• Published 16th Oct 2012
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Equestria Noir Case 12 "The Vinyl Scratch!" - Jacoboby1



A murder mystery starring Octavia and Vinyl in Equestria

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Chapter 5 "Revenge Ain't So Sweet"

Chapter 5

“Revenge ain’t so Sweet”

Smooth Shot walked inside his apartment with a smile on his face. Today’s haul was great and would put his debt to rest. He sat down in his chair and smiled at a picture of his granddaughter. She would be four this year, just starting school.

Hard to believe so much time had-

“Lovely Granddaughter you have there,” A voice said from behind him, as he felt a gun muzzle press against the back of his head. “Does she know what you did?”

“Who are you?” He said looking around for anything he could use as a weapon “What are you doing in my house?”

The refined female voice spoke again, “Don’t you recognize me? The mare you abandoned in that alleyway six years ago? After you swore you would protect me and my mother.”

“Octavia?” Smooth Shot got up out of the chair and tuned around. Octavia was clad in a black fedora and suit jacket. She held a tommy machine gun in her hooves, her father’s favorite weapon “You’re- I heard you on the radio but I didn’t think you were the same…”

She held the rifle so it was aimed right at the earth pony’s head, “I finally have you.”

“Octavia, wait, listen-“

“No, you listen to me!” She said with an edge in her voice “My mother died because you failed to show up! Then Fenlock finds you just a few blocks away? That can’t be a coincidence!"

The old earth pony backed away from her, “Octavia, I didn’t mean for anypony to get killed!”

“That man that shot my mother, it was you wasn’t it?” Octavia said slowly.

“No, it wasn’t!” Smooth retorted “Look, I loved your mother to death and I loved you like my own daughter. When your father died, I promised I would protect you.”

“You didn’t protect my mother! Then you had to go and bribe your way through the trial instead of accepting responsibility.”

“You know about that?” Smooth Shot's eyes grew wide. “Octavia I-“

“You knew you would be found guilty,” Octavia said slowly “You knew, so you had to bribe the ponies involved. When you heard I was back, however, you thought you would be discovered by me. So you had the members of the jury killed to try and cover up the bribes.”

“Cosette,” Smooth Shot said slowly, his old eyes almost on the verge of tears.

“Don’t call me that!” Octavia yelled. “Only my mother gets to call me that! You don’t deserve to even speak my name after what you did.”

He bowed his head in shame, “It’s true, I didn’t protect you that night, and for that I’m sorry. I only tried to kill Matzo Roll though; I didn’t kill those other ponies you’re talking about.”

“You seriously expect me to believe you?” Octavia asked, fury burning in her eyes. “After all the lies you told me? I’ve searched for you for six years to find out what drove you to leave us in that alleyway to die! Now, I see you’re a spineless coward, not a worthy man for my father's trust.”

“Octavia, I’m sorry,” He said looking at her “I hope you can forgive me.”

“Save your begging for Celestia,” She raised her tommy gun, but it was suddenly shot out of her hooves.

I came out of the shadows with my gun raised, “That’s enough, Octavia”.

She glared at me, “Do not thwart me in this, Private! This man killed my mother!”

“No, he didn’t,” I pointed my gun at her, and levitated the Tommy gun off the ground, aiming it at Smooth Shot. “He did try to kill Matzo, but he isn’t Jocvert.”

“What are you talking about? By killing Matzo-“

“He gains nothing” I said simply “Matzo knew about the bribes, but the police wouldn’t listen to his accusations. Killing a pony who didn’t accept the bribes doesn’t make sense for a guilty man.”

“What are you saying?” Octavia asked, glaring at me. “He didn’t kill the others?”

“No, think about the crime that didn’t happen. Matzo wasn’t killed, the others were. I know that Smooth Shot is our man, as far as attacking Matzo is concerned.” I pointed to Smooth Shot’s leg, “I shot him there.”

Smooth Shot rolled up his sleeves to show he indeed had a bandaged leg, “You’re a good shot, Detective.”

“He only attacked Matzo,” I explained. “He didn’t kill the others.”

“No,” Octavia's eyes filled up with tears. “He’s not getting away twice!”

She tackled Smooth Shot, and grabbed her tommy gun from my magical grip, before I could stop her. She aimed the gun at Smooth Shot’s face, “You’re not getting away again!”

“Octavia, put the gun down,” I said firmly.

“Why should he go free? My mother is in a grave because of him!” She looked at me beseechingly.

