Chapter 2 "Pictures in my Head"
Chapter 2
“Pictures in my Head”
I put the pipe inside a plastic bag slowly, then looked at the message with a shake of my head. “This Jocvert seems to have a flair for the dramatic.”
I looked back at Octavia and she turned visibly pale. Her violet eyes stared at the message. Before I could say anything Octavia ran out of the place. She must be on her way to make a vomit deposit at the nearby bathroom.
I looked at the blood and tapped my horn on it. I scanned the blood with a spell and recorded what blood type it was in my notebook. I guessed that the blood belonged to Lucky, but it didn’t hurt to take notes.
“Dude that’s a lot of blood!” I heard a voice speak up behind me.
I almost dropped my notebook as I looked back to see Vinyl with her shades on looking at the message. “Who’s this Jocvert dude?” she asked with a hoof on her chin.
I raised an eyebrow at the DJ, “You aren’t going to puke at the sight of blood?”
“Dude, I’ve gone to enough Heavy Metal concerts not to freak out at the sight of blood,” Vinyl explained not looking away from the message. “Now who would just put a message up for everypony to see?”
“Looks like he prefers to do things in style,” I stared at the message. “At least that’s what I can gather from the evidence, so far. We just need to figure out who this Val Jean fellow is”
“Sounds like a Prench name,” Vinyl mused aloud.
“That’s because it is,” I replied, knowingly. “Val Jean was a character in the play Les Ponies Misreables.”
“Never saw that play.” Vinyl glanced over at me. “Who was the guy?”
“A thief who became an honest pony,” I explained. “I better find out if the other murders were like this one at all”
Vinyl nodded. “Look dude I’m going with you on this.”
“Vinyl, I can’t ask you to help me hunt a killer.” I warned her, “It’s dangerous.”
“Hey! I shot Discord with a bass cannon,” Vinyl shot back, grinning. “How bad could this be?”
I did remember the papers talking about that. Vinyl could handle herself, that’s for sure. Looks like I got another free loader on this business. I sighed, relenting, “Fine, you can come.”
“Awesome!” she exclaimed with a leg pump. “So, where do we start?”
______________________________________________________
Vinyl looked over the files of the victims in the previous killings and sighed, “This isn’t what I had in mind.”
We were in my office as the sun reached its zenith. Twilight looked up from her desk and snorted in frustration. “None of these victims have anything in common!”
Vinyl nodded and picked up a file. “This guy, Jelly Donut, owns a donut shop in Baltimare.” She picked up another file. “This one, Strawberrycake, lives in San Franciscolt and owns a cake store.”
“Unless our killer has something against sweets, I can’t find a connection,” I said looking at another victim “Even that wouldn’t work, this one, Stampfile, works at a weather factory in Cloudsdale.”
“What could they all have in common?” Twilight asked lifting another file, “This one, Winebrandy, is a drink mixer at a bar in Hoofington.”
“Hmm,” I put a hoof on my chin, deep in thought, “what could a bunch of random ponies have in common?”
“It’s like they were just randomly picked out of a crowd,” Vinyl growled tossing a file onto the pile, then a small paper slipped out. Vinyl’s blue magic picked up the paper and she stared at it, “What’s this thing?”
I walked over to Vinyl and looked at the paper, “That’s a Subpoena, a paper to summon somepony to jury duty.”
“Jury duty?” Twilight perked up, suddenly opening a file. She levitated out the same paper. “There’s another one in Teravolt’s file.”
I opened up Stampfile’s file again. Sure enough, there was another Subpoena with the same date on it. “There’s one here too!”
We opened the files of all six victims and lo and behold, they all had Subpoenas in their files. I lifted one up with my magic and looked at the date “994? I was in traffic at the time”
“So they all were on a jury for a trial?” Vinyl asked, looking over at me. “That’s what they all have in common?”
I nodded at Vinyl. “The Question is what trial?”
________________________________________________________
Twilight walked back into the office fifteen minutes later with a paper in her magic. “There was only one trial that day, and it was a big one.”
Twilight set the newspaper on my desk and I looked at the headline.
Lady Operetta’s Trial ends with accused declared innocent!”
“Operetta?” I asked, surprised. “I know her!”
“How do you know her?” Vinyl glanced at me questioningly, “Is she somepony famous or something?”
“She was a friend of my mother’s” I replied, looking over at Vinyl. “She played Éponine, while Filltine was played by my mother”
“She was some kind of famous actress?” The DJ asked raising her shades.
“She and mom were fairly good friends during the production,” I said knowingly “Mom would talk about her occasionally, but I never met her before. Mom quit acting when I was born.”
“What happened to Operetta?” Twilight wondered aloud.
