Seth Astill: Church without the pope

Salary by mail......

"Halo there boy, nice to see you again" the gardener greeted them happily.

"Hello" seth said as they reached him.

"Are you still solving the church's mystery" the gardner asked turning from the plant he was watering.

"Yeah, I have a few questions regarding this if you don't mind" Seth said.

"What do you want to know"

"Do you know anything about the time when the church was about to be renovated" he asked seriously.

"Yeah, I was there when the renovation was being done, atleast for the first week" the gardner replied.

"What do you mean that you were there only for the first week" Xenia asked.

"Yeah, I was here when they started the renovation of the place, it was my duty to help them with the information about the church but..." The gardner said scrathing his chin as he remembered ".... After a week, I was not allowed to come here as they said that it was dangerous for the people to come here, cause anything might fall on them"

"They had all the excuses ready, clever" Seth said under his breath the gardner heard him mummering.

"Do you have something to say, boy" he asked looking intently at him.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all, I was just thinking why did they stop the renovation so soon" he said a little hesitantly.

The gardner looked at him for a while before answering,

"Apperantly, Mr.Sieben thought that the renovation was a tedious work and also expensive so he stopped the renovation"

"I have a doubt now, you said that they didn't let you enter the church after the first week so, that you will be safe from the church falling on you, this means that the renovation was in full swing at that moment, right" he said eyes closed and thinking hard.

"Right" the gardner agreed.

"So, how did they manage to make the church all perfect and just like it is now, in so little time before they left the work or were there any other renovation work done on the church by another company after they left" Seth asked.

"No, there was no other renovation work done on the church besides the one by mr.Sieben's team. now that you are mentioning it, this does seems a little strange because the church was just same as now when they left"

"this would mean only two things either they manage to fix the church back to how it is now, in few days or they never actually renovated it at all and just pretended" Seth said satisfied.

"But what you said first is impossible, they couldn't have fixed the church that soon" Xenia argued.

"Yep, that means what I said latter is correct"

"So, you are saing that the church was never actually renovated the people who came here lied to us about all the renovation thing, why would they do this" the gardner said dubiously.

"That is the thing we have to find out, why did they lie to the people about the renovation and what were they doing if they were not renovating the church" Seth said purposefully, his eyes glinting.

"I still don't get what you are saying but, if you are done with me, I will go" the gardner said and was about to turn when Seth stopped him.

"Wait, I wanted to know one more thing" Seth said holding out his hands to stop him.

"What is it now" the gardner said a little irritated.

"have you ever seen Mr.Sieben coming here after his deal with the priest, did you ever see him coming here secretly" Seth asked.

"No, I have never seen him here after he went back after buying the church, I guess we are done then" the gardner said haughtily.

"A last question, if you please" Seth said making the gardner growl "thanks, I am just curious that if mr.Sieben has never visited here then who pays you"

"Its none of your business" the gardner said turning a little red and a little hesitant "You- you have no right to ask me such question" he stammered.

"Really, it looks like you are hiding something" seth said raising his eyebrows which made the gardner more uncomfortable.

"Seth, I think he is right. Why do you want to know who pays him" Xenia said nervously, Seth looked at her.

"I told you, its just out of curiosity. If he dosen't feel comfortable in answering that, then I am sorry" he said in a calm voice.

"Its-its, not making me uncomfortable" the gardner protested, finally a little angry he shouted "Fine, I get my pay from mails"

"Thanks" seth said not at all affected by the gaurds outburst "we should go now Xenia"

Seth said and started to move towards the back door, xenia nervously followed him.

They came out of the church and started down the hill, neither of them spoke for a while, till they reached the road.