Chapter 3 "Third Down"
Chapter 3
“Third Down”
“Who in the hollering hootin hay is Hazy Spot?” I asked, Sandā blinked at that. I sighed, and continued, “Sorry, I have been living in the country for a while, haven’t I?”
Sandā just cleared his throat. “I have no idea who she is,” Sandā said with a shrug.
“You know anypony from Hoofington?” I asked.
“No, why?” Sandā asked with raised eyebrow.
“I found an envelope at the crime scene,” I explained. “It was addressed to her.”
Sandā put a hoof on his chin and said, thoughtfully, “If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say she might’ve been a very close friend of some sort?” he said.
“That’s what I’m thinking too,” I said with a nod. I got up from the desk. “Thanks for your help Sandā; I think I can take it from here.”
“I wish you luck,” Sandā said with a smile. “I’ll make sure that Insight doesn’t hear about this.”
I let out a breath of relief. “You’re a lifesaver Sandā.”
“Just keep my brother out of trouble,” Sandā said as I turned to walk out the door. But, then he spoke up, “You know, Dad always liked your family.”
“I didn’t think Arashi was impressed by anything,” I grinned.
“You just always saw him when Raiden was involved,” Sandā said, looking at me. “Every other time, he actually hoped the Eyes and Bolts would become allies.”
“But I picked the wrong one to befriend right?” I replied.
Sandā’s face was neutral as I walked out.
__________________________________________________________________
Outside I explained to Twilight what I learned. We walked down the street as we discussed it. “Hoofington is miles away from here,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “It’d take us days to get over there. Flying there would only shave off a few hours.”
“Maybe Limelight knows where she is,” I suggested.
I walked into a nearby phone booth, checked the book and found Limelight’s number. After a pair of rings, I got an answer.
“Yes, who is this?” Limelight’s voice sounded over the phone.
“It’s detective Private Eye ma’am,” I answered.
“Oh, Detective” she said, sounding surprised. “I uh, did not expect to hear from you so soon. Have you found my husband’s killer?”
“Not yet,” I said. “I was just wondering if you could help me identify a pony he knows.”
“I’ll do what I can to help.” she said.
“Do you know a mare named Hazy Spot?” I asked.
Silence greeted me from the receiver. After a minute, I heard something like a lamp breaking in the background.
Finally, Limelight’s voice yelled, “That mare doesn’t exist!”
*Click*
“She hung up on me,” I said, a little bewildered at what just happened.
Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “Doesn’t seem like Limelight cared for this Hazy Spot.”
“Maybe it’s a code of some kind?” I suggested, then shook my head. “No, his lawyer wouldn’t have let him do that. Hazy Spot has to be a real mare.”
“So what do we do?” Twilight asked. “Call every mare named Hazy Spot in Hoofington?”
“Phone book here is only for Manehatten.” I said, frowning. “I’ll give Octavia a try again. Maybe she can point us in the right direction.”
I dialed and got an answering machine.
“You reached the home of Vinyl Scratch, I can’t come to the phone right now because I’m probably at a gig, drunk, or possibly having sexy time with Octy. Whichever works, so leave that message.”
I hung up. “No luck there either,” I said, and then slammed my head against the glass of the booth in frustration. “What’s going on here, it’s like everypony wants to make this case absolutely insane.”
Twilight leaned against the booth, “What do we do now?”
“There’s…” I started searching the phone book again. It was a long shot, but we had very little options left. Thank you Insight for being a royal pain in the flank.
I dialed the number I’m looking for, and after two rings, I got an answer from a young sounding mare, had to be the secretary, “You’ve reached the Imperial Group Building, may I ask who’s speaking?”
“Private Eye, I’m a friend of Mr. Imperictus,” I answered.
“Ah yes, Mr. Imperictus has mentioned you. Shall I put him on?” The secretary asked, in a very polite tone that was well appreciated.
“Yes, thank you,” I replied.
After a minute, I heard a familiar voice on the other end, “So, the great Private Eye is calling me? I should feel greatly honored.”
“You can get rid of the flattery,” I said, rolling my eyes and catching my wife smiling. “Spera, you seem like a stallion with connections.”
“Well, I don’t mean to brag,” Spera answered, “but yes, I would know some things. I’ve heard about your little spat with Chief Insight.”
“So you can understand my plight,” I said.
“I know from experience how short sighted the police can be,” Spera said, I got a slight tone of bitterness… but it was replaced by his typical polite voice. “What is it you require?”
