The Chief sent all of the suspects back to their for safety precautions. Mario walked up the three sets of stairs and arrived at his room. He entered through the rusted doorway and sat down at his writing desk. Mario was thinking of the possibilities; it could be Falco, Slippy, Samus, or Fox. But who didn't have a solid alibi? Wait, did anyone have a solid alibi? Everyone was sleeping or should have been. 'Knock knock' "Come in," Mario told the uninvited guest.

The door slid open and in the doorway was Officer Bananas. "OOH OOH AH! Mario! You have been ordered by the chief to come downstairs. Fox is awake and now interrogation can begin. You will be expected to be down in the next ten minutes. OOH OOH!" He shut the door and Mario quickly went downstairs.

"Ah, yes Mario. Now all we are waiting for is Miss Aran and Mr. Toad," the chief declared. Five minutes later, Samus arrived but Slippy was nowhere to be found. After a few more minutes, he sent out Bananas to see what's taking him so long. When Bananas came back, he looked gloomy.

"Uh sir," he told the chief, "Slippy, he hung himself. Here, he left a note with a bloody print presumably by his leg."

The chief took the note and read it aloud: "I Slippy Frog, am admitting that I murdered Peppy Hare. I was just sick of him! Well, as you may know I have committed suicide.

But still, the chief began interrogating the suspects in case it was faulty, while a few of his co-workers retrieved the corpse. After a few more hours and dusk broke out, each of them were sent to their rooms. Mario now knew the stories behind the other three suspects and out of them all Samus stood out the most. Apparently, Samus couldn't sleep and she didn't get even a wink of sleep. Plus, she was already outside when Fox was there with Slippy, which could've been because of the short distance from there to the kitchen. Falco was listening to his favorite rock music, which can be supported by the fact that everyone heard it. But the strange thing was that he said he fell asleep. Fox said he was simply sleeping. And it could've been Slippy. But wait a second… why was Slippy's foot bloody? The rope was only around his neck! Unless, this could be a serial murderer! Mario left his room even though he knew it was against orders. He had to see the crime scene for himself. He exited the door, but was stopped by a sudden, loud crackling noise. It was a paper that was halfway under Falco's door. Mario picked it up and it read:

Thinking of my darling Falco again.

Sincerely, Your Favorite Girl

Mario thought of who Falco's "favorite girl" could be and who's currently at the base. The only person he could think of was Samus. Could Samus and Falco have some connection, other than being both created by Nintendo?

Mario quickly (but quietly) went down the three sets of stairs and immediately stopped and jolted into the trash bin when he heard a noise. It sounded like a conversation.

"Hmm… I see," the chief said. "So according to the test results, this hair found at the crime scene belongs to Samus Aran, correct?

"Correct." someone answered. "It was found approximately three feet away from where the body was found. This could mean that perhaps this was only looked to be a suici-"

"NO!" another person yelled. "HOW WOULD SLIPPY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GO WITH BEING HANGED! THERE WAS NO SIGN OF HIM BEIBNG DRUGGED OR THAT HE WAS KILLED EARLIER!"

"SLIPPY WAS MY FRIEND AND I KNOW THAT HE WOULD NEVER COMMIT SUICIDE! OOH OOH AH AH AH OH!" someone else objected. Mario soon recognized this voice. It was Bananas.

"Control yourself." said the chief. "The main problem is that-"

"Pardon me sir, but we have an uninvited guest." one of the people said. "You! In the trash can! Come out… NOW!"

Mario waited a few moments just in case there was another person in a trash bin. After a few more seconds, he got out. There he saw two mysterious he has never met before.

The chief was the only person the least bit happy to see him and joyfully said, "Ah, Mario! I see you couldn't resist disobeying orders." He gave him a stern look. "Anyways, how's it going? Oh yes, this here is Cornelius Groof and this is Hump Crosby. Knowing you and all of your history, I bet you've become the Sherlock Holmes of the Mushroom Kingdom, right?"

Mario responded, "Well, not exactly but I did find a few clues." Mario told the chief all that he found out in the past hour or so and provided him with proof for the next twenty minutes.

Once Mario finished telling them his observations, they began to brainstorm clues together. "Welly welly welly well," the chief said merrily. "So the culprit hasn't really changed and the only thing you've really helped us was to determine that this is a serial murder case we're talking about. I have no use for gossip that there might be some attraction between Lt. Lamborghini and Miss Aran. But thanks for the tip, Mario."

Mario said goodbye and went back upstairs when he noticed that both Falco's and Fox's rooms were wide open and unoccupied. "Time to do some snooping," Mario thought to himself. He started with Fox's room and found nothing out of the ordinary. He could plainly see that Fox was drooling on the pillow, but Mario had to do something he'd never normally do. He had to feel the drool to see if it was fresh. If not then it was probably earlier proving he was asleep. But it would evaporated if it was any earlier and he didn't have a chance to sleep being unconscious for most of the time. Fearfully, Mario touched the wet spot. It was barely damp and the mark was very faint. That proved it; Fox wasn't lying.

