A Study in Amber

by Time Ponies are cool

V - Missing Bodies

V - Missing Bodies

"The mortuary," Eagle said as soon as I asked him where our next destination was, "That's where you'll be going. I have to go to Shire Street. The tracking spell Trotland Yard's unicorns use shows his last position to be there. He disappeared from the unicorns' vision afterwards."

"And why am I going to the mortuary?" I responded with concern, as I was being entrusted with a task completely on my own.

"I received a letter from Redheart. She just arrived at the mortuary from Ponyville a few hours ago and she discovered that four bodies had gone missing and have been replaced with ones that were not on the record. I need you to go and collect all the data you can on the situation. It is quite likely this incident is connected to our case."

The cab drove over a dent on the road and shook violently for a moment, making me hit my head hard against the door. That hit combined with Eagle's instructions left me dazed for a moment. I shook my head and said, "I'm sorry, what? You want me to collect data for you? I'm a medic, Eagle, not an investigator."

"Bloody hell, Greenheart," Eagle replied with clear annoyance, "how hard could it be? You go and ask questions and look around for evidence. Simple as that. You can't possibly be so dull as to not be able to do that, can you? ... Then again, maybe you are. You can never overestimate ordinary ponies' stupidity."

I was starting to doubt just how well I could get along with Eagle. His remarks were not exactly encouraging or supportive. A more sensitive pony would be insulted. I could understand now why some of Trotland Yard's personnel had such an aversion to him. But here I was now, in the thick of it, and there was little I could do about it. I lived with him now, after all. At the very least, I could try to be cooperative. I knew for a fact that to create enmity between yourself and somepony you had to spend the majority of your time with was not a good move. Perhaps if I was on his good side, he would become more pleasant towards me.

