Part 1
Part 2
They sat in wooden chairs in the foyer. Some looked pale, others like zombies. Still others talking in hushed voices, whispering details. The place had pretty much been cleared out of cops, save for a few who lingered outside taking notes.
They were all suspects. A few still remembered how that leading detective (Cane? Crane?) had told them all that he would keep tabs on them all, requiring them to fill out paperwork regarding forwarding address, phone number, the like. Only one of them had any qualms about doing this.
“Not on your life.” Sapo said. “I will not be giving out any personal information until I have spoken with a lawyer.”
Crane had looked at him then, a sort of sly smile forming on his lips. “Well,” he started, “doesn’t that seem suspicious, only one of thirty-nine guests unwilling to provide some harmless info in case of need of further questioning. Let’s put it this way, if you’re innocent, you have nothing to worry about.”
“But I am innocent.” Sapo shot back. “I told you, I was outs–”
“I know what you told me.” Crane interrupted. “I have it all down in my little black book, but it seems awfully guilty of you to be so uncoopertive in this matter. I could write that in my book too. Hmmmm…How would that look? ‘Subject seemed hesitant to cooperate with the proceedings and refused to give out nessasary information for the advancement of a murder case’. Sounds good? So why don’t you do yourself a favor and go fill out the papers?”
Sapo licked his lips. “You can’t do this to me. I know my rights.”
“Yeah,” Crane replied. “you’ll have the right to remain silent soon.”
Sapo started to say something else, but Johnny LA interrupted.
“Dammit, Sapo, just fill out the damn papers and shut your mouth for once.”
He looked at Johnny with a surprised glimmer in his eye. Then saw they were all looking at him, their faces all tired, forlorn. All looking at him.
He turned back to Crane and quickly took the papers out of his hand. Withdrawing to a dark patch, he began to file through them, filling them out on a rock.
Now he sat with the others, around the abandoned stage. None of them knew what to do next, it was as if a big hand had closed around them, locking them in place.
The first person to break from this hold was Alice in Wonderland. “Oh God.” She cried as she rose from her chair. “I mean, one of you is a killer.” She crossed to the corner of the room,then slid to the ground, eyeing the rest of the people with distrust.
Twickster spoke up. “She’s right. One of us has a heart of pure evil to do such a deed.”
At this, Sapo uttered a laugh. Twickster turned on him. “Something you find funny, Sapo? Because I really don’t see this as a time for jokes, do you?”
"Nah, it’s just that the situation is killing me, no pun intended. Like something out of an Agatha Christie novel. I can see it now, “Murder at Idle Mansion: A Locked Door Mystery’.” He laughed again at the picture he had in his head.
“And how, pray tell, would you have known the door was locked?” Pbbth spoke up.
Others turned to him, their eyes all asking the same question.
“Come on people, surely you can’t al be that dumb. I was merely speculating on a book. The door couldn’t possibly have been really locked, Because when our beloved Marley arrived at the door, it was open. Not to mention, it had to be open when the killer entered. I noticed, as the EMT’s courted the body out, that there no opening for a key or a pin on the outside door knob, therefore, if the door was shut and locked, nobody from nobody could have gotten in.”
Lord Ashtar snorted. “Well, maybe it was locked and he just offed himself.”
Sapo smiled again. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? You’d just love to eliminate all possibility of a killer exsisting among one of us. Well, if that was the case, then how did the door magically open when Marley took center stage? Did Idle, with a knife sticking three inches into his back, just casually reach up and unlock the door?” Sapo leaned back in his chair. “No. It was unlocked from the start, giving access to everyone and anyone.”
“Gee, Sapo,” Green Bean remarked from her seat on the stage, “you seem to know an awful lot about the whole set up. Why, a normal person might think you actually did the deed.”
“Guys, stop it.”
They all turned to the new voice. It came from a corner. He was slightly tall. Football figure build. He stood up. “This will get us nowhere.” Little Nemo said. “All we will succeed in doing is accusing one another over and over again. What I suggest is we go over each person’s story one at a time, and weed out all those who could not have done it, either cause they were with someone else, or been accounted for somewhere else at the time. This would leave us with a select few.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.” Twickster stated. “Process of elimination. Works 80 percent of the time.”
Sapo rose to his feet. “I do not wish to have any part in the proceedings, all I really wish for is a bed and pillow. I’m tired, and I’m going to drive back to my hotel.” He began to walk towards the door.
“You can’t do that.” Twickster protested. “We need everyone here. You are still, after all, a main suspect.”
“Oh I can’t, can I? Watch me. I am innocent, and I know it. If you scatterbrains want to play detective all night, so be it, but you can do it sans me.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sapo.” Green Bean spoke up again.“It looks really shady.”
“Shady?” He stopped for a second, regarding this word. “Ahhhhh…my bed would be nice and shady about now.” He resumed his walk to the front enterance, but suddenly there were people there. Two of them. One was Little Nemo himself. The other Sapo recognized as Shodan.
“Sorry, Sapo,” Little Nemo was saying, “but we can’t let you do that. You are on the same boat as us, even if you do proclaim your innocence at the top of your lungs, it doesn’t making any difference in this case. What’s the harm in staying anyway? All we ask for is about two hours of your time.”
“Get out of my way! You can’t keep me here! I’m not your prisoner! Let me though.”
Nemo grabbed a chair on it’s side that was within reach and passed it to Shodan. Then he got another and sat down in front of the door as his partner did the same. “You’re staying, Sapo. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it has to be.”
Sapo looked at the both of them as he felt all the air rush out of him. He looked back around the room and everyone was watching, no STARING. Everyone was staring at him.
“You must all think this is pretty funny, taking the law into your own hands. When I’m out of here, I’m personally reporting you all to the authorities.”
With that, he strode over to a chair in an unoccupied corner and sat down, rejectedly.
Twickster regarded him one more second, then turned her attention back to the group. “All right. So it begins. We will begin with our weeding out process. The killer of Idle Thoughts is in here right now. Nobody is leaving and nobody is coming in. By the end of the night, hopefully sooner, we will have the killer found, bound, and the police on their way. It could be anyone. But we will find them. Whoever they are…”
To Be Continued…
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Sorry for the shortness of this one. The next two I have planned to be very, very long. Hope you are all enjoying it.
Though this part seems to have been just a set-up with little real info…except that we can probably eliminate Sapo as a suspect. Too obvious. (Unless that’s what Idle wants us to think, of course!). Uh-oh, is that wine I see in front of me…?