51. The New Detective.

[Luke]
"Come in," I said coldly.
After the confrontation with Sir Thomas, the older man started to avoid me and I couldn't even blame him, Liam was also pretty confused and shaken too and I had not seen him since then, he did not come to work and when I tried to go see him at his house, he would not let me in.
I tried not to make problems for people and so I was also avoiding Claire, she had sent me a bunch of messages and tried to contact me a lot of times but I had ignored all of her attempts.
I tried to convince my father to call off the engagement ceremony but the only thing I succeeded in doing was buying more time for myself.
The King agreed to push back the ceremony for a few more months if I agreed to more public appearances with Megan, I agreed on the condition that I still am allowed to keep my identity a secret and he agreed.
I was sure that Liam had seen the pictures and heard the news about us, he must feel betrayed and I'm sure that was why he was avoiding me but it was better that way.
I had to set my house in order and he wouldn't understand what I had to do, even Claire wouldn't understand too and that's why I needed some space from her right now.
If I wanted to beat my father, I had to play the same game he was, we were building a house of cards and when he was least expecting, I would topple it all to the ground with one single move.
"Sir, the men you invited are here to see you." My assistant announced shakily.
I wondered what I had done to make him fear me so much but then I didn't have to wonder that far.
"Let them in." My voice was cold and my face expressionless.
I felt numb since I'd temporarily cut off Claire, I felt like I was just existing and not living and I wondered what kind of father the King was that he had not noticed the lost fire in my eyes.
I missed my mother so much I had to look up and try to blink my tears away, I couldn't cry in front of these men.
"Your highness, I've found the best detective as you requested." My man said and I cracked a small smile.
"So you're the man who can find anyone, even those that took ant to be lost and discreetly at that?" I asked the scrawny looking man in front of me.
"That would be affirmative, your highness." The man said and I nearly rolled my eyes, he was such a nerd.
"What is your name and how do I know that I can trust you?" I asked him.
He looked young, maybe a little younger than me, he was probably in his early twenties or mid twenties.
He had dirty blond colored hair and pale blue eyes, he was tall about six-one and lean with a bit of an athletic build, he wore a baby blue shirt which complimented his eyes and dark trousers, he also had a round pair of glasses on.
It was safe to say that he looked like a computer geek and not a detective.
The man looked down and then began to type something on his phone ignoring my question, I stared at my assistant who looked like he was about to shit himself, and my bodyguard who was just waiting for me to give the signal.
I decided to wait for a little, maybe he had something important to attend to or a lover he urgently had to text, I could not hold that against him because I had texted Claire in a confederation meeting before.
Just as I was running out of patience, he raised his head up and looked me straight in the eye.
I had to admire his courage and confidence.
"My name is Erik, your highness." His accent sounded a bit pronounced as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "I fink the best way to prove that you can trust me is by showing proof." He said, thrusting his phone in my face.
"What am I looking at here?" I asked him.
"Your exact location yesterday and even some pictures." He said swiping sideways on his phone.
Wow, color me impressed but of course, I'd never show it.
"I hacked your phone and got the information from your device location history, I also pulled the photos from the satellite. He said smugly.
"So, what if you don't have access to any phone, what if the only information you have is a very old postal address and a bunch of letters?"
"I just need the name of the person, a recognizable image or description, and the year on the letters." He answered.
"And what are you going to find out with them?"
"I'll run a scan of the image and try to find the person from every public camera I can hack into, once I can pin a location, it will not be hard to find the person from there if they are still alive."
"That means you can find anyone anywhere in the world." I raised a brow, unable to keep my aloof expression.
"That would be another affirmative, Sir." He smiled at me and dropped his hands on the table.
"I will pay you however much you charge if you can find someone for me within a short period and without asking questions."
"If you have the information I requested, I can start today and I'll call your guard the minute the person is found." He said.
"I like your spirit, Erik." I cracked a small smile. "You can have my private number, I would like you to call me once the job is done," I said and stood up to leave the room. "My assistant will correspond with you on anything you may need, he'll handle the payment however you like it and he'll give you whatever information you need."
From the corner of my eye, I caught my assistant handing him a brown envelope as I walked out of the room and my mind went back to the time when I had gathered the information.
It was the moment Claire had received a call from her father and a visit from what's his face, while she slept, I went through her drawers, she was not good at hiding everything and I found the letters, her mother's profile and a random picture, I quickly took a picture of everything and sent them to my assistant, he had then scanned them and printed them out as documents.
I might not be able to tell her my truth but I would help her to find her own truth.
.
.
[Claire]
"I thought you had broken up when you said it was an emergency." Sophie rolled her eyes at me.
"Michele, can you tell her not to be mean to me today, I'm sad." I pouted, dragging a bowl of ice cream closer to me.
"It's okay dear, quit being une garce gars grincheux." He glared at Sophie.
(Meaning: a bitchy grumpy guy)
"Fine, I'm sorry, can you tell us what happened?" She asked.
"He's been ignoring my calls and texts." I sniffed, stuffing a huge spoon of ice cream into my mouth.
"Son of a chienne." Sophie spat out angrily.
(Meaning: female dog)
"No, I think something is wrong with him, but he doesn't want to talk about it, the last night we spoke after the ball, he took me to a bridge and we sat in each other's arms quietly." I defended him.
"That doesn't mean shit, I told you about men and their antics, all of them are the same, just fils de pute." She spoke harshly.
(Meaning: sons of bitches)
"What do you think, Mich, is he dumping me?" I decided to ask a neutral person, Sophie seemed to have a strong dislike for the menfolk.
"No, his eyes always shine when he's around you, no doubt that man has a lot of love for you, grand amour." He said gesturing big with his hands.
(Meaning: big love)
"Then why is he avoiding me?" I cried. "I don't understand it, have I ever done anything to upset him or push him away?"
"No baby, don't ever think like that, it's not your fault, you did nothing wrong." Sophie climbed beside me on the couch and pulled me into her embrace.
"It's not you, sometimes men just have demons, demons that they must face in order to be with the one they truly love," Michele said, comforting me.
"Really?" I asked, my eyes shining with unshed tears.
I smiled and tried to wipe my cheeks when he nodded.
"You're full of shit Michele, don't listen to him dear, I'm going to find Jean and when I do I'll give him a piece of my mind, might even stick my boot so far up his ass he'll be vomiting laces for weeks."