A glass of VAGRANT'S CHOICE fortified scotch hang in the air. It's contents nearly spilling. The hand holding the glass belonged to Waylon Smithers, who was collapsed on his couch. The entire apartment was a mess. Broken glass, turned over lamps, destroyed door, clothes strung about a pizza box. He had destroyed practically everything. The glass fell from his hand and shattered. He turned over. His hair a mess. His lips were chapped. Then he heard the sound of the shower. He got up and walked over to the bathroom. Someone was behind the glass. He couldn't see who but he approached cautiously and swung the door open to reveal the person.

.

Burns turned to face him.

"Smithers wait your turn. There's plenty of hot water for all."

Smithers was in shock.

"Sir…you're not dead."

He breathed a sigh of relief and fell backwards onto the wall.

"It was all a dream."

Smithers looked up to see bleeding wounds coming from Burns's chest. He was now fully clothed in the outfit he was wearing that night and the wounds were bleeding. He turned to look at Smithers with a terrifying glare.

"It wasn't a dream. Skinner. Don't you remember? You killed me."

He began to melt into the form of a skeleton.

Smithers woke up screaming. He wasn't at home watching Comedy Central's "Pardon my Zinger" and then a rerun of Speedway Squad starring Leslie Nielsen as an undercover detective on the hot rod Circuit.

Instead he was in a jail cell.

Smithers began to cry.

Kent Brockman, brought out for another big news story stood just outside the Police tape and white outline draped over the Sun dial.

"Dozens of people are gunned down each day in Springfield, but until now none of them was important. I'm Kent Brockman."

While Brockman's incident with the Ants was seen as a lighthearted Joke. He would face huge backlash for that statement. Footage of Burns being loaded onto an ambulance was shown.

"At around 3:14 p.m. Friday, local autocrat C. Montgomery Burns was shot following a tense confrontation at town hall. Burns was rushed to nearby Marvin Monroe Memorial hospital where he was pronounced dead."

" Now let's talk to the new Police Chief"

Marge Simpson walked up in her police uniform.

"Hello Kent."

"Any witnesses?"

"Yes, one, a young boy, and two dogs of course but they can't talk and one's well a kid."

Marge was of course withholding the fact that the two dogs and the young boy belonged to her and were named Santa's Little Helper and She's the Fastest and Herb Simpson respectively.

"Any suspects?"

Actually yes. We have one already.

"Oh and who might that be?"

"Waylon Smithers."

"And what signaled out ?"

"Smithers ran into Jasper Beardsley shortly after was shot. A struggle ensued and he was shot in what was fortunately his wooden leg. Smithers ran off. Fortunately he went straight home. He was found drunk, which explains some of his behavior. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have any memory of the actual crime."

"Didn't you say you didn't think you didn't think we were ever going to solve this mystery."

"Yes well..that was before we got all the clues. And we're looking over them now.

The Simpsons family dinner had turned into a combined effort to solve the mystery. Lisa looked over the cluttered table.

"Everyone in Springfield had a reason to shoot Mr. Burns, even us."

The rest of the family nodded. Bart's eyes narrowed at Lisa.

"So could you."

"Could not."

"Could so."

"Could not."

"Could so!"

"Could not!"

Homer stepped in between them.

"Kids, kids, kids. As far as Daddy's concerned, you're both potential murderers."

Marge didn't like where this was going.

"The police already have a suspect: it's Mr. Smithers."

Everyone began to talk amongst themselves. Everyone was in agreement as him being the most likely suspect. Abe Simpson stood up.

"Yeah, Smingers did it. Case closed. Now where's my hat? I'm going to the outhouse."

Lisa paused.

"We don't have an outhouse."

Homer gasped.

"My toolshed!"

Homer was spraying the inside of the Toolshed with his hose. An angry expression on his face. A tow truck with many of Homer's friends, most of them members of the Stonecutters, drove up to the front of the house. Moe shouted at Homer.

"Hey Homa, the Army's here. They're going to tear down this dome."

