Chapter 4: A Suspect

A feast was held on the corpse's body, the shredded face made it impossible to know who he is, the only thing that made the hunter know who he is was a pendant, he opened the pendant to see what's inside.

"th-that's" he said to himself in a low voice, he then shouts "come here!"

The shout gets the animals alerted and scare them away, the hunters move to the stumbled hunter.

"what do you think your doing? You scared the ani-" he sees the corpse and gets terrified, "What the hell happened?" he said in awe

"it's Zachary" replied the stumbled hunter

"how did you know" he said with hesitation

He shows them the pendant and the picture in, the picture in was Zachary's late mother.

While in the village, John was climbing the ladder to put decorations above the village's chief's house.

"those young lads letting an old man do such a job, shame on them" he said to himself

He reaches the top of the house but still he's latched to the ladder, he started putting the decorations, when he finished he moved his head to see how the village looks from up there, south of the house, John sees a reflection of light, he squints to see better, and a needle hit his right eye, the man was removes his hand from the ladder, she shouts and the people twist their heads to see him on the verge of falling, some were just terrified in their places, but the others rushed to save him, but the fall was faster, and he falls on his head smashing it. The people terrified from what they've as one of the women screams, the people surrounded John in awe of "how did he fall?", "why did his hands leave the ladder's sides?", half an hour later the hunters came carrying a corpse.

"Who the hell is this?" Asked one of the villagers Terrified

"It's Zachary" said hesitantly

"My goodness" Said the village's chief in despair and after it he breaks down in tears.

The detective and the two police men came in the late afternoon, and finished their investigation in the night, the detective said "we couldn't find anything".

The next day, a funeral was held, the village's chief was crying on the ground

"Forgive me Emma, Forgive me"

Everyone was mourning those two but Elena was extremely nervous

"I'm all alone now, damn it, ….. those two were not randomly picked, they were teaming up with me to find out the murderer, I need to becareful he'll probably try to kill me ….. do I call him for help? … No, I should do it all alone" she said in herself

Aristor was there shocked and scared, his eyes were opened wide and his mouth shut, beside him was Gabriel sitting on a rock, Gabriel looks at Aristor.

"why do you think those people died?" asked Gabriel

"what do you mean?" Hesitantly asked Aristor looking at Gabriel back

"did they deserve to die?" asked Gabriel

"they didn't deserve such death … they were good people" hesitantly said and he looks infront of him

Gabriel looks in front of him and says "I see"

Behind them three carriages was passing by carrying soldiers with their muskets, these soldiers seemingly came from the east, they pass by the village looking at the people mourning beside a graveyard, Gabriel and Aristor were looking at the soldiers as they passed by, Aristor wasn't concerned he looked at them and when they left he looked back at the graveyard, however Gabriel looked bewildered and he kept looking at them even when they left.

1 week later, Elena was about to leave the village for good, she was in her room throughout the week preparing to leave, she barely met anyone except the village's chief.

"Elena are you going to leave us?" the village's chief asked

"Yes, I'll leave tomorrow at dawn, don't worry ... I taught some of the women about medicine and the human body so they'll deal with it"

"No, you were part of our family" says the chief

"I'll visit you between every while"

The villagers started crying infront of her and she was kind of sorry for them.

At midnight, Raphael, a nervous man, was walking, clinching his teeth, looking all around him carefully and aggressively, under the English yew tree east of the village, he meets someone, the darkness of the night and the cloudy sky made it impossible to see who was under the tree.

"where is it?!" asked Raphael aggressively and nervously

The person in the darkness walks two steps toward Raphael, Raphael pulls out a knife from his clothes

"back off … or ill stab you" aggressively and hesitantly he said it

The person in the darkness brings his right arm up picking a bottle by the thumb and pointing finger

"throw it to me right now … or ill stab you" aggressively and hesitantly he said it

The person under the tree smiles and throws the bottle to Raphael, Raphael catches the bottle, points the knife towards that person and starts to step back and then runs away. The next day in the morning, Raphael was late from work, his mother opens the door

"you'll be late to work" she said nervously

When she opens the door completely, she drops the food she was carrying for him and screams.

"what's going on?!" a villager asked

They enter the house and find Raphael dead

"What the hell is going on in this village?" Another asked

The village's chief sees beside Raphael a medicine bottle that's open, and it's tablets are all over the floor, he also notices that Rafael's skin was cherry pink and his palm looked miserable.

The same police officers and a different detective arrived in the afternoon.

"What is wrong with your village?" Asked the detective "I heard that there 3 cases before and period of time was short"

"I don't know myself" said the village's chief

The detective sighed and asked "Where is the victim?"

Village's chief: "right there (while pointing toward the house)

The detective and the police officers examined the victim and

"cyanide was used" said the detective

"what's cyanide?" Asked the chief

"a lethal poison that acts quickly" he brings Raphael arm up "look at his palm that's a symptom called cyanosis and his skin has a cherry pink color" he shows the chief the bag that the tablets and the bottle were put in "these are tablet drugs ….. Does he have a relative"

"yes, I'm his mother"

"is there anything suspicious to tell about your son?" asked the officer

"in the last days he was aggressive" hesitantly she said "I used to hear doors being opened and closed in the middle of the night but I didn't dare go and see ... He was even beaten up by the carpenter because … he was about to hit me" she said it while being on the verge of tears

"Where is the carpenter?" Asked the detective

"I'm here" the carpenter replied

"What did you notice in the victim when you beat him?"

"Uhh … his eyes didn't look normal"

the detective looks at the mother and asks her "Since when was he like that?"

"I think more than three weeks ... but he got worse every day"

"I see" the detective walks a few steps with his hands behind his back while lowering his head, he then raises his head as he remembered something

"I was told there was a doctor in this village, am I right?"

"yes ... she left the village at dawn"the village's chief replied hesitantly

"where is she headed?" asked the detective

"she's headed west to Graymondarth ... don't tell me you suspect her?!" he asked nervously

the detective doesn't reply, he quickly moves to his horse, and heads west to Graymondarth with his horse. durimg the dusk, West of the village, close to Graymondarth carriages were being stopped and being investigated.

"why did you stop?" Elena asked the carriage driver

"The police are investigating the carriages infront of us"

they investigated each carriage one by one till they reached Elena's carriage

"Are you Elena Isaac?" the detective asked

"yes, what's wrong?"

"You're under custody"

"What?",

Elena gives her self up and she's taken into custody. A week later, a trial was held for the accused Elena.