(no subject)
Although I'd felt proud of my clumsy little interrogation at the time, I hadn't actually been able to milk much out of Casey. All he'd really verified for me was that he'd intentionally been guarding Father Hough's dead body, and we'd already managed to infer that much from the circumstances. We may have had enough to convince the town to give Casey and Kanei the cold shoulder for the rest of their lives, but gossip and speculation weren't good enough. What we wanted was justice. If we were going to get Father Hough's killers locked away, then we would need an actual leg to stand on. Substantial, concrete proof.
The problem was getting it. Although I'd met up with Aycee and Enoki, none of us had much to share. Basil hadn't given Aycee anything new to work with -- he just kept reiterating that he didn't do it. Enoki had spoken to Ms. Aves, but she didn't have anything to say that shed suspicion on Casey and Kanei. She did have some helpful information, though: she confirmed that Father Hough had left the church alone on the night of the murder, and more importantly... she mentioned that she saw Basil napping up in the church loft about twenty minutes before Father Hough had left. It wasn't exactly an airtight alibil -- Enoki had been out with us, so there was nobody around to confirm that Basil had stayed in the church the whole time -- but frankly... Basil's situation was so dire that any little shred of good news was better than nothing.
"You know what we should do?" Aycee sighed, resting her cheek against the smooth surface of our usual saloon table. "We should just tell Mayor Leopold what we know. I bet he could get Casey and Kanei to talk. I mean, he's the mayor. He knows how to deal with people. Even Casey and Kanei listen to him when he's really got his business face on, y'know?"
I shook my head. "It's too early to be doing that. Even if Casey and Kanei are troublemakers, our argument's got too many gaps to hold water. If we tried telling him about this now, he'd probably just laugh it off."
"Eh, you think so?"
"Absolutely. We can place them at the scene of the crime, but that's all we can do. That does mean they had an oppurtunity... if we can prove they don't have an alibi for however long it actually took to kill Father Hough. You said Poisonpowder's really slow-acting, right, Enoki? It's probably not enough to just say they were there after Father Hough had already died. We'll need to establish that nobody saw them for the window of opportunity between the time Ms. Aves saw him leave and the time we caused the cave-in."
"That's a pretty wide window, Thierry. We don't even know the actual time of death, do we? The details of the autopsy weren't ever released to the public." Enoki frowned. "Normally, this kind of stuff would go through law enforcement. We aren't officially on the case, but if your mayor would be willing to let us see the autopsy report, then maybe that could get us places."
"Good idea, Enoki," I replied. "It can't hurt to ask. That would help us cement the fact that they had the oppurtunity. But that still won't be enough. We need two more things. The first... we have to figure out how Casey and Kanei poisoned him. Lucarios and Linoones can't use Poisonpowder. The second thing is a motive. Why would they want to kill Father Hough in the first place?"
"Well... everyone knows they're no good," Aycee snorted. "They probably got bored of picking fights and breaking windows. Nobody in Northvale was more good than Father Hough was, so doesn't it make sense that bad guys like those two would mark him as a target?"
"Nnno." Enoki didn't even hesitate before answering. "Taking a life's a real big step up from vandalism. What would they gain from bumping off a harmless old man?"
Aycee let out a heavy sigh. "Huh... maybe you're onto something. Those punks would have been the first people the town suspected if we hadn't run into them up at that mine. Kanei's probably dumb enough to do something like that without thinking it through, but Casey's smarter than that. He wouldn't murder somebody that important unless he had a really good reason." She furrowed her brow, thinking for a moment, then nodded to herself. "Yeah. Definitely wasn't an impulse crime. It wouldn't have happened in such an out-of-the-way place. And it wouldn't have been poison, either. Those punks would have just beat him up."
"Right. It would have to be premediated, if they used a weapon like Poisonpowder. That shows that they wanted to cover their tracks. Why else would they risk a slow-acting murder weapon, unless they wanted people to notice that it was a move they obviously couldn't use?" Which just brought us back to our second problem... how did they even manage to use Poisonpowder in the first place? The fact that Poisonpowder had been the cause of death was the entire reason Basil was sitting in jail at the moment. "We can't prove that Casey and Kanei did it if it isn't possible for them to use the murder weapon... but it must be possible, or they wouldn't have been trying to keep people from discovering the body. They wouldn't take a risk like that for a stranger, especially if he's just a weak little nobody."
"You don't think the Mothim was in cahoots with them, then?" Aycee asked. "I mean... we still don't have proof that the Mothim didn't do it. Let's not cross him off our suspect list just yet. Even if he didn't sneak out and fly up to the mine, who's to say he didn't just... I dunno... shake some Poisonpowder into a jar and give it to them?"
