A Birth day

"Well," Robert sighed. "This is it's own little slice of hell, isn't it? It's a good thing that it was you and Angus that found it, Marcus. I'm glad it wasn't the boys that stumbled onto it by mistake."

"Yeah. Me too," Marcus said. "I'll wager this will solve several missing persons cases on the auror dockets. You want to see the other room, Lucian? Back this way." Marcus led the way to the back and, using his wand, he lit the room that had piles and piles of galleons in it. Robert whistled, seeing all the money"The boys think that it's possible that Angus and Ruby own this piece of land and the cabin because they think Reginald tied this land in with the Tyler homestead property."

"Damn--that's quite a haul of blood money, isn't it? Its certainly possible that the land belongs to Angus and Ruby because I remember there was some weirdness in the property deed that tied land and assets together," Robert said. "I'll have to take a look at the fine print in that deed when we get back. Believe it or not, I have a copy. I keep copies of all sorts of odd things."

"Sorry," Angus said quickly, shutting the thoughts away. "Just some memories. Sorry--didn't mean to scare you. It just caught me by surprise. Clearly, the boys didn't know about this, or they'd have said something."  He walked through the room and walked over to the shelves of torture devices. When he got next to the devices, he kept seeing visions of Suzanne, and he wasn't sure why. And then it registered. He smelled her perfume over here. They wen't on the other side of the room, where Ruby was. But here, next to the shelves, her fragrance was all over these things.

"Come over here," he suggested to her. "Don't touch anything but come over here and see if you smell anything."

Aria looked at Robert as he spoke and she nodded " yeah I'd say more than a few missing persons here" she said as Lucian walked over and followed Marcus to the next room and looked in.

"well if it is then it belongs to them legally, if not it would still go back to them seeing its on their land and they found it." he said but hearing Robert mention blood money he nodded " could well be" he said looking around the room at the piles he saw. As he looked around he saw a symbol etched on the wall " is that the Tyler crest?" he asked.

Ruby heard and saw him come round and smiled " its okay, and only a little" she said and smiled " it was Minos who fetched me." she said letting go of his hands and watching him walk around the room. When he called her over she moved to his side and covered her nose " mom's perfume" she said to him " why here in this spot?" she asked looking at the book shelf in front of her.

"No. That's the Gelding crest" Robert said. "I've seen it at the Gelding house from time to time. Not sure why it's here, except that they both worked for Gelding."

"I think you smell her perfume because she was here," Angus said. "Some of these things are either the same things or duplicates of the things she had at the Tyler house and in the Gelding house. She's the collector, not your dad. When I was in your old house and in the Gelding house, it wasn't any of the thugs that did the dirty work. It was her. And I can tell you this. She enjoyed it. She got her jollies out of causing pain. She's one of the foulest women I've ever met." He stopped himself. "The reason they smell like her is because these are hers. And if any of those bodies have any physical proof of torture, I can guarantee you, she did it."

Lucian looked at the crest and nodded " hum faded but yeah I see it now" he said brushing more of the moss from the crest revealing the true shape of it. he copied the image to paper for his files. One of his men walked over with a wallet" hum, well that's one missing person down" he said " he went missing two years ago " he showed Robert the wallet of the man who was laid close by.

Ruby listened to Angus and sighed " I knew she was nuts but this is insane and if she did torture those men in the cave she's going to Azkaban permanently" she said then sighed " i'm glad I left when I did but I still wish I had taken the boys with me when I left." she said " with all this one good thing she did was keep them out and away from all..this" she motioned to the things around her.

"Don't know that one, but I'm guessing he's in the petty thug category," Robert said. "I" betting Michael knows him. "Michael, come look and see if you know this bloke." Michael walked over to Robert and peered at the ID in the wallet.

"Oh. Him? I wondered what happened to him. Nickname Elroy the Eel. His middle name is Elroy, and he was a fence. Bought black market goods and sold a lot of them to Borgin and Burkes. I rather think he made the Eel name up because he liked to think he was a lot more slippery than he really was."

"Oh, now that rings a bell. Was he that numbskull that thought he could actually get in and swipe the plates that minted our galleons?" Robert asked

"Yup. That's the one," Michael laughed. "Not the sharpest tool in the shed. They had him in Azkaban for a little bit but he wasn't honestly emotionally strong enough to tolerate it. His attorney got him out on a technicality, which was probably wise because he'd have gone crackers otherwise. I feel sorry for him because he didn't deserve to end like this."

"Don't kid yourself," Angus told her seriously, not telling her what Suzanne had done to him. That wasn't anything she ever needed to know. No one needed to know. "Those boys have seen a damned lot more than you think. You had no way of knowing that they were seeing all kinds of stuff. Honestly, they're happier now than they've ever been because they're safe and they have a healthy family that they know will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. I think that's why they're in no hurry to be out on their own, even though they've been out of school for a year now. They want what they have with us. And, for now, as long as they want to stay, I'm good with it."

Lucian listened to Michael and nodded to one of his men " note that down that hes been found," he said then knelt by a Skellington close by " seems this one was tortured, very little in the way of clothing and no bots or shoes" he said pointing but not moving a bone that had cuts in it . he looked at Michael and Robert as he let his men gently bag up the bones.

Ruby looked at Angus and sighed knowing he was right " yeah i know but let me think of them as the innocent little boys they were when i was there with them." she said and held his hand in her own " its terrifying to think our mother, my mother could do all this" she said shaking her head " but why? anything in these books of hers?" she asked scanning them all where they sat on the shelf. " they look warn but not used for along time.

