Indecent Tales of Tihany

It was 10 in the morning when he was making his toddler finish her breakfast cereal. His phone rang and he went upstairs to check.

“A guy saw his dead wife at the platform”, a petrified voice exclaimed.

“What are you high on? Take a break, Charlie! You don’t look in a good shape”, McKenzie implied with a wicked smile as he hung up.

He went down and wrapped up the essentials and set out for work. After all, he was the head of the century-old wealthiest family in the village. Being the heir to the most prosperous business in the village set up by his grandpa, he didn’t disappoint. In his reign, McKenzie Brewery Kft. gained utmost recognition in all of Hungary and some parts of Croatia and Romania as well. Louis McKenzie was the ideal person for everyone in the village. But was he?

The village of Tihany in Hungary had everything to lure a nature aficionado, from forests to lakes to beautiful landscapes and animal habitats. It even had the McKenzie Brewery to couple a rich man’s sabbatical in the countryside. They produced one of the finest beers of the country and had become a major attraction for tourists. 

McKenzie reached his office only to meet a bunch of frightened colleagues.

“I heard! Charlie told me”, McKenzie spoke in his ever-unruffled voice. “I’m gonna meet Mr. Sutcliffe today and I won’t entertain any of this exorcism bullshit in front of him”

“I want the deal closed today. So, let’s get this thing off our heads and slog our backs till we smell success”, McKenzie’s motivation did little to help the cause. 

Eventually, the moment arrived, the deal finally closed after a month-long negotiation. 

“Looking forward to more prosperous times with you, Mr. McKenzie! Won’t you lend me a taste of your finest ale, eh?”, Mr. Sutcliffe got the mojo of the office back as they forgot the platform fiasco and celebrated the start of this alliance, touted to be the next big thing in Hungarian commerce.

Edward Sutcliffe, a Romanian by birth, was a familiar figure of all business magazines in Hungary and Romania. Sutcliffe Alimente Romana, established by Edward’s father, was a household name in most of the native countries of Romania as well. They produced everything from chocolates to cheese to healthy beverages. 

“A toast to the fruitful times ahead!” Sutcliffe exclaimed and he was interrupted by McKenzie. 

“Huh! How did we forget the one man who made this alliance possible! Where are you? Charlie!” McKenzie called his COO, Charles Lupin. After all, he was the one who got these two stalwarts introduced and make their way into a corporation.

He still looked a bit shell-shocked with the platform incident as McKenzie proposed a toast to their success with arms around Lupin who was doing his best to hide his emotions but his fear-laden eyes revealed everything. 

Charles Lupin, winner of the Hungarian Business award thrice in recent times for his service towards the environment. He was just a couple of years old at the brewery but took giant leaps in the business. He was young, charismatic, and front-runner in everyone’s mind as the next Sutcliffe in Hungary.

The McKenzie party continued till late in the night as the scary emotions subdued under some of Europe’s finest champagnes. But the tale wasn’t the same on the other side of the village.

Gavin Heat, a native farmer was still recovering from the trauma of losing his wife to an unfortunate rail accident. Seeing his wife at the platform did no good to him either. His fingers trembled as he got a hold of the beer mug while watching his daily soap.

His door creaked. Panic struck as he got a hold of the knife lying on the table. The door opened slowly. A muscular man appeared from the dark. 

“Hey, brother! I heard you ain’t feeling so good”, the man said.

Gavin breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized his brother Juggie. “You almost killed me, bro!”, Gavin said in a panic-stricken voice.

Juggie owned a retail store outside the village and used to visit his little brother often. He sat down to listen to his brother’s scary encounter with his wife last night.

“It was 11 and I was gonna come back after delivering veggies to Aszofo”

“I had a couple of beers with Peter in Aszofo, got a train at 11.10”

“Just when I was about to get down in Tihany, I could see her calling me to help her with some bags”, Gavin’s eyes got moist as he recited the whole episode.

“Ahh! You might have had too much beer bro! You need a good night’s sleep and trust me, you’ll be fine”, Juggie was worried about his brother but didn’t let the situation worsen for him. He tucked him to sleep but continued to bend his mind over his brother’s episode.

