By the time Soft-shoe and Siren arrived at the scene of the crime the anonymous caller had left. Neither of the ponies knew who it was who had called; Siren hadn't recognized the voice, all she had been able to understand when the news had come was that the list was still growing, and they weren't getting anywhere close to finding out which pony was doing all of this. It was both exciting for a young police-pony and equally frightening in its own way. Beforehand Siren would have said that there was nothing to fear about the killer, but now she wasn't so sure. She was abolutely certain that it went deeper than what McFly and Longshot had their opinions on. This 'resistance' as they called it, had been around for a long time; ever since the two older cops had been cadets at the academy and before.
Soft-shoe knew a bit about the resistance since it had been the predominant mission in Ponyville, the hive of the rebels, to catch and lock them up. Longshot was always as pleased as anything when one of them was caught; the only sad thing was that no matter what crime they'd commited they were always either bailed out or rescued by one of their friends. Siren had read the case files, so she knew about the resistance and the Ponyville police's constant battles; she knew about the few murders that had actually been commited by the cause; yet she didn't believe that the orange pegasus could have done this. Nopony had come to rescue her when she was under suspicion in the cells. And why wouldn't they come for her if she was one of them? It didn't make any sense.
"But what about the list?" Soft-shoe asked as they walked around.
"I don't know. Maybe-- Maybe it has nothing to do with the case at all. Maybe it was just a coincidence." Siren sighed and put her head down. "None of this makes any sense."
"Hay," Soft-shoe wrapped a hoof around her shoulder, comfortingly, "we'll find out what's wrong okay? We'll find out and everything will be better. If nothing I'm sure Longshot and McFly know what they're doing."
"Longshot maybe, but the Captian-- not really," Siren mumbled.
They looked down at the latest body; that of a young filly with blood pouring out of her mouth from the large hole in her head. It was horrible-- maybe some of the others had not been nice either, but this might be by far the worst, if not merely because this foal had been so young; she'd had no chance to have a life. It was just so unfair. Siren couldn't even look at the body this time, physically wanting to vomit every second she stared at it. When she'd been this filly's age she'd been playing with her Father and singing skipping-songs with her friends; not worrying about death. Siren stopped and thought for a second.
"Soft-shoe?"
"Yes?" he replied looking towards the mare.
"That first list didn't mention any other names past Twist did it?"
"There was one or two-- but other than that, no."
Both ponies stared at each other. A cough sounded behind them and they jumped.
"I hope I'm not disturbing anything," said Lonshot, eyesbrows raised, as he walked towards the corpse. He sniffed the air and looked down at the foal for a minute. Siren didn't know how he could bear to look at it for so long; she couldn't even cope with looking at him looking at it. The older police-stallion coughed and a whole team of police-ponies and forensics appeared around the edge. They set to work on surveying the surrounding area. A chalk outline was drawn around where the body lay. Longshot walked back over to the two young Deputy's.
"I suppose you have a reason for coming here."
Siren and Soft-shoe gazed admiringly up at their elder. How he managed to just get in and get out amazed the both of them. He was extrememly adept at his job.
"We got a call bringing us down here," Siren explained, "we thought--"
"--You thought right. It was brave of you to come. Well done Deputy's." Soft-shoe smiled at his boss. "Look," Longshot continued, "I know you want to help, and you can, but mandatory rest is needed. I know how a case with the resistance can damage you psychologically, I don't want it to happen to you too. Okay?" He looked appealingly towards the mare and colt; they subsided and agreed to go back where they had come from. As they were trotting away they heard a cry near the alley-way. A mare collapsed on the ground, faint. Longshot sent a pony over to deal with her.
"She must be the Mother," Soft-shoe pointed out, "we should really get out of here."
"Not just yet." Siren pulled Soft-shoe over to the alley nearby to the one where the body was found. Something shone beneath one of the boxes there. "I wonder what this is. Help me Soft-shoe." Reluctantly the colt agreed and helped Siren to lift the crate to the side. Underneath lay an old brown mac and a black mask-- far too big for a pony the size as the orange mare. This just proved that it couldn't have been her that did it. It simply couldn't. But why would the killer throw away his coat and mask, when he/she must've still had the weapon with them? The weapon wasn't anywhere near the body-- and after a shrewd check of the area where the clothing was found it couldn't be seen anywhere in the vicinity.
"Which means that somehow the killer made their weapon look nonchallant when walking through Ponyville. But how?"
Longshot's voice bellowed through the air. Maybe they should leave now before being reprimanded for disobeying orders. There was something else they needed to do anyway.
After a short bit of lunch together they felt it would be safe enough to go back to the station; sure that McFly must've got wind of this latest crime by now and gone to get in everypony's way. Thankfully it seemed they had been right. The station was a hive of activity, ponies running this way and that. A police colt sat at his desk hastily unpicking a thousand stitches that had gone wrong on a large banner.
"Hi Shudder, what're you doing?"
Shudder looked up at Soft-shoe and smiled.
"Just working on the decroations for the boss' retirement party on Saturday. It's gonna be a good shin-dig it is."
"Longshot's retiring?" asked a puzzled Siren. "He didn't mention it to us."
"Aye, well he wouldn't. He's busy working y'know. Wants to complete his duty afore having fun. Still this'll be a surprise after all he's done for us." Shudder whistled to the rest of the team and three other police-ponies nodded before carrying on their busy work. Soft-shoe nodded back.
Heard 'bout that filly Softy? Darn shame that is," Shudder contiued, "had so much life left in her. It'll be a good party though; should cheer everypony up-- especially after having to cope with that idiot McFly. Don't know how Canterlot can stand having him."
"They can't." Siren frowned and then beamed towards the others. "Hay Shudder, how quickly can you do DNA testing round here?"
"About as quickly as a fish on a bicycle Miss. We don't do any DNA testing here. Ain't got the equipment."
The mare sighed. Well that was one plan down the drain.
"You mind if I look through some files?" she asked batting her eyelids to win favour. It worked.
"Sure, you know where they are."
Siren left and came back carrying a large bundle of folders. She sat down to read them. When this case had started she had read every little detail in these previous missions but she felt she needed to read them again. She had to be missing something; she just had to be.
"Here Soft-shoe," Shudder said poking him in the side to alert his attention away from Siren, "help us with this will ya?"
They set to work and eventually it was all done. By the time they had finised Siren had also stopped her studying and put the folders back where they belonged. She nodded to Soft-shoe and they said goodbye, recieving nods in return. They then left and walked back out into the streets.
"Did you find anything?" Soft-shoe tried to keep up with the quick pace which she was cantering.
"I'm not sure. Yet I feel I've never been more sure in my life."
"Huh?"
"Come on, we need to pay a visit to a prison."
Hailing a cab she got in and the colt got up with her. The driver started up-- and Soft-shoe could've never been more puzzled.
Thirteen?