Chapter 26
Wangari's recorder rested on top of the desk, recording. Diana eyed the device, she wanted to throw it against the wall. "Sounds like you coerced a statement from the Earl, Diana. We'll see if the judge agrees."
"It is naught but a friendly advice, Wangari," Diana said, crossing her arms as she seated opposite the journalist. "The House of Cavendish and the House of Hanbridge have relations after all. Amanda was there, ask her to confirm my story."
"Hey, I don't even understand what's going on." Amanda quipped.
They were in the Detective Inspector's secret office, who was busy in a phone call. They were waiting for her to tell them what will occur.
"You know what would be funny?" Amanda asked, laugh escaping her lips as she told her joke. "If Croix over there would one day enter her secret office and finds us all cozy inside and says 'Hello people who don't work here.'"
Diana knew it was a reference to something but she wasn't that cultured to it as much.
"Alright." The older woman turned the phone off and said. "Diana, your sleuthing skills have vastly improved."
"I know you want to tell me 'I suck' if I were to use a mundane colloquialism, so why would you not?"
"You'll have to answer your own question." She said, dismissing her. "We will dispatch a team to Lord Fafnir's residence right now. I think it's time to divide and conquer."
Diana exhaled as she stood up, smoothing the creased fabric of her uniform.
"You're not allowed to come with, Diana." Detective Inspector Croix told her flatly.
Diana never knew she would find herself here of all places. When she told Amanda that they should let the Detective Inspector know what they found out, she had no way of knowing she will end up like a bratty child who was never allowed to go buy candies.
"Why not?" she asked.
"It's not something you should see." The Detective Inspector was checking the time.
With the evidence presented by the Minister of State, Diana knew they received warrants to raid Lord Fafnir's estate. The older woman had already dispatched a team, but she was itching to go after them as well.
Diana wanted to go with her. She needed to rev up her persuasion game as Amanda would call it. "Look, if you fear you are contaminating the innocence of a minor—"
"I'm well aware you know what cocaine is and its history. You're a doctor's daughter for god's sake! I just need you to be safe!"
Diana raised an offending eyebrow. "Really? But Wangari and Amanda are allowed to come with?"
"I'm the school's journalist," Wangari said, simply.
Diana then turned to Amanda. "And one of them has a weapon?"
Amanda smirked, carrying a dart gun—but it felt like a piece of heavy lead in her hand, dragging her down. "Uhh... it's a toy gun. Croix has the real gun."
"Sure," Diana said, raising a tentative brow.
"I'm an American, sweetheart."
"That does not excuse you from the law!" Diana yelled, her jaw muscles taut. "And what's with that dart gun? Everybody knows there's no such thing as UK legal self-defense item! You could be sent to the juvenile if the coppers found you with it!"
Amanda pointed at the Detective Inspector. "She's seen me hold it."
"It's a toy gun, Diana, I checked it myself." The Detective Inspector said an obvious lie.
Diana gave her a look.
"Look, the point is..." The Italian woman said. "Stay here. You certainly don't need more traumas."
"So you would let Amanda and Wangari get the trauma?"
"Trauma builds character." She said like it's a piece of cake.
"Whatever," Diana huffed but sat down on her chair and crossed her arms. "If your unethical and unorthodox methods will bite you sooner than expected, I won't be there to help you."
"Good afternoon," Her blue eyes beneath her glasses pierced into Sucy as mercilessly as she spoke those words, prodding around inside her mind, wrenching open Sucy's chest of secrets, and she was defenseless against such an attack.
The resolution of this decision faded slightly when Sucy saw Lotte, and even more so when she finally opened the door to greet the Finnish girl and bathed in her smile. Her shine was back to its full power and Sucy could hardly bear to look at her.
It hurt Sucy's eyes to stare at her for just a second and know that she would never have her. Sucy forgot how painful it was to crush on someone knowing it can never happen.
Sucy could still hear Loa's incessant screams and warnings even when she shoved the doll deep into her closet. As usual, she tuned her out to hear what the beautiful Finnish girl has to say.
"I brought my laundry!" Lotte pulled the bag she carried on her left to their eye level and did the same with her right. "And the first few volumes of Night Fall!"
"Cool," she replied and directed her to washer inside her flat room.
"Why do you assert on ignoring me?" Loa growled. The doll's vocal cords should have been hoarse by now if it was a real person.
