„The enemies become allies when they have a single purpose”

Are dancing the fingers on the piano keys in the rhythm of the tears that fall from the sky outside, noisily and beggarly hitting the window while the fire in the stove, that burns now calm then madly, seems not to warm the atmosphere of that house at all, a house that has been surrounded by mystery, regrets, weird vanishes, and appearances, as it has been flooded by so much pain - the house of the „Red Ants.”

And how not to be so cold and empty that house even though it was furnished with expensive and elegant pieces of furniture when it wasn’t love felt inside of it?! It wasn’t, for the house’s owner, the one named Christine Bircham, has never been preoccupied with such things, as she never cared about her soul, thinking that she was more than capable to trample souls under feet, to cut heads to triumph, no matter if this involved her death in the end, including her name too on that big list of „collateral victims” that fell prey to her avarice.

But… even if she understood this so late, she wasn’t yet prepared to give up on her big dream - that one of having the supreme power, for it was for what she ignored her soul for an entire life, forgetting about honor and shame, leaving around her just victims, but no friend. And… Christine understood one more thing - on that rainy day, that life is short and that you can't impede fate happen. And she understood this when she was closed inside of her office, listening to that piano music, immersed in thoughts, music played by Eva, who felt that was missing that piano music when she remembered the beautiful moments spent with Brian while being with him in his country house, laying on a big bear fur, in front of the fire that was madly dancing in the stove, immersed in thoughts or hugged by the strong arms of dreaming, listening to the man that was her universe. And… when he finished touching the piano keys, when he felt that was longing for her even if she was there, he was approaching her, lying next to her, and both were falling prey to the madness of love, forgetting about that world, forgetting that there were others in that world and not only the two of them. Even so, while being in that vertigo of passion, prey of the uncontrolled emotions, they also felt the sweet kiss of innocence that was hidden in their soul and which was showing up, only from time to time, when they became one, became romantics, making their cheeks blush in the color of passion as if they had been two beautiful red roses.

Suddenly, Christine winced when Eva powerfully hit the piano keys when that music had a more jerky tempo, and she turned her head toward the closed door, watching it, a door which nobody was there to open, for… Christine Bircham was alone in that world and, even though she was still in front of the „Red Ants,” she was aware that nobody was listening to her orders.

But… what made her shudder has been to imagine, for a moment only, that that door was opened by Emily, who, right after seeing Christine, smiled and said: „Finally, Mrs. Bircham. We’re finally on the heights of glory.”

And Christine also smiled because of regret and nostalgia, for… it was the first time she understood that she missed Emily and that she also felt sorrow for her, knowing that she died in the love’s arms.

„So pathetic,” murmured Christine, for she really thought so. Actually, she had known about Albert’s feelings for Emily, feelings she had taken so much advantage of, for she knew that only this way that man, who seem bribeless and who wanted to abandon her years ago, telling her that she was sick of that dog’s life, remained by her side because of a girl, of a 17 years old teenager, Emily Davis, who returned from Paris the day he wanted to go. And… it has been enough a smile to melt the man’s heart and make him Emily’s servant for an entire life. „And both died so foolishly when they could join their forces and live on the world’s throne for an entire life,” added Christine.

Then, after she stared for a while at the autumn's madness which was dancing with flakes of dreams, with drops of longing, and with figurines made from the leaves falling off the trees, Christine turned her back on the window, which she left half opened, and left the office.

***

Even if she heard Christine’s office door opening, to later feel footsteps approaching her, Eva didn’t turn to look at her, but kept touching the piano keys, playing musical notes she learned long ago, but which she considered forgotten.

However, she forgot nothing - neither those fragments which were taken from well-known musical pieces nor the past, that hurt her so deep inside and which brought her to the heights of exaltation at the same time while being in the arms of the man who she got to love till madness and who she also got to hate at a certain point, for… his abandon, something she considered as being because of another woman, left deep scars in her innocent soul.

But namely that feeling, of longing and unfulfillment, made her press that piano keys with more zeal, making that small hall resound so noisily, surrounded by the music of a tormented soul.

Yet, what amazed Eva, even more, has been to realize that Christine was still there, somewhere in that house, sitting on her armchair, thoughtful, and listening in silence to her music.

And it was really so, for Christine left her office, where she was hiding from herself and the world, just because she wanted to listen to that divine music from close, even if it was clumsily played by Eva’s fingers. But even if it was so beautiful that music, it brought so much regret in Christine’s soul, as the one that she never knew her mother well, for even if Audrey Thorn gave birth to her and took care of her, she had never taught her daughter what love means as she never showed her love, for she thought that she was hardening the girl’s soul for what was coming, for she dreamt to see Christine on the world’s throne, especially leading that secret organization, which she got to rule from the shadows.