Carrying it with them... of course. I'd been so hung up on seeing Poisonpowder as an attack that I hadn't even thought to focus on the more important part -- that it was a poison. We'd made a flawed assumption -- that the move that ended Father Hough's life was used when the crime happened. Somebody had to be capable of learning the move in order to produce the powder in the first place, but the powder didn't just vanish into thin air; if there was a way to store it, then anyone could have put it to use. "Aycee, that's it! They could have just smuggled some Poisonpowder from somewhere else, then thrown it on Father Hough at the moment of the crime! All we have to do is find some kind of evidence that they got the Poisonpowder from someone else!"
Aycee looked immensely pleased with herself for her brilliant deduction, but it didn't take her long to come to the next hurdle in our investigation. "So... how do we do that?"
"Have either of them left town recently?" Enoki asked.
Aycee answered immediately. "No, neither. They haven't left Northvale since they first moved here."
"Have any visitors other than me and that Mothim come to visit in the last while?"
That one took a little more thought. "...No, I don't think so," I ventured. "Visitors are kind of rare here -- like you said, we don't even have an inn for them. We had those medical Blisseys who treated me, but other than that, the only outsiders who come here are either the Post Delibirds or the delivery Piloswine who transport our stores' cargo."
"Can't have been the Piloswine. Everyone who owns a business around here is sick of Casey and Kanei loitering and shoplifting. No way they'd work together with them on something like this. And Casey and Kanei don't run a business. Even if there was a crooked Piloswine willing to carry something dangerous like that, Case and Kanei wouldn't be able to get it off them without attracting suspicion."
"So the Delibirds, then? Everybody gets mail. They might not even have known what they were delivering." Aycee volunteered. "I bet I could find out if Casey, Schist, or Kanei got any packages recently." I wondered about that; the post office was an institution that had a lot of pride in its service. They wouldn't just disclose that kind of information to some amateur snoops with no real authority. ...Unless they were on a rescue team. Of course. Who knew those little badges could be so handy?
"That's a good start. Getting the autopsy from Mayor Leopold, checking the post office for records of suspicious deliveries... that's our opportunity and our means. So how do we establish a motive?" Enoki mused.
"Well, I am an official prison guard now," Aycee replied. "I've got authority. I bet Mayor Hough'd let me look through their rap sheets. Maybe there'll be something fishy on there. We can see about the autopsy while we're at his office, too."
"Sounds like a plan," I agreed. "Enoki, think we can leave the post office in your hands? The more we can get done at once, the better."
Enoki's sleepy nod was all we needed. Now we had a plan. Amazing how quickly a dead end can turn into a handful of leads with just a little thinking, isn't it?
The problem was getting it. Although I'd met up with Aycee and Enoki, none of us had much to share. Basil hadn't given Aycee anything new to work with -- he just kept reiterating that he didn't do it. Enoki had spoken to Ms. Aves, but she didn't have anything to say that shed suspicion on Casey and Kanei. She did have some helpful information, though: she confirmed that Father Hough had left the church alone on the night of the murder, and more importantly... she mentioned that she saw Basil napping up in the church loft about twenty minutes before Father Hough had left. It wasn't exactly an airtight alibil -- Enoki had been out with us, so there was nobody around to confirm that Basil had stayed in the church the whole time -- but frankly... Basil's situation was so dire that any little shred of good news was better than nothing.
"You know what we should do?" Aycee sighed, resting her cheek against the smooth surface of our usual saloon table. "We should just tell Mayor Leopold what we know. I bet he could get Casey and Kanei to talk. I mean, he's the mayor. He knows how to deal with people. Even Casey and Kanei listen to him when he's really got his business face on, y'know?"
I shook my head. "It's too early to be doing that. Even if Casey and Kanei are troublemakers, our argument's got too many gaps to hold water. If we tried telling him about this now, he'd probably just laugh it off."
"Eh, you think so?"
"Absolutely. We can place them at the scene of the crime, but that's all we can do. That does mean they had an oppurtunity... if we can prove they don't have an alibi for however long it actually took to kill Father Hough. You said Poisonpowder's really slow-acting, right, Enoki? It's probably not enough to just say they were there after Father Hough had already died. We'll need to establish that nobody saw them for the window of opportunity between the time Ms. Aves saw him leave and the time we caused the cave-in."
"That's a pretty wide window, Thierry. We don't even know the actual time of death, do we? The details of the autopsy weren't ever released to the public." Enoki frowned. "Normally, this kind of stuff would go through law enforcement. We aren't officially on the case, but if your mayor would be willing to let us see the autopsy report, then maybe that could get us places."
