Chapter 9: Chapter 9 revelations

James Lamb wasn’t working that day, instead, he was tending to his garden at home. The flowers were arranged to create intricate patterns in the yard. Whoever made them must have been a very artistic person. 

Collins and Elliot arrived through the front gate, yet the owner of the house did not give them a single glance. He was crouched down next to the flowers, turning over leaves to inspect them. 

Collins called out to him, ”Mr. James Lamb? I’m Detective Collins, here to ask about-”

”Sherry, you wanna know about Sherry, I know” James interrupted. He sounded angrier than Collins would have expected. The man stood up from the ground and turned to scowl at his visitors. His gaze wandered from the detective to the wolf-eared man behind him in disdain. 

”What the fuck is he doing here?”, he asked through his teeth. He pointed at Elliot with a shaky hand. 

Collins felt a bit perplexed but answered him nonetheless, ”He is helping me with the investigation”

”Hah, helping?”, James laughed, ”Probably trying to sabotage you!”

To be fair that had been something Collins had considered before as well. He glanced at Elliot who was only smiling as though he hadn’t just been shouted at. 

”And why do you say that?” Collins asked, playing along with the angry man. 

James spat on the ground before he pushed his words out in a simmering rage, ”He’s a Hemmingway! They're all in on it! Stupid wolves and their money and power! Manipulating people to worship them!”

”I have done none of those things though”, Elliot casually shrugged his shoulders, yet he didn't deny that the rest of his family had indeed done those things before. 

”Oh?” James took a step closer, ”You’re the biggest manipulator of them all! I know why all those men flock to you at the bar, poor Barry has probably had the worst of it!”

Elliot looked annoyed at the comment but only shrugged his shoulders again. This only made James look more angry. 

Collins had to step in before things derailed any further, ”Mr. Lamb, this is getting out of topic. If you’d like, my associate can wait outside while we speak alone, would that be alright?”

”…fine”, James muttered, ”He better not touch Sherry’s flowers or I’ll cut off his fingers”

”He won’t”, Collins assured him before gesturing for him to go inside. 

”I won’t”, Elliot called out from behind him and began strolling around, his hands behind his back. 

Collins was sure that as soon as they got inside Elliot would sneak close enough to eavesdrop. That would save Collins the time of telling him about it later. 

James led Collins inside the house, lighting an oil lamp above the dining room table along the way. Collins sat down, he took out his notebook in preparation,

”Sir, could you tell me-”

”Oh I can tell you alright!” James interrupted him again. He pulled a chair for himself and sat down with a rattle. 

It was apparent that this man had some issues controlling his anger. At least he was sitting down and not throwing furniture. 

”Oh?” Collins inquired, curious to hear what this man had to say. 

And what James said somehow didn't come as a surprise to Collins at all.

”It was that damn son of a bastard piece of shit Elijah who killed my wife!”

This was what Collins had expected to hear. Since there was relationship drama involved, hearing this man accusing his wife’s previous lover of her murder was a given. 

   But just because it was expected didn't mean it held any real ground before further investigation. 

”And how would you know that?” Collins asked calmly. He could see the rage in James’ eyes begin to boil over. 

James slammed his fist against the wooden dining table, causing the vase of flowers on top of it to almost tip over. ”He was after her from the beginning! They were gonna get married but then that snobby asshole Isaac decided Sherry wasn’t good enough for him! And guess what? Elijah then decided that if he wasn’t gonna get Sherry, then no one could!”

Interesting theory. But a theory wasn’t enough. 

”Do you have proof?”

”I don't need proof to know!” James snarled, ”I know! Do you know why? It’s because whenever we would walk outside together and Elijah would pass us by, he would leer at my wife and stare at her all lovestruck like a fool! He would show up in the shop from time to time like a goddamn stalker! I had to tell him to back off when I saw him lurking in the backyard one night. Ran off with his tail between his legs, literally. That can only mean a guilty conscience!”

”I see…” Collins wrote down a few things in his notebook in thought. 

”And that’s not all!” James added quickly as he stood up, ”he even dared to send me a letter after killing her, telling me -I’m sorry it had to end this way- as if he hadn’t been the one to take her away from me!”

”Sir-” Collins tried to stop him from yelling so many words at once. It didn’t work. 

”That fucking bastard! That son of a bitch! His father, covering up his crimes so I can't do anything but watch from the sidelines as he gets away with it!” 

”Mr. Lamb!” Collins shouted loud enough to finally get the angry man to stop for a moment. James looked at the detective with wide eyes before muttering an apology and sitting back down. 

Collins rubbed his temples. 

