why do I get the feeling that it's Swine, himself, causing the murders, in order to confuse the masses and make them bow to his every whim... a classic in these kinds of stories, especially when there's an amazingly perfect scapegoat right in front of him.

And on a side note, why doesn't Spike send a letter or something to the princesses and at the very least inform them of the place and the situation... I mean, he could've very easily gotten a piece of paper (or anything else he could transport with his fire) from Sweet or True... though it has been a while since I've read this

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It's true that in these kinds of stories that sort of situation would be the case but I honestly don't know myself. I write everything as it comes and don't really plan it out as that just makes me procrastinate on it.

Also, the whole thing with sending a letter is that he is under watch whether by guards or True Shot. Not only that but with the leads in the case I don't doubt that he'd put it aside since the time limit is drawing near or that he just plain forgot about it. When one is too wrapped up thinking about other things they can easily forget a lot.