An Unexpected Find

The public motor carriage that he was in pulled over and stopped at Hoogstraat number three, in front of a big, two-story house that belonged to the Arnauds. He hadn't noticed the last time, but if he compared that house to those he had been to recently, it was closer to a mansion than a house despite not having that much of a front yard. The distance between the black metal fence to the main doors was probably less than two meters.

After paying the driver, Graham walked toward the gate and stood there to look for the button for the bell. Last time, he had been expected, so Janssen, the assistant, had been waiting for him at the front. Because he dropped by without an appointment, no one was waiting for him, although he knew Ruben was home through divination that he had done earlier.

There was a small button behind the small brick column that connected the section of the fence with the gate, and after pushing it, he could faintly hear the ringing from inside. Graham waited patiently for someone to respond instead of ringing the bell repeatedly because it would be impolite.

It didn't take long before someone finally came out, and to his surprise, it was Ruben Arnaud himself, the lord of the house. Ruben was just as surprised to see the unexpected guess, but his expression turned to delight shortly after. It was as if he was looking at an old friend that had been separated from him.

"Graham! To what do I owe this pleasure? Come in come in!" he welcomed his guest warmly while opening the gate for him; it was unlocked, only kept secured by the latch.

"Good day, Ruben. It's been long. Please excuse me," greeted Graham as he entered through the gate. He then stood there and waited for the host to enter the house first.

Ruben Arnoud entered through the double doors that were still open and gestured at Graham to follow suit. He took off his coat and hanged it on the coat rack near the door before following Ruben to the next room. The two men then walked into the large living room with a lit fireplace sat comfortably on the soft sofa.

Everything in that house seemed to be of the highest quality, which made Graham rather jealous. The sofa that he was sitting on was warm and covered in soft fur that rubbed very gently against his skin. It felt like he was sitting on a giant, fluffy cat, or even a bear.

"So, Graham, what has brought you here? Do you need anything to drink? We have just received the finest tea leaves from a friend of mine who has just returned from the Southern continent. I've tried it myself and I can say that the flavor is exquisite! Prachtig! You should really try it," he said without even pausing. Given the chance, the man looked like he would be able to speak for three hours straight without being tired.

Graham looked over his shoulder and muttered quietly.

"Val, his case of verbal diarrhea hasn't been cured it seems,"

He then turned back to Ruben and smiled.

"I would take you up on your offer, then. Tea sounds lovely on this cold afternoon," he said, although he didn't actually feel cold. He was warm and comfortable.

"Then tea it is," he smiled happily and then turned his attention in the direction where the kitchen probably was, "Sabine! Please bring the tea for my guest and me!" he shouted politely.

"Sabine?" asked Graham curiously. The last time he was around, there was no one named Sabine in the household. Granted, he hadn't seen the whole house so there might be people he hadn't seen yet, such as the cook and the rest of the cleaning maids.

"Ah yes, yes, you haven't met Sabine. She is my second assistant who is in charge of the household affairs. Janssen is busy taking care of the business and training my son Fabien, so I hired a helping hand for him. As for me, for someone at my age, it's important to enjoy life and the fruit of your labor, isn't that right, Graham? Hahaha!" he replied merrily.

"You should also hire an assistant like me, so you can delegate some tasks to your assistant and enjoy life more. You won't need to go around as much to investigate, just ask your assistant to do it while you do what you do from your office. Speaking of which, my colleagues whom I recommended your detective agency to were all very pleased with your work. I hope this will boost business for you," he added.

Ruben Arnaud's habit of changing topics midspeech and coupled with the fact that he spoke really fast could easily confuse the interlocutor. Another challenge presented was which topic to reply to first because there were many in one speech alone.

"Thanks to your recommendation, I indeed got a lot of clients recently, and most of them were rich, so the money was good," replied Graham honestly, "As for an assistant, it does sound lovely to have one, but I can only trust my own investigative skills, you see?"

A burst of amused laughter came out of Ruben's mouth.

