//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: A New World, a New Lifestyle // by Omega_code //------------------------------// Sheriff Lone Star walked up to the two mares; grace sitting next to Sanitary still giving comfort to the shock mare, her eyes slowly turning red with tears. The earth pony looked between the two. “Miss. Grace and Miss. Sanitary, I need to ask you some questions,” he began. “I know this is hard to do right now, but we need to know what were the two of you doing before the murder, especially why you were outside side.” Grace’s head snapped towards his direction with a sour glare. “You think we have a part in this!?” she exclaimed harshly. “It’s just normal procedure ma’am,” the sheriff replied calmly. “Beside, your answers could help us very greatly,” he explained, gesturing over to Xerox who was still standing next to him. “So please, be cooperative about this” he finished, shifting his weight about on his legs to a more comfortable standing position. Grace turned her head over to the weird bipedal creature standing next to the earth pony. “And who exactly is that?” “His name is Xerox and he’s being commision by me in helping solving this cases,” Lone Star answered. “So what’s it going to be ladies? We can do it here, or back at the police station.” The teal mare grimaced, turning her head too look at Sanitary whose eyes were still shock in horror. “We’ll do it here... for now,” Grace answered, turning her head back at the Sheriff. The brown stallion nodded his head. “Thank ya very kindly... now, would you please describe what you were doing for this morning?” Grace closed her eyes and frowned. “Well... the morning went by as normal... I made breakfast for the three of us and we discuss some news and I had to go out shopping... since it was my turn to gather the groceries we need.” “Your turn?” Xerox asked with a small frown. The mare nodded her head. “Yes... it’s something the three of agreed on, split some of work keeping the house maintain.” “Speaking of which, why are you three living together? Are you family members or something else?” Lone Star asked with a slight inquiring tilt of his head. “I’m letting Cello and Sanitary rent rooms from me... it’s just something to help me keep the bills paid and help others have a roof over their head,” Grace answered before a downed frown grew on her face. “I... never thought something like this would happen in my house.” “Do you have any reasons for why somepony would want to kill Cello?” the Sheriff asked. Grace slowly shook her head, while Sanitary seemed to fidget ever so slightly. “None,” Sanitary said, shaking her head. “She was a delightful musician.” Both Xerox and Lone Star raised an eyebrow, though for different reasons. Delightful musician... for someone who seem to like rock music, the Zoroark noted to himself while the Sheriff continued with his questions. “I see, so Ms. Sanitary, where were you during the time of the murder?” Lone Star asked as his eyes shift their full attention at the buttercream mare. “Just a little running sir, I felt fat after having a treat so I wanted to try and work it off,” Sanitary answered with a small shrug. “So you were in the kitchen?” Xerox asked, his fingers scratching the bottom of his chin. “Well yes-before this dreadful thing happened of course,” Sanitary answered, fiddling with her hooves. “I had a sweet and then went for a run, leaving her practicing.” “A run out in the rain?” the Zoroark questioned further, remembering it was pouring when he’d arrived and supposedly when the murder happened too. “And?” she asked, raising a challenging eyebrow. Xerox frowned, hoping to catch her off guard but he shrug. “Just a question ma’am.” “I just wanted to run, is there a problem with it?” Sanitary inquired, her eyebrows narrowing. “No, no there’s nothing wrong with it,” Xerox said with a small shake of his head. “Running is good for your health. I just found it strange you wanted to do it out during the rain, and while wearing a rain coat, hat, and boots. I mean, that really constricts your range of movement doesn’t it?” “... I enjoy the challenge,” Sanitary replied, looking at the table and refusing to meet the weird creature’s eyes. The Sheriff turned his head towards Xerox, seeing the gears turning in the Pokemon’s mind as a frown crossed his face. The pony then shifted his eyes over to Sanitary, who was definitely hiding something. He might be an old work horse, but he wasn’t too stupid to see signs of nervousness of a pony who knew they did wrong but wouldn’t admit it. He would be handling this himself, but he wanted to see what this ‘detective’ could do. He kept his silence as Xerox continued on. “That’s fine, though how about we switch to a different subject?” the human looking Zoroark asked. “Who exactly was Cello?” “Well, like Sanitary said she was a musician,” Grace replied. “She was part of a rock band.” “And who is in this rock band?” Xerox asked. “Some friends of hers, I don’t really know their names,” Grace answered with a small frown. “Sorry.” “Cello never really talked about them to you much?” Xerox asked with a small frown. “No... she did, it’s just that I work as a receptionist and go through dozens of names every day,” Grace replied with a small shake of her head. “If I don’t really put my mind to remembering your name, I tend to just forget it.” “Sunny Days... Cloudy Mornings... and I want to say Rainy Nights,” Sanitary listed, frowning. “At least, I think that was them. I never really trusted Rainy Nights though... he was always so brooding... I think I remember Cello saying that the two argued a lot.” Xerox frowned, his eyes shifting to gazed down as his fingers softly rubbed the tip of his chin. That’s a good motive for almost anything really, but it doesn’t feel quite right. Something is just not stacking up properly, but what? Lone Star spoke up. “What type of ponies