Truthseeker

by RB_

Whitechapel Vigilance 4

“There have been eight other victims, all found under similar circumstances. The first was a unicorn by the name of Glorious Dawn; at first we thought it was some kind of freak accident, but then we found the second victim, Flash Fire, a week and a half later. A week after that was Biscuit Break, then Crystal Cup a few days after her, Nimbus Chaser, Tea Time, Heavy Load, Mountain Carpet two days ago, and now this new mare.”

“And all of these ponies were found the same way, wrapped in plastic and dumped in the river with their throats cut?” Lyra asked.

“Yes.”

Lyra felt the familiar tingle of her blessing run down her spine. “That’s not true— are you absolutely sure they were all exactly the same?”

“Well…” He took a sip from his teacup as he thought. “Mountain Carpet didn’t have the sheet.”

Just an accidental lie of omission, then— probably nothing to worry about.

Any connection between them? Vinyl asked; Lyra relayed the question.

“Not that anypony on the force has been able to find.” He snorted. “Probably would’ve caught the guy already if there were any. Most of them were unicorn mares, though. Heavy load and Mountain Carpet were both earth ponies, and Nimbus Chaser was a pegasus. Carpet was the only stallion.”

Suspects?

“Do you have any suspects?”

“Several; friends and family of the deceased, mostly, but we’ve investigated them all and found nothing. I can get you a list of names and addresses, as long as you don’t tell anypony who you got it from.”

“Anything you can give us would be appreciated.”

The lieutenant took one last drink from his teacup, and returned the empty cup to its saucer. “Alright, I can make copies of what I can and have them here by tomorrow afternoon. Now, I’d best get going before anypony notices my absence; as always, this meeting never happened.” He began walking towards the door.

“Wait, one more question.”

He stopped and turned to face Lyra. “Yes?” he asked, impatience in his voice.

“Do you… Do you have any idea what their reason could be? I just can’t imagine why anypony would do something like this.”

“At this point? I’m starting to think they’re just doing it because they can get away with it, and I hope to Celestia that I’m wrong.”

-----

“Hey, Lyra. How was the visit?”

Lyra shut their hotel room door behind her, and trotted over to the bed where Bon Bon lay curled up with a novel. Climbing onto the bed, she sat beside her marefriend.

“It was… informative. How much of it were you able to hear?”

Bon Bon’s eyes widened. “You spotted me following you? I must be more out of practice than I thought…”

“No, I just know you well enough to guess that you wouldn’t leave me unguarded around ponies you thought were dangerous. And you’re holding that book upside-down,” Lyra said with a giggle.

Bon Bon looked down at the book in her hooves, then face-hoofed as she realized that Lyra was correct.

“Of all the amateurish mistakes…”

“Aww, it’s okay.” Lyra said, nudging her with her shoulder playfully. “You’ll always be the best retired secret agent ever to me.”

Bon Bon smiled, then leaned over to give Lyra a quick nuzzle. “That’s semi-retired now.”

“My mistake.”

The two sat like that for a while, enjoying the moment. Eventually, Bon Bon broke the silence.

“What did happen at the meeting? I wasn’t able to hear much through the door.”

Lyra summarized what had occurred during her visit with Snowbound, taking care to emphasize the part where she had solidified the filly vampire’s innocence.

“…and we left not too long after he did,” she finished.

Bon Bon let out a long exhale as she processed the new information. “Nine victims, and no leads…”

“Yeah… I can’t help but feel we’re in over our heads,” Lyra said, rolling onto her back. “I mean, if the professionals couldn’t find anything, then what are we supposed to do?”

“Actually, as cynical as it sounds, I wouldn’t recommend putting much stock in the ability of the police.”

Lyra blinked, surprised. “What do you mean?”

“Back when I was with the Agency, we would often have to work with the local law enforcement while on assignment; it was standard procedure.” Her eyes narrowed. “It was also very frustrating, since they usually just got in the way.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s important to remember that most police officers are trained mainly in crowd control and arrest techniques, and most of the cases detectives deal with are limited to petty theft. In this sort of situation? They’re just as in over their heads as we are.” She thought for a moment. “Actually, more so.”

