Chapter 1:
Not All Murders Are Magnificent

The door to Mystery Room flew open; an ecstatic Lucy Baker arriving to work on time for once with a gleaming smile on her face. Today has started off to be a great morning for her.

She had woken up early enough to actually enjoy her small breakfast and cup of tea, followed up by not having to rush through her morning routine to arrive at Mystery Room on time. But the one thing that brightened Lucy's day this morning was that she had gotten a call from her Mother as she was on her way out the door. As much as Lucy wished to have a chat with her, she would have been late if she answered, so it had to be left as a message. Lucy thought it was a bit odd that her Mother called; she rarely did. Around the holidays was about the only time she called, and there wasn't any coming up or any that had passed.

"Good mornin' Prof!" Lucy's bright smile dimmed a bit as she stood there to be ignored by her mentor as he stared at a case file in his hand, disheveled crimson hair hung over the dark expression on his face.

Lucy brushed off the no response, getting it before when she came into work when Potty Prof was going through the case. To pass the time until he would pass her the case and ask questions Lucy went to go make Alfendi his usual cup of Earl Grey tea.

When Lucy got back from the break room, she was relieved to see that it was now Placid Prof who was going through the case file as she placed the tea on the corner of his desk; no words still exchanged between the two. Although her day started off the way it did, things were starting to bother about it. The call from her Mother, the way her co-workers avoided eye contact as she passed them in the hall, or both of the Prof's behaviors. Nothing was adding up! But yet, she sat and watched Alfendi as he left his tea untouched and went over every detail of the case in silence for an unusual amount of time.

Lucy waited for about ten minutes, and within that time lost track of how many times Alfendi's hair went from placid purple to crimson red and back again. Sometimes the change was immediate or a few minutes in between, but it made Lucy worry. It seemed as though the two were conflicted.

"Prof, wot's got ya bothered about ta case? Do we have a gruesome one this time?" Lucy walked over to Alfendi's desk to make sure she wouldn't be ignored this time.

Placid Prof looked up from the file, closing it, and cleared his throat. "Oh yes Lucy, this is quite the case we have on our hands. In fact… why don't you go home and let me handle it."

"Wot!" Lucy couldn't believe what she was hearing. "It can't be that bad Prof! I'm sure there are worse cases that we've worked on!" She snatched the case off of Alfendi's desk and began to read it.

"No Lucy! Give me the file!" Potty Prof jumped up from his chair to grab the file from Lucy as she paced around the room avoiding him, reading the file aloud.

"The victim were a 29 year old female who was found dead in her apartment bathroom. The cause of death were a single stab wound to ta heart, but the victim had multiple stab wound all over their body and a slit throat. There are five suspects in this case: The Mother, Father, and brother of the victim, as well as her current and ex-boyfriend. 'er body was found last night by 'er family when she had been expectin' them; they walked onto ta scene of the crime and reported it immediately." Lucy kept on reading, waiting for the name of this poor girl to show up somewhere in the report; then she finally came upon it and stopped. "Lily Ba... Bak…" The file dropped to the floor, and with it, Lucy fell to her knees.

"Lucy…" Placid Prof wasn't sure what to say, while Potty Prof was practically overflowing with rage that someone would do this; especially something to impact his assistant. When he found them, he would make sure that more than just some fingers and a tongue were cut off.

"No, no, no… Lily…" Tears blurred Lucy's vision and she felt like they weren't going to stop any time soon. "My Mother or Father, they would never do something so…" She was in denial like most loved ones of a victim; her mind wouldn't take in the thought that Lily Baker was dead. "Prof… Why?" She looked up from her hands cupping her face to look at Alfendi to see him already knelt down next to her.

"Lucy, don't' worry. We will find out who killed your sister. We won't stop investigating until we catch them in their lies and throw them in a cell." Lucy was still looking into the eyes of an angry Placid Prof, but to her it sounded like the two Profs were talking as one.

Lucy couldn't speak as all her words came out as sobs, or more tears would come from her eyes. She turned towards Alfendi and cried into his chest as he hugged her, his hand patting her back.

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-MysteryProf