Sora's Detective Capers #1

Snoring loudly, Marigold lay in her bed on the first floor of her apartment building, sleeping in her expensive and plush sheets over her king-sized bed--despite not having anyone to share it with. It was nearly 10am, but she didn’t care--it’s not like she really needed a job. If she ever needed any money, she’ll just chase after one of those lazy tenants for some money. Stirring quietly, she rolled over and faced the ceiling… Only to have a maggot fall right into her mouth.

Instantly waking up, Marigold shrieked and spat out the maggot, disgusted at what was in her mouth. She canned the room in search of where the slimy creature had come from. Instantly she spotted the hanging domed light fixture overtop of her bed. She was too small to go looking inside--plus, the site of seeing a small colony of maggots disturbed her--so she got the bare end of a broom and slowly tipped it over--only to have dozens of maggots flow from the domed fixture and into her face. Shrieking loudly in freight for the second time that day, Marigold took a phone and dialled 911...

~Whoooo are you? Do do, do do!~ XDD

“So…” Sora began, kneeling down and watching the maggots squirm on the ground in little groups. “So where did you say this came from again Miss…?”

“Marigold,” said Marigold in response, then pointed upwards towards the ceiling, “It came from my hanging lighting fixture--it was filled with those maggots!”

“I see…” replied Sora, taking a small device that looked a bit like a mechanical telescope. Peering through it, he noted the deeper color around the chain that allows the fixture to hang, as well as the holes around it. Sora, being one of the greatest detectives in town, quickly deducted what had happened.

“Marigold, I’m gonna have to ask you for the key to the room upstairs… The one directly above your room… I’m afraid we have a bigger problem than I thought…” said Sora, sighing.

~~~

Opening up the door to the apartment above Marigold’s, Sora found himself smelling the great, nauseating smell of decay. Breathing in deeply, Sora said, “Ah… Just the way I like it!” before plunging himself further inside the room.

The hallways were fine--no real blood marks from the looks of it--just some regular dents and cracks on the walls common in old buildings like these. As he entered the ‘living room’ however, he saw the images that he’d seen a hundred times…

A dead body, horribly mutilated with a giant bullet wound on her stomach and gashes on her face. Her upper body, mainly the shoulders and neck, were bruised badly, and her hands were blistered and red. In her face was an expression more of peace than anything, the small traces of a grin etched on her face…

What was the most interesting part was what had collected itself on the ground--a small pool of coagulated blood and the surrounding stained floor around it, which had attracted houseflies, which in turn made eggs… As the blood dripped down through the holes on the old floors, so did the eggs… and the maggots…

Taking out his walkie-talkie, Sora clicked it on and said, “Wren, I think I’m gonna be needing you here…”

~~~

Once Wren, Sora’s techie assistant who handles the technicalities and the forensics parts of the operation, Sora began taking pictures, notes, evidence and DNA from the crime scene, especially the blood spatter on the walls behind the victim, which Sora had found to be called Lillina.

“Why would anybody want to kill someone like you?” he said aloud to the corpse, something he’d always do to help him piece the whole thing together, “Was it your looks? Or maybe a bad ex? Or was it something else…?”

Noticing the gun, Sora dusted it for fingerprints and took a sample of all of them before bagging it. “Hmmm… The weapon… But, why would you be smiling? Usually a shot to the stomach area would lead to a horribly painful death… That is, if you’re committing suicide. Hmmm… I don’t think we can learn much from here. Time to bag and tag’er then. Let‘s go!”

~~~

“So…” said Sora, sitting down in Marigold’s kitchen, sipping some Earl Grey with Marigold, “I’ll need a list of all the tenants in this building.”

“Fine, fine,” said Marigold, yawning, “I just can’t believe one of my tenants died… This’ll be disastrous for business…”

“Okay then…” said Sora, getting up, “I’ll need the list ASAP while I go question the people living here so I don’t miss anyone…”

“Aren’t you gonna question me?” asked Marigold, slightly offended.

“Oh, I think I know who might do this--and it isn’t you… At least, there’s a less than 10% chance it’s you…” And with that, Sora left the room in a huff, taking out a notepad and pencil and, putting on some sunglasses (for effect, of course), he climbed the stairs.

~~~

Turning immediately right, Sora entered the room opposite Lillina`s room, room 102. He had to knock a dozen times before a sleepy-eyed tenant appeared through the door, a crazy red and white hairdo (which appeared to be more natural than dye) on his head, covering a bit of his eyes.

