Chapter 3 "Waltz of Death"
Chapter 3
“Waltz of Death”
“Uh, your husband was murdered by Tappy?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Do you need your ears cleaned?” the mare said rather rudely. “Yes she murdered him! There’s absolutely no doubt!”
“That’s a rather bold accusation to make,” I said, getting between the mares before Twilight decided to experiment with alicorn magic on her.
“I want that mare in prison!” she cried and pointed at me. “You’re a detective! You can make it happen!”
“If there’s evidence enough to warrant it,” I said firmly. “Now first of all, where’s your husband’s body located?”
“It’s at a warehouse on the outskirts of town,” she said, glaring daggers at me. “Once there, you’ll find out exactly why she should be locked up for good!”
“In all your shouting,” Twilight began over my shoulder, “I don’t think you’ve told us your name.”
She huffed and said, “Mrs. Ivy Rose, former wife of Prickly Rose.”
I maintained my composure and said, “Detective Private Eye, we’ll see if we can’t solve this matter without more bodies turning up.”
_________________________________________________________
The warehouse in question was old, abandoned and looked like it was being held together by spiderwebs. It’s age was probably a big factor. Ivy Rose led us to the warehouse where once again uniforms were standing guard.
Ivy stomped her way up to one and ordered, “I demand to be let in to see my husband!”
The uniform, a young twenty something stallion with a short aqua mane and yellow coat shook his head. “Sorry ma’am, I’m only allowed to let police in. Your husband’s body will be given back once the investigation is over.”
That was the wrong thing to say….
“What?! That is my husband in there, you inconsiderate hooligan! My husband! And you won’t let me in to see him! How can you do this!” she practically screamed at him hysterically. “You know who did it! Lock her up and do it now!”
“Twi...” I looked at my wife.
“On it,” she nodded, her horn glowing, soon Ivy’s eyes drooped and she fell to the ground right in front of the uniform. Poor guy looked about ready to wet his legs. I looked to the other uniform, a young pegasus mare with a bright orange coat and a dark brown mane.
“You’d uh, may want to put her someplace comfortable for the next hour or so,” I explained to her.
The mare saluted and picked up Ivy to take somewhere. I looked to the other uniform who was still in a state of shock. “Would you kindly let us in?”
“Ye-yessir” He babbled.
Twilight and I walked into the warehouse building. It was mostly empty aside from the gear the uniforms set up. Boxes were empty, their contents long moved to other warehouses. The uniforms themselves were looking all over the place.
Twilight and I entered to see a familiar sight, old Forceps was looking over the body of a unicorn stallion with a short blond mane and a silvery coat. His cutie mark was, you guessed it, a rose. I saw there was a large cut across his chest.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite dynamic duo,” Forceps said, smiling at us. “Care to sample some stiff here?”
“Uh, only to find out what happened,” I said, “But I think you can just tell us thank you. What happened?”
“Found the stiff about an hour ago,” Forceps explained, “Somepony gave us a call bought her husband becoming a stiff. We arrived and we practically had to throw her out to get anywhere near him.”
“There’s ‘in love’,” Twilight said shaking her head, “and then there’s just plain crazy.”
“Yeah, she wasn’t exactly the most pleasant pony to deal with,” I agreed, shaking my head. “But, what can you tell us about her husband?”
Forceps pointed to the cut on his chest. “Died when one of his arteries got severed with a knife. Bled out on the floor.” He pointed to the pool of blood around him, it looked mostly dried up but the effect still hit home.
“Did you find the knife?” I asked.
“Not yet. I’m having uniforms searching everywhere for it,” Forceps said, “But no luck, whoever did him in probably tried to dispose of the knife somehow.”
If only my DNA spell was more powerful. I could scan Prickly’s corpse for the DNA of the killer and find the trail to the weapon. Sadly, that would be impossible as it looks like he’s been dead for a while. “Estimated time of death?” I asked.
“From the temperature,” Forceps tilted his head in thought. “I’d say sometime between one and two in the morning.”
That would tie up with Tappy’s memory of leaving around midnight. But without knowing where she went between midnight and when she was found, there’s no way we can pinpoint if she’s innocent or guilty.
“Did he have anything on him?” I asked.
“Just these.” He held up a pair of plastic bags in his pale white magic. I took them in my own silver magic and looked at them. In one small bag was a calling card.
Light on your Hooves Dancing Studio
Learn the art of Dance and Joy
223-1245-0567
1132 Ponyville Lane
“That’s the studio that Tappy teaches at,” Twilight noticed, looking over my shoulder at the card.
“I’m starting to think that’s our next stop,” I said firmly.