"Hahaha! Of course, of course. How did I forget that! Your assistant absolutely won't be as good as you, right, Graham? But still, you can have one just to do trivial work like fetching things or those other things that don't need your detective skills. But I digressed. You haven't answered my question, Graham. What has brought you here? Surely you're not the type to just drop by and have small talks, are you?" he asked while leaning back against the sofa. He rested his hands on his fat belly contently.

Before he could answer, Sabine, the new assistant, came carrying a tray with two teacups that had steam coming out of them. However, Graham's attention was fixated not on the teacups, but the woman herself. He knew her!

She was the woman he had rescued from Daan Holsten!

Graham quickly controlled himself and hid his surprise. Although he knew her, she didn't because she hadn't seen his face during the whole thing. It would be strange if he revealed that he knew her.

Sabine, the woman with long straight brown hair put the teacups down on the small table in the middle of the living room and observed Graham for a second. After that, she turned her attention to her employer.

"Is there anything else, Mr. Arnaud?" she asked politely.

"No, no, thank you very much, Sabine. You can go now," he said with a warm smile.

Sabine then walked away from the living room and then looked back for a second before disappearing into another room.

"Does she... know us, Val? I don't think so. Our identity was concealed by your mist back then," he muttered quietly.

Ruben had picked up one of the teacups and sipped the hot liquid inside.

"Splendid! Have yours, Graham!" he said in delight.

"Then don't mind if I do," he replied out of politeness, to which Ruben nodded. Graham picked up the small teacup and looked at the dark brown steaming liquid inside. A subtle citrusy aroma penetrated his nose, followed by a stronger earthy smell.

Graham put the cup closer to his mouth and sip a little of the tea carefully. The hot liquid entered his mouth and the rich, strong black tea flavor massaged his tongue and palate. A delightful tanginess of a kind of citrus fruit followed not long after and touched the back of his mouth gently. There was a smile on his face as the hot liquid entered his throat and warmed up his body.

"This is indeed very good!" he exclaimed.

Ruben's smile became wider in pride.

"Hahaha! You are indeed a man of culture who can appreciate good things!" replied Ruben cheerfully.

Graham put down the cup of tea on the table after getting some more sips of it. He then looked at Ruben and leaned back on the sofa.

"So I'm here because I have some questions for you. In fact, the number of questions just increased," said Graham honestly.

"Yes, yes, ask away, Graham. I'll answer your questions to my best ability. What do you want to ask anyway? Is it related to Fabien? Is he in trouble? He should still be in the company with Janssen, but if you need him here, I can give them a call and he'll be home in a jiffy," replied Ruben.

"Not at all, no, it's not about Fabien. I first want to ask you about your new assistant, Sabine. How did you meet her?" asked Graham in a casual tone not to alarm the man.

"Ah, Sabine? She came here one day looking for a job. Around two weeks ago, I think. If I think about it, it hasn't been long at all, but I feel like she's worked for me forever!" he paused and smiled in amusement, "When I asked her how she knew about me, she said a friend sent her this way. She proved to be very capable so I didn't ask anything else. She even knows how to do a lot of things by just watching someone do it. It's rare to find someone like that, you see? That's why I hired her and have trusted her since. She has never caused me trouble either," replied Ruben honestly.

Graham raised his right eyebrow.

"Isn't it dangerous to just trust someone you know nothing about just like that?" asked Graham.

Ruben laughed.

"Hahaha! It's true, it's true! But you know what, Graham? My family is protected! Remember when Fabien was in trouble? You came along! So I'm not worried about something befalling my family," he said merrily.

Graham's attention was drawn towards the word protected.

"What do you mean by protected?" he asked.

"I don't know myself, but my late father used to say that. And even until now, every trouble that we got into has always been resolved without fail, so I can say that my father's words are true!" he said enthusiastically.

Graham looked over his shoulder and muttered quietly, "So, Val, it's a family superstition. Maybe we can take a look to see if it's true. And another thing we need to look into is this 'friend' of Sabine that led her here. We might even need to talk to her ourselves."

By now, Ruben had been used to Graham's habit, so he knew that the detective wasn't talking to him. He just sat back and smiled politely.