Luckily, Sucy could pretend to be busy on her own, while Lotte stuffed her clothes into the machine and trying to figure out which buttons to push and set the monster into motion.
After that, they talked about the book before Sucy got into reading. And it was fine. It was still laundry and reading, but Sucy had fun. Although, Sucy did begin to feel as though the euphoria Lotte produced in her was starting to be almost canceled out by her frustration at not being about to touch her, or tell her how Sucy really felt.
There was a moment that Sucy almost did, if not for Loa reminding her that she had a girlfriend. Sucy came close to pushing past her own fear and just blurting it all out, but then Lotte seemed to sense that something was coming and fixed her eyes on Sucy;
Since Lotte had no idea of the internal struggles Sucy had been having, but she emerged from her cloud and let her own personality shine through a little. Sucy could make Lotte laugh from her perfection impressions on character voices as she read the lines in the book, and that thrilled Sucy quietly. Each smile permeated Sucy's skin and danced maniacally in her stomach. Sucy could see that Lotte didn't laugh enough usually, if at all.
Lotte seemed afraid to let go, and as soon as the echoing sound of her own amusement reached her, she would stop, startled by the sound.
"Before we get to the next chapter," Lotte said. "What do you think of the story so far?"
Sucy huffed. "I think that the love triangle is bullshit and that both men are using Belle as a leverage to their missing heterosexuality."
"Oh my god!" Lotte gushed so hard Sucy swore she saw some hearts flew from her. "So you do feel Edgar and Arthur's tension!
"It's very evident. These whole Nightfall volumes seemed like a gay slow burn. Why does it feel like Annabel Crème is a 12-year-old instead of a woman in her fifties?"
"I bet it's because Annabel gets with the times! Oh, I can't wait till you reach the prison arc when a nuke was going to terrorize France—oh wait, spoiler alert!" Lotte continued her squealing and flipped the next page. "Oh no!"
"Why? What's happened?"
"It's just..." Lotte hesitated a little, but she told her. "It's the crap chapter of Nightfall where it's clear that Annabel Crème ran out of time before the deadline so everything cool happens off-page, and the characters just talk about it afterward."
"You should have seen it, Diana!" Amanda shouted at the top of her lungs.
Wangari had long been typing her findings and information onto the computer and Detective Inspector Croix came with her fellow coppers to the headquarters, leaving Amanda to relay what happened to her in excruciating detail.
"It was awesome! The coppers show up at the mansion but no important was there! We head over to the Rastavan ruins, and guess who opens the door a crack when they knocked?" she then knocked the table, reacting how everything happened.
Diana was looking at her, an eyebrow furrowed, staring up at her from her seat.
"Fafnir! And he books it!" Amanda ran in place. "He was heading straight towards where we were so DI Croix and I kick down the door and chase him up the fire escape to the roof. Fafnir's running toward the edge, and we see someone has laid down these planks over the alley, kind of a makeshift bridge to the next building. Know what I do?"
"You shot the planks." Diana provided.
"Damn straight I did." Amanda pointed an air gun into the distance. "I shoot the first one, bang! But old mustache decides he's going to try his luck with the remaining plank, and he takes his first step."
Diana almost rolled her eyes when Amanda took a meager step as if she was on a theater show.
"Guess what I say?" Amanda asked, excitedly.
"One more step, and it will be planks for the memories?"
Amanda narrowed her eyes at her. "Really? You think I'd say something like that?"
Diana shrugged before crossing her arms. "You would."
"I said, stop!" She pointed an air gun at Diana again. "I don't want to kill you, and you don't want to die!" She then grinned, placing both her hands in her hips while Diana rolled her head. "That's not bad, huh?"
"Derivative, but whatever. Although I must ask, are you exaggerating to me?"
"Let her tell her tall tale," Wangari said. "What's important is, Lord Fafnir was caught red-handed."
"Lord Fafnir's business might be vile, but technically he is not a murderer." Diana said. "We might have caught a drug lord, but not the Blytonbury Killer."
"You're not going to have a chat with him in the interrogation room then?" Wangari asked.
"There is no need to. I am fairly convinced he is not at all associated with it."
Lotte's laundry was completed then they set off down the couch. Time went on by too fast, but Sucy was a fast reader and Lotte was excited by that fact.
Sucy was about to finish the fifth book and it was getting late, around nine in the evening. She flipped to the last page when Lotte swiveled around at the waist so that she was half-facing her, resting her arm on Sucy's lap.
