THE PAINTED MISDEMEANOUR

CHAPTER VI

The journey was quiet, the same consecutive rows of mansions were passed by. No questions were asked either, even before leaving their house. I wonder why.

Lo and behold, house 0916.

Instead of an open house it became a ghost town. The dozen officers were already gone.

Expected.

Although the yellow tape still remained.

We ducked through the tape and re-entered the mansion's gate.

"Why the sudden courage Mr. Smith?" Mr. Holmes finally spoke up, smoking his pipe at the same time.

"I wanted to prove our innocence," he said.

Is there something in Mary Lemont's house we had missed? How was Alexander connected to Mary?

The doors were sealed shut. Why did the officers lock the door?

BANG! BANG! BANG!*

Before we could even blink, the doors were already busted open by Alexander.

"Does it count as trespassing and damage to property?" Alexander asked, with a straight face.

Isn't it obvious?..

"All of the above, but I'll give you a temporary exception," Mr. Holmes replied, walking past us into the mansion first.

We trailed along in his lightning-fast footsteps as usual. We intended to check the basement first, but just as we were approaching a familiar path to the painting, Alexander and Veronica immediately stopped in their tracks, understandably scared.

We looked past our shoulders just as we heard a stand-still thump on the marble floor that echoed throughout the hallways.

"Stay here, Ms. Julie will go investigate the basement while I accompany you two," Mr. Holmes turned to me.

I nodded and proceeded to unhinge the painting and entered the secret stairway. I slowly walked down the stairs, and carefully opened the basement door.

I darted across the room; the body was already gone.

However, the mess remained; the cops couldn't be bothered to clean it up. The smell of old cosmetics lingered, as unpleasant as the first time we stepped foot here. In defeat, I hurried to the stairs. I could not stand in this room any longer.

I met them back on the surface, Mr. Holmes was eagerly waiting for my verdict.

"The officers took the body," I broke the bad news to Mr. Holmes.

He shook his head, realizing that they were too late.

"It doesn't matter, that can be dealt with later," Mr. Holmes said; he was clearly annoyed.

He then turned to Alexander who was already heading for the stairs.

"Follow us, I wanted to check something upstairs," Alexander gestured.

Check what?

Before we knew it, we were already in another luxury room: Mary Lemont's bedroom. It was blanketed with golden accents and expensive furniture; I was amazed with the amount of money Mary had. I bumped into Veronica again, she was following her brother around the room, and made eye contact with me then broke it multiple times. I couldn't be too bothered, she's just a traumatized child. Mr. Holmes tapped his shoes on the floor, impatiently waiting for Alexander to check whatever he wanted to check. In the corner of my eye, I watched Alexander slide his hand under the surface of the pearlescent table, trying to reach for something.

A button? A weapon? Should I warn Mr. Holmes?

He then pressed something, causing the painting next to the table to swing open like a trap door. A shiny golden safe emerged in an instant. We huddled up near the safe, observing Alexander trying to type in the password.

"0921?" Alexander muttered.

ACCESS DENIED.

He sighed, and thought for a while.

He typed in a different combination: 0107.

ACCESS GRANTED.

He appeared to be upset when finding out that it was the correct password. The golden safe door swung open, revealing...

A stack of papers?

Alexander took a slip and read it briefly. His eyes widened, his jaw sank, and his hands began to shake. He then handed the paper to us.

Oh my god.

—It was a 'WANTED' poster of Mary Lemont...