Hello, before I begin, I just wanted to say that it was entertaining to say the least when I saw who you all wanted me to kill off. I should just let you know that I have already decided ahead of time that will die, so your reviews haven't impacted this story. I won't say if anyone guessed the right combination, but I will say that the deaths won't come as soon as you think. The thing with Bill at the end of the last chapter was just something to remember. But, I will take these reviews into consideration when I write Lost at Sea's sequel.
Anyway, here is Chapter 21. Enjoy!:
Chapter Twenty One: New Deals
Shortly after 7:00 that night, Sherriff Blubbs and Deputy Durland were in their office at the Gravity Falls Police Station. Both officers were preparing to leave for the night when someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," Sherriff Blubbs said.
The door opened and a tall, slim, slightly tanned female detective entered the office.
"Who are you?" Blubbs asked.
"My name is Kiara Zerep, a detective assigned to the Stanford Pines case," the detective said. "Because of some of the evidence I've come across, I wanted to talk to the two of you about something."
Sherriff Blubbs got comfortable in his chair at the desk he shared with Durland. "Alright, spill," he said.
"Okay." Deputy Durland knocked over a cup of water that had been sitting on the desk.
Sherriff Blubbs sighed. "Not literally!" He pulled out a handkerchief and began to wipe up the water Durland had spilled. "Besides, I wasn't even talking to you. I was talking to her!" Blubbs gestured to Kiara.
"Oh, right," Durland said sheepishly. He tipped his hat towards the detective. "Sorry 'bout that, mam!"
Kiara rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, I was looking through some of the evidence I was given when I noticed an inconsistency. Preston Northwest claims that Stan Pines and Captain Matthew Wyllis were running away and at a distance when they shot him, but the report that the doctors gave me says that the shooter was within close range and stationary."
Blubbs finished wiping up the water and threw the handkerchief in the trash. "Are you calling Preston a liar?"
"Yes," Kiara replied. "But there's more. I also learned that when Mr. Pines and Mr. Wyllis were obtained and arrested by police, both men were un-armed. However, when Preston was taken to the hospital, his body guard initially wasn't allowed in because an x-ray scanner revealed that the bodyguard was carrying a firearm."
"Preston's bodyguard had a gun?" Deputy Durland asked.
Kiara nodded. "And he also had bullets. When the hospital asked the body guard to leave gun and bullets at the front desk while in the hospital, the staff wrote down what type and model the gun and bullets were and put it in a catalog so that they could be returned properly. The hospital staff let me look through said catalog and I found out that the bullets the body guard had were identical to the one in Preston's leg."
"Are you suggesting that the bodyguard shot Preston, then forced him to place the blame on Stanford and Matt?" Durland asked.
Kiara sighed. "No. I'm suggesting that Preston had the bodyguard shoot him so that he could place the blame on Matt and Stan to get them both arrested."
Sherriff Blubbs rubbed his chin. "Do you know why would Preston do that?"
"I don't know for sure," Kiara admitted. "I want to say that he's trying to cover up something. But with all these new developments, I feel like I'm on the verge of something big! One theory that I have is that somehow, Preston may have caused the party yacht he owned to detach that one night, but he's trying to place the blame on Stanford Pines in an attempt to escape trouble."
"That's impossible!" Sherriff Blubbs snapped. "Preston would never do that! His daughter was on that boat for crying out loud!"
Kiara scowled. "Nothing's impossible."
"But why are you coming to us with this information?" Durland asked.
"I'm gonna conduct a new investigation on Preston Northwest and I am asking for the support of the Gravity Falls Police," Kiara replied. "Plus, once I get enough evidence against Mr. Northwest, I'll request a warrant for his arrest."
Sherriff Blubbs was silent for a few moments as he thought. "Finally, he said, "Tell you what: we can't support your investigation publicly, because if word gets out to Preston about this, he'll destroy the Gravity Falls Police."
"You can't be afraid of him!" Kiara urged. "If you let this fear of him control you, then you may be allowing him to escape justice!"
"We wouldn't be afraid of him if he didn't have so much money and power," Blubbs said. "His family has been in control of this town ever since it was discovered. And even thought it was revealed that his family was a fraud, their wealth still gives them a lot of power. If the Gravity Falls Police goes against him, he'll sue us for every dime we own. This wouldn't be much of an issue if we were the federal government or a big city police force, but since Gravity Falls is so small, we may not be able to hire a lawyer that could beat one that Preston could afford. However, if you conduct your own private investigation and come back to me with enough evidence to convince me well beyond reasonable doubt that Preston is doing unlawful acts, then I'll grant you a warrant for his arrest, because there isn't much he can do to us in jail, especially if he's convicted."