I looked at the other bag, a powder was inside it. I frowned, “Mageth, I think I know how Tappy got it in her system.”
“Found the stuff on the floor next to the stiff,” Forceps explained. “Never understood the appeal of that garbage, but to each their own I guess.”
I nodded and gave the bags back to Forceps, and then I asked, “Forceps, is it just me or is everypony watching me?”
Forceps and Twilight caught some uniforms looking over occasionally. Forceps sighed, “New boss, Gunry Insight, he’s not exactly a fan of you solving cases for us.”
“So he’s sent more uniforms to spy on us?” Twilight asked.
“Probably looking for a reason to kick the both of you out of investigations,” Forceps said with a frown. “Frankly, for whatever mistakes Shinebadge made, he at least was willing to accept help.”
“We’ll keep an eye out,” I said, and turned to walk out the door.
Twilight looked at me. “Something just smells wrong about this,” she said, as we walked down the road.
“I know,” I said frowning. “Anyways, I want you to see if you can find out anything you can about the Roses. I doubt Ivy is in the best mental state to tell us anything without accusing Tappy every five minutes.”
“What will you do?” she asked.
I smiled, “Go for a dance lesson.”
_________________________________________________________
The studio was kind of obvious. Aside from the sign, there were large windows that let in a lot of natural light. The facade was painted white, with blue accents, and through the windows you could see the large mirrors that helped the aspiring dancers observe their own form, and make corrections. The entry doors were quite elegant, too, with oval glass with gold leaf accents, carved wood filigree polished to a mirror shine, and shiny brass door handles made for ease of hoof or wing manipulation.
I looked at the desk and saw there was a young teenaged pony sitting there working. Her mane was short, ivory colored, and tied back out of the way. Her coat was a deep purple and her reddish yellow colored eyes were looking at papers. I opened the door and the bell rang to announce my arrival.
She stopped what she was doing, adjusted a pair of glasses on her nose and asked, “Can I help you sir? I’m afraid there’s no lesson scheduled for adults until Wednesday evening.”
“I’m not looking for a lesson,” I said. “I’m Detective Private Eye. I’m hoping you know where Tappy went to last night?”
The mare looked uncertain, but replied, “My name is Stapley, and I’m Tappy’s secretary of sorts. I do all the business side of things while she teaches the kids. I also run the dance studio when she’s not around.”
I nodded. “Were you here last night around midnight?”
She thought for a moment. “No, I let Tappy close up last night. I had a date with my coltfriend around nine. I didn’t think Tappy would stay until midnight though... Is she in trouble?”
I decided to give her an honest answer. “She, disappeared for a while. I’m trying to find out where she was from midnight till this morning.”
She shook her head. “I’m really sorry, but I can’t help you there.”
“Okay,” I moved on. “Was Tappy acting strange lately? At all?”
She tilted her head in thought, and then said, “Actually, there was something weird.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“I kept getting these calls from this guy named Prickly. Kept asking for Tappy. I would give the phone to Tappy, she would walk into the bathroom with the phone and just yell into the phone. I couldn’t make out what she said, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Tappy that mad before.”
“These started happening how long ago?” I asked.
“About a week after she started teaching,” she answered. “I tried asking her about it, but she kept saying it wasn’t anything important and just went back to work.”
Doesn't sound like Tappy was being totally honest…
“Did she get a call yesterday?” I asked.
She nodded, “Yeah, and she was in the bathroom for almost an hour. I had to keep the kids busy with stretches before she finally came out.”
This may be the connection we were hoping for. But why would Tappy want to talk with Prickly? And in such a heated manner no doubt. I only hope Twilight was having better luck than I was.
____________________________________________________
Watching Twilight at work was something to behold really. One of the reasons I married her was for her brain and I loved watching her use it. I entered the library to find books being levitated in front of her one after the other, notes being taken on parchment, and new quills being gotten as quickly as the old ones broke.
She looked back at me as I entered, “Oh, hey Private, any luck a the dance studio?”
“Well,” I began, “The secretary didn’t see Tappy leave. But apparently she got into a lot of heated discussions with Prickly.”
“That’s really weird,” Twilight said, suddenly a book teleported into existence in front of her.
“Where’d you get all of these?” I asked, looking at the levitating books around her.
“Access to the royal Canterlot Library,” Twilight smiled. “My teleportation spells have gotten much stronger. I can just teleport any book I could need right here. Since it’s law for every book to be preserved at the Royal Library, I can get any book we could need. It’s so amazing!” she added with a squeal.
I laughed at this and said, “Just so long as you don’t end up teleporting the entire library I think we’ll be fine.”
Twilight smiled at me and then went back to work. “I think I got a profile on our victim here.”
“What do you got?” I asked.
