Bambi and the Duke

”She was one of the people who was to be caught?” Vivian couldn’t believe what she heard.

Leo nodded his head, ”There were four witches in total and by what we have gathered, the one whom we couldn’t catch is the one causing the current massacre and also working with the switcher.” As Vivian gave some thought on it, her eyes flickered to look at him.

The blue-eyed black witch had been the one to be brewing the potions to corrupt hearts, was it possible that she had targeted Leonard’s family out of spite? ”What happened to the other three black witches?”

”We hunted them down after finding out the mishap caused by the Harlows. The black witches were unlike any other we have met in the past and it seems like they were sisters. When you work for the council in a department that involves taking lives, you should also prepare yourself for the possibility of backlash,” his words confirmed her doubt and she squeezed her hand which was in his. For an odd reason, the name felt as if she had come across it before.

”I hope you punished them for letting the witches out of the council’s sight,” she commented, a small bump shook the carriage as they went on their path back to the council. Due to two people’s mistake, a lot of them were suffering on their behalf. It was a domino effect where the black witch had escaped to spread chaos in the world. So many deaths took place, families were lost, good people turned bad for the sole reason of revenge.

”The Duke was dead by the time we reached him and we caught one of the witches who had taken home in his mansion. The other two we found them in the mountains of Mehu of Wovile. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the fourth witch,” she nodded her head to his explanation, ”Stay close to me, Bambi and don’t stray away too far,” his words were sudden.

”I won’t be going anywhere,” she assured him. Every now and then Leo would worry and ask her to stay where his eyes could find her.

”I say it because I know witches are full of vengeance. They killed my family but now that you aren’t my wife the woman might not stop at it. Don’t believe anyone in the council, even if the person isn’t a switcher, men and women of bad intentions reside in there,” he warned her.

Then something came on to her mind, ”If the husband and wife were involved and the man named Abel was involved. Why wasn’t he caught and is free?” she was confused as to why he would be let off.

”Because we don’t have the leads for it. The work was given to an entire team but it was the Harlow’s who was responsible to handle and hand them down to the council. I know for a fact that the man was involved in the matter but I couldn’t get anything after the case was closed. Getting information on the closed case is difficult here in the council as they are all locked down in the common departmental room where no one except the head council is allowed to enter,” she nodded her head over it.

”Has no one ever tried breaking in there?” she was intrigued to know more about this place where they placed the old case files.

”They haven’t but do you?” he raised his eyebrow at her questioningly.

”I don’t plan to. I might get caught in the first few seconds,” she admitted with a grin on her face making him smile.

”True. Who knows what’s in there. You will probably leave it dismantled in a span of five minutes,” he chuckled at the end of it.

”But why would one store things which have already been read and done with? How is it to be private when the matter has already been passed through by the public?” she turned her body to face him, one leg up in the seat which was folded while the other rested down on the surface below.

”That’s a good question for which I have no answer. Though I can tell you this much that though the council claims to have all the old files stored in there as storage I think there are books in there which are not to be seen or read by the general public. The storage is only a camouflage for the people to perceive it to be without knowing what actually is in there.”

”And only the head council is allowed?”

”Yes.”

”No one else apart from him?”

”That’s correct,” he answered her question instantly.

”Then wouldn’t it be easy to learn what is in there from him? I am sure if you ask him nicely he will tell you,” at Vivian’s response, Leonard smiled.

”Sure, he will tell. Why don’t you try asking him over tea?” it took Vivian a while to realize that Leo was being sarcastic and she puffed her cheeks.

”What are we going to do with the case?”

”About the boy?” asked Leo for her to nod, ”What is your take on the case.”

”My take?”

”Not what you wrote down for Lionel but what you felt. What do you think? Is the boy innocent as he comes to appear or is it his brother-in-law who had something to do with the death?” Leo gave her the options to choose from.

”The boy must be innocent,” claimed Vivian.

Leonard titled his head and asked, ”Why do you think so? Is it because he is young? Don’t go on the age and appearance, Bambi. Not everything you see is the truth and not every end is a wall. Sometimes you need to look beyond the wall to find the truth.”

”Did you read the entire case file,” she saw him nod his head. Wow, thought Vivian to herself, he had read the file and also had found out about the boy being interrogated in the court quick enough to stop the boy from going to the cell room. She asked him, ”Who do you think is the culprit?”

