Chapter 169: DePonte
DePonte's house was filled with a pungent scent of chemicals and fungi. A large, sturdy looking table was pushed into a corner and held many instruments of glass and metal, many filled with strange fluids and one even contained a small amount of blood.
DePonte led them over to a wall where he had pieced together the clues that he had gathered for the murder cases.
"This investigation has been most exciting. Although I've had to skip on some sleeping time to squeeze it into my busy schedule, it has been a welcome break in my somewhat monotonous routine." DePonte said.
"I suppose we'll start from the beginning. Here are the victims." DePonte stated, gesturing to various sketches of individuals.
"The first victim was the old Constable. He was already retired by the time I had immigrated here. He was a stern and intelligent man, unlike his son, Constable Ricky, who is a bit… slow. His death devastated poor Constable Ricky, he turned to drinking to cope with the loss." DePonte said.
"Then we have the beautiful Olympia as the second victim. A bit of a flirt, she was. Didn't earn her any favors with the wives of our fine village when she winked at their husbands." DePonte said.
"Finally we have the third victim, Patrick. He was the village's best hunter, and tended to spend his time alone." DePonte finished.
"How did they die?" Robin asked.
"They were all stabbed in the night inside their own homes, no witnesses. Afterward, the victims were drained of most of their blood. Their bodies weren't moved away from the crime scenes." DePonte informed.
"Do you have any suspects?" Cherry inquired.
"Well, it takes a little bit of know-how to drain a body of blood. The stab wounds aren't random either, so the killer must have some anatomical knowledge. The other hunters and the village doctor fit that bill, but those are just the people I know of that would hypothetically be able to for sure." DePonte stroked his mustache in thought.
"That's it? I thought you said you had a breakthrough in the case? Did you even ask around?" Perona interrogated.
"Ah, well, I'm not good at… talking to people. Bit of an introvert you might say." DePonte blushed slightly. "As for my breakthrough, I happened to overhear the village gossip, Maggie, whispering about a supposed affair that Olympia had with the Mayor. Would you mind following up on that for me? I was going to have the Constable do it for me, but since you're here…?"
Perona rolled her eyes, already dismissing the man as useless. "Can you tell me how you deal with the toxic spores, at least?"
"Oh! I'm glad you asked. I myself had some trouble with them at first, even with my general antidote. I developed a better solution with the help of the village folk!" DePonte said, rushing over to his lab table.
"Here you are! This antibody solution will most likely inoculate you to the spore of this island!" DePonte spoke proudly, holding up a frighteningly large syringe.
Perona suddenly found that her headache wasn't so bad after all and decided against the inoculation.
Leaving the eccentric DePonte to his work, the group made their way back into the village in search of this gossip, Maggie, for questioning.
"That weirdo is definitely the killer!" Perona said.
"Certainly he is suspicious. We should follow up on other leads and build our case, though." Robin said reasonably.
"The easiest way would just be to catch the killer in the act, but they'd need to be dumb enough to act while we're around." Cherry said.
It didn't take very long to find Maggie. She ran the local tavern, which made perfect sense for the biggest gossip in the village.
"What can I get for you ladies, hm?" Maggie asked when they walked into her tavern.
Maggie was a heavyset woman in her 50s with graying blonde hair. At a glance she seemed perfectly pleasant, but looking into her eyes you could tell she was a hungry person, hungry for delicious gossip that is.
"Got any local specialties?" Cherry asked, ignoring the elbow that was jabbed into her ribs by Robin.
"We've got a few mushroom liquors if you're interested. Harder stuff than ale or beer, but not as much as traditional hard liquors. The deep fried mushroom bites pair well with them." Maggie answered, eyes glinting mischievously.
"Give us a good selection then. What's on your menu for gossip?" Cherry sat down at the bar. Robin gave a light sigh and sat down next to her, determined to make sure she didn't overdo it.
"Well, I don't make a habit of running my mouth off to strangers…" Maggie said, with false hesitancy.
"We happen to be helping with the investigation of the recent murders. Perhaps we can keep you 'informed', it's only right for the citizens of your fine village to know what is going on in their own village, wouldn't you agree?" Cherry said.
Maggie's smile became a bit more genuine.
"I'm grateful, maybe you can tell me a little about yourselves too. If we don't even know who you are, how could we trust you with such a sensitive matter?" Maggie said.
Cherry smiled in amusement. It was a shame this woman had been born on this island instead of somewhere she could put her talents to use.
Maggie prepared a small feast of local cuisine and liquors for them to enjoy. All of them were both interesting and/or tasty in their own ways. Cherry and Cabernet were naturally the biggest eaters, which pleased Maggie as they were racking up quite the bill.
"So what brings you around these parts? We don't normally get visitors. Well, we get pirates sometimes, but by the time they reach us they normally succumb to the spores." Maggie asked.
"We're pirates!" Cabernet exclaimed with food in her mouth.
"I see." Maggie said softly, having no change in expression.
Cherry heard something shift slightly beneath the counter however, suggesting that the woman wasn't as nonchalant as she appeared. She sensed no hostility from Maggie though, so she concluded it was only a precautionary measure.
"You might not have heard of us, since I doubt the News Coos can get here through the spores. We're pretty infamous though." Cherry said, thankfully having swallowed her mouthful before speaking.
"Really? What's your bounty?" Maggie inquired.
"Last I saw it was 800 million. I suppose that's to be expected after what I did in Marineford." Cherry spoke.
Maggie's hands jerked up from their hiding place and she placed them on the countertop with a slightly nervous smile. A soft thunk was heard at the same time, likely because she dropped whatever it was on the inner shelf of the counter.
"Hehehe, you're really smart, Maggie. How do you know I'm not making up tall tales?" Cherry asked, amused.
"I know a lie when I hear one. If you're good enough at lying that even I can't tell, then that's reason enough not to offend you." Maggie said.
"Well, don't be too nervous, Maggie. Luckily you were pointing that shotgun at me. It wouldn't have done me any harm, so I wouldn't do any to you either." Cherry said.
Maggie understood the insinuation underneath Cherry words, and thanked the heavens she hadn't pointed it at one of the other three.
"Let's talk about what we came for, shall we?" Robin broke the tension with her beautiful voice and gentle smile.
"I don't know much, really. Just that the Mayor probably had an affair with Olympia, I saw her leaving his house a few times. Naturally if I know, then the whole town knows, including the Mayor's wife, Jilly." Maggie said. "I really don't want to cause Jilly any trouble, she is such a sweet woman. She couldn't do something so horrible."
They chat with Maggie while finishing up their food and drinks to learn a little more about the personalities and relationships in the village before bidding her goodbye.
"Who next, the doctor? Maybe we can learn something more about the bodies or find out if he's suspicious in any way." Cherry said, receiving nods of agreement.
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