"Quite calm, actually. But I'm not really the best source of information. At that time, I was already living in London. I rarely came back at the manor. You could ask Charlie. But he was boarding at school then, so he might not also be a reliable source of information."
"How about servants? I've been informed that Saunders had worked with the family back then? Could he be a reliable source of what happened then?" he asked, making a segue to Saunders.
"That guy? Maybe he could. He'd been working for our family since he's a young lad after all."
Luo Yan quickly took down that information. "Oh? When did he start working for your family?"
"I'm not really quite sure. I just know that he started as a teenage boy, working odd jobs around the house. Then when he learned how to drive, Father assigned him as the family's chauffeur."
Not caring much about servants was certainly in line with this guy's character. Luo Yan could probably not gain any new information about Saunders from him. But there's still one thing he could learn from the other.
"I was told that the only servant your father brought to the Americas was the former butler. Do you know why Saunders is still working for your family if that was the case?"
"Ah, he seemed to have mention that Father called him back to work for him again."
"Did that mean that Saunders was laid off 20 years ago and then hired again when your father returned this year?"
"It's quite unusual for him to return after 20 years, don't you think?" Luo Yan asked.
"Not really. Father gave generous severance pay to all the servants who survived the fire back then. That money was definitely enough to support someone in their station for the rest of their lives. If Father called them back to work for him again, they would definitely not hesitate to agree."
Luo Yan caught an important word from what the other said. "Them? Is Saunders not the only one who returned to your family's service?"
"Yes. The housekeeper – Mrs. Green, she's also our former housekeeper."
A housekeeper? First the driver, now even the housekeeper might possibly be involved in this whole debacle. No, maybe Luo Yan was simply thinking too much. The housekeeper might not be connected to this at all. But it wouldn't hurt to look into it. And so, he wrote down the name of the housekeeper on his notepad.
Now that he finished with that, he should move to the next thing on his list.
"Did you notice anything unusual that night the explosion happened?" he asked.
"I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary if that's what you wanted to ask," Edward said. "I arrive late that night with my deceased wife and our son. We just had dinner and were about to rest for the night when the explosion happened. We almost all died back then. So, I couldn't understand how Father could even think that we had something to do with it. But then again, it hardly mattered now. Since Father is- was already—"
The other suddenly became silent. Luo Yan was surprised to see the sadness on Edward's eyes. For all the negative traits this guy had, he seemed to really care for his father.
"Which rooms were you and your family were staying that night?" he asked.
"I stayed at my old room. My deceased wife and our son also stayed at the same wing."
"And which wing of the manor was that?"
Luo Yan raised one of his brows. If the explosion started in the right wing and then slowly moved to the left wing, Edward and his family would have ample time to leave the manor. He hardly thought that they would be in imminent danger.
He continued to ask some more questions. Once he was satisfied, he finally asked something that he felt might have some connection to all of this.
"Did your mother die of natural causes?"
Edward was about to answer, then, as if realizing something, he said instead, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Just humor me, please," he said with a smile.
"Yes, she died of a sudden heart attack."
Luo Yan wrote that down. "That will be all then, Mr. Edward."
Edward stood up. "When do you think rescue will come?"
"Three-four days give or take," Luo Yan said.
Since the task given to them would end in about three days, dungeon-time wise, then it's safe to assume that the police or any other authority would arrive by then. After all, if they didn't, then how else would they leave here?
After Edward left, Luo Yan told the servant to call in young Harry. The poor kid was pale white, obviously still very shaken by what happened. The other was so rattled, he could barely answer any of Luo Yan's question. Updates are released by novel⟡fire.net
Considering that Harry was still too young 20 years ago, he could barely remember anything what happened then. And with his current state, his answer became even more unreliable. So, Luo Yan simply decided to ask the other again later once he had ample rest.
With that, Luo Yan let the kid go. The next on his list was young lady Daphne. Unlike her cousin, the young lady was faring much better. When she entered the study, she looked around with curiosity. Although there's still a bit of timidity in her movements, her steps were full of energy.
It's very contradictory to how she acted during dinner. Or maybe she was simply holding herself back because of her father.
"Please, sit down, Miss Daphne," Luo Yan said, gesturing for the other to sit.
Daphne demurely sat down. "I- I will answer any of your questions, detective."
"That's good. Then, can you tell me what were you doing between the time of 12 and 1 AM?"