"Stop!" Charles shouted. "I will never do something like that! I—Richard is my brother. I wouldn't hurt him the same way I wouldn't hurt my father."
"Hmm… but your father didn't seem to think so," Luo Yan said. "How old are you back then, 15, 16? You must be quite diabolical if you turned out to be the mastermind."
The other violently rapped on the desk with his fist. The impact immediately caused wounds on his knuckle. "Don't try to even suggest that I would dare do so! Richard is the only one who treated me like a real brother. If I were to off any of my siblings, then, I'd rather kill Edward."
Luo Yan raised one of his brows. That statement surely was controversial. Although it showed that he cared for Richard, it also showed how much he disliked his eldest brother. Add that to his reaction when he saw the burned corpse of his father and one could immediately see that he wasn't as careless as he appeared to be.
He loved his second brother and father. Luo Yan could see it from the anguished that crossed the other's face when Richard was mentioned. If his gut feeling was correct, then he could cross out Charles from the arson and murder that happened 20 years ago. Maybe even for the crime that happened today. Of course, that's under the premise that the corpse indeed belonged to William Harcourt.
For now, Luo Yan should focus first on the incident 20 years ago and take all the information he could from this guy.
"Sit down, Mr. Charles," he said. But the other only glared at him. "I said, sit down."
Charles looked reluctant to do so but he still plopped down on his seat.
"If you really are as innocent as you said you are, then help me understand what happened 20 years ago. Tell me all the details that you know." When the other didn't answer and just gazed down, tapping on the desk, Luo Yan added, "If not for me, then at least for the brother who cared for you."
He saw Charles flinched when he said that last part.
"Come on, Charles. I know you also suspected foul play. Don't you want to know the truth of what happened back then?" he goaded, trying to push the other to say more. "The truth whether Richard die of accident or if someone deliberately killed him."
Charles still stayed silent. When he thought that that would continue, the other suddenly spoke.
"I was at Eton when Catherine told me that Richard was back at Magnolia Manor. I hadn't seen him for almost four years. So, I quickly went back even though I still have classes left for that day. Richard, he, he was more like a father to me. Our father had always been busy making our family rich that he barely had any time for his children. Especially after Mother passed away.
"Being the youngest, I barely entered my father's sphere of attention. Edward, who was much, much older, gallivanting around, sowing seeds. Catherine was too focus on herself to even care about others, much less me. It was Richard, he was the only one who really cared.
"He taught me my letters, taught me etiquettes and manners. At the same time, he played all kinds of children's games with me. He was the reason my childhood was not as sad as it probably should have been. So, you can see why I was so attached to him. I also heard that he came back with his son. I was also very excited to meet the boy.
"Just as I got off the train station, the car that was supposed to fetch me took its sweet time to arrive. And then, on the way to the manor, the car broke down. By the time we returned to the manor, dinner had already passed. When I was about to enter the manor, the right wing of the house suddenly exploded.
"The explosion threw me off. The impact of the throw was so strong that it made me lose consciousness. When I woke up the next day, I was told that Richard and his son died from the explosion and that Father was heavily injured. That's how it happened. At least, my version of it."
As Luo Yan was listening to Charles' story, he made sure that he wouldn't miss any expression as the other was speaking. Although Charles was drunk, he clearly showed clarity when he was recounting his story. It's not that he became sober all of a sudden. It's more like he had been relieving that moment time and time again that's why he could easily recount it even when he was inebriated.
"Is that all that you remembered?" he asked.
Charles was silent for a second, as if he was considering whether to answer him. But at the end, he just shrugged and said, "I don't know if it's important, I'm not even sure if it happened or if it was just a fragment of my imagination."
"What is it?"
"As I was losing consciousness, I heard voices talking. One was saying that this was not what they planned. And the other just answered that what happened was for the better. After that, it was all blank."
Luo Yan frowned when he heard that but he still wrote it on his little notepad. "Did you recognize their voices?"
"That's the thing, detective. The voices sounded like slow-motion slur in my ear. I don't even know if it belonged to a man or a woman."contemporary romance
Well, at least this confirmed one thing. That there was indeed foul play to the incident that happened 20 years ago. The voices that Charles heard might as well belonged to the culprit. Or in this case, 'culprits'.
done.co
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