”I will assure you that I will do everything in my power to make sure that the one responsible for your wife’s death is brought to justice”

”…”

”But I cannot do that without evidence.” Collins tapped the table with the end of his pen to emphasize his words.

   James watched the movement with furrowed brows. He nodded.

At least the man had calmed down a bit. Collins took a deep breath and spoke reassuringly, ”Now, if you could, I’d like to know everything that you can think of that could be useful”

James seemed to think very hard but eventually shook his head, ”I….well uh….I don’t….”

Collins thought back to what James had yelled before and paused, ”Wait, did you say Elijah sent you a letter?”

”Yes?” James looked extremely confused.

”Can I see it?” Collins watched as James went from confused to embarrassed in seconds. 

”I ripped it apart in anger, but it might still be in my trash”

Collins tried his hardest not to let out the longest sigh of his life. Instead, he nodded and the two got up to go and dig through the trash. 

Thankfully James was a very clean person and there weren’t many things in the can other than paper. There was a fair amount of shredded paper though. It seemed ripping up letters and documents was a pastime for this man. 

   It took an hour or so but they managed to dig through the pile of white and find the pieces of the letter James had been talking about. It wasn’t a long letter, so it wasn’t very difficult to piece it back together. 

Collins drew the letter into his notebook adding what was written as accurately as possible. He even tried to mimic the writing style the best he could. After he had finished he took a bag from his pocket and scooped up all of the pieces of the letter into it. 

James watched his process intrigued, ”So why did you want to see this? Is this evidence?”

Collins nodded and grabbed his chin as he began muttering mostly to himself, ”Elijah is in a state of shock and has been since the day Sherry was killed, according to Isaac Hemmingway anyway. He couldn't have written this letter…”

”Huh….” James looked at him dumbfounded and unsure of what to think of this. 

Collins saw his brain going faster than he could handle and patted the man on the shoulder. With a quick mention of possibly coming back in just a minute to inspect Sherry’s body, he left the house to go find Elliot.

   Sure enough, Elliot was crouching right under the dining room window, his ears perked up in interest. His ears flicked towards Collins as soon as he walked through the door. 

”Take a look at this, what do you think?”Collins handed his notebook to Elliot showing the scarily accurate description of the letter on the page. 

Elliot stared at the letter for a while, ”This wasn't written by my brother, his handwriting is a lot less clean.”

”Who would write it instead?” Collins thought out loud, taking back his notebook. 

”I think that what the letter says is more interesting though,” Elliot said, his tail swishing gently behind him.

The letter was short and neatly written:

”I’m sorry it had to end this way. I was a fool to think we could be friends. Don’t come to see me. I won’t show my face to you either. Forgive me.

• Elijah ”

”I don't think this letter was meant for James”, Elliot said suddenly, ”there’s no date on it, it could have been sent before Sherry died…”

”You think this letter was intended for Sherry?” 

Collins was surprised he hadn’t come to that conclusion himself. It seemed Elliot wasn’t as stupid as he appeared to be. At least in this one specific case. 

Elliot continued his observation, ”I’m very sure… and it wasn't Elijah who wrote it so I can only assume that this was a ploy by my father to make sure that they never saw each other again, Sherry and my brother I mean”

”But Sherry was married to James.” Collins felt he had something rather childish for some reason as if marriage meant anything other than just words on paper.

”She could have cheated,” Elliot said, confirming what Collins was thinking. 

Why did he feel like every second he spent with this wolf-man his brain cells kept flying away? 

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   He cleared his throat, ”So you're telling me that there's a possibility that Elijah and Sherry were still romantically involved?”

”I don't know, '' Elliot shrugged. He seemed nonchalant despite having just found a lot of new leads for this case. It took a lot for Collins to not let any anger seep through his demeanor. 

”Let's not speak of this to James until we know the full story,” he said and turned back to head inside the house again. 

”Sure thing, detective! I’ll just wait outside once again! Don’t worry about me all alone here, by myself!”

It wasn’t surprising to see Elliot act in such a dramatic way, he had been too obedient thus far after all. 

Collins sighed before letting the corner of his mouth rise just for a moment as he joked, ”Aren’t dogs supposed to guard outside?”

”I’m not a dog, I’m a wolf!” Elliot yelled but his words fell on deaf ears when Collins walked back into the house. 

Back inside Collins saw James sitting on the floor staring into nothingness. Did he accidentally break this man? 

”Mr. Lamb, the body”, Collins didn’t need to say anything more for James to understand. The man snapped out of it and gave the detective a very vulnerable look. Truly this man was all over the place. No one could blame him for it though, Collins couldn’t even imagine the pain of seeing your own wife be killed and burned in such a manner. The fact that James was still working, eating, and doing his daily chores was incredible. 

