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Millicent doubted there would be much else she could get from Richard in this state. She was sure Richard wasn't involved in Renee's or Miguel's deaths. It was hard to fake lapses in memories, there was always a tell. So she sat fack and allowed George to escort Richard to his room.

It was clear to her that Eleanor ha a hand in this somehow. The problem was how did they go about questioning her? It wouldn't serve to outright accuse her and she doubted Eleanor would spill the secret as to how nominaitons worked and if she had a say in Renee coming here. The message Renee received bothered her. Was it sent by Renee or someone else here?

Once Richard and George were safely away, she whispered to Brendan, "Eleanor is the person we keep coming back to. She's involved somehow, either willingly or not, but my money is on her knowing who Renee was in relation to Richard. We need to go see her again. She wanted us to come back anyway."

---

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Sam followed behind Rhi and Ralph as they made their way back over towards the bar in search for Leda. He’d noticed her a few times during all the gatherings, but she always had this sort of Fuck Off attitude while she sat at her computer that made Sam reluctant to approach. But this was something that was needed, a means to an end, then they could leave Leda be for whatever she wished to do. He’d thanked Julianne as they left, and when they reached Leda it seemed Rhi was ready to pounce.

”Leda, right? I worked in AV and had a few questions. I was told you're the places tech genius around here and that I'd be better off asking you than any others.” Sam noticed there was no one else here beyond the bartender, good, discretion was a must with these things and he wasn't sure how on board Leda would be to helping them. He hoped by opening with the fact he also worked a tech gig that she would perk up to him and not shut them out immediately.

---

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Location: Château de La Lune:
Skills: N/A

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---

Brendan nodded. He trusted that Millicent's instincts were right. Elenore was who they had to talk too. They'd have to be careful, if she was directly involved, they wouldn't want to make her suspcicious. They'd have to act like it was just casual conversation as they helped her with what she asked them to do. Brendan tried to stay calm, though his heart was starting to beat faster. Even if Elenore was dangerous, they'd be fine being with her if they also had each other, right?

"I think you're right. We'll stay together while we're with her. What do we say to her? We can't let it look like we're directly questioning, or getting suspicious of her?"

---

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---

George and Richard left the room. Richard was leaning heavily on the other man. George looked back at Tony and mouthed, “Later.”

Elenore was still in the ballroom. If she had eaten, she had taken her food directly from the kitchen, as she had never joined them in the dining room.

---

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Lena looked up as the trio approached her. She had a fairly neutral look on her face, only slightly trending toward annoyed. “First, my name is Lena. Not Leda. Second, AV, so you know how to set up a camera.” Her tone was dismissive. “What in the world could you need from me?”

Ralph shifted, uncomfortable with Lena. She was prickly in a way Ralph wasn’t sure how to deal with. In his normal life, he was in the position of being the expert as a pilot. But right now, he felt like a fish out of water. He glanced through the door by the bar and into the study or library beyond. Climbing up the stairs, laboriously, were George and Richard. Ralph frowned. Interesting. If all the rooms for the family were upstairs, why not go through the foyer and up those stairs? Why go all the way into that room and then upstairs? He heard a beep as a code was entered, and then the door at the top of the stairs opened. He turned his attention back to Lena.

“Could we see the router?”

“The internet isn’t available for guests. Grandmother believes that this event should be free from distractions of the ‘real world’.”

---

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Millicent shrugged. "At this point, maybe we should start accusing. There's too much going on around here for her to continue to play dumb about it. We'll start by helping, maybe bring up that we just spoke to Richard. We don't have to say what we asked, but it'spretty obvious he is struggling with mental decline in some way. That can't be a good look for the patriarch of this family."

She stood up, waiting for Brendan, before she made her way to the ballroom. As she did, her mind worked through the puzzles that kept piling on. Hopefully the others were working through their own problems. Though something still bothered her. She didn't fully trust anyone else. They could easily cover up their involvement.

She would work through that later. She came to Eleanor. "Still working hard? We came back to help, if you still need it." She gave a warm smile while she waited for the response. "We spoke to Richard also. He had a lot to say about recent events. I do hope it isn't getting to him. He seemed...lost."

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”More than just how to set up a camera, I worked electrical and did wiring and lighting for plays. Aaaand being the resident geek meant having to also be the resident Geek Squad, helping with anything that required an electrical pulse including things like the wifi and routers. Sorry that we had gotten your name wrong though, I must’ve misheard it. Not exactly fluent in hearing the French accent just yet, but I’m trying, honest.” Sam took a seat across from Lena, looking towards Ralph and Rhi before back towards their subject of conversation. He wasn’t exactly sure what her deal or angle was, and that made it more difficult to work with. He gave her a leveled look, looking with his eyes to the bar and the two who climbed up towards a secret room and then fixating his gaze once more towards Lena.

