The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 296: Greater good (4)

Tobias got as far away from his parents as he could to be alone while he waited for men from the court to show up. He had gotten a lot off his chest regarding his family, but now it was time to focus back on Berkeley and all the men helping him.

"King Tobias."

Tobias looked up from where he sat to see Mark and Liam. "They sent you? Aren’t you already busy looking into the Barrett family?"

"I am, but they thought it best that I come here. I am curious about what was said about missing maids. Perhaps it might reveal what happened to the missing young women," said Mark, hopeful that the other case would end.

"I don’t think you will receive good news about the second case since he seemed to be killing maids, but let us remain positive. I have already sent the doctor to the dungeon. He has confessed to killing maids to be used as his tests. I must warn you about the stench of the room," Tobias said, trying to enjoy the clean air now.

"I have been around the town today. There is a lot of worry about the Hensons turning against you. Putting out a royal statement that Kenneth helped you won’t be enough to end talk about what happened. I’m sorry," Mark apologised to Liam.

"The town needs a good distraction and luckily, my birthday is coming up. My ball should do what we need to end all this talk about the Hensons. When Hazel returns to the palace, we shall start putting it together and sending out invites," Tobias said.

Mark found a ball a good way to distract the town for now. Everyone loved to get all dressed up and dance. Balls had some of them so distracted that young women were being taken easily. "I shall inform the court that a ball is coming."

"I know that you are busy Mark, but I would love it if you could look into which of your peers were offering Berkeley bodies from the court. The dead are not to be played with. Those bodies from the court were meant to be inspected and then buried," Tobias said, still upset that many did not get to rest.

They might not be fortunate to find the remains of all of Berkeley’s victims so some would need to stay wherever they were now.

"I shall look into it. I will start with the man in charge of sending the bodies to the families or the church. There are some men in the court that I would love for you to turn your attention to, but I will leave that for another day. When will you question the people you have in the dungeon?" Mark asked, wanting to join.

A few men from the court turned out to be on Grant’s side who had made his time entering the court as unpleasant as possible. Mark wished to speak to them. Show them where doing what was right had gotten him.

"Today," Tobias replied as they didn’t deserve to see another day. "I will leave Julia for Hazel to question. I have a feeling Hazel wants one last conversation. This is it," Tobias said when they neared the room.

Mark covered his nose as already an awful smell reached it.

Liam turned away from the door. He had been out to war many times but never had he come across a scent like this. "It wasn’t like this when I passed by here yesterday. The door was closed but still, I would have picked up on this."

Mark was the first to enter to see what had caused the smell. He had a job to do so he would put up with the smell. Mark picked up a jar which had some kind of flesh he could not recognise. Why was the doctor saving pieces of someone’s body? Did he think he could attach it back?

Mark had his fair share of wild cases but this was new.

Tobias entered the room once more followed closely by Liam. He joined in looking around for whose body they might be able to uncover and finally lay to rest.

"Over here," Mark called to the others. He was devastated by what he found. "He butchered her body. How would this have helped him as a doctor?"

Tobias stooped down beside Mark to look at the unrecognisable body of a young woman. "It was not going to help him. That sick bastard doesn’t realise that he just likes to cut innocent people open. I want the most gruesome punishment this palace has ever used for his death."

"Look at this shoe. There are flower petals on it and there is a shovel with dirt by the window," Liam noted. "I’ve only seen two gardens with these flowers since I’ve been here. They are close by."

Tobias wished it would have been anywhere other than the gardens where Berkeley buried his victims. "Hazel spends her days walking through all the gardens. I am personally going to kill him. I want everyone who helped him in the dungeon by nightfall. I don’t care how many men you need under your command, get it done."

Anyone who helped Berkeley to get away with this was almost as sick and twisted as he was.

"Liam, I want you to inspect all the other doctors. Gather as many palace guards as you need to search their rooms. Then I will put out an order for the palace guards to search all the other rooms in the palace," Tobias said, not wanting to take a risk and let anyone else like Berkeley continue to hide in the palace.

Tobias stood up as the smell was becoming overwhelming. "We shouldn’t stay here long to inhale this. This room must be cleared and I will have the gardens dug up. I don’t want this getting out yet. We have women still missing and Grant’s betrayal. The kingdom doesn’t need to know about Berkeley yet."

If the town found out about Berkeley, the chances of the ball serving as a good distraction were low.

Mark stood up, his gaze still on the young woman. "I can take care of clearing out this room and looking over the gardens. Liam should look into the other doctors. Leave this to us and do what else you need for the queen to return soon."

"Thank you," said Tobias. The two men beside him had been good with taking some of the work he had to do off of his shoulders. "I expect to hear good progress when I see you two again."