House of the Morningstar: Chapter 28
Created | Updated May 27, 2023
House of the Morningstar: Chapter 28
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Today, when Bill was sitting in his usual place at the canteen, I took Gene with me out to the building site and told him that I had to show him something. He at first refused to follow me down to the underground tunnels, but in the end I was able to convince him. To say he was surprised about what I showed him would be an understatement. When I brought him to this hidden place, Gene said we should definitely tell people about what lies hidden down here. On the other hand we all know that uncovering artifacts on a building site always leads to long delays. This one would probably get the whole project stopped. So how should we proceed? Who could we tell?
Suddenly there was a noise behind us. We turned around and there was someone in a protective suit standing in the door to the corridor. It must have been Bill, but I am sure he did not recognise us just like we could not see who was under that helmet. He pulled something large from behind his back, which was obviously a weapon, and started firing red beams at us. I have never seen anything do that. We dived behind a piece of machinery for cover. There was a huge bang and a loud beeping sound. One shot had obviously hit the huge blue cylinder and all hell broke loose. Lights were flashing everywhere and the sound got louder. There were also sounds which could have been an unknown language – or it was just noise and my imagination. Bill had stopped shooting at us and there was someone else there, who seemed to be wrestling with him. That person shouted at us to run, and that's what we did. I never covered the distance to the lift that fast before. When we were back in the yellow corridor on the ground floor we saw that the lift was going back down again. We did not wait to see if anyone else would come up; we took the ATV and drove off.
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Questions and Answers
It was morning, when Mr Pospishil was sitting in Interrogation Room Five of the central police station. It was grey and sparsely furnished with a table and two chairs. Nobody had tried to hide the cameras, which were pointing down from the ceiling from all directions. He had been brought a coffee and a packed sandwich from one of the vending machines in the corridor. Across from him was sitting Elanor, who had told him that he was not accused of anything – so far – but that the police had reasons to believe that he had some knowledge about the murder case of Dr Morgenstern.
'We have found out that Mr Wong is your uncle. Did you know he has a nice picture of you in his living room?' Elanor asked,' Well, I guess you do. Anyway. I think you are aware that your uncle was not on particularly friendly terms with Henry Morgenstern, who – as you may also know – died five days ago.'
She leaned forward over the table to Mr Pospishil, who looked down at his feet and didn't answer.
'Could it be, that you and your uncle decided that you could spy on Mr Morgenstern while pretending to take a video of him and then breaking into his house with the help of the Brutus prototype you... should I say borrowed?'
Mr Pospishil held his biodegrabale cup in a trembling hand, slowly lifting it to his lips as he looked at Elanor with bleary eyes.
'Ugh,' he said, as he put down the cup on the table without drinking.
Elanor sighed, 'Ok, let's start again, Mr Pospishil. Where were you five nights ago?'
Mr Pospishil spilled some of his coffee on the table as he tried again to take a sip, but didn't answer.
'Ok, let's try something else,' Elanor continued, 'what do you know about the blue crystal paperweight?'
Suddenly Mr Pospishil jumped up shouting, 'I don't know anything about that smegging crystal! I have no idea why they want it! Leave me alone!'
Elanor jumped up, too.
'Sit down, Mr Pospishil!', she waited until he did before continuing,'who wanted that crystal?'
Mr Pospishil muttered something unintelligible and looked down at the table.
Elanor rolled her eyes, 'Now listen, you can make it easy for both of us and just talk, or we'll be sitting here all day. Or longer.'
'I want my lawyer,' Mr Pospishil mumbled.
Elanor sighed, 'We went through this two hours ago. You called your lawyer. He still isn't here. Why can't we just get this over with? And if I like what I hear maybe we can both go home this evening.'
Mr Pospishil's right eyelid started to twitch. At this point Harry knocked at the door of the room and Elanor left for a moment.
'We got a message from our colleague in Katastropolis. Seems like she found something. I highlighted the important parts for you,' Harry started, 'I thought you would really like to see this immediately. Detective Labovsky obviously found the diary of Cecilia Morgenstern – that was the grandmother of our victim - hidden in the Katastropolis archives.'
Elanor skimmed through the documents Tanja had sent them. Harry watched her face closely
'It says here Cecilia Morgenstern was involved in the building of this mysterious place they call Eldorado...'
Harry nodded. 'Yes, yes! Detective Labovsky even got the coordinates, she is pursuing Angela Morgenstern and her captors right this moment. But go on, go on... you'll see.'
Elanor raised an eyebrow. 'Why are you so nervous?'
But she went back to reading, as she was told.
'Ok... wait...is this real? Or did Ms Morgenstern have a liking for creative writing? They found some kind of place under the city. And there she got... a blue crystal. One of several it seems? Who would have thought... and also a couple of plants and other items. Now that's something. I guess that explains what we have found under the Morgensterns' glass house.'
Harry nodded.,' oh yes. But did you notice something else? Does this name seem familiar to you?'
He pointed at a section of the text.
Elanor narrowed her eyes, 'Now, isn't that interesting? It seems like the Morgenstern family is not the only one who benefitted from these findings. Or rather... they didn't benefit as much as others? Send me a copy of this on my pad. I'm going in again.'
With that, Elanor turned to the door and went back into the inquiry room, where Mr Pospishil had spilled some of his coffee on the table. He had also obviously taken a tiny bite of the sandwich before he put it back into the packaging.
'Mr Pospishil, have you ever been to Katastropolis?' Elanor asked while sitting down again.
At that, the man gave her a puzzled look. 'What? No... no, I haven't. Why?'
Elanor made a point of writing this down, then asked, 'What do you know about Eldorado?'
Mr Pospishil looked even more confused. 'You mean like the golden city? I think I saw a history show about that some time.'
Elanor nodded and again took a note – not that she had to, everything was recorded automatically of course. But she always felt it made an impression.
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