”Well there’s been enough distractions so far wouldn’t you say? Or did you forget that there’s currently a body in the freezer of your kitchen while we wait on a boat for rescue due to storms and to top it off more guest have been missing that cannot be found. Who’s to say a little distraction is what some people need right now. I don’t know, but what I do know is this. You don’t seem to want any distractions whatsoever, you’re content being with yourself and alone on your computer, and that’s all well and fine. Show us the router and we can be on our way, refuse to do so and I can make sure we have every single meal together for the rest of our stay here so that you never feel like you're alone again. How’s that sound?” Sam’s tone matched Lena’s though it held a bit of bite to it so show that his threat was serious. He would make sure she never had another moment of peace so long as they didn’t gain access to that router.

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Rhiannon opened their mouth to push back on Lena when Sam cut in. Rhi focused on Sam, wondering why he was rambling so much until he delivered the punch line. Rhi snorted and covered her mouth. They did not see that coming from Sam. He seemed so…golden retriever-like.

”I really don’t think this event ended up going how anyone wanted. I mean, someone died, and someone’s missing. A distraction is a better use of all our time. Either that or we start snooping around the house or making more trouble for your grandmother out of boredom.”

---

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Location: Château de La Lune:
Skills: N/A

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Brendan was surprised. Did Millicent really think it was good to start being more bold? Then again, maybe it was a good idea. They needed to figure out what was going on. Maybe if it was her, and they caught her in the act, she'd get scared to keep on killing. Or, better yet, she'd do the movie villain thing, and start monologuing her plan, and they could record it and have proof for when the cops got here, if the cops ever got here. Did people do that in real life? Reveal their evil plan once caught? It seemed like it would be a bad idea, and no one had ever done it, but also, would the trope really be so popular if there hadn't been real life cases?

Brendan nodded, agreeing with Millicent, and trying to be brave. If he looked scared or like he wasn't sure when questioning someone, it wouldn't work. He needed that confidince. If only he'd had time to get in drag that morning, he kept thinking, though he was starting to wonder if there was anything that would help him feel brave in such a weird situation.

He followed Millicent back to Elenor, smiling politely as she offered their help again. Millicent then started the questioning, although subtly for now, talking about how she was worried about Richard. Brendan nodded, following her lead. "He really seemed upset. I feel so bad for him. He really did seem lost." He went quiet after that, waiting to see what Elenor would say.

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Elenore smiled as Millicent and Brendan rejoined her in the ballroom. “Ah, good, you’re back. I am almost finished with everything in here. The last thing I need is perfect for the two of you to do. Would you go into the bar, find Lena, and request that she come in to make sure the slideshow is set up?”

At the mention of Richard, her smile falters a little. “It is unfortunate how hard he has taken the situation. He is quite focused on the Government’s offer to buy vineyards. The declining drinking rate has hit many vineyards hard. He is in the minority in his desire to sell and move.”

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The phrase, her eyes flashed with anger, came to Ralph’s mind as he watched Lena’s face. Sam was not so subtly threatening her, and she was pissed about it. Ralph hid a wince. Sam was being intense. He didn’t blame him, though. Ralph felt like they had

Lena glanced at Rhiannon. “Neither of those things is my fault.” She turned her attention back to Sam. “What in the world do you want with the router anyway?”

Ralph glanced at the other two. Unsure if they should be honest with Lena or lie. “We want to know who hired the maids,” Ralph explained.

“Oh, that’s all. I can just tell you that.” Lena grinned. “I did. Lawrence is a creep, and I was hoping he’d get punched by someone. Due to his current behavior, he will not be allowed to return next year. Now if only I could get him removed from Grandmother’s will. I’m fairly certain he killed someone in the 90’s, but I can’t quite prove it. Not that Grandmother likely wasn’t involved in covering it up.” Lena looked extremely proud of herself.

Ralph looked at her, confused. That was the most forthcoming anyone had been so far.

---

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Wow. That came out of left field. Rhiannon looked at Ralph, noting the confusion on his face, before looking at Sam. Well, that worked out exceptionally well.

”So you hired his previous escorts? How did you find out about them in the first place?” Wait. Did that even matter to this investigation?

”Nevermind. Why do you think he killed someone? Lawrence is an ass with a temper. And a misogynist. Probably racist, too, but a murderer?” Of course, that would make him prime suspect number one. But Lena did say she wanted to get Lawrence out of the will. And Renee could have been written in if her plan to get to Richard had worked out.

