The room was deathly silent as everyone stood together after being gathered into the living room of the Boddy Manor. This is where the body had been found dead of unknown causes, but it was very apparent that he had been murdered, and by one of the people in the room. Everyone looked at everyone else with suspicion. The only person who knew the murderer was was the murderer them self.
Detective De Tanga Tealson stretched in his chair at his desk. It was a slow day at the station. The only things he could do to pass the time was engage in idle chat with his fellow officers or drink stale coffee. Neither was appealing so De Tanga just sat there staring at the wall. He was thinking of laying back and taking a little nap but only of the chief's lackeys disturbed his thoughts.
"Chief wants to see you in his office right now." The annoying nameless lackey ordered De Tanga.
De Tanga gave the lackey a sour look before getting out of his chair and heading over to the chief's office.
Inside the office the chief of police seemed to be having a very heated conversation with the mayor of the city, Philionel White.
"I can't believe that you would even think that my dear daughter could be the culprit of that terrible crime!"
"I know Mayor White, but your daughter was at the crime scene along with the other people when it happened, so that makes her a suspect." The chief said dryly. It was obvious that he wasn't enjoying having to deal with the loud and distraught mayor. The chief adverted his eyes towards the doorway and saw De Tanga looking at him with curiosity.
"Ah yes Detective Tealson, come in. I was just talking with Mayor White about a case you are going to be assigned to." The chief stood up and motioned for De Tanga to take a seat next to the mayor.
"A case that I going to be assigned to? Hmm… so what is this case?"
"Well Tealson, you know of the famous Mr. Boddy don't you?" The chief went to sit back down at his chair and shuffled the papers in front of him.
"Yes I know Mr. Boddy. He's that rich guy who lives up in Boddy Manor, that large estate on the hill near the edge of the city limits."
"Yes well Mr. Boddy is no longer alive." The chief handed a case file to De Tanga for him to look over. "Mr. Boddy was murdered in his estate approximately two days ago. It was determined that the cause of death is unknown and that where he had been found was not where he had been killed."
"According to this file it says that Sergeant Zelgadis Gray was the one who was first on the scene."
"Yes he had been going to see Mr. Boddy about possible prowler that he had seen sneaking around in the Boddy estate while he drove by in his car. Though Sergeant Gray has been known to be a reliable and trustworthy person, since he showed up so quickly after Mr. Boddy had been killed he like the other people who were at the Boddy estate when the murder took place, Sergeant Gray is also a suspect."
De Tanga raised an eyebrow at the chief. Though De Tanga didn't know Zelgadis Gray that well, he knew from what he'd seen and what people told him that Sergeant Gray wasn't the type of person to do something like this. But then again it's always the most unlikely suspect that's usually the culprit.
"In that case file you have in hands, each of the possible suspects for Mr. Boddy's murder are listed with background information on all of them. I expect you to review them all and have all of it memorized on your way over to the Boddy estate. All of the suspects are being kept at the Boddy Mansion by Sergeant Gray, who has no idea that he's a suspect too."
Philionel White turned to De Tanga with a pleading look, "My little girl didn't do it honestly I know! You've got to believe me on that!"
De Tanga looked away from the mayor and looked down at the case file to indeed see Amelia White as one of the names listed. "So Chief I'm supposed to leave right away?"
"No first you need to get the officers who are going to be your partners on this case with you before you can go."
"Partners?" De Tanga narrowed his eyes at the chief. He wasn't one to work with others, De Tanga always preferred to work alone. He didn't like the idea of having to work with someone else. And by the plural usage of partner the chief intended him to have not one but at least two partners on this case. "Why?"
"This a big case Tealson, you are going to need help. So I think it's in your best interest if you worked with the two other officers I've chosen."
"And what two officers have you chosen then?" De Tanga glared at the chief.
"Officers Hallas Beige and Death Noir."
De Tanga almost fell out of his seat. Hallas Beige was a complete klutz who could barely do anything right and Death Noir had only been transferred to their station a week prior. "So I'm working with the klutz and the new guy?" Bitterness dripped from his voice.
"Officer Beige is not a klutz. He's going because despite his faults he's a very smart and observant officer. And from what I've heard of Officer Noir from his last station, he's a very competent officer who should be very helpful. No go and get them briefed on the case and get over to the Boddy estate." The chief ordered and De Tanga complied.
It didn't take long for De Tanga to find Hallas Beige. Hallas sitting at his desk mulling over some papers that he had laid out in front of him. Being the person that he was, many people loved to take advantage of him. Even his fellow officers. What Hallas had in front of him was a mountain pile of paperwork for various cases that other officers had done. Somehow Hallas had been conned into doing all the paperwork for them.
It was bad all right, but it was also so easy. De Tanga evilly smiled as he approached the annoying officer. He too had gotten to do paperwork for him too.
"Hey Hallas!" De Tanga yelled sneaking up behind him.
"AHHHH!!!!!" Hallas jumped scattering all the papers on his desk all over the floor. "De-detective Tealson! What can I do for you?" Hallas sputtered out while trying to get all the papers off the floor.
