Dead End

Lilly

       Apollo is immediately on alert. He watches Bindley Cooring Armingham approach, perplexed and tense. Bindley Cooring Armingham regards him coldly. He walks with the gracefully. Two yards away, he stops.

       "Who are you?" Apollo asks, trying to alleviate the uncomfortable feeling of ill-will eminating from Armingham's scrutinizing gaze.

       "I'm Bindley Cooring Armingham." He says with a pronounced English accent. "But it seems you already know that. You were searching through the west wing earlier, were you not?"

       Apollo remains completely still. Something about Armingham doesn't seem right.

       Armingham continues to scrutinize Apollo, then turns away, speaking over his shoulder, "Walk with me, would you?" Armingham begins to walk, and Apollo follows along reluctantly

       "If you would be so gracious as to tell me your name?..." The man says.

       "No."

       The man narrows his eyes at him.

       "Well then, what brings you to such a desolate place as this?"

       "Why are you here?"

       Armingham glares at Apollo. "You're not being entirely helpful are you?"

       "What did your parents never tell you not to talk to strangers?"

       Armingham's frown deepened, and he looked at Apollo long and hard. Apollo withheld his gaze, but felt himself shrinking under to pressure.

       "I was murdered." Armingham finally said, looking away. "By a family member. Not the client that many suspect killed me, but by my own son. So that he could inherit all my fortune. What he didn't know was that none of it was entitled to him. And thus, it created the family feud, as you have...already heard about."

       Apollo stops in his tracks, his words clicking together. "Wait, you were watching me?"

       Armingham stops and turns back to Apollo. "I watch everyone who enters my castle. But you... are a different case. For you, are a ghost, such as I. And I couldn't help but wonder, what have you done to enter into such a state?"

       Apollo didn't do anything. He replies, "What have you done?"

       Armingham's lip curls in a smile. "Ah . . . so you seek to know my situation before you will reveal yours. A trade. Well then, I tried to kill my own son. Nobody knows that of course. Not even him. A few weeks prior to my death, I found him plotting to poison my lunch. So, I switched the meals, added a little bit of my own poison to his food, and waited for him to die the slow, painful death that would have killed me, had I not been aware of his murder attempts." Apollo watches the man with a mixture of horror, disgust, and disbelief. He really had a messed up family.

       Armingham watches Apollo's reaction and smiles grimly. "Yes, you think me a murder. However, the story continues to inform you that just a moment before he was about to put the food into his mouth, he smelled something a bit odd and realized that it was poison. He thought that he accidentally gave himself the meal that was meant for me and decided to proceed with my assassination that very night. He left his chambers just before dusk, slipped into my chambers while I was sleeping, and poured a few drops of poison down my throat. I awoke in time to see my son's face over mine, frightened and in horror at what he had done. Then my life drained from me and I was left dead on the bed, seemingly peaceful but really vowing vengeance on my son. It was not necessary, as he later killed himself for shame of what he had done."