As the party at the brewery ended, Lupin and McKenzie took their cars out. McKenzie winked at Lupin with a fishy smile.

“Take care, buddy”, he said before racing his BMW out of the parking lot.

Lupin put the keys in the ignition and was about to speed off the parking lot. Suddenly, he put his brakes with all the urgency in the world. He got out of his car, looked around, and saw nothing in the way. He wiped the sweat off his head and fled in his car as soon as possible.

He got into his house and called McKenzie.

“I saw a wounded baby in the parking lot”

“I almost hit my head on the wheel as I put the brakes to save the baby”

“When I got out to check, there was nothing in front of my car”, the voice was even more frightened as it was during the morning call.

McKenzie heard this and still couldn’t believe his COO being so amok.

“Okay I think you really need a good break or you must keep a check on your drinking habits”, McKenzie said in his apathetic tone.

“Let’s meet in the office tomorrow and discuss this, mate! Don’t let your wife leave you unattended till the morning”, McKenzie always found his wits working in such situations.

The next day, the office had 3-4 episodes to share and a wave of panic swept across the brewery.

While Mr. Keller saw a dog running into his home and disappearing into the dark as he parked his Jaguar in the garage, Beth saw an old man calling his daughter for help. Although when she bent down to pick her keys, he had disappeared in those few moments.

McKenzie was still unconvinced but worried enough to approach the police about these episodes. He called up his local Sheriff friend and narrated all the incidents. The Sheriff, Mr. Garry Shield, added to these episodes when he told his wife saw a strange doll in the attic which didn’t belong to them.

Also, he had been approached by a village friend who came across a strange farmhouse while driving home. While getting back to work in the morning, the house was nowhere to be seen.

The talk with the inspector added to the concerns of McKenzie but he continued to be skeptical.

“It’s probably someone trying to scare us off”, he told the Sheriff before disconnecting the call.

The clouds of panic were now firmly over Tihany as the people started to get home before nightfall. The summer didn’t seem so merry this year for the locals.

With each passing hour, the pressure kept mounting on the Sheriff to provide a reasonable explanation for these incidents happening around Tihany. There were a bunch of policemen patrolling the village at night. The meek village had transformed into a maximum-security prison.

Although sharp measures were taken, the Sheriff seemed to reach nowhere near in providing an answer to the villagers. In the middle of this agitation, he got a call from McKenzie asking how things were at the moment.

“I’m afraid we have to assume the worst”, he said to McKenzie.

“Aah! relax, Sheriff! It’s the era of robots and rockets and we’re still here thinking about silly ghosts”, McKenzie responded in his ever-bold opinion.

“Maybe these guys need to tone down their liquor a teeny bit, don’t you think?”, McKenzie tried his best to calm the Sheriff down.

“Oh! The liquor! Why didn’t I think about this before?”, Sheriff’s eyes were as lit up as a baby getting a glimpse of his lost mother.

“I’ll meet you at the brewery, Mr. McKenzie”, he said before slamming the phone and getting his jacket.

“Let’s get the jag going, mate”, he told one of his officers.

The Sheriff had found his long-lost glow back as he reached the brewery to meet McKenzie. He insisted to talk in private. They took comfort in McKenzie’s cabin.

“I think I found what connects all of the victims”, the Sheriff said.

“All of them had been drinking before they had these strange episodes”

“Don’t you find this strange that some of these connoisseurs of European alcohol had such encounters around the same time?”

“Maybe something’s wrong with the liquor”, the Sheriff implied with slight hesitation.

McKenzie tried his best to stay in disbelief but he knew that the Sheriff was too shrewd to make such an error of judgment.

“Let’s find out what they had been drinking”, the Sheriff told McKenzie.

The Sheriff came out of the cabin seeking the one chance that he had got to reach the ultimatum.

“Mr. Lupin! Ms. Beth! Mr. Keller! Can you guys please come down to the station for a chat soon?”, he announced in the office. The employees looked at each other with a sense of intrigue.

The interrogations with the victims continued for days to come after which the Sheriff was back at the brewery, this time with a stern spirit.

“Mr. Louis, Why don’t you come down to the station so we can have a chat?”, he asked McKenzie.

