Death of a Prince | ✓

EP 05: THE CASTLE ON THE BUILDING

    

EPISODE FIVE

'the castle on the building'

     

      

"THERE WAS MORE to the file he sent me," Leon said, holding a mug of tea to his lips while one hand was as on his hip.

I copied this movement, bringing the mug to my own while keeping a view of the boys. Back in work mode, we all moved to another door in Dr. Hamel's office. This one less bright and less smelling of sharp disinfectants; more wood and a lower lighting. Dr. Hamel held court behind his own desk after offering a fragrant tea that smelled starkly of flowers, Leon was standing, unable to look anything less but a picturesque model yet something in his demeanor, his expressions, his tone - was wrong.

But I kept mum, sitting beside the inspector quietly, who offered me a load of sugar to which I politely declined. He took a spoonful and dunk it into a swirling black.

I tried not to wince.

"I've already opened it, but it was requested that I watch it in a place far more suitable for immersion. In his taste."

"In Dominic's taste?" James frowned. "That doesn't sound safe."

"It's only a video... but we both know how dramatic Dominic can get." Leon set down his mug, his expression curiously wrong in all the small ways. It was the same strategising, figuring out the puzzles look he got when he was deducing and picking apart things, matching them, and then finishing with an aha! once he's figured out his puzzle.

But there was an air to it, a curve of certain feeling of wrongness...

"He's theatrical," he continued, voice a crisp, cool undertone. An assessment of a character, of a puzzle. "Dominic liked to play with games he can't control. In a way that he makes the board, figures out the gameplay, then throw completely ambiguous characters together and watch them make it interesting. They can all have one thing in common or nothing at all. Dominic was many things, he maybe a great friend in many ways, but he was also sadistic. Watching people play his games whether they liked it or not is a personal pleasure. Part of his repertoire was to make a play and watch it burn."

Leon stood straight, expression grim. "A summarisation won't do the entire charade justice, but to keep it concise until we can watch it: Dominic knew exactly he was going to die. He kept it classic. A textbook mystery novel. He invites seven people in the premise of a party. But this time, these people - according to him - had one thing in common."

No one wanted to voice it, but the sneaky little suspicion in our heads did not go unheard. Leon was the one who answered in the end, his face, curiously blank.

"They all wanted him dead."

... To drop a bomb like that needed an incredible explanation, and we all blinked, impatient for more, but Leon merely shook his head and insisted on about Dominic's place.

"Why Dominic's?" Dr. Hamel asked, spinning a pen between his forefinger and thumb.

"Because that's the crime scene," James said, his face stiff. "It's just been cleared today. Part of the video I got was to let Leon 'work as he usually did'." He rubbed his face. "Even cold, he's not going to make this easy, bloody hell."

"And part of the video I got insisted we watch the other video, the longer one, in his house," said Leon. "I've skimmed it at best, and he introduces people - suspects. Mentioning a party that he was going to make. 'Revealing their deepest, darkest desires'."