are the three?” he asked Sanitary. “They’re all pegasi,” Sanitary answered, glancing down at the table. “With names like that they’d have to be right?” The earth pony nodded his head. “True, they do sound typical pegasus names.” Xerox just nodded unresponsively, his mind trying to find a hole in Sanitary’s logic. His eyes wandered upward and out through the windows, where he spotted deputy Meadow writing in a notepad with a pen, both floating in the air in front of her. His eyes widened as the light bulb turned on in his head. “Well, while it might be possible Rainy Nights and Cello could have differences between them, I don’t think he was the one who cause this.” “Why is that?” Grace asked with a confused frown. “Because the lack of the spread of blood,” Xerox answered. Everyone turned their heads to look at him. A mix of confusion and incredulity crossing their faces. Right, time to explain what I mean. “In Cello’s room, her blood was all laid out in front of her, and it was basically undisturbed. Now, there was several slashes given to her across the chest, and I know blood would have gushed out everywhere from an assault like that. So that should mean the killer must have got covered in it, especially with the hand... hoof, that he or she used to hold the knife to kill Cello. And since you used your hooves to also walk, that means there should've been blood prints leading out of the room, but there weren’t.” Xerox paused to allow his words to settle in their minds before continuing. “Meaning the killing need to happen at a range. However, how can someone use a knife to attack someone as if they were standing next to them, but were actually far away?” He raised a hand a pointed a finger outside to the deputy unicorn. “Telekinesis.” Lone Star slowly nodded his head in agreement. “That does make sense, any unicorn can use their magic to grab and hold anything firmly from nearly six feet away from them, as long as it is light in weight.” Grace frowned as she too nodded her head, but Sanitary froze. “So... what?” Sanitary asked. “Are you trying to imply something?” “More like putting together pieces of a puzzle actually,” Xerox replied. “For you see, there’s also another fact that I found while in the kitchen. You see, I found the apron of some interest to me and taking a good gut feeling, I checked on it and found some small spots of blood on it, which I can only assume is Cello’s blood. So my best guess is that whoever killed Cello was also wearing the apron. So now I only have one question left to ask; which one of you likes to fold the apron up into a neat square?” He glance between the two mares. Grace was slowly blinking, a look of disbelief haunting her face as she slowly turned to Sanitary. Sanitary for her part was frozen in place, eyes wide. “Sanitary... he can’t be right,” Grace said, a small disbelieving chuckle leaving her as she shook her head, though her eyes were having a hard time to turning away from the mare. Sanitary just stared at Xerox for a moment before tears began to run down from her eyes and within seconds she was bawling. “I-didn’t-mean-to,” she gasped between shuddering breaths. Grace blinked blankly, her face going blank with shock. Lone Star straightened his posture and walked over to stand beside of the buttercream unicorn weeping on the couch. “Ma’am, I think you ought to come with me.” Sanitary continued to weep inconsolably, her body going limp as she cried into the armrest of the couch. The sheriff frowned slightly, but nodded his head slowly as he just stood there and waited, though he turned his head over at Xerox. “I’ll tell one of my deputies to release Lance. As for you, you’re job is done here, but I want to talk to furthur with the whole Pokemon incident.” Xerox nodded his head and glance at Sanitary wailing into the arm rest. A part of him felt... well proud that he was able to solve his first true case, but the rest just felt sorry for the mare. She really didn’t seem the type to be a murderer, but evidence doesn’t lie. He made his way to the door and headed out of the house, his head hanging down slightly as his illusion of his human self faded away. “So, what’s the news?” Scarlet asked as she slithered up to the Zoroark. “Hmmm?” Xerox hummed out before the question fully process through his brain. “Oh... Lance is free, I solved the case,” he replied, though was still heavily distracted by the image of Sanitary crying in his mind. “You don’t sound too happy for doing so,” the Serperior noticed, a frown on her features. “...I’m just... trying to get straight that I did the right thing,” Xerox he said slowly. “I mean... someone was killed, and I found out who wrongfully did it. It’s just.....” He grimaced as he closed his eyes and his right three claws clinch together. “I wasn’t expecting her to react like that once I exposed her.” Scarlet closed her eyes and slowly nodded her head. “Well... things don’t usually turn out exactly what we have in mind sometimes. I know that from experience. Still, you did do the right thing in finding out who was the murderer, and I’m sure Lone Star will set everything right. He seems like the type of law enforcer.” “Right...” Xerox took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, pushing away the ‘guilt’ nagging him in the back of his mind. “By the way, he wants us to wait for him back at the guard station, talk more about us and Pokemon in general.” “Alright, though maybe he can also provide something for us to eat too,” Scarlet said before chuckling lightly. “Feeling my stomach growling while it’s on the ground is not a pleasant feeling, heh.” The Zoroark nodded his head in agreement. It had been a while since he last ate, and he began to notice the slight emptiness of his own stomach. Though a thought occurred to him... did the ponies have meat to serve? Not only that but enough to feed a Serperior? Only time would tell.