James got up from the floor eventually and swallowed around his throat nervously as he led Collins through the corridor into the back of the house. They entered a cooling room provided by a huge chunk of ice laid against a concrete floor. 

   Concrete was used a lot in the Blue city but it was rare to see it in this small town. James was a merchant after all and had to have a room for all the food that needed to be stored in cooler areas. Though, it appeared that the room was now empty of any such products and only a sole lonely coffin rested at the center, laid on a table. 

”I uh…”, James muttered ”The morgue didn’t have a cool place to keep the body, usually we bury the dead in a few days but because of the investigation…”

”She had to be kept above ground and you are the only one who has a room like this?” Collins asked, already understanding what James was going to say. 

James looked like he was about to cry ”Yes…”

”This must be very tough on you, you shouldn’t stay here when I look at the body” Collins wasn’t sure if James would have let him do his investigation alone, given how untrusting the man seemed. But James nodded his head quickly before turning away and closing the door behind him. 

It was strange, that what Dr. Gibbson had said, had been a bit different from the truth. It was as if she had tried to make it harder for Collins to examine the body. This meant that there was all the more reason to examine it. 

When he opened the coffin, despite already knowing what he was going to see, it still shook him to his core. The body was charred black and shriveled. It was laid out in a straight position showing that the fire had not been the one to kill her. If it had she’d had to be in a fetal position, the rigor mortise making it impossible to move the body’s position afterward. 

   Nothing of note could be seen by just a glance. It was hard to focus with the terrible smell all around but this wasn’t the first time Collins had looked at a body. He held a handkerchief over his mouth to breathe through it as he searched for any signs of injury other than the burn. There were a few uneven places across the stomach but it truly was hard to tell if they were just something that appeared naturally through the burning process. 

   What Collins noticed after a while though was that there were no autopsy marks anywhere on the body. He looked over again and saw just one part stitched shut. And that part was right above where the uterus should be. 

Fuck, Collins thought. 

At no point had any report or person mentioned a pregnancy. It had to have been covered up intentionally. It was highly likely that the fetus had been removed by someone. That someone being the one who lied about performing a proper autopsy.

But what would Dr. Gibbson gain from hiding this? 

No, it wasn’t Dr. Gibbson that had anything to gain from this, it was the Hemmingway family. Maybe Isaac had threatened Dr. Gibbson that day when the young girl Lisa had seen them arguing right after the murder.

This meant that the baby was most likely… not James. If anything this confirmed that Sherry and Elijah had been having an affair this whole time. 

But it still wasn’t all clear. Had Isaac killed Sherry? To make sure his son wouldn’t get caught up in a scandal? Or maybe Isaac had ordered the butler to kill sherry. That wasn’t unlikely either. Elijah? Could he have found out that Sherry was pregnant and killed her to avoid getting caught by James? That seemed a bit unlikely. They could have eloped before that became an option. Though nothing was still off the table. 

Collins wrote a long paragraph into his notebook in a haste, he watched the body over a few times more but nothing new could be found so he closed the casket and left the room. 

When he exited James jumped up from a chair he had been sitting and waiting on. ”Detective! Did you figure anything out?”

Collins knew it would be a very bad idea to let James know anything that he had just now discovered. 

”I found some new leads, I am still not certain of anything so I won’t share it with you yet,” he said vaguely.

”You won’t tell me?” anger began to flare once more in James’ eyes.

Collins sighed, ”The truth will come out eventually”

”I understand…”, James said, sounding defeated. But he didn’t stop there. Suddenly he began to grit his teeth once more as he spat his words out, ”It’s because of that damn Isaac Hemmingway isn’t it! He has something to do with it, doesn't he? You have to hide it from me because you don’t want me to go kill him, is that it?”

Collins wanted to go home. Why were people so hard to deal with? He made sure to sound as calm as possible when he spoke, ”I don’t want to put a civilian in harm's way by sharing information that could get them in trouble. Do you understand me?”

”SO HE DOES HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT!” James yelled then and grabbed Collins by his shoulders and began shaking him in a frenzy. 

Collins tried to shake him off, ”Mr. Lamb! I have told you already I will make sure the one behind this will be put behind bars! Do not get in the way of the investigation!”

”GAAAAAGGH! I AM SO ANGRY!”James exclaimed in his rage. 

”I CAN SEE THAT!” Collins shouted back at him. 

Finally James let go of the detective and began pacing back and forth, ”Fuck!” he muttered.

Collins fixed his jacket properly after it was shifted just now and calmed his demeanor, ”Mr. Lamb. You will not go anywhere near the Hemmingway’s do you understand me? Your interference could make me lose a lot of progress”

”Fucking fuck whatever” James said and waved his hand to dismiss Collins. 