Homer ran and jumped in the back of the truck, which drove off. President Clinton had immediately sent the Army to investigate the giant dome that had appeared over the whole town. Speculation ran wild in the outside world about the origin of the Dome and it would inspire a Stephen King Novel. The army began to drill their way in. Fortunately, there was an easier way. The engineers had been paid a lot of money to build the damn thing had hesitation when they did so, but now that their boss was dead and no longer threatening their lives and that of their families, they were more than happy to begin tearing it down. The remote Burns had pushed had been a signal for the procedure to begin, not an actual way to open and close the dome. Some of the crowd who found Burns's body searched him and found the remote, pushing the button did nothing. The Dome was coming down. Channel 6 News had even created a unique animation for their coverage of it, calling it "Trapuccino" and animating Springfield being put into a Coffee Cup with a transparent dome. An animation they would likely never use again.

So now Homer and his friends stood in the dark, watching the army go about their work with the engineers while Homer and his old friends, Moe, Lenny and Carl drank beers. Finally there was a large metallic sound and the Dome began to open, sunlight shined through. Homer closed his eyes. The others shielded theirs, needing time to adjust for how bright it was outside. Homer opened his eyes as he enjoyed the warmth and the sunlight. It felt like the dawn had come and the darkness was being lifted. All of Springfield stopped in the street to look up. At least those that weren't there already. Quite a crowd had turned up for the event. Others had gone about their lives. Some looked out the windows and smiled.

Then there was the massive explosion.

Everyone flinched. Even Homer. Everyone ran. Homer looked up at the Dome in horror.

Somehow. In someway. It had exploded.

A part of his mind told him it had been rigged.

Burns.

A final revenge in case his plan failed.

He looked again, expecting to watch everyone he loved be crushed by falling debris.

That never came. Instead the explosion seemed to have come from something in the air. Something that had fallen from the roof somehow. A Grenade? Maybe a mine. A Bomb.

Regardless it had fortunately exploded in the air and while flaming debris was expected few came.

It would later be discovered that Burns had installed a type of bomb installed should someone had attempted tamper with the Dome. Once it was up , killing whoever tried to take it down without actually destroying the Dome itself. He never intended it to go down. What Burns intended to do about the army was a mystery. Many like Smithers would believe that he was so far gone that he hadn't thought that far ahead.

When Marge thought about it, she was also a suspect in the investigation and already not revealing a lot to the public due to her family being involved, but if she quit the investigation she would also halt it and there was no guarantee her family wouldn't be arrested. She'd already hidden the fact that a fired gun had been found in the Simpsons Car during a search of the area afterwards. It would take weeks for the DNA on the gun to come in. Marge believed…or at least hoped the gun was thrown into the car. It was confirmed to be owned by Burns and was the murder weapon.

Smithers had evidently been spotted fleeing by Jasper. According to Carl Carlson, Smithers left his jacket behind, so he must have been trying to hide the gun on his pocket when Jasper saw him, getting a shot in his wooden leg for his trouble.

Smithers sat in the interrogation room.

"The man became consumed by greed. He'd steal from anyone! And when he tried to steal our sunlight, he crossed that line between everyday villainy and cartoonish super-villainy."

From his cell stood listening in on a specialized device.

"Bah! He was a rank amateur compared to Dr. Colossos!"

laughed maniacally. The man himself had a white lab coat and green skin. He bore a resemblance to a nemesis to Radioactive Man in the Comics. This was because he was the nemesis of Radioactive Man from the Comics. As he would claim, by some bizarre experiment he had ended up in the universe he was currently in. This did not effect the Comics, the writers of which continued to use the character in original stories, unaware the character was no longer following their tales if they were ever accurate at all. Now awake from the stupor of traveling between universes, he pushed a button on his Colosso Boots. The police had not bothered to check him. Thinking him another mere drunk. Now with his Colosso boots, he took off and smashed into the ceiling. He let out a pain and fell back down. Policemen ran to the now injured .

"Ow! Ooh…Aw, when is my lawyer coming?"

Smithers was led down the station in handcuffs. A crowd of Reporters shoved their mikes in her face.

"Dave Shutton, Springfield Daily Shopper. How does it feel to be accused of the attempted murder of your boss and mentor?"

"Dave, I...I feel about as low as Madonna when she found out she missed Tailhook."

The Reporters laughed. Kent reported to the station.

"Oh. I'm going to say "Ouch" for Madonna!"

Krusty was watching the event on TV from his home with Sideshow Mel.

"Hey! That's my Madonna gag. That guy stole my gag!"

Sideshow Mel was sitting next to Krusty.

"And you stole it from that episode of "Pardon My Zinger" you had me tape Friday because you were out of town."

"Stole, made up, what's the difference?"

Mel realized something was not quite right.