“Oh, what’s up?” he said, rubbing his eyes, “Who’re you, by the way?”

“I’m detective Sora, at your service!” replied Sora cheerily, sticking out his hand.

“And what’re you here for anyways…?” said Shale, reaching for a cigar and lighting it.

“Actually, I’m here investigating a murder…” said Sora--he wasn’t fond of smoking after having gone through it several times. He was in the midst of another break from it right now and Jose’s smoking isn’t helping him at all.
“A murder, huh?” said Shale, taking a long puff from his cigar, his mood becoming sombre, “I never really noticed… Who died?”

“Actually, it’s Lillina,” said Sora, stepping in forcefully, holding his breath as he stepped through the smoke. “And I’m here to question anybody who could be of help. So… Mr…?”

“Just call me Shale--none of that Mister crap that old people use,” said Shale, yawning, leading Sora to the living room.

“Fine. So, Shale, what could you tell me of Lillina?” asked Sora, sitting down lazily on a bean-bag chair.

“Well…” started Shale, yawning and sitting down on a bean-bag chair as well, “Lillina’s one of the few who actually live in this apartment. Most of the tenants in this hell-hole usually put their junk here and just pay the rent, especially since the rent’s so low. If I recall, the only other people who actually live in this here apartment are me, Jose, Alstro, Ciel, and, of course, Lillina.”

“Well, that certainly whittles down my list,” said Sora, smirking, “With lack of any witnesses, all of you are considered suspects. So don’t leave town and all that legal jazz… Anyway, do you know anybody Lillina, y’know, has a love-life or something with?”

“Oh, right, I forgot… Ciel’s Lillina’s current love interest--she’s crazy about him. Absolutely crazy. Alstro’s also Lillina’s older cousin as well, and let’s just say that he doesn’t take well to Lillina dating some run-of-the-mill homeless guy like Ciel. Let’s just say that in some of their bar-drinking escapades, more than one fight can break loose, if you know what I mean…”

“Hmmm… Interesting…” said Sora, scribbling down some useless notes, ‘From what I gather, I doubt Lillina would really smile over having her cousin in an angry rampage, so I doubt it’s really Alstro--at least, there’s less than a 5% chance of that happening…’

“so, ye need any more info Sora?” asked Shale, planning to light another cigar.

“No, I think I’m good…” said Sora, taking some pictures of Shale’s apartment before leaving to see if Marigold got the list…

~~~

With the list in hand, Sora circled all of the people Shale had listed, opting to go through the other tenants later if he had time, just to be sure.

The next person he’d go to is Jose, who seemed to be living there only to have some form of home to go to the community college nearby.

Knocking on the door, Jose came in right away, opening the door and leaning on the doorframe, eyeing Jose suspiciously. Straightening his hair, the guy stated, “I wasn‘t expecting any visitors today… So, who might you be? By the way, the name‘s Jose…”

“I’m detective Sora, at your service!” replied Sora merrily, coming inside. Instantly he noticed the male pin-up posters, bright-coloured décor, and the decently-furnished living-quarters. Not to mention the bookshelf of gay magazines beside the TV.

“Oh… So… Jose… You’re…” began Sora, unsure as to what she should say.

“Homosexual?” said Jose, a look of disappointment on his face, “God, I expected you of all people not to--”

“Oh, sorry, I was just surprised is all,” said Sora, shrugging, then sitting down on one of Jose’s couch.  “Anyways… I’m here to investigate the murder of Lillina. You know her at all?”

“Not really… Other than the rather loud fighting coming from Lillina’s apartment. Usually coming from Ciel or Alstro, but the fighting’s stopped recently. Probably because Alstro had to leave for a fishing tourney at a nearby [s]Satyr[/s] village and hasn’t come back yet. I didn’t know she had died at all--I just assumed life went back to normal for a bit while Alstro was gone.”

“No, I’m afraid it’s much worse than that… By the way, you mentioned something about Ciel? What do you know about him?” questioned Sora, completely sure that Alstro wasn’t the murderer.

“Well, for one, Ciel can get pretty nasty during his drinking binges, sometimes ending up, you know, abusing Lillina… It’s depressing when we hear her yelling and screaming, what with the walls being paper-thin, but most people usually blame it on Alstro. I now for a fact that quite a lot of those incidents happen from Ciel…”

“Ahh… I see…” said Sora, intrigued, ‘It’s starting to make sense now…’
“So…” he continued, “What’s your… relation with Ciel?”

“Nothing…” said Jose, “Just a friend I used to know back when we were classmates at the local school. Nothin’ much. Though Ciel probably got his abusive nature from the many times he was bullied at school.”

“Okay, that’s reasonable. However, for lack of any witnesses, I’m gonna have to ask you not to leave town and all lest you want any suspicion coming your way…” said Sora, getting up and leaving Jose’s apartment with a nod. Although planning on making the last trip to Ciel’s apartment, Sora’s found vibrated in his coat pocket, the text message telling him the tests were completed…

“One last thing…” said Sora, turning his head and looked back at Jose, “Do you dye your hair at all?”

“Of course not!” said Jose, offended, before slamming the door on his face.