Twilight levitated the books into a pile and moved a chalkboard over. She wrote Prickly’s name on it. “Prickly Rose, 30, owner of one of the largest distributors of roses in Manehatten. Came into a lot of money after he left college with a degree in horticulture and started the company.”
“How’d he come into the money?” I asked. “I wasn’t able to pay off my student loans until I was two years out of college.”
“He got it,” she said as she wrote Ivy’s name, “Through the marriage to the lovely Ivy Vine, now Ivy Rose. She is was an heiress to a large chain of flower companies. After her father died of illness she graduated from college with a business degree and took over the company. She married Prickly about a year afterwards.”
“You got this from books?” I asked.
“Newspaper archives and census records mostly,” Twilight said, smiling. “It’s amazing what you can find at the Royal Library.
“So Prickly married Ivy for the money?” I said, looking at the chart, I took a piece of chalk myself and wrote Tappy on it. “But how does Tappy fit into all of this?”
“Beats me,” Twilight shook her head “I haven’t been able to find anything about her yet.”
“So she’s a no go yet,” I said, looking at the chart. “Did you find anything shady on Prickly? Any enemies or what not?”
Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “There was a court case about him about a few years ago. Something about accusations of kidnapping. But the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.”
Kidnapping…
This is very weird…
“I’m going to make the call.”
“Private, are you sure?”
“He’s the only one who would know about this stuff. Whoever killed Prickly is probably still out there. He’s out ticket to finding out why somepony would want to kill him.”
“We could try Octavia.”
“She’s trying to settle down with Vinyl, she doesn’t need any of this.”
“Alright Private, I trust you, but I really think you should bring Blackbird with you just in case.”
“Don’t worry, I can handle that buzzard.”
At least I hope so.
________________________________________________________
There were not many places you could meet with the guy. But the Violet Rose is the only place where a somebody could talk to without worrying about the wrong ponies asking questions. As I walked in I noticed that there was hardly anybody here. A couple of ponies were cleaning the tables but aside from that, the place was light.
Then again, it was still early for drinkers to show up. I walked to the bartender and she looked at me, “Can I help you detective?”
“I’m looking for a certain bird,” I said firmly.
“Not here to see Lark?” she asked, wiping a mug clean.
Larksong, my ex. I haven’t talked to her in ages and for good reason. “No, just the bird. But how is Lark doing anyways?”
“Didn’t you hear?” she answered, “She moved back to Manehatten. Awfully sad to see her go, she had a damn fine talent and drew a crowd. We’re all going to miss her.”
Lark…
“But if you’re looking for the buzzard,” the bartender explained, “He’s in the corner over there.”
I nodded and walked to where she was pointing. Sitting there was Grimwing, the black headed griffon had his claws folded together as he sat there. He looked at me with his yellow eyes and a small smile came to his face. “Well, looks like the great Private Eye has graced me with his presence once again,” he said in a mock reverent fashion.
“Been a while Grimwing,” I said, looking at him as I took a seat.
“So whaddya need now?” he asked. “Some warehouse broken into? Some goombah squashed?”
“You sound like a sales… griffon,” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“I do wanna get dese favors taken care of,” Grimwing said. “Technically yous owe me for fighting in dat battle of yers here.”
“Yes, and I will accept the favor of not telling the cops we had this conversation.” I smirked.
He laughed, “A hoof extended but a knife behind yer back. Always fun working wit’ youse, Private Eye.”
“Look, what I need is information. Can you do that?” I asked.
“So long as yous don’t ask fer my daughter’s phone number I think we’ll be fine.” Grimwing said, one of his claws pointing at me. “Also, I say whatever information I get out, capice?”
“Yeah,” I said, “Posso parlare bitaliano grazie.”
He smiled, and asked, “So whaddya want ta know?”
“Do you know a guy by the name of Prickly Rose?” I asked.
Grimwing put a claw to his beak and rubbed it for a second. He finally answered, “Yeah, I remembah a guy who went by dat name. Involved in some kidnappin’ case a few years back.”
“What can you tell me about the trial?” I asked.
“Da skinny is some parents blamed Prickly for kidnappin’ deir kid. Said he lured da poor sap away while he was playin’ in the park and the kid disappeared of the face of da planet afterwoids.”
“They couldn’t find him?” I asked. “The police I mean.”
“Either da kid really did just vanish or dey were bought off ta do a half assed job of it,” Grimwing shrugged. “Eider way, da charges were dropped due to lack of evidence or some odda legal bullshit.”
“That’s what the papers said,” I said, looking Grimwing in the eye, “But you know more don’t you?”
He smirked, “Yep, I do. Toins out the family was under my protection. Deir grocery was one of da rackets I ran at da time.”
