//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Shades of Noire // by HapHazred //------------------------------// It was late in the morning when Octavia opened her eyes: the dull throbbing in her head making her wish she was still asleep, but also keeping her awake at the same time, maximizing her discomfort better than any relative. She scrutinized the area: she did not recognize it immediately until the events from last night hit her full force. “Oh my gosh, Vinyl...” she exclaimed under her breath. The smell of cooking eggs wafted through her nostrils. She turned her neck at an awkward angle to face the source of the smell: the young white unicorn was holding a pan, three eggs frying in it's centre. Vinyl smiled. “Morning. You must feel terrible.” Octavia did. “It's like I've been listening to a five year old play the trumpet. What happened last night?” Vinyl scraped the eggs of the pan and onto a plate, which she carried over to Octavia, who was still prone on the couch. “You got real hammered last night. About... y'know, Shwach.” “Schwartz. And... yes, I remember. A bit. Oh, Vinyl, you carried me here, didn't you?” Vinyl shrugged. “Yeah. So what?” Octavia didn't know where to start: that nothing she had done merited such treatment, that anypony else would have left her on the street to be mugged or worse, that she had never even treated Vinyl as so much as an acquaintance... but no excuse she could say really changed what Vinyl had done. She was at a complete loss for words. “I don't know what to say.” “How about: nice breakfast, Vinyl. I'd love some?” Octavia looked right into Vinyl's broad, earnest face. Eventually she caved. “That looks really nice, Vinyl. I'd love some.” More smiling. Octavia had the plate placed before her. Despite her hangover she found it really easy to eat. Vinyl had already had her breakfast, so in the meantime she was cleaning up her dishes. The apartment was small, but Vinyl had still managed to fill it with so many music related articles it took up every inch of wall. Octavia hadn't expected that: for some reason she had assumed that Vinyl's bastardization of music meant she'd have less of an appreciation of it. But there, among some of her records, was Beethoofen, Maressorgsky, and George Fiederic Saddle, recently opened and placed alongside her albums from more modern 'composers'. She even had a french horn. Octavia wondered if Vinyl could play. In the corner, dominating the rest of the room, was a huge workstation Octavia had seen use to remix music over the radio, over at work. She hadn't thought it was possible, but Vinyl looked like she might have more music paraphernalia than she did. “Vinyl, I-” she began, but was interrupted by the door being caved in. She recognized the pony who led the charge: battered and grey, the detective held a truncheon in one hoof and his badge in the other. “Vinyl Scratch, you are under arrest under suspicion of killing Schwartz!” was the resounding shout that filled the acoustically tuned appartment. Octavia felt shock and terror rise within her. “Wh- No! You can't do this!” she exclaimed, getting onto her hooves, but not before her hangover struck once again, and, too dizzy to stand, she collapsed on the floor. “'Tavi!” exclaimed Vinyl, before he was cuffed by the detective. “You have the right to remain silent, and anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of-” “Hey! Let go of me! She might be-” “She's fine, you little idiot, so worry about yourself for a bit.” _ Shining hurried towards the place where Femme was staying: if he was quick he might catch her before she left for the day. As he watched the ponies on the streets, he began to notice they were generally more agitated than usual. He could only guess as to why. The Captain would probably know. It was, after all, his job. The hotel Femme was staying at looked fancy. A far different location to Vinyl's place. He entered quickly, without wasting any time. “Good morning sir, are you looking for a room?” asked the pony at the front desk. Shining took out his badge. “Canterlot Guard Corps, E.U.P. I'm looking for Femme Fatale.” The pony looked alarmed briefly. “Oh dear. She's not in trouble is she?” he asked. Shining shrugged. “Her coltfriends been murdered, and she's a suspect.” Shining said. “Can you give me directions to her room? Number 314?” The pony nodded quickly. “Yes, yes, just go up the elevator or stairs to the third floor then head left. Second door on your right.” he blurted. Shining nodded. “Thank you for your co-operation.” The elevator doors opened with a quietly annoying 'ding' Shining found he instantly hated. The bouncy optimistic nature of it grated at his nerves. Still, at least the elevator ride was short. 