But even though her biggest dream came true and Christine openly lead the „Red Ants,” Audrey Thorn failed as a mother, and Christine understood this only while staying behind Eva and watching her playing the piano, for she understood that that child, the one she wanted to destroy and trample under feet only to hurt Brian, was in fact much stronger than she has been for her whole life, for namely that child gave up on a luxury life next to Brian Beneath and returned to her house to defend her family, something that Christine never did, for, at first, her mother vanished in strange circumstances, to find out many years after that she has been actually killed, and also her father suspiciously died and she never found out who actually killed him.

***

„Don’t you think that’s time to turn back home?” Christine said after a long while of listening to Eva’s music in silence. „I think it is - the perfect time to leave behind you this world of sins and launch out toward happiness.”

Christine’s words amazed Eva a lot, who stood with her hands „frozen” in the air for a short time, above the piano keys, as if Christine had said a spell and „froze” her in that weird position.

Mrs. Bircham instead didn’t bother at all seeing her like that. Per contra: closing her eyes and deeply breathing in the scent of the wood, the same scent that scattered throughout the room in the flames’dance, Christine continued her thought: „your reaction tells me that you didn’t expect to hear something like this from me, right?”

This last sentence made Eva react weirdly, something she never thought that she was capable of, for Christine’s words seemed to be hypocritical and she thought that she had to answer Christine in the same way - hypocritically. That’s why, she first raised her right eyebrow, making a comic face and somehow severe at the same time, to later squeeze her fingers in a fist and relax them shortly after that, as if she tried to calm the tiredness of her bones after the play. Then, stretching her back and taking an elegant sitting position, still with her head up, she proudly looked around and turned toward Christine, without standing up, and stared for long at Mrs. Bircham’s face, who kept lolling against the armchair’s back, still with her eyes closed, enjoying that pleasant silence, in a weird way pleasant actually, something she had never enjoyed before.

„Does it seem to me or the old age is catching up with you, Mrs. Bircham?” said Eva ironically, but in a severe tone, trying to let Christine know that she was aware of her games and that she won’t fall prey to her tricks, not that easily.

This amazed Christine a lot, somehow unpleasantly surprised by Eva’s daring, who she found really changed when she never thought that will be capable to attack her by insulting her, even if the first night Eva turned back to her house, the two of them had a really strong fight. But… even if she badly wanted to show Eva where is her place and that she was still the master of that game, Christine decided not to „fall” so dawn as she thought, and, after taking a normal sitting position, on the same armchair, she stared at Eva. Then, she deeply breathed in, trying to recover her natural calm. After that, she said, in a tone she consider neutral, but which resounded so severe in fact, with no trace of evil in voice: „why do you think so, Eva? Do I look so bad to be called „old?”

„No. Per contra: you look too well for your age. But I was talking about your memory because it seems to me that you start to forget things.”

„Like?”

„Like the fact that it has been you who proposed that shameless pact to my father and you bought me for God knows for what mean purposes.”

Christine smiled, thinking: „it means that you know the real reason why you’ve been brought to my house, even if at first you seemed to demonstrate the contrary.”

„Or… am I wrong?” added Eva.

„No. You’re perfectly right: it was me who sent that letter to Alfred Stonebridge, asking you in exchange for his debts.”

„But…?”

„…there are so many other things that you still don’t know and which I’m not eager to reveal to you, even if I must accept the fact that your relationship with Brian Beneath wasn’t something I wished at first.”

„Then? Whose plan it has been? Of Brian looking for revenge?”

„Exactly. But he forgot about it the moment you slept with him for the first time. And… I must accept - you’ve been so skillful, winning him by your side.”

It has been Eva’s turn to smile: „I didn’t win anybody, Mrs. Bircham. I only loved him.”

„Of course, of course, I won’t deny this,” Christine rushed to say. „Yet, even if you unknowingly did this, you can’t deny the fact that you have a certain influence on my cousin if he abandoned his wife only for having you as his wife.”

Eva swallowed hard: Christine was right. Yet: it hurt her to understand that - that she has been the one who destroyed Sophie’s marriage, even if she knew nothing, and who died eventually having that regret - that she has been abandoned.

„But… despite this fact, that I’ve been who brought you in this house, I never „forced” you to do certain things, or at least it wasn’t something I wanted. You did this by yourself, as the birth of a child. However, I still consider it unfair for you to end like me… lonely.”

