9 — Caught in the Fuzz

"So you are saying we should pay a visit to Barbara" Amari said.

"Exactly" Daisuke said "this time Mj and the twins would go but first we need to know her location".

"In that case, I've got you covered" Raymond said with a smug smile as he brought out his phone and showed it to Daisuke. "I've pin pointed her location" Raymond said feeling proud of himself, Daisuke give him a suspicious look and asked how he got it. On hearing this, Raymond averted his gaze, Daisuke just sighed.

"Fine, I'll let you go off the hook just this once" he said. Raymond grinned and gave Barbara's address details to Mj and with that she left together with Amari and Abayomi.

Shortly after they left, Amare and Jared walked in. "We're back" Amare said. At that moment, Veronica was the only one on the ground floor, Daisuke had already taken Claire to the guest room and Raymond had left as well. She could see Amare holding some shopping bags as well as Jared. He collected the bags from Jared and went into the elevator. Jared staggered as he walked towards the reception table and slumped into the chair.

"You look tired" Veronica said

"Tell me about it, do you know how hard it is to put up with Amare and his flirting sprees, He literally firlted with every girl in the supermarket to the point he almost firlted with a grandma. I was so fed up" Jared said.

Veronica couldn't help but laugh which made Jared to give her the side eye. "I'm so glad I didn't follow you guys" Veronica said wiping a tear from her eye, "well despite his flaws, he is an amazing person to work with" Jared said.

"So this is Barbara's residence" Mj said as she got down from the car.

" Yep it sure is, looking at the address Ray gave us we've come to the right place" Amari said.

Mj rang the doorbell and a voice answered. The door opened to review a beautiful young lady. She wore glasses, had red eyes and her hair was of a silver color. "How may I help you ?" She asked.

"Hello, are you Miss Barbara silver ?" Mj asked

"Yes I am" She replied

"Okay good please can we come in, there are some things we would like to discuss with you" MJ said.

Barbara lowered her eyebrows but Mj just smiled so as to lower her guard. Seeing they meant no harm, she let them inside. She offered them seats and sat on the opposite side.

"So how may I help you ?" She asked again. "She looks stressed, maybe she has something to hide ?" Mj thought.

"Miss Barbara we are here to ask you some question and we would like you to cooperate with us, without much further ado let's get right to it" Amari said.

"Okay" Barbara said

"First of all do you know a Lady by the name miss Georgina ?" Mj asked. On hearing her question, Barbara's expression slightly changed "yes I know her" she replied.

"You guys are part of Dragonia writers' association right ?" Abayomi asked

"Yes we are" Barbara replied

"Are you aware she is dead ?" Amari asked.

"Yes I am, it's all over the news" Barbara said

"We are investigating the cause of her death and from our findings, we discovered that the painting Georgina ordered from you was forged" Amari said. Mj began to notice the gradual change in Barbara's facial expression causing her to furrow her eyebrow.

"So we would like to know how you came across the painting, we would be very grateful if you could tell us" Amari said. "Yes you are right about the fact that Georgina got to the painting from me" Barbara said. "But were you aware of the fact that it was forged ?" Mj asked, Barbara shook her head which made Mj to become more skeptical. "Where did you get the painting from ?" She asked.

"The national Art Gallery in Dragonia" Barbara said.

"But from our findings, the painting also known as flower of beauty hasn't been purchased yet" Mj said, Barbara began to avert her gaze.

"Since that's the case where did you get the painting from" Abayomi asked.

"I..."

"You ?"

"The painting... I got it from Claire" Barbara said. "Claire ? You mean Georgina's personal assistant sold it to you ?" Amari asked. "Yes that's right, when Georgina asked for the painting i was wondering where to get it, so i asked Claire amd she told me she would take care of it" Barbara said.

"Your story isn't adding up Miss Barbara" Mj said as she stood up from her chair. "When we asked you about where you got the painting from you said the national arts gallery of Dragonia, I'm pretty sure you didn't expect us to know that the original painting hasn't been bought yet" . At this moment; Mj was standing in front of Barbara looking down at her.

"Before we came here we did an extensive research on the painting, flowers of beauty, it turns out that its presently on sale at the Art gallery and one thing that Dragonia art gallery is known for is that most of the world famous paintings are usually sold there. There hasn't been in case of a forge painting apart from other art galleries" MJ said.

"But ..."

"And now you are saying that Claire is the one who gave you the painting ? Your story is quite ridiculous. If truly Claire was the one who gave you the painting, why didn't you say that from the start rather than lying about getting it from Dragonia art gallery ?" Mj asked.

Silence engulfed the room as the three of them stared at Barbara. The notice her hands trembling and sweat dripping from her face.

"Get out"

"Huh ?"

"I said get out !" Barbara said as she bolted from her seat "you guys have overstayed your welcome and I would like you to take your leave". "We are not going anywhere until you've answered our questions" Amari said sternly. Barbara gritted heart teeth are she pointed her finger as them.