"If you've got this temporarily under control, Lucien, I'll go back and make sure Angus is alright," Robert said, knowing that seeing the bodies of tortured men had to bother him. He turned to walk back towards the cabin.

"After Robert and Lucian see them, then let's gather them up so we can study them later." Angus suggested. He walked away from the torture devices and he walked over to the shelves with bottles of potions. he looked at a few of the labels, most of them written in Latin, and he took a bottle off the shelf and opened it and smelled it. The moment he smelled it, his mind was thrown back again to more memories of suffering at her hands. It caused his stomach to turn. He put the cork back in the bottle and put the bottle back on the shelf "I suggest you don't touch these," Angus told her quietly. "I think every one of these are dark potions. I think that's why the labels are all in Latin."  

He went to the walls lined with weapons. He'd seen similar ones in Robert's collection but Robert kept these under lock and key because they were particularly barbaric and violent. 

"Definitely don't touch these either. Stay well back from them. Robert has these too, but, unlike these, he stores them in an inoperable condition and he has them under lock and key. These are very operable and most of them operate with a hair trigger that could go off just by being touched. These will have to be removed by a weapons expert because if we meddle with them, someone's going to get badly hurt or...." He was interrupted by another sliding sound. He whirled around and saw Minos had managed to open a trap door in the floor. 

"Oh, what now?" Angus sighed, not sure he really wanted to know. He saw Minos flutter down into the hole, and Angus went over, his wand lit, and he saw old wooden stairs. He took a few steps down the stairs and looked. The sight was overwhelming for him, and he sat down on the stairs, needing a minute. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself and then he went down to the bottom.

He found himself now in a workroom. There were saws, hammers, nails, bins of lumber, cabinets of hinges and bolts, bolts of fabric and stuffing, sewing machines, scrap bins full of fabric, stuffing, wood scraps and more. There was sawdust and thread and stuffing on the floor. And at the far end of the room, stood upright and leaning against the wall, there were rows of freshly made wooden caskets that had been fashioned to look exactly like the one that Priscilla had trapped him in. They were even being stained and scented to look and smell like old, used coffins. He went up the steps, and Minos fluttered up ahead of him. Angrily, he slammed the trap door shut. Infuriated, he wasn't ready to see one more old memory.

Lucian looked at Robert and nodded " yep, we'll clean this up in a few hours but yeah go check Angus , got the feeling hes shook up by all this" he said as another man called him away.

Ruby watched and listened to Angus nodding at his words not to touch anything in the room. She paused to look at a book but only looked as she heard the sound of a creaky door opening she glanced over intime to see Angus dash back up and she walked over to him " maybe we should just stop looking and wait for Robert and the others to get back here. " she said hoping he would take some time to calm his nerves from what ever it was he has seen below.

"I have a kettle on and some coffee made, there is a small bottle of fire whisky unless you want it neat" she offered seeing the shaken look he had n his face she knew it had to have been something to do with what Pricilla had done to him, that was the only thing that had shaken him to this date she knew of.

"I'd wonder about him if he weren't rattled," Robert said. 

"I'll come with you," Marcus said, knowing that sometimes he was able to talk to Angus and help steady him. 

"Coffee sounds good," Angus said. "I'll do it. I need to be busy." He left the room quickly. His hands were shaking slightly, but he found some sort of clean mugs in the kitchen. He gave them a quick rinse and was in the process of making some coffee when he heard the cabin door open and shut. 

"Where is he, Minos?" Marcus asked. A moment later, Robert came into the kitchen as Angus was stirring some mugs of instant coffee. 

"You alright?" Robert asked quietly, seeing Angus's hands shake. Even a muggle would have noticed and would have recognized the telltale signs of anxiety.

"Fine," Angus replied. 

"Look at me," Robert told him. Angus glanced at him, and Robert laid his hand on Angus' forehead and cast a slight calming spell to steady him. 

"Breathe," Robert told him. "A couple deep breaths will make a huge difference." 

"I'm fine," Angus told him. "Coffee?" He handed Robert a mug.

"Thanks. Is that a flask I see?"

"It is. Ruby found it," Angus replied. Robert took it down from the shelf, opened it, smelled it, and poured some in the mugs as Angus made a couple more cups. 

"Not top shelf, but it should do the trick," Robert said, levitating the mugs Angus had made and floated two of them into the living room, one for Marcus and one for Ruby. Angus picked up his own mug, and they left the kitchen. 


"Go check the rooms behind the medicine cabinet," Angus looked at Marcus.

"Oh, shit. You mean to tell us there's more?"

"Yeah. There's more. Maybe Ruby will give you the grand tour. I need some air. Robert, did you bring any cigarettes?"

"Take mine," Marcus said, handing Angus his cigarettes from his pocket. "Just leave me one."

"Thanks," Angus said.

"Care to show me what you found?" Robert asked Ruby.

Lucian chuckled and nodded " to true" he said to Robert " I'll send you a report" he said as he saw them leave the cave , leaving him to the clean up.

Ruby heard Robert, Marcus and Aria return to the cabin even Aria looked at Ruby when Angus spoke " must be bad" she said softly to Marcus as Ruby walked over to them and opened the door.

"oh you haven't seen the half of it" Ruby said the first room isn't too bad depending on your point of view, no cabin should be without the equipment room." she said opening the hidden door for them to see it as she stepped to one side so Marcus could walk into the room " oh and be careful this place has a basement , Angus went down but came back quickly" she pointed to the door closed in the floor " be my guest" she said walking over and opening it to show the wooden staircase.