She became aware of every inch of her, even though her eyes could only take in Lotte's face, and her eyes, which were fixed on hers. The words on the pages seemed to melt away, or maybe she had stopped paying attention. All Sucy could see was her blue eyes and the look of longing in them.
She was suddenly sure what Lotte wanted her to do. Sucy knew that look knew that she was probably giving Lotte the same one.
Without pausing to think, fret, or reconsider, Lotte dipped her head forward and brushed her lips against Sucy's. As soon as they met, Sucy exhaled, as though she had been holding her breath for quite a while, and pressed back firmly. Lotte was all around her. Her hair, her warmth, and her scent. The air Sucy breathed in was made of cherries.
Lotte's arms were fiddling on something before it spread around her and Sucy's bones were aching with the shock of reality and fantasy meshing finally.
It was only a temporary meeting of two separate realms. The door bolted open with a bang, and Sucy and Lotte broke apart.
Stepping from the doorway was Akko. Sucy sat on the couch. She wasn't alone, though—not by a long shot. The bright orange haired girl was with her, a girl Akko had never seen before, and her beloved had caught the two of them locked together in a passionate embrace.
Dizziness washed over Sucy as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. That's an emotional affliction that makes it difficult for her to breathe in any small, confined area. She tried to back away from Lotte but stumbled.
What had she done? Why had she cheated on her when at no time had she planned such a thing?
She started shivering.
Akko froze. All of them were staring at each other. Sucy noticed that Lotte's top buttons of her shirt were undone, showing a strip of a lacy bra. Sucy felt as if she were about to throw up.
"Oh, umm, sorry." Lotte's hands went to her blouse, quickly doing up the buttons. Her face relaxed into a slightly embarrassed smile, as she retrieved her discarded glasses to see the face of the blurry figure who interrupted them. She extended her hand for a shake. "Sorry, that must have been a sight to see... uh, my name's Lotte."
Akko didn't answer—she was looking at Sucy, who was staring at her incredulously.
Loa's sinister laugh echoed throughout the vacuum of the room. "And so the plot thickens."
Sucy's skin was drained of all color, showing the dark rings around her eye. She looked at Akko as if she were staring down the barrel of a gun.
"Lotte," Sucy's voice was without warmth or color from guilt. "This is my best friend, Akko."
"Oh. Oh!" Lotte's face heated up, her glasses were fogged. "Sorry! What a way to meet you. Hi, I'm Lotte." She advanced on Akko, still smiling, her hand out.
Akko merely stared at the outstretched hand with distaste. Lotte couldn't read the uncomfortable aura permeating through the air.
"I don't think your beloved can touch your other woman," Loa said.
Sucy gulped with a sinking feeling of horror. Akko looked at Sucy, who seemed to read the expression in her eyes; unsmiling, Sucy took Lotte by the shoulders and spoke closely in her ear. "She's also my lover."
"What?" Lotte looked surprised before searching their eyes and finally understood the awkwardness. "Oh," she uttered, then shrugged. She took her dried laundry and headed for the door without another word.
This left Sucy alone with Akko. Alone with someone who was still looking at her as if she were Akko's worst nightmare come to life.
"Akko," she said and took a step toward her.
Akko backed away from her as if she were coated in something poisonous. "What in Jennifer's name are you doing here with another girl, Sucy?"
Despite everything, the harshness of Akko's tone hurt.
"She's a fellow classmate in Philosophy class! She came here to do laundry while she let me read her Night Fall books. I didn't know she would do that. She came onto me!"
"Oh really? Since when were you interested in Night Fall? Didn't you say it yourself that a sparkling vampire is against the folklore? You could at least pretend you were glad to see me. Even a little bit. But no! You have the nerve to cheat on me!"
"I am glad to see you," Sucy said. Some of her usual colors had come back, but the shadows under her eyes were still gray smudges against her skin.
Akko waited for her to say something else, but Sucy knew she won't be able to salvage this situation she had gotten herself into. So to Akko's eyes, she may have seemed content just to stare at her in undisguised horror.
"This isn't you, Akko. Usually, you would forgive me for my mistakes. And this one clearly isn't my fault. I hate it when you act like this—"
"Oh, you hate it, do you? Well, I should better stop doing it, then, shouldn't I?"
"Akko listen to me." Sucy reached for her.