"That was the night of the shooting. Mr. Smithers must have seen that program too! He said he never misses it. "

Mel smoked from a pipe.

"Hmm...at the town meeting, he mentioned that he watched Comedy Central. I made sure to note that, as it seemed quite unusual."

He realized something.

"Ye Gods! To the police station, Krusty."

Krusty and Mel burst into the police station and moved to the front.

"I am Melvin van Horne. And this is my associate Herschel Krustofsky."

"Hey hey."

"Officers. you have arrested an innocent man."

Mel got to explaining his reasoning.

" Mr. Burns was shot Friday at around 3:14 p.m., the very time that Smithers was at home watching "Pardon My Zinger". So you see, he couldn't have done it."

Smithers gasped.

"Yes, you're right! I remember now."

He began to recall that night.

" I went home after the meeting."

He ran into Jasper.

"Get out of my way, I'm in a hurry."

"You simmer down, I'll let you go."

Smithers pulled out a gun and shot. Now he was back to reality.

" So...instead of wounding an evil old man, I may have killed an innocent old man. That's much worse!"

Krusty leaned into his ear.

"About 50,000 volts worse, if you know what I mean!"

He imitated getting electrocuted.

Kent Brockman reported on Smithers' innocence.

"And with the prime suspect cleared and found completely innocent, we must now ask ourselves: who could possibly be as bloodthirsty as Waylon Smithers?"

In front of the TV the Simpsons met. Marge stated the facts.

"That Joke occurred around the time of the murder so Smithers couldn't have been present to have heard that Joke. The distance from his home to the crime scene is too great for him to have walked, taken a cab or driven. He couldn't have been in two places at once. I guess it's never the most likely suspect."

"Actually, Mom, in 95% of cases, it is. The rest of the time, it's usually some deranged lunatic who did it for no reason."

Everyone looked at Homer.

"Hey I had a plenty good reason."

Lisa tried to change the subject.

"Well I don't think anyone in this family is capable of attempted murder."

Grampa Simpson shrugged.

"Eh...you never know what you're capable of. I never thought I could shoot down a German plane, but last year I proved myself wrong."

Lisa had another suggestion.

"Nancy Drew says that all you need to solve a mystery is an inquisitive temperament and two good friends. And I've got an inquisitive temperament. Maybe I could help solve this."

Marge became very nervous.

"Mmmmm...I think you're a little young to be investigating a murder. Why don't you try to solve the mystery of who put that mud in the freezer?"

Bart stepped out from the kitchen.

"Who wants chocolate ice cream?"

At the Police Station,Lisa and Marge looked at the evidence. Bart was reading Ten Trite Tales from Agatha Christie. Marge held up the evidence in a plastic bag.

"This is the bullet they took out of Burns. It came from his own handgun. Smithers had his own gun."

"Yeah but the shooter could have just decided to not use a gun that could be traced to them."

" We're going to have Smithers take a lie detector test. "

Marge put the bullet down.

"Let's talk motive."

Lisa pointed to the chart she made of all the suspects.

" Mr. Burns hurt all these people financially."

Nightclub owner Moe Szyslak: his bar was closed because of Burns' negligence.

Barney Gumble: He's not a drunk anymore but he's good friends with Moe,so his motivation can be considered the same.

Dedicated educator Principal Seymour Skinner: his school lost millions when Burns pirated its oil well.

Bart raised his hand

"What about Groundskeeper Willie?"

Lisa seemed confused.

"He's dead. Why would he…?"

She then remembered Bart's nightmare. No not that one with momthra and Dad as King Kong but the one where Willie tried to kill him. Lisa suddenly became very sad at remembering what had happened in the events leading up to Burns's death? Lisa put a supporting hand on his shoulder.

"Bart. You have the Shining. Can you read the mind of someone like Smithers and tell if he's telling the truth."

"I've read the minds of drunk people like Dad before. It's a mess. It won't help if he really can't remember what happened"

"Well what if it was a member of the family? You can tell me? We all hated Burns."

"It doesn't work on some people in the family. Dad knows about it so he usually just plays a catchy jingle. It's like covering your ears and going "La La La La La". Maggie is also immune to it though I'm not sure why. I can't hear anything. Even she doesn't know why. Same with Herb. There's also Skinner."

"Skinner?"

"Skinner knows when I'm reading his thoughts. He usually thinks back to his time in Vietnam. I…don't like to follow him there. It's all a blur of blood and gore. The only thing I've been able to get from him is the name Armin Tanzarian."

