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.”