ITSD l CH 04

Chapter 4

Case File 1: The Cruise Cabin Murder (3)

“It’s just crushed candy powder,” the maid mumbled, shrugging her shoulders. Ugh, that almost made my heart drop. Seeing this, both the Count and I followed her lead and tossed the powder into our mouths. It popped in my mouth, and the familiar taste of Hawaiian Blue spread. Oh, it’s delicious.

“I see, just candy powder, then,” the Count nodded in understanding.

The maid started complaining about how those ignorant detectives took our lady away. I thought this could take a while, but I didn’t stop her. I figured I’d let her vent a bit while I continued putting candy powder into my mouth. This would be amazing sprinkled over ice cream.

“Lady, as delicious as this candy is, I think you should save some for later,” the Count softly reminded me, now focusing on the maid who was still cursing the detectives. Right. This was evidence. I quickly shook the powder off my hands and carefully wrapped the paper back up.

“Well then, the mystery of the white powder is solved. Let’s go back to the scene, Count. We might have missed something.”

I had to catch the real killer to clear my name. If I just sat back and waited, I might end up as the culprit in this story. I couldn’t just stand around, so I stood up and began to walk out, to the surprise of both the Count and the maid.

“What’s going on? Why are you leaving?”

“No, it’s just that I didn’t think the lady would come with us…”

“Lady! You can’t go out dressed like that!”

The maid’s voice was louder than the Count’s. With her hands on her hips, she spoke dramatically.

“You can’t leave like that.”

“No, I’m in a hurry—”

“No, you can’t! Not until your hair’s done. Oh my, your dress is all wrinkled! You need to change clothes too.”

“I need to catch the killer to clear my name—!”

“It doesn’t matter if the killer’s an old man! You can’t go out looking like that!”

She quickly sat me down in the powder room and began brushing my curly hair, showing no sign of listening to me. I looked at the Count with pleading eyes, but he just smiled that refreshing smile of his and said he’d come back soon. Traitor!

In the end, I spent a full hour getting my hair done and another hour changing into fresh clothes. What takes two hours to do your hair and get dressed? But thanks to it, I was looking sharp, and I learned some new information. While sitting there, I found a pass and some other details about the maid.

First, her name was Annie, and while she wasn’t my personal maid, she had been assigned to take care of me during this cruise. And the owner of this body, she said, was Jane Shaneford, the 23-year-old only daughter of the Shaneford Count. Jane Shaneford smiled brightly in the pass.

‘It really does look like my face…’

Though this was in a novel, and the background made her look perfect with different hair and eye colors, without those filters, she looked a lot like my own face. I had noticed it when I saw the photo earlier, but now looking at her face in the mirror, I felt strangely uneasy, like I was staring at myself.

‘Ugh, what if the culprit looks just like me?’

As I thought to myself, Annie continued explaining. Jane’s family had made their fortune in the wine business, using rich land to produce wine, and the limited edition Shaneford wine was coveted by many. She went on about the rest of Jane’s backstory—about the Marquis, whom Jane secretly admired.

The Marquis was the perfect male lead from a drama. At just 25, after the Marquis passed away, he left behind a legacy, becoming the head of his family’s business and expanding it beyond his father’s dreams. He was also known for his great manners and personality, making him the object of many young women’s affection.

Jane had fallen for the Marquis in a very classic way. One day, she dropped a brooch, and the Marquis picked it up for her. After that, she fell for him at first sight and had been smitten ever since. This cruise was her way of celebrating her birthday, asking her father, the Count, for a special birthday present—a cruise trip, all because the Marquis would be aboard.

But what does it matter now? If this story hadn’t gone the way it did, the Marquis would have never used his potential, and Jane would have ended up as the murderer of the man she loved.

“You wanted to go directly to the scene to clear your name, so I didn’t stop you, but please, be extra careful,” Annie said, looking at me one last time before I left. It seemed like she felt uneasy about sending me into a place where someone had died. As I reached the door, she continued to speak.

“Nothing bad’s going to happen, is it? There are a lot of detectives there, and the Count is with me,” I reassured her, opening the door.

“Yes, Lady, your safety is assured,” came the Count’s voice from behind me. I was startled to see him standing by the door.

The Count extended his hand, and I took it, walking out of the room with him.

“So, am I still a suspect?” I asked bluntly.

The Count responded honestly, “Well, the suspicion has decreased, but there are still some doubts. For example…”

“Like if I mixed poison into the candy powder?”

When he didn’t say anything, I took his silence as confirmation. The doubts kept piling up, and clearing my name wasn’t going to be easy. It looked like the only way to prove my innocence was to drink that wine… though once a shadow had been cast over you, getting rid of it wasn’t that simple.

