19. The Case of the Dead Body
Chapter nineteen
The Case of the Dead Body
Lei
I showered, dressed, grabbed the blood-stained wooden dagger and jeweled handcuffs, pocketed those two objects, and then headed out of the suite, needing to be near Monique.
Without her by me, that hollowing emptiness returned.
My men followed.
Chen hurried to my side. “Love, grief, and loss are potent emotions.”
“Whatever point you are going to try and make, I don’t want to hear it.”
We stopped at the elevator.
Chen pressed the button. “These emotions can guide people towards selfless acts of compassion and kindness, but they can also drive them to commit actions that defy societal norms and expectations.”
I groaned in annoyance.
Chen fixed his glasses on his face. “All of this brings us to the case of your stealing Chanel’s body—”
“This is not some detective case, and we are not talking about this right now. I already told you that I do not have to explain myself.”
“I regret helping you do it.” Chen scowled at me. “I was heartbroken like you with her death and thought maybe you could say goodbye to her. For some reason, I figured this could be closure. I don’t know. . .but now we just have her body and it is getting weird. Do you know how much energy has been put to simply keeping her cold as she lays out there in the van?”
“I don’t see the problem.”
Chen’s voice shrieked toward the end. “You don’t see the problem?”
“I plan to eventually give Chanel back—”
“Lei, this is the highest level of macabre and bizarre, and it underscores the depth of human emotions and the lengths to which a grieving heart may go to find solace.”
“What?”
“We must give the body back.”
“Not yet.”
The elevator’s bell dinged, and the doors slid open.
I stepped on.
Chen and my men followed.
The doors closed.
Chen pressed a button and cleared his throat. “You have unresolved feelings of love and longing.”
“Oh, do I now?”
“Chanel was the main source of your happiness and fulfillment. Now her absence has created a void in your life that you are finding to be unbearable.”
“And the sky is blue, and grass is green.” I turned to him. “Also, dogs bark and cats meow.”
“By physically possessing her body, albeit lifeless, you are trying to reclaim a part of the happiness you lost. This is some desperate attempt to preserve the illusion of her existence.”
“Stop psychoanalyzing me.”
“You are struggling to accept the reality of her death—”
“I said stop psychoanalyzing me.” I glared at him. “That is quite enough.”
“I am your Deputy Mountain Master—”
“Yet, your job is not to state the obvious.” I put my view back on the elevator. “In fact, you should have been preventing our aunts from drugging me. You usually are several steps ahead of everyone. How did they slip by without your knowing?”
Chen kept quiet.
I quirked my brows and glanced at him. “You knew they were going to drug me and sat back and let it happen?”
“You needed your sleep.”
Then, you wake me up from the best dream of my life.
Sighing, I looked back at the elevator doors and placed my hands in my pocket. “I am very close to killing all of you. It would be so easy. Bullets in all of your heads. Everything solved with just a bit of gunfire. I do have the guns. I also have the fingers to pull the triggers. Day by day, I am getting the motivation.”
“We all understand that you are grieving, but it is crucial for me to note that your irrational actions—”
“What irrational actions?”
“Stealing Chanel’s body. Kidnapping Monique—”
“I am not kidnapping Monique.” In my pocket, I tightened my grip on the handcuffs. “I am keeping her safe from my father.”
The elevator stopped.
Next, the doors opened.
I stormed off needing to get away from Chen.
He rushed to my side. “I will give you one more day to have Chanel’s body and then I am going to make an executive decision.”
“You make no decisions.”
“Under regulation 576, a Deputy Mountain Master can deem the Mountain Master mentally unstable and override some actions for the betterment of the empire. This would mean my returning Chanel’s body so that the West and South do not start a war with us—”
“If you return Chanel’s body without my knowledge, then put all of your affairs in order because I will be burying you that evening.”
“Lei. . .” Chen lowered his voice. “There have been whispers.”
“There are always whispers.”
“Our people think you are. . .”
In my other pocket, I held onto the wooden dagger. “What do our people think, Chen?”
“They whisper that you are doing things to her body.”
I rolled my eyes and picked up my pace.
Of course they would think that.
And it wasn’t like the possibility had not crossed my mind.
I wasn’t crazy enough to sleep with Chanel’s dead body, but I wanted to touch her skin, run my fingers along her face, and smell her hair.
But doing that would be crossing a line that I didn’t think I would come back from. Because there was this thought in the back of my head that made me think that I might like touching Chanel’s corpse.
And if I did, then there would be no helping me anymore.
Chen sighed. “We can talk about this later.”
“We will not.”
“I do have something else to say.”
“I’m sure you do.”
“Monique will not be seated next to you during dinner.”
I stopped in the middle of the hallway and sneered. “What?”
“Security footage caught Uncle Leo leaving our aunts’ suite before we arrived today.”
I shook my head. “Of course they are helping him.”
“I then went to the earlier tapes that showed when Uncle Leo entered. He had a long blue jacket on, but I caught blood on his shoes, hands, and neck. His hair was also wet. I’m sure it was due to blood.”
“So he went to Aunt Min’s suite to shower and change?”
Chen nodded. “I am sure you want to discuss this with our aunts.”
I stormed off. “Damn right. I told everyone to not help him.”
“And since your father was washing off Monique’s father’s blood.”
I gritted my teeth.
“And Monique now seems to be enjoying her evening.”
Tension gathered in my shoulders.
Chen continued, “I figured I would put Monique further away from this conversation about Uncle Leo. I think she should enjoy tonight.”
“She should.”
“However, I know you well, cousin.”
“Which means?”
“I put Monique in a seat where you can easily see her while talking to our aunts about their disobedience.”
I tightened my grip on the handcuffs. “Once this conversation with our aunts is done, I leave with Monique. I will not sit in that dinner any longer.”
“That is fine.” Chen guided us to the room at the end. “Are you ready?”
I closed my eyes and fingered the objects in my pocket.
“Lei?”
Swallowing down sadness, I opened my eyes. “I’m ready.”