Mario then left Fox's room and rushed into Falco's. An alarm was triggered but only for a second because Mario quickly turned it off. Immediately, he found something odd. He found some unknown, black, material trapped under a rusty nail. The window was wide open. He looked at Falco's "Cornelia Base's Best Shooting Aim Award", but upon close inspection he noticed that part of the white walls behind it was whiter than the rest. Mario noticed Falco "He looked closer and realized that it was white out. It was still a little damp. He tried wiping it off, but it was useless. It only spread it out. He decided to try and pick at it, and soon he noticed a red stain that was the color of blood, but it was losing color unlike blood. He then left Falco's room when he heard his voice slowly coming from the stairway talking about his lucky dart that he always keeps with him but hidden from everyone else.

Mario thought about the clues he found in his room. The pieces were beginning to fit but some were from as if another puzzle box. Then it hit him! It was obvious who the killer was. But he needed more evidence to support him and when he entered the suspect's room he found an important piece of evidence.

Mario got on the intercom and ordered everyone to come to the meeting room. When Mario came downstairs just seconds later, about half of them were already there. A couple minutes later everyone arrived, and Mario began:

"Okay, I bet you're all wonder why I brought you down here. Well, it's simple. I solved the case. It's… you!" His index finger was pointed directly at Falco. He looked speechless. "Yes, I was just as amazed as you are right now when I figured it all out. I thought it was Samus. But no, she was just trying to save you.

"Wait a second, how could it be Falco?" asked the chief.

"Yeah!" Fox agreed.

"You see… it all started when Falco turned on his radio to full power to block the noise. He was sick of getting orders from Peppy Hare just because he was older. So he put on a black suit and mask and quickly grabbed him. Of course Peppy soon was screaming but the music drowned it out. But Falco didn't know that Samus was awake so she followed him, but was too scared to intervene. Of course using the note I found I determined that Falco and Samus used to have a relationship and Samus would sneak onto the crime scenes and tamper with the evidence. This explained her getting outside so quickly. But before Falco could put the disassembled hare into the oven, he heard Fox coming and thinking quickly closed the door and blew a micro-sized dart through the keyhole, luckily hitting one of Fox's pressure points causing him to collapse. Of course, this was because Falco had the best aim of the Cornelia Army according to his trophy. Then he hid the boy behind the oven and finished the job. Then Samus decided to leave and went near the back door, which was just a few feet away form where everyone was to evacuate to in just a few moments. So I caught Falco inserting the body and moments later escaped. Then Falco finished the job avoiding the small flames that would later spark into a fire. Then he brought Fox into a safer area and lucky for him he was unconscious and looked unharmed. He took out the dart and dropped it on the ground. He then took of his suit and threw it out the window, which explains for the black material. He then took Fox's unconscious body and went outside. And for Slippy, he just wanted to because he thought that it couldn't get much worse so why not? Well he shot Slippy's pressure point and pushed some blood red cover-up he got for Samus when they were a couple (that was in Samus's room) and pushed it against Slippy's foot and was able to forge a suicide note with his footprint in the corner, which explains for his test that pressed against his wall. Of course, Falco (or possibly Samus) used to white out to represent as a cover up for the blood-red mark. And I was able to look at the note again and realized the footprint was becoming a faded red. That is what happened."

Falco started laughing hysterically and when he stopped, he asked Mario in a demanding voice, "Okay, Detective Mario. I loved your story. Maybe you should write a book, but do you have any evidence that rules out everyone else?"

Moments later, Mario answered, "Yes, actually I do." Mario held up a dart. "I found this on the ground."

"So?" Falco responded, "That doesn't prove anything!"

"Oh yes it does." Mario contradicted. "Fox, would you come over here?" Fox then got out of his seat and Mario showed everyone a small wound on his neck. "This is the dart wound that only Falco would've been able to make."

"Hey, I didn't have that there before!" Fox exclaimed.

"So what, it could be a bee sting or mosquito bite!" Falco told Mario.

"Maybe so, but Falco I heard you have a treasured dart. Would you mind showing it to me?"

Falco dug deep into his pockets and nervously looked up at Mario. "I can't…" he mumbled. "I don't have it."

"Oh! But I thought you always had it with you!" Mario pressed.

Falco started sweating and after a minute passed, he broke out into tears. He soon confessed and yelled, "Okay, I confess! I did it! I killed Slippy and Peppy! Everything was true!"

The chief got out of chair and ordered the guards, "Arrest this man immediately."

And so, they brought him into custody and he was temporarily sent to prison until the trial, that would be scheduled in just a few days being that there haven't been many crimes in that region of Cornelia lately. Now that justice was served, Mario could move eon with his life… at least for now.