Every person in the vicinity was wide-eyed as they saw McKenzie being taken to the station by the Sheriff. Something didn’t seem right. The perception of McKenzie being the model of perfection in the village took a huge blow.

Although he was alarmed by everything, McKenzie politely obliged to the Sheriff and made his way to the station.

“What is it?”, McKenzie asked the Sheriff on his way to the police station.

“I think I found the shackles that connect all of these people”

“We better talk in front of all the collected evidence”, the Sheriff told.

McKenzie overcame those few nervy moments in the car and they finally reached the police station.

“Tell me what is it”, McKenzie asked impatiently.

“Can you imagine the sheer magnitude of coincidence where all of the victims hallucinated after drinking the same beer?”, the Sheriff asked.

“I seriously don’t get you”, McKenzie still seemed confused.

“Each and every person hallucinated being under influence of the same beer, Mr. McKenzie”

“Beers brewed at your brewery!”

“I’m afraid we might have to run a few tests on your beer and till then, the brewery will be shut”, the Sheriff told McKenzie.

McKenzie found it tough to gather words for the situation.

“It’s been more than a century since we’re here and this never happened”

“Please Sheriff, let me take a look into this”, McKenzie asked.

“I’m sorry! It's too late for that”

“I can’t allow anyone within the brewery premises till we run tests on the victims and the brewery”, the Sheriff told.

McKenzie was startled. The empire his family had built for decades, seemed to fell apart in a second. Rumors about this scandal spread across Tihany and around the village as well. Everyone had their say about the incident. Although, mostly negative.

McKenzie seemed to move on pretty well as he was pretty sure there’s nothing inappropriate that the police could find at the brewery. He even organized a party at his house to celebrate the alliance between him and Mr. Sutcliffe.

Hillcrest, as he called his house, was going to host the grandest celebration of Budapest in the decade. He invited all the villagers and many notables of Hungary. This celebration was organized partly to celebrate the alliance but mostly to restore the pride that he had lost among his acquaintances in the last few days.

Hillcrest resembled the Buckingham palace in terms of the grandeur that night. It hosted the attendees with the finest of cuisines and decors. Although this night had a motive of its own.

McKenzie stood on the mezzanine as he proposed a toast to the future of the empire that he had built.

“A toast to the merrier times ahead” were his words. However, his eyes had something else to say. One could read the desperation and fright through his eyes. Desperately, his words wanted to be “May there be many more such toasts in the future!”

Meanwhile, a frantic Sutcliffe was barging towards the restroom when he collided with a seemingly large man. Visibly frustrated, he yelled, “Can’t you see where you’re going, big fella?”

“That’s our Sheriff, Mr. Sutcliffe. I hope he isn’t troubling you much! Haha!”, McKenzie said rather jokingly.

“Well, Sheriffs are quite the revolts here! He just cut an old man’s fingertip with those cufflinks!”, said Sutcliffe while soaking the blood off of his fingertip.  

“Apologies, Sir”, Sheriff said with an empathetic sigh as he walked towards McKenzie.

“Enjoying your night, Mr. Louis?”, Sheriff asked with a wry smile. 

“The pleasure finds the needy, doesn’t it, Sheriff?”, McKenzie asked the Sheriff.

“Not sure how long the pleasure would last after I reveal the results of the test”, the Sheriff told McKenzie.

“An hour ago, the lab-confirmed traces of heroin in your beer, Mr. McKenzie”

“I don’t want to spoil this jollification of yours so I preferred staying quiet”, he told McKenzie.

McKenzie could feel Hillcrest collapsing in front of him. This was something he never imagined could happen. Was the man with such stature so iniquitous? The entire bar wasn’t enough to subdue the emotions of this revelation for McKenzie.

The party continued in its original swing although the host was going through the toughest trauma of his life. McKenzie tried to come out of it and decided to not let his emotions take over. He joined Lupin and his friends for a friendly conversation to keep his mind out of the whole fiasco.

Lupin introduced him to a few of his close friends and told McKenzie that they can be his potential partners in his quest to expand the business across Europe.

“All the best for your future, Mr. McKenzie”, one of his friends said.