“Offering ‘protection’ are we?” I asked, giving him a steely glare.
“I ain’t the type what sends griffons to shake down joints if that’s what yer implyin’,” he said, reaching into his suit jacket and pulling out a cigar. “Do yous mind?”
“Just don’t blow it towards me,” I said, keeping my glare. “Doctor’s orders to stay away from smoke.”
“Suit yourself.” He took a lighter and lit the tip of it, he inhaled the cigar and blew out a puff of smoke. “Ahh, yous don’t get much better than Zuban when it comes to dese.”
“So, they asked you to look into it?” I guessed, trying to avoid inhaling the smoke.
“Yea, I sent my best boy, Eagle Eye, to stalk Prickly tah see what’s what. After a coupla days he tracked Prickly tah dis old boat house. Prickly was talkin’ to a coupla Saddle-Arabian ponies. Some cage was dere, too, covered with a blanket.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Grimwing blew another plume of smoke, “Eagle Eye got a little careless an’ his conscience got the beddah of him. Charged in claws foist and slashed one of da pony’s eyes real good. The odda Saddle Arabian pulled piece and started shootin’ up da joint. Eagle managed to flank ‘im and took ‘im out.” He inhaled from the cigar again.
“And Prickly?” I said.
“Bastard got away durin’ the fightin’.” He blew more smoke. “Eagle Eye lost track of him but he was more consoined about da cage.”
“What was in it?” I asked, but part of me knew the answer.
“It was da kid. Toins out Prickly did kidnap ‘im after all. Poor sap was knocked out cold but Eagle managed ta get ‘im home safe and sound.”
“Why did he kidnap him though?” I asked.
“Those Saddle Arabian’s? Yeah, dey weren’t t’zactly good ponies. They were scum from da sands who wanted to…” He took a minute to say the right words, “Profit from the kidnapping.”
Prickly… was a slaver….
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Prickly was a slaver? I no longer hold remorse for him or Ivy-well, I never had remorse for Ivy anyway, lol.
3088882You may feel differently towards the end...
Mother Bucker had that shit com- Wait? That means
one of the parents did this!
3088887 Holy SHIT that was a fast reply!
Zuban cigars huh... i see what you did there
Not really feelin' too sorry for Ivy right now either... but I shall reserve judgement until the end of the case.
Well, it seems that Tappy may have been in on the whole kidnapping thing, or at least knew something about it. Can't say I feel sorry for Prickly. And from reading the previous comments, I get the feeling that Ivy wasn't aware of his activities.
Great chapter can't wait for the next one.
Wow, first the time of death isn't estimated at midnight and then this ends on that kind of note. I still can't believe I'm actually surprised things just got way worse on this case.
Prickly the slaver, not sure how to feel about him or Ivy for that matter.
3093317I'm not that evil...
Ok...
I reckon that Tappy's involved in this somehow, but I don't think she's the killer. Maybe Prickly kidnapped the kids, and his wife killed him over it, punishment. She chased Tappy, also present in the warehouse, who's covered in Prickly's blood (tried to stop the bleeding?)- maybe she is involved in the slave trade too, and ended up giving her a knock over the head and left, thinking she was dead. I reckon the two, if they were in it together, were drugged in the warehouse where Prickly was killed. not sure what the drug is- was it 'recreational(they took it themselves) or were they slipped it by Ivy? Either way, this explains the tracks in the park- Tappy was disorientated by the drugs. Then, the next morning, Ivy finds out that Tappy's alive, but has lost her memory. To cover up her tracks, she then tries to frame Tappy for her husbands murder, not willing to risk another violent confrontation, fearing the police will be watching and she'll be caught.
I wonder how much of this is right....Can't wait for the next chapter!
not bad so far. guessing that tappy's involvement to all of this is one of circumstance. she might have seen prickly in the act, so to speak, if taking minty or possibly another one of her students around midnight and decided to follow to see what was going on. she might have witnessed a slaver deal in the warehouse but was caught and drugged, probably to see if she could be sold herself to keep her quiet. somehow she got away but the drugs in her system lead her to the park, possibly being chased by somepony, which could explain her sporadic walking patterns. guessing ivy knew of what her husband was doing and might have been there herself during the deal, which could explain all the animosity towards tappy. that still leaves who actually killed prickly unknown, at least up to this chapter, but it possible to speculate that it could have been ivy, possibly out of anger for some reason or another. isn't it a bad thing to say that i can't wait to see how much of this turns out to be true or not?
So, Twi knows his gun has a name.. and din't say anything about how weird or crazy that is?
4262709 a lot of guns have names if they're specialy designed like little macitosh frm fallout equestria