“Lady, do not drink the wine,” the Count warned, as if reading my mind.

“I understand your desire to prove your innocence quickly, but you see, even if it wasn’t you, someone else could have mixed something else into the powder, or maybe someone tampered with the wine bottle.”

As someone walked down the opposite hallway, the Count guided me to walk inward and continued speaking.

“I know you don’t like the label of being a suspect, but it’s more important to stay alive. If you die, restoring your honor will be much harder. As long as you’re alive, there’s always a chance to fix things.”

It was reasonable advice, but in this novel where I was supposed to be the culprit, I wasn’t so sure there would be a ‘later’ for me. Wait a second. I suddenly stopped in my tracks.

To rephrase that, if I drank the wine to prove my innocence, it would mean I’d probably die. That would make the novel’s wish come true, and my corpse would lie there, unable to explain itself, while the detective’s voice would ring out, saying, “As expected, the young lady did it!” Crazy, no way I’m drinking it. No way!

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on drinking it even by accident.”

Ugh, I had just had a crazy thought. I slapped my own face to snap out of it! The Count looked at me in surprise when he heard the sound of my slap, but I just marched up the stairs without acknowledging it.

“What else have you found out?”

As the Count used his master key to open the door on the 5th floor, he asked. He then gave me a confused look.

“You’re not the type to just sit still for two hours, are you?”

I spread my arms and added, “Just saying,” and the Count’s clear, refreshing laugh echoed down the hallway.

“Haha. You really know me well, don’t you?”

It’s been three years, but I would never say that out loud. I wasn’t about to be treated like a stalker.

“If you’re reluctant to tell me because you suspect me, it’s fine if you don’t answer.”

“No, it’s not that. It was just to confirm that the Marquis didn’t die from cyanide.”

The Count explained that during the two hours, he had spoken to the crew members who handled the Marquis’s room service, the service team leader, and the kitchen staff. In the vomit found at the scene, there were a few ivory-colored pieces with brown fibers attached. He wasn’t sure if it was almond, so he investigated further.

Here’s what happened: The Marquis had ordered an almond cake for dessert the night before his death, and the cake had been topped with a lot of almond pieces, many of which were still raw almonds. Some passengers who had eaten the almond cake confirmed it.

Damn, detective! It turned out to be raw almonds after all. Why didn’t they check this earlier?!

When the Count opened the door to the luxurious room where the incident happened, I muttered quietly as I walked inside.

“Useless baldhead!”

“What?!”

The detective immediately glared at me with fish-eyed eyes. Ugh, his hearing is crazy.

His ridiculous provocation made me want to glare at him in return, but I thought about my position and quickly turned my attention to the room. Aside from the white line marking the spot where the Marquis’s body had been, the room looked the same as when I had left it. It seemed the Marquis’s body had been moved to the bed.

“The powder that Lady Shaneford used was just sugar,” the Count explained what had happened.

He then mentioned that the Marquis had eaten raw almonds and that the powder I had placed in the cake was—damn it—actually a love potion. I hadn’t forgotten to glare at the half-dried detective while the Count explained everything.

The Count placed the paper bag containing extra powder in front of the detective and the officers next to him.

“A… love potion?!”

The detective asked, looking at me and the white powder on the desk in disbelief. Ugh, I know, don’t look at me like that. I awkwardly cleared my throat in embarrassment.

“Where is that even coming from? She’s the lady’s maid, so it must be some kind of trick between the two of them!”

I shot the detective a sharp glare, and the cute officer next to him started speaking, his voice trembling.

“Detective, I saw the maid when she came to fetch the lady, and I don’t think she’s lying.”

Right, right. The cute officer kept poking the cold-faced officer beside him, almost pleading with him to help. Sigh, because of this, they unknowingly got a lot of insults from our maid.

“Oh, this is ‘love potion,’ huh?”

Before the cold-faced officer could even speak, another officer appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and peeked into the room. He had the same ginger hair as me, and I couldn’t help but think, “He’s like the male version of Pippi Longstocking.” Without hesitation, the officer, true to his mischievous appearance, grabbed the powder and shoved it into his mouth.

“Ugh, my evidence is gone!”

The detective, the cute officer, and the cold-faced officer all stared at him in shock. I was surprised too, but honestly, my main concern was whether there was any powder left, so I immediately looked at the paper bag.

“Hmm, this is ‘Wind’s Breath.’ ‘Fairy’s Blessing’ tastes better, though…”

Luckily, there was still a little powder left. Damn it, that almost ruined my evidence! I glared at him, and he shrugged and added:

“It’s green apple flavor.”