a lazy afternoon   von alanqi
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                          Kapitel 1: a lazy afternoon
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Cain was sitting in his favourite chair in the library of Hargreaves Mansion. It
was late afternoon and the weather outside simply seemed to wet and windy to
leave the house, even for a short walk. Cain had sprawled his legs over the
sides of his armchair reading the weekly chronicle. There seemed to be no new
files, no unsolved mysteries, not even a missing cat. London was getting quite
boring nowadays, he thought. What is a man to do if there is no crime to
investigate? A knock on the door took his interest, it might be a visitor. The
so called visitor turned out to be his tea. His butler brought the tablet to the
little mahagony table in front of the sofa and served the tea into the single
cup he brought.

“Your tea is ready, master Cain”, Riff said bowing slightly.

“Thanks Riff” , Cain smiled “but I’d rather prefer something
stronger.”

Riff raised his eyebrows.

“And what might that something be?”

“Don’t know maybe an unsolved murder, a great affair in the city, or just a
drop of scotch added to my tea.”

Riff smiled before bowing slightly.

“As my master wishes” he uttered leaving the room to fetch the scotch his
master had proposed to like added to his tea.

It was the right weather to utter a wish like this he thought. The coldness kept
creeping into the house however high the fires were burning; the servant part
was even colder. Riff sneezed; he had to enter the cellar to get the bottle he
was searching, the kitchen supplies were used up too. Not a single drop left due
to the lingering coldness and the freezing servants. Riff sighed fetching a
candle. He took the silver chandelier next to the kitchen trespass to the
dungeons. He didn’t like the dark down under but there was no way to spare him
the search down yonder. With another sigh he opened the door, took the
chandelier with four candles carefully lighted and began climbing downstairs. It
was only two flights of steps but the air in this part was unbearable cold, it
was to far away from the heating room. It had to be cold though otherwise the
food down there would spoil, and the wine too. Riff sneezed again; maybe he was
getting a fever. His sight got a little unclear, but he was used to such things
by now and he was never ill, especially not when his master was asking something
from him, like a few drops of scotch for his tea.

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