Equestria Noir Case 3 "Brothers in Blood"

by Jacoboby1

Chapter 3:Discovery

Chapter 3

“Discovery”

“What were you doing there at the apartment Ocean?” I said holding my notebook out.

“I was going to tell Sharpblade to stop pursuing Cadence…” Ocean said her rough voice giving little away.

“You knew about the letters Sharpblade had been sending to Shining Armor?” Twilight said looking at the coral colored mare.

The coral colored unicorn nodded “Yes, I have known for a long time”

I looked at Ocean curiously “Could you describe your relationship with Sharpblade?”

Ocean sighed “We started dating about a month back but we’ve known each other for years. We both grew up in Canterlot and I was his friend as a child”

“When did you two start becoming more then just friends?” I said

Ocean was quiet for a second; I could notice her left front hoof was shaking a little. “When Cadence happened…”

“Sharpblade and Cadence were in a relationship for a while before she started dating Shining” Twilight said her hoof on her chin in thought.

Ocean glared at Twilight “All he could ever talk about was Cadence this and Cadence that! How beautiful she is! How wonderful and loving she is! How damn sexy her flank was on a moonlit night! He never even once thought of the mare that stood by his side all these years!” Twilight shrank a little at that outburst. I felt I might need a change of barding.

My eyebrow rose at this “And after Cadence broke things off with him he ran to you for comfort…”

Ocean’s eyes were downcast “Yes, for a while anyway. But it wasn’t long before Sharpblade started talking about Cadence again…We broke up soon after I brought it up with him”

“So why were you at his apartment then? You said you’ve only been dating for a short time”

“I was going tell him off for dating me while on the rebound. But when I arrived there early this morning I found Shining entering the apartment building. I didn’t want to talk with the husband of Cadence” Her hoof started shaking again at the mention of Cadence. “So I left”

“You’re sure it was Shining?”

Ocean nodded “Yes, he was wearing his royal guard uniform. I’d recognize the uniform anywhere. Sharpblade wore one just like when he was in the royal guard”

________________________________________________________________

“Did you see the glare she gave me?” Twilight said as we walked out of Ocean’s apartment after the interview. “She looked ready to kill me”

“I’m guessing some grudges can never be let go”

“You think she could’ve killed Sharpblade?” Twilight asked looking at me.

I tilted my head in thought “She did have motive certainly, but I didn’t see anything at the crime scene that could point us directly to her. Though she does have a very strong motive to kill Sharpblade and she looked ready to kill”

“Love really is a double edged sword isn’t it?” Twilight said sighing

“’For it can create eternal joy but also bring about eternal sorrow’” I said smiling

Twilight’s eyes grew wide “How’d you hear that?”

“Alder Pony? He’s one of my favorite writers”

“Mine to! I didn’t know you were into reading” Her eyes sparkled a little

“You were always too busy with your nose in books to notice I was reading some of the ones you threw aside” I said snidely

Twilight flushed a little “It’s nice to know I’m not the only egghead in the world”

I looked at Twilight and smiled “Reading is a skill that should never be lost to the ages”

Twilight frowned “Okay you totally stole that from Canterson”

I laughed as we trotted on.
________________________________________

We stopped in the center of Canterlot Lane I turned to Twilight. “Okay, I’m going to run by the morgue and see what Forceps found, you go and investigate the crime scene again. This time look for anything that could trace us to Ocean being there.

Twilight nodded “I’ll see what I can find”

I looked over Twilights shoulder and saw a sight I didn’t want to see. There sitting at a café’s table was a white stallion with black spots on his body. A cutie mark of a pair of dice was on his flank and he sported a grim expression. I nodded to Twilight as she walked away.

I walked to the café and sat down in front of him. His green eyes looked at me with something between pity and loathing. I can imagine my eyes were more leaning toward loathing.

He finally decided to speak “Long time, no see Private”

“Vegas, I thought you were in Fillydelphia” I said my voice level

“I’m on leave, something you should consider once in a while” Vegas said looking at me with some contempt.

“What do you want Vegas? I’m in the middle of a case” I my eyes returning the contempt with a vengeance.

“Came here to save your ass from doing something stupid” He said sipping some coffee.

“Are you going to tell me to back off from this case? Because it isn’t going to work in a million years”

“You really are an idiot aren’t you? A week ago you arrested royalty! Royalty! You realize how many ponies relied on Blueblood?”

“I don’t care that he’s royalty. He was a scumbag who orchestrated the capture of a young filly from her home. I’m not about to let that fly while I still breathe”

“You really don’t know when to back down and let things happen do you?”

“That’s where you and I differ Vegas” I said

“You haven’t changed a bit have you Private" He smiled wickedly "Been years since Vice”

“Don’t you even think of bringing up what happened at Vice” I said my voice a growl that would make Shinebadge proud. “Now what the hell do you want?”

“The hell I want is for you to really consider letting Shining take the fall”

“Let him take the fall? What are you getting at?”

“There are a lot of ponies who would be very grateful if you just looked the other way” Vegas said with a sneer coming to his face that made me want to buck him to the moon.

“I never look the other way, for anything!” I walked away not looking back. Vegas made me feel tainted every time that slime ball opened his mouth.

I shook my head; I couldn’t let Vegas get under my coat now. The guy was scum but he was scum that I could handle. Or at least ignore to the point where it didn’t become a problem. He opened an old scar when he brought up Vice. Just when I thought those scars were starting to heal to.
_________________________________________________

“Vegas tried to talk you out of the case eh?” Forceps said as he was looking over Sharpblade’s body.