"Okay, on to my next question. Do you know of an old woman of a Longese descent who goes by the name Paim?" asked Graham.

There was no change in Ruben's expression when he heard the name.

"Who is that?" he asked curiously. Judging from his tone, he might actually not know who she was, or he was very good at acting.

"There is a small plot of land on Oosteindestraat that belonged to you. Do you know anything about it?" asked Graham straight to the point.

Ruben seemed to be racking his brain to try to remember. For someone rich like him, a small and insignificant lot on Oosteindestraat might be easily forgotten.

It took him some time before the man finally spoke, "Ah! I remember! I bought it a long time ago thinking that it would be a great location for a restaurant. I didn't remember who told me that, but I just bought it without thinking twice. After actually surveying the area, it turned out the land was in a small alley, and let's be honest here, no one would want to go to a restaurant in a secluded place like that, so I haven't done anything to it since. What about it, Graham?"

Graham rubbed his chin gently.

"Do you remember about the antique store owner who I told you could help me find Fabien? Her store was built on your land, but now it's gone, and I need to find this store owner, the woman called Paim," explained Graham.

Ruben raised his eyebrows.

"So her store is completely gone? How is that possible?? So what's on the land now?" asked Ruben curiously.

"Exactly my question. How is that possible? And your land is now empty again like there has never been anything on it in the first place. Have you heard of a similar story like this?" asked Graham back.

Ruben Arnaud seemed to be thinking again and leaned a little bit to his right to rest on the armrest.

"I don't think I have. It's very bizarre, your story, you see? It's not that I don't believe you. It just sounds very crazy that someone built a store on my land, although I don't use it, and then the place just disappeared out of thin air. You managed to find Fabien, so I don't doubt the existence of this woman Paim or whatever, but it still sounds... peculiar," he paused and took a deep breath, "My father used to say, just because we can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. So I believe you, Graham. But I really don't know anything about it, you see?"

"That's too bad, then. I guess there is nothing we can do about it," replied Graham, "In that case, can you tell me more about your family's protection?" he asked instead, following the other lead that he had.

Ruben's smile returned. He seemed to like talking about his family the most, although he could always talk about anything and everything without tire.

"Sure sure! What do you want to know?" he replied jovially.

"The detail. Everything about it, if you can," replied Graham shortly.

"Hmm... where do I start," he paused and seemed to be thinking. Finally, he started speaking, "I heard from my father that our family is protected, that no harm can befall us, you see? And my father heard it from his father, my grandfather, who heard it from his father, or my great-grandfather. It's like a story that has been passed down generations. The protection seemingly weakened when my father decided to move here from Rodin, or so he said," explained Ruben. "Do you want to see a photo of him?" he offered.

"Sure, why not?" replied Graham.

Ruben reached out to the bottom shelf on the table in front of him and picked up a thick book that looked to be a family photo. He laid it on the table and opened it, revealing the content that was full of black and white photographs,

"This here is my father, handsome isn't he?" he said proudly while pointing at a photograph of a man wearing a suit.

The man in the photograph resembled Ruben so much that it wasn't difficult to see that he was indeed his father. Standing next to the man was a beautiful woman wearing an elegant dress with a feathered hat.

"That's my mother. She was very beautiful. No wonder my father fell for her, you see? He was a very lucky man! Well, I'm also very lucky because my Anne is also very beautiful, don't you agree, Graham?" he said proudly and laughed.

Ruben then flipped the photo book to the next page and revealed even older-looking black and white photographs. The photographs were blurry, which meant that the people in them moved a little while they were being taken.

Graham's attention was suddenly fixated on a young woman standing next to a man that might have been Ruben's grandfather or great-grandfather.

"Who is this one?" asked Graham inquisitively in a serious tone while pointing at the woman.

"That's my great grandmother, Carmen. Why Graham?" asked Ruben curiously.

The woman in the blurry photograph was probably in her early thirties and she was definitely a Rodinian. However, Graham couldn't shake the feeling that her face was all too similar.

"That's Paim!" he exclaimed in disbelief.