"Alright, alright. I'll go. I'm sure Redheart would be glad to see me." Of course, I said that half-heartedly and I was certain Eagle knew that even if I acted sincere. I had little love for my sister nor did she have sisterly affection for me. Familial duty was really all that bound us. I supposed that was the only reason why she introduced me to Eagle.

~~~~~

The cab pulled up in front of an old grey stone hospital. It looked very dull and depressing. It even made the sky appear less bright with the orange of the setting Sun. I did not look forward to see what was inside. And yet this was place my sister went to for work on a regular basis.

"The mortuary is two floors down. You'll find Redheart in Room B," Eagle instructed me as I opened the cab door and walked out onto the concrete sidewalk. "Meet me at our flat when you're done."

Before I could say anything to express my many concerns, he shut the door and the cab rolled away, the wheels clanging against the bumps of the road driver's hoofsteps clopping against the hard pavement. It made a sharp turn to the left and disappeared from my sight. Nothing to be done now. I turned and faced the dismal hospital. I walked on, pushed the doors open and entered.

There was a strong smell of old laundry and the all-too-familiar odor of used bandages. The first room was dimly lit, and one of the four light illuminating it was flickering erratically. A pair of nurses were stationed at the reception desk. One was a unicorn using his magic to control a quill and write on something, probably a patient's papers. Overall, the inside was only slightly less dreary than the outside. I spotted a flight of stairs leading to the basement and immediately went down.

The hallway I found myself in when I descended was surprisingly well-lit and not at all like the room upstairs. It did, however, seem completely deserted. On the side opposite from the stairway was a series of doors all marked with letters above them. I sighed in frustration to see that the door nearest to me was marked with the letter, L.

I trotted down the hallway, reciting the alphabet backwards from L as I passed by the doors until I finally reached the letter, B. Unlike all the other doors, I could see light from behind the opaque window. I could hear somepony - my sister most likely - shuffling through papers and flipping through sheets. I pulled open the door, which dragged very slightly against the floor.

"Hey, Green," my sister greeted when I walked in. She was standing by the lifeless body of an earth pony mare laid on a metal examination table. The mare appeared to have been in her late middle age.

"Afternoon, Red," I answered, "Is this one of the replacement stiffs?"

"A what?"

"A stiff. A dead body."

"Oh, right! Yeah. I came down here to check on a body Eagle was experimenting on and found a completely different one. I'd never seen it before. It wasn't on the records. It was much fresher too. The most recent bodies we have are at least four days old. This one hasn't even been dead for twelve hours."

I supposed that the best place to start my investigation would have been with the body, so I asked for a pair of gloves. I put them on and then examined the body, checking the eyes, nostrils, ears and hooves. As I looked for potential clues, I asked, "Did you find out anything about the bodies? As ponies, I mean. Who are they?"

"Well, all died of cardiac arrest. All are elderly or late middle age. This one's in her late forties. I couldn't identify the other three, but this one had her wallet and I found an I.D. Her name's Cotton Puff."

I froze. I stopped my examination and slowly turned to face my sister. "Say that again?"

"All the replaced bodies are elderly-"

"No, no, no," I stopped her, "That last bit. What did you say her name was?"

"Cotton Puff."

I looked back at the body and took a deep breath. I said in a low voice, "Oh my..."

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Well, um... the plot thickens."

"Ew, please don't say that word."

I laughed. After all these years, Redheart was still disgusted by the word, "plot."

"Cut it out! It's not funny," she protested, "Where's Eagle Eye? I need a professional to be taking care of this case, not my brother."

"He's currently investigating something more important than you. Sorry, you'll just have to put up with me for now."

She kept quiet for the time being and let me continue examining the body. I could feel her glaring eyes looking at me as I ran my hoof through the body's mane, but I could not worry about that for I had found something utterly strange and somewhat disgusting: the mane was damp with a green slimy viscous substance.

"Eagle will want to see this," I said, "Get me a petri dish."

"Get it yourself," Redheart replied.

"How very mature you are, sister. Very professional." I went ahead to the nearest cabinet and found a number of petri dishes. I grabbed one with my mouth, put it on the table by the body and smeared the slime on it. "Alright, I don't see what else I can do here. I've got to head back to my flat and show this to Eagle."

"You and Eagle are just getting along splendidly aren't you?" Redheart cheekily said as I turned to leave.

"I can't say we hate each other."

"What a lovely little crime-fighting couple!"

A harsh counter-attack. I looked back at her irately and saw a satisfied look on her face that made my temper rise. She knew exactly how to cross me and leave me completely flustered. Unable to reply, I simply turned away and continued on my way out the door. As I pushed it open, I heard her irritating giggle.

~~~~~

I found Eagle Eye in our flat lying on the sofa and staring blankly at the ceiling. He appeared to be very deep in thought.

Without even looking at me, he asked, "What did you find?"

With a bit of pride in myself for having found such profound clues, I answered, "The four unknown bodies in the mortuary are spouses of the murder victims. Cotton Puff is there, as well as the other three. I also found this."

I took out the petri dish with the slime and presented it to Eagle. He looked at it briefly and then immediately returned to staring at the ceiling. I continued, "I think it might be a slime changelings produce. They might have been doing something to the bodies."

"Obviously," Eagle interrupted me in a low voice.

"What?" I responded in slight confusion.

"What else did you find?" Evidently he was not listening, but just moving on ahead.

"They all died of cardiac arrest. Um, and that's it. That's all I found."

Eagle looked at me and sighed in disappointment. He got up off the sofa and began to put on his scarf. "You found almost nothing of use to me. Clearly, the replacement bodies are the spouses. That was the first conclusion I came to, and if they are then there would be some residue of chrysalis fluid. Cause of death is interesting though. I'll have to look into that. But I suppose if we are to extract any useful evidence from the mortuary I'll have to go myself."

He took his coat from the rack and swung his head to quickly throw it over his body before inserting his forelegs through the sleeves. He looked around the room for a moment and then reached for the jar of zap-apple jam on the table. He put the jar in his coat pocket and, without another word, he hurried down the stairs and out the front door, leaving me behind.

I awkwardly stood there alone for a moment. Then I went to the kitchen and started preparing myself a cup of black tea.

Comments

[Kawa]

That closing line about tea made me realize that pony eyes are too damn large to accidentally drop into your drink.