"So we have our suspects? Why don't we see if you can get something from them."

Bart thought of another suspect.

" Hey, what about that jazz teacher that got laid off? You know, uh, Mr. Samba? Senor Mambo? What was it?"

"Tito Puente?"

"Yeah."

Lisa suddenly started to look to make excuses.

"Well, he did vow revenge, heh heh…But I can't see him doing something illegal. He's in show business, he's a celebrity.

Bart raised an eyebrow.

At a local Cuban Night Club

"Revenge? Of course. But why wound his body with bullets when I could set his soul afire with a slanderous mambo? Listen, if you will, to my revenge"

He turned to the band

"uno, dos, tres!"

The band began playing salsa music.

Singer:
Wounds won't last long,
but an insulting song
Burns will always carry with him.
So I'll settle my score
on the salsa floor
With this vengeful Latin rhythm.

Chorus:
Burns!

Singer:
" Con un corazo'n de perro."

Chorus:
Sen~or Burns!

Singer:
El diablo con dinero.
It may not surprise you,
but all of us despise you
Please die,
and fry
in hell
You rotten rich
old wretch -
Adios viejo.

-Tito Puente - Señor Burns

"I hope all our suspects are this much fun."
-Marge Simpson overheard after Tito Puente's performance.

Skinner turned out not be as fun.

" I did go to the town meeting with the intention of ambushing Mr. Burns. When it adjourned, I rushed to the lavatory to apply my camouflage makeup. But I realized I took mother's makeup kit by mistake and ran back to find her. Superintendent Chalmers walked in on me."

"So Superintendent Chalmers can vouch for your whereabouts?"

"Oh, yes. But anything else he tells you is a filthy lie."

Lisa spoke to Marge.

" Chalmers has the same motif. He could be lying."

"Yeah but we have several people who stayed dat town hall that can confirm that he was around there and so was his mother.

Bart had fallen asleep. That was when he saw Willie, sitting in a chair wearing a kilt.

" I'm telling ye, I could nay have shot Burns."

Willie uncrossed his legs. Bart groaned and looked away.

"Stop doing that!"

"I can only appear in people's dreams, specifically you because of your Shinning."

"You mean Shining."

"Quiet! You wanna get sued. Anyway even if Aye was alive. Aye cannae do it. I had arthritis in me index fingers from Space Invaders in 1978"

"Was that video Game that addictive?"

"Video Game?"

Several Lie Detector tests were being performed. Smithers had passed his but it was clear he was still very nervous about the situation. Eddie and Lou were currently giving the lie detector test to Moe.

"Did you hold a grudge against Montgomery Burns?"

"No!"

The Lie Detector swished rapidly back and forth. A lie.

"All right, maybe I did. But I didn't shoot him."

It wasn't a lie.

"Checks out. Ok, sir, you're free to go."

"Good, 'cause I got a hot date tonight."

lie.

" A date."

lie.

"Dinner with friends."

lie.

"Dinner alone."

Lie.

Watching TV alone.

lie.

"All right! I'm going to sit at home and ogle the ladies in the Victoria's Secret catalog."

lie.

"Sears catalog."

"…"

" Now would you unhook this already, please? I don't deserve this kind of shabby treatment!"

lie.

At the Simpson house, Grampa sat in the kitchen. Marge entered.

"Abe. We need to talk. I know you took your gun back. Now I'm not saying you did anything since your gun or mine weren't the one used in the crime, but I still need to know where that gun went.

"You accuse me of everything around here?"

"You put slippers in the dishwasher? You threw a cane at the TV?"

"Yeah well who fell into the china hutch?"

" I was just asking if you'd seen it. There's no need to be a prickly pear."

She walked out. Abe pulled out the gun.

"Oh, you're the bee's knees, baby. I missed you bad."

Marge returned. Abe hid the gun quickly.

"Are you talking to me, Grampa?"

Abe quickly came up with an excuse.

"Um...yes?"

Marge reached over the table and pulled up the hand with the gun. She quickly took it and examined it. Tests would reveal that it hadn't been fired.

"We're still not close. This is going to be an all-night brain-buster."

Marge checked. They were out of coffee. All they had was warm cream. Soon she fell asleep.