Eva stared thunderstruck at the woman, for Christine’s confession wasn’t something she expected. „Did she start to regret it?” thought Eva. „If so, it seems ridiculous to me. More, having so many sins on her soul,” and she sketched a bitter smile, a smile seen by Christine too, who eventually stood up and headed toward the stairs, intending to climb to the second floor. She stopped instead, half away, and, as if she turned back time, she saw that long ago happened scene when Emily fell on the theather’s stairs, something that made her swallow hard and gnash her teeth, as if trying to chase the pain away from her soul, to later live her life. Yet, even if the first impulse has been to turn back to the ground floor and hide again in her office, Christine kept climbing those stairs eventually.

While climbing, however, she told Eva, who stood up and took a few steps toward the stairs, but which he didn’t climb, hearing Christine talking to her: „life is so unfair, Eva Stonebridge and so toothy, for it made both of us suffer so much. And… even if you think we are so different, you’re so wrong, for… even if I initially thought that Emily and I were so alike, in fact, it was you and me so similar, and that’s why I hated you so much. Yes, I hated you, with all my heart, because you reminded me about myself - that I’ve grown up alone, even though I had parents, who gave me a lot of material stuff, but never love.”

„At least you had material things, Mrs. Bircham. I’ve also been hungry for them,” said Eva, and Christine stopped. Yet, she didn’t look at Eva, but somewhere in front, as if she had been afraid to look back, downstairs, just not to see her past or imagine herself falling on those stairs. Eva instead continued her thought: „yet, we’re so different, Mrs. Bircham, for while you were leading the world, being on its top, I was hiding from the world, in my own hole, shaking like hell and begging for love.”

„Yet, we’re so alike,” murmured Christine and continued climbing the stairs, without even looking back.

Eva instead kept staring behind Christine for a long time, as if she waited for the continuation of that thought: „yet, we’re so alike,” for even if she didn’t want to accept, she started to feel the same, and this made her so suddenly shudder. That’s why she eventually turned her back on the stairs and went outside to greet the autumn and the rain, without taking at least a cloak or coat on her tender shoulders.

***

„She won’t ever turn back,” murmured Brian, with his head bowed, staring at the flames’dance in the stove, that seemed to remind him so much of his soul, who was burning like those beech logs in the flames’hug.

„At least you know she’s fine,” said Keen, something that made Brian wince and stared at the detective, who was still sitting on the sofa, where he sat down right after entering the room, enjoying the strong whisky Brian gave to him.

The owner of the house instead seemed to have forgotten about his guest when he immersed in thoughts, for his glance focused on the flames, after he stood up to pour more whisky in his glass, for… unwillingly… he started to drink a lot lately. Even so, he was never seen drunk as he never felt dizzy. And this was only because the pain in his heart was controlling him and not the drunk alcohol, a pain that he couldn’t drown with strong whisky or make vanish.

„Yet, Mister Beneath, what you’ll answer count Shark?” asked Keen, without paying attention to the fact that Brian seemed absent, even if he stared at him eventually. And Keen asked that because he realized that keeping silent won’t help Brian come back to his senses, for Vincent understood very well what was in Brian’s soul after Eva’s departure and Sophie’s death, a crime he felt guilty for.

„I don’t know, to be honest,” Brian murmured eventually and took a few steps through the room, leaving the empty glass next to the whisky bottle, which was already half empty, on the small table next to the chimney. „I didn’t have time to think about this,” he said, squatting in front of the chimney and staring at the flames.

„But… I consider that you should do this, for… I don’t know why, but I think that this won’t end with Sophie Anderson Bell’s death.”

Brian stared confused at Keen, turning his head toward the detective, still squatting. Keen instead didn’t look at him, but was staring at his almost full glass, slowly moving his finger on the wet edge of it. „I still think that Lyre Walker is guilty of all that happened,” the detective murmured and sipped from his drink.

„What I don’t understand is what he won with this. As far as I know, the old Walker and Sophie had nothing to do with each other. Or… am I wrong?”

„No, you aren’t. Mrs. Anderson Bell never knew that toothy old man. At least this is what I could find out in the last few days. Yet… her death is damn suspect. More after I found out that things are missing from Bardain’s room.”

