The House of Marcellinus

Arc 1: Trickster - 8 End

Jeorge asked Maxwell and Mary to accompany them, as they were the direct victims of the crime. Maxwell expressed his enthusiastic thanks to both Markus and Alexia, as well as another apology for suspecting him. Mary favored them with a full smile and Elise clapped them both on the back before she returned to the gardens. At last, only Markus and Alexia remained. Even the shouts from Juris in the foyer had gone silent.

"So Markus, I have questions," said Alexia.

"Ask away."

"Tell me the truth. Did you steal Maxwell's check, or did Merrick? I was sure it was you, until he confessed to framing you at the end."

Markus smiled back at her, and that confident, charming smile reappeared.

"Well, if I promise to tell the truth, will you promise to believe me?"

"That would leave me in a vulnerable position. What if you lied?"
"Well, what if I told the truth- for example that I didn't steal it– and you didn't believe me? That would leave me in a predicament too."

She didn't think those two things were quite the same, but decided that maybe he had a point.

"Fine. I promise to believe whatever you say."

"Alright, here's the truth: Of course I stole Maxwell's last check and framed Merrick. You delivered the last letter, so you should know that. Merrick knows it too, of course. I think he confessed to my crime as a way of throwing himself on his sword, to apologize for assuming that I was a sexual predator." Markus said, with a trace of bitterness pulling down on the edges of his mouth..

Alexia was taken aback at this uncharacteristic confession. Promises or not, she had been prepared to swallow a lie, just so she could put it behind her.

"Ok... so then how did you know that Merrick was stealing in the first place?"

"Ah, that really was because of what he said at your performance review. After he made the comment about stealing from servants, I confronted him. He denied it, but that just confirmed my suspicions. He may be an expert at manipulating the payroll, but he's still inexperienced when it comes to lying. He has a tell. I was sure he was stealing, but I had no idea how."
She wasn't at all satisfied with that answer. It was just riddled with holes.

"So you... stole from Maxwell and framed Merrick by... framing yourself?"

Markus turned and began gesturing enthusiastically. His face was beaming.

"No, that was a stroke of genius on my part! Just listen, it's brilliant! You see, Maxwell was the perfect target because he's young and idealistic enough to challenge me and he hasn't been here long enough to really fear the Marcellinus family yet. That's my pretext for kicking off the investigation! By the way, I'm the one who fiddled with the computers in the security room and broke the AC vent. That made sure Merrick would be in there with the door open, so I could narrow it down to the two of us. Then I just needed to get the records up, and I could figure out what he was doing!"

Alexia thought for a minute about how to react to this and decided on disappointment. He seemed to be forgetting that he hadn't been the one to expose Merrick. He got the numbers and hadn't been able to find anything in them. If she hadn't lucked into figuring it out, what was he going to do then?

"That's... the most retarted, bullshit, Rube-Goldberg plan I've ever heard of. Why didn't you just go to Jeorge or your father with your suspicions? And what if you had been wrong about him?"

"And tell them what, exactly? That Merrick's eyes flicked slightly to the left when he mentioned stealing? Besides.... I wanted credit. This way I'm not the spoiled little noble boy who ran to daddy, but the genius detective who exposed a thief! Did you see the way Maxwell and Mary looked at me? Like I was really something. Like I could be a worthy leader. And if I was wrong? I guess I would have been in trouble then, but I knew I was right."