LAMIAE

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: SEARCH

In the evening Dagmara went down to the kitchen to eat something. As soon as Genevieve saw her granddaughter, she started preparing dinner, moving from the cupboard to the fridge, the fridge to the shelves, and after a while a pile of food appeared on the table.

At first, Dagmara took this feast as a prelude to the expected apology, but instead of simply saying, "Sorry, I've been busy with long-lost friends, completely forgetting about you," Genevieve preferred not to say anything at all. It was only when Dagmara began to eat her meal that her grandmother suddenly started talking, explaining her earlier behavior by saying that it had been a crazy day. She then steered the conversation to another topic, mentioning that at least Alan had been kind enough to keep her company in the room.

"He did it because he had to, he wouldn't have thought of it himself," said Dagmara after swallowing the last bite.

Unfortunately, if she had only foreseen what Genevieve's reaction would be, she probably would have remained silent. The woman's face darkened, explaining that she hadn't forced Alan to go upstairs, but she made him go. According to Dagmara, it was the same thing. However, her grandmother was strange...

Suddenly her grandmother directly asked what she and Alan had been talking about. It seemed to Dagmara that she wanted to ask about it from the beginning.

"We talked about Warsaw and my earlier life," it was true to some extent.

"That's all?" Genevieve asked, although relief appeared on her face.

"Yes," the girl lied easily. "Thank you for dinner," she added with a forced smile. She got up from the table to do the dishes, but grandma didn't let her, telling her to wait for her in the living room and she would do the dishes quickly.

Dagmara went to the room as her grandmother had instructed. She sat down on the couch in front of the TV, but made no effort to turn it on. Instead, she paid attention to Tie, who was also staring at her with his big eyes from the armchair. Suddenly, as if tired of this eye skirmish, he jumped down on the carpet, walked majestically across the room, and finally jumped next to her on the sofa, demanding to be petted.

"Go to sleep, come on," she said, but she stroked the cat's back anyway.

Suddenly, a buzzing sound came to her ears, as if small bells were striking each other at a steady intervals. It wasn't a very loud clanging, but it was enough to make her get up from the couch intrigued. She couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from - whether it was from the sideboard opposite her, or from the ventilation grille just under the ceiling, or maybe just from the Tie that had just been laying down. One thing she was sure of was that the bell rang only in this room.

With this assurance, the girl approached the cupboard, but was surprised to find that the sound had faded away. She was about to turn back to the couch when something caught her eye. On the dresser stood a brass-framed photograph. Three girls, each with a different hair color, were smiling at her. This was strange, because despite the smiles, none of them seemed happy. Arleta smiled artificially, Sandra with compulsion, and the redhead with concern. Beside them stood a great, made snowman, and even he had more life than these three young women.

I didn't even know they had known each other, Dagmara thought bitterly, associating the third girl with the deceased Victoria. The same one who, according to the household members, the murderer was still at large.

Dagmara moved to the previous place, where the sound was half a tone clearer. She began combing the couch, naively telling herself that perhaps she had inadvertently sat on the toy, activating its mechanism, which was programmed to play a melody before it went silent.

"Are you looking for something?" her grandmother's voice came to her.

"No, I mean, yes, but..." she began to choose her words clumsily. "Not exactly."

"I'd love to help you," Genevieve offered.

"It's nothing, really," Dagmara replied, all the more so as the sound seemed to be receding. "I just thought I heard bells ringing somewhere around here," the girl pointed to the couch, then fell back onto the pillow. "Like I said, it's nothing."

"You must be tired," the woman observed, smiling at her granddaughter with an indulgent expression.

"I am," she said aloud, her inner voice echoing behind them like a shadow. But not enough to hear a non-existent sound.

The only upside to the situation was that she could say she was exhausted and no longer needed to be in the same room with her grandmother. Promising to go to bed immediately, she hurried out of the living room, went out into the courtyard, past the fountain, and then entered the other part of the mansion. She climbed the stairs to the first floor, but before she touched the handle to her room, something caught her attention and she decided to check on Casper before going to sleep. Naturally, she must have had a good reason for pestering him unannounced, so as she crossed the corridor, she decided to ask the boy if he would drive her to school tomorrow. She worked out her lines in her head, firmly stating that she had already had the opportunity to travel by bus once, and from tonight, she would appreciate every single opportunity to travel by car. The second motive, but the hidden one, she hoped to reveal as the story progressed. If only Casper was willing to confide...

She knocked on the door and waited. Having waited a minute, she knocked again. She waited a moment again, and as there was no sound from inside, afraid that something might have happened, she entered the room. Of course, there's nothing unusual about someone not answering when they're not in the room.

"How unreasonable of him. He could at least lock the door against someone like me."

As soon as she said this, a terrible thought ran through her head, because maybe he would...

"No," she declared aloud, retreating from the room. She could guess where Casper was at the moment, but she couldn't use his absence for her own purposes.

But if he was completely honest, he would have taken you with him, some inner voice croaked in her head. He drove Arleta and Sandra back, but why did it take him so long? He might have asked you to accompany him. He has the secrets, not you...

What was she to do if the knowledge she desperately wanted to live in this house wasn't served on a silver platter? It was hidden deep like a pirate chest full of gold ducats and other shining diamonds. She had to find this treasure, even if it meant digging and digging in the sand with her bare hands.

She returned to the boy's room and closed the door behind her. She didn't intend to search through Casper's personal belongings at all, she wouldn't dare go so far as to do. She simply looked at his things, as if hoping for some clue like: to know the truth go three meters south and then four meters west.

After staring at the room for a few minutes of, she gave up and picked up Victoria's photo. Casper apparently must have listened to her grandmother's advice because the photo of the girl was framed. True, it was still evident that the photo did not enjoy its first youth, but it looked better framed than unframed. However, this time she could see something more in addition to the girl's image, as a piece of yellowed parchment protruded between the photograph and the frame. The girl carefully pulled it out. She unfolded the piece of paper in front of her, carefully reading the sentences as if she had only one chance to understand their meaning.