“Would you know about somepony that Marty Ball would be trying to contact. Possibly in secret?” I asked.
“I’ll admit, keeping up on how celebrities make fools of themselves is a guilty pleasure of mine,” Spera replied, I could imagine him chuckling on the other end.
“Great,” I said with a nod. “The pony I’m looking for is Hazy Spot.” I went on to explain everything I knew about her so far. Spera was silent as I spoke , I heard a quill going in the background. Had to be him taking notes.
“Hazy Spot hmmm?” he said, and then spoke again, “It may take a bit to gather all the information. Why don’t you come to my office? That way I can just give you the info when you arrive.”
“Alright,” I said, “Where is your office?”
“See the big skyscraper with Imperictus on it?” Spera smugly said.
I stuck my head out of the booth and sure enough there was a skyscraper just as Spera described. I got back on the phone and said, “I uh, may have seen it in passing.”
“I’ll tell security to let you both in,” Spera chuckled, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I got a mare to track down.”
I hung up and Twilight was smiling at me. I sighed, “Yes, the bromance continues.”
“Do you think Spera can pull through?” Twilight asked, keeping her smile.
“He hasn’t let us down yet. I feel like we can trust him,” I said with a nod. “Now come on, we got a millionaire to visit.”
______________________________________________________________
Spera’s tower was even more impressive up close. The tower was mostly windows and black metal holding it together. The interior was just as impressive. Smooth tile floors, black and greyish walls, and dozens of employees walking about doing their jobs.
Twilight and I walked up to the front desk. There sat a secretary, about late twenties with long curly red hair and a beige colored coat. Her blue eyes looked at us, a smile forming on her lips. “Can I help you two?” she asked and I recognized her voice from the phone.
Twilight spoke up, “We’re uh, here to see Spera.”
“Take the elevator to the fiftieth floor,” the secretary said, pointing to said elevator. “Mister Imperictus is waiting for you both.”
Twilight and I nodded and stepped into the elevator. We slowly rose up the various floors up to Spera’s office.
The elevator doors opened to a large room. The carpet was silver and was soft on the hooves. The walls were silver as well, with paintings adorning them, mostly depicting ponies clad in armor and fighting. The center of the room had several plush couches that made the place look like a government office. At a mahogany desk, sat Spera, smiling at us. “I can imagine it’s nothing compared to Canterlot Castle your highness,” he said, addressing Twilight as we walked up. “But, I will offer whatever hospitality necessary.”
“It’s alright Spera,” Twilight said, holding a hoof up. “I’m still getting used to being called Princess everywhere. I don’t really need somepony to go out of their way for me.”
Spera just smiled, and got up from his desk. He gestured to the couches. “At least let me offer you comfort, I can imagine you both have been running around all day,” he said.
We both smiled and took a seat next to each other on one of the couches. Noticeably black as opposed to the silver colored floor. Spera took a seat opposite us.
I decided to start out with small talk, “So, how’s Robust and his family?”
Spera smiled and said, “Thanks to you, Robust is enjoying the time of his life with young Windstream. His husband is currently working to have the young colt enter school next year.”
“That’s great news,” Twilight said, smiling wide.
Spera nodded. “That it is,” he said, “But, I imagine you both have not come to my office for simple pleasantries.”
I nodded. “Right, we wanted to know if you found out anything about Hazy Spot,” I said.
Spera nodded, and his horn glowed his trademark forest green, a small folder came over from his desk. “I made calls and this is what I managed to find,” he replied.
I took the file in my own magic, and looked it over. “Hazy Spot, 45, lives in Hoofington.” My eyes grew wide and then I uttered in surprise, “She’s a comatose patient?”
Spera nodded. “I have a contact that lives in the Hoofington area,” he said. “Turns out she suffered a stroke about few years ago. The stroke has made her completely unresponsive and helpless.”
“Any connection to Marty?” Twilight asked.
Spera nodded and said, “Yes, according to my contact, they were foalhood friends. Two peas in a pod as it were.”
“That would explain how she knows Marty,” I said, putting a hoof to my chin.
“I did a little more digging,” Spera explained. “Turns out, Marty had been sending checks to her every now and again. Mostly for hospital bills and for the care of her son.”
“She has a son?” Twilight asked.
Spera nodded and said, “A colt named Sunny Spot, his father was a miner who died in an accident. Hazy raised him all by herself working at a cleaning service.”
“Maybe he wanted to help an old friend,” Twilight speculated. “I know that if one of my friends was in trouble I’d help where I could.”