“Didn’t work” I said

“I didn’t think so; you always were a stubborn one Private. Though you are right, I don’t trust Vegas as far as I can throw him”

“Why do you think he wanted me to back off? He said the same thing a while back with Sweetie Belle’s case”

Forceps shrugged his dark shoulders “Could be a number of things, Shining is a member of the royal guard, should he end up in jail it would be a huge scandal for the entire royal guard”

I shook my head “I’m not about to back down until this case is done though, this whole thing with Ocean is making me second guess the case”

“Well what doesn’t need second guessing is the cause of this stiff becoming a stiff” Forceps gestured with his hoof for me to come over. I did so and looked at the green stallion’s neck. Forceps gestured with a pointer to the marks on the neck. “Cause of death was strangulation by magic, done mere minutes before Shining was found”

“Anything else strange about the body aside from the very cruel way of going out?” I said looking at the stiff-I mean body.

“Well, there are very little bruises on the body so I don’t think there was much of a struggle”

“So Sharpblade let himself get strangled?”

“No, he was taken by surprise if my hunch is right. He wasn’t expecting to get strangled he let his guard down for one second and then” He mimed being choked to death which brought a nervous chuckle to my lips.

“If he let his guard down he must’ve known the pony that was strangling him” I observed.

“I hate to say it Private but the evidence really is starting to point to Shining” Forceps said. I nodded in agreement.

I returned to the apartment and found Twilight with her horn aglow. Her magic was running up and down the place like a scanner. I was again impressed by her control over her magic. I was a unicorn sure but I could never hope to do the kind of magic Twilight was capable of. Best I could hope for was scanning spells which I was always good at. Twilight on the other hoof could teleport, scry, and perform great magical feats like another pony would breathing. I tapped Twilight on the shoulder and she turned to look at me.

“Any luck?” I said hopefully

Twilight nodded “Quite a bit actually, I talked to the doorman and both Ocean and Shining were seen in the building at the time of the murder”

I raised an eyebrow “Funny, Ocean never mentioned going inside the building”

“I was curious about that to” Twilight said turning to a small table she laid out “Then I found this”

Twilight held up a small business card it was for Ocean’s soap shop. “The doorman remembers her leaving this behind at the front desk. She was talking about her business with him before left”

“So she left the building then what?”

“I looked outside in the alley just below the window and found more magic dust”

“I do remember Ocean being a unicorn”

“She used magic teleport up there”

“How do you know that?” I said looking at the odd device.

Twilight held up a plastic bag with a hair the same shade as Ocean’s mane. “Found it window cill. Luckily the wind didn’t blow it away”

I smiled “This evidence proves that Ocean was here but did she perform the strangulation spell as well?”

Twilight nodded and held up a plastic bag with a small amount of powder in it “I found it on the floor, cleverly disguised as dust bunnies”

“This could get Ocean put away for life, and with her strong motive the courts would be more than willing to convict her”

Twilight looked at me expectantly “So does this mean Shining’s off the hook?”

“For now this puts the whole case in a brand new light, but yes the evidence seems to sway from Shining to a setup”

We walked back to the Detention center and we presented the Police with Twilight’s newfound evidence. It would take a while for Shining to get off the hook but once it was revealed to be a setup the cops were more lenient with the guy.

Twilight sat next to me in the waiting room. “This is great, Shining will be home soon”

“I’m happy for the guy in all honesty” I said looking at Twilight

“Thanks for helping Private; I’m sorry I argued with you so much on this case”

“You were personally involved; I probably would’ve gotten mad to if somepony tried to accuse Tailspin of a crime”

“What crime can a foal perform that would cause so much trouble?” Twilight said bemused

I frowned “You’d be surprised”

Twilight got up from her seat “Well I’m off to talk to Shining, I’ve got a few words to say to him about my future niece/nephew”

I nodded “Good luck, and word of advice. Foals are trouble until you give them enough cartoons”

Twilight smiled and trotted off to the visitor’s wing. I leaned back in my chair. For some reason I couldn’t relax, there was something too…right about how this case wrapped itself up. I shook my head, I was worrying over nothing. Shining was going to be free and Twilight was happy. Then why couldn’t I shake the feeling that something was wrong?

I looked up and saw Forceps walking toward me his face grim. “Private, may I have a word?”

“Sure” I got up and walked with the old dark stallion. We walked into a hallway and Forceps made sure Nopony was listening in. I looked at the old stallion with my eyebrow raised “What’s up?”

“Private, that hair you found…it was…” Forceps looked to be searching for the right words.

“It did belong to Ocean right? She was at the apartment right?”

Forceps nodded “Yes, months ago”

I looked at Forceps confused “I don’t understand…”

Forceps shook his head “I had CSU run a check on the hair compared to Ocean’s hair…the lengths don’t match”

“What do you mean they don’t match?” I said inquisitively

“I mean it like I say it, the hair you found is significantly longer then the mane Ocean has now”

“Ocean’s mane was longer before?”

Forceps reached into his lab coat “Much longer, take a look at this photo from last year when she got her license renewed” He held up a picture of Ocean and he was right, her mane was much longer then it was when I saw her.

“So the hair we found…?”

“Was from months ago, and the dust we found was also from months ago”

“So she never did go into the apartment on the day of the murder…she wasn’t lying”

Forceps nodded grimly “This evidence…has been forged”

Comments

[Jacoboby1]

1010113I'm still writing the rest of the story so wait for updates coming up I promise an....intriguing conclusion

[Jacoboby1]

1010137Don't worry this story was not written by M. Knight

[DarkSkyz]

Can't wait for the next chapter! Another great story Jacob!

[Jacoboby1]

thanks It's good to know I have a fan

[dbanksischillin]

Twilight, you cant just forge evidence