The detective slams his fists on the table causing Sakon to flinch.
"No one is leaving this room until I get a confession!" he booms. "I demand to know how you escaped from prison, swindler!"
The commotion jolts Ningan from his brief nap behind the window. Laurel and Dakota watch intently as they await the invaluable information.
Sakon sweats in his seat. He shuffles and swallows. "Never."
"You are aware that a failure to provide a confession will increase your sentence by up to twenty years?" the detective reminds him.
The suspect remains silent.
"It's no good." Ningan pipes. "The snake-man made him swear his servitude or suffer a most agonising and painful end."
"Perhaps we can use this worm as bait to catch the real big fish?" Dakota suggests.
"Not before we make him squirm." Laurel observes with a smirk.
Ningan leans back in his chair as the detective presses on with his aggressive interrogation. His vacant mind begins to wander elsewhere…
A careless gust of wind lifts a cloud of dust into the air. It meanders between the narrow bookcases towards a flicker of light spilling through a dusty window pane. The break of dawn casts its amber glow onto an abandoned stack of books on top of a chipped wooden desk. The titles read: Laws Of The Land; The Foundation Of Hyrule's Justice System; Most Infamous Cases Of The Royal Court, and so on.
His gaze turns to the towering bookshelf behind him: A History Of Hyrule; Archaeological Finds Of The Last Century; Ancient Civilisations. His eyes rest upon the leathery spine of a thick edition on the top shelf: The Six Sages: The Forgotten Saviours Of Our Time. He reaches out and snatches the book from its hiding place leaving a shower of dust.
"Who goes there?" a nervous voice calls into the room.
Ningan cunningly conceals the book beneath his cloak. A young man with curly chestnut-brown hair and a black cardigan enters the room. Ningan stands perfectly still as the watchman scans the vicinity. He glances down and sees the imprints of footsteps in the dust...but no owner to be found. Unnerved by the scene, he hurriedly exits the room. Ningan closes his fingers around the spine of the book with a smug grin…
A heavy crash distracts Laurel and Dakota from the interrogation. They turn to their left and find Ningan's chair toppled to the floor as he scrambles to his feet.
"The Library! The Castle Library! The snake-man is there right now!"
Before his companions can react, he makes a dash for the door in pursuit of his true suspect.