16. A Clue

From the sound of it, the scent coming off Mr. Fisalis had permeated his clothes during his dance with Marquise Erectum.

After bringing his arm up to his nose, taking a whiff, and screwing his face into a frown, he’d said, “Hmm... I know what it is. You must be smelling the marquise’s perfume.”

Come to think of it, her husband smelled weird too—ahem, that is, he was wearing very strong cologne! Like husband, like wife—looks like they’re both big fans of perfume.

Anyway, moving right along...

That night, we’d both done quite a bit of talking with our suspects; I’d spent most of the time dancing with the men, while Mr. Fisalis had handled their partners. Had a clue been dropped amid all that vapid chatter? One could only hope.

Our analysis would have to wait until another time, however. For now, we needed to focus on gathering as much information as we could.

* * *

It was getting late. Sometime around midnight, it was finally time for the party to draw to a close.

We retired to our room to go over what we’d learned. There weren’t any events planned for the following morning, so I’d be able to sleep in for as long as my heart desired. And really, considering how late the soirée had gone, it was only fair to leave the morning schedule empty and give everyone a chance to unwind.

“Any success?” Mr. Fisalis asked me.

Any success? Success, huh...? Oh, I know!

“I learned how to exercise control over who comes and invites me to dance!”

When there’s someone you want to dance with, you just have to casually sidle up to them and make eye contact. When there’s someone you don’t want to dance with, you just nonchalantly walk away. How had I failed to figure out something so utterly simple? If only I’d discovered that trick sooner, I wouldn’t have left so many parties completely exhausted from dancing.

Here I’d been totally serious about my answer, but Mr. Fisalis retorted with: “Not that kind of success! I meant if you’d found out anything of interest about our suspects!”

Oh, that kind of success.

“Oh... My bad. Let’s see... Things of note, huh...? Well, I dunno. Looking at it one way, everyone seemed a little suspicious, but if I look at it another way, nobody did.”

“That is how it tends to work, yes.”

I struggled to remember all my conversations from that evening, but everyone had just come off as both vaguely suspicious and vaguely innocent. I really wished I’d been blessed with my husband’s gift for observation. But to be fair to me, this was his actual job!

“Everyone sounded like they were struggling for money, just like Rohtas said in his report. But then again, this was a public function, so it’s hard to say whether they’d tell the full truth to a stranger like me.”

“That’s a fair point. I had a handful of conversations myself, but...”

The girls Mr. Fisalis had danced with that night were Viscountess Pastoris, Marquise Erectum, the younger sister of Viscount Trifolium, and Earl Lizardtail’s fiancée. Viscount Trifolium had neither a wife nor a fiancée, so he’d apparently brought his sister along instead.

“Viscount Pastoris may go on spending sprees for his wife and daughter, but I didn’t get the sense that he was committing crimes to fund them,” said Mr. Fisalis.

“Yeah. I got the impression he was a loving father who might spoil his little girl just a taaad too much. Besides, his son makes enough money to keep the family afloat.”

His sleepy eyes would get even softer whenever the topic of his daughter came up. But no matter how precious she was to him (and how much he cherished his wife too), he really was going to run out of money if he bought her a copy of my stuff each and every time she pestered him for it.

That was when Rohtas, who had been quietly standing by throughout this discussion, glanced over a report we’d gotten earlier that day and added, “We received an even more detailed write-up from Bellis today. Though the viscount may be in a tough spot financially, he has yet to fall into debt. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that he would be desperate enough to get his hands dirty for the necklace.”

If I’m remembering right, Mr. Fisalis said something about the secret service continuing their investigation back in Rohze. Does that mean Bellis is part of the secret service?! Here, let’s get the obvious joke out of the way: leave it to a servant to be in the service!

“Even if his daughter was dying to have it?”

“Hmm... Now that we may have to consider.”

Mr. Fisalis and Rohtas seemed to be seriously entertaining the possibility. I, on the other hand, couldn’t imagine the viscount doing something so heinous, so I cut in to dissent. “Oh, I don’t know! He didn’t seem like the type to do anything that extreme.”

“If you say so, Vi. Then for the moment, it’s looking likely that Viscount Pastoris is innocent.”

“I’d agree with that.”

Thus, we came to the conclusion that Viscount Pastoris was in the clear.

“As for the Erectum family...now this is looking dire,” Mr. Fisalis said, frowning. “They’ve spent all their income down to the last coin, and you can practically smell the loans building up.”

So it’s not just their perfume that stinks—it’s their debt too!

“Indeed. Word has it that they’ve been taking out loans from some of the most disreputable money lenders in their town,” Rohtas added, further highlighting their shadiness.

“Figures. How badly are they in debt?”

“They mortgaged their estate, and it’s now one step away from getting seized...so about one manor’s worth, I’d say.”

“Wow, that’s pretty serious.”

Mr. Fisalis and Rohtas both knew what the Erectum manor looked like, so it was easy for them to imagine how much debt amounted to—but since I didn’t, I was drawing a blank here.

I must have looked like I wasn’t following along, because Mr. Fisalis re-explained the situation in clearer terms. “One Viola Eye would be more than enough to cover the cost of that mansion. In fact, forget just paying off the loan—I bet they’d have some money to spare.”

“Yes, sir. Enough to live off of, even.”

One measly necklace would be enough to pay off their whole debt? No...if anything, that just highlights how freakishly exorbitant that jewel is! I trembled with the realization.

“So they’re flat broke, and meanwhile, the marquis is off buying rings or whatever.” I reported back on what I’d heard that night. “He told me that he followed our lead and had matching rings made for him and his wife! Plus, he went on and on and on about how much he loves luxury and how he just wants to live fast and loose.”

