As usual the Police came a bit late. After the initial questioning was done the investigating officer started to scratch his head.
"What a convenient coincidence. The breaker trips and the murder happens. It's surely poisoning or at least the Coroner thinks so. But still it could have been done by anyone present here. He was killed by a poisonous little sting on his right forearm."
The IO still went on scratching his head. While the Elf lady was busy looking at the corpse. The coroner was picking up his equipments and the body bag was being readied. Her intense glare made her to appear very focused. Robert was seemingly taken aback by the sudden developments. He didn't want to blow up his cover as a Stock-broker so he didn't utter a word.
Suddenly the Elf lady stated, "His shirt's right elbow, I think there's something over there." She pointed to the cuff of the victim's shirt. The Coroner was interested and after a little investigation he concluded, "Yeah, this is unusual. It's luminous paint."
Karen wasn't idle also, she was already taking a peek on the Laptop charger and then she exclaimed, "Look here officer, someone just short circuited the whole thing by tying a copper wire over both the plug pins."
The IO's attention was immediately attracted by these developments and his intense glare fell on the other two persons accompanying him, "Only one of you, Mr. Garry and Mr. Travis, could have pulled this off. You're his colleagues so you had ample opportunity to put paint on his cuffs and bug his charger. Then when the lights were out you pricked him with a poisoned needle. To be precise the one sitting exactly opposite of him, you Mr. Travis can easily pull off this little stab on his forearm"
The two co-workers were flustered and became angry due to this allegation, "Why should we do it? We were on great terms. And where is the evidence? There's no way that we could have pricked him when it was dark. Look art the width of this table, its almost four feet."
The IO looked a bit defensive, "Everyone search the floor for a needle, there has to be one lying can't just evaporate." he cried out the instruction to emphasise the current situation.
"The injury was around the elbow, the table is around four feet wide, so even if he could have pricked the person by using his hand still there's no guarantee that he won't hit something while retracting his hand. And then where did he dispose of the needle? How did the needle pricked the victim if the culprit didn't use his hands? The luminous paint ensures that the culprit prepared for this trick beforehand. But then what was the trick used? Was it some sort of blow pipe?" Robert was thinking inwardly, suddenly a small pressure on his shoulders broke his thoughts.
Karen was there with a small and reassuring smile, "I know that you don't like this gory stuff. But fear not, I'm also a first class Detective Otaku-girl. So I'll solve this case in minutes and you would be freed from this appalling condition.
The Elf lady looked at the duo with a knowing smile and then gestured with her left hand, her thumb, index finger and middle finger were outstretched. Each made a Right angle with the other and she promptly muttered "Even the Solenoids can blow."
Suddenly an idea flashed in Robert's brain, Fleming's left hand rule, but when he looked towards Karen he saw that her eyes were beaming. She lifted her face, "Inspector check the Laptop bag of the man sitting beside the victim. You'll find the blowpipe in it."
With-in a fraction of a second the IO ceased his bag and opened it up. A U-shaped medium length pipe came up, the IO looked unimpressed. Karen beamed a flashy smile and continued, "That's not an ordinary pipe, that's a copper solenoid hidden in the pipe, and inspector you would even find a pair of neodymium magnets and a AA size cell in his bag also.
The IO soon found out the things stated exactly by the Mantis girl.
"But how could this have killed him? These are no poisonous pricks." the IO looked a bit defeated.
"Allow me to give you a demo." Karen promptly wore her kitchen gloves, put the neodymium magnets on each end of the battery. Then she placed the whole system into the pipe and within a fraction of a second the thing ejected from the other end of the pipe.
"So he just needed to put a poisonous prick over the front head of the battery system and it would be done quite easily." the IO looked very pleased.
"Where is the proof? BTW Travis and Gilbert, the victim were always on negative terms. Gilbert abused Travis for his lack of prowess on each and every occasion that he had gotten. Travis hated his guts, it's has to be him, he's framing me." Mr. Garry cried out on the top of his lungs.
"No It's you who had done couldn't have put it in your bag, btw the pen that you have is it from Kobayashi Frog Heaven?" Karen asked the man.
"It is. How does it become relevant?" Garry was agitated and directly charged Karen with his question.
"The store manager can verify that whether you pet a poison dart frog or not. Does it still remain irrelevant, Mr. Garry?" Karen asked with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.
The Elf lady added on, "Officer search the container of toothpicks on that table, he can only hide the prick amongst those toothpicks. You can find everything you need to implicate him on that prick." Now Karen also looked quizzically to the Elf lady.
