Chapter 53 – The Other Culprit
Tears poured down Bronev's face as he finished his explanation. Everyone sat in silence, apart from Emmy, who cried also. Vaughan merely sat at the head of the table, observing the scene before him. Not a sign of emotion could be read from his face. Not even a trace of guilt for what he had done to Bronev, or even Emmy. He watched in expressionlessly while his daughter cried bitterly over how things were.
The professor held Emmy tightly as she cried uncontrollably into his shoulder, unable to contr0l her tears. Bronev reached for Emmy's hand, but she pulled away angrily.
"You lied to me..." she whimpered. " You lied for all these years..."
"I'm sorry..." Bronev choked.
"I'VE BEEN HATING HIM FOR SO LONG WHEN I SHOULD'VE BEEN HATING YOU!" Emmy screamed, standing up.
The professor grabbed her arm, but she pulled away from him too. "I need to be alone," she choked out, running for the door.
Bronev rested his head in his hands as Emmy slammed the door after her. Jai leaned over and patted Bronev's shoulder.
"She'll be fine," Jai told him. "She'll know eventually that it wasn't all your fault."
"That's right," Desmond said, making Bronev look up. "It... it was him. He... he killed mother..." Desmond turned to give Vaughan a pained look. Vaughan didn't even look back at him.
"It's not all their fault that we're in this situation, though," the professor said, standing up again.
Vaughan looked up at him. "What on earth do you mean, Layton?" he sneered.
"Well, it's quite simple, really," Layton replied, pacing the room at his leisure. "I already know that there was really someone else behind the scenes plotting your use of the Grounds of Rebirth all the time."
"What?" Bronev asked sharply.
"Oh! I know! I remember!" Flora exclaimed eagerly.
"That's right, my dear," Layton smiled at her. He then turned back to the rest of them.
"Earlier today, Flora made a rather important discovery about the second spy I mentioned earlier."
"Really? What?" Luke asked.
"I'm getting to that, my boy. But first, I had better explain Vaughan's full plan."
"Right," Grosky said, nudging Gibson as a signal for him to put away the handcuffs that he had taken out moments before.
"Vaughan had never intended to use the Grounds of Rebirth for monetary of financial gain. He only had that incentive when he worked for Targent. But after Bronev took over, he had very little interest in archaeology left. He only had one area of interest left – the Grounds of Rebirth. The very discovery that, when activated would bring his wife and son back from the dead and give Emmy an incentive to return home."
"But why did she leave home in the first place?" Stacey asked.
"Because he ran out on her when it got too difficult to look after her," Carla snarled, pointing at Vaughan.
Vaughan frowned. "What? Ran out? She was the one who did the leaving. She left with Bronev when he came to the house, and I'd seen nothing of her until eighteen months ago."
Carla frowned as the professor sighed heavily. Now was probably a better time to tell them, while Emmy wasn't there to witness it.
"Er... Emmy told me the truth about that. Well, some of the story, but I think I managed to piece together the rest of it by now." The professor looked at Vaughan, who was glaring at him, and shaking his head, and continued. "Emmy told me that after her mother's death... you... got upset and angry... and you used to take it out on her. You used to... to... beat her..."
"Yes."
Everyone turned to stare at Vaughan now. Don Paolo shook his head.
"I don't know who to punch first, Bronev, or him." He shook his head. "You both disgust me."
"After about a year, I think the guilt of what he had done was too much for Bronev, so he went to visit Vaughan here out of supposed concern for his old friend, when in truth he just wanted to see how Emmy was getting on without her mother. And when he saw that she was being abused by her father, he immediately took her away with him, to help her and atone for his crime."
Celeste nodded. "And the rest is history," she said.
The professor nodded back. "You knew all about this, didn't you?"
"Bits and pieces, yes," Celeste replied. "I knew that Vaughan is Emmeline's father, and that Bronev killed Paloma and Daniel Chovanek, but that's it."
"I thought so," the professor nodded.
"Wait – you knew? All along? Why didn't you tell us?" Luke asked, outraged.
"It wasn't my secret to tell," Celeste said simply. "My only job here was to support Bronev here and Emmeline."
