Bab 21: Pulse
"You were the last one to see her alive," Ophelia said while pacing in front of Eve. "You must have seen something."
"I did not," Eve said. "She wanted me to apologize, so I declined and moved on." Susinda's death caught her off guard.
Last night, she deliberated and thought about killing her to silence her. However, she did not go through with it. To her surprise, however, Susinda was found dead the very next morning.
All signs of her death were pointing to a human killer.
It appears that someone severely injured her by repeatedly striking her skull and causing damage to her brain.
Everyone immediately became a suspect— especially the person who last saw her breathing.
Eve Lucrecia.
Hearing the news, Ophelia immediately pulled her into another room, asking her various questions about her conversations with Susinda.
"You do not suspect me," Eve uttered.
"Do you want me to?"
"No." To be honest, she thought that the first one that would accuse her was Ophelia. After all, she knew that Eve had been to Susinda's study just before she died.
Ophelia frowned. "I trust that you are intelligent enough to realize that this could result in your death. Whoever killed her will face the ire of the Prince himself."
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"The Prince will... decide the fate of the killer. However, I can assure you it will not be a pleasant one. The last time—" As if realizing that she had talked too much, Ophelia cleared her throat. "It was brutal."
Eve nodded.
She will keep that in mind.
"What will happen after this?" Since this was not a part of the list of rules, Eve had no idea how they were going to deal with a crime like this.
"Everyone will be asked to talk to one of the butlers. They will eventually find out who it was."
'How?"
"They have their own methods."
Eve's lips thinned. Meaning, they are going to try and control their minds.
"Did she tell you something else before you left?" Ophelia asked for the umpteenth time.
"No. She was… she was upset and asked me to leave since I did not want to apologize." Eve said.
"Are you sure? Do you remember something else?"
"That's all. It seems unlikely that our relationship would facilitate casual conversation or engaging topics, given her apparent hatred towards me." Almost immediately, she wondered if Ophelia knew about what Susinda was doing.
It's unlikely that she could carry out an operation like that alone, she would need a few accomplices to assist her in cleaning up the aftermath. This meant that someone in this mansion knew about Eve.
This time Ophelia nodded.
"Alright, you may join the other girls. Just wait for the butlers to call you. Do not worry. As long as you are innocent, they will not do anything to harm you."
Eve rose from her seat. Then she walked out of the room. When she saw the women standing in line, she did not hesitate to follow them. She then stood at the very end of the line and waited for the butlers to arrive.
As she did this, she quickly went back to what happened last night.
When she went out, she did not sense any living being around. Meaning, whoever did it must have walked inside the room when she left.
She suspected one of the other women.
It looked like Ophelia had been doing something like this for a long time now. This means that she too must have talked to the others who had their own secrets to keep. She tried to recall any other weird behavior that Susinda showed during lectures and ended up with nothing.
"Hey, I heard you were the last one who saw her alive," the woman before her turned her head. "Is that true?" the woman had long braided brown hair and equally beautiful brown eyes. She gave Eve a wary look.
"Who told you that?"
"Everyone knows about it," the woman responded. "It was not exactly a secret that you two are— I mean — We heard it."
Eve frowned. She must be talking about the confrontation after the examinations.
Then Eve looked at the line ahead of her. While only the woman was looking at her, the others had stopped talking to each other as if… as if they were silently listening to their conversation.
"It is true," Eve said.
"Then did you—"
Eve's gaze immediately turned sharp.
The woman closed her mouth in a hurry. "I— I apologize. I did not mean to ask."
As if on cue, footsteps echoed. Two men wearing black suits walked in. One of them was the butler Casimir while the other was a tall and bald man named Sinas. Just like Casimir, Sinas was another butler working in a different wing of this large mansion.
Both of them were tall but Casimir looked leaner while Sinas was on the bulkier, more muscular side. To be honest, Sinas looked more like a warrior than a vampire. His sharp gaze and angular face could easily intimidate anyone.
The two faced the women and scrutinized their clothing before they started calling names.
Each of them was going to interview one woman before moving on to the other. This would enable them to identify the perpetrator of the crime.
Was it really that easy?
Eve said nothing as the two led the women to two different rooms.
Shortly thereafter, they called out another name, and the waiting game continued.
Time passed, seconds turning into minutes, until eventually, Eve was the last one standing in line, waiting for her turn.
The women were immediately instructed to return to their rooms after the interrogation so right now, it was only her inside the large hall.
"Eve Lucrecia…" Casimir looked straight at her. He did not wait for her to say another word as he turned and added, "Follow me."
Eve did not hesitate, she dragged her black dress towards the room where Casimir had been interrogating women.
"Your pulse is remarkably calm." Casimir gazed deeply into her eyes as if he was searching for something hidden within her soul. Then he narrowed his eyes. "It piqued my curiosity."
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