[color=ec008c]The Conclusion

Lillian looked out to the west at the sun just barely visible over the tops of the rooves. The sky was dark enough that stars were starting to appear behind her, yet the sun had not set just yet. "You see," she gloated "as promised. Your sister's killer is behind bars and the sun is still up." Lillian turned to give a cocky smile to Kateřina Kucera who was anything but pleased. "I must admit, you had me thoroughly believing your little show at the factory. Perhaps you really did feel the pain of loss at your sister..." 

"Du shvakhe zunh fun a froy! Du khzir! Du shmutsike khzir!" the other woman screamed from the other side of the bars of the police wagon. She then did her best so spit on Lily, however she had predicted the murderous sister might attempt such actions and had preemptively positioned herself far enough away to avoid any spittle based attacks. 

"Now that is not very nice. You hired me to do a job and I did it."

"I hired you to find her! Not have me thrown in jail! Du zoyne khzir!" she pat back before attempting to reach for Lily through the bars. A foolish choice as the constable standing near by quickly reacted by thwacking her forearm with his baton. She screamed in pain and pulled her arms back in so hard she lost her balance and fell to the floor. Lillian smiled, then made a point to laugh out loud; even laughing a bit harder than would otherwise be warranted just to make Kateřina feel foolish. Aizik Kucera, Kateřina's husband, quickly helped her up. He had said very little since Lillian arrived at their house with the authorities and had his wife arrested. He had requested if he could ride to the prison with her and the constables in charge were kind enough to allow it. Lillian wasn't quite sure if the man had any part to play in the events; he had seemed genuinely surprised to hear about Tereza's death and his wife's involvement. But then again Lillian had already been tricked once that day so opted to avoid forming any opinions one way or the other. 

Lillian said her thanks and goodbyes to the constables, all of whom took their hats off in a kind gesture of thanks to the woman before they departed. It was practically synchronous. 

She watched them all ride away, feeling less and less satisfied with herself as the moments passed. She had caught a killer, which was meaningful, but she would have much preferred to had found Tereza alive. She had been suspicious of the sister since the start, after all she had waited a shockingly long time before seeking aid. But she did not think the woman was guilty of murder until all the pieces fell into place. Kateřina was one of the few people who knew of her sister's habit to wander, and knew where Tereza lived which meant she also knew that her sister lived in much better conditions than herself. Despite not being a maid herself, she still had access and friends in the maid network so she also had access to much of the gossip, including information on The Captain's habit of sending care packages to the family members of deceased servants, and when Alexander would have been out of town. There were other small details as well that hinted she might have been jealous of her sister, such as how she had been taught to read and Kateřina had not. Quite a lot weight against the sister, however her gaunt and malnourished form precluded her from being a viable suspect since it would have taken a lot of strength to do the damage that had killed Tereza. Of course once Lillian had confirmed the damage was from a fall onto a rock, rather than some kind of attack, Kateřina suddenly became a viable suspect again. She had means, motive, and opportunity.

Having a very solid suspect in mind Lillian fetched some constables and went back to Kateřina's house. Knowing if she simply confronted the woman she would simply lie her way out of it -a skill she had proven to be rather adept at- Lily decided on a different approach. She told Kateřina about her sister's unborn child which immediately set the woman off. She became hysterical and insisted Lily was wrong, or lying. It became quickly clear that while she had handled one murder reasonably well, two murders -one of which was an innocent child- hit her hard. She was blathering and screaming and crying all at once and demanding Lillian take back her lies. Lily instead took advantage of the woman's condition and gently coaxed and goaded the woman into saying things she shouldn't, all of which was heard by the constables in attendance. Once she realized what she had let slip, the entire story came out. 

She had indeed murdered her sister to get the money from The Captain, though the specifics of the motive where rather strange. Tereza had actually told her sister of her affair with Alexander -sans the child-, and had explained that was how she managed such a nice home. She told Kateřina about Alexanders plan to marry her and how her money problems would be over as she and Aizik could live with her and Alexander. Apparently Kateřina  came to the conclusion that her sister was as good as dead, believing that it didn't matter if Alexander loved her his family would never let him marry a servant and would have Tereza killed and her body hidden. Since she believed her sister was dead no matter what, herself and her husband might as well benefit from it. She knew if Tereza was found dead The Captain would would send them money, however she did not anticipate how long it would take for her sisters body to be found. She had killed her sister so far out of the city to avoid witnesses, but didn't think about how that also meant there would be no one to find the body. She began to worry it might take so long for someone to find her sister there would be nothing left of the body to identify and she wouldn't get any money because of it. She had heard rumors of Lillian through the maid network and reasoned she would be able to find her sister without having to give too much away. She had been correct, but did not anticipate Lillian's promose to find the killer would come true. 

Lillian sniffled and wipe away a tear, the whole affair had been a lot for her. She then turned on an obnoxious heel and headed home. 

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Back at her home Lillian laid in a hot bath. She had become very sweaty from all the running around she had done, and even though the shoes she had were oddly comfortable they were still not suited for the level of hiking she had done and thus her feet were very sore. 

As she soaked she thought back to the events of the day. Not just the murder, but finding someone who apparently had powers of their own, and the bones in the stream which were something else entirely. While she had long ago concluded that if she had power there must be others who did as well, she had never actually found anyone who did. The days events had made it clear that she had obviously just not looked hard enough and vowed to start a proper search for people like herself. 

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