'ding' Shining made his way left, keeping an eye on the room numbers until he got to 314. Each door was marked with a golden plate with the number engraved on it: very classy, and practical. Shining banged his hoof on the door loudly. “Hey! Quiet down! Some of us are waking up gently!” came a voice from the opposite room. Shining ignored him, or her, as he heard movement from within room 314. After a brief moment, he came face to face with a heavyset stallion. It took a minute for him to recognize him, but working in a career where faces were vital to remember made it easy to make the link between the face that served him doughnuts when he was having difficulty with a case, and the stallion in front of him. He raised his eyebrow as he realized that this was Doughnut Joe, the pony in charge of Joe's Doughnuts, the restaurant bearing his name. “Ahem. Is Femme Fatale around?” Shining asked him. Joe nodded. “Yeah, she's just getting her mane done. What is this about?” he asked. Shining took out his notebook and jotted a few words down. “Well, congratulations, Joe. You just made suspect. Can I wait inside?” he asked. As he saw Joe's conflicted face, he took out his badge. “Canterlot Guard?” Joe let him in instantly after that, the power of the badge strong indeed. Shining made his way to a seat he could relax in. He noted the sheets, which had been crumpled a fair bit, and the wine and cider bottles strewn across the floor, as well as the odd doughnut. “Had fun last night?” Shining asked. Doughnut Joe glared. “That's none of your business.” It was then that Femme exited the bathroom, and was quickly greeted with the sight of Shining and Doughnut Joe engaging in a glaring contest. She narrowed her eyes, and leaned nonchalantly against the door frame. “Officer? What is this about?” she asked. Shining was almost knocked back by the sheer coldness in her voice. If he thought Octavia could act cool, then he obviously needed to rethink his definition. “Schwartz was found murdered yesterday. We need to ask you some questions.” he said, bluntly. With Doughnut here, he doubted she'd be all that too upset. As expected, she brought her hoof to her heart and tilted her head to the side, signalling that she was saddened. Her eyes were giving a conflicting message, however. She didn't care. “Oh, that's just awful!” she replied. Shining grunted. “Don't give me that. Your coltfriend has been making advances on two other mares, and has been dealing with very shady individuals. I'll need you to tell me everything you know.” Femme snorted, her disguise of hurt and sadness gone, surprising Doughnut but not Shining. “Schwartz was a sorry foal, tying to go behind my back like that. As far as I'm concerned, he was refuse. I know all about his little musician co-workers... I don't know anything about the salt trade though.” Shining chuckled, before managing to break into a full out laugh. Femme realized her mistake too late. “Oh, horseapples.” she spat. Shining wiped a tear from his eye. “That has to be the best slip of the tongue I've heard in a long time, Fatale.” Shining commented. Fatale scowled. “You don't even have a warrant. You can't come in here and-” she began, but Shining took a sheet of paper out and held it tauntingly. “Hey, if there's one thing Red Tape knows how to do, it's write up paperwork quickly. But what am I talking about... you don't know who she is. How about I introduce you to her down at headquarters? She's a real gem.” Femme looked furious. Joe just looked around nervously. Shining nodded towards him. “I have to admit, I don't actually have a warrant for you. But I'd rather you came too, and not make me have to go and get one. It'll just make things easier for you, trust me.” Doughnut Joe sighed in resignation. Shining felt a little sorry for him: he probably hadn't signed up for this. Still, if he was involved romantically with Femme.... more motive for murder. He was picking up suspects by the hoofful these days. He just hoped that they'd be able to get a confession out of Vinyl, otherwise this would become a very difficult case. _ Femme and Joe walked in front: Shining was sure Femme had considered running, but thought better of it. For her sake, he hoped she could recompose herself well: out of all of their suspects, she was definitely the least cooperative. It didn't look good. They arrived back at headquarters in short order. The streets were busy, but nothing so terrible that it would slow them down. He had the two watched as he made his way into the interrogation room. He passed an anxious looking Octavia, barely giving her a glance. “Detective! You can't do this to Vinyl! She hasn't-” Octavia began, but Shining cut her off. “We have evidence, miss. Please don't interfere.” The interrogation room was standard: a bare room with a one way mirror, giving into another room. Private Eye was already there, and Vinyl was in the interrogation room proper, cuffed to the table. She looked terrified. Perhaps they had managed to catch her off guard, or maybe she was just scared of the police. Who knew? “Got her quite easily. I have some of the guards sweeping her place right now.” Private Eye said. “How's Femme?” “Trouble. Caught her with good old Doughnut Joe. I have him here too: more romantic involvement. I honestly can't keep track any more with these ponies. Must be that time of the year.” Private Eye shook his head. “I hope it isn't him: I like his doughnuts.” Shining looked through the darkened window at the scared mare beyond. He frowned. “Don't present the evidence until you need to. Get her talking. Keep her confused. And whatever you do, keep pushing. I can live with a traumatized mare, not an escaped killer.” he instructed. Private Eye nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. Don't forget to get complimented by Tape that we used warrants this time. At least for these two.” he replied as he made his way inside towards Vinyl. "Hopefully the letter we found will break her quickly." he added before closing the door. Shining then entered his own booth where he could