Hello there once again people, it is time for another chapter of the story!
As usual, I do not own any of the characters that are mentioned in this chapter, they all belong to Nintendo.
Please enjoy the story!
Chapter 2: Questions but No Answers
Within a few minutes, Toadette had gathered all of the guests in the first floor, each doing their own stuff, though none of them seemed to be in the party mood any longer.
"Ok, let's see, who should I question first?" Toadette wondered. "Birdo already explained her story but she may have left out some clues, Daisy is still passed out, and Peach knows her castle inside out; so she should know who went to the bathroom on the fifth storey before Birdo did."
Knowing that Birdo still possibly has that scary moment etched in her mind, Toadette decided to question Birdo, who was being calmed by Yoshi.
As she walked towards Birdo, Peach approached her.
"You sure you want to attempt to solve the mystery, you never know, the prankster might do something to your money," Peach warned her.
"Thanks for your concern Peach, but I am extremely determined to get to the bottom of this mystery," Toadette insisted.
"Well then, good luck, you have until 11.30PM, when the guests have to leave, which is approximately 2 and a half hour from now," Peach reminded.
"Got it," Toadette said.
She then proceeded towards Birdo, who was busily eating marshmallows to keep her cool.
"Ok Birdo, before you went to the bathroom, did you see or hear anybody?" Toadette asked.
"Sadly, no, I do not remember seeing anybody following or trailing me," Birdo replied.
"What about when the lights went out?" Yoshi asked.
Birdo shook her head in despair.
"Even if the lights had went out, I would have still been able to hear if anybody was in there with me, and unfortunately, I could not hear anything other than my screaming," Birdo stated.
Toadette nodded her head and took down notes on her paper on the clipboard.
Victim: Birdo
Note: Is completely useless in investigation and loves to eat marshmallows
After questioning Birdo, she decided to ask Peach some questions.
Peach was talking to Toad and Toadsworth, trying to find any leads.
"Peach, who was the last partier who had gone to the bathroom on the fifth storey before Birdo?" Toadette asked.
"Well, all of the partiers were instructed to ask me for permission before going to the fifth storey, and only Birdo came to ask me for permission," Peach stated.
"In that case, somebody else must have snuck into the fifth floor behind our backs," Toadsworth noted.
"But there are so many partiers here, any of them could have went there," Toad stated.
For a moment, nobody said anything, until...
"Wait, I got it, we can use the security cameras in my castle to see who went there!" Peach exclaimed.
"You're right Peach," Toadsworth said.
"All right, let's go to the control room now," Toadette suggested.
Both Peach and Toadsworth nodded their heads whereas Toad was looking at another direction.
"Um guys, what about Daisy?" Toad asked in a concerned tone.
The flower princess was still passed out, lying on the couch, with Luigi and Rosalina monitoring her condition every second.
Peach went up towards them and placed a hand on Luigi's shoulder.
"Don't worry Luigi, I think she will be fine," Peach reassured him.
"She is; her pulse rate is just fine, when she wakes up, she will most likely tell us what happened," Rosalina added on.
Toadette came over to the group and noticed something Luigi and Rosalina did not notice.
"Hey, what's that?" Toadette pointed out.
Peach, Rosalina and Luigi looked at where Toadette was pointing and found a small brownish stain on a portion of Daisy's dress.
"You're right!" Luigi gasped.
"Gosh, how could we have missed that?" Peach wondered.
"Simple, the suspect wanted us to pay so much attention to Daisy's recovery rate in hopes that we would not notice this stain," Rosalina said.
By then, a crowd had already gathered around to see the new clue.
Peach carefully touched the stain with her right hand, and then smelled her hand to discover the scent.
"Considering the fact that this stain is already dry, I would assume that this stain got on her dress just before she got knocked out, which is most likely slightly before the time Birdo came down screaming like a girl," Toadette concluded.
"Is that blood?" Luigi asked.
"No, it smells like... some sort of... drink..." Peach tried to identify.
Rosalina went as close as she could to the stain and sniffed it.
"It's Coke," Rosalina confirmed.
"Are you certain of that?" Mario asked.
Rosalina nodded her head to which Toadette started taking down notes.
Victim: Daisy
-Passed out some time slightly before Birdo ran downstairs.
-A Coca-Cola stain was found on her dress
Notes: First time Rosalina acted like a lesbian, being so interested in Daisy
"Hang on a second, weren't there two screams earlier on?" Yoshi stated.
"If so, one of them came from Birdo, while the other one came from Daisy, but which one came first?" Mario enquired.
"Either way, we only managed to find Daisy passed out in the bathroom after everybody had calmed down, so it's no surprise that the stain is dry," Rosalina pointed out.
"But how did the suspect knock her out with Coke?" Peach wondered.
"Well, according to my analysis, there are these few possible ways," Toadette stated.
A. Someone took a bottle filled to the brim with Coca-Cola and smashed it over her head.
"And that is all that I have," Toadette revealed her idea.
"Still, knowing how clever Daisy is, how could she have not seen the culprit?" Luigi questioned.
"Unfortunately, that is a question which can only be answered when Daisy recovers," Toadette said.
The crowd then slowly dispersed as Toad and Toadsworth walked towards Peach.
"At least you can still go and check out the security cameras," Toadsworth reminded Peach.
"Ok, let us go to the secret control room then," Peach answered.
"What secret control room are you people talking about?" Toadette checked.
"You see, we have a control room located somewhere in the living room on the first storey which is hidden in view so that nobody will know about it, and that is where we can view all of the security cameras located within the castle," Peach explained.
"Well, your secret control room isn't really a secret now that you have revealed your secret control room to us," Toadette claimed.
"True, but it is all right, I mean, only I have the key and it is located in my bedroom upstairs in the fifth storey," Peach stated.
For a while, nobody said anything while Toadette gave Peach the look she had given her before when Peach revealed information about the secret control room.
"Never mind, let us go to your not so secret control room," Toadette said.
While Luigi, Yoshi, Rosalina and Birdo stayed behind to look after Daisy, Peach, Toadsworth, Toad, Toadette and Mario headed towards the "no longer a secret control room thanks to Peach", with Peach leading the way.
Eventually, they arrived at a wall beside the staircase, where the door was left slightly ajar.
"Oh god, no way," Peach mumbled to herself.
She quickly ran in with the others following behind her.
They were greeted with a number of screens, a computer, and a large window giving a view of nice scenery outside the castle.
However, all of the monitors were all blank, whereas this was displayed on the computer screen:
All the footage of all the security cameras are all deleted.
Have a nice day.
"Somebody snuck in here and deleted all of the footage on all of the security cameras," Peach explained.
"So we cannot see the footage of what happened on the fifth storey?" Mario asked.
"Well, I could try to retrieve the data, but it seems like a long shot," Toad suggested.
"A long shot is at least better than no shot at all," Toadsworth said.
"Ok, so we have no more footage on any of the security cameras, Daisy is still passed out, we have that mysterious stain on her dress, and we have absolutely no leads at all," Toadette concluded. "Man there is so many questions, but absolutely no answers at all."
Toad sat down on a chair and started to attempt retrieving the data that has been deleted.
"So it looks like it is back to square one for us," Mario sighed in despair.
"Not true, instead of going back to square one, we should head to the 2 true crime scenes, the bathroom on the first storey, and the one on the fifth storey," Toadette stated.
And so, the mystery deepens!
With lots of questions still left with no answers, will a trip to the bathrooms give Toadette and the others a few more new leads in the case?
If you want to know, then you will have to stay tuned to the next chapter of the story.
Thank you so much for reading.
BYE!