It took a long time for everyone to calm down, or at least return to a tense state of normalcy. As much normalcy would be expected when your cousin is murdered. Elizabeth and Margaret were both in a state of complete shock, and Sophie gently guided them to her room. Leo himself couldn't believe it completely.

William.....dead?

That too murdered....?

He kept thinking it was all a bad joke. His first instinct, as always in the case of any mishap, had been to look at the twins, but even they looked completely shocked by this. In fact Henry looked to be even worse off than Leo, for he was reduced to a blubbering mess, tugging on his brother's sleeve. As for Charles, he just looked grimly at William's body once before closing the door.

"Excuse me, I have to calm my brother." He said to no-one in particular, and left towards the end of the corridor where his room was. Henry followed behind him dutifully like a dog behind his master. Leo stood alone in front of the door of William.

"Come here Leo." His mother called out from below, but Leo felt his feet had been turned to stone. His throat was dry, and he wondered how his mother or Charles were able to speak. It seemed impossible for him to even call out to say he was coming.

"Leo?" Sophie called out once more in a worried tone, and still Leo couldn't move or respond. He stood staring at the large wooden door of William's room.

He heard approaching footsteps, and his mother came up the stairs. Her expression immediately softened when she saw Leo staring at the door. She approached and softly put a hand on his shoulder.

"Come Leo. We cannot do anything anymore." She said gently, leading Leo downwards like she did for Margaret and Elizabeth seconds before. Leo was still in a daze until he came to his room. His mother gently guided him to the bed.

"Get some rest dear. I will wake you up for dinner." She said, ruffling his hair.

Leo nodded, and his mother stood up. As she left the room, she looked back one last time.

"Call me Leo, if anything happens." She said, her face becoming grim. It was clear that she was worried about the murderer going after him next.

And it was also clear whom she suspected.

Leo couldn't sleep properly. He did drift off into drowsiness lying there on the bed, but his thoughts returned to William. His body lying covered in blood. His face contorted in agony and fear, with a knife sticking out just below. Most of all it was his face. Leo could never forget the look of absolute horror in William's face.

But slowly and surely the fear, the horror and the trauma of that incident began to fade. Of course it was still fresh in his mind, but the bigger thought in Leo's mind currently was the identity of the murderer.

The clear suspects were of course the twins. The remaining four of them had been together from the morning, and hence they could be excluded from being suspects themselves. But would the twins really do this? Henry had seemed shocked to his core, and Leo didn't think he was that good an actor. Besides even though most of them didn't like the twins, even though they had disturbing rumours surrounding them, Leo found it hard to believe that they would resort to murder. And besides what was the motive? There certainly wasn't any motive for the twins to kill William as far as Leo was aware. And besides......

The reason the twins were the primary suspect was because the other four had been together since morning. But could that really eliminate them as suspects? No one knows when William was murdered, and no one would until a police doctor examines him. It was quite possible for any of the four of them (well three, discounting himself) to commit the murder before they had even left the mansion.

Leo shivered. He didn't think Elizabeth or Margaret or, heaven's forbid, his own mother could do something so cruel. But then again, he didn't think the twins could do this either.

And it all comes back down to one question: What is the motive?

His thoughts were interrupted by a gentle knock on his door.

"Leo you awake?" Sophie's voice floated through.

"Yeah Mom, I am coming." His voice was a bit cracked, but Leo could speak now at least. He got up from the bed grimly.

Dinner wasn't going to be a pleasant affair.

When Leo went downstairs into the dining hall, everyone apart from the twins, were already present. Sophie was sitting with Margaret at the end of the table. The latter's eyes were red and puffed up from crying, and Sophie was gently rubbing her head. Leo made eye contact with her as soon as he stepped in, and had to stop himself from wincing. He thought of what he could say to console her but nothing came to mind. Margaret's pain was too recent, too raw and he was sure nothing he could say would improve the situation.

On the opposite end from Margaret, sat Elizabeth. Like her sister her eyes were also red but, unlike her, Leo noticed a more angry look in her face. Elizabeth was staring, at nothing in particular, with murderous intent. When she caught Leo's eye, she just grimly nodded once in his direction before turning away.

Leo quietly went up and sat down beside his mother. There was a momentary silence, broken by the sound of incoming footsteps. Elizabeth looked towards the entrance, and Leo saw that the glare in her eye was doubled as she watched Charles enter.

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"I am sorry, my brother is still feeling out of sorts. He won't be able to join us." Charles said, folding his arms apologetically as he entered.

No one responded, and Charles shrugged before taking his seat at the other end of the table.

"Shall we start?" Elizabeth asked, her eyes affixed on Charles.

"Dinner first." Sophie said, firmly. Elizabeth looked once towards her, but then nodded her head in deference.

They had dinner quietly. No one said anything, in fact it seemed as if everyone was trying to avoid each other's glances.

"Now shall we start?" Elizabeth asked, a little irritatedly, after everyone was done with dinner.

Sophie nodded, and Elizabeth immediately turned to Charles.

"Why did you kill my brother?" She asked quietly, her fury evident.

Charles raised his hands as if in shock. "Me? That's quite a serious accusation to throw out there Beth."

"It could only be you or your twin. The rest of us were together at all times." She almost spat out her words.

Charles leaned back in his chair. As always he gave off a feeling of nonchalance, but his eyes betrayed the anger he felt at this accusation.

