Chapter 9: Heir Raising Truths

It was a servant who discovered the body. A sheet lay over Dalbert’s rotund corpse, Kyat was wailing and sobbing next to the body. The room was packed with horrified shewpogs and servants. Oranna was surprised that Dalbert was dead, but Tough Snaps had quickly gotten over his surprise.

“I felt bad for them, but I was also annoyed, the scene had been messed with, and all the servants and shewpogs tracking through was also a problem, Golds was calm, too calm. Truthfully I was annoyed with myself, I could have guessed it was a possibility, then I could have guarded him, or gotten Golds to do it.” Tough Snaps muttered.

“Get out, all of you. All of you. Serelotte, take Kyat away, Mr Snaps and I need to examine the body”

“D-dear…” Serelotte hesitated.

“Don’t touch him you brutes!” Kyat yelled, clutching at the sheet over the dead shewpog.

“Hey, has anyone seen Golbassy? Where is she?” Gilgamush said, looking around the assembled shewpogs.

“Now” Gildenstan ordered, almost whispering.

Oranna helped Serelotte drag the distressed Kyat away, the shewpogs and servants followed shortly after.

Gildenstan touched a finger to a ring with a dish-like signet on it.

“My loyal gargoyles, I am sorry to disturb you this morning, but I must request that you let nobody enter or leave the mansion unless I give orders to the contrary, there has been a murder”

He took his finger off the ring as he finished and looked solemnly at what had once been his brother-in-law.

“I never liked him Mr Snaps, he was a fool and a nasty small minded one at that, but I wouldn’t have wished this on him, he needed some sense, not death” Gildenstan said plainly.

“I didn’t know what to say, or even if saying anything would do any good, all I knew was that we had to look at that body” Tough Snaps replied.

Gildenstan nodded and pulled the sheet off in one quick motion. For a moment there was a grimace was on his face, but it quickly passed and he seemed cool and composed again.

“It seems his head was beaten in, that either required a lot of strength or something quite heavy” he said.

Tough Snaps examined the wound himself.

“I had picked up a bit of knowledge from my time as an adventurer and the few other murder cases I had been involved with, but… there was something bothering me about the wound”

Gildenstan looked closer then nodded.

“There is definitely something odd about it, ah well apart from anything else look there, doesn’t like look like the end of a book?”

“Something about the possibility of the murder weapon being a book didn’t sit well with Golds, but, I had my misgivings too.”

Tough Snaps took out his bag of powdered steele and began sprinkling the luminous green dust all around the room.

“What are you doing… ah, ingenious, I had never thought of applying sorcerer’s steel that way” Gildenstan praised.

“Well, it was faint and hard to make out from everything else that was bleeding off stuff, but there was a faint trail from Dalbert’s body to that sword I saw the other evening” Tough Snaps said.

“I suppose this makes it a bit more likely that this wasn’t a well thought out murder, I’m quite displeased to have had my old blade used like that, help me turn over his body, Mr Snaps, we must confirm that Grupal was used to murder him”

They rolled him over and sure enough there was a deep stab wound, unlike the head wound, this seemed completely regular.

“It seemed that our murderer or murderess wasn’t that smart, or at least was quite panicked. This was a really shabby frame up.”

Gildenstan was frowning.

“Follow me Mr. Snaps” He said, then he dashed off.

Tough Snaps followed him through the mansion until Gildenstan stopped inside a room.

“I would have thought the room was a library, it was a bit too lived in, there being a bed and a wardrobe and all. The bloody book on the bed was in bad taste though, but that made me think” Tough Snaps commented.

Snaps picked up the book before Gildenstan could do anything.

“I thought I’d find out something, and I did, the blood on the book was smeared by more than just hands, I looked over the bookshelves and sure enough there was a few missing spaces, one had traces of blood though. This had to be Golbassy’s room and unless she was really gutsy and had framed herself to cover her murder, she was being framed, the issue is why?”

A buzzing sound came from Gildenstan’s dish signet ring, he put a finger on it. Moments later he took his finger off and spoke.

“One of my sons, Gordon, has escaped past the gargoyles, Golbassy is missing, and for some reason he must have gone after her” he told Tough Snaps, then he sat on the bed.

Tough Snaps paced back and forth.

“My first instinct was that it wasn’t him or her, but I had a bit issue. What was the motive for doing this to Golbassy, the lowest on the inheritance ladder, was it just a panicked attempt to put the blame of the murder on her to take suspicion off the murderer?”

Gildenstan sighed. “I can help you there. I must tell you something that only I and a select few trusted servants should know. Gilgamush is not my heir. I have been secretly unknown to both her and her siblings and even her own mother, grooming her for taking my place as head of the Dynasty.”

“Golds thought someone discovered this, and the theft was an attempt to discredit her, then Dalbert remembered something and the framer confronted him, and things ended badly. Framer became murderer and panicked, but then decided this was another good chance to incriminate Golbassy.”

“That sounds right to me, but the problem I have is that it was fine enough if Golbassy had fled the mansion, she’d have possibly been safer out there than with whoever it is that found out she’s my heir, but I have no idea what Gordon thinks she has done, or what he intends to do to her.”

“I told Golds not to worry, I had a plan, both to keep Golbassy safe and find the murderer”