”I mean it”, Collins said sternly but all he got back as a reply was more cursing and pushing him out the door. 

Outside, Elliot watched with a raised brow when Collins was kicked out, cursed at, and the door was shut behind him loudly. 

”It went well?” Elliot asked jokingly. 

”It did actually,” Collins shrugged.

Elliot raised his eyebrows, ”Oh?”

There were now a lot of new leads to follow. Collins decided to clear some of his questions before making his next move. He walked over to Elliot and leaned in a bit closer so he could speak in a lower tone. 

”Now, if your father wanted to threaten Dr. Gibbson how would he do it?” This was his first question. Quite straightforward but he didn’t have time to be subtle. It was critical to know if there was blackmail involved. 

But Elliot said, ”He wouldn't need to”

Collins looked at him, surprise barely visible on his face, ”What do you mean?”

”My father helped Dr.Gibbson build her own office, paid for her studies and even had her abusive father sent away. You saw that peg leg right? That leg was amputated after her father smashed it with a boulder” Elliot said such insane things in such a calm and nonchalant manner. ”So I think she would probably do anything for my father as repayment”, he added.

Collins couldn’t help but whisper, ”What the fuck is wrong with this town?”

Elliot could clearly hear it of course, and he chuckled in mild amusement, ”Did you think it was an idyllic tourist paradise? Everyone here pretends that things were perfect before Sherry died but behind the scenes there’s a lot of shitty things happening. I would know, I’m one of those shitty things” As he spoke his smile faded into an empty expression. 

”Won't you enlighten me?”Collins asked, wanting to know more of what he meant. Though he didn’t expect Elliot to tell him anything in a non-roundabout way. 

”I’m just saying that though it looks to the outside that no crime happens here ever, there’s actually a lot that people don't see or pretend not to. I mean drugs, smuggling, prostitution are all illegal and yet I’ve done- I mean I’ve seen all of those things happen here”

There was a pause at the slight slip up in Elliot’s speech. Collins didn’t just want to ignore it but knew that Elliot could choose to storm off if he asked the wrong question again. He decided to try anyway. 

”Why do you stay here then?” He asked carefully. 

The question seemed to surprise Elliot, ”I….I’m just here cause I’m supposed to be” His eyes darted to the side, clearly hiding something. 

”What do you mean?”Collins pressed. It probably wasn’t a good idea. 

Elliot laughed nervously,”Haha! Well the town is a trash dump and I’m a piece of trash. Is there not a place better suited to me than this?” 

Though this was not the truth Collins could tell he wasn’t completely lying either. He watched as Elliot’s ears folded down, and figured this meant he was uncomfortable with the subject. 

”You don't seem to have a very high opinion of yourself” Collins said, mostly thinking out loud. 

There was a moment of vulnerability in Elliot’s eyes but it disappeared as fast as it had appeared. ”I don't get a lot of compliments”, he joked. It wasn’t very funny.

Collins felt something squeeze in his chest. It was probably sympathy. ”You're not as bad as you think you are”, he said. He wasn’t sure why he was trying to comfort Elliot. This wasn’t the way he was trying to appear as a detective. The more he would lower his guard the worse he could end up failing in the end. 

Elliot stared at Collins for a moment, trying to read his intentions on his face. ”how would you know? We've only known each other for a few weeks”

He was right. They had only known each other for a short while. And it was never Collins’ plan to get closer than necessary to the people in this town. And yet, he found himself unable to shake the feeling that though Elliot was somehow a part of this mystery, he was more likely to be a victim than anything. He was interesting as a person, or as a werewolf. Not just because of the wolf part, but because when Collins learned new things about him it always took him by surprise. It was hard to read into Elliot. It was hard to guess what parts were true and what parts were a pretense, yet it didn't seem like he was deceitful either. 

   After thinking all of this Collins couldn't really put it into words. 

”intuition”, he only stated bluntly. It wasn’t wrong exactly. It was a very short and vague version of the truth. 

The next moment Elliot burst out laughing, ”Bwhahahaha! What does that even mean? I was right to tag along with you, you’re hilarious!” He laughed so hard he began to cough and calmed down only after Collins cleared his throat in embarrassment.

There was a moment where Collins thought he should tell Elliot about what he had found out during the examination of Sherry’s body, but he ended up saying nothing. Again, his intuition told him to wait and see. He would just need to come up with a plan to get some evidence, preferably from going back to Hemmingway manor. 

   Elliot would probably be reluctant to help him, which was unfortunate. It was his house so he could go in and look through things all he wanted. If Collins did the same he would end up trespassing and he was not going to break the law as a detective. 

If only there was a way to persuade Elliot to go snoop around his house…

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