"You had no right to do what you did!" Akko snapped at her, suddenly furious. She didn't think Akko ever shouted at her before. "Cheating to me like that. Lying to me like that. You had no right—"
"I didn't lie to you!" she shouted back. "I hanged out with another friend while you were busy learning how to trick people with your so-called magic, you stupid, stupid girl. I'm your lover and I—"
"And you what? Do you own me? You don't own me, whether you're my best friend or my lover!"
"Are you two trying to kill each other?" Loa was so quiet that Sucy forgot that she existed, until now.
"SHUT UP LOA!"
The door behind Akko flew open. It was Professor Ursula, soberly dressed in a maroon track suit, her blue hair in disarray. She wore incredulous expression on her usually calm face. "What in the name of Jennifer is going on here?" she said, looking from Akko to Sucy, worriedly. "Are you two fighting?"
"Not at all," Akko said. As if by magic, it had all been wiped away: her rage and her panic, and she was calm again. "I was just leaving."
"Good," Professor Ursula said. "Because I need to talk to you, Sucy."
"No, wait, Akko," Sucy said, her voice filled with warmth. "Please forgive me, I am sorry. If you want, I can bind our thoughts using voodoo magic again. So you could see I'm not lying to you. I never intended to cheat on you."
Akko sighed. "I forgive you. It's just..." She swung her leg to and fro on the floor. "Just. I'll sleep in for the night."
Sucy's mouth hung open as she hopelessly watched her walk away. "Goodnight, Akko!" she called, but she was only received were angry footsteps.
Professor Ursula's forehead creased as she stared at Sucy, crossing her arms. "I will not ask what occurred before I came."
"Good," Sucy stated, her eyes stung as she stopped herself from crying there and now. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Did you or did you not kill Andrew Hanbridge?"
Sucy glared back at the older woman. "What's it to you if I did?"
"I suppose you didn't leave any evidence swarming around?"
"I controlled him to get rid of his spying devices and everything that entails his whereabouts," Sucy said. "Don't worry, Akko is perfectly safe. I won't get her in trouble."
"That's a promise I trust less and less every day."
"You should relax. There's no sign the murder was staged. Everyone's baffled, and they all blame Cavendish for his suicide"
"His suicide is quite excessive don't you think? No one would kill themselves in such a way, Sucy."
"It is his design."
"Fine," Professor Ursula said, knowing full well she will never win against her. "I just hope you know what you're doing."
"I am keeping track of the times you told me that exact line and I assure you, it's more than the fingers on my hands."
"There's one more thing I'd want to address with you." The French woman said hard lines creased her face. "The bouquet Sir Hanbridge bought, it had your penmanship. The cops will be questioning you about him sooner or later."
"I don't need your lessons about having a poker face," Sucy said. "I managed to lie my way through on my own, I don't need your pointers. And besides, he went there of his own accord, it won't be technically a lie."
Professor Ursula cocked a brow for the rude behavior, but she couldn't do anything about it. "I'll see you on Christmas Eve then."
"Can't wait."
The retired Magician nodded before she headed out. Once Professor Ursula was gone, Sucy was finally able to breathe again. The room had a steady influx of air once more.
"Loa," Sucy whispered.
The sentient small-scale humanoid figure descended from the room upstairs, carrying the spell book that weight more than its body mass
"Why didn't you try to stop me?" she asked, her voice in the midst of breaking. "You haven't voiced out for hours."
"I knew you wouldn't listen. I might be a heartless killer machine, but rejection hurts me... sometimes."
"What you said before." Sucy inhaled sharply. "Is it true? Did Lotte placed a love spell on me?"
"I am sure of it."
"What's the counter curse?"
"Forgive me, Sucy." The doll and flipped to another page of a love spell antidote. "Since we don't know what kind of love spell she used on you, we have tried a simple but powerful counterspell first. You have to brew this yourself."
"What if it didn't work?"
"Then, she's a bigger threat than we thought."
"Why? Just who is she, Loa?"
"Your curses and hexes are resistant to the ministrations of Western medicine, Sucy," she said, her voice was oozing with black tar and heavy from the words. "It is almost too flawless, if not for one thing. Only a Southeast Asian traditional folk healer can reverse the effects of such sorcery. And Sucy, if she practices it... that means she has the power to stop you. What's not to say she was doing her job of hindering you since the beginning?"