“Interesting.” After some thought, Mr. Fisalis asserted, “Whatever way you slice it, there’s no denying that they look fishy.”

Thus, we came to the conclusion that Marquis Erectum was to remain on the list of suspects.

“It seems that Viscount Trifolium inherited a large debt from his parents, and he’s been living frugally while he works to pay it off.” I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear Mr. Fisalis follow that up by muttering under his breath, “Tch! He’s as good as guilty, as far as I’m concerned.”

That’s probably because you’re letting your jealousy cloud your judgment!

“Does that mean his paycheck alone would be enough to square the debt?” I asked Rohtas.

“That’s correct. Even if he were to put his entire salary toward paying off the loans, he would still be able to squeeze by on the revenue from his territory,” he responded, scanning over the documents. “He doesn’t seem to lead a terribly extravagant lifestyle either.”

Huh, I see!

He was supposedly “a hard worker” and all. And based on my impression, he did actually seem like a composed, good-hearted sort of guy.

“According to his sister, he’s always saying things like, ‘I’m sorry I can’t buy you anything as elegant as the jewelry Lady Viola wears.’”

“He sounds like a really good big brother!”

What a beautiful display of sibling love! Aww, go on and keep an accessory or two of ours, you thieving little rascal!

...Okay, no, I wouldn’t go quite that far.

“Hmm... There’s no conclusive evidence either way, but so far he’s looking innocent—but not quite innocent enough to take off the list.”

“You really don’t want to clear him of suspicion, huh?”

Silence.

I saw you avert your eyes just now, Mr. Fisalis! Just how keen are you on accusing this guy?!

Putting Mr. Fisalis’s personal grudges aside, we pushed Viscount Trifolium toward the bottom of our suspect list.

Last of all, there was a certain earl.

“As for Earl Lizardtail’s fiancée... I was shocked by how little she seemed to know about her own husband-to-be.”

That was Mr. Fisalis impression of the earl’s betrothed, apparently.

“Maybe that’s because they only got engaged recently?”

If it had only been a short while since their courtship began, it made sense that they wouldn’t know each other too well yet. Heck, I’d barely known anything about Mr. Fisalis for the longest time! Not that I was about to come out and brag about that, of course.

“Even for an arranged marriage, something felt off about it.”

Mr. Fisalis fell deep into thought, perhaps focused on calmly psychoanalyzing the fiancée’s attitude. And as for me?

“Now that you mention it...the earl never once mentioned her.”

He spent the entire conversation either tooting his own horn or expressing interest in the jewelry I was wearing... Wait a second. Huh?

“...Hm?”

“What’s up, Vi?”

Something about my conversation with the earl was bugging me, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.

“Nothing. There’s something that struck me as odd, but I can’t remember exactly what...”

It was just like that gross sensation of having something stuck in your teeth—it was driving me crazy.

“There’s no rush. Take your time trying to remember.”

“Okay.”

What was it...?

I could feel the eyes of Mr. Fisalis, Rohtas, and the maids upon me.

Think, Viola! What exactly did he say back then?

I remembered he’d started singing my praises out of the blue. He’d taken it so far that it had sounded totally forced, not to mention embarrassing...but that wasn’t all.

That’s right! Once the shower of compliments had passed, he had started talking about my Viola Sapphire. I was creeped out by the way he was leering at me...and that was when he’d said it.

“This is my first time seeing the gem up close, and I must say, this one is no less stunning a jewel! And the designer deserves just as much credit for bringing out its beauty so well.”

What had he meant by “this one”?

That’s it! That’s what felt off to me!

“When he saw my necklace, the earl said ‘this one is no less stunning.’ It just hit me now: if that was his first time ever seeing a Viola Sapphire up close, what was he comparing it to?”

I was pointing to the Viola Sapphire necklace still twinkling around my neck, so everyone’s gazes shifted to my chest.

“The earl said that?”

“Yeah.”

“Interesting.” Mr. Fisalis looked like he was mulling something over again.

“We’ve received quite a bit of additional information about this Earl Lizardtail,” Rohtas interjected. “Despite his financial struggles, he’s been attending parties at the royal palace with his usual frequency. And as far as that fiancée of his goes, no one seems to have heard a word about their engagement.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir. He cycles through lovers on a regular basis, but rumor has it that he has yet to settle down with anyone—and those rumors are true.”

“Who’s that woman he brought to the party, then?”

“Just another one of his flings, I have to assume.”

Mr. Fisalis nodded. “I see.”

“I do recall the earl boasting at length about how rich his family used to be, and how his jewelry collection could put ours to shame. He certainly has a talent for boring his conversation partner to tears.”

I was losing patience just thinking back on the conversation.

“He must like showing off,” Mr. Fisalis said, chuckling at the face I was making.

“We have our own report to make regarding Earl Lizardtail,” announced Stellaria.

While we were busy with the soirée, the maids had gone around searching the other guests’ rooms. Now, I had no idea how they had gotten inside...and I wasn’t about to ask either.

She went on with her report without missing a beat. “There wasn’t much time, so we started with a quick inspection of the four suspects’ chambers. To get straight to the point, we found the Viola Eye in Earl Lizardtail’s room.”

You seem pretty nonchalant for someone who...hm? Wait, they found the Viola Eye?!

She’d delivered the news so matter-of-factly that I’d almost glossed right over it.

“What? You found the necklace?!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So what happened to it? Do you have it with you now?” Mr. Fisalis asked.

“We didn’t have time to swap it out, so for now, all we’ve done is confirm its whereabouts. But we did leave a maid to stand watch nearby, of course.”

“Good call. If we’d taken it back now, he would have realized what we were up to,” my husband said, praising Stellaria for her wise judgment.

That’s right. Our objective here is two-fold: “take back the necklace” and “arrest the culprit”!