Chapter 15
Worth dying for
When they returned to the estate after their walk in the
moor and watching beautiful sights, Tanyah went to her
house to take a shower and get some rest; her skin felt a bit
itchy from all the rolling and sleeping in the grass she was
doing. The first thing she did was check her laptop for
anything new from Louis waiting for her.
As she was going through the important messages,
Tanyah saw the email she was expecting and inside was a
name and address on it with a few other details about the
name at the top.
This person whose name was mentioned in the email
once worked at the Sinclair Estate before Charles died, and
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they were one of the few people of that time that Louis
managed to get information on.
Since everyone who once worked here was cleared, this
was a great opportunity to talk to someone who did to get
more information to get her forward. When she was done
with the first email, Tanyah went to the next one which had
another name and picture of a person whom Louis had been
keeping an eye on but they suddenly disappeared.
Louis didn't tell her much when he decided to dig up
information about this person, but he told her to be wary of
the person as they were close to each other.
When Tanyah looked at the picture of the person Louis
was talking about she was taken aback because this was the
last person she expected to see. The person in the picture
was Jane; her new-found companion and the one who had
helped her when she first arrived here at the Estate. She was
the one assigned by Nicholas to show her around and ask
for help if she needed anything.
Jane was very kind and resourceful towards her and was
always eager to be close to Tanyah any chance she got. She
always thought that her closeness was because she was kind
but the report Louis sent proved her very wrong.
Jane Myers did not come to the Sinclair estate to work,
but to keep a close eye on what was happening. All along
she knew that Tanyah was a detective and she hoped she
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could fish out some information about how she had gone
with the investigation. Unfortunately, Louis couldn't find
out who sent her or what information she had because one
day she suddenly disappeared.
Since she knew Tanyah was a detective working on the
case, it was safe to say that Jane knew something about what
happened to Charles, and whoever she was working for was
probably behind it.
Even though it looked like a dead end, Louis promised
her that he won't give up until he found the name of the
person hiding behind Jane. In the meantime, she had to find
out more about the person in the first email.
Jane would have been very important to her because she
seemed to know a few people and places in Kelsus, but then
since she was working for someone else no one knew what
she would have done with the information she would have
collected if she was still here. As Tanyah was looking at the
address of where she was supposed to go she realized she
needed help.
Leaving the estate alone would leave her exposed and
taking someone or asking a few people was already out of
the question because she now had to be careful of the people
she was talking to. Also, the butler had been spending some
time at the mansion lately and if she is seen talking to
someone about something that had nothing to do with work
he would cut and disperse the conversation. She once
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thought of asking him to accompany and help her find the
location of the address, but then her movements and
investigation would be limited because in his eyes she was
Nicholas's assistant.
A couple days after receiving the email, Tanyah was
granted some time to herself to explore places outside the
mansion. Nicholas didn't seem to mind at all but he
suggested that she mustn't go alone, and the person she was
supposed to go with was the butler. Of all the people in the
line-up, that was the least person she wanted to be with.
Tanyah protested a couple times claiming that the butler
was a busy man and it was ok if she went alone, but
Nicholas wasn't having it. It was either the butler or nothing.
When she saw that this wasn't going anywhere, Tanyah
decided to take matters into her own hands
As soon as she went back to the guest house she started
packing the things she might need on the way, took her car
keys and left. She received a call from Nicholas telling her to
come back, but she told him she was already far gone to
come back. In response he just gave a heavy sigh and told
her to return soon because she was alone.
Even though she didn't know where she was going, it
was determination that was fuelling her to find that place
and address where the person who once worked at the
mansion lived. The house was in a totally different place far
away from the estate or any of the places she knew. In order
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to reach her destination, she had to ask around to get there,
but she finally found it. However, to her dismay the house
was completely deserted.
Plants and shrubs were growing everywhere, the fence
was broken and it was very evident no one had been taking
care of or living at the place for quite a long time.
She managed to open the rusty gates and entered the
premises and there was no hope of finding anything
whatsoever as to who or where the owner could be. The next
thing to do was ask the neighbours if they knew anything
about the people who lived there.
The first house she went to didn't yield any results, but
when she got to the other neighbour she got something to
work with. When she knocked on the door a woman
answered the door and when asked about her neighbours
she didn't mind telling Tanyah about it. And as it turned out
the house was just abandoned by the husband and children
when the wife died.
"Her name was Anna and she used to work at the place
you just mentioned. She started having issues with her
husband when he found out she was getting involved with
someone outside her workplace."
"Someone? Was it an affair?" asked Tanyah as she
moved closer.
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"I don't know much of the details but I doubt it. News
would have spread like a wild fire if that was the case.
Whatever she was doing, her husband didn't like it."
"Do you know anything about how she died?"
The woman Tanyah was talking to stopped for a
moment and looked around before she said a word. She then
came a bit closer and she talked in a low and hushed voice.
"She was working for someone else during her time at
her workplace. I heard she almost got fired but she managed
to get saved. I don't know exactly what she did, but I think it
has something to do with her passing away. As soon as her
boss passed away there wasn't a lot of time till she also
died."
The woman spoke hurriedly to cover as much as she
could before she moved away from Tanyah and looked
around once again. The information she had given was
already valuable but Tanyah still needed a name.
"Who else was she working for?"