"Listen you really don't know who you are dealing with. Do you really think you can threaten me ? Don't make me laugh, I have more power than three of you combined. I am part of the silver clan meaning I have tremendous magical power and the connections I have are powerful; with the snap of my fingers I can easily silence the three of you. So what if Georgina died, she got what she deserved since she doesn't know her place. How dare a wench like her put herself in the same level as me ! You better leave now or else I am going to set you up along with Claire as the killers of Georgina".

Barbara said all this with a smirk on her face.

"ppft"

"What ?"

"Aha ha ha ha ha aha ha ha"

Mj couldn't stop herself from laughing which made Barbara become more agitated.

"What's so funny ? Do you really think or what I'm saying are empty threats?" She asked.

"Honestly yeah, as you were yapping I could see your hands trembling. You have quite the big mouth for someone who is afraid of getting caught" Mj said in a haughty voice.

Barbara became red in the face and the vein appeared on her forehead. She was about to commence another yapping spree when Abayomi brought out a video recorder and played it. Barbara stopped in her tracks when she saw the video, it was a video of everything that took place some minutes ago, from the time they came in to the time she went on a yapping spree.

"Wait.... How did you.... I didn't... Mean...it" Barbara said with a shaky voice. She was so scared that her speech was it as elegant as before.

"What's wrong honey ? Where's all that confidence of yours ?" Mj asked with a wryly smile. Barbara gritted her teeth and clenched her fist, she was just about to attack Mj when Abayomi took hold of her. "What the hell ? Let go of me !" Barbara said as she tried to wriggle her arm out of Abayomi's grip but to no avail, her grip was too strong.

"I also recorded you about to attack Mj" Abayomi said. Barbara's eyes widened in shock, Mj smiled while Amari nodded his head. "Thank you Yomi, that should serve as enough evidence, you can let go of her now" Mj said. Abayomi did as she was told leaving Barbara to slump to the floor.

Mj bent down to catch Barbara's gaze. It was obvious she had given up, it was

written all over her face. "To be honest I don't feel sorry for you at all, since it has come to this it is okay to say that you are the killer" Mj said.

"Wait no I can explain, I agree I am responsible but I'm not the master mind" Barbara said.

"Yeah we know" Mj said.

"Wait what ? Then you did you come to meet me ?" Barbara asked.

"We needed proof, we can't just go in and start pointing fingers without evidence. We suspected that you maybe the master mind right hand man which eventually turned out to be true. We need you to serve as our proof so we need you to tell us everything you know" Mj said.

Barbara averted her gaze, she didn't want to see the cold expression on Mj's face.

"If I tell you, promise me I won't be implicated" she said.

"That depends on the part you played in the crime, I can't promise you until I have heard the full story. The best course of action you can take now is by telling us nothing but the truth" Mj said.

Barbara sighed and with that she told them the story behind Georgina's death without leaving out a single detail. Amari and Abayomi eyes widened in shock, Mj just sighed.

"Listen Barbara I'm afraid you also be implicated as well. With what you just said it will be very difficult to say that you are innocent, you are no different from the murderer" Mj said. "I know, I was being foolish when I thought I could go Scot free, I always knew I would face be consequences of my actions I just didn't know I will face it so soon" Barbara said.

"I'm glad you realize that" Mj said. Barbara looked at her and smiled "you're a cold person you know that " She said. "I know now come with us" Mj said.

"Here's your room number" Veronica said as she handed a card to a ghost lady.

"Thank you" the ghost lady said and left."you really are a busy person huh" a voice said, it was Claire.

"Yeah sometimes I forget that this hotel is a haven for the non humans" Veronica said.

"Its quite nice actually, non-humans will have somewhere to rest their head without worrying about their identity being exposed " Claire said.

"Yeah " Veronica said.

Suddenly the light began to flicker which lasted for a few seconds before it became steady. "This is truly a ghost hotel" Veronica thought. Claire suddenly exclaimed which startled Veronica.

"Barbara?" Claire said.

Veronica looks in the direction of Claire's gaze and saw Mj together with Amari, Abayomi and Barbara.

"Mj, Amari,Yomi ! Welcome" Veronica said. ''thank you there's a lot to talk about so we need to call Mr Daisuke" Mj said.

A few moments later, they were all sitting around the reception table. Mj, Veronica with Claire sat behind the reception table, Daisuke and Amari sat at the right end of the table while Barbara and Abayomi sad by the left end of the table. Barbara began to narrate the whole story behind Georgina's's death.

"I see so that's why she died, we need to expose the murderer so that Claire's name can be cleared" Daisuke said "hope you are aware that you are not going to go Scot free as well".

"Yes I am aware and I am prepared for that" Barbara said.

"But how do we now go about apprehending the killer ?" Abayomi asked.

"Don't worry about that" Veronica said "since we have all the puzzle pieces, I have devised a plan which we are going to use to apprehend the killer and I would like to share this plan with you all".