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Sam wasn't entirely certain how well telling Lena the truth of the matter was going to be, but to his surprise it worked out very well. Turns out she alone hired the would-be maids in an effort to remove that asshole from the will. But that placed another question into the back of his mind, what more would she be doing to rid someone of their position within that will. Would she murder? Blackmail? The second of which seemed more up her alley. Sam stood quiet as the other two talked, noting the pride in Lenas voice at the revelation.

”I'm sure she found out the same way we were about to. She seems pretty tech savy and, correct me if im wrong, knew the sleezeball was up to something shady and in searching for it found the perfect opportunity. Though Rhi has the right of it, what makes you think he murdered someone back then? Whats more if he did do it then chances are he'd do it again, maybe even to take someone else out of a will.” If he knew about Renee, about her connection to the family, that's reason enough to kill her, even more so, if the grandfather died the same way…Sam desperately wanted to ask Lena about the relationship between those two now.

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Tony nodded when Constance said she was done eating, stacked his dishes in a neat pile, and stood. ”We shall,” he agreed, offering his arm.

Constance gently took his arm and moved in close, and sighed softly. She could hear a bit of a commotion with Richard, and arched her brow as she moved with Tony, and frowned a bit. ”Seems things are getting more interesting.” She whispered softly to Tony.

Tony glanced over his shoulder as they left the room, taking in the scene; George and Felix seemed to be trying to comfort Richard. ”Certainly seems like the reaction of someone who wanted to reconnect with his daughter, not someone that wanted her dead,” he observed quietly. Maybe Richard would be someone they could get some answers from.

”We can talk to him later. I think he’ll be unconsolable for a bit. But, I do agree. I doubt he wanted her dead.” Constance had some thoughts, but she couldn’t articulate them at the moment. Not with so many of the family there, and possibly listening. She really hoped that Richard would be willing to talk to them, but perhaps Millicent had pushed too much, too fast and too hard. It sounded like he had just found out about his daughter and had lost her in the same day.

”You think Sam and Jeanne are done?” Constance looked up at Tony, and then out to where they had been sitting.

Nodding in agreement regarding Richard, Tony led the way into the solarium, where he’d talked to Jeanne earlier. ”Hopefully, they’ve had plenty of time to talk,” he answered. Sure enough, as they were walking in, he seemed to be heading for the dining room. Tony nodded as they passed him; there’d be time to compare notes later.

Constance nodded softly, and looked over to see that Sam had stepped out and then nodded as they passed him and then went to step into the room, and smiled softly to Jeanne. ”Hello, do you mind if we join you for a bit?”

hr]

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Location: Château de La Lune:
Skills: N/A

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"He wants to leave?" Brendan asked. Who would want to leave the chatubo, Brendan wondered, it was so cool and fancy, almost perfect, except for the lack of boats and excess of murder. Actually, now Brendan could think of why someone would want to leave. "Does he have somewhere else he wants to go instead?" Brendan asked. "It's nice here, isn't it?" Brendan hesitated, "...What do you want to do?" he asked, hoping it didn't seem like pushing. But if Elenore did want to leave, maybe that was something. Some grudge against someone else here? Not wanting to host the competition anymore? Maybe Elenore was the killer. That would be a great way to get the competition cancelled...though surely two dead bodies was not good for property value, if she did want to leave...then again she was rich, maybe it didn't matter to her?

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“He just wants to return to London,” Elenore says London with disdain. One of the few clear emotions she has shown. “It is nice here. This has been in my family for several generations. My father is the one who brought it into the brilliance you see here. Without him the La Lune family would have gone into obscurity long ago. We owe it to his legacy to continue this vineyard and his award ceremony.” This she says with pride. As if all the work her father had put into the vineyard was her own.

---

Jeanne’s plate had been cleared and she was sitting reading a book. She glanced up when Tony and Constance entered. “Hello.” She paused for a moment and then smiled. “I don’t mind. Please sit down.” Jeanne gestured to the seats arrayed.

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“Got it in one,” Lena acknowledged Sam’s comment about her being tech savvy. “As for how I believe he killed someone, one sec.” She turned her attention back to her computer, she typed a few keywords and then turned the computer as a PDF popped up. It contained a flyer for a missing person’s report. The missing person was a young man named Pierre, he had gone missing in October of 1995. “Pierre and Lawrence worked together at a radio station back in the day. They had a contentious relationship. I’ve listened to hours of tapes of them at work and,” she whistled. “It was nasty. The next part is hearsay but Lawrence was heard by another coworker off air telling Pierre that he'd kill him. Importantly is the night that Pierre went missing Lawrence ended up in the hospital with a head injury. After that he was basically unemployable. His personality supposedly shifted. I don’t know about that, from what I can tell he’s always been a creep and a prick, but after that head injury, which he claimed was from a bar fight, but they never found the other guy, he couldn’t hold down any job. He ended up just mooching off of family and that’s how he has been my whole life.”

