"Eloise?"
Fredrick was speechless, he couldn't comprehend the current situation,
Before he could say something, Sebastian punched him right in the face.
Fredrick fell on the floor. Unconscious. Blood oozing out of his nose.
Eloise walked towards him, scanning him, "he's not dead right?"
"See if he's breathing," suggested Sebastian, they were both standing over his unconscious body.
"I'm not touching him," said Eloise with visible disgust on her face.
"Are you really disgusted, *he sat on his knees to check the breathing of Frederick* or you just don't want to leave your evidence behind?" *He checked his nerves* he stood up, "I'm pretty sure your DNA is all over here, not touching him wouldn't save you, *he winked at her* he's not dead though."
"Has anyone ever told you how annoying you are? She said with fake mean expressions. Tie him to the chair before he wakes up."
With his arms wide spread In a mocking way, "tie with what exactly?" He asked.
She took a rope out of her bag, "always carry a rope with you, you never know when it can come handy."
===========================
Fredrick was awake, but he was tied with his chair, with a piece of cloth in his mouth, his suppressed screaming was the only voice heard in that room, that and the slow clicking of his laptop that Eloise was invasing.
"Okay I give up," Sebastian who was still looking for something relevant in the room had finally spoken, "there's nothing here," he was visibly done, "now can we please torture him into giving us some answers, I can't put up with his mumbled screaming anymore, it's annoying," he said looking at Eloise.
"I'm almost done," she said without having a look at him, eyes still glued to the laptop.
"Did you find anything?" He asked.
"I didn't find anything that proves him guilty for being the killer, *she took a pause for minute* but i did find something that we can use to blackmail him."
"I like where this is going, continue please," he was amused.
She smiled then stood up and walked towards fredrick, placed the laptop on the table infront of him and said, "Do you remember when i told you, he was sent abroad, after the incident," eyes still on fredrick.
Sebastian noded.
"And you asked why'd he come back, well now we know the why," she turned completely towards sebastian and continued.
"Turns out Professor Fredrick McConhey was found harassing and stalking minors, in the former college he was teaching, so he was deported, and because his parents are so rich *she turned her disguted gaze from sebastian to fredrick* he was able to escape the consequences yet again, everything was pushed under the rug."
"So...he's not our guy?" he almost frowned.
"Nope, he's not."
"Now fredrick the thing is that I have taken the pictures of all the emails that your father's friends sent you regarding this issue, trying to save your ass, also the pictures of the conversations that you had with your father explaining him everything, admiting to the crime,"
she sat on the chair across from fredrick, placed both of her hands on the table and continued,
"Do you know what that means? I can post these online, i can share it with the dean of this college and with the students, the news will spread, you'll lose your job, respect and everything that you've bought from your daddy's money."
She sat back, relaxed crossed her arms.
"What? You think you can escape again? Startover? Now maybe in The Middle East? Or Africa?"
she stood up leaned on the table, towards him and said
"I'm not a college kid anymore, I'm a lawyer. A. Lawyer. With. Evidence. You have friends? I have connections. I will file a case so big against you that you won't even be able to leave the state."
Fredrick was quiet, almost like he was in shock, his eyes wide open with fear.
"Now sebastian here is going to remove the cloth from your mouth, you're not going to scream, or make nearly any voice, not even a mumble, we will untie you and leave and if you tell even a soul about today, i will out everything about you, and i will make sure that you're ruined," she said in a very subtle but established tone.
=========================
After untying Fredrick sebastian and Eloise left the college, they were now sitting in sebastian's car.
"Soo... It's not fredrick, what do we do now? Who's next?" Sebastian was holding the steering wheel, and was waiting for Elosie to give him a direction.
"I don't know," Eloise was looking out of the windshield, she seemed lost.
Sebastian noticed her condition and took out a notebook and pen from the lower dash storage.
"Let's start with your family, who do you think is the most fishy?" he was trying really hard to revive her mood.
"Nobody in my family is fishy enough to kill my father," she rolled her eyes.
Ignoring her response he continued.
"What about your aunt fiona? She seems creepy, *he made a face* too sweet"
She left out an unexpected giggle, she couldn't control herself after seeing his face.
"She is not creepy," she said emphasizing on 'not'.
Sebastian smiled, he was successful in his attempt to make her laugh.
"Who else is in her family?" getting back to the topic he asked.
"Umm... only Stefan, she never married."
"Where is stefan's father?"
"Well.. he's adopted," she was visibly uncomfortable talking about stefan and aunt fiona as possible suspects, her and her father had the closest relationship with them.
"Hmm.. interesting."
"There's nothing interesting about this, my father loved him, *she said emphasizing on loved* there's no way he's involved, he has no motive, he loved my father like his own, besides he doesn't even live here, he lives in New York," she was getting frustrated.
"If you remeber, your father 'smiled' while opening the door for the murderer, so obviously it's someone you all know, he was playing 'chess' with him, and was having 'wine' this makes it clearer that's it's not only someone he knew but also someone he was pretty close with,"
With straight and neutral tone he continued,
"So what I'm trying to say is that there's a high possibility that it's someone from the family, and it's someone close to you, besides there's no harm in just looking."