The lady was now a bit tense. She went silent again and
let out a small sigh.
"She was helping the other family, I don't quite know
them but she was helping a person from there while she was
working at her workplace."
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"Is that why she almost got fired?"
"No, no one knew about that. Except for this man who,
the adopted son of the family I believe, he works at the
clinic. The other day Anna came here upset that the man was
getting in her way. She was just talking to me casually when
she mentioned her work and that man. She didn't think that
much about telling me about it."
Victor, that's the man she's talking about. He knew that
maid and what she was up to, and he might have told
Charles to let her go. But then how come she still stayed
there. There were a lot of things she wanted to ask Victor,
but he decided to go on an adventure of his own.
After that, the woman didn't have much to say that
could help her find what she wanted, however she gave
crucial information she will have to share with Louis for
better perspective. Tanyah thanked the lady for the help and
made her way back to the mansion.
Some time passed and when the woman was getting
inside her house after collecting some things outside, she
saw someone walking past her gate towards her former
neighbour's house. It was a man, she couldn't quite see his
face but he had a grey scarf wrapped around his neck and he
had a distinct pair of glasses on.
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She was a bit puzzled but she decided to leave it. He
wasn't the first and surely won't be the last person to walk in
that street.
After making sure that Nicholas had finished what he
was doing and he didn't need anything else, Tanyah clocked
out for the day and went to her house. She removed her
shoes and went to her room to take a shower and start
preparing for dinner. The first thing she did when she
entered her room was go to her laptop to see if there was
any information from Louis.
She made sure the door was locked and all the curtains
were closed and then went ahead to open the folders that
had been sent to her. The first one verified the information
she got that afternoon; that the maid who used to work at
the mansion did in fact pass away and her family moved
away soon after. She was married to her husband who
worked as a librarian but he was once a Vice principal before
he got caught up in an accident and he had to be
hospitalized for some time.
The details of the accident weren't very detailed as to
exactly what happened to him or how much he got hurt,
only that he was involved in an unfortunate event and
ended up in the hospital.
Wanting to know more about this man, Tanyah went on
a deep dive on his life because she felt a strong connection
between him and this case. His wife was the main highlight
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of the suspects that had to do with Charles' death so he was
certainly a person of interest. She searched about his early
life, education, family, then came his occupation before the
accident.
Monte Pietra
As soon as she saw that name there was nothing further
she needed to know. This man was the principal of the
school that belonged to the Amar'e family and was burned
down by someone from the Sinclair family. When that fire
broke out the man and several other school staff were at the
school and they managed to get out without any major
injuries.
While rounding up everyone they noticed that the vice
principal wasn't with them, and it took clearing out the fire
and clearing the rubble to finally find him.
After that accident he wasn't able to go back to work for
a long time, and because of his injuries he decided to get a
job at the Kelsus library.
Even though this man had every reason to go against the
Sinclair family and kill Charles, it was his wife who had ties
and proximity to the Sinclair family. But it also made some
sense since the man was too injured to do anything, so his
wife did all the dirty work.
Tanyah went back to read about the maid to find out
how she died from the autopsy and medical reports. While
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reading through the information, Tanyah's suspicion rose as
she could see a subtle pattern from the reports.
The woman's health was said to be just fine with no
issues however she just died unceremoniously on a weekday
and from the autopsy it showed she had several health
issues which were not present on the medical reports. She
had heart and liver problems, which led to her death, and
had frequent headaches that interfered with her day to day
life. Her medical reports had nothing about any health
issues, even during the time leading up to her death,
however this was contradicted by the autopsy report.
Tanyah then went back to the front of the medical report
to see which clinic was this woman going to for
consultations, and she wanted to bang her head on the desk
when she saw the name. But she stopped because she
wanted to verify something before venting out her
frustrations, she went to the last page of the reports where
there was the doctor's name and signature. After seeing that,
Tanyah shut her laptop, buried her face in her hands and let
out a sigh.
However, she didn't have much time to dwell on her
findings because she remembered that in one of the
documents was important information about Jane, and Louis
said that she should go through it as soon as possible. She
contemplated leaving it and reading it the next day because
she could feel a very bad headache creeping up on her.
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Her shoulders muscles were also aching and her vision
was slowly getting blurry. The only thing she needed was a
bath and a good sleep. However, she ended brushing her
headache aside and opening the folder so that she would
sleep without worrying about the case.
'A cup to die for!', written and composed by yours truly.
"A cup to die for...," Tanyah mumbled as she went
through the folder she felt her headache increase and that
unfamiliar nausea rise up.
Jane wasn't only keeping an eye on Nicholas, but also
wanted to eliminate her from the mansion and life itself.
She then remembered the cup of tea that Nicholas
always gave her before eating, the wonderful smell and
delightful taste it had, the more she thought about it the
more her head became heavier and she wanted to vomit. She
also remembered Nicholas mentioning that he was given a
suggestion to serve this tea to her and it was Charles'
favourite tea which had almost every day.
Tanyah stood up from the chair to get her phone and
that's when she realized how seriously unwell she was
feeling. It felt like her whole body was carrying a heavy
weight and everything was dragging her down. By the time
she reached her phone she was crawling and holding on to
head, which she thought would snap and fall off her neck.
"Louis, Louis… I think we have a problem."
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