Chapter 235 - Solving Mr Roger's Murder (10)

He was sulking, she could tell. Scarlet didn't know how to make it up to him and watched as he dusted for fingerprints after they found a red-tagged compact powder case that belonged to Miss Roger. He met up with her in the room with an unhappy face and didn't return Scarlet's greeting with enthusiasm. That fingerprint easily matched with the wine glass in the kitchen and the one from the safe to nobody's surprise.

The writer didn't know what to say to her sulking boyfriend. She could guess why he wasn't happy but there really wasn't a need for him to worry. She made it through safely, didn't she? Still, the writer searched Miss Roger's room slowly, thinking of a way to cheer him up.

Edward knew he was being childish as he worked. He wanted to scold Scarlet for taking off without him but held himself back. The one type of boyfriend that girls hated the most was an overly possessive one who didn't give them the freedom to be who they were and do what they wanted. Edward didn't want to become a detestable person and he didn't want to give Scarlet any reasons to be unhappy with him. Above everything else, he would rather be unhappy secretly with her recklessness than tell her about it and risk a breakup text. His heart wouldn't survive that.

As he was too consumed in his thoughts, Edward didn't see that Scarlet was slowly searching nearer and nearer to him until their elbows touched. The touch brought Edward back to reality and he turned, realising that Scarlet's face was too close to his. Scarlet who had been prepared to surprise him with a kiss of apology froze when Edward turned her way. The courage that she slowly mustered ran away, leaving her in an awkward position.

From the prison cell on the mattress, Alex cussed. "Dammit! Just kiss him already then spank him for being a sulky boy!"

Jasper blinked at the coarse language Alex used. The lady of the Wilde house was never brought up knowing the existence of such language. Who was the one who taught his girlfriend all the obscene words? His princess used to be so pure, innocent and naive. What happened in the years that they spent apart?! Jasper was shocked but he thought about Wilmer. If her father knew just how crass his baby girl had become, he would cry blood rivers.

Team A and Nook watched Scarlet and Edward act awkwardly after Scarlet's failed attempt at kissing her boyfriend from the CCTVs and were rooting for different things. Alex was placing bets on how long the couple would take to finally erase that awkward atmosphere. Edward looked confused and his earlier sulkiness was gone. On the other hand, Nook was praying that they wouldn't find the remaining evidence needed to conclude the innocence of the guest suspect. He told the actors specifically to leave out the link between the invitation and tea on purpose but this power couple was simply not leaving any stone unturned.

Scarlet wanted to die from embarrassment. What kind of seduction technique was that?! She couldn't even pull off a proper kiss to pacify her boyfriend, she was a terrible girlfriend! Then again, what she lacked the most was practice. Why was it so easy to do this in front of cameras and so hard to do this in a dark room with nobody else but Edward?

Scarlet pulled open the drawer and paused. That's not right. There were also cameras watching them here. In particular, Alex and Jasper were watching them. The second wave of embarrassment threatened to swallow her whole when Scarlet understood the consequences of her earlier bravado. The problem didn't lie with practice, it was with her partner. The fact that she wasn't acting made her very nervous. Then, a small voice at the back of her head reminded her that practising this with another person wasn't an option. Edward wouldn't allow it.

With a heavy sigh, Scarlet shelved the thought for now. The sooner they solved this murder mystery, the faster she could have a proper talk with him to clear the misunderstanding. She didn't leave the room recklessly, she had faith in her sister, Jasper and most importantly, him.

"Oh?" she blinked. At the back of the drawer was a tin can cold to the touch. Scarlet pulled it out. It was a strange place for a tin can to be found so Scarlet immediately investigated the contents.

The smell of fresh tea leaves exploded in the air when Scarlet pried the lid off. Edward stopped what he was doing and went around the table to where his girlfriend was. She pulled out the sample of tea dredges that she saved from earlier and Edward pulled the flashlight closer.

Scarlet poured some tea leaves onto the table and the contents of the tea dredge beside it, careful to not mix them.

"This is it," she whispered in excitement. Edward didn't understand why she was so excited but after taking a closer look, he realised why Scarlet was so thrilled.

The tea leaves from the tin were the original tea used in the teapot. The dredges contained something else other than tea leaves and while Edward didn't know what ingredients were present, the addition of something else made to look similar to the black tea leaves were reasons for him to suspect that the new tea mix was poisonous. This was the evidence that they needed.

"Take the whole tin, we can use this to prove the murder's method of killing Mr Roger."

Scarlet agreed and Edward went through the doc.u.ments in the daughter's room. The stash of letters, in particular, was something he scrutinised carefully for contents that could prove Miss Katherine's innocence.

They spent the next two minutes pouring through letters after letters. Scarlet was impressed by how many 'love letters' there were in the pile that matched with the story about Mr Roger finding a suitable candidate for his daughter's hand in marriage. Still, none of those letters could compare to the one she received from Edward. They didn't have an ounce of sincerity.

"Found it," Edward said and brought the flashlight closer to read the letter written by Miss Katherine.

"What did it say?"

The spy grinned. "That tin that you found was a gift by Miss Katherine to Miss Roger. It's meant to help with his inability to sleep at night. Also, she said that she accepted Miss Roger's invitation to the party in this letter because she missed the RSVP deadline being overseas. The letter doesn't have a tag but I think you should still add this to the case file and evidence. Let's look for Miss Roger's drafted reply just in case this isn't enough to prove her innocence."

Scarlet agreed and they quickly found that letter in the trash basket. The tag had fallen off but the couple was certain that this was what they needed. With nothing else proving useful in the room, Edward checked with the peeping toms if they were able to proceed.

Alex was sulking so Jasper took over and replied that they were safe to exit the room. Nook glanced at the time and groaned in dismay. Forty-five minutes in and they were already very close to the final step. Once they used the key they found in the kitchen to open that safe in the study, it would be all over.

Scarlet and Edward wasted no time and got to the study room quickly. Scarlet opened the safe and Edward held the flashlight. There were only two doc.u.ments in the large safe and Scarlet pulled everything out.

"What is it?" Edward asked.

Scarlet looked at it and blinked. "A will. An inheritance will for Mrs Roger and Miss Roger in case Mr Roger passed. The other doc.u.ment is an extension of the first will. It has the maid's name on it but there's something strange. It says that she can only gain a portion of the inheritance if she has a child who has the Roger blood. If she has no children of the Roger blood by the time Mr Roger passes, this portion of the will was void. Also, it wasn't signed by Mr Roger. It was signed by Mrs Roger and Miss Roger. What does this mean?"

Edward read through the lengthy terms and nodded. It wasn't uncommon for the lady of the house to 'take care' of a mistress that their husband doted on while he was alive especially if there was an illegitimate child in a noble house. However, something made the situation odd. Mr Roger was murdered by the maid and nothing was said about her having the illegitimate child. What would she benefit from trying to kill Miss Roger as well after killing Mr Roger? Unless...

"I know now..." he smiled. "Her motive of the murder isn't as simple as we were led to believe. In order for her plan to succeed, the head of the family and the heir of the family has to go. That's why both Mr Roger and Miss Roger had to die."

Edward whispered the rest to Scarlet and the writer snapped her fingers in enlightenment. Once they agreed on the story, they called for Nook to end the scene and pause the timer.

Nook looked at the timer. Fifty minutes. With a resigned sigh, he paused the timer and told the actors to bring Team B back to the office to tell him their answer.