"I know.. *eloise took a moment and then said* we can go there and we'll try the oldest trick in the book."
"That being?" he questioned.
"I will sit and have cookies and roam around with fiona, i'll keep her occupied, i'll be a distraction, and you can enter from the back door and check what you want to check, stefan's not at home it'll make it easier and then we'll leave," she explained him the whole plan smoothly.
He nodded.
They both left for Aunt Fiona's house, on the way they also made a list of other family members that they thought they needed to check and decided they will look into them after today.
===============================
Sebastian was standing in Aunt Fiona's kitchen, he had entered from the back door, meanwhile in the background he could see Eloise smiling and very warmly greeting Fiona.
He scanned the house trying to decide from where to start, there was a room behind the staircase, he decided to check that out first.
Eloise had given a brief description of the house, he knew stefan's room was upstairs, along with the guest rooms, Aunt Fiona's room was right next to the drawing room which was a wall away from the living room, where Eloise and Fiona were sitting rightnow and he was standing right infront of the living room and on his left hand side was the staircase, right hand side the main door, and infront of him was Eloise who was dodging the eye contact from him.
Eloise had not mentioned about this room behind the staircase, so he decided to check that first, he walked there slowly, it was locked, he tried opening it he looked around for the key, there was nothing, he tried shaking the knob as if it will magically be unlocked, but the outcome remained the same.
He gave up on the door and decided to go upstairs to check stefan's room.
The room was neat and clean, he clooked around but couldn't find anything, there was a study table which had couple of notebooks, they were empty as well, not a single word in them, he left the room disappointed.
He was now in the kitchen again, he was indicating Eloise to take Aunt Fiona elsewhere so that he could go to the other side of the living room.
"Auntie, i think i need more coffee should we go and make some more?" asked Eloise politely.
"Sure honey, I also made cupcakes, you love them don't you?" she said in her usual sweet voice.
They both were carrying the trays and heading towards the kitchen, while having usual chit chat, Fiona was telling Eloise something about stefan.
Sebastian hid behind the staircase, and ran through it's backside to the living room then straight to the drawing room area, while Eloise and Aunt Fiona were busy in the kitchen.
He looked around the drawing room and study and there was nothing, he was almost frustrated, then he entered into Aunt Fiona's room, there was her laptop lying on her bed.
"It's open?" he whispered to himself.
He checked the emails, checked everything, there was still nothing, he was about to close the laptop when for some reason he opened google and started checking the search history,
"How to make gluten free pudding," he rolled his eyes.
"Why is my face getting wrinkly?"
"how to make indian food at home"
He kept scrolling down, until he stopped. There was a hotel which was searched thrice, 'Hotel Florence.'
"But this hotel is near my house?" He was unable to understand anything, he took the picture of the screen and decided to leave.
Eloise and Aunt Fiona were sitting with empty coffee cups and eaten cupcakes, although Eloise was still invested in the cupcakes, she saw sebastian, as this time she was facing the drawing room area, and she shoved the remaining cupcake in her mouth and got ready for her soft departure.
"Auntie, the cupcakes were amazing, i really missed your coffee, *she politely started getting up* i was really missing you too, and i cannot tell how much i enjoyed our time together, *she started walking towards the main door, Aunt Fiona smiling and following her* but now i have to leave, there are somethings in the office that need to be done *she was now wearing her coat* I promise i will visit again soon."
"Oh sweetie! I loved your company, I always do, and I would love for you to come again, I will make more cupcakes for you," said Aunt Fiona.
While they were saying their final goodbyes with hugs and kisses, Sebastian was leaving the house from the backdoor, from where he came from.
They were both now standing next to Sebastians car, Sebastian was panting.
"Oh God! You're totally overeacting, It wasn't even that far," said Eloise in a mocking tone.
"Well I didn't expect the restaurant down the block to be this far," he was pissed.
"So I'm wondering you found nothing," said Eloise arching her eyebrows.
"Almost nothing but then something," he replied with a smirk.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
He showed her the picture and said, "this was searched multiple times on your sweet Aunt Fiona's laptop."
"But this hotel is near our office, why would she search this? A hotel in the same city?" she was baffled.
"Exactly, she's in her house, why would she wanna go to the hotel? Unless it's not her," he said quirking a brow.
"Stefan," she said outloud.
=============================
They were both sitting in the lobby of the hotel.
"It's been an hour, he's not here, why don't we just ask someone?" said Eloise in an annoyed tone.
"You said yourself, the search history was around the date he came to give you your coat and told you he was leaving, then why is he still here? And if we ask someone there's a possibility he'll leave."
"We don't know for sure that he's here, i can just call him and ask him."
"Eloise.. are you out of your mind? I get it that he's family but you said yourself that we have to start from scratch and you wanted my help and this is me helping, so let me help."
"I am sorry, I just- It's just- It's stefan you know, he could never...." she couldn't even complete her sentence.
It was him, really him, in the hotel, she couldn't utter a word. Sebastian noticed and followed her eyes.
"That's Stefan?" He asked.
"That's Stefan." Gulping the uncomfortable truth, she replied, with agony in her eyes.