It was a humid, mid-October afternoon when Shaun and Jeffrey knocked on a luxurious door belonging to a Victorian villa situated in the suburbs of Manchester city. Opening the mahogany door, their client- Mrs Schwarz, an old lady presumably with African origins, greeted them. "Ah! You must be Mr Lee and Mr Donovan?" the old lady said with a slight tinge of a German accent, "Me and my grandson are in the living room, please come in."
"Please, just call us Shaun and Jeffrey," Shaun replied.
As the two boys entered the enormous hall of the Victorian villa, they stared in awe after perceiving that the entire place was furnished with Victorian-style furniture, from the Persian carpets to the luxurious curtains, one could not help but to wonder whether one had indeed travelled back in time to the Victorian Era.
After being led through some winding corridors into the drawing room, the boys discovered that, although the entire house was extremely ancient, all the furniture barely had any tell-tale signs of age, it was as if they were brand new.
"This is my grandson- Stuart," the old lady introduced as she pointed to a boy in his teens wearing a suit, who was sitting on a red, Victorian settee and eyeing Shaun and Jeffrey suspiciously.
"Hello, nice to meet you!" Jeffrey extended his hand towards the boy, but the latter only stared at him in disdain.
Shaun and Jeffrey pulled a chair next to the settee, and sat down to discuss the purpose of their visit. "As I have told you from my telephone call, me and my grandson are from Germany. However, as Stuart was going to study in an university in the UK, we have decided to move here, so have bought this Victorian villa several months ago, surprisingly quite cheaply, considering its location and many merits, from a French business man, who had claimed that he was returning to France," elucidated Mrs Schwarz, "Nevertheless, we soon realised that this place was way too big since there were only two of us, so we have decided to rent a flat not far from here, and let this villa out for lease."
"But after renting it for a week, your tenant claimed to have heard music played from a piano every night at midnight, so was forced to break off the contract," Jeffrey added.
"Indeed," Mrs Schwarz affirmed, "At first, I have suspected that it was just a lie acting as an excuse to break off the contract. However, after inquiring about it in the neighbourhood, all of them claimed to have heard music of some sort coming from this house at midnight some time in the last week of the time of my inquiry. But, unfortunately, I was unable to find the cause of this music, as not only is there is no piano in this house, but also, even if there were, and someone had played it, the neighbours couldn't have been able to hear it so clearly."
"Hence, you suspected that there was something supernatural about this, so have employed us to solve the mystery for you," Shaun continued, whilst Stuart sat there rolling his eyes. All this while during their conversation, a maid who was pretending to be busying herself with some cutlery, was in fact, secretly eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Judy, come and say hello to the detectives," Mrs Schwarz said to the maid as she caught her listening. Then the maid, dressed in a Victorian-style long dress and apron came and gave them a bow, but not forgetting to eye the detectives with distrust.
~To be Continued~
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