章 172: Prime Suspect
Over the next week, the village of Fungwood was questioned about the murders, to the point that people started to get rather irritated about it. The villagers became completely cooperative after the first person to refuse was taken for an unexpected and unwanted flight at Cabernet's top speed, dangling by a single foot hundreds of meters above the island.
The village children and a few dare devils found the idea exciting though, and Cabernet was more than happy to stretch her wings outside of the stuffy, humid mushroom forest.
Perona sent out her Hollows to patrol the village at night in case the killer foolishly decided to strike while they were here. They noticed Constable Ricky did his own patrols in the early morning as well as Doc Gidall wandering around after sunset before returning to his clinic.
During this time, they also had a look around the victims' homes where they had been killed, but that had been a long shot since the murders occurred some time ago and the victims' families had already claimed their possessions.
They decided to try and look through the victims' possessions for clues.
"Oh, well I suppose you can look through Dad's old stuff. I don't think you'll find anything though, DePonte already had a look through them after… Anyways, you're better off asking about the other two's possessions." Constable Ricky said, much less sober than he had been on their first meeting.
"You never know. A fresh pair of eyes might spot something that DePonte missed." Robin said. In reality she found the odds of the perpetually exhausted DePonte missing something vital to be quite high, she just didn't see the need to throw him under the bus for no reason.
"Alright, then. I'll show you where I've kept it all, I got nothin' better to do anyhow." Constable Ricky stood up with a bit of a stumble and led them to a storage shed next to his house.
Constable Ricky had a small garden near his house as most folk around here did. Only his garden is comparatively overgrown, likely due to his state of grief.
He put a key inside the lock on the shed door and opened it up. Inside were what looked like some decorative items and trinkets as well as a single filing cabinet.
"You'll want to look at his files I assume. Probably won't be anything of interest to you amongst the rest of this junk." Constable Ricky slurred and plopped himself down in a chair next to a patio table.
They got to work sifting through the files, most of which were meticulous notes about rather mundane incidents that took place over the former constable's career.
A dispute over a fence, a shovel that was borrowed without asking the owner first, children who threw a bucket of mud at the mayor, etcetera.
Interestingly, there were a fair number of files regarding youthful hijinks perpetrated by a young Ricky and one of the victims, Patrick. As they had learned before, the two seemed to be quite close and apparently were quite the troublesome duo.
One such incident report involved a rather nasty fight that Ricky and Patrick had with another frequent flier to the village holding cells. A man by the name of Jerick.
Notably, the fight was over a woman. The second victim in fact, Olympia. Jerick had slapped her after being rejected by her, after which Ricky and Patrick came to her defense. Jerick is a real brute of a man, though, so it didn't go so well for them until the former Constable showed up.
After Jerick busted the Constable's lip, he got an "ass whooping of a lifetime", his words not Cherry's.
"This fellow seems to have a reason to hate all three of the victims." Cherry said, showing the others.
"This happened quite a few years ago, though. Why now?" Robin pondered aloud.
"Let's go beat him up and find out!" Cabernet was raring to go.
"We might just have to, judging from this report." Robin commented.
They put everything back where they had found it, with the exception of the incident report regarding the fight.
"Constable Ricky, what can you tell us about this man, Jerick?" Cherry asked.
He widened his eyes a bit at the name.
"Well, he used to be a rather nasty piece of work, big bully he was. He settled down after we got older, though. Why do you ask?" Constable Ricky said.
"Do you remember this fight you had with him?" Cherry showed him the report.
"I suppose I do? This was hardly the only fight I ever had with him, but I guess this was probably the worst of them." Constable Ricky recalled. It was uncertain if he really couldn't remember well, or if it was just due his drunken state.
"We'll go pay him a visit then. We think he's a suspect worth paying attention to. Where does he live?" Cherry asked.
Constable Ricky gave some haphazard directions which would do well enough in a village of this size.
Jerick worked as a stonemason for the village, an important job as their homes were mostly made of stone because of the rarity of actual trees on the island. That was a decent explanation for his strength and toughness.
His home was at the edge of the village near where many large boulders could be found. They heard a rhythmic sound of hammer and chisel as they approached.
*Tink Tink Tink*
They knocked on the door and the sound stopped, soon after the door swung forcibly open.
"What do you want?" The unkempt man demanded.
He looked much the same as he had been described in the incident report, only with a few more wrinkles and a slightly less than sane look in his eyes.
"We have some questions-" Perona started confidently.
"Shut up, pinky. I weren't talkin' to you." He spoke rudely, turning his gaze back to Cherry. "You. You're in charge of this little group of hens, right? What do you want?"
Perona had half a mind to tell him off, but stopped as she felt Cabernet gently grab her hand. She looked up to see Cabernet's face with a predatory smile that didn't reach her eyes as she glared at the man.
Jerick paid no heed to the threatening looks he was receiving as he didn't consider women to be a real threat to him.
"Your name is Jerick?" Cherry asked.
"That's right." Jerick answered honestly.
"You have a motive in regards to all three murders that took place recently. Do you have any alibis we can follow up on for any of those nights? And do you mind if we search your house for evidence?" Cherry spoke politely.
"No and no. Fuck off." Jerick slammed the door in their faces. Soon after, the hammer and chisel sounds started up again.
"Do it, Cabernet." Cherry ordered.
The door of Jerick's house exploded into a million pieces, a feat that startled him as his door was made of solid stone.
He only barely had enough time to turn his head to see the disaster unfolding before he found himself on the ground, his nose broken and bloodied, along with several broken teeth flying out of his mouth.
A boot was then firmly planted on his head, removing any possibility of resistance he might have put up as he found he couldn't move in the slightest.
"Fuck! You wanna search my house, just do it then! I didn't do any murders!" Jerick spat, more angry than afraid.
"We will, don't worry your pretty little head about that, missy!" Cherry said delightfully.
They looked around the room and spotted the stone he was working on. It was a half finished life sized sculpture of a young woman.
"Who is this, friend?" Cherry asked whilst Robin searched the house with her experience as a spy, and Perona searched for secret hiding places with her Hollows.
"..." Jerick remained silent.
Jerick felt the pressure of Cabernet's boot on his head increase slightly.
"Damn it! It's Olympia!" Jerick confessed.
"A statue of the murdered girl, hm? How… creepy." Cherry commented, feeling they might really have found their killer.
"Shut your mouth!" Jerick shouted, desperately trying to pry the boot off of his head.
"Maybe you were the one who killed her?" Cherry accused.
"I'd never hurt Olympia, I love her!" Jerick pleaded his innocence.
"Is that so? But she rejected you didn't she?" Cherry pressed.
"... Yes, but I'm not the only one she rejected." Jerick said.
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