“Revenge will get you nowhere, Octavia. I know you’re hurting, but you can’t let your anger and grief take over. He didn’t kill the jurors, but maybe he can tell us who did.”

Octavia dropped her gun and started crying. Her tears soaking the carpet as Smooth Shot tried to get up. He looked like he wanted to run out, but one gun point in his face kept him in place. I looked over at Octavia “I lost my mother too. It hurts a lot I know, but you can’t let that turn you into a monster.”

Octavia wiped her eyes, “Damn it, why does it have to be so hard?”

Smooth Shot spoke, “Detective, you probably want to know why I attacked Matzo.”

“I would appreciate that,” I replied firmly. “Why did you attack my best friend’s father?”

“I got this letter in the mail this morning,” The earth pony said. “He said he was going to expose me. Tell the police about the bribes.”

“Do you still have this letter?” I asked.

“Yeah, over on the table over there,” he said gesturing with his hoof to the table. Octavia went to go get it and passed it to me without saying another word.

I looked in the letter

I will expose you for what you’ve done, Smooth Shot. Your crimes will not go unanswered even though you’ve been “innocent” for six years. I will bring you behind bars. You can avoid this, however, if you kill Matzo Roll.

Jocvert

“Do you know Jocvert?” I asked, looking at Smooth Shot.

“Jocvert is what Neigh called all the cops and lawyers that tried to take us down,” Smooth Shot explained. “I never thought one would take the title like a badge of honor, though.”

“Also, I have to ask” I said looking right at Smooth Shot “Did you kill Operetta?”

He slowly shook his head “No, I wasn’t in the alley that night when it happened. I was called away because it was my daughter’s birthday. When I came back, Operetta was dead…”

______________________________________________________________

Octavia just sat on the sidewalk staring down at the concrete. I sat down next to her. “You took over your father’s empire didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Octavia replied, with a short nod. “I did it to try and make sure I could do what the cops couldn’t. I fought gang wars, stopped mafia bosses from taking over, all while doing it under the nose of the cops.”

“All to get ready for when you found Smooth Shot?”

“I planned for five years on how to get revenge on him,” she admitted. “Five years of my life, constantly fighting, to find him. I wanted to make somepony pay for what happened”

“You said five years,” I pointed out. “What did you do during that extra year?”

“That was this year. I met Vinyl and she asked for me to come on her show,” she explained, with a small smile. “She was an incredibly good distraction from revenge plots and mob bosses.”

“You like Vinyl, don’t you?”

Her violet eyes seemed to drift off somewhere else, “Vinyl, doesn’t really have a plan for the future. Every day is just a brand new day to have fun, and cause mayhem. She allowed me to stop thinking about Smooth Shot, and for once in my life I was finally happy again. It was good to get away from all of this mess, and do something fun.”

“Does Vinyl know about your,” I fought for the right word, “activities?”

She shook her head “No, Vinyl doesn’t know any of this. I kept it a secret for her own protection. I enjoyed somepony not knowing what I did.”

“You know eventually you’re going to have to tell her,” I said firmly.

“Maybe someday, Detective” she said, with a shake of her ashen colored head. “I don’t know if I’m ready to tell Vinyl about such a large part of my life, yet.”

“You remind me of myself,” I said, with a small smile.

“How so?” she asked, looking over at me. “Aside from the fact we both are motherless?”

“I have a brother named Tailspin; he’s crippled and can’t walk or fly on his own. I thought I was the only pony who should worry about him. I kept him a secret from even my closest friends, to keep ponies from trying to get involved. When Twilight came along, she said that friends shouldn’t keep secrets from each other. So, I told her about Tailspin.”

“So, you’re saying I should tell Vinyl?” Octavia asked, looking down. “How would she react? Knowing all that I’ve done...”

“You’ll find friends can be very supportive, if you are willing to open up to them.” I smiled at her. “Now are you going to help me stop Jocvert, or not?”

“You’ll still let me on board?” Octavia looked at me with surprise. “Even after all I’ve done?”

“That’s for another day,” I climbed to my hooves. “Right now we should find the true mastermind behind all of this.”

_______________________________________________________________

We headed back to Ponyville, and hooked up with Vinyl and Twilight. Sherrie had finished examining the body, and she said she found something interesting. I left Matzo with a protection detail, just in case Smooth Shot tried to go through with the deal a second time.

When we got to Ponyville’s Morgue I found Sherrie, sound asleep on her counter.

I poked the unicorn, “Miss Illusion?”

She got up, yawning widely, and looked at me bleary eyed. “Ah, Private, it’s nice to see you again. I'm sorry about falling asleep; I’m a bit of a night owl.”

