Shai Sideways In: Murder She Mocked

by XombieSlayr

Chapter 3: "The Plot Thickens."

Shai pocketed the key, closed the door and went over to the body.

The room was in shambles, pieces of broken furniture and glass littered the floors, a shattered mirror barely clinged to the wall, the bed was torn to shreds, and blood painted the left wall, splattered sideways across the paneling. A broken lamp barely blinking was the only source of light in the room.

"In a hotel room. Not even a private one." Shai said shaking her head. "Someone was desperate to off this guy."

Kneeling down and examining the body, Shai closed his eyes out of respect then searched his jacket. On the inside pocket, she found a business card and a slip of paper.

The business card read simply Steven West: Private Investigator. At least now she knew his name.

Checking the slip of paper, she saw it was stationary from the hotel. And it had a note scrawled across the left corner. Steam room. 4 pm.

The steam room. So, West was planning on being in the steam room at four. But why? "To meet with someone" she thought. Someone who would have known where the steam room was and could get there at a precise time without trouble. Shai could only think that an employee would have that level of freedom and access. Certainly no ordinary guest would be able to come and go as they please, and the PPD's investigation only began that morning. It had to be one of the staff in the hotel.

Which meant; West had a mole on the inside.

As Shai pondered the thought, she felt another presence enter the room. Two of the mask wearing griffins from the lobby. And they were armed.

Now, Shai was not a fighter. She had denied taking combat training, and during her days in the criminal justice program, she even skipped all the close quarters classes as extracurricular. Instead she focused on her studies, which allowed her to ace all of her classes by the end of the semester.

Because of that, most people thought that Shai couldn't fight at all. But the great thing about having psychic powers was she never needed to.

One of the assailants, armed with a metal baton, took a swing, and then looked on in horror as he had somehow missed his target completely and struck the shin of his partner. And by the sound of his screaming, it had been rather hard.

He looked at Shai who suddenly stood there across from him looking bored.

He looked at his baton. Then at Shai. She was still bored.

He took another swing. Then another. And another. But every swing only hit air. It was as if Shai wasn't even there at all, dodging every single move without even trying.

"How the hell's she so fast!?" he yelled in his head.

He swung again.

Left.

Right.

Duck.

Right

Shai saw every single swing before they swung. Deciding to end it she then moved to the right, letting him smash into the sparking lamp behind her, electrocuting himself, and falling over in a heap on the ground.

The other one, now off the ground only looked on in anger, before grabbing his baton off the ground, and charged at Shai. But Shai didn't dodge this time. The end of the baton barely missed her cheek, which she didn't even bat an eye at.

Then he was going in for a low blow, but she caught his arm before it even moved, and delivered a hard kick to his now definitely broken shin, causing him to reel backwards. He stumbled back, slipped on the baton of the other assailant, fell back, hit his head on the broken table and laid still.

Shai looked at the two dead assailants on the ground and shook her head. Her powers were great. But damn if they didn't make fighting so painfully predictable.

Shai moved the bodies into the corner and examined the rest of the room. It was now obvious who had killed West, as it was just as obvious who sent them to kill her.

There was only three people who knew she would be coming here, and Shai didn't know Mazra or Margaret well enough to accuse them just yet, so that left Morgan as the only possible person who could have sent these assailants to silence her. Just as they had with West.

So this left a major question. West had an informant, and informant he was planning to meet with at four, before he was killed by Morgan's goons. So who was it? She needed a name at least. Even if she did go to meet this informant herself, they would probably never trust her unless she at least knew their name.

Searching the entire room top to bottom Shai found absolutely nothing that could shine some light on the identity of West's informant. Except West himself.

But detective West was, of course, long since passed. From the dried blood stain around the head and the state of the body, it was clear he had been dead for several hours now. To an ordinary detective, he could offer no help.

However to Shai he was still very much useful. She never liked doing it, and it left her in a disoriented state for a bit, but if she was going to get info from West, this was the only option.

She was going to have to briefly enter The Crossroads and speak to West from beyond the grave.

---

Shai sat down, back straight, arms down, and closed her eyes. All sound in the room, in the hotel vanished, leaving silence so deafening it was like torture to the ears.

One second passed.

Then two.

Then three.

Shai opened her eyes, and saw that the world was gone. Replaced by a vast empty void that stretched beyond the capacity of sight. On the ground a glowing white line appeared from the nothingness and lead her to what looked like a street. Streetlights illuminated the entire expanse of it, and the sign read only one word: The Crossroads. She walked across the road and at once found herself on the corner of the sidewalk in a busy, bustling otherworldly main street, with the spirits of the recent and long deceased going about their business and enjoying their afterlives.

This was not the first time Shai had visited the land of the dead, and in a twist of true irony, the place always felt very much alive. It was actually a bit of a shock every time to see a place meant to signify the end of one's life to look so colorful and full of commerce. The endless sequence of bold buildings appeared to be shoved together in what was apparently a fine show of geometry well studied by either a genius or a lunatic. Possibly both.

Curves shook up and into straight lines, tops capped by a triangle, a dome or a dollop of roof (depending on the storefront) while walls were textured by octagonal, triangular, and star like tile work. Chimneys were spirals of brick charging into the sky, doors were as tall as walls and nearly as wide and all the colors from the deep blue sky to the magenta of the grass, were bright, sharp and endless.