“Let me get this straight, you think he killed Pierre, but got the head injury during the fight with him or something?”

“They never found Pierre. He is still listed as officially missing, but the case is so cold they won’t touch it anymore. This was thirty years ago. Before I was even born. So, I can only give you my theory. But I’m sure I’m right.”

“Why did the head injury make him unemployable?”

Lena sighs at that question. “He’s a basket case. You saw how volatile he was at dinner and after. Could you imagine trying to work with him?”

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Millicent had been thinking as Eleanore opened up more. While she was no expert in how he super wealthy operated, she knew that people with money tended to like keeping said money. And things like this mansion and the vineyards were all apart of that money. To hear that Richard wanted to leave to go back to London struck Millicent. Was it because Richard wanted to go back to where Renee's mother was, a type of guilt? Perhaps longing to get away from the place that took his daughter or made him miserable.

Either way, it sounded like Eleanore wasn't on board with the plan. Would she do something to keep her family here? If a nosy person, say, were stirring up trouble by asking questions about paternity, possibly stirring feelings of guilt, remorse, and longing, would Eleanore take matters into her own hands?

It was a possibility.

"We can go grab Luna. We'll be back soon." She waited for Brendan before they made their way to the bar. Once she was far enough away she whispered, "I don't know what you're thinking, but if I was in Eleanore's shoes, I would do what I could to keep my family here. A person causing trouble by looking for her birth father would throw a wrench into that."

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Constance smiled as Jeanne said they could sit, and took the seat with Tony. She hoped that some of the questions they had for her weren’t some of the same that Sam had already asked, but… they had already sought her out, and here they were. ”Thank you so much, I do hope we’re not intruding too much.”

“Oh not at all. Just wasting the time.” Jeanne sighs. “Nothing so interesting as what you all are up to with the celebration and Renee.”

Constance had to be thankful that Jeanne brought her up first, as she was one of the topics that Jeanne had mentioned before. ”Yeah, so sad about Renee. I wish I could have gotten to know her better as her suitemate, but… it’s unfortunate. And from what I understand those stairs seem to have something of a bad history around them, hmm?”

Jeanne winces a little at the mention of history. “Yeah, my grandfather, though I suppose I should say great grandfather died falling down on them. That's Elenore's father. He didn't found the winery. Technically his parents did, but he is the one who made it prosperous.”

”I’m sorry for bringing it up, loss is never easy. Did you know him at all?” Constance knew she was fishing and might not get an answer she was looking for but that was always the risk.

“Oh yeah, he only died like five years ago. I'm not that young.” She smiled. “He was a tough old man though. He loved us kids, but he had high expectations. Not that Eleanor's are any less.”

So not young, but older. There were plenty of questions Constance wanted to ask but figured some of them would be in poor taste. So, she offered her a small smile, and nodded. ”Eleanor seems to run a very tight ship in that sense, huh? I’m used to high expectations and tight schedules, but this event? Down to the minute yesterday? Was that all her?”

“The whole event is Eleanor. She does everything like that. The only reason she doesn’t on the second day is it is traditionally a relaxing day. That is how Grandfather Vorace did it. And she wants to cleave to as much tradition as possible.”

”Is this the same grandfather that we were discussing before?” Constance’s curiosity was a bit peaked at that.

“Yeah, Vorace. He’s Eleanore’s father.”

”Ah, thank you.” It seemed that maybe the award was cursed, given that the founder had suffered the fate first that had just befallen Renee. She decided to let Tony take over for a bit, let her thoughts settle.

---

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It wasn’t hard to figure out how she’d done it. Not to Sam at least, but to hear he was spot on was something that gave him a bit of pride in his work, one that almost immediately vanished as the subject continued on with the missing persons report. He wondered if there was any such report back home, if they were searching for him or even his partner or if perhaps no one even noticed or cared. When he went back home, would there be a body? Would he even go home after everything that happens here? A piece of him wondered if he would win and simply use the money to begin a new life instead. His mouth suddenly felt incredibly dry as his mind continued to wander. ”It’s a shaky alibi at best, but with no real proof what can they do? Especially if there’s no physical body to even investigate. Do you think he’d be capable of doing it again Lena? I’m sure he isn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of some of the money that he could be having going over into the hands of complete strangers.” Sam pulled a seat at the table and sat into it as he stared at the PDF that was pulled up on Lawrence. His finger tapping against his lips as he wondered if he should ask his question out loud or keep it to himself.

