The Confession

Marco's home was not too far from the hospital, further north from it, on rue de turenne. This way a triangle was formed between these 3 locations, and thus they were not able to drive past the hospital, even though Eugene suggested doing it. The woman was strongly against his idea, saying that it would be reckless to barge into territory where criminals were potentially roaming. Though, her talkativeness ended when Eugene asked whether it was safe to infiltrate bar "Samuel", which they had done earlier, enveloping the ride to the destination in awkward silence.

After a while, they reached a house that was densely packed with several other buildings, whose heights and pale colours slightly differed. They both exited the car and stood for a little while for Eugene to remember which house exactly was Marco's home.

"I think this one." he pointed at the house right to the central one.

Sylvia raised her brow, "You think?"

"I never even visited Marco, OK? Everything I know was told to me by Chris."

Now, the woman sighed and walked towards the house first, "I trouble to understand your overprotectiveness over a person, about whom you know barely anything."

Instead of the suggested house, she entered the central house. This stuttered the man, but the pressure of the night's uncanny hush convinced his body to move, and soon he also barged inside.

"Have not you heard me? I told you it was another house!" Eugene said it while trying to catch Sylvia's frame with his gaze. But this attempt was unsuccessful, the woman seemingly disappeared on the spot!

"And you failed this test." suddenly, her voice spread, but due to echo, Eugene still could not quite gasp the source.

"Do you want to say, that you know where he lives?"

Finally, her head showed up from the staircase. She happened to be on the 2nd floor, wryly smiling at the man. "Currently, I would like you to hurry up, but regarding the question. It was not hard to find out. In the end we were at his office with many personal belongings scattered around."

Eugene was doing heavy steps, skipping several stairs at a time, which helped him to faster catch up to the woman. She was still ahead of him, making shorter steps, but with no visible hardship. It put a smile on Eugene's face, though his heavy breathing from sudden physical activity vastly shook it off.

"And what exactly did you see in his office?"

"Post cards, personal letters, papers addressed to his home. Monsieur doctor is the definition of "Workplace: our second home". Which is only beneficial to someone like us."

Eugene made a nervous cackle at her explanation, he remembered some papers scattered around Marco's office, but he never thought of observing them. It was unethical and wrong, something controversial to his ideals. But as much as Eugene did not like this idea, it for sure was effective.

"Well, you got a point. But still, hypothetically, even if Marco is indeed the culprit, what could have been his motives?"

The woman stood at the front of the door on the 4th floor. Eugene completely caught up to her, but due to the narrow levels of the floors, he stood behind her and not besides. And so she did not even bother to look at him, she only said, "You will see." and knocked on the door.

At first, only echo from the knocks made a few laps around the house, but then soft footsteps could be heard from inside. One could expect a woman to open the door, due to how elegant and gentle these footsteps were, but the one to peek out of it was a short man, Marco.

"Oh…" the man widened his eyes, closed the door and once again opened it, but now in full. He happened to be in the outside wear, and judging by the stench of cigarettes and quiet noise of the radio, he was preparing to leave. Sylvia felt his intention and said.

"I am sorry, I guess you were ready to leave somewhere?"

Marco's face at first was bright and ready to greet unexpected visitors, but once the woman spoke to him, it immediately overgrew with gloom. The memory of their encounter was still intact and so, he uninterestingly murmured, "Not really, I just came home."

Sylvia followed up with another question, "Then, I guess, you would not mind having a little talk. You needn't worry, it will not last way too long."

Even though Eugene could see only Sylvia's back, he could feel her arrogant smile in Marco's eyes, that frowned at her. Suddenly, Christopher's colleague shot his eyes at him. Eugene just shrugged and made a begging gesture, to which Marco rolled his eyes and retreated, welcoming the unwanted guests.

It was weirdly bright inside, as if all the lights in the house were turned on, even though Marco lived alone. The doctor backed off deeper into his flat and ended up in the living room. The pair followed him and while Sylvia was as always observant of the surroundings, Eugene was hyperfocused on one aspect, Marco himself. He was keeping an eye on him in an attempt to read his mood and as expected, he was quite irritated.

Marco tuned down the radio, cleaned the table from an empty wine glass and midnight snack, and welcomed the two to sit on a small and old sofa. Marco, on the other hand, sat in a rocking chair, that was a little further away from them. Weirdly, his face was not well visible, since one of the lightbulbs of a chandelier above their heads was off, exactly the one that would have illuminated the man of the house. This really interfered with Eugene's ability to read through expression, and so he looked at Sylvia, who unexpectedly started talking.

"I would like to express my gratitude for welcoming us to your household, Monsieur doctor."

"And I did not let you for this fake sense of tact. What do you want from me?"

Sylvia smiled wryly and got straight to the point, "Marco, the la Avise family suspects you in the assassination of George Weisen."

At first, Marco was sitting in silence, but then a faint giggle wafted from his corner, "This is ridiculous, it was Christopher operating him, not me!"

"And we are well aware of that," Sylvia unexpectedly stood up, "But you are the one who drugged Monsieur Christopher before the operation."

After hearing out the accusation of the arrogant woman, Marco titled his head to the left, but then calmly said either looking at Sylvia or Eugene, "What the hell does this supposed to mea!?"

"Marco, I am sor-"

"Silence, Eugene Dagaz." Sylvia snorted and then slowly moved to her right, past the man who still sat down, "After the investigation we conducted, you are the only likely candidate for this role. Italian spy, who is secretly working in collaboration with nationalists against the Popular Front of France. The way you conducted such mischief is surprisingly clever! You have stolen Christopher's medical card, found out about his allergy to anise, likely researched or simply knew about its effects and gave coffee flavoured with anise as a present. And now, not only you destroyed your dear friend's career, but also giving a way for other criminals to end his life."

All this time she was slowly walking towards the wall, placing herself further away from two men who followed her with their mouths open. The one, of course, to express his negativity towards such serious accusation was Marco.

"What a total load of bullshit!" He stood up and made several heavy steps towards her. At that moment, Sylvia glanced over Eugene. Her emerald eyes were glowing with demand of help, which Eugene subconsciously agreed to give her. He pulled away from the sofa and stood in between Sylvia and Marco. He was finally able to behold the expression of his brother's friend. His eyes were bloodshot and teeth gritted in fury, it did not feel like a man was standing in front of him, but rather a beast! Still, Eugene stood his ground, did not let him get any closer to the one whose slender and fragile hand pulled down the back of his shirt.

At that moment, when Marco witnessed the aggression in the eyes of someone he considered family, the man retreated, giving Eugene space to breath. Meanwhile, Sylvia pulled out some kind of paper. It was a document hidden in the cabinet behind them. And once Marco took a glance over it, he gulped down.

"If it's a total bullshit, as you put it, then I would like you to explain the reason why you have a hold of Christopher's medical card."

It was indeed a medical card with an imprinted Christopher's face. The one that was strangely missing from Dagazs' household. Eugene could not believe his eyes, he slowly took the paper from Sylvia's hands. She let it go without a struggle. On the other hand, Marco shakily limped towards the rocking chair. He dived into it, took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up. Shortly after, acrid smoke filled the room, as if the embodiment of dread.

After a few puffs, Marco looked back at the pair and reluctantly mumbled, "Well, seems like you got me there…"