So Santa left the kitchen and went off to attend to her own affairs.
The murder at the farm ultimately caused no stir at the manor. The teachers here had never been particularly close to the farm people, and everyone deliberately avoided letting the children hear about it, so there was even less discussion of it.
Out of curiosity, Silei still went to take a look at the scene. Although the police had not yet released their findings, the people in the settlement had already reached their own conclusion: a crime of passion. You could tell from what he had been holding in his mouth at the end.
Old Mao had never had a good reputation in that regard. Even when he had been young and decent-looking, no woman had wanted to marry him. Now that he was old, no one wanted him even more. He had worked at the farm for so many years and handled gray-market business, so he should have made quite a bit of money. Yet even by the time he died, he had never managed to move out of the farm and into a decent nursing home. No one knew where all his money had gone.
A gatekeeper had died, and though the state of his corpse was horrifying, the deceased had ultimately been an insignificant old man. Hardly anyone at the farm truly cared about his death. People eagerly speculated about the killer's identity and joked about Old Mao's corpse, as if it were some irrelevant bit of gossip.
Hazel came to the farm again. Only a week had passed since her last visit to see Eucali, but Hesta had called her personally and said she hoped Hazel could come by again because she "had something to ask her about."
So Hazel came.