Marge dreamed she was sitting in an office chair, a box of donuts on the desk. She had bizarre dreams before. Usually surreal ones where she was in love with Maude Flanders. Marge saw Lisa come out from behind a red curtain. She could hear a saxophone playing. Marge raised her hand to reveal a burning Ace of Hearts. Lisa spoke to her.

"This suit burns better. Look!"

She kept speaking.

"Better. Look! Burns suit."

Marge woke up. Eddie entered the room.

"Hey Chief, the DNA test on the Suit Burns was wearing just came back.
_

"Do you have the whole town's DNA on file?

"Y'uh huh. If you've ever handled a penny, the government's got your DNA. Why do you think they keep 'em in circulation?"

"Marge really wanted to report this but chose not to speak up at that moment. The DNA Guy turned back to his computer.

"Now the computer narrowed it down to one family"

"Who?"
_

The police knocked on the Simpson House. Marge wasn't with them. Lisa ran to the front.

"Hey! what are you doing? What's going on?"

Eddie spoke up. " I'm sorry, kid, we got Simpson DNA on Burns' clothing and your father was identified.

The family gasped. Bart scoffed.

"DNA, positive ID - those won't hold up in any court. Run, Dad!."

Homer did try to run but was stopped by Lou.

Lou spoke up and held up the evidence.

"We found this gun under the Simpson car seat. We thought the gun we found in your car seat had been thrown there by the murderer. Now we know it was just dropped."

The gun was in a plastic bag.

" I swear, I've never seen that gun before!"

"Then why are your fingerprints all over it, Sir?"

Homer let out a yell.

"Homer Simpson, you're under arrest for attempted murder."

"D'oh!"

Homer was being taken in the back of a prison Van, driven by Eddie and Lou. He looked out the small window and saw a car he was sure was following them. Then there was an explosion on the side of the Truck and it was flipped over on its side. Homer was slammed onto the wall and in pain. Then a window broke. It was by someone Homer couldn't see. They were masked. A keychain with a bunch of keys was thrown in. Homer immediately grabbed them and began to go through them, trying to free himself from the cuffs. Homer was able to climb up to the top of the of the Van. He then turned to see a Truck speeding toward him. In one great leap he jumped off just as the Truck hit the Van.

Marge and Lisa sat at the the Kitchen table. Marge was a mess. She had been kicked off the case due to her relation.

"The police have such a strong case against Homer. They have Homer's DNA."

"They have Simpson DNA! It could have come from any of us, except you, since you're a Bouvier."

"No! No, no, when I took your father's name, I took everything that came with it - including DNA."

Lisa rolled her eyes.

"OK, Mom. Anyway, my point is, the evidence isn't as concrete as it seems. Like those fingerprints: they could have gotten on the gun some other way."

Lisa wasn't sure when but she did recall Homer dropping something and it falling on the floor. He reached down to search for it. She thought at first his fingerprints got on the gun then, but the gun was there the night Burns was arrested.

"And we don't even know whose gun that was! Maybe somebody planted it there to frame Dad."

"No, we can't start thinking that way about our own family members. Suspicion could tear us apart."

Abe also spoke up.

"That's right. We've all got to stick together if we're going to have any hope of bringing that awful Homer to justice."

"Here is a photo of the fugitive from our files."

The police showed a picture of Homer wearing a T-shirt reading "Haig in 88".

"And now Waylon Smithers, uh, who's been a _real_ good sport about that wrongful arrest thing - whew! Heh - has a, er, statement that he would like to make. Waylon?"

"Thank you. As Montgomery Burns' closest friend, I am certain there's nothing he would want more than swift, brutal revenge against Homer Simpson. Therefore I am offering a $50,000 reward for his capture - dead or alive."

Everyone began to chatter among themselves.

Lisa rode her bike to the town hall parking lot. "The Scene of the Crime."

She looked around, hoping to find something that the police had missed. Lisa had no doubt the Stonecutters had let Homer out. Most of the people in the town were Stonecutters and their reasons for hating Burns carried over.

Lisa spotted a pigeon. It sounded like it was saying "Clue! Clue!" Lisa thought about something.

"That's it. Oh, Mr. Pigeon, I'd kiss you if you weren't swimming with disease!"

Lisa walked to the Sundial and saw the white chalk outline on it. The facts of the case played in her mind. He had stumbled and collapsed. She noticed that Burns's hands were pointed at W and S.