“It’s no wonder you're the Element of Magic, Twilight,” Spera smiled.
Twilight rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “Well I uh, do what I can,” she said, obviously flattered.
I looked down at the file and sifted through the pages. “You even have his financials in here,” I pointed out.
“I figured you’d want to see them,” Spera said with a nod.
“You’d make a pretty good detective Spera,” I said, looking at the document. “It’s all very through.”
Spera shrugged, “I doubt I’d make a good detective. I’m more of the, behind the scenes sort of stallion.”
“Even still,” Twilight said, “we really appreciate your help.”
“Anytime,” Spera replied.
Twilight looked over at his desk as I kept looking through the file. “Spera,” she said, “I noticed you don’t have any pictures on your desk.”
“Oh,” Spera said, probably looking at the desk. “Yes, I simply do not have anypony to keep at my desk.”
“Don’t you have any family?” Twilight asked. “Special someponies?”
“Oh no,” Spera replied. “I’m not lucky enough to have a somepony yet. As for family, my only close relative is my sister. She doesn’t like it when I take her picture.”
“Oh,” Twilight said.
“It’s alright, you’re as curious as your husband,” Spera said, a small chuckle in his voice. “A fine quality that I wish more ponies held.”
My eyes stopped as I looked over the financials again. “Wait…” I began.
Twilight looked over my shoulder. “What is it?”
“Today just before he died,” I said, looking at my wife, “Marty withdrew all the money from his account.”
“What?” Twilight exclaimed, blinking.
“Yep, right here in his bank record,” I said, pointing at the chart. “One minute, more bits than I could ever make on my own in a year, next minute gone.”
Spera put a hoof on his chin and said, “If I could hazard a guess, I’d say Marty knew he was going to die.”
“Wait, there’s something more.” Twilight said, looking at the chart. “Marty’s account than has money added to it around the time he died.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Spera said. “Why add money to a dead pony’s account?”
“Unless,” I looked at them both and said. “Unless somepony added to it not knowing he was dead yet.”
“Again, it doesn’t make sense,” Twilight said, shaking her head.
“Actually, it does,” Spera said. “I remember watching the game before Marty died. I’m no expert on sports, but apparently he hasn’t played that badly in his whole career.”
“He was fixing the game,” I concluded. “He probably bet a bunch of money that he’d lose by a landslide. The bookmaker then put the money into his account not knowing he’d be dead hours later.”
“The question is,” Spera observed, “Who’s the bookmaker?”
I smiled, “I have a pretty good way of finding out.”
_____________________________________________________________
Perspective: Octavia
I walked down Manehatten’s streets. I was clad in my father’s old outfit. Black fedora, jacket, white shirt and a pink tie. I also wore a small masquerade mask to hide my face. I knew it would keep myself hidden amongst the general populace. But any criminals that saw me would know not to mess with me. Even if I was carrying a cello case on my back.
I hated to leave Vinyl at home, but I wasn’t about to turn down a favor from Private. I owe that damn detective too much to ignore him. Plus, he knows who I am, so he has that against me as well.
Octavia Val Jean is about to go to work.
I walked into an alleyway, and walked down a small set of stairs. At the bottom was a door, I knocked, once, then twice, then three times. An eye slide opened to reveal a pair of stiff brown eyes. “Password?” A rough voice said.
I smiled and uttered, “Always fear the bartender.”
The slide closes and the door opened. The bouncer stallion just gave a curt nod. I walked into the Tanners Hole with a neutral expression on my face. It was your typical dive bar. Old wood, old tables, smell of stale alcohol and smoke permeating the air. Naturally it was dim. Nopony wanted to see how well and truly dirty the place was. No cushions on the bar stools, and booths, because they’d never last long. And the glasses were heavy tumblers, practically unbreakable. Probably got a down-on-their-luck unicorn magician to enchant them to be unbreakable, too, to save on replacing glassware. It was that kind of bar.
As I walked up to the bar, I got my share of looks from the patrons here. Several of them under normal circumstances I’d buck to the moon for even making the look. But I was trying to be professional here.
I looked at the bartender, some old stallion who just grunted towards me. I smiled and said ever so politely, “A glass of scotch on the rocks. I highly suggest you don’t take that literally, the last pony who did that drank out of a straw for the rest of his life.”
The stallion blinked, and went about getting my drink without a fuss. I set my cello case against the bar and waited patiently for my prey.
“Got a name sweetheart or just an attitude?” I heard a voice say next to me.