see them from behind the one way mirror. Shining kept a close watch on them. Private was a professional. All they needed was to get her talking. If she was guilty, she'd crack. She had to. Looking at her now, it didn't look like it would take much. “Hello Vinyl. Comfortable?” Private asked. Vinyl didn't look it. She glared at Private angrily. “I'm not a killer.” she replied. Private shrugged. “Oh yeah? Because we got plenty of motive, more than enough to put you away. You know what your motives are, don't you?” Private asked. Vinyl shook her head slowly. Shining gave a small smile. So she was lying about that. Private made no sign of catching the deception. “Let's start with the obvious one, right? Sexual harassment. I have to admit, I'd probably want to off my boss if he was as much as a sleaze as yours was.” “I told you, I'm not into stall-” “Yeah, yeah, but that doesn't stop it being annoying, right? Must have made your life miserable. I bet you're not even sad he's gone.” Private replied. Shining narrowed his eyes. Using her own words to try to get a reaction. Trust Private Eye to think of that one. “I'm not! But I didn't kill him!” Vinyl insisted. “We have a testimony from your physician that you might have even suffered physical assault from him. You blamed it on skateboarding. Was that really the best you could come up with?” “So I don't wear protection when I'm skating? That's not evidence. Hey, don't I get a lawyer?” Private chuckled. “Looking at your bank balance, you might as well not have. State lawyers are pretty unreliable, actually I think the Captain controls most of them. So... those bruises. Tell me about how you really got them.” Vinyl looked close to panic. Shining tried to get a better angle on her face, but it was turned away slightly. “Skating! Dammit, why is that even important?” Shining glared. More lies. He just had to hope it was because she was guilty... “Because when Schwartz attacked you, it made you angry. Very angry. Angry enough to kill him.” “N-no.” She wasn't giving up. Shining gritted his teeth. The idea that she wasn't the killer, and that they'd have to go ahead with this anyway, tormented him. There was no such thing as giving up here. “We have a letter. Written by Schwartz, to us, that you made a threat on his life. Unfortunately it didn't get posted in time. We could have saved his sorry flank.” Private said. Shining nodded slowly. Time to reveal their hand. “Wh- what are you talking about?” The piece of paper slid across the table slowly, pushed ever so gently by Private's hoof. It was already open. Vinyl's eyes scanned it, and she swallowed. “Horseapples...” she whispered, so quietly Shining almost missed it. “This has to be a misunderstanding...” “You recognize Schwartz's hoofwriting, right?” Vinyl backed away from the letter slightly. “Yeah, but... c'mon, I never threatened him! The guy was a douche, always hitting on me and 'Tavi...” “Which brings me to your last motive. You have a romantic interest towards Octavia, is this not correct?” Shining swallowed his doubts. If anything would break her, this would. It had to. Most guilty ponies crumbled when presented with this kind of evidence, and the sort of personal motivation they were declaring, if it was right. This would be the end of the case. He could bring justice for Schwartz, and all the ponies on the street. If she was guilty... “What? What makes you say that?” Shining heard banging on the door to his room. He turned to face the noise angrily. Not even the Captain would interrupt him in the middle of an interrogation. “Not now!” he bellowed, and turned his attention back to the interrogation. “You couldn't stand Schwartz constantly hitting on your co-worker, and it drove you insane more than anything he ever did to you.” “Hey, what he did was awful, but I didn't kill him!” Vinyl repeated. “You've got the wrong pony!” The door to Shining's room burst open, in utter contradiction to all interrogation protocol. He turned in annoyance to face off against a very angry Octavia. In the background, a confused pony guard looked apologetic. “I heard shouting! You stop whatever you're doing right now!” she exclaimed angrily. Unbeknownst to this drama, the interrogation continued. “It wasn't enough that Schwartz made your work absolute crap, he had to go and do the same to Octavia as well, the pony who you'd do anything for. So you did, didn't you?” Vinyl looked like she was being driven almost to tears at this point. Shining couldn't tell, however. He was trying to force Octavia to exit the interrogation room. “Hey, I bucking love her, but I'd never kill for anypony!” Vinyl shouted, her lower lip trembling with a mix of anger and fear. Inside the booth, Octavia paused. “Oh, Vinyl...” she muttered. “You're really not going to make this easy on yourself, are you?” asked Private Eye angrily. Vinyl hid her face in her hooves. “I didn't do it!” she screamed. “Octavia, please leave this room, now!” ordered Shining Armour. His anger at this interruption far outweighed his empathy for Octavia. He threw his hoof towards the exit and stepped forwards, pushing into her. All he saw a split second later was a dark grey hoof, and then stars. _ “...hey! Hey, Shining!...” “...Wow. Decked by a mare, huh?...” “...he all right?...” Shining Armour gradually opened his eyes, his head throbbing, and his eyes feeling a little too big for their sockets. He