“Why’s that?” Lyra asked.

“Well, for starters, we have you and your blessing; that’s a pretty big advantage, especially if we can come up with some suspects. Then there’s Vinyl. As much as I hate to admit it, her enhanced senses as a vampire will likely be useful, at least for evidence gathering.”

“What about you?”

“Well, I don’t mean to brag, but I was a fully-trained field operative. I have the advantage of experience.”

“Yeah? And what’s your experience telling you?”

“It’s telling me that if the police couldn’t find any clues working at this problem directly, then we need to attack it from a different angle.” Bon Bon rolled off the bed and began pacing up and down the length of the hotel room. “Personally, I think we should focus on any information we have that they didn’t.”

Lyra followed her back and forth with her eyes, enraptured. This was a side of Bon Bon— or, perhaps more accurately in this case, of Sweetie Drops— that she had never gotten to fully experience before, and it fascinated her.

“Particularly,” Bon Bon continued, “the fact that one of the victims was a vampire. Vampires are very difficult to subdue, something I know from personal experience. Assuming they’ve been feeding, they have the advantage in strength and agility, and their senses are heightened as well. The implications of one turning up dead are worrying, to say the least.”

Something in Bon Bon’s speech caught Lyra’s attention. “So you have fought vampires before!”

“Only once. It was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life.” Her tone carried an edge of finality that dissuaded Lyra from asking more questions about the past. Instead, she focused on the present.

“How do you kill a vampire, anyway? Stake through the heart? Garlic?”

Bon Bon laughed. “If only it were that easy! No, vampires are sustained by their own internal form of magic, which uses blood as a fuel source; changelings work in a similar way. As long as they have a reserve of that magic, it will enhance their abilities, as well as heal their injuries. The only way to kill a vampire is to either deplete their reserves, which requires you to injure them repeatedly until they run out, or to completely destroy them in one shot. And seeing as we have a body…”

“It has to be the former,” Lyra finished, rolling back onto her stomach and putting a hoof to her chin. “Which means the murderer must be good in a fight.”

“Or they found some way to subdue her before killing her. Or they are also a vampire, despite what Vinyl says. Or, most worrying, something even stronger.” Ending her pacing with a sigh, Bon Bon returned to the bed, sitting down beside Lyra. “Regardless, I think we should focus our investigation on the vampire until we can come up with anything better. Vinyl probably knows where she lived; we could start there.”

“We could do that tomorrow morning, before the Lieutenant gets us his files.”

“Sounds good.”

Lyra leaned against her marefriend. “You know, I’m really glad you came along. Sometimes I just don’t know what I would do without you.”

Bon Bon smirked playfully. “That makes two of us.”

Comments

[AlicornPriest]

Oh, hey! Lyra used her truthsense again! It feels like it's been a while since that's been pertinent.

[RB_]

7889498 Yeah... It should become increasingly more relevant, now that we're in the meat of things and the focus is back on Lyra.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well isn't this a fascinating story? Eagerly looking forward to more.

[Camolot the Creator]

Not only is this story quite fascinating, it is also quite a bit of fun. I get very much Skin Horse vibes from it, which is a good thing, I assure you.

[Flod]

This story is reminding me of a tv show i used to watch called GRIMM.

[wing regent]

My readers noticed something. Here's the list of victims:
1. Glorious Dawn.
2. Flash Fire.
3. Biscuit Break.
4. Crystal Cup.
5. Nimbus Chaser.
6 Tea Time.
7 Heavy Load.
8 Sun Streamer.
9. Mountain Carpet.
10. A pegasus mare, yellow coat and brown mane, and a paintbrush for a cutiemark.
There's nine victims everywhere. Who's extra victims?

[RB_]

9033789
Whoops. I can't count, apparently. Fixed.