A short while after the advance team arrived—sometime after nightfall—Corydalis made his surreptitious entrance along with a hand-picked team of his subordinates.
Just when I could’ve sworn I heard the window make a click, Mr. Fisalis strode right over, pushed it open, and poked his head outside.
Did he see something out there? I wondered, casting a glance that way.
He looked back at me over his shoulder and explained, “They’re here.”
Uh, who?
“Huh?”
“Corydalis and his crew.”
“Ohh!”
Oh, that’s right—he called in the cavalry!
“They’re hanging out right outside our window, right? Should we let them in?”
“Sure. It’ll be easier to talk inside.”
“Good point.”
It was all well and good that we’d come to that decision, but that left the issue of where and how were they supposed to get in. Just as I was vaguely considering sneaking them in through the front door, however...
Tweeeet!
Mr. Fisalis blew a short whistle into the wind.
I cocked my head to one side, curious as to what that was all about...only for Corydalis and company to swing in through the window in the next second!
“’Scuse us!”
Sneaking in through the window?! I didn’t see that one coming! Well, to be fair, the villa corridors are crawling with servants and guests, so chances are good that they would’ve been spotted otherwise.
Corydalis and his men looked as carefree as ever, both their laughter and their footsteps light as they slipped into the room. The Bombshell Trio was there too. All of them were wearing dark cloaks over their clothes—to help them blend into the night, I had to assume.
“Thanks for coming all the way out here,” Mr. Fisalis commended his men, shutting the window behind them after giving the surroundings a cautious glance.
“I knocked out that damage report you told me to submit first thing and left all the non-urgent stuff for later. Say, have I ever told you’re a real slave-driver?” Corydalis groused with a shrug of his shoulders.
Oho, but Corydaaalis? I’d wager there’s a very special perk for you waiting here! Tee hee hee!
“But just think—thanks to this mission, you get to see Stellaria!” I blurted out exactly what I was thinking.
“Huh?! What are you saying, Madam Fisalis?!” He got totally flustered for a moment there. “I keep my work and my private life separate!” Of course, it wasn’t long before he pulled himself together and refuted the allegation—but he wasn’t fooling anyone.
“Reaaally? You say that now, but you were pretty impatient to wrap up your work!”
“We saw the way you were grinning like an idiot! What, did you not even notice?”
“No need to play it cool, boss!”
There came a chorus of whistles.
“Would you guys just can it already?!”
The ladies took the first crack at making fun of their boss, and soon everyone was jumping on the bandwagon.
Hah, I knew it! You were glad about it!
As for the maid in question? She was standing right there, blithely watching everyone tease her fiancé.
“But anyway, I’m amazed you managed to make it this far without getting caught,” I remarked. “Isn’t security pretty tight around here?”
It’s been said a few times over by now, but vacation home or not, this was still Argenteia land. To make matters worse, the number of high-ranked officials currently staying over meant the place was locked down harder than ever.
“What kind of question is that? This is our job, remember?” Corydalis got his act together long enough to give me a confident thumbs-up.
“Guess you’ve got a point.”
He’s right. This is their area of expertise.
Banter aside, it was time to get down to business.
Mr. Fisalis summed up the facts of the case. “I’m sure you’ve gotten the gist of things from my note and Rohtas’s explanation, but our Viola Eye necklace was stolen. The culprit is Earl Lizardtail, and the goods are still in his possession.”
“Wow, nice detective skills.”
“What, so all that’s left is to apprehend him?”
“C’mon, leave us something to do!”
His subordinates were moaning and groaning. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear someone mutter, “I’d rather die than make an enemy of the Fisalis family.”
“This does largely count as a personal affair of mine, so I saved the rest of you as much trouble as I could.”
“Thanks, boss!” the knights chorused.
“All that’s left is to figure out how to catch him red-handed,” Mr. Fisalis mused, folding his arms in thought.
“By the way, how long are you and the madam planning to stay here?”
“We’re slated to leave in the morning two days from now. The rest of the guests claimed to have similar plans...but what of Earl Lizardtail?”
“He’s scheduled to leave the day after tomorrow as well,” Stellaria answered, unfazed despite Mr. Fisalis throwing the ball into her court without warning. I was amazed that she’d managed such extensive reconnaissance before being relieved of her lookout duty. Our servants really were something else!
“Let’s see... I think the simplest strategy would be to keep an eye on the situation all day tomorrow, then arrest him on the spot if he tries anything funny,” suggested Corydalis.
“Think you can manage that without getting caught by the Argenteias or party guests?”
He shot Mr. Fisalis a wink. “No problem.”
The rest of the knights were likewise wearing smug grins on their faces. Yeah, I’m sure these guys could pull it off. I’m having flashbacks to that time a band of thieves broke into the Fisalis manor.
Once we’d settled on a rough plan of attack, the knights went back out through the window. Tonight they were going to be standing watch over the earl’s room and patrolling the villa perimeter.
Here’s hoping all goes well and we get the real necklace back safe and sound tomorrow...
“Vi?”
“Ack!”
Crap! I almost nodded off there. I must be getting tired.
“Has staying up late so many nights in a row taken its toll on you?”
“Maybe so. I’m pretty sleepy.”
“Now that Corydalis and his team are here, we can relax. Let’s leave the matter in their hands and get ourselves some rest.”
“Okay.”
Sorry, Corydalis! I’ll do what I can tomorrow, but tonight, we’re counting on you!
✦ ✦ ✦
The next day, we had the final tea party, dinner, and soirée.
I may pride myself on my stamina, but by this point I was dragging around six days worth of exhaustion. It didn’t help that the necklace caper had been weighing so heavily on my mind that I’d barely been getting any sleep. To put it bluntly, I was in pretty bad shape. Nevertheless, what truly defined a first-class lady was her ability to keep that from showing...in my opinion, anyway.
“Are you doing okay?”
“Yeah! I’m fine!”
I’d managed to make it through the day thanks to Mr. Fisalis sticking by my side and looking out for me, but predictably, I never did get in the mood for dancing.
The earl had yet to make any move. It was looking more and more like we wouldn’t be getting our stolen property back during our stay at the villa.
And then, night fell. Corydalis and company paid another visit to our room—again through the window, of course.
“The earl has yet to act.”
“I know. But to look on the bright side, at least that means we won’t have to arrest him here in the villa.”
“That’s one way to think about it! Well then, how about this? We make our move instead of waiting for him. Let’s see... Perhaps we should aim for tomorrow, after you and the madam have gone home and he’s let his guard down. We don’t want to do anything to tip him off during the journey, so instead we’ll follow him back to his manor and arrest him the moment we have definitive proof of his crime. We can send out an advance team to scour the premises ahead of time; he might have left some kind of evidence behind when he made the fake.” Corydalis course-corrected, putting together a rudimentary plan of attack.
Whether it be Mr. Fisalis or Corydalis, the way these guys could come up with all these schemes on the fly made it clear that they were true professionals. I bet you anything Stellaria was swooning too!
“Good thinking. If that’s the plan, I’ll meet back up with the rest of you along the way. Vi, you can go ahead—”
“No way! I’m going with you! It’s my necklace, so I want to be there to reclaim it!”
“Huh?!”
You want me to head back to the mansion on my own? Fat chance! I promise to stay out of the way, so you’ve got to take me with you when we get that necklace back! Wait, wasn’t I supposed to be in bad shape, you ask? Hah! I bounced back the second you put the case in front of me!