Shai began to walk down a string of streets woven together in no particular fashion and for no particular reason other than to apparently induce headaches, when a cheery voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Shai!"

"Oh no."

Shai turned to see what appeared to be an earth pony mare, a very pretty one at that, with a flowing gold mane, tan coat and wearing the frilliest dress made from flowers possibly ever created anywhere, in either plane of existence.

Shai sighed to herself before putting on a fake smile. "Hello again, Furthermore."

Furthermore was a very high class level spirit that was in charge of making sure only the dead could enter the realm of the dead. However the first time Shai visited the land of the dead as a child, she met Furthermore and befriended her, the spirit never having a living friend before was overjoyed, and would frequently fudge the rules to make sure she would get to see Shai whenever possible.

It was thanks to Furthermore that Shai wasn't immediately kicked out of the afterlife when she crossed over. And Shai knew having a friend that powerful would be useful, and she generally did think of her as a friend. However there was always one thing that always got under Shai's skin when she visited...

"Did you die yet?" asked Furthermore eagerly. "Maybe fell off a cliff? Choked on a banana? Ooh! Run over by a roving band of ostriches!"

"No, Furthermore, I am still very much alive." Shai grunted. "I'm here on business."

"Aww." Furthermore moaned. "Dang it! I was hoping you were dead. Oh well, I guess I'll keep waiting. Hooves crossed as always!"

"I appreciate that, really." said Shai. " But back to the business part: I need to speak to someone who died recently. A detective Steven West."

Furthermore thought for a moment. "Oh! I remember him! Yes, he arrived here yesterday. When we told him he was dead, he asked for two things then headed to the diner."

"What two things did he ask for?"

"A cup of black coffee and the strongest form of alcohol we could find." replied Furthermore. "We ended up giving him a jug of ethanol and off to the diner he went for his coffee. He's been there ever since."

"Thanks."

"Do you want me to come with you?" she asked eagerly.

"Um....sure."

---

Steven West, who had been bludgeoned to death just yesterday, was now enjoying his new afterlife with black coffee mixed with industrial ethanol (he was already dead, what did he care?) when Shai and Furthermore approached him at the counter.

"Detective Steven West?"

"That's right." said West. "And to whom do I have the pleasure?"

"Shai Sideways, psychic detective." she answered. "This is Furthermore. You've met."

"I told you you were dead!"

"Yes, you did. Thanks for that."

"Your welcome!"

Shai took the note from her pocket and showed it to West. "Can you tell me the name of your informant, the one you were going to meet today at four?"

He looked at it and chuckled as he sipped his coffee. "Going after Morgan yourself, huh?"

"Him and anyone else behind this."

He nodded. "Good. alright fine; his name is Clarence. He's a bellhop at the hotel." setting his mug down he turned to look her in the eyes. "He's been feeding me all kinds of things about kidnappings, secret doors in guest rooms and how nopony is allowed anywhere near the kitchens. He wants it to stop, all of it. Good kid. Risked his neck to get me info."

Clarence. That's what she needed. Someone who could tell her everything that was really going on. And now she had it.

"Before I go, do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"I'm dead kid," he chuckled. "Ain't got nothin but time now. Shoot."

"You mentioned secret doors in the guest rooms. Do you mean that each of the rooms in the hotel have a hidden passage of some kind?"

"I found one of their holes in the suite that the bride and her fiance were staying in." he explained. "I figured that it was the only one. I realized too late that every room had them, each one in a different spot. Including my own room. That night, I went to my room to go over some notes, heard someone behind me, then crack. I woke up here."

So that was how they got the jump on a trained investigator like West. They had snuck into his room via one of these passages and killed him while he had his back turned. Cowardly. He must have been getting close to something they couldn't afford for him to find out.

"What did you find out during your investigation?"

"They keep their kitchens under lock and key; no guest is ever allowed back there. I had heard a few rumors about it, but they all just said that it was because their head chef didn't want anypony back there out of fear they would get their grubby hooves on all the fresh ingredients."

"Whose this head chef?"

"A real charmer of a griffin named Jacques. I've heard nothing but bad things about his attitude, but he's apparently a damn good chef. He's invented all kinds of world class recipes, even wrote a cookbook. Still, fame doesn't change anything if your an ass to people."

"What about the Talon Lodge?"

"I asked about that too. Talked to a miss Margaret all about them. Apparently they had only recently opened up membership to ponies. Margaret joined thanks to a recommendation from her friend Conner, the founder of the Manehattan chapter of the organization, and an all around good guy if you believe Margaret."

"I see," said Shai. That was why Margaret was so upset when Shai accused the Talon Lodge of still eating ponies. Because her friend Connor was literally the founder of the chapter! How would she react if her own friend, the one that got her into the group in the first place, turned out to be kidnapping ponies and eating them? Her heart wouldn't be able to take it.

"What do you think about Morgan?"

West shook his head in disgust. "A snake in a top hat, griffin or not." he snapped. "Could tell he was lying through his beak the whole time; never trusted him."

"You were right not to," Shai said thinking to herself. "Thank you for you time, detective West. I'll leave you in peace now."

"Thank you. But hey, one last thing before you go."

"Yes?"

"Tell my kids what happened to their pop. They deserve to know. Their photos are in my wallet, you have my blessing to take them."

"Of course. I'll let them know." Shai nodded. "Have a nice afterlife, detective."

"Thanks. Come back and visit, sometime eh?" he joked. "Drinks are on me."