CHAPTER 11

Sorry for the delay, everypony. I'm feeling a bit under the weather, and between aches and sniffles, it took a little longer to get this chapter written that I'm happy with. But here it is finally. I hope you all enjoy. Please review.

"Alright sis, you know what to do." I said as we stood outside of the trailer. It was a simple long wooden box atop two axles, a few windows and a door denoting its purpose as more than a cargo trailer, and the sign on the front advertising which construction company it belonged to. "I'll ask questions while you stand by the door looking professional."

"Got it." Budder stated. We walked up the steps, and I opened the door to the demolition company's little office. Just inside, there was a small desk, a stack of papers being held down by the head of a sledgehammer. Behind the desk sat an older stallion, a light gray pony with a black mane, streaked with white. He had the strong and surly look of somepony used to doing hard work every day. He greeted us by looking up intently, asking us what we were doing there with a glance.

"Hello..." I greeted. "Lieutenant Drake, CID. I'm here about the...incident?"

"Yeah...sure, come on in. What can I do for you?" He asked grimly. "Local police were already here..."

"Well, I'm sort of here on behalf of the government, Mr...

"Bearing Wall." He said with a nod.

"I just have a few questions for you about the...fallen worker..." I began

"You mean Trisquare." The foreman stated grimly.

"Of course." I said with a nod. "I'm sorry you lost your worker, sir."

"He was the best damned project manager I ever had, you know that?" Bearing Wall said. "And he had a pretty wife and two foals, and he didn't deserve this, lieutenant."

"No he didn't." I agreed. "And we're going to do everything we can to bring his killer to justice."

"Hm." The older forepony grunted. "I hope you do. What was it you wanted to ask me?" I pulled out my notebook and pencil.

"What time did Trisquare enter the building, do you think?" I asked.

"He got here early, about eight thirty." The gray stallion answered. "I guess he was probably in there by nine."

"What was his purpose there?"

"He was just supposed to do a final check of the foundation, inside and out for demolition tomorrow." The construction boss explained. "See, that's a pretty tall structure. Tearing it down without damaging the surrounding residences is kind of like dropping a tree in the woods without hitting any of the other trees. We want to make sure the building came down exactly where we want it to, so Trisquare was checking the foundation and beams for any signs of weakness or rot that cpuld affect the building in freefall. It should have taken about an hour."

"And when he wasn't back by ten thirty, you went looking for him?" I questioned.

"Yeah. Me and a couple other ponies on the team headed over there about twenty after. We were supposed to start boarding the place up anyway. We didn't see Trisquare. I went inside, and there he was, all cut up like that...damn that was brutal..."

"I know, sir." I said. "Did you see anypony else around the building when you got there?"

"It's a busy street." He answered. "I must've seen twenty or thirty ponies before the police got there. The pony that did it was probably in the crowd..."

"There's just a couple more things, and we'll get out of your hair." I said. "Trisquare...he didn't have any enemies, or anything like that, did he?"

"Heck no. He came to work early, put in his shift and went home. He let all the ponies on his teams take a little extra time on breaks. I didn't care, cause he always got the job done right and on time."

"And he wasn't acting any different when he got to work this morning?" I asked. "Not nervous or agitated or anything?"

"No...no, he was actually looking forward to tearing the building down. He said it would be good for the town." Bearing Wall replied.

"Uh-huh..." I said, writing all of this down. "Alright, thank you very much, sir." Ne nodded silently, and I walked out of the trailer with my sister close behind.

"We didn't get much there, huh?" Budder asked as we walked toward the center of town.

"Didn't think we would." I returned. "Just trying to get all the facts straight before I charge headlong into things."

"Where now?" My sister sighed.

"I want to talk to the first officer on scene." I replied. "He might have seen something he didn't know he saw."

"Huh?!" My sister demanded an answer to the confusion I just bestowed upon her.

"You see, there are known knowns, known unkn...nevermind. Just trust me." I said.

After a short walk through town, we came to the Ponyville police station. Hardly a professional-looking law-enforcement center, the station looked like what it was: an old shop converted into a police precinct by adding bars to the windows and a gaudy six-point gold star to the facade. I opened the door and walked in. The department hadn't changed much since I'd been to Ponyville last. There was still the same reception area, with the same desk, and the same old sergeant that I had seen a hooffull of years back. At least the décor was a little lovelier this time.

