Chapter 5: Roll sound
A/N Part 1 Based on a comment said by Pink-Pencil-Girl303, I fixed up some things in chapter 4. I realized I focused a bit too much on dialogue, so I decided to add a bit more description of the place and a few other things, as she said. If you'd like to re-read chapter 4 (updated on Saturday, 18th of November), you can. If you already read the updated version, enjoy chapter 5!
All over the city people had read the following headline in the front page of The Daily Observer newspaper:
FILM REELS IN VERMOUNT STUDIOS DESTROYED!
Is the studio being threatened?
This had almost immediately spread all over the city and everyone heard the news. Some of the guests at the party only found out about it much later, as they were distracted with the entertainment, while others had found the rumors of last night to be true.
Outside Vermont Studios, TV reporters stood outside making live news reports, and other reporters and photographers tried to sneak into the studio. Mr. Bucks had to call in more security the guard outside the entrances. Even so, the crew and actors inside the studio started were talking about what had happened last night.
The police continued to investigate the scene of the crime, and asked people inside the studio for any witnesses. Although most people hadn't noticed for being at the party, some guards and people outside had heard noticed noises coming from the fence. Those noises last night probably served as a distraction for the men to enter the building, or possibly as one of the suspects trying to sneak in.
Tintin, Jacq, the Captain and Snowy sat down inside Mr. Bucks' office in front of his desk, except for the Professor who walked around the whole studio carefully observing his swinging pendulum following its given directions.
Mr. Bucks leaned his back on the wall in stress, and poured a drink for himself. At that particular instance, Haddock could completely relate to him. Then Mr. Bucks looked up at them and said, "Sorry, would anyone like a drink too?"
"Yes," said the Captain instantly. Mr. Bucks poured the Captain a glass of Jack Daniels. Mr. Bucks swallowed his entire drink and said, "I don't know how much longer I can handle this." He put his glass on the desk, sat down and took a deep breath. "Right… I think I'm good now."
CLICK!
They all turned to the left window and saw a familiar looking young man. He had climbed up the building and had captured a picture of them. "Perfect!"
Tintin said, "The journalist from last night!"
"I'm a photographer too!"
"Why you nasty little-!" said Mr. Bucks as he was about to throw himself towards the guy. But the man had quickly slid down the pipe on the side of the building, reached the ground and escaped on a bicycle which he had left there. "DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" He shouted at the guards trying to catch up to the photographer. Mr. Bucks sat down in his desk and said, "Unbelievable… I HATE them! Those people from the press! And those obnoxious reporters! Always nosing around everybody's business just to get a story! No offence, kid."
"None taken," said Tintin understandingly.
Mr. Bucks looked at Tintin and said, "I'm so sorry for everythin'. I didn't want you to get into such a mess."
"It's fine. I'm used to these sort of things."
Snowy said, "Biggest understatement of your life."
"Don't worry, Sir. We'll do as much as we can."
"But where to start? The police don't know anything about it, do they?"
Jacq said, "Actually, Mr. Bucks, Tintin and I think we might know where to start. We aren't implying that Mr. Maroon was the one doing this, but-"
"Mr. Maroon? It couldn't have been him! They tried to destroy his film!"
Tintin asked, "Then why did he ask you to put the rest of the film reel inside your safe? Maybe he knew about the crime beforehand?"
"Maroon often puts the film reels in his own safe so that he'd look over the film personally, to avoid anyone else from tamperin' the scenes. Our previous editors got carried away with the film stock, but even with the editors replaced, he'd plan the editin' himself. He gave me the film reel this time, because his safe apparently needed to be replaced."
Tintin and Jacq looked at each other. Then Tintin continued, "It's like Jacq said: we aren't implying that Mr. Maroon was behind everything, but we just thought he might know something about it." Tintin crossed his arms and leaned back thinking, "Or perhaps it has to do with The Gorilla Movie."
"How?" said the Captain quickly finishing his drink. "If they just wanted to destroy The Gorilla Movie, why destroy the other films too?" He extended his arm with the glass towards Mr. Bucks who poured more whiskey into the cup. "How do you know it isn't another movie?"
"Mr. Bucks, we have another favor to ask you. Can you give me the contact numbers of all the actors from The Gorilla Movie? The ones who quit?" Although just a theory, Tintin gave himself a feeling that there was a connection somehow: all the actors quitting to play the gorilla, then someone comes by and destroys the film itself.
