After much disorientation and panicking, they finally calmed down enough to form coherent thoughts so that they could attempt to understand what had just happened to them. All they knew for sure so far was that, when the killer fired, Murdoch's mind had somehow been transferred to Julia's body and vice versa, and the same thing had happened to George and Brackenreid, respectively. * For future reference, whenever I mention a character's name in the present, I am referring to their mind and not their body. Hope that's not too confusing. *

Half of the party was not nearly as horrified as the other half to find themselves in another persons body. Both sides made their thoughts plain as they backtracked towards the dead man.

"I must say," said Julia, laughingly in his voice, "I quite enjoy not wearing a corset!" She twirled around as if she were a ballerina. "It's most liberating having full range of motion!"

"Yes," said Murdoch sourly, eyeing his body warily as it performed more unnatural and feminine movements, "I seem to recall you had similar sentiments the last time you wore men's clothing."

Julia kept dancing around gracefully, holding his top hat out, and Murdoch snapped very shrilly, "Could you please desist in such juvenile behaviour, Julia?"

She made a face at him thinking, is that really what I sound like? but granted his request and fell back into line with her soon to be husband, or rather herself.

Brackenreid was now bounding around them like a deer or a small child. "This is bloody fantastic!" he kept exclaiming every few seconds. "I feel like a new man!"

"That's because you are, sir!" said George grumpily, grimacing with every slow step he took. "You are making me look the fool! Please stop!"

"No can do, Crabtree!" grinned Brackenreid, jumping around like a moron. "This is bloody fantastic! All those pies haven't hurt you one bit!"

Well I feel like I am dying! he wanted to yell at the inspector but didn't considering the man had almost died five months ago. The O'Shea brothers had been apprehended two weeks after the assault and were already serving time in prison. But the inspector had been in hospital for three months, just trying to regain basic motor functions in his legs. For awhile there they had thought he was never even going to wake up, but Brackenreid was a stubborn bloke and had persevered until the last.

Finally the group reached the scene of the crime and went over to investigate further. Julia and Murdoch crouched down on either side of the corpse to see what they could see. There wasn't much. Cause of death was exceedingly obvious. The light haired thirty something year old man had been shot in the forehead at point blank range. His eyes had been closed by the killer after the fact suggesting that they knew each other.

Murdoch checked the deceased man's pockets for identification and retrieved his wallet. "Gilbert Fairfax."

"Any idea who that is, Murdoch?" said Brackenreid, now tapping his toes enthusiastically to an invisible beat.

"None, sir," he said shaking his head and feeling the ruby earrings hit the side of his neck every time. "And I'm afraid we'll have to wait until morning to make further enquiries."

"Surely we can accomplish something yet tonight!" boomed George, startling himself badly so that he put a hand to his chest.

"Yes," said Julia, standing up, "I will perform the postmortem and see if I can dig up any clues about our mysterious assailant."

"Thank you, doctor," George replied, wrinkled brow becoming slightly less wrinkled as he smiled.

"Sir," Murdoch said to Brackenreid, also getting to his (dainty) feet, "you said before that you had hit the man. How much of an injury did you do him?"

"I don't know, I passed out right after. You think he might have checked himself into the hospital?"

"It's definitely possible."

"Well, look into it then, Murdoch."

"I will, sir. All right then," said Murdoch clapping his hands together and giving Brackenreid a pointed look. "It appears that someone needs to head to the constabulary to fetch the transport carriage."

"With pleasure!" he pipped and sprinted in the direction of the station house, with the goofiest smile imaginable across his face.

So, who do you like best so far? I think Brackenreid is my favourite because he's the funniest.