Morning Meir Mysteries: Case 1: A Mad Mare Affair

by XombieSlayr

Chapter 7: "A Fallen Marquis."

Chapter 7: "A Fallen Marquis."

For a moment I was tempted to run. Or simply yell for help. But I knew better. I was done running. I was prepared to defend myself, however I needed to. But then...

"We need to talk."

I was taken aback a bit by his sudden change in tone. But I played along. "I'm listening."

He sat down next to his sister, who smiled and hugged him affectionately. He showed no sign of returning affection, save for lightly patting her arm, and dropping his scowl ever so slightly.

He closed his eyes and sighed. He seemed to be collecting his thoughts. I was doing the same.

This entire time, I had thought he had been the one who bombed the cafe, and killed Argyle. But his sister had revealed the truth to me at last. They had not been chasing after Argyle. They had been working together. They had been friends.

But with that truth revealed, a bigger, perhaps the biggest question of all had reared its head: Who did blow up the cafe? Who had killed Argyle? And most importantly, why?

For a while, we all just looked at one another. It wasn't too surprising. We had been enemies, for the most part. But now, what were we?

Ralah broke the silence. She had a confused look on her face. "Wait. Morning Meir?"

I didn't like lying. And though I had thought I had to, I still felt bad for lying to her. In all honesty, Ralah actually was very friendly and nice.

"Yes. I'm sorry for lying to you, but I had a good reason."

Ralah tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "What was the reason?"

I simply told her the truth, in as polite a way I could. "I thought you and your brother were trying to kill me."

For a moment they just looked at me, in a way that a curious child looks at something that fascinates them. Then Ralah smiled.

"Well, yeah. That is a good reason, then!" She laughed.

Salah even gave the slightest chuckle at the notion. It seemed like I had been wrong about them after all. As we sat there, it became apparent that we had become allies now. But my curiosity continued to linger. I simply had to know what was going on now.

Luckily this is exactly what Salah provided next.

He looked at me with a look of mixed curiosity and approval. As if to exchange a gesture to a friend or ally. "We'll we are not killers. That I would like to make abundantly clear. We were hired by Marquis for our services."

"And what services are those?" I asked, my curiosity now seeming unbearable.

Ralah and Salah exchanged side glances before he answered. "Have you ever heard of...The Phantom?"

The look on my face said it all. He couldn't possibly be saying what I thought he was saying. "You...you don't mean....You're The Phantom?"

They both smiled at me. "No." They said. "We both are."

Questioning (Salah and Ralah A'dinn, The Phantom(s)?, 12:16 pm)

As I sat there, with a look of shock and bewilderment on my face, I realized it had all made sense. The newspapers had stated that The Phantom was capable of appearing as both a male and a female, when taking on someone's identity. It had been Ralah and Salah taking on the identities of the mare and stallion, of their own accord. Then somehow they were able to perfectly impersonate the two victims, to the point where they could not be mistaken as an imposter. But how had Ralah and Salah accomplished this? And to what end.

I was brought out of my thoughts by Salah's laughter. Not cheerful, but Cold and calculating just like the rest of him. "I'm sure you have many questions for us, Ms. Meir." He said with a slight smirk.

I certainly did. But I knew better than to just ask outright. I smirked back. "But you'll only tell me, If I tell you something. Right?"

Again he laughed. "You truly are a brilliant one, Ms. Meir."

I ignored the pompous tone of his voice. "What do you want then?"

His eyes shined as he narrowed them. Not at me, but only in my general direction. "What we want, Ms. Meir...is your help."

I blinked. "My...help?"

He nodded, and something about his manner also changed. He was no longer intimidating, but seemed to have softened a slight bit. As if to reveal a more open side to his personality. To be able to switch emotional paradigms at the drop of a hat? I guess this was to be expected from one side of the infamous Phantom.

I was confused, but curious. If they needed help, then obviously they were facing a problem. One that they believed I could help them solve. If this worked out right, perhaps I would even gain them as allies in my investigation. "What do you need help with?"

Suddenly, Ralah stood up from her chair, and had shifted from sweet and cheerful, to quite scary and dangerous looking indeed. She eyed me with a serious and flaring look. I would've been terrified, but I saw it in her eyes. This was not anger aimed at me. But sadness masked as anger. She was extremely upset about something. "We want you to help us get some answers from Marquis, for killing our friend!" she exclaimed.

