Auxil stood at the doorstep.
‘What does it mean Ascendant?’
‘It means that your doom awaits you, Sir Lullaby. You surely don’t want to get imprisoned for these charges.’ I eyed the photographs in his hands.
They showed him and Cooper. Cooper is the representative of the Sociologists Union. If Auxil Lullaby agreed with him, the only resort of the people would lie in the despised Cooper’s hands. He carried the responsibility of several hundred ballets. And with Cooper, if he agreed, there would come a much awaited doom.
‘What do you want?’
‘I want to know.’
‘What?’
‘Who the man was.’
‘Who?’
‘The spy you chose to have put at the lake prison.’
‘Oh.’ He smiled cruelly.
‘Don’t tell me you weren’t involved Sir Auxil. Peter Thomson was given to you by Cooper. Bailey saw it. Moore saw it. They saw you entrusting Thomson to him. And of course, he spies on Cooper for you. So you could blackmail him in the future, indeed.’
‘I don’t know him. It was something Peter did for Cooper. I was not involved.’
‘Oh don’t lie to me now. Of course you had to find Coopers allies. Know if yours and his weren’t axis to each other. Now, if you don’t tell me straight away…’
‘OK, OK. Don’t mistrust me. He is Christon Hunt. Schubert’s second brother. He wanted to kill the person who was involved in his brother’s death. So when he saw the photo of Candice, he agreed. But then he found out the body was there, the real culprit. So he hanged her body: to display the revenge out front. He doesn’t know that you killed her.’
‘Where can I find him?’
‘He is at the railway station. He is leaving town. If you catch him now, you may be able to exert your revenge. But then Cooper is also going with him.’
‘What!?’
‘Yes Ascendant, you heard me right. He is going with him. He has left his territory to me. Your rosewood Estate. It belongs to me now. That is, when he signs the papers he carries in his bag.’
‘How do I trust you?’
‘The simple answer: you cannot. But do you think I would lie to a person who holds a photograph, that could make me lose my job, my position, my power, my prowess, my potential property, the end of my life? Do you, Ascendant?’
I stayed silent.
‘You may go.’
‘Un, un. The photographs. I told you the truth. Give me the photographs at once.’
I tore it in half.
‘It belongs to no one. For it is a secret.’
He left from the very door he was standing next to.
Bharathy, who was sitting at the piano playing a scale, stood up and smiled.
‘Where do we go now, Ace?’
‘Not us. You will go to the railway station. Put cyanide, or arsenic down their throats. Any way, any how. I will follow Auxil. I know, he is lying, maybe just a little.’
‘But before that, you will tell me something.’
‘What?’
‘Why did you ask me to find Peter Thomson when you already knew that Auxil was his master.’
‘I just wanted to check.’
I take a step ahead, ‘Listen…’
‘What is it, Bharathy?’
‘Why was Christon Hunt in your family portrait?’
‘Because he is family.’
‘The brother you wanted to kill.’
‘They carried his funeral, you know. But just in my dreams. And Priscilla hates me for not being him.’
‘So you are related to Schubert?’
‘Christon was our step-brother.’
