"Holy shit! Ridge!" Lalna flew from his seat and over to the fallen overseer along with Xephos and Rythian. The others began doing what most people in this situation would do; panic.
While Sjin, Zoey, and Lomadia were trying to calm down Minty, Ravs had curled up into a ball and was crying for his mother hysterically due to being slightly drunk at the moment. Sips was already pointing fingers at everyone he could think of a legitimate motive for, and even then, they weren't very believeable. Honeydew and Nilesy were running around screaming as well before Honeydew tripped over Ravs and ended up slamming face first into the floor, and Martyn and Toby were busy arguing with Sips when the dirt trader dared to accuse them of stabbing Ridge when they were nowhere near his end of the table. Amongst all this, Kim had finally finished preparing dinner and walked out with two large platters balanced in her arms.
"Dinner's ready!" She cried merrily. Once noticing the chaos in the room and Ridgedog's limp body, she screamed a dropped both platters as her hands shot up to her mouth. "What the hell?!"
"There's no pulse." Lalna muttered as he pulled his hand away from Ridge's neck. He looked up at the other two next to him with a grim expression. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ridgedog is dead."
"Dead?! He can't be dead! This is Ridge we're talking about!" Rythian replied.
"Do you want to check for yourself? There's no pulse! He has to be dead!"
"Perhaps if we all just calm down and think this through we'll be able to figure out what's going on." Xephos interjected. Lalna gave him a look and jerked a thumb over to the rest of the crowd.
"Good luck getting them in order." The scientist muttered again. Xephos quickly scanned the rest of the panicking party quests and just sighed before Lalna watched him walk over to where Kim was standing. The girl was still watching the chaos with a very confused look on her face.
"Excuse me, miss." He heard Xephos say as he bent down to pick up one of the expensive silver platters Kim had dropped a few seconds ago. Kim simply shuffled out of the way, avoiding any spilled gravy or toppled bowls of vegetables as she did. Xephos then walked back over to the table with the platter casually placed under his arm. Lalna and Rythian shared a confused glance before they watched the spaceman climb up onto the table, grabbing a decent-sized spoon in the process. Xephos then cleared his throat and pulled the platter out from underneath his arm before he started obnoxiously banging on it with the spoon, causing everyone to jump and turn to look at him.
"Everyone shut up!" He yelled, his tone very far from pleased. Lalna felt himself flinch at the spaceman's words, and the scientist noticed that most others in the room reacted in a similar way. Though he seemed to be passive in most situations, Xephos was a born leader, and Lalna often forgot that.
Xephos scanned the silent room one more time before he tucked the platter under his arm again, looking satisfied.
"Much better. Now, I know we're all scared here, but if we just calm down and think this through, I'm sure we can figure out what happened." He began. Xephos then stepped off the table and placed both the platter and spoon down, letting his hands rest behind his back calmly as he continued. "First thing's first. Kim, is there anyone else in the manor besides us tonight?"
Everyone turned to watch the little Asian shake her head after a moment of consideration.
"I-I'm pretty sure he gave everyone the night off. He said something along the lines of, 'It doesn't take much effort to throw a dinner party when you're me, Kim!'" She replied, deepening her voice to sound more like the overseer when she began to quote him. Xephos gave her a thankful nod before turning to the others again.
"Well, I guess that settles it then. We have a murderer in our midst." Both the spaceman's expression and tone of voice were grim as he spoke, and lightning flashed by the window before it was followed by a loud thunderclap. It appeared a storm had suddenly started outside, as if the spirit of the fallen overseer was not happy with them. A few members of the crowd gave each other a variety of looks, ranging from worried to accusing to defensive.
"Secondly, I think we all heard those footsteps and that glass break when the lights went out. Anyone have an explanation for either?"
More silence swept over the room like a veil, remaining that way before someone finally spoke up after clearing their throat. It was Toby.
"The glass was me, sorry. When the lights went out, I jumped and accidentally knocked it off the table."
"Understandable. Now what about the footsteps?" Xephos asked. There was another silence as everyone looked at each other, excepting someone else to give the answer. When no one did after a good thirty seconds, Xephos spoke up again. "Anyone?"
"It's obvious whoever the footsteps belonged to is the killer, so of course no one would take the fall for it." Martyn spoke up. "I mean, it would be a dead giveaway. No pun intended."
"I bet you did it!" Sips shouted suddenly, jabbing a finger in Xephos' direction. This resulted in annoyed moans by Martyn and Toby as Sjin awkwardly tried to get his best friend to stop ("Sips, that's the alcohol talking, shut up a bit..."). Meanwhile, Xephos looked mildly offended.
"Me? Why the hell would I kill him?!"
"Well, you were the one sitting right next to him! Not to mention with Ridge gone, you'd be next in line to be head honcho 'round here!" Sips spat back. This caused a few more looks and thoughtful nods in the crowd around him, although no one directly stepped up to defend Sips' claim, before Honeydew stood to defend his friend.
"And who are you to accuse people? Last time I checked, you and Sjin owed Ridge a pretty penny after he helped you out after the Voltz Project disaster! Perhaps you two wanted out of the debt!"