I looked over and saw yet another example of why my barn door swings the other way. The unicorn stallion sitting next to me was at least twice my age. His coat was a light blue and his eyes a gross looking yellow. His hair was an absolute ratty mess of brown and grey. When he smiled, it showed a gold tooth that impressed absolutely nopony.
“I have many names, Rat,” I said with a smirk as his face paled. I ran a hoof along his chest and added, “But I’m thinking… you can call me sir…”
SLAM!
The stallion groaned as he went down. I’d have to wash my hind leg later. I smiled and said, “Consider yourself lucky, that’s about the only time a mare will touch there.”
“You bitch!” Rat said as his face twisted in pain. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
“A lowlife piece of scum who also happens to be one of the biggest bookmakers in town,” I said, taking a swig of my scotch when it came. Thankfully, actual ice was used. The stallion was smart not to make any comment.
Rat however, said a few choice words under his breath.
“What was that?” asked, getting off my stool and stomping my hoof on his face.
“I mean,” he gasped, “What do you want…”
I pushed a little harder.
“Sir,” He groaned.
“There, now was that so hard?” I asked. “I want you to tell me who exactly is Marty Ball’s bookmaker.”
“I’ll never tell you!” Rat spat. “I ain’t afraid of a little bitch like you!”
I looked over and saw two large stallions coming over. “Aww, seems you invited friends to the party.” I said, and then smirked. “It must be rather embarrassing, to be held down by a mare. I don’t want to embarrass your friends here either.”
“Kill that bitch!” Rat cried.
I watched as the first one tried to tackle me. I dodged deftly out of the way. I made it over to my cello case, but not before the second one tackled me. I slammed into the wall as patrons around me yelled and tried to get out of the way.
The bartender tried to yell a warning but Rat gave him a look that was meant to quiet him.
I delivered a swift punch to the second stallion, knocking some of his teeth out and freeing me. I delivered an uppercut that sent him flying into the bar. The second stallion pulled a knife out of his vest and stuck it in his teeth.
As he swung at me I leapt over his head, flipped, and landed right back at my cello case. I reached in and pulled out my bow. I gave it a shake, and the wood inverted to reveal the blade hidden underneath. I held it in my front hooves as I stood on my hind legs.
The stallion, undeterred by my strange fighting style, charged at me. I dodged his swing, clashed blades with him, and delivered a roundhouse kick that he blocked with a leg. He swung at me, slicing a part of my jacket but I was okay. I swung the sword and sliced along the blade again. The blade of his knife came clean off.
The stallion looked about ready to wet his legs when I grabbed him by the head, and slammed him against the bar.
I turned around and saw Rat with a pistol held in his magic. I dodged his first shot and managed to flip back to my cello case. I smirked and said, “Nice gun.”
Rat smirked, “Giving up now you little bitch?” He said smugly.
“Not until you’ve seen mine!” I said, pulling on the neck of my cello, it came completely out, and Rat’s eyes grew wide as he was faced with a tommy gun. I smirked and aimed at his hooves, “Dance little rat.” I said, and opened fire.
Rat’s hooves dodged the bullets. He really put up quite the dance before he came to the table. I swung my blade and knocked the gun away. I stuck the tommy gun in his mouth and said, “Now, let’s start over shall we?”
He nodded, too scared to speak with a gun in his mouth. Especially one that can turn the back of his head into swiss cheese.
“Good,” I said with a smile, and removed the gun, but kept it right in front of his nose.
“I-it’s me!” Rat said. “I’m Marty’s Bookmaker! I gave him the money! He got somepony to bet on him losing!”
“You mean to tell me Marty didn’t bet on himself losing?” I asked.
“That’s stupid,” Rat said, “No bookmaker would do that. You can’t bet on yourself losing, that’s just wasted money on my part. No, somepony else bet the money, lots of money. It cost me a small fortune.”
“Then why did the money end up in Marty’s account?” I asked.
“What’s your beef with hi-” He was cut off when I stuck the gun back into his blathering mouth.
“Answer the question,” I said firmly.
I removed the gun and Rat spoke again, “It was some kid, named Sunny Spot.”
Sunny Spot… but isn’t he-
I heard sirens in the background. I slammed a bottle onto Rat’s head so he didn’t get any ideas. He’d wake up with a massive headache and no pride tomorrow. Well, it’s what he deserves.
I then heard a voice over a megaphone, “Val Jean! Come out with your hooves in the air!”
Nopony really knew about who exactly Val Jean was.They just knew what the trademarks were. The fedora, the tommy gun, the bartender must’ve given me away. Hopefully nopony saw my face thanks to the mask.