McKenzie acknowledged him with a pat on his back and a smile which made it evident that it isn’t his usual jolly self. He took their leave and went outside Hillcrest for a cigarette break. Lupin followed him.

“You don’t seem to enjoy your own party”, Lupin told McKenzie.

“They found heroin in our beer”, McKenzie said while blowing the cigarette smoke out of his mouth.

“What? How?”, Lupin was as shocked as McKenzie was in the first place.

“I don’t know! I just hope that all this ends pretty soon”

“I can’t keep Linda in all this chaos”

“She’s just a year-old baby without her mother and a vanquished father”, McKenzie almost broke down as Lupin hugged him.

“You don’t need to do this to yourself! There must be a way out”

“There always is! We’ll find a path to clear all this chaos”, Lupin tried to console McKenzie.

“I’ll meet you here first thing in the morning tomorrow”, Lupin told McKenzie and they both went in to join the celebration.

 

The party eventually ended pretty late in the night. The night was going to belong for McKenzie. Lupin arrived pretty early, the following morning. Pretty hungover, he entered Hillcrest and started looking for McKenzie.

“Hey, boss! I am here”, he yelled.

There was no response to any of the yells. He called him but he wasn’t reachable and now, panic struck. Hillcrest had gone from a palace to a haunted ghost house within a night. McKenzie’s daughter Linda, was nowhere to be seen too.

Frantically, Lupin called the Sheriff.

“Sheriff, he’s missing! McKenzie’s missing and Linda too”, Lupin said while his mind drew a million disturbing conclusions, all at the same time.

“What? Did you check his phone?”, Sheriff asked.

“Yes!”, Lupin replied.

“Okay! I will arrive at Hillcrest soon”, Sheriff said and put on his clothes. He skipped his coffee and drove to Hillcrest only to meet a disheartened Lupin.

He asked his officers to enquire the exit points of the town if they saw a middle-aged guy with a toddler. Hillcrest was sealed. The house which resembled a palace a night before bore the look of a vile mansion. 

“Why would he flee leaving his phone behind?”, asked one of the bewildered officers pointing to the phone McKenzie had left behind. 

“We’ll know that when we get him”, said the Sheriff while leaving the house. 

Evening approached as the brewery gathered their emotions and unanimously voted Lupin to take over as interim CEO. Lupin reluctantly but inspiringly took over the business. 

“Sir, where do you think he went?”, asked his favorite officer Dan while driving towards the station the next morning. 

“Dan, the question isn’t where. It’s actually who”, expressed a cunning Sheriff. 

“For now, take this route”, ordered the Sheriff while handing over a piece of note to Dan.

Dan was as puzzled as everyone but it seemed like Sheriff had everything figured out. 

“It was me who ordered him to lay low for a while, at his farmhouse just outside Tihany”, said the Sheriff. 

Dan found it difficult to take in and decided to stay quiet as the Sheriff proudly narrated his findings of the past 2 days. 

“Do you know we never found heroin in the beer?”

“It was then that I decided to keep a watch on the brewery. Two nights ago, I saw Alex moving some crates out of the brewery”

“I  could smell something fishy because why would Lupin’s PA be concerned about beer crates?”

“When I sneaked into the storage room, I could see there were some boxes with a small X at the left bottom”

“When I took the bottles from those boxes, we found heroin traces”

“So, the one who was contaminating the beer was targeting some crates and not the whole lot”

“I informed McKenzie about the traces but not about the crates and he canceled all his imports immediately. I sensed that he was the innocent one because why would he bear losses if he knew that only some crates were contaminated?” 

“So, I told him to stay at the farmhouse with Linda to cause a distraction of his disappearance and we could catch the real culprits”, explained the Sheriff.

Dan listened to everything patiently and could finally applaud the genius of his superior. 

“What do we do next?”, asked Dan.

“We find her”, said the Sheriff while taking out a picture of a gorgeous lady in her mid-20s. 

“I ran background checks on Sutcliffe because that’s when it all started and found this lady”

“Anna, She’s the logistics manager for Sutcliffe!”, exclaimed the ever-enthusiastic Sheriff. 

“But how is she relevant to the case?”, asked a re-puzzled Dan. 