Both Honeydew and Sips began arguing as Xephos rushed over to try and pull them apart. Lalna mentally sighed. It was stupid how people could turn on a dime once things fell to a new low. He watched Sjin run over to help Xephos restrain their two friends respectively, for it looked as though it was about to escalate into a full-on brawl. Growing bored from watching the pointless struggle, Lalna let his eyes fall to the knife still embedded in Ridge's back. A lot of blood had already poured from the wound, staining the overseer's elegant coat along most of the back. Looking at the knife itself, it appeared to be a very simple thing. It looked similar to a butterfly knife if it was stuck in the open position and couldn't be folded back. Just then, Lalna had a stroke of genius.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" He shouted, causing Honeydew and Sips, along with everyone else, to turn to face him. He dislodged the knife from Ridgedog's back and held it up with his gloved hand. "I have a prototype fingerprint scanner in my hovercraft just outside. I was planning to tinker with it after the party. Whoever's fingerprints show up killed him, and if none show up, that limits it to those wearing gloves."
"That's a brilliant idea!" Lomadia shouted, although there was slight hesitation in her voice. It was mostly like caused by the fact that if no fingerprints showed up, she'd be a prime suspect. Lalna took a brief moment to bathe in his ego before he pulled out the remote control from before and tossed it over to Nilesy, who fumbled a bit before sucessfully wrapping his hands around it.
"Back seat in the briefcase. Go get it, please." Lalna ordered. Nilesy looked as though he was about to protest before his shoulders slumped slightly as he sighed, defeatedly heading out of the dining hall and back into the foyer. A few side-conversations started up as Sips and Honeydew shared one final glare and walked away from each other, silently agreeing to stop the madness there. Lalna smirked again and mouthed "Science one, Magic zero." to Rythian, who was still standing beside him. The mage just rolled his eyes and pushed past him, heading back over to where Zoey was. The redhead bounded up to him and started babbling excitedly, her smile never seeming to fade despite any situation the world decided to throw at her. Lalna smiled slightly. He needed to apologize to her for unitentionally and second-handedly blowing off her arm. Maybe some chocolates or something...
Just then Nilesy entered room again, looking a little sheepish at the fact that he had returned empty-handed. Lalna and the crowd turned to face him.
"Where is it?" The scientist asked. The Scotsman nervously pulled at his collar.
"Well, um, turns out the door and windows are locked up tight. Couldn't budge 'em at all. At least in the foyer, that is."
"Maybe Ridge has the key on him still?" Minty spoke up. Lalna turned and started digging through the dead man's pockets only to find that nothing was hidden within them.
"Shit."
"I'm guessing that's a no, then?" Nilesy spoke again.
"Yes."
"So he does have the key?"
"No."
"But you said yes?"
"I meant yes to the no!"
"So he does not have the key?"
"Yes!"
"But you just said-"
"Alright, that's enough you two." Lomadia snapped, elbowing Nilesy in the side to get him to stop. "The point is, there's a killer on the loose and we're all locked in here with him. Any ideas on what to do now?"
"I say we split up and investigate. Ridge's mansion is huge! He's bound to have another exit unlocked around here somewhere." Xephos spoke up again. He cleared his throat before continuing. "Since there's fourteen of us, there will be four teams of three and one team of two. Safety in numbers, after all. Don't leave your group at any cost, is that clear? I don't want someone else to lose their life tonight. Now, on to the teams."
Lalna watched as Xephos took a moment to contemplate the pairings with a hum of thought, scanning the crowd again. After a moment or two, he spoke up again.
"Lomadia, take Nilesy and Ravs to investigate the first floor. Sjin, Sips, Minty, take the second. Martyn and Toby can investigate the third along with Kim, and Rythian can take Lalna and Zoey up to the fourth floor and attic."
"Hey, why do I have to be with him?" Rythian protested, pointing over to Lalna with distaste. The scientist just rolled his eyes. He didn't want to be in this pair either, but at least he didn't outwardly complain about it.
"We called this dinner so you two could make up. I suggest you try and do that even with the situation at hand." Xephos argued, giving Rythian a slight glare before turning towards the others again. "That leaves Honeydew and I as the team of two. We'll tackle the basement. We'll all meet back in the foyer in an hour to discuss what we've found-"
"If all of us are still alive by then... Ow!" Ravs rubbed his side when Toby gave him a sharp jab to the side for his comment. Xephos gave the former barkeep another look before continuing.
"Like I said, meet in the foyer in an hour. Good luck to you all." With that, the spaceman turned and walked over to Honeydew as the others began to form into their groups and split up to explore the rest of Ridgedog's gigantic palace. Rythian, Zoey and Lalna turned to face each other, the two men of the group sharing another hard glare before Zoey spoke up.
"What're we waiting around for? We have a murder to solve! Let's get our super sluth hats on and take a good look around the fourth floor!" The excitable redhead grabbed both their arms and dragged them out of the dining hall and towards the stairs. As they were forced along, Lalna and Rythian shared another look, but it wasn't a glare or a look of hatred like before. It was just a simple glance to show they were thinking the same thing. Tonight was going to be a very, very long night.