I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and I had been wexcited to write. You can expect faster updates as long as I stay in the writing mood (which I should be).
A lot of interesting stuff is covered in this chapter, and this may possibly clear things up. Enjoy!
Chapter 20-Mixing Shopping with Mysteries
It was the highlight of both Peach's and Daisy's lives: shopping. They could shop better and longer than any other human being in the entire world…they were absolute pros. Their affinity for shopping was also quite annoying, though…at least for the boys, it was. Like the time when they drug Mario around a store and debated for three hours about whether or not to buy a pair of shoes. Or the time when they went shopping all day and wound up buying nothing…they were crazy…
Mario, Luigi, and Hamma could care less what the girls were doing at the time. Geez, they practically preferred to be sitting around talking about the case!
"So now…" Mario began the conversation, "Let us take this time to analyze the case with much thought, okay?"
The others nodded, but didn't say anything. They had pretty much both internally agreed to let Mario control this whole investigation, and speak only when they really needed to. It would save more time that way, too.
Mario spoke again, "First, we should focus on who our primary suspect is…" He began to glance around the room, almost as though he was looking for somebody…and he was; Toadiko. He had suspected her from the beginning, and he felt that nothing could be said or done to remove that suspicion.
"Toadiko…" Luigi said simply and to the point, which Mario liked. He felt that there was no reason to drag these kind of questions out and make a whole seminar about them. That would be the kind of thing Peach would do…
"I agree…" Hamma nodded, exchanging glances with Luigi. It was quite obvious that Toadiko was at the top of their suspect list…which pretty much only comprised her…
"Alright," Mario nodded with satisfaction; at least they had all agreed on one thing…, "I, too, think that she did it…which brings us to our next question: How…?"
This one was a bit tougher. How in the world could Toadiko have shot two people while she was on stage in front of hundreds of people? Only one possible solution made sense to them, that of which was mentioned by Luigi, "Maybe she had an accomplice?"
"Exactly…" Mario nodded, still pleased that no problem had yet surfaced in their discussion…except, of course, the fact that they figured absolutely nothing out in the case…, "But who, though?"
Mario watched as the two others puzzled with this question. To no avail, they shook their heads and sighed; no person they thought of made sense to be the accomplice, let alone the shooter. The red-capped plumber couldn't help but to feel a shock of disappointment run throughout his body; this question was too difficult to answer…at the time…
"Couldn't it just be some other Toad that works in the castle?" Hamma suggested. Maybe he was right…Toadiko might have bribed one of the Toads, or Toadettes for that matter, and went along perfectly with her plan…it certainly made sense…
"Possible…" Mario nodded and smiled a little bit, "Definitely possible…but also doubtful…" Hamma shot him a look of confusion, which Mario immediately noticed, "I'm sorry, but I just don't think that's the case, here…"
The Hammer Bro perfectly understood, and merely nodded in Mario's direction to urge him to carry on. The plumber swallowed, and then continued, "Now, why do we think that Toadiko told Detective Goom about a completely different case? Something about a car, if I remember correctly?"
The other two stared blankly at him. Again, they came up with no reasonable solution. This whole conversation had started out good, but now it was definitely turning into a downfall…
"Let's ignore that point, for now…" Mario said, as soon as he noticed that the question wasn't going to be answered. Even he didn't have some kind of answer for this one…, "Now, why was Detective Goom murdered?"
"Obviously, so he wouldn't solve the case…" Luigi said, quite confident that his remark was the correct one. But what he feared had come; Mario shook his head.
"That doesn't really make sense. When you think about it, it was her idea to call the detective, not ours. And besides, I think there's a deeper meaning to all of this…" Mario tried to not make Luigi sound like an idiot, but he really had to express his point. What Luigi had said was possible, but extremely unlikely.
"Well…okay then…" Luigi felt a bit disappointed that he couldn't solve anything. Ah well, though…as long as they would solve the case, he didn't really care how much he figured out…
"Now we come to another important point…why was the file started, and who started it?" Mario smiled a little bit at the thought of the fire, at the way he saved Daisy and became friends with her. It made his feel a bit more relaxed…
"I bet Toadiko started it…" That was all Luigi managed to say before Hamma wanted to speak.
"And besides, she was the one I had talked to over the phone. I'm guessing that she made up some lie about some file that you guys were talking about, and used it to lure you to Detective Goom's house…"
Mario nodded. The satisfaction was beginning to return, and he felt that what Luigi and Hamma had said made more than enough sense for him to believe it. He decided to let that point go, and speak about a different matter, "Now, let's put everything that we have talked to together, and ask ourselves whether or not our solution is possible…Okay, now…Peach throws the party, and during it, two people get shot by Toadiko's accomplice, who is possible some other Toad worker here. For some reason, Toadiko brings up Detective Goom, and lies to him about the case. She must have even asked her accomplice to later kill him for some unknown reason. Then, she tells us all a lie, and Daisy and I go to Detective Goom's house. We survive the fire that we think either she or her accomplice caused. I can imagine that did that in order to kill us and get us out of the way. So now, let us determine…is this a reasonable solution?"
"I think it is…" Luigi said, nodding.
"Me too…" Hamma agreed. He began to smile at the thought of this possible breakthrough in the case. Sure there were a few points that Mario didn't mention, but at the moment, this solution seemed very possible…
"There's only one more major point I'd like to bring up…why wasn't I on the list?" Mario asked, remembering that this could be a very important aspect in the case.
"Can't we just make this easy and say that Peach forgot you? I mean, wasn't she in a rush? Couldn't she have just forgotten to put you on it?" Luigi desperately wished that they could just come to a simple solution easily and quickly. Unfortunately, Mario disagreed…
"You've gotta know that it's going to be more complicated than that…" Mario sighed a defeated sigh. Again, they came to another question that they couldn't answer, and it was really starting to bug him, "Well, let's just ignore that for a while. Just be sure to continue thinking about all of these unanswered questions over the course of the day, okay?"
Luigi and Hamma nodded. They weren't entirely sure if they truly would do that, but they figured that it was best to have Mario convinced that they would be in deep thought all day about the matter.
"We could always ask what the girls think when they get back?" Luigi offered. Despite the fact that he was entirely tired of conversing about the case, he did want to solve it.
"Luigi, Peach and Daisy are completely uninterested in the case for the time being. I'm sure they'll want to talk about it tomorrow, but I really think that we all should just take the night off…
The green-capped plumber shrugged. Geez, by the looks of it, Luigi was more interested in the case than Mario was. Who would have thought that even Mario would need to take some kind of break? Maybe the difficulty of the case truly was getting at him? Luigi had never seen Mario ignore a mystery before, and it as beginning to make him quite curious whether or not his brother would be able to solve the case successfully…
Mario knew that Luigi wasn't exactly happy with the whole 'take a break' deal, but he didn't care. And besides, if he tried to continue solving the mystery at the time, his head might explode out of sheer disgust about the case, "Therefore, I've planned a little something tonight for us all…"
Luigi looked up at him, a bit more interested. At first, he had figured they'd just do the 'lazy thing', as Luigi would call it, and stay home and lay on their couch all night while they watched TV and ate chips. But no…Mario had something planned, and it was finally turning his attention away from the case…, "Umm…well, what? What are we doing?"
"Since I knew that the two girls absolutely love this place, and that you're a fan of it yourself…," Mario smiled a sly kind of smile. It was one of those smiles he would use when he had a brilliant trick up his sleeve, "I figured that we would go…to the casino…"