Smooth Criminal
Written By: The Mystery Squeezit

Chapter 2: Investigations

Yellow caution tape was wound around the victims' house creating a baracade, blocking it off from the rest of Toad Town. But even with officers guarding every coner of the scene it was still the place where most of the Mushroom Kingdom's citizens' attention had been diverted to since 11:00 PM; when the wife had discovered the body of her murdered husband and son.

A professional detective, along with Mario and Luigi, entered the darkened house with a flashlight, scanning the premises for any clues.

"Look over there!" M. Shroom, one of the detectives whispered, pointing to the mangled body of the Fungi child. "It's the little boy who was murdered."

And sure enough, the corpse lay in the deserted corridor of the house, lying face-down in a pool of blood. The detective and the Italian brothers headed over to the bloody heap on the floor to identify the body. Kneeling over it, M. Shroom asked Mario and Luigi, "Do you recognize him from anywhere? The victim's mother was to upset to give away any names."

Mario's eyes brimmed with tears as he remembered the little Toad. "It's Tiny Toad, I know him from my last adventure." He wiped away a tear. "He used to always hero-worship me. He never could make up his mind what he wanted to be."

Luigi looked up. "Are you sure it's him?"

"Positive."

"Well we can never be to sure of anything." M. Shroom said standing up, and taking out a body bag. "We'll get this in the car along with his father's body and take both of them down to the morgue. We'll do some DNA testing to get the exact identities. You're probably right though, Mario. The Mushroom Elementry principal said that Tiny Toad wasn't in class yesterday." M. Shroom took the body bag with the Fungi child's body in it and headed outside.

That morning the Koopa Brothers sat in their fortress reading that day's edition of "The Mushroom Kingdom Times". On the cover was a picture of the crime scene practically wrapped in bright yellow caution tape along with the headline, "Two Toad Town Citizens Found Murdered In Home".

Red Ninjakoopa who was reading the cover at the time, spat his orange juice across the table in surprise. As far as he knew, no one in the Mushroom Kingdom had ever been murdered. "Hey y'guys!" He called to his three brothers. "Look at today's cover story! Ya won't believe it!"

"Mario's going t' jail?" Yellow Ninjakoopa grumbled sarcastically, angry to be awakened at such an early hour.

"No you moron!" Red shouted. "Two people in Toad Town were murdered!"

"Yer kiddin', right?" Black asked in astonishment, immediately awakened.

"No! I'm serious, look!" Red held up the paper to his brothers' faces.

"Let me see that thing!" Green demanded, snatching the paper from his brother's grasp and scanning over the article. "Whoa! He ain't kidding!"

"Told ya!" Red grinned at his brothers who just gaped at the article in disbelief.

"Y'sure this isn't that paparazzi trash?" Yellow inquired suspiciously.

"That's no paparazzi newspaper. It's the Mushroom Kingdom Times. They've never lied about a story." Red said.

"I'm going to check the news." Green said turning on the television and flipping through the channels until he reaches the 'The Mushroom Kingdom News Channel'.

A female toad reporter appeared on the screen. "Two Toads were found murdered at about 11 PM last night in their home. The bodies have been idenified as Tiny Toad, age 7, and his father John Toad, age 30. This is the first murder in the Mushroom Kingdom's history. It-"

At that point Red turned off the television. "Now d'ya believe me? This murderer must be working for Bowser! This jack ass murderer is making us look bad! Bowser's not going to use us in world domination anymore!"

"Well what are we gonna do about it, Red?" Yellow asked. "If we did anything he'd probably kill us too."

Red was still not convinced, "That murderer will pay guys. Believe me, that bastard will pay."

At the Toad Town Police Office, detectives worked day and night to put together clues to get a suspect. Right now the detectives had no suspects and only two clues: a piece of red fabric and an indecipherable name or word carved into the back of Tiny Toad's back.

M. Shroom who worked with his brother, Doctor S. Shroom, were getting nowhere with the word sliced in the fungi child's skin.

"It seems to me it was just a series of stabs." S. Shroom said to his brother. "Are you sure your not just imagining a message there?"

The detective stared at his doctor brother, "I'm sure there was some kind of a name or word there Sam."

Sam Shroom sighed and covered the boy's body with a white sheet. "We'll get back to this tomorrow Mark, let's just work on that fabric right now."

The two brothers entered the room to find scientist, Professor Fungus running test on the fabric. Mark Shroom cleared his throat loudly, causing the scientist to turn around. "Professor, do you have any leads from the fabric clue?"

Professor Fungus sighed, "Well, the fabric is 100% cotton, and the poilce said the victims were not wearing red, one was wearing blue, the other green. But it does sort of look like the fabric from Mario's red shirt and-"

The professor was abruptly cut off by Mark. "Are you suspecting Mario?"

The Professor rubbed at his tired eyes and said. "Well it does match the same exact fabric on Mario's shirt, but I'm not going to jump to conclusions. Tomorrow I'll go down to Mario and Luigi's house and ask some questions. Do you want to come?"

Sam nodded, "We'll come, but I highly doubt it was Mario."