”Let us hold on to that question,” said Leo to lean forward and knock on the glass where the coachman sat, ”Take us to town Kingston stone,” the coachman diverted the path to pull his horses and have them take a left which was a diversion from where the council was.

It seemed that they were going to the town where the boy Samuel lived previously with his family. Reaching the town which Vivian had previously visited plenty of times as this was the town that held most of the fair, it currently looked dull and out of color with a gloomy atmosphere hanging in the air. There were townfolks who walked on the streets like any other normal town. She walked next to Leo, her footsteps falling a little short to which she had to keep up with him.

Talking to one of the guards of the town, they were taken to the house which was once occupied but now was empty. Stepping inside the house they noticed how vacant it was as all the objects apparently had been burnt by the son-in-law of the owner of this house at the name of how the boy had cursed the family and didn’t want the curse to fall onto him.

”There’s nothing in here,” she stated after she had run her hand over the inside of the walls.

”Hmm,” hummed Leonard looking around the small house which didn’t have anything to look at which made Vivian wonder what he was looking at, ”Did the man mention an address to where he lived?”

She shook her head, ”I think Lionel must have had the file with the address. The one which we received didn’t have anything related to him. Maybe the guard might know?”

And the guard indeed knew where the man lived as he was the one to have brought things in and out of this village to the other higher houses that were situated away from this town. But before they could go to his house, Leonard and Vivian stayed longer in the town to find out about more about the family. It seemed that they were already questioned by another councilman who previously received the case before handing it down to Lionel’s team.

According to the neighbours they appeared to be in shock from the loss of the family, pitying both the boy as well as the son-in-law who had married the girl of the house for just a week. The family was well behaved and well mannered who had been living there for more than five decades. And with what they heard from some of them, apparently, the girl whom the mister was married to was incredibly beautiful. There was no act of violence and everyone had been living without any problem which only made them wonder what had caused the families death.

They hadn’t got the opportunity to look at the bodies yet but according to the report, it stated that there wasn’t a scratch of a mark which looked like an assault.

”Thank you for guiding us,” Leonard shook his hand with the guard while also slipping a coin of silver on to the other man’s hand as thanks, ”Let’s go look at the bodies.”

”There are bodies?” she asked surprised, ”The boy cried about not being able to see his parents and his siblings funeral. Was no funeral held?” she was more than confused. In the council, she remembered the boy crying out to his brother-in-law stating how he wasn’t allowed to see them buried and Lionel had accused him that his last standing relative who was none other than his brother-in-law had told during the report that he would dig up the graves.

”Hmm, according to the last report page it said that the body was still here in the council lab. Looks like there has been mismatched information in the two reports.”

When they reached the lab, Vivian didn’t bother to wear her gloves on her hand and decided to keep it bare. The vampire doctor was very pleased to see them, bowing his head he lifted his head when his eyes caught sight of the little ring on the lady to confirm the faint rumours that had been going around in the council about Duke Leonard being wedded to the human lady who stood here with her black eyes staring at him.

”Mrs Carmichael, excuse me for not greeting you in a better way earlier,” he apologized, his narrowed eyes staring at her.

Vivian gave him a smile unsure of how to respond. Thankfully Leonard spoke, ”Which are the bodies of the case ’73432’,” he asked directly not wasting his time.

”Jealous Duke,” murmured Murkh with a knowing smile that looked creepy in her eyes, ”It isn’t these. Theses are the fresh batch cases. Please follow me,” the vampire doctor took them away from the room. Vivian gave a glance at the bodies that were burnt from the head to toe, making the bodies look almost like a skeleton except for the black skin.

”When were the bodies brought in?” asked Leo as they followed Murkh who took them one level below from the underground. As they entered, Vivian was about to cover her nose looking at the number of bodies that were placed in a glass filled with liquid. It was something she had never seen before. There were several tanks like the glass where each of them had one body inside it, in an upright position.

”Five days ago, councilman Leonard. I think they were placed out far too long before they were brought to me. When I questioned the councilman about it he said it was only ’yesterday’ everyone had died. One cannot fool a doctor,” Murkh raised both his arms to emphasize his point, ”Funnily there’s nothing wrong on the outside but everything wrong in the inside.”

”What to do you mean?” Leonard questioned the doctor who had gone to push a button next to the tank which belonged to a beautiful woman.