“I don’t know, mom died before she could tell me anything much about her,” I closed my eyes for a moment, missing my mom.
Twilight put a hoof on my shoulder in comfort. I smiled at her lovingly, appreciating her concern. I picked up the article, and read it aloud.
“Lady Operetta, known wife of the late Neigh Val Jean, was murdered six months ago in a hit and run shooting. The accused, Neigh’s right hand pony who wished his name to be unrecorded was found at the scene of the crime by Detective Fenlock Rusty…”
“Your mentor was on that case!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Dude, your mentor was Fenlock Rusty?” Vinyl asked her jaw dropping.
“Now that I think about it,” I closed my eyes, thinking back. “Fenlock did mention a high profile case he was on. Could this have been it?” I didn’t tell them I was getting an uneasy feeling of déjà vu about this whole thing.
I read on:
The defense presented evidence that the accused was there to protect Operetta not kill her. The jury decided that the accused was innocent in a unanimous vote, despite the valiant cries of the prosecution. The accused is to be released as the police continue the investigation.”
“Somepony is attacking the ponies that were on that jury,” Twilight said grimly.
“Is there a list of the ponies on that jury?” Vinyl asked peering over my shoulder. “Maybe we can figure out who will be attacked next.”
“Doesn’t say.” I frowned in disappointment. “You two look over any court records you can find. See if you can find the record and the name of everypony involved in that incident."
Both mares nodded as I prepared to walk out. Twilight looked over at me concerned. “Where are you going?”
“To have a drink with my mentor,” I stated simply.
______________________________________________________________
“You actually told them you were coming for a drink?” Fenlock sat in front of me at a booth in the Violet Rose.
“Well, I was somewhat honest,” I raised my glass to him and took a sip of the cider. I was one of the lucky few to get some cider before it was gone for the winter.
Fenlock chuckled. “So, you want to hear about that Operetta Doll?”
“I’d like to,” I replied, looking at him.
“You don't remember it?” My mentor looked over at me, raising an eyebrow. “You were working with me that night."
That’s when I remembered…
__________________________________________________________
A cold rainy night…
A young mare crying over the corpse of her mother.
Holes in the victim’s body from gunshots.
Fenlock talking with somepony about taking the mare home.
I walked to her and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
Her violet eyes gazed at me in confusion.
I smiled.
She smiled in turn…
______________________________________________________
“I do remember that night!” I exclaimed, realization dawning. “I just didn’t recognize Operetta at the time.”
Fenlock nodded grimly, “I remember how you handled the kid too.”
I did remember…
_______________________________________________________
Fenlock looked down at her as the mare took a seat in his office, “You stay here kid, I’m gonna talk to some of the other officers okay?”
She nodded slowly.
Fenlock left the room without another word. I stood in his office and listened to him talking to some of the other officers outside.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“She’ll be fine, Kid like that with all that money. She’ll be just fine”
I heard Fenlock speak outside “Shut up now! She’s only sixteen and all alone in the world, money can’t fix that!”
“Whatever you say Fenlock, her butler is coming get her. Can you believe she has a butler?”
I swore under my breath and looked over at the mare. Her violet eyes just stared at the floor. I could see the remains of tears in her eyes. I hated seeing a mare cry.
I walked up to her and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder “Hey sorry about all that, can I ask you any questions?”
She shook her head, her black wet mane moving with her.
“Can I get you anything at all?” I asked, tilting my head.
She just shook her head again.
I kept my hoof on her shoulder as I spoke firmly, “Look I know you don’t feel like talking to anypony right now, but it’s the only way to find the bastard that did this.”
She looked into my grey eyes, tears shimmering in hers. She wiped them and spoke in a quiet but refined voice, “Why did he do it? Why?”
I gently hugged her and she started crying fresh tears onto my shoulder. I knew Fenlock would slap me on the back of the head for getting this friendly with a witness, but she needed somepony to comfort her. She didn’t need an interrogation.
“I can’t give you exact reasons," I replied, patting her comfortingly, "but I can tell you that Fenlock will do everything in his power to catch him.”
She stopped crying for a minute, and looked at me with soft eyes. “Thank you, I don’t believe I know your name.”
“Private, Private Eye,” I smiled at her. “I’m Fenlock’s student.”
“You’re not much older than I am,” she observed, studying me.
“I’m nineteen, that’s old enough to start figuring things out,” I said with a small smile.
“Thank you, Private” She wiped her tears away with a handkerchief.
“Hey, could you wait two-seconds?” I asked, walking to the door.
She nodded and I ran outside the room. Fenlock was heading out to revisit the crime scene and told me to look after the mare. I was happy to oblige and came back to the office with my violin case.
“You play the violin?” she asked surprised.