"W and S? That could be Waylon Smithers…But he was looking at the Words backwards. So he could have meant…Moe Syzlak…No he wouldn't have fooled the lie detector test. Sideshow Mel…he had a knife at the meeting….and we don't know where the knife went…That also meant he covered for Smithers….But it could also mean… Marge Simpson?…No…there are too many witnesses to her being in Town Hall and hearing the shot…Unless several people are lying."

Suddenly Lisa heard a voice come over Lou's police radio on his motorcycle.

"Attention, all units: Homer Simpson has been sighted. Proceed at once to Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital.

Lou sped off and so did Lisa. There was a large crowd of angry people.

Lisa ran in and shouted at the top of her lung

Stop! Don't shoot my Dad. He's innocent. He wouldn't hurt a fly!"

There was no Homer. Only Smithers. Who called everyone's attention.

"Everyone! I have something to confess…"

"He put his head down."

"I know who shot ."

He approached the crowd in front. A silence fell over as the crowd waited for the answer. Smithers looked at Maggie. Then looked away.

"It was Maggie."

Everyone gasped and looked at her. She frowned and said nothing.

When I came on the scene I saw Burns look into the car. He saw the young Simpson girl with a lollipop. The last time Burns tried to steal candy from a baby I stopped him. This time I stopped him again. I couldn't watch him stoop so law so I had to intervene. I ran in…and I stabbed him…17 times.

"What about the gun?"

"Oh yeah. That…The gun that Burns had on him fell into the lap of the girl She grabbed it and it fired. Must've accidentally discharged."

There was silence and all present began to look around.

"What do we do?"

"It was an accident."

"And we all wanted Burns dead."

"Sh's only 8"

"We can't arrest an 8 year old."

"Maybe in Texas."

The crowd was lost and Marge no longer had jurisdiction over it. Smithers continued.

"After the I ran away. That's when I ran into Jasper... and went home. I recorded the episode of "Pardon my Zinger." before I left.

Smithers was arrested since he had intended to kill. Maggieshooting Burns was seen as an accident since he was only 8. There would be a trial. The Stonecutters promised to pull some strings to get Homer's name cleared, but he was still on the run for the time being. If found, they promised he would at least get to spend the time before the trial with his irony is Homer had murdered two members of the Stonecutters, first Willie and now Burns. Though no one would mourn Burns, except for Smithers.

And that was it. Things would never be normal again, but everyone would try to move on.

The meeting of the Stonecutter's was more tense than usual.

"So that's it."

"That's it."

"We help someone. Get away with murder."

"We help the Chosen One get away with murder."

"But Burns was one of us?"

"So is Homer."

"Most of us fully intended to kill Burns. You would recall many meetings where Homer asked "Which of us would rid of us this troublesome Burns." Anyone of us could have taken that as an order. If anything he took the bullet to save anyone of us from going to prison. Burns was always a weasel. Now he is a weed that has been removed. We should all come to accept his sacrifice."

All eyes turned to Ned.

"What about thou shall not Kill? What about that rule?"

"As if the Lord and the prophets have never broken their own rules."

Ned sighed.

"Fine… But so help me if he kills another person."

On the day of the murder.

Smithers stumbled out of town hall. A hand was put on his shoulder. He turned to see Sideshow Mel.

"You're going to kill him are you?"

Smithers's eyes widened. He was clearly drunk. Sideshow Mel handed him his knife.

"Here take this. Then give it back to me. I'll wash it clean of any evidence."

Smithers took the knife and left.

In the Parking Lot, Homer was applying his Krusty the Clown makeup with his father beside him.

"Hurry Up."

"I'm done.

"Great. Now let's go find Burns."

Approaching 3:14 PM.

Burns stumbled around. He was spotted by the two Simpson men.

"Alright son. You go on and do it."

"I can't."

"The speaker sputtered nonsense."

"What do you mean you can't? You killed a man before haven't you? And he made you do it."

"You've killed men."

"…Alright fine…but before you chicken out on me…I have something to tell you…It's about your mother…"

"Mom?…What does she have to do with this?"

"Burns is why you can't see her again. Let me explain…"

As the conversation continued. Maggie Simpson, on her own walked to the car. The two figures panicked.

"Shit I thought I told the kids to wait at Town Hall."

"Well whatda we do?"

Abe held up the two guns.

"Pick your poison. Old Smith and Wesson Revolver or new fangled standard Police gun."