"Good idea, Enoki," I replied. "It can't hurt to ask. That would help us cement the fact that they had the oppurtunity. But that still won't be enough. We need two more things. The first... we have to figure out how Casey and Kanei poisoned him. Lucarios and Linoones can't use Poisonpowder. The second thing is a motive. Why would they want to kill Father Hough in the first place?"
"Well... everyone knows they're no good," Aycee snorted. "They probably got bored of picking fights and breaking windows. Nobody in Northvale was more good than Father Hough was, so doesn't it make sense that bad guys like those two would mark him as a target?"
"Nnno." Enoki didn't even hesitate before answering. "Taking a life's a real big step up from vandalism. What would they gain from bumping off a harmless old man?"
Aycee let out a heavy sigh. "Huh... maybe you're onto something. Those punks would have been the first people the town suspected if we hadn't run into them up at that mine. Kanei's probably dumb enough to do something like that without thinking it through, but Casey's smarter than that. He wouldn't murder somebody that important unless he had a really good reason." She furrowed her brow, thinking for a moment, then nodded to herself. "Yeah. Definitely wasn't an impulse crime. It wouldn't have happened in such an out-of-the-way place. And it wouldn't have been poison, either. Those punks would have just beat him up."
"Right. It would have to be premediated, if they used a weapon like Poisonpowder. That shows that they wanted to cover their tracks. Why else would they risk a slow-acting murder weapon, unless they wanted people to notice that it was a move they obviously couldn't use?" Which just brought us back to our second problem... how did they even manage to use Poisonpowder in the first place? The fact that Poisonpowder had been the cause of death was the entire reason Basil was sitting in jail at the moment. "We can't prove that Casey and Kanei did it if it isn't possible for them to use the murder weapon... but it must be possible, or they wouldn't have been trying to keep people from discovering the body. They wouldn't take a risk like that for a stranger, especially if he's just a weak little nobody."
"You don't think the Mothim was in cahoots with them, then?" Aycee asked. "I mean... we still don't have proof that the Mothim didn't do it. Let's not cross him off our suspect list just yet. Even if he didn't sneak out and fly up to the mine, who's to say he didn't just... I dunno... shake some Poisonpowder into a jar and give it to them?"
Carrying it with them... of course. I'd been so hung up on seeing Poisonpowder as an attack that I hadn't even thought to focus on the more important part -- that it was a poison. We'd made a flawed assumption -- that the move that ended Father Hough's life was used when the crime happened. Somebody had to be capable of learning the move in order to produce the powder in the first place, but the powder didn't just vanish into thin air; if there was a way to store it, then anyone could have put it to use. "Aycee, that's it! They could have just smuggled some Poisonpowder from somewhere else, then thrown it on Father Hough at the moment of the crime! All we have to do is find some kind of evidence that they got the Poisonpowder from someone else!"
Aycee looked immensely pleased with herself for her brilliant deduction, but it didn't take her long to come to the next hurdle in our investigation. "So... how do we do that?"
"Have either of them left town recently?" Enoki asked.
Aycee answered immediately. "No, neither. They haven't left Northvale since they first moved here."
"Have any visitors other than me and that Mothim come to visit in the last while?"
That one took a little more thought. "...No, I don't think so," I ventured. "Visitors are kind of rare here -- like you said, we don't even have an inn for them. We had those medical Blisseys who treated me, but other than that, the only outsiders who come here are either the Post Delibirds or the delivery Piloswine who transport our stores' cargo."
"Can't have been the Piloswine. Everyone who owns a business around here is sick of Casey and Kanei loitering and shoplifting. No way they'd work together with them on something like this. And Casey and Kanei don't run a business. Even if there was a crooked Piloswine willing to carry something dangerous like that, Case and Kanei wouldn't be able to get it off them without attracting suspicion."
"So the Delibirds, then? Everybody gets mail. They might not even have known what they were delivering." Aycee volunteered. "I bet I could find out if Casey, Schist, or Kanei got any packages recently." I wondered about that; the post office was an institution that had a lot of pride in its service. They wouldn't just disclose that kind of information to some amateur snoops with no real authority. ...Unless they were on a rescue team. Of course. Who knew those little badges could be so handy?
"That's a good start. Getting the autopsy from Mayor Leopold, checking the post office for records of suspicious deliveries... that's our opportunity and our means. So how do we establish a motive?" Enoki mused.
"Well, I am an official prison guard now," Aycee replied. "I've got authority. I bet Mayor Hough'd let me look through their rap sheets. Maybe there'll be something fishy on there. We can see about the autopsy while we're at his office, too."
"Sounds like a plan," I agreed. "Enoki, think we can leave the post office in your hands? The more we can get done at once, the better."
Enoki's sleepy nod was all we needed. Now we had a plan. Amazing how quickly a dead end can turn into a handful of leads with just a little thinking, isn't it?