Artemis and Butler arrived at the old stone cottage. It was an ordinary building with boring stone walls and a grey-tiled roof. The building looked exactly the same as the ones surrounding it but different all the same. As predicted, there were a couple of police officers standing around the building and the front door was blocked with yellow crime scene tape. Artemis strode purposely up to one of the officers. The officer in question was tall and thin with dark brown hair and green eyes. He gazed down at the pale youth standing in front of him and the burly giant next to the boy.
'Um… excuse me. What are you doing here, this is a crime scene?' said the officer.
'Oh I know that, sir. But you see… this is my grandfather's house. I found out about his murder and… and I wanted to remove some things from his house before they get damaged. I know he would have wanted them given to his family. That's if it is all right with you?' said Artemis, playing the part extremely well. He added pauses and stutters in the right places to make the act convincing. Butler had to suppress a grin at his young charges skill. The officer looked bewildered for a moment as if he didn't know what to do. After a moment the officer stepped aside and allowed the young boy and giant Eurasian to pass. They ducked under the crime scene tape and entered the cottage with Artemis in the lead. Artemis stepped into what he figured was the living room. His foot knocked against something and as he glanced down, he saw that it was a human skull but some of its crown had been bashed in.
'It seems that Mr Bryson was a somewhat collector of magical artefacts. If I didn't know any better, from this arrange of objects, I would assume Mr Bryson belonged to a cult of some sort,' mused Artemis. He took another step forward and scanned the room. There were talismans littering the floor, some of the cupboards that covered the walls were open with their doors hanging off their hinges and the room was in disarray.
'Hmm, it looks as if their visitor was searching for something.' Artemis squatted on the floor and began to piece together what had happened. 'From the fact that the front door is intact, we can guess that Mr Bryson knew his visitor.' He paused.
'Yes, that's what I would figure,' said Butler. Artemis moved his gaze around the room and spotted a long black cloak on the floor. Artemis moved towards it but Butler stopped him. 'The crime lab haven't been yet, Artemis. We don't want to leave any fingerprints.' Artemis nodded his approval. Luckily, he had already thought of that. The boy pulled a pair of plastic disposable gloves on and handed Butler a pair to. The boy then lifted up the cloak and examined it. On the hood he could see a few hairs. He plucked one off and looked at it. It was brown-blonde in colour and had a streak of purple on it.
'It would seem,' he said, 'That the killer has long brown-blonde hair with purple streaks in it.' Artemis pulled an empty vial from his pocket and put the hair inside it. 'We can do a DNA scan on it in my lab.' Artemis also noticed the style of the cloak. It was tightly cut at the waist but it flared at the bottom. 'Judging from this cloak, I guess the killer is also female and about 5 foot 6.' He pulled out a notepad and added the information to it. He dropped the cloak and continued to look around. After seeming nothing more of use, he made his way to the stairs.
He reached the next level and opened the first door he came to. Looking inside, he noticed that it was an office. Artemis entered the room with Butler close behind. The room itself was nice. It had a mahogany desk near the back by a window, which was hidden behind green curtains. There was also a chair in front of the desk and a laptop sat on the desk. This room was also a mess, with paper covering the carpet and the drawers of the desk were open.
'Again, I feel this woman was looking for something.' Artemis made his way over to the desk and sat down on the chair as he studied some of the papers on the desk. 'Butler, could you pick up the paper on the floor?' The bodyguard obeyed and started to pick up the paper. None of the pages Artemis scanned contained any useful information. All except the last one, which was a will. 'Butler, you might want to take a look at this.'
'Yes?' asked the manservant after he had come to stand by Artemis' shoulder. The boy handed him the will and Butler quickly read through it. Artemis began to hunt through the draws. In one of them, he found a photograph. He picked it up and looked at the picture. In it, it showed a girl of about seventeen standing next to an old man in his sixties. Artemis flipped the picture over and read the back. On it, it said 'Alicia and me, 2004'.
'Butler, we may have found our killer,' the Irish teen said, handing Butler the photo. The bodyguard nodded his approval as he noted the girls long brown-blonde hair, which had purple streaks in it. 'If I am right, then that girl is Alicia Thomson, Mr Bryson's granddaughter.'
Butler raised his eyebrows. 'And you know this…? Wait, don't tell me. The girl mentioned in the will. How do you know it's the same girl?'
'Turn the picture over.' Butler did so and after reading the note, smiled. 'Right, we had better leave here. Collect up the paper and the photo. We may need the laptop too.' The bodyguard collected up all the things and hid them in various pockets but hid the laptop under his jacket. Then both then removed the plastic gloves and put them in their pockets.
As soon as they had done that, they made their way towards the door but it opened before they got there. In came three officers, just in case the giant man attacked.
'You done?' asked the guard who had let them in.
Artemis nodded. 'We were just about to leave actually.' Artemis then brushed past the officers with Butler behind him and left the house. As soon as the got back in the car, Butler headed for Fowl Manor.