"You've been assigned to work with me on a case-"
"I have?!?!? WOW!!! I get to work on a case with the Detective De Tanga Tealson! I can't believe it-"
"Shut up already. Geesh! Anyway come on let's go and find Officer Death Noir." De Tanga shook his head. He couldn't believe that someone could be that excited about doing a case. 'Youthful enthusiasm. I wonder was I ever that enthusiastic?'
"Officer Noir? Why him?"
"Because he's the other guy that we're working with for this case."
It took De Tanga and Hallas quite a while to find Officer Noir. Since he was so new no one knew what he did with his time. In fact people rarely ever saw Death Noir unless he was getting something from his desk.
With very few places left to go De Tanga and Hallas checked out the shooting range in the lower levels of the police station. Sure enough down there shooting targets with his gun was Death Noir.
Death glared at the target as he fired. Two of his long bangs of his short black haired almost fell over his gray black eyes but didn't hamper his vision. He got every target that he aimed for.
De Tanga called Death over and the officer complied and came over. Death had a very serious and dark look to his face as he glared at the people interrupting his gun practice. "What do you want?" Death asked in a very dry tone.
"Are you Officer Death Noir?"
"Yes." Death narrowed his eyes further at De Tanga.
"Well you've been assigned to work with Officer Beige and I on a case."
"So I have to work with you two?" Death emphasized the word 'you' with a note of irritation apparent in his voice. He still glared at De Tanga with an evil and serious look.
"Yes."
Death put his gun back in his holster and looked up at Hallas and De Tanga. "Okay then let's go! Hee hee hee!" Death said cheerily and smiled broadly.
Both De Tanga and Hallas facefault.
Death blinked in confusion. "Hey are you two alright?" He said while poking De Tanga on the side.
De Tanga regain his composure and jumped back to his feet. He stared at Death in disbelief. 'One minute he's bad assed evil angry scary guy and the next he's happy-go-lucky and cheery. What the hell is going on here?!?!' De Tanga sweatdropped.
"Oi Detective Tealson shouldn't we get going?" Death asked with a big bright smile.
De Tanga had to look away from Death because the smile was too much for him. "Yeah let's get going."
With Death driving and having a nice conversation with Hallas, De Tanga was left reading over the case file on their way over to the Boddy estate. He decided to read over the background on Amelia White first. What he found on the mayor's daughter was that she was had been working as a part time maid at the Boddy Manor. She didn't have any possible motive listed or any other really useful information. What she had been doing the day of Mr. Boddy's death was catering to some of Mr. Boddy's uninvited guests. To what De Tanga could read up on Mr. Boddy, was that many people dropped by unannounced to see Mr. Boddy for specific reason usually concerning money. That day had been the day that a big storm had hit the city and everyone had been cautioned not to leave their homes. With all these people already at the Boddy Manor, Mr. Boddy had them all invited to stay the night till the storm let up.
While De Tanga continued reading Hallas and Death continued chatting away. They were talking so much that De Tanga almost wanted to scream at them to shut up. But instead he tried his best to ignore the two. 'This is one of the reasons why I don't work with partners…'
An hour or so later De Tanga, Hallas and Death reached the Boddy estate. When De Tanga saw the Boddy Manor, boy was he happy. Since the ride was so long to get to the Boddy estate since it was so close to being out of the city limits he had to stick through his two 'partners' constant and annoying chatter. He breathed a big sigh of relief once he got out of the unmarked police car and stepped out onto the driveway.
"Detective Tealson, why are we here for anyway?" Hallas snapped De Tanga out of his thoughts.
"Because Hallas, there's been a murder here."
"Who was killed."
"Mr. Boddy."
Death and Hallas looked at each other with disbelief and followed De Tanga to the front door.
De Tanga rang the doorbell and patiently waited. A few moments later a short girl with shoulder length black hair, blue eyes and in a maid's uniform answered the door.
"Ahh, you must be Amelia White. I'm Detective De Tanga Tealson. I do believe that Sergeant Gray has been expecting me?" De Tanga showed his credentials to Amelia.
"Oh yes, come in."
Amelia ushered them into the room where everyone had been gathered, the living room, where Mr. Boddy's dead body had been found.
De Tanga eyed the room. He saw all ten suspects that had been listed in the case file that the chief had given him. Every one of the suspects gave De Tanga, Hallas and Death suspicious stares, except for a man dressed in dark purple who had dark purple hair as well. He smiled at the three as he fiddled with his glasses to get a better look at them. De Tanga didn't like that smile. It was a very smug and all-knowing smile; like that man knew something that others didn't.
"Hello Detective Tealson, I'm Sergeant Gray." A voice interrupted De Tanga's thoughts. He turned his attention to Zelgadis Grey. Zelgadis stood very straight and stiff with a very stoic look on his face.
"Greetings Sergeant Gray. I'm as you know Detective Tealson. The two behind me are Officers Hallas Beige and Death Noir."
"Hi." Both officers said respectively. Zelgadis nodded to the two and looked back at De Tanga whom seemed to be deep in thought.
"So Sergeant Gray how about we start with what you all know, and where each person was during the estimated time of Mr. Boddy's time of death and any other bit of information that you can think of that might be helpful?" De Tanga asked while taking a seat, flipping out his small notepad and pen and pulling out the case file.