Elizabeth: Part XVI

(Story begins here.)

The approach from the study back to the dining room was fraught with lots of disturbingly deep thoughts. At the back of his mind, Anton could not easily dismiss the little bit of information that he had just read up on, especially the exhortation to distrust the words of the housekeeper. Each step he took forward increased the amount of skepticism he had for the advice, and even more doubts at just how lethal the entire affair surrounding Elizabeth was. The whole story sounded like an instance of the ``closed circle'' syndrome, a self-reinforcing echoing chamber when the participants in the entire affair are isolated from everyone else who might have provided a more rational and objective perspective. The key elements seemed to be in place---the isolated mansion, the unassuming housekeeper and his wife, the relatively quiet neighbourhood, the expansive grounds, the apparent wealthiness of the masters who seemed to be drawn from a pool of people that only a mysterious board of trustees know about, and last of all the mysterious board of trustees who, for one reason or another, are the key orchestrating force in populating the manor in the first place.

As he walked down the stairs, Anton started to wonder if the entire affair were merely an elaborate prank that was being played upon whoever the master of the manor was at that point in time, and that no one was actually killed or dead, and that all the previous masters, if they had actually existed, contributed their bit to the prank run by the board of trustees by leaving behind a trove of false documents that the next unfortunate victim would naturally read up and take as gospel truth, thus setting himself up for the eventual punchline. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed plausible, but then he realised immediately that there was no way of proving it while he was still in the mansion, and if it were truly an elaborate prank, he may never find proof to the contrary should he remain in the county itself, since it was exceedingly likely that the board of trustees, whoever they were, had the entire county in on the prank. That would also easily explain the large number of visitations from the various people in the county; a means of formally identifying the next official victim.

It then came upon Anton that the only way to test out that theory was to seek records from outside of the county itself. But which establishment should he go to? The ways of official reporting were beyond what Anton knew---he was never really much of a bureaucrat himself before becoming the master of the manor. Perhaps he could look up some of his solicitor friends from back in the day to see if they can give him a hand in solving this mystery. But a problem remained: he had to do it all without causing any form of suspicion. He would have to visit his friend outside of the county, and preferably alone. Anton spent the last few steps crossing the grand lobby towards the dining room rethinking his next course of action and making a note of it.

(Story continues here.)