Disclaimer:Harvest Moon and all characters are owned by Nastume. I do not stake any claim to any of the characters used in this story.

---

Chapter 5-Crossing off names

Jack walked into his house and dropped off the stuff that he had, before going back out to check on the crops and the animals.

After finishing up, he walked back in. Then he noticed something that he didn't before. The handle of the Sickle had some purple spots. They weren't exactly fingerprints, but it wasn't something that forms naturally on a wooden handle.

"A clue, perhaps?" he thought.

He picked up his pen and wrote down the list of everyone that lived in Mineral Town:

Ann

Karen

Elli

Popuri

Anna

Basil

Carter

Doug

Duke

Ellen

Gotz

Harris

Thomas

Jeff

Lillia

Manna

May

Saibara

Stu

Sasha

Won

Zach

Doctor

Grey

Kai

Rick

Cliff

Barley

The first name he crossed out was Kai. It was spring, and Kai wasn't even in town.

The next two names that got crossed off were Anna and Basil. He knew Mary's parents, and there was no reason for them to do it.

Next was Carter. He was the pastor of the town, and a man that always preached about righteousness. He wouldn't have murdered anyone.

Ellen was also crossed out. Since she couldn't walk, she wouldn't have been able to kill anyone, even if she wanted too.

Then, after some thought, Stu and May were the next ones to be crossed off. They were too young to even think about killing anyone. And anyways, they actually liked Mary.

Harris and Thomas were the next ones to go. Thomas was the mayor, and Harris was a police officer. They wouldn't have done something like that.

Lillia was next. She was too sick to even leave the house.

Elli was also crossed off. She was Mary's best friend, and there was no way that she would do this to her.

Jack looked over the names that were left, and the clues that he had in front of him. He thought about who would have a motive, and who would have a reason to commit a murder at nine in the morning.

After going over everything in his mind for a couple of hours, he suddenly had it.

Early the next morning, he ran inside the mayor's house.

"Jack, what..." Thomas started, before Jack said, "I know who murdered Mary, and it wasn't Ann."

"Then who was it?" Harris asked.

Ann, who was already awake, went to the cell door to hear who did it as well.

"It was..." Jack started.

---

If you read this, please R & R. And please read The Poogle Diaries, a Neopets fanfic that I wrote