Their friend?....Argyle.

Salah easily calmed his sister, who sat back down with great sadness and anger still peeking though her teared up eyes. He looked over at me, with the softest look I'd ever seen him wear. Almost friendly. "Argyle was more than just our friend. He was our partner, our companion. He was like family to us. Like a father in a way."

I sat and listened to Salah's explanation. He spoke in a soft and sad tone. Argyle truly did mean something to him and his sister. "We had known Argyle for quite some time. He had practically raised me and my sister since we were foals. Keeping us off the streets. Teaching us how to fend for ourselves. Without him, we would be nothing. He's the one who made us who we are proud to be today. He made The Phantom."

"Why did he contact me, then?"

"I'm not completely sure. Odds are he had found out something from Marquis that he knew he couldn't keep to himself. He called you to talk to you about it, but Marquis silenced him before he could."

"Marquis is the one who blew up the cafe? How?"

"Marquis is a powerful criminal who has contacts all over Mareiposa, and most of Europa. It wouldn't be hard for him to have a bomb planted in a public place, like a cafe. Broad daylight or not."

I thought back to the conversation I had had with Argyle over the phone. "No. He had said something about having information on The Phantom. He seemed to allude that it was important."

"Really?" Salah thought for a moment before giving his theory. "Then it might've been as simple as he wanted us to work together. Perhaps he was going to reveal to you who we were, so that we may work as one against Marquis."

Against Marquis. It seemed whoever Marquis was, he had been the mastermind behind all this all along. But why? I asked my next question."What did Marquis want from you guys? What does The Phantom do, exactly?"

Salah smiled as if I'd just complimented his suit. He was clearly proud to be talking about his and his sister's roles as The Phantom. "The Phantom is meant to be a living enigma. It can appear anywhere at anytime. And always as someone else. Never the same pony and never being able to tell as an imposter. As you can see, me and my sister have built up quite a reputation for ourselves. We usually take on jobs for clients who want something stolen for them. A valuable of some sort, information that only that particular pony could access, or to track someone."

Then Salah got serious again. "But we don't kill. We never have, and we never will. The Phantom has no need for bloodshed. It is a shadow, that cannot be caught and leaves no marks of its presence. We may rough up a pony or two, but beyond that, we have no need to kill anyone."

Upon seeing my eyes narrow at him, Salah blinked. "Oh yes. Sorry about that."

"So it was you! You were the mime, who attacked me!"

"Yes, I was the mime. But my job was to simply restrain you and keep you from uncovering evidence. But I was never going to hurt you. When I saw you were able to fight back, I simply ran. I dove out the window, was caught by my sister and we left the scene."

"You were at the scene of the crime? Then...did you see-

"No, Ms. Meir. We did not see who killed Augustus Regal. We were simply told to keep an eye on the body. And to throw off whoever came to investigate."

Keep and eye on the body?! "Are you telling me, that Mr. Regal was dead before I even talked to him? That's impossible! How could a dead stallion talk to me?"

Ralah suddenly giggled to herself. "Heh. Yeah. That wasn't Mr. Regal you were talking to: It was me!" She laughed.

My eyes nearly bulged from my head. I was almost speechless. "You!? B-But how?"

Ralah cleared her throat then spoke to me. But not as Ralah A'dinn. The voice that now occupied the body sitting across from me, was the voice of Augustus Regal. Indistinguishable from the real one's own.

"Hello, Ms. Meir. A pleasure to meet you. I am Sir Augustus Regal. Welcome to my humble abode." said Mr. Regal's voice from Ralah's muzzle. She sat up straight and wore a soft spoken manner on her face. Exactly as Mr. Regal had. She even nailed the slight twang of French, he had had in his lowercase syllables. If I had not been looking directly at her, I would've sworn that Mr. Regal was now sitting across from me, having a conversation.

I was utterly amazed, and my face showed it. "How in the wide world of Equestria did you do that?"

"It's a talent I've had since I was a filly. Not sure how it works, but all it takes is one word spoken from someone, and I can imitate their voice more that perfectly. Argyle said it was some new kind of magic, but I just think its raw talent. Or at least that's what I'm calling it!" Ralah explained, with great enthusiasm.