"Anyway, as I was saying, Vaughan only wanted to use the Grounds of Rebirth to resurrect his family. Nothing else. But there was someone else who masterminded the whole scheme of putting spies into the resistance and stealing the artefacts. The so-called crimes that were committed by Vaughan, such as the threatening of Luke and his parents, the blowing up of the school and so on were committed only to terrify Luke, which would in turn worry Emmy and get her stressed, which in turn would upset Bronev, as he has been the one taking care of Emmy since she started taking medication after being released from her kidnapping."
"Kidnapping?" Vinnie asked. "What kidnapping?"
"Vaughan held Emmeline captive while you were sleeping around with that one over there," Celeste sad coldly, pointing over at Stacey. "She came back for support, and all she got was Stacey in her face, bragging about how she had slept with you."
Stacey went red. She looked at her feet.
"Anyway," the professor said loudly, not really wanting to hear about other people's sex lives, "all Vaughan wanted to do was scare Emmy into doing whatever he wanted and to get revenge on Bronev by taking Emmy away from him and upsetting her, as he knew that Bronev had grown extremely fond of Emmy."
"Yes," Bronev sighed. "I love that girl as if she was my own." "I hope she can find it in her heart to forgive me after all this," he thought desperately.
"But there was someone else that formed the whole plan about sending spies in the resistance. There was someone else that took care of the whole planning side of getting Clive to steal the artefacts. There is someone that told you that the Grounds of Rebirth would bring Paloma and Daniel back to life, even though this person knew full well of that they wouldn't work. This person has been spying on the resistance since the very beginning, keeping a close eye on Jai, and Aurora, and me and Emmy too, biding their time. This person had us all deceived."
"Dangers... what dangers?" Vaughan asked. "I thought it was fail-safe?"
"Then you're an idiot," Jai snapped. "I told you at the very beginning that it wouldn't work, you naive little toad. I told all of you, but none of you will listen."
"This person... you mean..." Vaughan stared in horror at the culprit.
"That's right," the professor nodded, staring at her too.
"Everyone turned to stare at her also. Andrea glared back.
"What have you got to say for yourself now, McIntyre?" Brenda snarled.
Andrea said nothing. She just glared at everyone else in the room.
"But ... Why?" Vaughan choked. "We had a deal, but you knew it would all go wrong! You lied to me! Why? WHY?!" Vaughan rose from his seat and walked over to Andrea, grabbing her by the front of her shirt. No one even made a move to stop him, not even Grosky, Tony or Gibson. Everyone was to shocked.
"Because I knew that Emmy Altava is your daughter and that she was seeing Hershel Layton," Andrea snarled. "The only man I ever loved."
Brenda scoffed at this as Andrea continued. "I wanted your daughter to suffer, so that Layton would see how much of a pathetic, weak little girl she really is."
"DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT MY LITTLE GIRL LIKE THAT!" Vaughan roared, whacking Andrea across the face. She fell to one side, gasping.
"Right! That's it!" Grosky yelled, getting up. "Aleksander Chovanek, I am arresting you for the former conduct of an illegal organisation, the kidnapping of Leon and Rachel Bronev, the murder of Rachel Bronev, the threatening of several residents of the surrounding Cork area, the abuse of your daughter and the assault of that young lady there! You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not answer when questioned something in which you will later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Gibson, Johnson, book this young lady and Mister Bronev over there."
"Wait! The grounds! The Grounds of Rebirth! I have to see! I have to know what they do!" Vaughan cried, wrestling Grosky off of him.
"Yes, I know that they don't work, but I really don't see what's so dangerous about them, myself," Andrea frowned.
"What harm can burying someone do?" Desmond asked. "I think you are delving into a myth there, Jai."
Jai sighed. "Idiots," she thought furiously. "Imbeciles. They know nothing." "Fine," she said. "You will not listen to me. You believe that am so very bad, and that you are so very good. All I have tried to do is protect all of you, but I see now that you all have to have something shoved up under your noses for you to realise that it is real. Let them go," she said to the officers.
Tony, Gibson and Grosky all let go of Bronev, Vaughan and Andrea. Jai then handed one artefact to Bronev, another to Vaughan, and another to Desmond and the last to the professor.
"Bronev, you know the location of the Grounds of Rebirth. We shall all meet there tomorrow morning, and then you will see what I am really talking about." Jai turned to the door. When she grasped the handle and opened the door, she called back to them. "Don't say that I didn't warn you."
