Councilman Joshua offered Belle a polite smile,

"Pardon me for my misunderstanding,

" he bowed his head.

In Belle's eyes, the man didn't appear to be bad but it didn't mean he wasn't looking for trouble the way his eyes moved to look at the room they were in and his questions,

"How do you pay for everything? It must be rather difficult to be doing everything by yourself.

"

"My parents brought me up to be independent and they left me a decent amount of money behind,

" stated Belle.

"But wasn't there a feud about the money with Mr. Wellington? If I didn't hear it wrong, Mrs. Stlinkson spoke about how her daughter wanted to have your butler work in her mansion as a payment.

" It seemed like this councilman had done his homework. But then Lady Olivia was connected to the Adams' family.

"Yes, but you must be knowing that we received the mansion back which is now in my name. It was unfortunate that Lady Olivia passed away...especially like that,

" her eyes mellowed down to let the man know she was sad over the lady's demise.

"True, it is very unfortunate. It is not very often we find pureblooded vampires killed and dead. Not in that fashion at least,

" confessed councilman Joshua. Belle had to keep a sullen face while she knew who was the person who had killed Olivia and why.

Earlier when Belle was closing the door of the study room, Barron had slipped and squeezed himself into the room before the door was shut. He sneaked, keeping himself low before he climbed and stood behind the councilman. Belle's sullen expression slightly changed to worry. This rabbit was going to get them caught.

"Who is the other person you spoke about? The one who is missing,

" asked Belle, trying to keep the councilman's attention on her so that he wouldn't find that a stuffed animal was standing behind him.

"It was Miss Susan Leigh. She has gone missing and her body is yet to be found,

" this was not good, thought Belle to herself. She then heard chuckles coming from the top floor and it wasn't her parents but from Greed. Did he have something to do with it?

"I don't think we know Miss Leigh. Lucas, my butler has been here in the mansion, helping me,

" said Belle as it was the first time she was hearing the name.

With nothing else to speak on, the councilman opened his mouth,

"It is short notice and its just mere speculation.

"

"You're trying to put my butler under the axe when he's not done anything and you don't even have concrete proof,

" she sent a quiet glare that made the man laugh.

"I am just here to collect the report, Miss Belle. Do not worry, it is not my intention to take him to the council and run a trial. I did go through many of the houses and they have nothing but a good opinion about him. This is a usual dry run to make sure we have everything in place and discard the unnecessary suspicion.

"

"Okay,

" Belle gave him a nod.

When her eyes subtly shifted to look at Barron, she noticed how he was using his hand to move it across his neck as if asking or telling her that they should kill the councilman. This impulsive rabbit. And as if noticing her line of sight, the councilman turned his head to see nothing behind him except for some portraits because Barron had fallen down on the ground by missing his footing.

Belle raised her hand, her finger touching the bridge of her nose and she quickly moved her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear when Councilman Joshua turned to look back at her. Having Barron around was like having a puppy where it was difficult to make it sit still.

"How is the work in the council?

" asked Belle, who had the man raise his eyebrows at the question. Women barely took interest in the council and its work,

"I heard there were deaths that took place in there.

"

"You seem to know about the news that hasn't been leaked out to the public,

" said councilman Joshua.

"I have a person who works there and he tells me about it.

"

"Who is it?

" asked the man.

"My cousin Tobias Chandler. He works in the information department,

" she replied.

Councilman Joshua said,

"We are still trying to get things under control as the words haven't been concluded. There has been confusion on who killed and what the motives were. Right now it's been kept confidential so I doubt we will know what's going on,

" Belle wondered how many more moles were present in the council. Everyone was selfish and greedy, wanting power and chasing it.

"I am going out to get a drink for myself. Excuse me,

" and Belle stepped out of the room to have Barron follow her quickly. When they were far away from the study room, Belle stopped and crossed her hands to look down at Barron,

"What do you think you were doing?

"

"We need to get him out of the mansion,

" said Barron urgently.

"He's going to be suspicious about it.

"

"That's alright. He will come back tomorrow to verify-

"

"Or he will come this evening with the other officials,

" Belle responded back.

Barron shook his head and his floppy ears moved with his head,

"Imagine he meets your parents. The person who saw your parent's dead body.

"

"We make sure they don't meet. How long does it take to dig a grave? Lucas will be here soon and we can be done with it. You weren't expecting him to stand outside the mansion, were you?

" asked Belle.

It wasn't that Belle was not worried, but the councilman had looked suspicious about how she had told that the butler was conveniently not there in the mansion right when the councilman had arrived.

At the same time, while Belle and Barron were whispering to each other, they heard the door open that came from her parent's room.