So it truly had been Ralah who had spoken to me through the door. Which means I had been right all along (In a way) I had placed his time of death roughly 30 minutes before I had gone back to speak with him. And I had been bewildered as to how he had been able to speak to me while he had been bleeding out from his wound. And I now knew, that he hadn't: He had already been dead by the time I had gone back to speak with him, and it was Ralah and Salah's job to clear the scene of evidence. Ralah had impersonated Mr. Regal to make it seem he was still alive.

"But wait...why did you smash the vase?"

Salah shrugged. "For some reason the old stallion had hid the photograph in a vase. The photo was what we had been sent to get from the office. We had known Regal was dead, before we entered. We were told not to interfere with his body in any way."

It all came together in my mind like a series of pictures: Salah had been the mime, and had kept an eye on the party while Ralah snuck into Mr. Regal's office, of which, he had already been dead, 30 minutes before I went back to talk to him. As soon as I had gone back to talk to Mr. Regal, Salah had slipped from the room and snuck into the office the same way that Ralah had. The conversation I had heard was Ralah and Salah talking with each other, with Ralah speaking in Mr. Regal's voice. Perhaps as practice. When I came back, they knew they had to think up something.

Ralah spoke to me through the door, while Salah smashed the vase, to get the part of the photograph with Debelle Divine that had been hidden within it. Ralah left first, but before Salah could leave, I came into the room. I had seen the body, so he knew he had to restrain me and keep me from screaming or alerting anyone. But he hadn't expected a fight, and fled, leaping from the window, where his sister had caught him. And then they left.

But something was still off.

"But wait...what had been in Argyle's briefcase? If it hadn't been the photograph?" I asked.

Salah reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a large sealed envelope. It had been addressed to Mareiposa General Hospital, and the name of the addressee had been blackened out. He handed it to me. "This was to be delivered to Marquis at the hospital, by Argyle. It's important medical documents that Argyle had on file of him. Odds are, these were supposed to be destroyed in the explosion. But I suppose marquis hadn't thought about our exchange."

Why would Marquis want to destroy his own medical records? And then I knew: His records would have all manner of details about him and his physical health. He didn't want anyone finding out about him. That was why he had blown up the cafe and killed Argyle. Not to stop him from talking to me, but to erase his medical history.

I looked at the envelope in Salah's hoof. "So, what do we do with them?" I asked.

Ralah and Salah looked at each other and smiled. "We're going to go to the hospital, and use these as leverage, to get marquis to come clean. We want to know why he killed Argyle. Why he betrayed the three of us. If he wanted these records, all he had to do was ask. Why did he have to betray us and kill our friend? We want answers! Same as you."

I looked at them in surprise. "You guys want me to help you infiltrate a medical hospital, and help you squeeze information from one of their patients!? I can't do that, I'm a doctor!"

Salah smiled at me. "Which is exactly why you're just the one who can help us. With your reputation, we'll have no trouble getting to Marquis. Plus: Marquis is not some ordinary patient. He's a ruthless criminal, who murdered our friend and blew up a public cafe to do it. We wont kill him. But we deserve to know why he did what he did. And so do you."

I couldn't argue with Salah's reasoning. They did deserve to know why Argyle had been killed. And whoever Marquis was, he was clearly the one who had arranged for Mr. Regal to be killed and then set up Salah and his sister to take the fall for all his crimes. And it had almost worked. Patient or not, Marquis was a criminal who had to answer for his crimes, and he was the one who could lead me to Mr. Regal's killer once and for all.

I nodded in response. "Alright then. I'll help you guys."

By Salah's pleased expression, he had already discerned that I would agree to help them. Yet his only reply was a simple "thank you."

I couldn't possibly have known what I was getting myself into. As I listened to Salah and Ralah explain there plan for getting into Marquis's room at the hospital, my mind was more or less calm. After all, I was a simple doctor who would be paying visit to a hospital. Nothing out of the ordinary.

So of course I had no way of knowing that I would be stumbling into possibly the most dangerous conspiracy Europa had ever seen. And that this case would make my name both famous and infamous throughout, not just Europa, but the entire world.