"Quite hasty there, isn't it? After all any of you four could have killed him before you left."

"And why would we? What motive do we have?"

"Right back at you! What motive do I have?"

"Jealousy. You were always jealous of Will. Always jealous of how even your father preferred him to you."

The anger is Charles' eyes intensified. Elizabeth's words had clearly struck a chord.

"Jealousy," He said, enunciating each word forcefully, "is not a strong enough motive, my dear Beth. Maybe if you used the little piece of brain you have in your skull, you would realise that."

"You!" Elizabeth stood up, with enough force to knock back her chair.

"ENOUGH." Sophie's voice cut through the din. Leo looked over at his mother, who was still cradling Margaret's head in her arms. She was looking at both of them, and even though she had just shouted, her eyes betrayed no anger towards either.

"It's not a productive use of our time to argue amongst ourselves." She said.

"You say that Aunt Sophie but the murderer sits right across from us!" Elizabeth said, turning towards her.

"HAH. Or maybe the opposite is true. Maybe you are the murderer and now you will come after us." Charles had also stood up.

"I said ENOUGH." Sophie stood up and glared at both of them until they sat back down.

Sophie, however, remained standing. She reached into the pocket of her jacket and took out a piece of paper. Leo immediately recognised it as the paper they had found this morning. Sophie looked once at the entire table before she began reading:

-As I said before, it is still not near completion. Hell it's probably not even half done. But I know that it will be. After all, I have seen it. My entire life has been leading to this point.

I didn't understand him then. I called him a Monster. I called him the Devil himself. In fact I believe that is what enabled me to actually kill him. Otherwise it was unthinkable for me at the time to take a life.

But I did. And I set the wheel of fate in motion.

My wife used to ask me whether I regretted it. Whether I wanted to go back. Whether I wished that I had never set foot on this accursed island. Of course there is only one answer to this.

Sophie stopped reading abruptly and looked up. Without realising it all four of them were listening enraptured to the letter.

"What is that, Auntie?" Charles asked finally.

"It's a letter. A letter we found today, written by Father himself." Sophie didn't mention the gold.

"Where is the rest of it?"

Sophie sighed and took out the map they had found. Then she explained to Charles about the four crosses, and what they had found in one of the crosses. Charles listened attentively, but at one point Leo saw his eyes light up with excitement. Or malice.

When she had explained everything, Charles leaned back on his chair once more.

"Grandfather killed someone?" Leo asked, unable to contain his shock anymore.

His mother looked down at the letter, a storm of emotions passing over her face. It was clear that she didn't know either, and Leo guessed that's why she had seemed so out of it ever since they had exited that cave.

"If so," Charles began, tilting his head thoughtfully, "then isn't the family of the guy Grandfather killed the most likely suspects behind his murder?"

His implied meaning was clear.

"Even if that were so, we have established that no one could have survived on this island for ten years." Elizabeth responded icily.

Margaret raised her head for the first time that evening.

"What if they are hiding in one of the crosses?"

Everyone looked at her in surprise. Her eyes, still red, seemed to be getting back that usual spark of excitement.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth asked slowly, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Think about it Beth. Anyone could hide inside those caves for years without being found out. And we saw only one those crosses. What if the other crosses hide something else? An ecosystem for growing food. Electricity. Who knows what else?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "How did they send the telegram?"

"Maybe the crosses hide a telegram machine."

"We are going around in the same loop Margaret." Leo interrupted. "The same questions still arise, albeit in a different manner. Why wait ten years? If they had a beef with Grandfather what do we have to do with it? Why would be call us here to kill us?"

"You don't know how deep vengeance can run Leo." Margaret said, but she didn't have any actual answers to the questions.

"Anyway," Sophie said, "what is relevant to this discussion is that there could be another person on this island. Of course we have established that that is very unlikely. But as long as there is even the slightest possibility, I don't want any of you to start accusing each other."

"And what if the killer is one of those twins and he kills us?" Elizabeth asked.

Charles was about to retort, but Sophie raised her hand.

"Then you stay careful. Keep yourself safe, keep your sister safe. We have to do the same, whether the killer is from inside or out. There is nothing more to be done until the boat returns to take us back to the mainland."

"Mom, did you try shooting off another one of those flares?"

Sophie nodded sadly. "As soon as William's corpse was discovered. No use however, I doubt they could see it now when they couldn't see it yesterday."

On that sombre note, dinner ended. Charles was the first to leave, almost springing up the stairs. Elizabeth and Margaret were next. Elizabeth still eyed Charles with suspicion as he ran up the stairs, and spoke almost in a whisper,

"Take care Aunt Sophie and you too Leo. I have a feeling that the twins are the murderers and I won't rest until I find evidence to the same."

With that, she took Margaret's hand and they both walked up the stairs. Leo was about to follow but his mother caught his hand and motioned him to stay.

Once both Margaret and Elizabeth were out of earshot, Sophie looked at Leo, a serious look in her eyes. "Don't open the door at night for anyone Leo. Not even Margaret or Elizabeth."

"But Mom you just said-"

"I know what I said. However until we leave, everyone is a suspect. Just promise me Leo, you won't open the door for anyone, no matter what you hear at night." Sophie's voice was extremely serious and Leo nodded.

Finally she smiled, and then started up the stairs, with Leo close behind.

However none of them knew at the time that the murderer was just getting started.