“Yeah, kind of a hobby of mine,” I said with a smile
She then walked to her things and yanked out a large case with her teeth. I watched her open the case to reveal a large cello. She picked it up and looked over at me.
“Would you play with me?” She asked, hopefully.
“I’d love to.”
We played together various classical pieces together. I was surprised by how much mastery she held over her instrument despite being an earth pony. Most earth ponies had trouble handling string instruments because of the intricacy it requires. But when this mare played the music seemed to flow like a river.
When we finished she smiled at me, “Thank you, Private, for helping me with all of this.”
I returned the smile, but then I raised an eyebrow, “I don’t believe I caught your name.”
“Octavia, Octavia Val Jean”
____________________________________________________________
My grey eyes grew wide, “Octavia is Neigh Val Jean’s daughter!!”
“Neigh Val Jean,” Fenlock said with a wistful smile
“You know him?” I looked at my mentor curiously.
“I knew him as Tanker Val Mensue,” Fenlock took a sip of his drink “He and I were war buddies during EW2”
“You fought in EW2?” I asked, with wide eyed admiration
“A lifetime ago” he said with a chuckle “I was an infantry man and a sergeant at that. About two years into the war a Prench man comes along to my unit. He showed he was very good at killing and I got a little suspicious. One day he got shot up by a Berman machine gun and when he thought he was going to die he told me who he was”
I raised an eyebrow. “Who was he?”
“A gangster,” Fenlock, replied honestly. “He used a fake name to enter the army, hoping to reform himself”
“You worked alongside a criminal?”
“When he got out of the hospital I promised him I wasn’t going to tell”
“Why not?”
“He was on the reform path,” Fenlock stared into his drink, his brown eyes somewhere else. “Told me he had some doll back home, and he was hoping to leave behind his criminal ways for her.”
“I guess I can see why you didn’t tell anypony now.”
“After that we became the best of friends, Celestia must have a sense of humor I guess.” He said taking another sip of his drink “We climbed the ranks together, we both made captain before the war let out. But on the last days of fighting we were going to ambush a nearby Berman patrol,” He sighed in sadness. “Our unit got shot to hell when the Bermans fought back. I should have known that something like that would happen. I got the rest of our unit out of there, but the idiot insisted on staying behind for me to get to safety.”
“He sacrificed himself to save you” I stared into my own drink.
“Played a Luna damned hero” Fenlock said taking a generous gulp of his drink. “Had I know that Octavia gal was his kid I would’ve done something for her at least.”
I got up from the booth and prepared to walk out.
Fenlock spoke seriously “I know what you’re thinking, Private.”
“Octavia has a lot of motive for taking revenge on those jurors. I want to know who she really is, every part of her”
With that I set out to find the mysterious cello player…
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1452510I say welcome back to Equestria Noir
Wow. Fenlock has a past as surprising as Private's.
1452537Everypony has a secret in Noir. This was my chance to flesh out Private's mentor and father figure. You guys only met him like...once before so here's more about him
1452543 Are there any more cases to this Equestria Noir?
1452802Check out my story section and you'll find all of the cases. It's grown into quite the series
1452890 Awesome! Thank you very much!
This is the 12th case. There are 11 before it. You can find them by visiting his page and clicking the browse all 24 stories button.
YAY I'm pony famous! Thanks for the cameo.
1452911Anytime
So apparently all the Les Miserables references weren't enough for you.
1453549Nah, had to add batman after Darkskyz or somebody pointed it out to me
1452412
I try,like I said keep up the good work.
1453668 Indeed! Perfect timing for a Batman reference!
Great new chapter, getting to see a backstory of Octavia and Fenlock. Is it too much to ask to see more Larksong, or are you hoping to flesh her character out over a few cases?
1456128She'll be back, actually she'll come back this case along with a certain accordion player...
1456624 And now, Psycho me, a duet with Potso.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN THEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, MOON HITS YOUR EYES, LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE THATS AMORE!
1456624
.........................................................................................................
Need I say a single word?
“She’ll be fine, Kid like that with all that money. She’ll be just fine”
I heard Fenlock speak outside “Shut up now! She’s only sixteen and all alone in the world, money can’t fix that!”
“Whatever you say Fenlock, her butler is coming get her. Can you believe she has a butler?”
Batman?
Octavia knows who done it
nice reference to batman arkham asylum
"Dude I shot Discord with a bass cannon!"
Best. Reference. EVER!!!!!!
Jacoboby1 I love the reference to mafia Octavia. Sad to see its cancelled but at least with stories like this it has a Chance to live on.
I refuse to belive octavia has done it
Is Octavia batmare?! Dun dun dun!
When did Vinyl shoot Discord with her bass cannon?
8658092
It's a silly reference to an old Vinyl Scratch and Octavia video