Chapter 87
Rose’s “eavesdropping” ability had helped me a lot. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have found out that Christis was poisoned to death by the face mask.
When she asked Champion to tell me this information, I realized that I had wronged my wolf earlier. Rose could speak to him. She probably just haven’t found the time to tell me.
Since Christie was an orphan, I had Simon and the servants start cleaning her things in the hopes of finding more clues. I had the ranked members wait elsewhere to help identify if any of the items belonged to them.
We finally found something – Jane’s uncut dress and a bracelet in Christie’s bedroom. When we showed them to Jane, she claimed them in surprise. Since she had so many things, she didn’t even notice they were gone. And we found receipts from two pawnshops – Christie had pawned off an emerald ring more than a month ago.
I immediately sent someone to the pawnshop in the city, and sure enough, the ring that Christie pawned off belonged to my mother. Unlike Jane, my mother knew that the ring was missing and had tried to find it but she thought she was too old to remember where she had put it so she thought that she had lost it. It was worth nearly $3,000, but Christie had only earned $400 from it.
I asked Simon to round up a few of the maids with whom Christie was friendly for Patrick to question them. More than one of the maids said that Christie had bragged to them about her free access to our rooms as the maid of the ranked members, allowing her a first-hand advantage in acquiring things no other servant would ever had access to. According to them, Christie had always been unhappy with her background and wondered why others could enjoy something so good while she was always just a maid.
Hearing this made me a little angry because it was obvious that they knew Christie was stealing from the ranked members but no one reported her. Clearly, there was a serious problem with the castle’s logistics.
I ordered Simon to gather all the servants to meet me in the clearing behind the castle in ten minutes.
Three minutes later, all the castle staff were already present.
I had someone dump all of the things we found in Christie’s place in front of them. They were the items she had stolen from us. The ranked members were present too – Rose and Patrick stood on either side of me.
“Burn them,” said I to Patrick.
“Edward?” Rose tugged at my sleeve as if I might be going a little too far.
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“I said burn them.”
Patrick picked up the gasoline and poured it over the items, then lit a match and threw it in. The flames immediately engulfed the pile of things.
“These items were stolen from the rooms of the ranked members. Moreover, it has come to our attention that some of you knew what she had been up to but didn’t bother reporting it. Perhaps I haven’t been treating you well enough. Or perhaps I have been treating you a little too well.”
I spoke with my Alpha voice, making the servants anxious. They didn’t even dare to breathe loudly. “I may feel sorry for Christie’s death, but that doesn’t mean I condone her bad behavior. In fact, Christie died because she stole Rose’s mask which had been poisoned. I will find out who did it and return the favor. If anyone dares to touch Luna Rose or any other rank member, his end will only be worse than this pile of items.”
I looked at Simon as I finished speaking and he started to look a little depressed. My words must have scared him. He had once taken a knife for my father in a small-scale inter-pack conflict, and I was very impressed and grateful to him for that. But as the castle’s promoted Head of Logistics, he didn’t seem to be managing them very well. Otherwise, none of this would have happened.
I knew that my words today were a little too harsh, but I had no choice. Although I did not truly think that the servants in the castle would dare to poison Luna, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take advantage of their propensity to gossip and spread the word of my threats.
After reprimanding the servants, Rose and I returned to our room. “Do you remember when Sarah tried to drug you but swallowing her own bitter fruit back at New Moon Pack? You told me that it was quite a strong aphrodisiac.” “Yes, I think so. Do you think Sarah is involved in this?”
“I don’t know. Even if it was her, how could she have entered my room?”
“Maybe there’s a mole in the pack. I’ll strengthen the security and the management of the pack.”
Following that, I immediately gave my orders: every member or visitor of the pack must register themselves upon entry and exit of our territory, especially the castle. In addition, the public areas on the first and second floors of the castle were now closed off with limited access.
We were getting pretty close to solving the mystery, but none of us could figure out why Christie had written Rose’s name before she died. Did she already know that there was something wrong with the mask she stole?