Murder in Mineral Town
By: Gomamon

Chapter 5 – May

Barely tall enough to peer through the clinic windows without tiptoeing, May was happy to feel the sunlight beaming warmly on her face. After a whole day of raining yesterday, it was a pleasant change to finally have nice weather to look forward. As soon as she could leave the clinic, her grandfather barley promised to take May on a sunny stroll to the beach.

She didn't know exactly why she liked hanging out at the beach so much. Perhaps it was because the beach was the last place May remembered seeing her mother Joanna, before she abandoned her daughter May for a faraway place to seek success. Poor May never saw her own mother again, but the naïve little girl strongly believed that some day, her mother will return home again.

The same thing happened to Mary a few days ago. Her mother had also abandoned Mary. But only in this situation, it was certain that Mary and Anna will never reunite again…

"Grandpa, am I going to the church today?" May murmured, shaking the unhappily thoughts of Mary's mother away from her head.

Her grandfather Barley shook his head, responding in a gentle voice, "No. Carter is busy arranging for the funeral tomorrow."

"That's good," said May unconsciously, still gazing out of the window.

Nurse Elli emerged from one of the rooms, carrying a bottle of medicine and a prescription paper containing the Doctor's messy handwriting.

"The Doctor says that May is just feeling a little frightened by recent events," Elli said, wearing a weak smile. "Consume this Bodigizer twice a day before meals, and she should be able to sleep again."

"Thank you, Elli." Barley said. As an afterthought, he added, "You look a little under the weather yourself. You should take a good rest."

The nurse sighed and waved her hand randomly in the air. "It's…it's just tragic that a death has occurred in this village."

Barley nodded his head slowly and surely, as if he was in complete understanding of the nurse's feelings.

"Don't worry, Anna is in peace. After her funeral tomorrow, Anna will be in peace…" Barley muttered, although he doesn't sound very convinced himself.

Turning her attention away from the window, May suddenly asked, "Grandpa, can I stay home tomorrow? I don't want to go to the funeral…"

"That's actually a good idea," said Elli, who was sniffling and trying her best to regain her composure. "The children should probably stay away from the funeral altogether."

May quickly turned her head back to the window, quietly hiding the small guilty smile from her grandfather. It felt like a huge troublesome burden has been removed from her shoulders. She didn't have to go to the funeral. She didn't have to see the cemetery. She didn't have to look at poor, dead Anna lying restlessly in her coffin as her murderer ran loosely around town…

She didn't have to see him.

"Carter is a good man for arranging the funeral. He is a good man, I tell you," said Barley in a solemn voice.

"But it must be so hard for Basil and Mary to be going through this," Elli added. "Losing his wife and her mother like this…I could only imagine how painful it was."

Barley made a twitching noise in his mouth, clicking his tongue disapprovingly. "That's why I can't believe the nerve of Harris accusing Basil and Gray as the murderers! At this rate, he's going to arrest everybody in this village."

Elli handed over the bottle of medicine to Barley, gesturing him to the door casually. "I wonder how old feisty Saibara feels when he found out that his grandson was arrested last night. He must've been really angry."

Chuckling softly, Barley headed for the exit. His visibly shaken up granddaughter quickly followed him out the door, her tiny little hands trembling with fear.

- - -

Cliff arrived to work at the winery this morning, just like any other day. Nosy Manna was already waiting for him by the door, tapping her feet impatiently. The moment she saw him arriving, Manna fawned over him like a swarm of bees towards their hive. After all, Cliff was her primary resource to retrieve gossip, somebody willing to report to her any bits of news he overheard at the inn.

"So? What did you hear last night?" Manna asked, her eyelashes fluttering very rapidly. "My sources told me that Harris visited the inn to make an arrest!"

"He arrested Gray yesterday. He searched through Gray's room to find a gun, but of course, he didn't find anything." Cliff said, sounding irritated.

Manna put her index finger on her chin, a gesture indicating that she was thinking very hard. A few seconds later, she asked, "Where was Gray anyway during Anna's death?"

"He was at the mine alone, but Jack and Ann both saw him walking there, so he has witnesses proving that he wasn't at the scene of murder," said Cliff as he stifled a yawn.

Clearly not satisfied with the answer, Manna began pacing back and forth while Cliff headed towards the cellar to start working. Before he was able to go inside, Manna stopped him midway, with yet another suggestion.

"I still think Sasha and Gray are both very suspicious! If I were Harris I would totally inspect their houses…oh my god!" Manna suddenly snapped her fingers, having thought of something. "What if Gray was using Mary to get to Anna? Gray might not actually be into Mary, but her mother instead!"

Seeing the totally serious expression on Manna's face as she rambled on and on, Cliff didn't know whether to laugh or tell her to stop being ludicrous with her speculations. But just then, Duke came out of the cellar, looking annoyed at the lack of productive work done due to the nonsense gibbering going on.

"Duke, did you know that Gray was arrested last night?" Manna asked, eyeing her husband maliciously for his reaction. But surprisingly enough, Duke didn't seem very stunned at the revelation at all.

"Old news," said Duke, waving his hand dismissively. "Harris just released him very early this morning. They searched his inn room and Saibara's house, but they couldn't find a gun anywhere…Saibara is really furious at Harris though and gave him a piece of his mind."

Manna looked slightly crestfallen, stamping her feet on the ground in frustration. In contrast, Cliff actually carried an oddly hopeful expression on his face, as if an imaginary light bulb lit up in his head.