The IO didn't waste any second to get his hand on the toothpick container and after a cautious search the prick was found, the IO declared, "Hmm...it'll have all three on it, the luminous paint, the poison of the frog that you pet and the victims blood along with your skin samples."
The man broke down and the formalities were concluded promptly.
Robert asked Karen, "Who is she? She doesn't look normal."
Karen replied, "She is super normal, for sure."
The Elf lady looked at them bemusedly and bowed to the duo, "A bored IT professional with a knack of solving mysteries. I'm Renia, the friendly neighbourhood Elf." The reflection on her right spectacle made her appear to be blind in that eye.
It had already a quarter past eleven in the night. The rush of returning home from office has already died. People were getting ready for their bedtime, but not these four, Hannah was on her mobile phone, Rebeka was on her tablet, Reina was pushing in the earphone deep into her ear and Karen was pressing the receiver of the lonely nearby phonebooth on her ear.
The all uttered the same phrase simultaneously, "Yes. It went just as you had mentioned. He's too naive, it wouldn't be that tough."
(The next Morning)
"Robert is anything bothering you? Like a suspicious person or someone like that? You look very distressed." Hannah asked with a bit of concern in her voice.
"Nah...I'm fine, just family trouble. Nothing professional at all." Robert replied, "How did you know that someone's after me? Do you really take me as a dunderhead, chief?" Robert snarled in his mind.
"I see, btw did you read about the case that had happened in that Sea-food restaurant last night?" Hannah asked Robert.
"No Ma'm, I didn't have time to go through the Morning newspaper." Robert thought that it was better not to divulge anything to this suspicious Jinko.
"It says that the waitress helped to solve the case, Karen is her name, do you know anything about her as you once mentioned that you like the seafood and that's the only restaurant in the neighbourhood which sells Sea-food?" Hannah wasn't an easy interrogator.
"Not really Ma'm. I don't know the name of the waitresses." Robert replied.
"Oh, I see. Btw her photograph says that she's a Mantis. She looks like a smart girl and probably a pirate-otaku, why don't you take a look?" Hannah tossed the paper towards Robert, there was nothing unusual about the picture of Karen, but her uniform sported her nametag.
Though Robert was looking at the paper, he felt a cold snake slithering up his spine, the same death glare is being sent towards his direction by the chief, he sensed it even without lifting his head. This sensation prevailed for some more seconds,after the peon came in and Hannah excused Robert, thus giving a bit of relief to the latter.
Suddenly an idea appeared in his mind, "Why don't I call up Manako and ask her to dig out about this Hannah? She is becoming more and more devious with each passing day. Maybe I also need to up my ante."
(The Evening)
"Robert, I'm looking for nice condo in an apartment. I heard that the apartment in which you live is quite good. I want to check out the availability of a condo. Can you please take me there ?" Hannah request her subordinate .
Robert again felt a pressure built up in his body, he felt a sudden flutter in his tummy. "Shit, now she wants to put me under watch 24X7. She has to be the one, Doppel I need you, Manako please hurry up."
"Are you ok, your face looks eerily bloodless?" Hannah leaned over the shorter man.
"No, no it's fine. I'm just a bit under the weather." somehow Robert blurted out something.
The drive back home was uneventful, Robert invited the chief to have a cup of tea with him but the chief politely declined. But the real incident happened after Robert showed chief the way to the apartment manager's office. The chief promptly excused him and was going to take a step toward the office, suddenly a familiar face appeared in front of Robert.
"Oh, so you live here, Mr. Stockbroker. It's true when they say that the world is really small." Karen greeted the dumbfounded detective.
"You? Here?" somehow Robert blurted out.
Hannah didn't appear to be interested in the chitchat and was promptly striding towards the Office of the apartment manager.
"You see, Mr. Stockbroker, I was here for a delivery, some Ms. Watts or something. Though I must say despite being a Hellhound she's a generous tipper." Karen waved and took her leave.
Robert almost sprinted towards the elevator, no sooner he promptly pressed the button than he had felt a grinding fear encompassing his psyche. He didn't muster the courage to even turn back. He just jumped into the elevator, but from the space between the closing elevator doors he saw the empty hallway only. Suddenly the elevator was stopped and a lithe hand entered and then the whole torso.
"Hi, we meet again, which floor do you want to get on?" reina, the Elf lady of yesterday was gesturing the buttons.
"Four, please." Robert blurted, he somehow felt almost lifeless.
Reina: An Elf(for further info. refer Monster Girl Encyclopedia)
Bust : C cup
Height : 5'-10"