„The envelope,” mumbled Brian, remembering that after Sophie’s death when Keen came to tell him about this, for he found out about the crime due to his former colleagues that were still working for the police, he mentioned that Bardain’s room was ransacked as if someone looked through his things for something. Later, when Brian went to check the crime scene, he realized that what was missing was that yellow envelope with documents, those where he gave the old teamster a small house he had in the countryside as a reward for everything he did for Brian in those long years of being by his side, even if he knew that Bardain won’t leave him ever.

„Exactly. The envelope. One that looked exactly like the one Bardain gave to me the day he came to see me.”

„But… I don’t understand what the thief needed that envelope for. It hadn’t anything special in it, or something Lyre Walker could benefit from, for in that envelope wasn’t anything about him. It would have been something benefic for Shelby… that envelope vanish.”

„Yet… Shelby Storm isn’t stupid and he wouldn’t have done this openly, more after you found out that you have Bardain’s envelope. More than that, he knows that Bardain is missing. So, he wouldn’t have looked for that envelope in his room, but he would have sent his man in this house and the one ransacked would have been your office.”

„It’s logical what you say, Keen. But… I can’t understand what all this has to do with Lyre Walker, for those documents talk about four friends involved in George Chesterman’s assassination, and it didn’t mention anything about him,” said Brian, approaching Keen eventually, but still standing, somewhere next to the sofa.

„What if all this isn’t more than a well-organized prank? What if there are still hidden things from us?”

„Like?” insisted Brian.

„As the fact that Lyre Walker can be the „puppeteer,” the one we are looking for and about who your father mentioned in front of me before his death,” they heard Shelby’s voice and when they looked at the door, they saw him brought there by Colby. „Leave me on the sofa, next to Keen,” Shelby said and Colby right away listened to his order.

Then, being already on the sofa and staring at the two men that were looking thunderstruck at him, Shelby continued his thought. But, before this, he told Colby to stay there: „as far as we could find out, not only Mrs. Anderson Bell died that night. One of his servants has also been killed.”

„That’s right,” said Keen. „But this is something we couldn’t understand: why the thief killed the servant, just as we have no idea why he killed Sophie Anderson Bell.”

„It can be a mere coincidence or something masked to look like this,” said Shelby, staring at Brian, who looked even more surprised than before. „Anyway, being one or another, the true fact here is that who entered that house was looking for the documents you have, Brian or Keen have them. That’s why I consider it risky for you to stay in this house, for… if they dared to kill Mrs. Anderson Bell, who had nothing to do with you anymore, once divorced, I don’t think that’ll be difficult for them to enter this house to look for what they didn’t find there. Thus, they’ll try to get rid of you. Or at least to silence you or make you suffer. Now more, having a child.”

Brian winced: „I don’t think they’ll dare. Laura is just a baby. More than that: I don’t understand why they must hurt me for some unimportant documents. I’m not involved in this and those involved in that crime are dead already.”

„All except John Evans,” mentioned Keen, making Brian stare at him. „Even if I have the feeling that he has no idea about the existence of those documents, yet, we mustn’t ignore the fact that he’s the only one alive.”

„Shelby Storm is still alive,” murmured Brian, terribly distraught.

„Yeah, it’s true. But: how many know about this?” insisted Keen. „Almost nobody.”

„What we think is that the „puppeteer” is aware that count Storm is still alive,” said Colby. „As far as we could investigate Mrs. Sophie’s case, the thief didn’t enter forcibly in her the house. It has probably been helped by someone.”

„The servant,” mumbled Keen. „Now it makes sense that they also got rid of her.”

„She knew the killer’s face and it was risky to leave her alive, for she could talk,” said Brian. „Yet: giving her a lot of money or hiring her as a servant in Lyre’s house could have avoided another sin on their souls.”

„Why to take the risk?!” muttered Colby, grinning. „It was cheaper and easy to get rid of her.”

„It still remains the question of why Mrs. Sophie died as the servant died,” insisted Keen.

„What if because of the same reason?” said Colby thoughtfully, a fact that made the others wince and stare at him.

„Colby, it’s not the right moment for speculations,” Shelby hissed through his teeth. „Even if Mister Beneath’s ex-wife had been involved, she would have simply given them the documents and, as their accomplice, she would have kept silent.”

„I was talking about that she also saw the killer’s face and that’s why they silenced her,” said Colby, confidently. „That’s why, Mister Beneath, I think that everybody who’s around you or involved with you, in a way or another, can be their victims,” and Colby’s glance focused on Brian’s, who was staring thunderstruck at him while the fear sneaked inside him, for he loved a lot at that moment and he was also afraid to lose those beloved people, for even if he divorced Sophie, her death made him understand that anyway he cared about her a lot and he didn't want to lose another person too.