”Do you do research on all the nominees before they get here? I know we’ve been told that the Matriarch does all the final selections, but I doubt it’s purely based off of vibes alone. Do you help her find out more about the candidates? Or if not, do you look them up yourself just to see what might be coming in?” There was blackmail given to most everyone here after all, so Sam figured the best one to find it and dig it up for the rest to see would be Lena. But maybe she got too clumsy, Lawrence saw the one on Renee and took her out before she could siphon even more money from the family. That didn’t explain Miguel however. There were too many coincidences and nothing what quite lining up correctly yet. They didn’t have all of the pieces, and they barely even had a picture to try and make of it.

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“Thank you,” Elenore said as they left to collect Lena and her power point.

Millicent and Brandon would find Lena in the bar in her usual corner with a trio of other nominees chatting with her. Rhi, Ralph and Sam were deep in conversation with her. They’ll hear the tail end of Sam’s question.

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“Oh, yeah. Ever since Great Grandfather Vorace passed, Grandmother Elenore has been having me help with the dossiers on each nominee,” Lena answered casually. “The process is pretty simple. Someone suggests a person. That can be someone just out in the world, or a previous nominee, or even one of us. We almost always have family nominating people. But those nominations don’t get any special attention over the ones from outside the family. Elenore likes burying that information so she doesn’t even consider it when making the final decision.”

Ralph tilts his head as Lena answers the question. She seems unconcerned about the question, but she doesn’t meet their eyes when she says it. She fiddles with her laptop as she talks. He can’t say for sure she is lying, but something about the way she was moving made him feel like she was hiding something from them.

“How does Elenore decide on who to pick?”

“She goes through everyone’s accomplishments and sees who has potential. That’s what this is all about. The award is supposed to encourage people to keep doing their best and bringing about change and such. Vorace was all about shining a spotlight on people who could be like the next I don’t know, not Einstein but those quite important people.” Lena shrugs.

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Lawrence did have a temper; there was no denying that, but a head injury that made it worse? By the sounds of it, Lawrence had been an ass well before that. Rhiannon sat down after Sam, pondering the PDF and Lena’s tale. ”It seems this family has a lot of buried secrets. I wonder how many are buried here,” Rhi said, glancing pointedly at Ralph and Sam. They found Miguel buried on the property. Who’s to say there weren’t others? Of course, a body from 1995 would be very much a skeleton now.

Rhi rested their head in their hand. It seemed Lena had easy access to the information about, well, all of them. How much information did her laptop contain exactly? Rhiannon wouldn’t call themselves a hacking genius, but they could hold their own. Of course, they didn’t have access to a computer right now.

The easiest question would be to ask who nominated Renee. If it were any family member, they could confront them. Rhi glanced at Lena.

”Did any of the nominees have any really juicy secrets? Like Sam here? I bet he dances around his bedroom in lingerie, right?”

---

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Location: Château de La Lune:
Skills: N/A

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Brendan nodded to Millicent, glad to be alone again. It made sense, she didn't want to move or change. He could actually understand that feeling…ecxept for the murder. If she was the murderer, she was going a bit too far. If she was the murderer, they were interacting with her and being in a room with her quite a bit….He’d be fine as long as Millicent was in there with him, right? She wouldn’t murder two people at once…?

He pulled himself from his thoughts and looked back to Millicent. “Yeah. She certainly seems like she doesn’t want things to change…do you really think she’d kill because of it? There has to be some evidence we can get…catch her in a lie…or….snoop through her stuff or something, we have to be sure.”

As Brendan made his way with Millicent towards the room, they overheard. Sam was asking something about Elenore choosing who got to go, and Lena saying that it was about potential.

So Elenore had approved Brendan? It was hard to imagine that any of these rich people would have picked someone like Brendan. Well, maybe Wadsworth would have. But the others?

And did Elenore know who nominated them all? Brendan so desperately wanted to know the truth. Maybe if they did snoop Elenore’s room, he could do some side snooping to try and find that out. Surely there would be time for a little side snoopage…no. That didn’t matter. People were dead.

Still, that was weird. People who could be quite important? Brendan was just a drag queen who won some local contests….and whoever left the notes…it couldn’t have been Elenore. She wouldn’t have chosen Brendon then, right? He was confused. The notes leaver had to be someone not involved with nominating or Le Lune. But the killer….there were two deaths now. Was there two people killing? This was getting complex. He glanced over at Millicent, trying to see what she thought of what they’d just overheard.