groaned. “Did I just get punched by my suspect?” he asked, holding his head in one hoof. One of his eyes felt a little tender. He realized it was Red Tape that was checking his eye. He batted her hoof away. “I'm fine. What did you do to her?” “Standard procedure is to lock up anypony who assaults the guard.” Red Tape said. Private Eye, the pony behind her, shrugged. “For punching Shining? I'm thinking we give her a medal for having the guts for that.” he said. Shining got to his hooves, not just a little angry and embarrassed that he had gotten knocked out. Last time that had happened was when a much larger pony than him had been rude to Cadence. Sometimes it was best to just turn and leave. “She's got a good left hook. Or... whatever she did. Boy, that mare can throw them.” Private Eye gestured inside the interrogation room. “She's in there now with Vinyl. Want her arrested?” Shining ignored the question. “Did you get a confession?” he asked. Private Eye paused, then shook his head. “So all we have is circumstantial evidence?” Another pause. “Yes.” “Crud.” “We can still lock up Octavia, but I don't think that'll help the case. It might be one less thing to worry about though.” Red Tape suggested. Shining shrugged. “If it doesn't help the case, I don't really care. Just keep them under observation and give her a warning. A strong one. We'll see what they do. If they try doing anything like burying evidence, we arrest them... again.” Red Tape nodded. “Sure thing. And congratulations on getting-” “On getting punched? I knew I'd have to deal with this from you.” Shining snapped. Red Tape paused, her face falling, a frown displayed for all to see. “On getting warrants this time.” she finished. Private Eye chuckled. “Told you she'd compliment you on that. Most mares compliment me on my physique, but you should take your praise where you can.” Shining chuckled. Red Tape just snorted before leaving, probably to write up that warning. At least she was efficient. Shining took a look inside the interrogation room quickly. Vinyl was there, and so was Octavia, who had the her colleague in her arms, trying to calm her down. Shining sighed. “I guess we maybe went overboard.” he muttered. Private Eye shrugged. “Not if she is our mare. I guess we just need more evidence.” Shining wasn't so sure. Most ponies cracked under that amount of pressure. And they might have enough evidence to bring to court, but it wouldn't be a clear cut thing. They needed more: and worse, if they were wrong, they'd need another pony to blame for this. “I guess it's time I talked with Femme. Give me time to get a look at my eye.” Shining said, making his way to the stallion's room. Private Eye nodded. “Sure thing. I'll make sure they know just how much trouble they're in.” _ Celestia looked at the reports: none of them made her smile. There were the protests, for starters. If there was one thing her Captain couldn't handle right, it was peaceful demonstrations. Obviously, they had turned violent. The fact that there were protests to start with didn't bode well... if Luna couldn't operate within the new world, she'd doubtless become introverted. Just like last time. And then there was the report of, for the first time in a while, a murder. Not an accident, but an actual killing. Celestia had really hoped she wouldn't have to see another one of those for months... For better or for worse, Luna had been taking an interest in street crime. That was bound to annoy the Captain... he hated it when Celestia herself butted in on his work. She just hoped that he could calm down long enough for the situation to improve... unfortunately, old ponies rarely learned new tricks. _ Octavia wasn't a fool. She knew she'd be lucky if she didn't end up in jail for what she had done: let alone disrupting an interrogation, she had assaulted an officer. On the other hoof, she had a hard time standing by and not trying to help Vinyl. Guilt and conflicting emotions swirled inside her. She found herself quite unable to make heads nor tails of anything her mind and heart told her. She had always treated Vinyl as second rate: hardly a musician at all, bereft of manners and civility, a crude pony at best. It seemed that in a day, a lot could change. And after what she had heard, well, it became harder to hate her for some reason. Why couldn't her life just be simple? It would make everything so much easier if Vinyl had been as crass as she had otherwise assumed, so much more straightforward. Ponies were harder to predict than she had thought, though. She heard one of the guards enter the room. She glanced up quickly. Vinyl was still scared stiff. “Octavia, Vinyl, you're both free to go home. No leaving town. But Octavia, you get a warning. Another mistake like that, and you're looking at charges, even if you aren't guilty of murder. Which I'm not entirely convinced of. And Vinyl...” The detective frowned and leaned in, taking care to meet her eyes, his hard expression making Vinyl tense up again. “You should have cooperated. This doesn't look good, Vinyl, not good at all.” He handed Octavia the written warning and stood aside. She helped Vinyl up after the detective de-cuffed her, and led her outside. “They think I'm a killer...” Vinyl muttered. Octavia smiled. “I know you're not, Vinyl. It's okay, we'll sort this out...” “They have evidence... how did...” “Shush, Vinyl. Everything will be fine.”