"Hey, what if the murderer isn't a villager from this town?" Cliff asked animatedly, "What if this person, carrying a gun, arrived just out of the blue? And what if Anna was just at the wrong place at the wrong time?"

Duke immediately shook his head at the idea. "There's no way that could happen. You can only arrive to Mineral Town on a ferry, and Zack keeps a list of all the passengers who arrived here. With the exception of Kai, I'm pretty sure it's confirmed that nobody new came to Mineral Town for the last two years."

"The killer has to be a resident in Mineral Town. And this villager has to have a gun," added Manna matter-of-factly.

Cliff looked disappointed at the news, quietly pondering over what Duke and Manna just said. After a short while, he drew a deep sigh, sounding very troubled and unenthusiastic at what he was about to do.

"I have to go," said Cliff hesitantly. He started to run out of the vineyard, ignoring the blank confused looks on Duke and Manna's face as he passed them for the exit.

"Where are you going?" Duke shouted. Standing beside her husband, Manna looked completely awestruck at what Cliff was doing.

It took Cliff several long seconds before uttering a reluctant answer to his employers. Even he was unaware just how much of an impact his next few words were.

"I need to go see Harris. I think I know who the murderer is."

- - -

She tiptoed across the room, careful not to make a single sound to alert them. She was pretty certain that they had not heard her entering the building or crawling around like a guilty mouse. They had not expected her to break out of routine and arrive here so early today. In the hours when they thought nobody would see them, when they thought they were the safest and would never be caught.

To her surprise, the door was temptingly opened, with a large enough gap just for her to catch a tiny glimpse of what was going on. But he had always kept that door locked at all times. What was so different about today that made him change his normal habit?

Curiosity took over. She had to know what was behind that door. Her grandfather had taught her not to spy on people, but she couldn't resist just for this one time. She looked around and there was nobody who could spot her. So she promised herself that she'd only take one tiny harmless peek through the door opening…

And what she saw, she couldn't put it into words. She has never seen anything like this for her entire life. There was Anna, her mature body so naked, so vigorous, and so flexible. At first, her childish naivety blinded her from understanding what was going on. She had never seen Anna in here. She didn't know why Anna suddenly decided to show up in this room.

But then, she saw another person. It was a naked man. It was him.

Without warning, May just stopped walking and she stood still in front of the clinic door. Her grandfather turned around in alarm, running back to retrieve his granddaughter. But as he grabbed her cold hands, he realized that they were trembling in fear. She was afraid, very afraid.

"What's wrong, May?" Barley asked in the most gentle and compassionate voice as possible.

"I don't want to go to the beach anymore," said May, turning around in a different direction from where her grandfather was heading. But Barley held her arm tightly and stopped her from running away.

Looking worried, Barley scrunched his eyebrows together. "Are you afraid of the Town Square? Don't worry, the dead body is gone. Harris allowed us to walk through the Town Square now."

May shook her head very quickly, mumbling an inaudible answer under her breath. But this only made Barley more concerned about his granddaughter. He kneeled down to look into May's eyes.

"Tell me what's wrong, May." Barley said, sounding more aggressive than before.

"I don't want to go by the church…" May muttered, looking at the ground shamefully.

"Is it because of the cemetery?" Barley asked, laughing nervously. "Don't worry, silly. Poor Anna will rest in peace there."

May shook her head again, refusing to give her grandfather a direct answer.

Barley bit his lips, not sounding very convinced. Still holding tightly to his granddaughter's hand, he lowered his voice into a husky whisper. "Does this have to do with Anna's death, May? D…did you see who murdered Anna?"

"No, it's not that!" May cried, trying her very best to shake loose from her grandfather's grip.

She had remembered staring at them for at least ten seconds, feeling rather numb and senseless as she watched. They might've seen a part of her, she did not know. But when she finally woke up from the trance, she backed away as quickly as possible. She remembered to be careful and not make any noise to interrupt them. And when she finally got outside, she ran. She ran all the way back home without stopping once, not even to say 'hi' to her grandfather as she dashed upstairs. She just leapt straight into her bed and hid.

That day, she promised herself that she would never tell anybody what she saw in the room. But now, she stood in front of her grandfather as he insisted her to tell him what happened that day.

"Tell me, May. Whatever's wrong, you can tell me," Barley whispered, stroking her back gently.

"It happened a few days ago, before she…died." May mumbled. Barley looked taken back at the revelation, but he encouraged his granddaughter to finish.

May coughed and leered away, clearly not wanting to continue the story. "I went to church early that day. I saw that the door to the confessional was open, so I took a tiny peek…"

"What did you see, May?" Barley asked. His husky whisper was almost inaudible.

"I saw Carter and Anna doing it - they were naked and…and…"

May didn't continue with the sentence. She dropped to her knees, with tears running down her pink cheeks. Consoling her with empty words, Barley silently urged his granddaughter to get up.

"D-did I do something w-wrong, grandpa? I'm sorry!" May apologized. For a second, her weepy eyes met with her grandfather's, and then she hastily turned away in shame.

Barley shook his head and patted May on the back. He turned around, still holding onto his granddaughter's fragile hand very tightly.

"Let's go." Barley said, flashing a weak comforting smile to his granddaughter. "We need to go talk with Harris."

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's Note: It's an ending that's very controversial, so I hope I didn't offend anybody with it. Coming up, there will be one final chapter to resolve all of the unanswered questions. Don't forget to review and drop a comment behind!