I tried to calm mother Ana saying it could be an odd accident.

That was a lie.

I knew those pictures were about something not from this world, the moment I looked at them. Unless the pictures were false, we were dealing with supernatural forces.

I suggested about forgery; but mother Ana and Dr Rochard assured me that the students were being honest. According to them; they were too scared when interrogated to lie. Also the security went to the local to check the authenticity of the scene and lock it. So, unless we were dealing with very good pranksters, which seemed not to be the case, there were unknown forces working at the school.

Dr Rochard, playing with the tip of his enormous moustache said  I would be able to visit the students if i wanted to.

Of course I intended to talk to each one of them in due time.

At that time it was impossible, the school curfew obliged the kids to be in their rooms. Other nuns took care of with them in case they needed some special treatment. I imagined how traumatic to a kid finding a body while you were skipping class could be.

Mother Ana ended the meeting, thanked me, and gave me another warm hug.

"I pray to the Lord we can find peace again soon. Now that you are here my son I will rest this old body of mine".

"You look very young for you age mother", i said to her while hugging back, her body seemed to tremble by my touch. She was forcing herself beyond the  limits of her age.

She tapped my back and to my surprise hugged Voluptia next. And she held my girl in a very welcoming way. A warm and affectionate hug like the one she gave me. Voluptia hugged back almost jumping of excitement. This kind of affection had a  positive effect on her. She kissed my mom in the cheek in return.

I was startled, did that mean she did not know about the true nature of my partner?

I looked to Dr Rochard in search for answers. He was looking to a sheet of paper in his hand and did not pay attention to me.

There was a faint knock to the door. Sister Paula got out from her chair and rushed to answer it. She opened the door wide and leaning her head to us informed that our guest rooms were prepared. That way we could have some comfort while we conducted the investigation of the case.

A nun and a young priest  waited for us at the open door. Both had a serene look transmitting calm and patience. The nun was a middle aged woman, not fat but with a big and short body. She had a rounded face and  thin lips under a small pointed nose. Her hands were big, looking strong, and her arms were crossed by her belly. The priest was much younger than the woman. I suspected we would be of the same age. This guy  was tall and thin like a stick.

With them all dressed in black and standing side by side; they reminded me of Laurel and Hardy. I put a hand to my mouth to avoid laughing.

That would be inappropriate, I imagined mother Ana saying to me in reprobation.

Voluptia and I went with them back to the parking lot to retrieve our luggage from the rented car.

What i needed most was my equipment. In fact, we left São Paulo with almost no luggage. Only a few handbags, most of them with the investigation tools  i used often.

Our unplanned trip, due to the urgency of the call, did not took into account how many days we would take to solve the case.

But there was a small complication: one that did not take us by surprise.

Since we were in a Catholic school, Voluptia and I could not stay in the same bedroom. It was against their rules. We were not married by the eyes of the Holy Church. That way, she would stay with the nuns in a dormitory, while I had a bed prepared to me in the house of the male teachers. That bothered me, because our dorms were too far away from each other. 

They were not even in the same building!

The teacher's house was two blocks to the west of the parking lot where we met sister Paula. But, Voluptia would stay in a building close to the church we saw when we arrived by car. Well, that building was almost ten blocks away from me in the opposite direction.

So as we split paths, I felt unsure.

I did not know for sure if the school staff knew she was a succubus or not, so I was not happy, at all, to let her out of my sight.

She must have read in my face, because she contacted me by telepathy to calm me, saying:

"When you least expect i'll be floating to your bed, cupcake.", she grinned. Her looks cheeky and sensual. She made me grin back.

She showed no shyness at all and loved it, getting even more excited. I felt she could grab me there in front of everyone and not care. So, i advised her to be careful. Her eyes shined with a beautiful purple light only i could perceive. She understood but simulated a frown.

We hugged in a discrete way, since we did not want to create any kind of commotion, and parted ways. She went with the nun to her dormitory, while i walked to the other side with the young priest.

The priest was not talkative, only when we were arriving to the house he gave some details about it. He explained that the teacher's house was, a "Casa Grande". They used that term  to name the residence of the land owners . A term used since the colonial times to show the importance of the main house in a private land. 

The house was, indeed, enormous, an entire block taken by the residence and it's garden. The house were surrounded by wooden balcony. In there we could see pillars holding the roof and  flowers hanging in them equally spaced. Besides being old, the building showed no sign of time. I supposed the school administration used to restore the buildings in a regular way. The walls were yellow and they had  small green windows. An inclined roof covered the house and the balcony, exceeding this one by a few inches. I felt as if i was about to enter one of the houses used to star in one of the famous soap operas set in the past history of my country. 

It was cosy and a well preserved building. Looking at it, a sentiment of peace and tranquility invaded my heart.

But time was  limited to appreciate the house. It was clear to me that mother Ana wanted, if not a solution to the case, at least an advice of how to proceed about it.  And she would need it fast.

I went to my room with the priest. He waited outside as i placed my things inside. It was a large dormitory with four bunk beds. It seemed I would be staying alone. I did not check the other bedrooms, but I imagined they would be full of teachers still resting before their work hours.

After a quick check to the place I opened my case and prepared my equipment. Having getting all i needed, i locked it inside the one of the empty wardrobes and headed out of the room.

I asked the priest about the other teachers. 

He said to me they were already doing their morning prayers in the chapel in the other side of the house. They should start lecturing in about one hour in the school.

I noticed that during my entire stay in the school I would have to adapt to their schedules, since all of them were early birds.

We got back to the entrance of the main building to meet with Dr Rochard. He was with a security guard waiting to take us to the forest were the body was found. I asked them if I was late.