"Drake!" Dashie exclaimed, coming from around the sergeant's desk. The old cop didn't even look up. "What are you doing here, sweetie?"

"Heh. I guess the same thing you are." I replied with a smile. "Pumping the locals for information?"

"Yep. And this well is dry." She sighed. We shared a hug, then began mixing professional and personal business.

"You talk to the officer on scene?" I asked.

"Yeah. He didn't see anypony in the place, or hear anything weird or nuthin' like that." She said, then narrowed her pretty magenta eyes. "Wait...aren't you supposed to be on vacation?"

"Well I'm taking a vacation from my vacation, love." I shrugged. "Anyway, I figure Celestia's gonna be zapping me a letter telling me to make the bad ponies go away anyhow. Might as well get an early start on it. You wanna get some grub and go through the evidence?"

"Heck yeah. You owe me dinner anyway for staying indoors this whole time. Budder have to whoop anypony yet?"

"Not since her friend's bully ran afoul of some bad karma." I answered, messing up my sister's mane playfully. "We'll eat and talk about the case, then I wanna get back to the bakery and have a look around. I think we might have a copycat. If it is, then they'll be back."

"Go armed?" Dashie proposed.

"Armed?" I repeated. "I'm gonna get ahold of Luna, and have somepony swing by the homestead and grab half of our stockpile."

"Can I has my stuff too?" Budder asked.

"Yep. I have no idea what we're getting into, and I wanna be ready...for once." The last statement was funny, but actually kind of true. Several times on my missions, we had geared up to accomplish our goal, only to find out that the particulars of the case were a bit different than our intelligence had believed. You think you're going up against thieves, and end up running into demons. Go to bust an arms dealer, find international terrorists...you know, that sort of thing. I wasn't going to take any chances this time. We were going to go into this investigation with every ounce of precaution, and a ton of weaponry, not to mention my sister's ghost-busting gear, all just in case.

We left the police station, and made our way to the little cafe near the center of town, the same small restaurant where Rainbow Dash and I had eaten during our first date. There, the three of us found a table near the edge of the patio and took our seats. A waiter came by and dropped off our menus and three glasses of water. We looked over the menus as we talked about our findings so far.

"Foreman said the victim went into the bakery about nine this morning. He was supposed to check on the foundation and stuff." I said. "The rest of the crew got there at ten thirty. The foreman went in, and found the stallion dead." I looked over the top of the list of foodstuffs. "That's all I found out. You?"

"Huh...think I might get the almond vinaigrette salad..." My marefriend mumbled. "Um...The first officer that was there...Cuff Key, he wasn't too...in control when I found him. Apparently, he's new to the force, and this was the first dead body he ever saw..."

"Poor bastard..." I muttered. "Somepony's gonna have PTSD over this. Ugh...so what did he say?"

"Other than that he was thinking about quittin' the force..." Dash answered. "He said that when he got there, he ran into the shop, and saw the dead worker on the counter. He said he got close to see if he was really dead, and when he saw the guts and stuff laying out, he almost barfed, and ran outside to get some air." Our waiter had just come over to take our order, and happened upon us right at the 'guts and stuff' part, and he quickly turned and walked back the other way.

"He didn't see any sign of somepony else there?" I questioned.

"No. I asked him that a couple times just to make sure. He didn't see or hear anypony in the building, and when he went outside, he stayed by the door and sent for backup right away."

"At least he was smart enough to watch the exit..." I commented. "Still, somepony could have made it out a window in the back or something...Hell, there could still be secret rooms in there nopony's found yet."

"Oh, and nothing like this has happened since back then." Dash added. "There's been like no missing ponies or strange deaths or anything lately."

"So this has just started..." I said. "Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. At least it gives us time to prepare."

"Are you...ready to order...now?" The waiter asked timidly, cautiously stepping toward us.

"Yeah, the gory talk is over." I returned with a grin. "Sorry about that. We're detectives."

"Of course..sir." The waiter said. He cleared his throat. "What can I get you three?"

"Flapjacks."

So the investigation has officially begun, and it looks like Drake is getting ready to load up for bear. What will the trio find in Sugarcube Corner? Is there more to this mystery than meets the eye? You have not long to wait for the answers. I will be back soon with the next chapter. Until then, thanks for reading, everypony!