"You do realize that if Mr. Northwest isn't convicted, then he'll still come after you, right?" Kiara asked.
Blubbs leaned back in his chair. "I'm just trying to meet you halfway. Now, do we have a deal?"
Kiara nodded. "Yes. Yes we do."
The next morning on the island, Dipper was preparing to give a speech.
A makeshift podium had been set up in front of Mabel and Candy's teepee.
Dipper stood at the makeshift podium while Mabel, Candy, Soos, Miranda, and Marco stood in a straight line a few feet behind him.
Just about thirty kids stood in a crowd on the other side of the podium. This was a good amount of people, considering that the speech hadn't been advertised until last night. Dipper noticed that a few of the kids in the crowd had mild coughs.
The speech's main purpose was to break to everyone the bad news about the yacht and what was going to go down because of it.
Yesterday afternoon, Dipper had told Marco, Miranda, Wendy, Candy and Mabel about the yacht being unfixable. The six of them, plus Soos, then decided that since they were going to be on the island for a while, that they should set up a government and make some rules and regulations that were to be gone over in the speech.
Currently, Dipper clapped his hands together to get the crowd's attention. "Hello, everyone! My name is Dipper Pines, your appointed leader of our side of the beach. Thank you all for coming. I know that after this speech, we all have work that needs to be done, so I'm gonna dive right into this: the yacht is unfixable."
There was a collective gasp from the crowd.
Dipper nodded. "Yep. And that means that we'll be stuck here longer than we originally anticipated, so we may as well get comfortable.
"A new government has now been established to make sure that things around here continue to run smoothly. As said before, I'm your appointed leader, but I have a council of six that has to approve anything I do as leader. The people on the council are Candy Chiu, Mabel Pines, Soos Ramirez, Wendy Corduroy, Marco Carnavel, and Miranda Warden. If any of you have a problem with any of our council members, or me being leader, please speak up now."
No one spoke.
"Excellent," Dipper said. "Now there are some policies that we're putting into effect. One: Whatever job we assigned you when we first got here will be your permanent job unless we think you'd be better off doing something else. Two: anything deemed illegal in the U.S. is illegal here. If we catch you doing such activities, you will be punished. Three: we are constructing a wall on the border Pacifica and I drew on our first day here…"
Dipper gestured to the kids working at the wall. "Once it is finished, you are not to go past it under any circumstances."
"What if we're in the forest?" some kid asked.
"The border doesn't include the forest," Dipper replied. "But just make sure that when you leave the forest, you exit on to our side. That brings us to number four: our sundown curfew is now becoming strictly enforced. No one is allowed to be outside of the beach after sundown."
"But, if you happen to be lost in the forest after sunset, try to find the cabin in the woods where Robbie Valentino and his friends are staying at," Wendy said. "Since that cabin is under our control, they have agreed to house any stragglers who missed the curfew for one night."
Dipper nodded. "Be sure to remember that. And number five: if you are to go into the forest, you must bring someone with you who has been trained by Marco on how to use a bow and arrow."
"The reason that policy is in place is to prevent Gideon from attacking us when we're vulnerable," Marco added.
"Precisely," Dipper agreed. "Any questions?"
One girl raised her hand. "Um, I've noticed our rations are getting smaller. Why is this so?"
"There are limited resources in the parts of the forest we've explored," Dipper replied. "It's becoming harder and harder to catch animals and we're running low on berries. But I am looking to start expanding deeper into the forest to see what else there is."
"How soon will this happen?" the girl asked.
Before Dipper could answer, a boy who was standing next to girl who had asked the questions began to have a violent coughing fit. This was one of the kids Dipper had seen coughing earlier before the speech began.
The girl scowled at the coughing boy. "Ew! Cover your mouth!" she snapped.
Suddenly, the boy doubled over and threw up mostly blood.
Dipper's eyes widened. "Oh no."
The crowd began to run around, screaming and panicking.
"Did I see what I think I just saw?" Soos asked in disbelief.
Suddenly, a random girl fell to her knees in front of the podium and began to cough violently. Seconds later, she threw up blood as well.
"Oh my gosh!" Dipper said as he stared at the girl who'd just thrown up. "What is this?"
"We'll figure that out later!" Candy said firmly. "Right now, we need to take the kids who just threw up to the yacht."
"Why there?" Miranda asked.
"Because that's where the medical supplies are!"
~Jameer14