“I knew you wouldn’t remember! She worked for McKenzie as a nanny after Linda’s mother passed during her birth”

“Isn’t that fishy that someone being a nanny until six months ago is a logistics manager for an MNC now?”, asked the Sheriff. 

Dan remained quiet. “That’s when I was sure that McKenzie was being staged as the bad guy. I suspect Sutcliffe was the one who sent Anna to gain all the inside information that she could about McKenzie and use it against him. Although, it was pretty naive of him to take her back as an employee”, laughed the Sheriff. 

“That’s her address and we’re gonna pay her a visit now”, said the Sheriff. Dan noticed the address and realized the drive was never gonna be short of thrills. 

They reached Anna’s apartment in the outskirts of Tihany. The sheriff was quite surprised to see someone with a supposedly hefty paycheck live in an apartment so tiny and bereft of luxury. 

“What the hell is that smell? Did a cow just die?”, asked Dan while both of them knocked on the door to which of course, no one responded. 

“That’s definitely not a cow!”, exclaimed the Sheriff before knocking down the door to encounter the sights unsuitable for the timid lot. 

Her eyes had turned blue as she laid on the ground with a wine glass lying next to her hand. 

“Suicide I reckon!”, exclaimed Dan while examining the wine glass and packing it carefully for the forensic team. 

“Everything seems so much in order. It’s like no one ever came here. Just one glass of wine and just a single plate in the sink”, said the Sheriff before asking the forensic team to come over and gather as much evidence as possible. 

“Sir, I don’t think this is as simple as you see it to be”, said Dan in his apologetic voice while taking out a stash of heroin from her dresser. 

“Seems like our logistics manager was managing a lot more than logistics for Mr.Sutcliffe”

“We’ll investigate this as a murder!”, implied a determined Sheriff’s voice.

“Meanwhile, Let’s go and see what Mr.Sutcliffe is up to”, Sheriff said. 

Sutcliffe resided in his mansion in the middle of Budapest. As safely guarded like a military base, the house was not going to be a pleasant investigating experience for the Sheriff. But he was not one of those who bogged down. 

He asked the security guard at the majestic gateway to inform Mr.Sutcliffe that they wanted to speak to him regarding McKenzie’s disappearance. The expressionless guard asked the Sheriff to wait and came back after a seemingly long five minutes. 

“This way, gentlemen”, he said to the Sheriff while guiding him through the garden. 

“Hello, gentlemen! What brings you here?”, asked the ever-calm Sutcliffe while puffing on his usual cigars. 

“I presume you know about McKenzie, Mr.Sutcliffe”, Sheriff said. 

“That deal is over. I don’t do business with people deprived of moral values”, Sutcliffe’s response was not so calm this time. 

“Never mind, Mr.Sutcliffe. We’re not here for that. Anna is dead. Thought I should inform you”, Sheriff wanted to ruffle some feathers and check how Sutcliffe responds.  

“What? How? And when?”, panic-struck for Sutcliffe.

“We found her this morning in her apartment. We suspect it’s been more than a day”, Sheriff informed.

“Forensic team is working on the how though. Anyways, would you tell us your whereabouts two days ago?”, asked the Sheriff. 

“Are you insane? Do you really think I’d be involved in my employee’s murder?” 

“I never said there was a murder, Mr.Sutcliffe. Thanks for clearing that for me”, said the Sheriff before leaving the house with glory in his eyes. He could sense that the culprit is already agitated by his advances. 

A day passed and the Sheriff got his hands on the forensic report. 

“They have found cyanide in the wine and Sutcliffe’s fingerprints on the wine bottle”, announced the Sheriff to his subordinates. 

“Shall we go and arrest him now?”, asked Dan. 

“He doesn’t look so smart to be a murderer. Don’t you think, Dan?”, asked the Sheriff with a cunning grin. 

“I don’t understand, Sir. You almost had him last evening and now, the fingerprints. Don’t you think that’s enough evidence?”, Dan was puzzled by Sheriff’s opinion. 

“Dan, you gotta start noticing. Didn’t you see the index and middle fingers of Mr.Sutcliffe? They were bandaged. He bruised them due to my cufflinks at the party”

“There’s no way he could leave clean fingerprints with his right hand. Someone staged the murder scene to fool us”, the Sheriff explained.

