned for Snape to follow her. Sean remained behind, running his wand over Elizabeth and muttering as he learned the extent of her injuries.
Back on the ground floor Shelly moved quickly, taking pictures of the house. The kitchen received particular attention, especially the padlocks on the handles of the food pantry and refrigerator. They moved upstairs and opened the doors to the various rooms. The master bedroom was clearly obvious by size and luxurious decoration, and the first two bedrooms were similarly appointed, with computers, televisions, gaming stations, and the decorations beloved of teenage boys.
The last room, though, was very different. It was small, less than half the size of the other rooms, perhaps originally intended as a large storage closet, not a bedroom. Shelly pointed out the deadbolt on the outside of the door. There were a small bed, a simple dresser, and a narrow wardrobe that held only school uniforms and two dresses. There was no carpeting, no pictures, and no dolls or other possessions usual to young girls. Shelly photographed the rooms without comment and took the camera back to Sean. When she returned to the ground floor, she smiled coldly.
"I will truly enjoy trashing this place," she informed Snape. He smirked in reply.
They began in the kitchen. The china cabinet was the first casualty. Each plate, bowl, cup, saucer, serving platter, and crystal goblet was reduced to smithereens as Snape and Shelly threw them against the wall, to the floor, crushed them with a heel, or blew them to bits with well-placed spells. Snape unlocked all the padlocks, and they expanded from destruction to vandalism. They left the freezer door open for things to melt, dumped the milk, smashed the eggs, and opened and emptied every container onto the floor. Shelly found large squeeze bottles of salad dressing, catsup, and mustard and set them aside for later. They finished by unloading the flour and sugar tins over the slimy mess and sprinkled the jars of spices for a colorful, artistic effect.
Moving into the dining room, Shelly gleefully eyed the white carpeting. She handed the mustard bottle to Snape, uncapped the catsup and gave a maniacal grin.
"I bet I can make a prettier picture than you can," she challenged. Snape nodded in acceptance of the challenge. They stood back to back, counted to three, and squirted their condiments across the carpeting. There was a pause as they considered their own work, then switched places to consider the others. Snape cocked his head to the side and said slowly, "It's a butterfly?"
Shelly nodded proudly and declared, "Yes it is, and I win. I can't even tell what your picture is." Snape looked hurt.
"I made a hinkypunk," he protested.
Shelly considered the picture again. "With its head on sideways?" she asked.
"It's a cubist rendition of a hinkypunk. I actually included an artistic style, therefore I win," Snape defended.
Shelly looked back with her nose in the air. "I said prettiest picture, not the one most able to squirt condiments in the style of Picasso. Therefore, I still win."
They found their first treasure in the den. In a series of glass cabinets there was a collection of antique weapons. Snape reduced the doors to dust and sorted through the swords, crossbows, spears, shields, and axes.
"Useless, worthless, useless, useless, fake, worthless, fake—ooh, valuable," he labeled each piece as he pulled it out. The pile of weapons that were actually valuable was very small; they were stashed in the equipment bags by the door as loot to take when they left. Of the rest, Snape found two sturdy axes and two serviceable swords, and handed one of each to Shelly.
They proceeded to destroy everything they could. Upholstery was slashed, table legs were snapped off, mirrors and pictures were split into pieces. There was a pause in the path of destruction when they reached the study. Snape worked to open the large safe that was "hidden" behind a particularly ugly landscape, while Shelly convinced the computer to reveal any secrets it held. Snape succeeded first, pulling the door open to reveal a large amount of cash, jewelry, and a case holding a king's ransom in uncut gemstones. All were loaded into the bags, which would be deposited into a Gringott's vault that had been opened in Elizabeth's name. Thus far they had collected enough valuables for Elizabeth to live comfortably for years. That was when Shelly hit the jackpot. The computer was connected to the Internet, and Shelly had found the Internet banking site that William Grey used. Not only that, his computer was set to remember his passwords, so Shelly had immediate access to all of his various accounts. Shelly transferred every penny from his three savings accounts and left only enough in the checking account for them to purchase petrol and dinner on their way home. With this addition to Elizabeth's account, she was, by any definition, rich.
"Well, that was a nice little breather," Shelly quipped. "Ready to go again?"
Snape grinned back and they continued their path of destruction. The computer was smashed, the desk drawers emptied, the desktop destroyed. They went back upstairs and gave the bedrooms the same treatment. They added Ann's jewelry to their bags of loot, as well as several composition books Snape found hidden under the mattress in Elizabeth's room. When the bedrooms were well and truly tossed, they returned to the ground floor. Shelly handed Snape two bottles of salad dressing, took the tops off the two she held, and they walked down the stairs to the basement dripping trails of salad dressing behind. The trails led to the sliding doors and ended in oily puddles, as though the creators had stood for a time, looking through the doors, and then became splatters as the vandals ran from the basement. They packed thelast of thetreasures they had collected in the duffle bag Sean had carried in and set it by the door, ready to go.
When they finished, they returned to the hidden room. There were now two unconscious girls lying there, identical replicas of each other. Sean looked up, his face unreadable. "I've got the simulacrum ready," he said. "If you are done playing, we can finish and get Elizabeth to the hospital."
Snape crouched down to inspect the two figures. "It's unsettling to see just how alike they are."
Sean's mouth quirked in a smile. "They are exactly the same, down to the DNA. That's what took so long, because there were thousands of old injuries to put in. When they autopsy her, they are going to find all the evidence they need to put those murdering bastards away." He stood and placed a hand on Snape's shoulder. "You may not want to watch the next part, Severus. I have to animate it long enough to die. It won't be a pleasant thing to watch."
Snape shook his head. "I've seen plenty of unpleasantness in my life; I will watch and bear witness."
Sean nodded in acceptance and pointed his wand at the simulacrum. "Enervate," he whispered. The lifeless figure took a gasping breath and tried to twist away from the pain. It was breathing in shallow gasps, moving its head weakly. Soon, the veins in its neck began to stand out in sharp relief.
"Jugular vein distension," Sean explained in a clinical voice. "She has internal injuries and is bleeding out; it's putting pressure on the heart. Blood can't get back into the heart, so it is backing up in the veins."
The figure stopped breathing for a moment, then coughed weakly and began fighting for air again. It happened several more times, then stopped completely. It died, one hand blindly reaching out in supplication for help that never came.
"We must go," Sean said softly, breaking the silence. "Elizabeth has only an hour before the same happens to her."
Exactly one hour after the workmen entered number 23 Upper Oldfield Park, they left, carrying their bags and drop cloths. Ed and Joe gently slid the rolled drop cloth into the van, while the third figure slung the equipment bag and paint cans into the back. They were about to climb in and drive away when a woman waved from the front door of the next house over.
"Pardon me, but what company are you with?" she asked in a nosy manner. Joe walked over to her and handed her a business card. It was a simple white rectangle with the words "Messrs. Pilfer, Bollocks, and Toss, Interior Redesign. Walls, Floors, and Upholstery." There was a phone number printed under the name and description. She looked at it critically and then asked with a sharp-eyed glare, "Do you do kitchens?"
"It is one of our specialties, and the area of our highest artistic endeavors," Joe assured her. "Good day." He climbed into the passenger's seat, and the van pulled sedately away from the curb and turned right at the corner, leaving the woman frowning at the card and muttering about new cabinets and recessed lighting.
AN: When I first wrote this chapter, I thought that the locks in the kitchen were a little much… but then this last season of CSI did the same thing. Note that I did it first! Thanks goes out to my beta reader for catching all my grammatical mistakes and doing the minor tweakage needed to make this readable.