Twilight frowned, “Its noon, how could you be sleeping?”

“Like I said, night owl,” she waved dismissively. “Now let me show you what I found.”

She walked over to the table where Lucky Zeven’s body was lying; I looked over at the mares with a raised eyebrow. Nopony was making run for the bathroom. Sherrie noticed me stopping. "What's wrong?"

“Usually whenever I bring a pony near a dead body they start puking,” I said,

Twilight shrugged. “Used to dead bodies by now.”

Vinyl just smirked at me, obviously far too cool to throw up over a dead body.

Octavia just shrugged “Not my first dead body either.”

Sherrie just rolled her eyes and gestured to the marks on Zeven’s neck, “These marks were made by radio wire.”

“The wire we use for our broadcasting equipment?” Octavia asked.

“I would say so,” Sherrie replied, nodding. “We even found the wire used during the attack. It's over on the counter.” She pointed with a hoof to where she meant.

I walked over and picked up the wire. It was a thin black wire, the same kind that I saw coming out of the machines at the station. I held the wire with my magic over Zeven’s neck “The marks on the neck perfectly match the marks on the wire”

“Where did you get this wire?” Twilight asked the Medical Examiner.

Sherrie looked at Twilight, “We found it in a garbage can by the entrance of the radio station.”

Vinyl put a hoof on her chin “Funny, if the killer got in, wouldn't he have been seen on video camera?”

“We checked them,” Sherrie said shaking her head. “The only pony that we saw go in near the time of the murder was Zeven. Shortly after that the cameras just go dark. Somepony shut them off."

“Who would have access to the camera room?” I asked the radio hosts.

“Well, Octy and I both have keys to every part of the station,” Vinyl explained, “but we both had our keys on us when we left for the night.”

“Is there a third key?” I asked

“Zeven had a third one,” Octavia chimed in helpfully.

Something was not right here. Something was starting to flicker in the back of my mind.

“I’m going to look over the crime scene again,” I said firmly. “Let’s see if there’s anything the police missed.”

________________________________________________________

We got back to the station and I went to where Sherrie said the wire was found. I looked in the garbage can “All right, this might stink a bit.”

I dumped the contents of the trash can and started sifting through it. I didn’t find anything in it until…

Vinyl pointed it out first, “Hey something shiny! I wonder if it’s a bit!” Her horn glowed a soft blue and the object rose out of the garbage.

It was a silver key with no teeth on the end, “What’s this thing?”

My own grey magic picked it up as I examined the key. “This is a master key.”

“A master key?” Twilight asked. “You mean like what cops use to open certain doors?”

“Only this key has some minor magic on it,” I explained. “You insert this thing into any key slot and it’ll automatically morph into the key that will open the lock.”

“Cool!” Vinyl grinned mischievously. “This means I can bust in to see Octavia’s private Raiden Bolt shrine anytime I want!”

Octavia blushed and glared at her friend, “You will not touch that key if you know what’s good for you.”

“Raiden’s music doesn’t really seem like your style, Octavia,” I observed.

“No, she just thinks he’s cute.” Vinyl teased, grinning widely.

“Urge to buck Vinyl to moon rising…” Octavia growled through gritted teeth.

Twilight stifled a giggle and looked back at the key. “The real question is, what’s this key doing here?”

“Only a cop would have access to this kind of key,” I explained. “This one’s also an older model, so there’s no way one of the cops investigating the scene could have dropped it."

“Jumper’s going to be so pissed knowing that our station can be broken into so easily,” Vinyl said with a small laugh.

“That’s Jumper Cable for you,” Octavia grinned “Always such a perfectionist in everything. That's what got him fired from his last job.”

Wait…

“What was Jumper’s last job?” I asked my mind racing.

“I heard he was a cop for a long time,” Vinyl shrugged. “Why?”

“Octavia,” I said slowly. “What was the name of the cop who didn’t show up to protect you?”

“Officer Cab-, “Octavia’s eyes grew huge. “He’s the one! Jumper is the pony who-“

We were cut off by a small object landing between us. I looked down and saw it was a gas grenade. It emitted a foul smelling gas that entered my lungs before I could warn the others, or even hold my breath.

The mares and I fell to the ground in a heap.

My grey eyes slowly closed as some black suited ponies surrounding us. The last thing I saw was a gold earth pony with a long black and blue mane standing with them.

Val Jean, at last, we see each other plain. Madame, la reine, you wear a different chain…