I’d have to deal with the bartender later. I never liked squealers, even in grade school.
There was no back exit, that I had to guess. The police would be there too. How’d they manage to trap me so well? Oh well…
I collected my cello case and went back topside. I saw about half a dozen police officers with their guns trained on me. I saw one particular older stallion glaring at me. So this was Gunry Insight.
“Val Jean!” He said, in his megaphone, “Put down your case and weapons.”
I complied, dropping my cello case containing my weapons and my sword. I held my hooves in the air. “Been hearing things about you Chief Insight!” I said.
“Yes, I’m sure the press will have a few things to say about the capture of Val Jean and her being brought to justice!” Insight said, “Now let us take you in and nopony gets hurt!”
“I have no intention of being brought in,” I said, smiling. “Like Neigh Val Jean, I have more important things than getting arrest by a Jockvert wannabe.”
“I am the police chief!” Insight cried. “I have the authority to bring you in!”
“No wonder the military kicked you out…” I said, my smirk widening.
“Cuff her!” He ordered two of his men.
I smiled, and took off down an alleyway. I dodged gunfire, those cops were always lousy shots.
I wall jumped and climbed up a fire escape and made it to the roof. I smiled as I looked down at the cops. “A little something to remember me by Insight! Welcome to the force!”
I reached into my jacket, and tapped a button inside it.
My cello case started beeping down there…
“HIT THE DIRT!” Insight cried.
BOOM!
Went the smoke bomb as the smoke covered the whole street. The blast wouldn't hurt anypony caught in it, but it would cover me and destroy the case at the same time. Providing me with the perfect means of getting the hell out. I made my escape, smiling the whole way.
I just hope I can get to Private in time… Vinyl… be safe until I come home…
______________________________________________________________
Perspective: Gunry Insight.
Of all the dirty rotten lowest of low piece of scum! We get a tip that Val Jean, one of the most wanted criminals in Manehatten, is here and she slips through our hooves!
I kicked the cello case and looked to one of my officers. “Put an APB out on her! I want every cop in Manehatten looking for Val Jean!”
The officer saluted and ran off. I looked to another officer. “Also, make sure Private Eye is kept on close watch.”
The officer gave a quizzical look, “Sir, what does Private Eye have to do with any of this?”
“Simple,” I smirked, “I know Private Eye isn’t afraid to work alongside criminals… for he is one himself for even considering it…”
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Dislike of Gunry is rapidly intensifying
And I'm getting suspicious of Spera tootoo
I'm really liking this case so far.
Also, Spera has a sister...gonna file that under "Stuff that seems suspicious" for now.
Octavia = Badass. NUFF SAID
3155927 The Gunry hate has been doubled. denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw101_130063323965.jpg
excellent chapter man. great escape by the way and hell of a way to ruffle gunry's mane in the process. i know a few readers might think something suspicious about spera's sister, but i'm the same way when it comes to photos. There's that and the fact that it's still a bit too early to speculate anything about her.
Hazy Spot=Spera's sister
3156557
Little girl from last story= Spera's sister
Big Brother= Shadowhoof
Shadowhoof= Spera
So Gunry went for the position of police cheif just to have authority? What as ass.....
And yes, Spera is really starting to concern me as well.
3156643 Not bad...I wish I thought of that. Anyways, back to the conspiracy board.
I've had my suspicions of Spera since the last case.
I wonder why...
Seeing Octavia in this chapter was just awesome, and now I'm also suspicious of Spera.
Spera's starting to remind me of this guy:
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgf1bieTUq1qfymvl.jpg
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one thinking Spera is Shadowhoof
Oh please! the only reason you think that is BECAUSE they thought it first!
Oh shut up! the Conspiracy building led me to that conclusion not the other comments! by the way Ummm Twilight I wouldn't exactly call Spera and Private's relationship a bromance. a bromance is when two guys are so close to each other that others would mistake them for being gay
Like Corey and Shawn from Boy meets World or Burt and Ernie from Seasame Street or Turk and JD from Scrubs
Exactly although I'm pretty sure Burt and Ernie ARE gay I mean they sleep in the same room with their beds right next to each other also you forgot those two guys from Avenue Q and Trunks and Goten from DBZ heck Piccolo and Goku have a bit of a bromace in DBZ
Oh yeah! I totally forgot about Avenue Q heh you KNOW your in a bromance when you have a whole song dedicated to the question of if one of you were gay
that was probably the most awkward song to sing ever