~~~

Returning back to the forensics lab, Sora asked Wren how the tests were doing. “Just fine,” she said, looking up from a microscope, “It seems that what killed her was the .55 mm gun with Silencer that was on the crime scene. Weird thing is, the only fingerprints found on the gun was Lillina’s, albeit a bit smudged, but that was probably from the aftershock of the blast. I even checked the seller of the gun and he said it was signed out by Lillina…”
Nodding, Sora moved on, asking, “And what about the maggots?”

“Funny you should ask,” said Wren, moving onto a next table, “They’re regular house flies, and some of the maggots have already reached full size. From what I gather, this crime must have occurred around four to five days ago, since it usually takes five days for maggots to fully form.”

“And what about the blood splatter?” asked Sora, eyeing the pictures he had taken.

“Nothing all-too special about them… In fact, all signs point to Lillina killed herself and she didn’t want anybody to know about it…”

While saying that, Sora slowly observed the pictures he had taken earlier, especially the one in Jose’s apartment…

“I see… Well, I can’t do anything else here. The last piece of the puzzle lies in only one other person… Ciel…”

~~~

Returning to the apartment one last time, Sora walked the three stories of steps and faced Ciel’s ‘Penthouse’ suite, aka the attic. Knocking on the doorknocker, Sora heard a groan from behind the door and the pounding of footsteps across old flooring.

Opening the door to the full extent it could go with the chain locker, Ciel peeked through the slit, and saw Sora staring back at him. Pushing away some stray grey and brown hair from his eyes, Ciel asked, “Who’re you?”

“I’m detective Sora, at your service!” said Sora cheerily again, except not sticking out his hand, giving Ciel a salute instead. ‘Who knows where that hand’s been… Probably in the dumpster…’

“Ah, don’t give me that happy bull-crap. Something‘s happened, hasn‘t it?” sighed Ciel, the smell of alcohol evident in his breaths, “Well, come on in I guess…”

Unlocking the chain link, Ciel slowly opened the door, allowing Sora to walk inside. What Sora saw was a bit different than what he had imagined.

What Sora thought would be a landslide of old clothes and garbage turned out to be a humble little three-room apartment, the kitchen on one side and dining room, a washroom, and finally a bedroom, all decorated as best as one could with what Sora guessed was a meagre upper-lower-class life. It kind of reminded him of Jose’s place, except without the gay pictures.

“So, copper, what do you want with me?” said Ciel, sitting on a barstool and getting himself some Tylenol, “I assume it’s got something to do with an investigation of some sort, right?”

“Well, actually, you’re pretty much on the dot,” said Sora, looking for something incriminating, “I’m here investigating the murder of someone you know… Lillina…”

Sora paused for effect, watching Ciel almost drop his mug and look at Sora, as if wishing it were not true.

“Oh my God… I never knew…” said Ciel, sitting down, “I just thought she was with Alstro or something… I bet HE did it…”

“Oh, come on now Ciel, don’t act like that,” said Sora, getting up, “You know full well that Alstro went to the nearby [s]Satyr[/s] village for a fishing tournamnet and that Lillina was left all alone… What did you think REALLY happened?” Sora paced through the kitchen, eyeing the bar stools then the plain white fridge before moving onto the rest of the apartment.

“Fine, ye caught me--I was trying to put the blame on Alstro cause that ho’s a bastard. Drinking all the time and beating Lillina senseless… Either way, Alstro left 5 days ago. When did Lillina die?”

“About five days ago as well,” said Sora, noticing a well-hidden broom closet. Opening it up, he saw a thin coat and leather gloves. Having searched most of the apartment already, he closed the door and sat down in front of Ciel. Sighing, Sora asked, “Do you have a cigar I could use?”

“Oh, sorry, I don’t smoke,” was all Ciel said, swallowing his Tylenol.

“Then why do you have an ashtray on the counter?” was all Sora said before he left. He needed just a little bit of research to do before he could finally finish this case…

