The rest of the crowd slowly started to disperse. All the shopkeepers went back to Main Street, and the other villagers just started wandering around. Lina could barely believe that was it. But she hoped she could see the new mayor again—the way he seemed completely oblivious to Isabelle's statements made her imagination get a little out of hand. Like, was he joking? Was he set up? Is he secretly part of a list of people being blackmailed, and somehow this was the place where it would happen? The last one she doubted highly; but if mystery shows had taught her anything, it was that not everyone is as they seem at first.

She decided to head back to her house. Two of the animals she passed were talking about "the mayor planting the tree" and then something that sounded like "it symbolizes the town." She wasn't too interested in that, though. Everyone else might be going, but big ceremonies weren't really her thing.

Lina stopped in front of her house, realizing she didn't take the time to lock it when she left—the door wasn't even properly closed. She basically just shrugged it off, though; besides the thousands of Bells worth of murder-mystery novels and films she had, there wasn't anything valuable in her house anyway.

Turning on the light only reflected that. Really, there was only a bed, a dresser, a bookshelf, and a TV. She sighed, closed the door, and started cleaning up the chocolate she dropped earlier.

. . . . . .

Lina, admittedly, spied on the new mayor for the rest of the week. She kind of hoped he'd come to her—she wasn't very good at starting conversations, and normally even avoided them. She hoped to possibly find an answer to at least one of the many questions she had been gathering for him.

And, also admittedly, the top two on that list were "is there a reason why someone would want to blackmail you" and "do you think someone might want you dead." Hm. Maybe she was watching too many murder-mysteries around the time of this new arrival.

Still she had the feeling something was bothering him. At first she was certain it was just because he was the new mayor. Then about yesterday, she had noted how he started asking the animals "what they knew about the new mayor" before he arrived; almost to a prying sense. Honestly she was wondering how long it would take him to meet her, and if he even realized she lived here.

She let the days play out as they pleased, and was actually able to listen to an interesting conversation between the mayor and Isabelle as she passed them.

Lina didn't really know the context of what had happened before, but judging by the donation gyroid, they had just finished planning the location of…something. The two were just about to depart, when the mayor spoke.

"Isabelle?" The mayor asked, alerting Isabelle's attention as she turned to face him. "Who is the oldest resident of this town?"

Isabelle paused, as though she thought this new mayor was full of surprises. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"Who's lived here the longest. You have access to that kind of stuff, right?"

The dog nodded, before going silent for a moment to think about it. "That would be Lina; the small polar bear that lives close to the waterfall."

"Thanks."

And that was all Lina heard before she tried to look like she hadn't been listening.

So the new mayor wanted her. But why? What possible task will require her assistance? Did she get it all wrong—was he the villain, and not the victim? Was she the victim? Well, she guessed time would tell.

Though, she was a little glad she knew beforehand that he was coming over. After all, so many stray bags of mini chocolates were scattered across her room; and she didn't want to appear messy by any means, even if it might be particularly true.

Lina opened the curtains to let some light in, grabbed a stool and cleaned up the cobwebs that appeared in the places she couldn't normally reach, even dusting—something she didn't normally do, even if it was highly called for.

Maybe she was getting a little too caught up in the fact that this would be the first time the new mayor had even talked to her. Honestly she wasn't too fazed about meeting him before; maybe something in the week of him being here sparked her curiosity.

She grabbed her old record player from the bottom drawer of her dresser, setting a record in it and praying it would work. Normally she didn't have anything playing; the TV was the background noise. But, if he was anything like nearly all the other people in the town, he probably wasn't too fond of murder-mysteries.

And just on time, just about as the sun was beginning to set, there was a knock on the door; before it opened and the mayor stepped in.