Dr Rochard seemed to ignore the question. So, we followed the street to get Voluptia. Her dormitory was half way to the forest. She didn't need to return to the meeting place like me. 

Dr Rochard was serious, he always had been a reclusive type. He gained a few pounds with the age but was still a robust and strong man. His pointed moustache gave him an appearance that reminded me of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective in Agatha Christie's novels.

I wanted to talk with him alone. Unfortunately, being close to the security guard I didn't dare to ask about Voluptia. 

This building were the nuns lived contrasted with every other building we seen so far inside those grounds. It was a modern one. With two floors decorated with glass panels reflecting the sunlight. It was s if that modern building was an invader in the school grounds. A feeling that intensified when comparing the architecture of the church nearby with that modern construct.

In front of the glass building we could see a big and sturdy cross made of metal. 

That was where Voluptia and the nun that took her from me waited for us. My partner smiled and hushed to my side when she saw me. She was entranced.

"Cupcake!", she shouted and took me by my arm.

"My room is soooo big, there are a lot of beds and saints and pictures, and they were praying and..."

She was too talkative so I had to stop her enthusiasm without hurting her feelings.

"Yes honey but we need to see the body, remember?", she calmed down, understanding the situation.

Everything was new to her. She never went to a holy place before. In truth, I avoided to take her to such places because of her demon nature. Not that I considered her not worthy to go to those places, but I imagined they could bring harm her. 

So far nothing odd happened in her presence. What made me believe Dr. Rochard was discrete about that matter. Everyone treated her like she was a normal girl traveling with her male companion. What meant that since we were not married they would watch us close. We would be forced to behave how Catholic traditions demanded. Since we were, by their point of view, young and susceptible to the sins of the flesh. 

But besides this vigilance, no one got scared or intimidated by her presence. On the contrary, they spoiled her, since she was younger than me.

Well, that was not true. Yet, it seemed that way. 

Voluptia was older than anyone could imagine.

I needed to ask Dr Rochard in person to be certain about what he told them about her.

i was not able to do it during the entire trip. It was already after dawn when we finally entered the woods.

The crime scene  we were going to check was located in a part of the pinewood growing inside the school. Where an artificial clearing was made for Biology classes. The clearing also served for recreational activities to students and to the staff.

It was in the clearing that one of the students got a glimpse of an old tree never seen there before. A dead tree with dark and twisted branches reaching out to the borders of the clearing. 

Out of curiosity, she approached the tree. When she was getting closer to the trunk a drop fell from above and hit her forehead. At first, she thought it was rain. But she smudged it off her skin and saw a red color. When she looked up she saw what seemed to be a suspended body. Held in the branches above her head. 

She screamed in horror. All the other students close by came to see what was happening. Three other students appeared, and, as I was told, they did not explain why they were so far from the school during a class period.

Knowing teenagers, I imagined several motives to skip classes and go to a hidden place.

The oldest girl, was the courageous one and used a cellphone to take the pictures my mother showed me.

Breaking the rules of the school or not, they had to call security.

Guards tooks the girls to the administration office.  While the chief of the medical staff, Dr. Rochard, went to look at the place. Until that moment, he could not examine the body. It was impaled several meters above ground. 

By the look of it, no one was able to put the body so high. Two branches of the tree crossed the chest of the dead man. And other small branches held it in a position simulating a crucifixion.

There were no rational explanation for such state of the body.

So, he decided inform the mother superior.  Together they decided call me before removing the body off the tree. He told her about his own problems with the occult in the past. And how a young detective, me, solved it. When she heard my name she understood like as a sign from above and called me.

When we arrived to the local, some security guards were holding a big ladder and a chainsaw was lying on the floor, close to them. I assumed they were waiting for an order to cut the branches holding the man and take it to a place where it could be examined.

Voluptia didn't feel anything about the situation. To her, death was a very normal thing even when it was violent or involving mutilation. I got used to that. It was her nature. We could not judge her by our human standards.

I opened my case, got my hand scanner and my drone. Asked everyone to stand back for me to examine the crime scene.

I knew I would make everyone feel strange about my methods, but I didn't care. I started to walk around the tree in circles enlarging its radius each lap. I finished groping the grass with my gloves. The grass had dried blood spots and was smashed in some places.

I found a small piece of a folded pink paper, also covered in blood and i sealed it in in a plastic bag. Collected some pieces of the tree bark and a few splinters in the floor, forming  a regular pattern.

Then I laid on my back right bellow the body and looked up using the zoom of my camera. Examined all the branches. What I saw gave the the proof that this was indeed the act of a supernatural thing.

I sniffed the air and got up sniffing all around the tree.  I must have looked like a dog to them. Opened my mouth wide to inhale the air.  And I sensed a disgusting taste I knew well.

Next, I opened my hand scanner,  mounted it on the drone sending it up to the body.

The drone flew around the corpse taking pictures of the wounds and face. I controlled it with my phone. Looking to the screen searching every detail I could perceive. Changed the spectrum to infrared and x-ray.

After a few pictures of the body and of the ground in front of the tree, where I laid before, I sensed that I was done. Called the drone back and put it and the scanner back inside the case.

Concluded my initial feelings about the case, I felt satisfied and ready to give some information.

I moved closer to Dr Rochard and gave him my verdict.  

"Well my good doctor, i have two news to give, one good and one bad." I begin to explain with my hands in my pockets and a concerned expression on my face "The bad being that: yes, we are dealing with the occult and it did not worked alone. omeone in the school is behind this. But the good news: we will not need to identify the victim after all, nor report the death to any of the rich sponsors or the Church. I am sure this will be a relief to the school reputation. I imagine you will be pleased to know the body is not human at all."

As he looked to me in disbelief  with his jaw opened in a frozen state I told the security guards:

"Now you can remove it, but be careful guys"