Chapter 3- You Said It Would Never Happen Again

"You're waiting for Harris?" Elli asked blankly, looking from Aja to Manna.

"Yes." Aja confirmed. There was a knock on the door. "That would probably be him now."

Harris and Jack came in, Jack with paper and pencil, taking avid notes. "Good morning, Manna and Aja." Harris said politely. "What might be the trouble?"

"Upstairs. Please follow me." Aja directed. "Mother, Elli, you may come as well."

Elli trooped up the stairs behind the police and Manna hung back, refusing to follow.

It was a ghastly site that made Elli turn around and go back downstairs with Manna, but the scene was imprinted in her mind. "Fetch Doctor Tom, Elli." Jack instructed grimly.

Nodding, Elli ran to the Clinic. "Doctor!" She yelled into the dark Clinic. Yawning, the doctor came down from upstairs.

"That book on medicines from Mary is long and boring." He stretched. "What'd I miss?" He asked, seeing the look on Elli's face.

"It's Duke. He's been attacked." Elli said faintly, and Doc snapped to attention. He slipped his white coat over his white tee shirt and grabbed his medical bag before following Elli to the Aja Winery.

Inside the house, it was crazy. Aja was at the table, comforting her sobbing mother. Jay and Harris were having an animated conversation with the Mayor, and Doug, who had seen the people arriving had come over to help and was trying to keep everything in order. He directed the doctor and Elli upstairs.

It was a quick and intense examination, in which Elli couldn't participate. She was quite squeamish.

"He'll be fine. The gash is deep, but it will heal." Doctor Tom said after a few minutes, and Elli chanced a look. "He'll be in a coma until his body can recreate the blood he's lost." Doc continued. "Until then, we may not know who the attacker was."

Duke lay unconscious on the floor, with a deep, bloody cut from a knife of some sort across his chest.

"It just missed his heart. Duke's a lucky, lucky man." Doctor Tom said as he packed up his supplies.

"I'll speak with Jack and Harris, Tom." Elli bowed and ran back downstairs.

"Elli! Just the girl we want to speak with." Harris called politely.

She quickly explained the situation. "It was definitely a knife, not a pocket knife since it is very deep. Doctor Tom said he's lucky since the attacker missed his heart. That is how we've ruled out suicide, since if it was so, he would have gone straight for the heart." Elli added, but she had her doubts. If Duke was drunk and wanted to perform suicide, then he might not have sober enough to see his heart, and simply attacked himself as much as possible.

"I see. Do you have all of that, Jack?" Harris asked, after quietly conferencing with the mayor.

"We need to inform the town. I'll call the ferry company and schedule ferries to get us out of here." Mayor Thomas said.

He dialed the phone in the hallway in Manna's house.

"I'll inform the town." Harris said quietly, slipping out of the house. Elli went to help Aja comfort Manna.

"He'll live Manna." Elli told her. "He'll just be in a coma for a while."

"It's not that that bothers me." Manna sobbed. "We're the second wealthiest family in town, and we have no enemies. The mere fact that we were assaulted is what bothers me."

Aja was stunned to silence.

A moment later, Cliff came running in. "What happened to Dad?" Ever since Cliff had moved in with Manna and Duke a year ago, two years after Jack came, Manna had pleaded with him for a week to refer to them as 'Mom' and 'Dad'. Cliff had given in.

Aja stuck her nose up. "Who's this?"

"This is Cliff, their adopted son." Elli cut in.

"Oh." Aja said lamely.

"Duke's been attacked." Elli told Cliff. "He'll be in a coma for now." Cliff was shocked. He took a seat next to Manna and patted her shoulder comfortingly.

Amongst this confusion, she felt out of place. Elli wasn't family, like Manna, Aja, and Cliff, she wasn't on the force, like Harris and Jack, and she wasn't here to calm the confusion, like the mayor and Doug. She was simply a nurse, and Elli couldn't even help the doctor.

That was it. Elli stormed upstairs, determined to help. "Can I help Doctor?" She asked.

"Yes, actually, you can. Can you go to the Clinic and get me my other bag? I'm going to make daily trips here since we have no way to bring Duke to the Clinic." Doctor Tom said brightly, and Elli, nodding did just that.

After she had given the Doctor his supplies, she found Mayor Thomas with a somber look. "The phones aren't working, and for the few minutes they did, the ferry company explained that there wasn't to be any ferries for the next two years! We're all stuck here!" The mayor pulled at his hair nervously.

"Bring everyone to the square and inform them. The public needs to know." Elli said.

"Alright."

An hour later, the town was assembled in Rose Plaza. Mayor Thomas had adapted to using his stool again.

This time, Manna hung towards the back of the crowd, instead of hovering up by the mike like last time.

As Elli waited for the mayor to make his announcement, her brain was working at full speed. Who was Duke's greatest enemy? Jeff hated Duke, so that accounted for something, and Anna and Mary didn't approve of his reckless drinking. Basil didn't mind though, and Elli didn't see Mary or Anna as cold-blooded murderers.

Mayor Thomas cleared his throat.

"I have more terrible news. While interrogating the villagers for clues earlier, Elli White stumbled across another crime- this time an attempted murder." A gasp rippled throughout the crowd. Crimes like these were unheard of in Mineral Town. "Now, as we all know all too well, Elli's parents were killed in a similar crime short after Stu's birth, as were Gray's parents. This time, it was Manna's husband, Duke. Aja arrived early last night and is also dealing with the grief, promising to help as long as she can.

"I know I promised that this would never again happen, but I must break that promise. We can't escape. This criminal has canceled all ferries. There will be no festivals until further notice. Do not leave your homes for anything, no matter what, with the exception of Jack, Harris, Elli and the doctor. Now get home and get ready for anything." The mayor dismissed the crowd.

Harris approached me. "I want to hire you to help. Had you not known that Jeff and Doug hated Rod and might try to pin this on him, Duke would not have survived." Elli had told Harris the entire story after the mayor had told her that the ferries were gone.

"I-I must decline." Elli said as politely as she could. "I must assist the doctor."

"I've already gotten his permission." Harris said.

"I'll do my best." Elli saluted Harris in a comical fashion.

"Be ready." Were Harris' departing words.