Chapter 30 Case File 1: Botanical Garden Mystery (12)
The servants had heated up a lot of hot water that afternoon, but Peramin herself hadn't used it all, leaving a bucket of hot water warm on the stove. So she used that bucket of hot water to bathe Holland without bothering the servants to prepare more.
As usual, she took Holland back to the balcony of his second-floor room and served him the dinner she had prepared separately: a smoked chicken sandwich.
The child didn't eat much at night, so after digesting his food, he went to bed at 8 o'clock. Peramin joined the others for dinner at 7:15, and checked on Holland at 8 and 9 o'clock. She claimed that the child was sleeping well in bed and she had no idea when Holland went to the botanical garden.
Peramine went back to her room to sleep after ten o'clock and did not get up until six in the morning. She was used to taking a walk to the flower beds in the botanical garden after washing up and picking some flowers to decorate the house, but she found Holland's body.
"So, after lunch, no one saw Holland again except Peramine?" Andre asked.
All the servants shook their heads. Whipson looked hesitant, Pertmin looked indifferent, but they also answered, "No."
Peramin's face turned pale and blue. Jiangyou sniffed her scent and smacked his lips: "Mapo tofu!"
Andre: "..." Huh? What's that bitch? What's this little bone talking about?!
He turned to the couple and Peramin and asked, "Don't any of you have a true alibi? Can anyone prove that you actually slept in your room all night?"
The three of them nodded hesitantly, all of them emitting a complex mix of aromas, like a pot of leftover Sichuan spicy hot pot that had gone bad after being forgotten to throw away...
"I've never seen such a disorganized family," Jiang You muttered softly. "They don't care about each other, they don't pay attention to each other, they're full of lies, and they even hate each other... They're like strangers living under the same roof... No, some people would even believe they're enemies."
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard Holly at her feet sobbing, like a little pangolin that had been kicked.
Jiang You: "...hiss! Don't cry, I didn't mean it!"
Andre couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"Now there's a bigger problem: the servants claim they didn't receive Holly's message, and you claim you never left the room... So, who took the magic vessel to the greenhouse?"
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"This is my grandfather's invention," Whipson said. "It's a large house, too big for the Haff people. It's not easy to summon servants to work in time, so this [Magic Microphone] was invented."
Everyone was currently gathered around a magical device in the mansion's lobby. To Takumi Yuu, it looked like a combination of a servant's summons bell and a phonograph... well, in terms of functionality, it was more like an answering machine.
"When our masters need us to do something and don't know where we are, they use this magical microphone. There are several of these devices, scattered throughout the mansion and the botanical garden greenhouses."
The butler pressed the bell and said to the large brass speaker of the phonograph: "Ella, pour me a cup of tea."
He released his hand from the bell, and all the other microphones except this one rang. From the hall, Takumi could hear the tinkling music coming from the one in the servants' quarters.
"That's quite loud," Jiang You commented. "Isn't it too noisy at night?"
"On quiet nights, in order not to disturb the masters' rest, these microphones will automatically switch to 'Quiet Night Mode'." The butler fiddled with it, and the machine stopped clanging and began to emit a dazzling red light, which hurt people's eyes.
"This kind of flash is enough to wake up even sleeping servants. All the magic microphones are located in a magic circle. As long as someone presses the button to answer the call on one machine, the ringing or flashing of all the machines will stop."
They reached the servants' quarters. The butler nodded to Ella, who was inside, and she rang the bell. Sure enough, the flashing stopped, and the butler's voice echoed through the microphone: "Ella, pour me a cup of tea."
"It's so convenient!" Jiang You exclaimed.
"At half past nine last night, all the servants went back to their rooms to rest. Did anyone see the flash?" Andre asked.
"No." The servants shook their heads.
The housekeeper recalled carefully, "I remember that day being particularly tiring. Everyone went to bed early and soundly... This wasn't surprising, after all, we had been busy all day."
"Or perhaps someone drugged you," interrupted the Winchester clerk. "Did you eat or drink anything that night?"
The servants hesitated visibly. The air was filled with the salty and numbing aroma of Sichuan peppercorn duck. Jiangyou smacked his lips and whispered in Andre's ear, "They're hiding something."
"It's nothing important." The maid, Ella, glanced at the butler, then at her mistress. "That evening at nine o'clock, I brought my mistress a bowl of stewed pear soup as usual. My mistress said it was too sweet and gave her a headache, so she asked me to take it away and throw it away without even taking a sip.
"I...I...I couldn't bear to eat it, so I took it to the servants' quarters and shared it with everyone else."
"Let me confirm that all the dishes for the day have been washed?" Andre asked hopelessly.
The servants all nodded and said at once, "But I slept so well that day!" "I couldn't even get up on time this morning." "That's right, I was still feeling dizzy this morning!"
"From these descriptions, it certainly seems like someone added some kind of sleeping potion to the pear soup..." Winchester's clerk concluded. "The prisoner wanted to put the lady to sleep, but she didn't drink the soup, and the servants did. As a result, they missed Holly's call."
"When the servants took a long time to respond to the microphone, the prisoner realized something was wrong. He/she was afraid that the harvest would be affected and people would notice the drugging, so he/she hurriedly pressed the call bell, answered Holly's message, and ran to the greenhouse to deliver the magic vessel... Of course, there is another possibility. Holland was determined to participate in the harvest of the nightshade, so he took the initiative to answer the message..." Andre added, turning to Holly: "Where are these spare magic vessels? Does anyone know?"
"The magic dish is in the basement." Holly rubbed his moist eyes and turned to lead the way. "This is not a secret. Everyone in the family knows it except Holland... Holland is not allowed to enter the basement. There are all kinds of magical items piled up in there, and children can easily get hurt."
There was a large brass lock on the basement door. Holly took out the key and said, "The basement is our warehouse. Only a few people have the key here... me, my second uncle, Peramin, and the housekeeper."
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