The Chase for the White Mist - Chapter Five - Part One

The Questionnaire Part One

Alex and Mev were waiting in Mr. Basiri’s office, when a young elf stepped in, he was similarly dressed as Mr. Basiri, a dark green vest and slacks with a white button down and a dark green tie. A half head shorter than the owner of the Boutique, with short blond hair, purple blue eyes and thin glasses on his small button nose. 

“I apologize for making you wait. But Mr. Basiri is with potential clients at the moment.” the young Elf Harldor apologized. “I could understand from Mr. Basiri, you have some questions for me?”

“No need to apologize, completely understandable.” Alex smiled at the shorter man. “And yes, we have a couple of questions for you, we just need to confirm something. That’s all.”

“I understand.” the young elf turned visibly more nervous. 

“Let's start with something simple?” Mev began, reacting to the nervousness. “What is your name, young man?”

“Harldor Vellmar, madam.” He replied quickly. 

“Well good, mr. Vellmar. We need to ask you a couple questions about the night when the White Mist was stolen.” Alex’s tone suddenly turned serious, but he was still holding a pleasant smile. “Where were you, when mr. Reed made the delivery the day before yesterday?”

“I was in the office, valuating a couple of gemstones in a necklace mr. Basiri had bought.” Mr. Vellmar replied after thinking about it for a moment. “And please call me Harldor. Mr. Basiri is the mister here.”

“Do you often valuate pieces for mr. Basiri? It seems like something he should be doing for you.” Alex asked, still with a pleasant smile. 

“Yes, I do. Mr. Basiri says it is good practice for me. You should know the value of the merchandise you are selling, he often says.” Harldor replied proudly. 

“Thank you for that, Harldor.” Alex smiled. “Can you tell what happened the rest of that day?” 

“Yes, certainly.” Harldor began. “It was mostly a normal day. We did inventory, spoke to a couple of clients and cleaned up. In the evening, while I was finishing up the inventory, Mr. Basiri was going over the ledges.” 

“It sounds like a pleasant day, Harldor.” Alex nodded. “But you mentioned that it was mostly a normal day. Can you explain what you mean by mostly?”

“Well, normally we lock up together, before going home.“ Harldor said sheepishly. “But on that day, Mr. Basiri insisted on locking up by himself.”

“Hmm, could this be because he wanted to work in peace on the new business deals you had gotten?” Alex inquired, still smiling, but more a grin rather than a smile. Like a cat that caught a bird.

“New business deals? What new business?” Harldor asked in confusion.

“Maybe Mr. Basiri hadn’t told you about it yet?” Mev interrejected. 

“Impossible.” Harldor said, sounding a bit offended. “Mr. Basiri always says, I need to be a part of every deal, so I can learn and improve.”

“That’s very interesting, thank you Harldor.” Alex said, getting up from the comfortable chair he was sitting in. “We had to get going now, but we really appreciate you taking your time to answer our questions.”

“You are welcome.” Harldor replied a bit confused. 

###

“Do you think Harldor was telling the truth?” Mev asked as they got out of the carriage in front of the beautiful red and white marble house of Lady Whitecroft.

“Given how offended Harldor was by your statement, I believe he was.” Alex replied as they ascended the small staircase leading up to the doorway. 

“Is it just me, or didn't it sound like Harldor did a lot of the work in the shop?” Mev wondered out loud, as Alex knocked on the impressively carved door. 

Shortly after, the door opened and a familiar dwarf was standing in the doorway. “Welcome to the Whitecroft estate, How can I help you?”

“Hello again.” Alex waved. 

“My apologies, good sir. I am afraid the lady of the house is not home at the moment.” The dwarf said in the same pleasant tone as the day before. “Have a lovely day.”

“That is quite fine with us, we are here to talk to some of the staff about the night of the theft. You too, if you are available for a couple of questions?” Alex waved off the dwarf’s dismissal. 

“It would be improper to ask about my lady’s whereabouts. But as I recall, Lady Whitecroft was hosting a dinner that evening.” dwarf replied, not missing a beat. “I can not say more on the topic.”

“Thank you, but would it be possible to chat with some of the staff that was working that evening?” Alex requested, getting a bit irritated by this guy’s stiff manners. “It would greatly help in finding Lady Whitecroft’s diamond.”

“Would it not be more helpful to investigate that jeweler?” the dwarf inquired. “But very well, please wait in the entrance, while I find the members of the staff who were working during the dinner.”

“Thank you so much, we will be finished as soon as possible.” Alex thanked the dwarf.

A couple of moments later, the dwarf returned with a small group of employees. Maids, cooks and serving staff. 

“Good day everyone, and thank you all for chatting with us. We only have a couple of questions for you and we will let you get back to work.” Alex said with his charming smile. “We will go one at a time. Please be ready when we call, so we don’t take up too much of your time.”

“Do you have a small room we can borrow? And we will need a list of the guests who were at the dinner.” Mev pulled the dwarf aside. 

“I will see what I can do. For the room, here you can use the study.” the dwarf said, taking back by the demand from Mev. 

“I appreciate that, thank you.” Mev replied stiffly, not quite used to the polite tones of high society. 

They moved to the study and had a short interview with each of the staff members and all of them went the same way. 

What do you remember from the evening? - I was working.

Do you remember seeing the lady? - Yes, she was hosting the dinner.

Did you see her doing something out of the ordinary? - No, she was entertaining the guests.

“Was that all who worked that night?” Alex asked the dwarf, when they had talked with all of them.

“No, one of the kitchen helpers is sick today, Mary is her name.” Dwarf replied with the same pleasant voice. 

“Great, we will need her address and the guestlist for the dinner.” Alex grinned. 

The dwarf took out a list of names, turned it around and wrote an address on the back, and handed it to Alex. You got to be kidding me. Alex thought to himself, as he read through the list of names. 

“Lady Alissa Chalignis” Alex mumbled to himself, “looks like we are visiting my mother.”

“She was here?” Mev asked in surprise.

“Apparently.” Alex replied grumply. “I didn’t even know, she was in town.” 

“Thank you for all the help, mister?” Alex turned to the dwarf. “I am sorry, I never got your name.”

“You are welcome, please be on your way, as soon as possible.” the dwarf replied, dodging Alex’s question. Both Alex and Mev exited the Whitecroft residence after this. 

“Okay, the dwarf is weird.” Mev remarked, as they got into the carriage.

“Yeah, but I don’t think he knows anything, he is just weirdly loyal to Lady Whitcroft.” Alex speculated, stepping into the carriage after Mev.

“That’s interesting, what makes you think that?” Mev replied curiously. 

“I don’t know, it is the way he acts.” Alex answered. “Anyway, let’s go and talk to our hopefully sober and possibly very hungover suspect.”

“Alright! Driver! to the Frozen Goat!” Mev yelled to the driver.