Episode 139
Mr. Turner, his face gone white, stared at the man who had been threatening him only moments ago now lying face-first on the ground, his limbs trembling. Far from any plea for mercy, even his agonized screams were swallowed whole by the filthy dust on the floor of the abandoned warehouse.
Robert, even then, refused to give up and twisted his limbs in an attempt to struggle. But when Isaac raised one knee, planted it on his back, and put his heavy weight into it, he soon went still. Instead, he merely clawed at the floor with his fingernails.
It was blatant violence that felt oppressive just to watch. Even though he himself might have suffered the same fate at the hands of that writhing man, Mr. Turner could not help frowning at the scene before him, feeling open fear and revulsion.
“……Are you going to kill him?”
At last, Mr. Turner gathered his courage and asked. He could see blood pooling and seeping out near Robert’s ear where his head had been driven into the floor. It seemed likely that some part of his face—perhaps his nose, the most protruding feature—had been crushed.
Only then did the man raise his head and look straight at him. His blue eyes still gleamed. They were eyes long accustomed—no, numbed—to violence and killing with justification.
“I’m only taking the fight out of him. I’ll take him alive.”
“……If you keep going, I think he’ll die.”
“He won’t.”
Despite his fear, when Mr. Turner replied with concern tinged with curiosity, the man’s answer came back firm. Mr. Turner watched as the man took a round cord from inside his coat and bound Robert’s arms.
Only then did Robert seem able to breathe a little easier. Blood streaming from his shattered nose, Robert groaned, then, with one cheek miserably pressed against the filthy floor, barely managed to look up at the man and smile. Yes. He was grinning. To Mr. Turner, it was a bizarre sight beyond comprehension.
“……Do the two of you, by any chance, know each other……?”
He had just begun to ask as he fumbled to pick up his broken glasses.
Isaac had been mercilessly binding Robert’s arms when he suddenly paused, as though realizing something. Then he looked down at Robert with an expressionless face.
“……Ah. I finally remember who you are.”
He said that he had only just recalled Robert. Isaac, who had not remembered him even at Sasha’s birthday party, their first meeting in ages; Isaac, who had remembered him only as one of the administrative soldiers he had glimpsed a few times, said he remembered him now.
Robert stopped smiling.
“The bastard who kept going on about himself when I couldn’t have cared less. That’s you.”
The man before him was still the same insufferable bastard Robert had met back then. The bastard who had not only rejected his goodwill but humiliated him for it. Robert now glared at Isaac. Even in the humiliating position of having both arms bound, his eyes reddened with anger as he stared up at him.
Isaac, indifferent, pressed his foot down on Robert’s back with even more force than before in order to finish tying his feet. Robert’s face slammed back into the floor.
Pathetic bastard. Only now did Isaac understand why Robert’s attitude on the day of the party had seemed so strangely hostile toward him, even provocative. But he felt no particular emotion about it. It was hardly the first time someone had admired him one-sidedly like this and then gone off the rails on their own. Robert was merely one of the countless miserable types Isaac had encountered before.
Just as he had been then, Isaac was not curious about Robert. He had no interest in him either.
“I’m Pinscher.”
After firmly gagging Robert’s mouth as well and hoisting him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Isaac looked at Mr. Turner and spoke. Mr. Turner was still sitting in the chair, trying to at least hook the frame of his completely shattered glasses behind both ears.
“……Turner. I am Miss Sasha’s…….”
“Yes. Her lawyer. I’ve heard a great deal about you.”
He thought the introduction unnecessary. Isaac then asked Mr. Turner, “Can you walk?” When he set both feet on the ground, his knees trembled a little. He could not tell whether it was because he had just witnessed a rather bewildering sight up close, or because he had been starving for two full days.
In any case, Mr. Turner slowly followed Isaac out of the warehouse. Not a single one of the remaining men, who must have been stationed throughout the warehouse and every corner of the alley in preparation for any attempted escape, was in sight.
“My wife’s first trial is at two this afternoon.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
“The Grayson ducal family has accused my wife. They say they intend to charge her with identity fraud and with obtaining a marriage license under a false identity.”
It was dawn, before the sun had fully risen. Isaac and the lawyer passed the men collapsed near the entrance and slipped into another alley.
“You don’t need to worry about those. Others will deal with them.”
Still showing only his broad back, Isaac spoke as he walked ahead.
Mr. Turner did not dare ask who those “others” were. It was partly because he knew perfectly well that he would not receive an answer even if he asked, but also because instinct told him that simply knowing would entangle him with that side as well.
