Murder at the Mansion

Chapter 10

I looked at her in disbelief. What did I ever do to make her feel this way? I looked at her and she just rolled her eyes and walked away. I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong and what I had done, but I only got angry glances and rolled eyes from her.

"Next," Detective Aria yelled.

I had happened to miss Miss Krelem's interview, but I already knew everything she had said since I was there with her.

I looked to the side and saw Austin walk into the room. The door closed behind him as he walked towards his seat.

"According to your coworkers, you weren't outside with the rest of the crows, but rather stayed back. May I ask why you did so?" Detective Aria demanded.

"I saw the mess and I just need to help out,"

At those words, I almost burst out with laughter. Austin never helps anyone, at least not me. Whenever I asked him for anything he would just reply with a simple 'no', and walk away. It is one of the main reasons I've never liked him.

"I was also looking for Miss Crumble,"

"Miss Crumble?" Detective Aria asked intrigued.

"Oh, she is the nicest, sweetest, most helpful lady around. She makes everyone smile. The kids absolutely adore her. That's why she has worked here for over a decade and she is very loyal to the masters and -," Austin said, cutting himself off.

He probably realized we could all hear his speech about Miss Crumble.

I was actually surprised. Austin never talked about anyone with such emotion. He was always dull and seemed like a rude, annoying robot. But Miss Crumble seemed to melt his heart. Yet, on the other hand, I almost threw up. Just imagining Austin and Miss Crumble together made yesterday's dinner come up since we still hadn't had breakfast.

Austin was 42 if I remember correctly and she was 53! That's over a 10-year difference. But then again Emily and me have a 4 year difference, so maybe I'm not one to judge.

Austin quickly coughed (probably pretending he wasn't blushing and madly in love with Miss Crumble), "I mean she is the nanny here and takes care of the kids. I was looking for her because I thought she could convince the kids to climb down the trees. But she was nowhere to be seen. So, I quickly searched the bottom floor, but when I didn't find her went upstairs," Austin nervously stammered.

"Did you find her in the end?" Detective Aria asked, clicking her pen a couple of times.

"See that's the weird thing. I was on the second floor when I heard the laughter of Sue followed by Miss Crumble's voice and a question from William. I followed the noise to see the three of them on the couch, Miss Crumble reading to William and rocking Sue in her arms. I called her name, yet she didn't respond. I thought she didn't hear me, so I walked up and said it again. This time she nodded, but still didn't respond. I thought it was a bit weird, but didn't think much of it. I told her good night and headed back downstairs," Austin blurted out.

I heard some glass clang and the sound of something being poured, I could only assume that Austin was pouring himself a cup of tea.

Detective Aria paused and write some notes, flipping some pages as she went.

"And lastly, around when did you start looking for Miss Crumble?"

"Well I don't specifically remember the time, but it was around when Angelia ripped her dress. I was expecting Miss Crumble to come out and take Angelia away, as well as the twins. But when she didn't I started looking for her in the crowd and still didn't find her, so I stayed back and started searching. I spent about 30 minutes searching for Miss Crumble and about 10 more going to talk to her and then coming back down. When I came down I found everyone gone and on there away back to the complex,"

"So you would say between the time that Angelia ripped her dress and the time everyone was gone was about 40 minutes?"

"More or less so,"

"Did anyone leave before the whole -," Detective Aria paused looking for the right word, " before the whole calamity?"

"Well, only Mr.Lestun when he left to write his book and then Mary to look for Angelia and Jack to go to the bathroom. Other than that we all stayed downstairs,"

"So Mr.Lestun left to go finish his book and wasn't seen until yesterday morning?" Detective Aria slowly asked.

"To my knowledge,"

"Finally it's all coming together," Detective Aria muttered to herself.

"Well, thank you for your time and the information you provided," Detective Aria concluded closing her notebook shut.

We heard the chairs move and not long after the door opened.

"Thank you to all of you for contributing. You may all join the rest of the crowd, but could you also please get Ms.Lestun and Miss Crumble," Detective Aria said.

We all nodded together. I then awkwardly smiled at her. She giggled and closed the door.

It turned my head to see Emily looking at me with pure jealousy. As soon as she noticed me looking at her she pouted a bit, rolled her eyes, and quickly stormed off.

I tried to catch up with her, but it was no use. I slowed down my pass sighed and walked back to the crowd.

* * *

It was around 9:10 am and breakfast was being made. It was earlier today than usual because of all that was happening.

I still had no luck with Emily and it was obvious that both Katie and Mindy had noticed. I still wasn't giving up. The three of them were out serving food and making the table. Emily was heading back to the kitchen and I had to talk to her before she could go in.

"Emily! I need to talk to you," I yelled running up to her.

She ignored me, not even glancing at me.

"Look I know you are angry at me and I want to make it up to you, but I don't really know what I did wrong. Aria and I just got off on the right foot and had a friendly chat," I said.

"Is that what you call friendly?!" Emily asked.

"How about this, I get you some of your favorite snacks. A pack of Walkers crisps and Snaps and then I meet you for breakfast, where you explain everything to me," I said.

"I don't want any snacks! And you don't even know what you did," Emily said, her voice full of anger.

She stormed off into the kitchen. I sighed. Emily and I had never had this big of a fight. I looked to the side to see Mindy walking up to me.

"Hey, John. Emily seems really uptight. From what I'm hearing you were taking glances at another lady," Mindy said.

"I wasn't!" I replied back.

"John, why don't you stop acting like you're 7. Go up to her and have an actual conversation. Find out what the problem is and find out her perspective on it. I know you both love to get stuck up on your own ideas, but sometimes you just gotta listen to each other. If you don't things will only get worse. Emily is like a kettle on a hot stove, let her stay and she will boil over. Try to move her off and you will get burned. But slowly take her off with an oven mitt and you both will be happy," Mindy said, giving me an encouraging smile.

"I guess you're right, like always. Why do I always have to be so impatient and immature?" I asked her.

"I don't know, but I know this will end well just don't forget to not rush it. We will be having breakfast outside near the garden. Meet us there," she replied, then got up and went back in the kitchen.

Mindy always knew what to say and the perfect way to say it. For this moment, I just wished she could apologize for me. She was good at that too.