Just as he reached the conclusion and could sit to gather his thoughts together, the phone rang and one of the officers picked up.

“Sheriff, Alex is found dead near the railway tracks”, the officer announced in panic. 

“What the hell!”, exclaimed Sheriff knowing that potentially, the only way to the impostor at the brewery has now vanished.  

A convoy left the station to reach the scene. 

“Where’s Lupin? Call him”, the Sheriff ordered. No one had heard from him since McKenzie fled the town. 

“He’s not responding, Sir”

“Called his office and they say he’s not been answering since last evening”, said an officer.

“Guess we have our first real suspect on this case”, the Sheriff exclaimed. 

 

“Get his phone records. I want him in front of me ASAP”

The police reached the scene to find Alex lying beside the track with a knife in his belly. Forensics were on their way to investigate the scene. 

“Sir, Lupin called Alex 8 times in a span of 20 minutes last night and each time, the call went on for about 15-20 seconds”, said Dan after checking the records. 

“It’s high time. You gotta go to his house now and see what you find. Enquire his neighbors, too”, the Sheriff ordered Dan and a fellow officer. 

Dan left the scene to reach Lupin’s house. Lupin lived near the brewery in a two-story apartment. Dan was appalled to find Lupin’s car in the driveway. 

“That’s strange!”, exclaimed Dan as he opened the trunk of the car with the keys left in the keyhole.  

“The COO’s pretty negligent about his car, it seems” 

The trunk resembled a mini forensic lab. Dan picked up chemicals, gloves, and many more things which you wouldn’t usually find in the trunk of a budding entrepreneur. 

Dan knocked down his door to find a passed-out Lupin on the couch. He confiscated his findings and took him to the station.  

“Seems like you’ve had too much sleep, Mr. Lupin. Now, answer everything that I ask”, iterated the Sheriff. 

“Why am I here?”, asked Lupin while rubbing his tired eyes. 

“Firstly, Alex is dead. You were his last contact before he died last night”

“Secondly, we have found some chemicals in the trunk of your car generally used to steal and plant fingerprints”

“Lastly and unfortunately, your phone locations from last night indicate you were in the vicinity when Alex died”

“So, anything you say now might be held against you in the trial”, the Sheriff explained as the half-drugged Lupin watched the tragedy unfold in front of him. 

A budding financial marvel was already a cold-blooded killer in the eyes of all. He was handcuffed and taken by the officers. 

“I never expected this of you. I helped you reach where you are and you tried to destroy me”, a disheartened McKenzie entered the station after his long sabbatical.

“Trust me, I didn’t do anything”, said Lupin before being pushed outside by the officers. 

“Thank you, Sheriff. I knew I could trust you with this”, McKenzie said in a grateful voice. 

“You saved my empire and I’ll forever be grateful”

The king of Tihany was back at the helm. The following day, the brewery opened in its full capacity. Business resumed and normalcy set in. Prosperity boomed as it always did for McKenzie. Lupin was sent to trial after they found his footmarks near the railway tracks. There was no alibi that he could produce.

“That’s what happens when you do bad things, Linda”, McKenzie said while kissing his daughter that night.  

“Now, you’re finally avenged, my love”, He said with a sigh while looking at this wife’s picture.

McKenzie closed his eyes to scratch his scars from the past. 

“It’s a girl, Mr. McKenzie”, said the doctor while handing over the infant to McKenzie. 

“Although, I’m afraid our worst fear has come true. The mother might not survive. She’s in pain and I’d suggest you be by her side at this moment”

McKenzie rushed into the ward and encountered weeping Linda, his wife. He sat by her side holding her warm hands.

“Promise me, You’ll take care of our girl”, she said. 

“Our girl, Linda! That’s what I’m gonna name her”, said McKenzie

“Although I was never fertile to be the biological father of such a beautiful baby”

“I know about you and Lupin”, said McKenzie while tears rolled down his cheeks.

“The monster killed the love of my life and I swear vengeance on him”

“Good night, My love”, McKenzie said before tucking Linda to sleep.