“I know she has been accused. That is why I thought I should go to her all the more quickly and stepped outside……. I did not expect to be caught so immediately.”
“Are you saying you were in hiding?”
The man walking ahead came to an abrupt stop and turned back toward the lawyer as he asked. His manner was not particularly threatening, but even through his blurred vision, Mr. Turner could make out the man’s hardened expression. Mr. Turner sighed.
“……Yes. Someone signaled me in advance. He told me the ducal family’s movements were suspicious, so I should not go to work and should hide. Without telling me any specific reason.”
“……Who?”
The man took a step closer to the lawyer and asked.
The man was already Sasha’s husband. And though he knew Sasha’s secret, he had come to rescue him, Sasha’s lawyer.
Just as Mr. Turner finally finished making his judgment and was about to answer honestly, Isaac muttered as though confirming it, as if there was no need for him to respond.
“It was that servant called Theodore. Am I right?”
“Miss Sasha told you, did she not?”
Isaac nodded in affirmation.
“It seems that servant knows more than I expected. How much do you know?”
“What specifically do you mean?”
“Why the ducal family is so desperate to devour my wife. And whether the reason has something to do with that woman, the real Sasha Grayson.”
A brief silence fell. When the hushed conversation between the two men ceased, the alley sank into a suffocating silence along with the darkness. The alley, long abandoned by human footfall, felt eerie, as though the place itself had died.
“As you suspect, Mr. Pinscher, I think Mr. Theodore would be able to answer that more plainly. I only managed the Dowager Duchess’s inheritance and the foundation. Miss Sasha was in charge of managing the mansion, and Mr. Theodore…….”
Isaac waited with a patient expression for Mr. Turner to speak again.
“He was probably looking after the real granddaughter. That is to say, as I managed the foundation, I inevitably came to see the ledgers through which money passed. Among the records of donations going to countless orphanages and schools, I saw a certain name. I also saw that, over several years, no small amount of money had been sent regularly under that unfamiliar name. Of course, I did not ask the Dowager Duchess anything about it.”
“…….”
“Please remember that this is only speculation.”
“Understood.”
Isaac led Mr. Turner into an even narrower alley. Since his vision was blurred and he was stumbling, this was actually fortunate for Mr. Turner. Without hesitation, Mr. Turner put one hand against the strangely musty-smelling wall for support and continued walking.
“At any rate, the first trial is far too soon.”
“I think they intend to dispose of my wife through a summary judgment. That is why I insisted that finding you came first. ……It is not that I do not trust them, but I want to get my wife out of the courtroom a little faster.”
“……Came first? Then aside from rescuing me, what are you trying to…….”
“I cannot tell you. You do have a sure way to save my wife, don’t you, Counselor?”
A hazy light appeared at the end of the alley. In the darkness, where even the ceiling was blocked off by the roofs of buildings, it was a welcome thread of light.
Mr. Turner answered the man’s back as he walked ahead.
“……Of course. There is something the Dowager Duchess had considered from long ago. If we use it, Miss Sasha can avoid punishment.”
Only after hearing Mr. Turner’s confident answer did Isaac murmur, as if satisfied, “……I see.”
Before they knew it, they had emerged from the narrow alley and come out into the middle of a road. It was still an abandoned street with no people in sight, but at least it was brighter than before.
And an unfamiliar man was waiting for them.
“Follow this man to my wife at once.”
Isaac turned to Mr. Turner and said. Because it was brighter than before, his ominous blue eyes were even easier to see. And so was the way Isaac was carrying a man over his shoulder as if it were nothing at all.
“……Wait a moment. Before that……. There is something I must take with me. Just in case, I moved all the documents from my office elsewhere. We need to stop by the foundation.”
“I will go with you there as well.”
When Mr. Turner spoke as though muttering, the unidentified man nodded and answered.
The man had an ordinary face and ordinary clothes, yet somehow gave off a strange air. Without ever imagining that he was an agent from some secret organization, Mr. Turner looked at Isaac, and when Isaac nodded, he moved toward the man.
“So I am to put out the urgent fire first. Understood.”
＊＊＊
Thud.
The one who appeared as the courtroom door opened was, at a glance, a very insignificant-looking bailiff. The magistrate frowned at his sudden appearance, but when the man soon approached and began whispering something into his ear, he closed his mouth with a sour, stiff expression.
Sir Bradshaw, looking uncomfortable in every possible way, stared straight at Sasha.
Then he opened his mouth.
“The court will be in recess for a moment.”