Despite his humor, Homer was picking which family member to frame for the murder. He could never do that to Marge. His father however, seemed wanting to take credit for the crime, and so he took the revolver and walked out towards the car. Burns looked into the car and saw Maggie.

"Oh, it's you: what are you so happy about?"

Maggie held up a Lollipop. Burns gasped.

"…I see…I think you better drop it"

Burns attempted to steal the candy. Resulting in a struggle against Maggie. He'd struggled to take Bobo from a younger Maggie so he was unlikely to win.

"…..I said drop it!"

Homer froze. He was afraid for Maggie's safety. In his hands was the old revolver. He had no qualms that he needed to save his family. A part of him resisted, but then a simple phrase entered his mind.

Do it for her.

And with that Homer stepped forward and was spotted by Burns. Both stood there for a moment as if processing each other.

The silence was broken.

It was then that Smithers emerged from behind and grabbed Burns. With his knife he began to stab Burns for what would be 17 times. Burns protested.

"Get…your hands off…"

The distraction and the stabbing caused Burns to grab the gun. It fell in Maggie's lap. Homer thought quickly and ran to her. Burns didn't notice this

Then the gunshot went off. Burns turned to see what to him was Krusty the clown and Maggie Simpson holding a gun. It was unclear who had fired, their hands seem to have both grasped the gun.

Burns quickly stumbled away. Smithers and Homer froze, as did Maggie. Smithers turned to homer and held out his hand.

"Quick! Give me the gun!"

Homer panicked in the moment. The gun previously held by Burns had been dropped by both Simpson hands. Homer threw the gun he was holding, the Smith and Wesson, instead of the one he was supposed to due to his panic. Smithers caught it and ran. Homer poked his head into the car door and told Maggie to run. He opened the car door and Maggie fled, turning briefly to Herb and making a gesture to keep quiet. by bringing a finger to her mouth as if to shush him. Homer then took off running to the other side of where the Sundial would be to find where Burns had stumbled to. Burns had collapsed on the Sun Dial. His last act was to fall on the Sun dial in such a way to indicate "S and W" or "M and S" from his perspective, hoping to incriminate either Waylon Smithers or Maggie Simpson. His second to last act was to swallow his own gold fillings so that paramedics wouldn't steal them.

Homer as Krusty ran into the crowd and blended in.

" has been shot."

Marge checked for his pulse. There was none.

"He's dead."

There were gasps.

Marge looked around.

"I don't think we'll ever know who did this. Everyone in town's a suspect."

Homer turned to Ned Flanders and his eyes narrowed. Flanders looked back at him. Homer became scared that Flanders would somehow recognize him. He had seen Krusty be framed before. He knew he looked like the Clown, and he knew that Krusty had no motif for the murder because he was out of town. He knew Burns wouldn't name him if he survived because he couldn't remember his name. He only hoped it would be enough.

Smithers had taken off running. He stopped when he realized his was holding the wrong gun. He was to meet Sideshow Mel and return his knife. Then he was approached by Jasper.

"Hey you. That's my buddy's gun. Give it here."

"Get out of my way, I'm in a hurry."

"You simmer down, I'll let you go."

Smithers pulled out the gun and he had brought and shot. It wasn't the revolver that fired but his own gun. Jasper's wooden leg splintered, the bullet embedded in it. He began to yell out as wooden shrapnel had pierced parts of his leg. He got down and gasped in pain. Abe Simpson came to the scene, facing Smithers.

"Give me the Gun. I'll take care of this."

Smithers handed him the Smith and Wesson and fled. Abe got down to talk to Jasper.

"Hey buddy. How ya doin?"

"I got a bullet in ma leg."

"Yeah I've been there and so have you on account of havin' a wooden one in the first place."

Jasper chuckled.

"Listen' I ever tell you about the Tontine?"

"Yeah?"

"And you know…Burns is gonna kick the bucket. So keep your mouth shut and you might have a cool million heading your way."

Smithers met Sideshow Mel and handed over the knife, which Mel wiped the blood off and then would take him to wash thoroughly.

"How are you?"

Smithers was clearly a mess but tried to keep his chin up.

"Well I missed Pardon My Zinger."

I'm recording it for Krusty. I'll give that to you. Just burn it when you're done.

"Why?"

"You just committed murder. It's better to make it seem like you were at home."

"I didn't…"

He caught the words in his mouth.

"I mean...Yes it was me, but that knife didn't do it in."

Smithers sighed.

"I shot ."