chapter 11

The home of widow Inwood was dominated by prim stiffness. The straight lines of the shining furniture seemed unmovable like in a museum; so much so, that even sneezing in her home felt like an offence. This was not how Lin had imagined Ansel's home. He always had a thick rug on the floor of his office and many objects crowding his desk and the walls. Here, the floors were bare, and only occasionally did odd statuettes, made out of marble or copper, decorated the surfaces.

The mistress of the house also reminded Lin of a statue. She seemed to be just as untouchable emotionally, which was visible in her perfectly set hair, an oval broach on a high-collar dress, and her stiff posture as she sat in her chair with her hands folded on the table.

Speaking to the victim's family was not a task anyone had ever favoured. Therefore, all four investigators had agreed to go together. Currently, they were sitting behind a rectangular table on the chairs that seemed to be designed to force people off them quickly rather than for rest. Lin avoided the conversation, falling back on her observational role. Mrs Inwood was primarily speaking with Mr Colby anyway. His grey suit had made a good impression on her, whereas Lin's non-feminine apparel went against the widow's acceptable dress code.

"I am not certain why you would ask me about this when I have barely seen him in the last few years due to his work. A few colleagues of his dropped in occasionally," Mrs Inwood was saying. "I do not know whether my husband had any enemies who would specifically target him; however, I believe it is impossible to serve as an Auror longer than thirty years without making enemies. Ansel could have been killed by someone who kept a grudge against him; thus I assume there should be information in his profile about the kinds of subjects he dealt with. I had always hoped that he would get over his curse breaking obsession and apply to a less risky post at the Ministry where his administrative talents could be used successfully. Unfortunately, he was stubborn to the end."

"Mr Inwood was in charge of one of our most important projects in the last six months," Mr Colby explained. "Unfortunately, he had no chance to share what he had discovered. We suspect however that he must have kept records somewhere, and that information is of great importance to us."

The widow, despite her stiffness, had quite a sharp mind. "Ansel had his private office. He had been spending most of his time there lately, that is when he was home. Do I understand correctly that you wish to examine his papers?"

"If it is not too much trouble for you; that information is invaluable," Mr Colby confirmed.

"I will show you to his office then," said the widow.

Lin, fed up with the unfriendly chair, was more than happy to turn her attention to searching the office, which turned out to be very similar to Ansel's office at work. It was completely different from the rest of the house where apparently his wife had a free reign.

The investigators had dealt with this organized chaos by piling anything they did not deem useful in the center of the room. There were all sorts of items, including half-solved crosswords, no longer working quills, and quite a few hobby-related objects, with the exception perhaps of anything that would tell an outside observer about Ansel's family. There wasn't a single photograph. Lin could not recall seeing those in his office either, now that she considered it. She had certainly known that Ansel was married, but had never seen his wife before.

Mrs Inwood did not appear to be concerned with the decimation of the office. She inquired whether the investigation required her presence, and receiving a confirmation that she was free, she left the group to turn inside-out anything they wanted.

The four of them were doing quick work, checking the room for hidden compartments and pulling out double bottom drawers in Inwood's desk. They were gathering anything that seemed either important or cryptic to examine it closely at the Ministry, which went on for a few hours.

"This should be the last of it," said MacLee, adding a thick roll of parchment to the considerable pile they had gathered.

"I'll notify Mrs Inwood that we are ready to free her residence," said Lin. Going into the corridor, she dropped on the table the latest book she had been examining that related to Ansel's hobby. Its brown cover had partially rubbed out gilded letters, and its pages were covered by circular diagrams and rows of symbols. Decrypting such books seemed like an appropriate hobby for a Curse Breaker.

Lin recalled how her mother used to believe that for good health people should pick hobbies opposite of the type of work they were doing. Active jobs required calmer activities such as reading and building ship models, whereas sedentary jobs had to be balanced by active hobbies. Her mother had been a regional rocket witchball champion. It was a game similar to tennis, except the ball was bounced off the wall and the rackets had a web-like net inside the loop which had to be filled by amplified magic, gathering it at a focal point, similarly to a wand.

Lin's thoughts were interrupted by a quiet call, "Excuse me, Auror."

Lin looked around and saw a woman who stood half-hidden in the shadow of a large vase.

"Please, I would like to speak to you," the woman repeated her call.

Lin approached as she studied the woman with interest. She was approximately as old as Lin. Her face bore resemblance to the mistress of the house, with the exception of a square chin and minus the age lines even if some were already planned at the corners of her mouth set in a frown. She looked like she frequently lacked joy in her life.

"What would you like to tell me?" Lin asked her.

The woman looked up the hallway nervously, in the direction where Lin had been going. "Please, lets speak some place else, less noticeable." She pulled aside a heavy curtain behind a vase, revealing a small nook filled with jars and candles. "It's about my parents," the woman said rapidly, seeing that Lin had followed her. "Please don't think that my mother is concealing from the investigation anything which she would consider dangerous. My mother is co-operating the best she can, but I think she is making a mistake."

The woman reminded Lin of Totty, who also seemed just as unhappy and had a tangled up speech pattern.

"What is your name?" Lin asked to cease the waterfall of words, although she already knew it.

The woman blinked in confusion at being interrupted. "My name is Nancy Inwood," she said.

"I am Auror Snow," Lin introduced herself.

"Ah, yes, I thought so," said Nancy. "I wanted to speak to you specifically when I saw the four of you coming. I remembered that my father had spoken a few times about you, saying you were a good specialist. To be honest though, I would rather speak with a woman."

This was the second time in two days that someone was appealing to her femininity, Lin thought. She didn't allow Nancy to get further away from the original topic. "Thank you, Miss Inwood. Perhaps you can tell me first about the mistake, and then you can explain why you believe it to be so?"

"Yes, you are right of course," Nancy agreed. She seemed like a child who desperately wanted to explain why she had taken a candy from the cupboard without permission in a manner which would gain her compassion. "My parents belong to that group of couples who were married right after their graduation from school. Their parents had thought of it as an appropriate match and had encouraged them. I think they were happy at first, but eventually they grew apart. My mother always had different expectations and pushed for changes, whereas my father was never the type to live under his wife's heel. That's why I believe they never had any other children. They must have grown tired of this two way struggle and retreated each into their own world, becoming more indifferent to their relationship. They were fairly content with such a position in life because they were long used to each other and having a family to return to each day, even if it was not all warm and welcoming. However, my father's position changed during the last year. He began pushing for a divorce. He was very subtle at first. He wanted to do it without a scandal, but my mother wouldn't hear of it. She would become furious whenever he brought up the subject. She is very proud, and it would have been considered disgraceful in her family, where we have never had a single divorce. I don't think it is possible though to hold a man when he is determined to leave. I had a feeling that he was planning something radical when his diplomacy failed, but he was murdered before he could act. What's important though is that we both suspected that his sudden attitude to his status had changed because another woman had appeared in his life. He never gave us any direct evidence, but I think women have an intuition about these things. Before the Ministry could pay us a visit, we searched his belongings and discovered one photograph. It was hidden in the upper pocket of his jacket. My mother thinks this is our private affair, but I suspect that some of my father's work was linked to this woman, and my mother's pride won't allow it to be revealed."

"You have done right to tell me this," Lin encouraged her. "Do you still have the photograph?"

"Yes. I have managed to save it although my mother wanted to destroy it."

Nancy passed a small paper rectangle to Lin. The photograph looked like it belonged on an official document. The woman on it was serious and nearly motionless, but even on it, her dark amber eyes were lit up with lively sparks that pulled the men closer. They were the eyes of Arpina Belsmock.