~~~

The next day, he had asked the tenants to come into Marigold’s living room for a final investigation. That is to say, Marigold, Shale, Jose and Ciel.
“I’m pretty sure you all know why I gathered you here…” said Sora, smirking, “So let’s get down to the point…” Staring intently at the group, he raised a hand and swiftly pointed it at Ciel. “Ciel, I believe that YOU are the murderer!”

“But why would it be me?” Ciel asked, shocked.

“Well, why wouldn’t it? Why not ask your classmate Jose?” said Sora slyly, looking directly at Shale.

“But I’m Shale!”

“Or so we believe. But I doubt that someone who has yet to go to Community College could be old enough to have white hair. What really brought it together was the fact that ‘Jose’ over there said that he doesn’t use dyes. That, plus his fit physique made me question if you guys are who you told you are. So I went back to school…”

Taking about a small paperback Yearbook, Sora flipped it to the first of two bookmarked pages. Smirking, Sora said, “As you can see here, the picture on this Yearbook is quite clear as to who is who…”

“Fine, I admit it…” said the real Jose, straightening up and brushing his wild hair, “But we were just having a bet to see if we could last in each other’s shoes. You know how it is with teenagers, always trying to act older than they are…”

“Oh, tat’s fine… For now. I just needed to clear that up for everybody so that what I’m about to reveal next is less confusing…”

The next thing Sora did was opening up the next page of the Yearbook and showing it to everybody in the room. He had just cracked the case wide open…

“So here’s what I think happened…” began Sora as he unravelled the tale of Lillina’s death…

“Lillina, a women that had deeply loved Ciel, had died five days ago. We all know that--don’t pretend you didn’t know of this. Except Marigold of course…

So anyway, my hypothesis is this. That night, five days ago, Lillina was ecstatic with joy as she learned that Alstro was leaving to go on a fishing tournament. Despite being beaten repeatedly by both Ciel and Alstro, Lillina doesn’t mind that much. What she DID mind however was that Ciel had actually found a new lover… Wouldn’t you agree… Jose?

So, I assume that Lillina must have seen them together coming home from yet another gay bar, am I right? Both of you guys dressed in what warm clothing you could find, arm in arm until you had to enter the building, right? I mean, there’s only a hand-full of tenants here and none of them have a window looking at the front entrance--save Lillina, whom you forgot about… In shock, Lillina pulls out the .55 mm gun with the Silencer that she was probably planning on using on Alstro if he came to beat her. Never would she imagine having to use it on Ciel…

So, after you and Jose had separated and you went to see Lillina, you were probably surprised to see Lillina pointing a gun at you, weren’t you Ciel? Even more shocked I imagine when she actually shoots a few bullets at you, which had caused the markings on the wall. Lunging at her, you struggle to get the gun away, your gloves smudging up some of her fingerprints. Originally, you were simply planning on taking the gun and away and beating her, weren’t you? But things got out of control…

In the struggle, Lillina saw that she was no match for you, so instead, she simply let go during one of your pulls, causing the gun to shoot her in the stomach. And  so the last of the puzzle was formed, wherein her slight grin was forming before she died, for she had finally let go of you…

And don‘t forget I had forgotten about you Shale. For it was YOU who had seen it all, since you WERE living in the apartment across from Lillina‘s, and the door was wide open for you to see through. I imagine they must have threatened you or something to keep quiet--heck, even putting on this silly ruse. Sadly, that makes you an accomplice, meaning you, too, will have to go to jail…”

Amazed at the way Sora had deducted their crime so easily, the three merely surrendered, which was a good choice since Sora had already ordered a squad of Police Cars to surround the building…

~~~

Standing over the gravesite of Lillina, Sora sighed, saying aloud, “Sometimes you have to know when to stay steadfast or to leave to find someone else… At least, in the end, you were happy…”

Placing a single Lily on her gravesite, Sora left for yet another case…

=D