Mr. Bucks asked Simon to pull out the number and gave it to them. Jacq made the first phone call to Joey. Someone picked up the phone, and Jacq said, "Hello, Joey Manola? This is Vermont Studios calling, I wanted to ask—"
CLACK!
Jacq held down the phone and said, "The guy just hung up."
She went on to call the rest of the numbers. About three of them weren't home, but some of the people hung up immediately without saying anything, and the two last ones said, "Sorry, I don't know about the news of Vermont Studios!" and "I have nothing to do with the crime! Please leave me alone!"
Jacq looked back at Tintin again. Haddock hated when that happened. He felt a bit left out. But they all agreed that it couldn't have been normal. Mr. Bucks asked, "So what now?"
"I say if we can't speak to them by phone, we might as well go ask them personally."
The group took the addresses they needed, but before they left the studio, they tried to look for Professor Calculus. They couldn't find him anywhere, so Jacq went to Tulio and asked him to let them know if he found Calculus, and also keep an eye on him when he does find him.
When they went out of the green gate, they couldn't escape the building without having the press coming at them and surrounding them. "Mr. Tintin! Is it true that you're going to help with the investigation?"
"You were all there last night! Do you know something that the police don't know?"
"Are you helping out the police?"
"Do you know what this means for Vermont Studios?"
They tried to squeeze themselves out of the crowd, and soon after about two minutes they escaped. They ran as fast as they could, across about three blocks, and finally managed to lose them.
Later, they went together to each apartment, the ones who hung up at least, and ask them about why they quit and if they knew anything about the crime.
The first one they went to was Butch Collins, one of the original understudies who lived in a building in the 4th floor. He had worked on a few of the gorilla scenes when Joey wasn't available. When they reached the apartment, they rang the door and Butch opened. He was about the same height and size as the Captain, except he had short brown hair.
"What do you want?" said Butch fearfully.
"Hello, Sir. We came here to ask you a few questions," said Tintin calmly.
"About Vermont? I don't know anything about it. Why do you ask me?
"We're looking for answers about the film studio, and we're talking to the understudies that quit their role of the gorilla in The Gorilla Movie."
"Were you the ones who called?"
"Yeah, I did," said Jacq. "Please, calm down. We're not—"
"Go away! NOW!" He slammed the door.
"Blistering Barnacles!" said the Captain.
After knocking the door many times and not receiving a response, they decided to head to another location. They headed off to the next locations, further and further from Vermont Studios. Snowy was starting to get tired with all the walking. In every address, the people from the apartments didn't respond, even though they knew that they were trying to hide from them. What exactly were they afraid of?
They finally arrived to see Joey, the original actor playing the gorilla. By the time they arrived at his address, it was nighttime. They arrived at a small apartment, one of the furthest locations from the studio, climbed up the narrow stairs to the second floor, and knocked on that door. Joey asked behind the door, "Yes, who is it?" he said with a slight accent from Little Italy, New York.
"Hello. Is this Joey Manola? I know this might seem inconvenient to you, but we're here to ask you about Vermont Studios."
After a long pause, Joey said, "I don't know nothin' about it."
"Come on! If you don't help us, then whatever might happen might threaten everyone in the studio!" said Jacq. "Please, I'm begging you."
"Hang on… Jacq? Is that you?"
"Um… yeah, that's me."
"I thought I recognized that voice on the phone."
"You didn't recognize me the first time?"
"No, I did, but at the moment I was… well, it's not important… Please… I can't talk to you now. I ain't a good time."
Tintin decided to speak to Joey and said, "Look. My name is Tintin. We're not here to threaten you. We just want to know something important."
Joey said after a short pause, "I'm sorry. I ain't no use to ya. I can't help ya."
"Then why did you sound so agitated in the phone?" asked Jacq. "Why didn't you just tell us that you didn't know anything? Why so stressed?"
"Whatever it is, we can help," said Haddock.
There was still no response. He was obviously hiding something. Tintin said, "Mr. Manola… Joey… we went to all the other understudies, they all quit and they all refuse to talk to us. It's no coincidence. We're sure there's some connection."
"They all quit?" thought Joey. He asked, "I read the newspapers. You're some kind of detective, Tintin?"
"No, I'm a reporter. But I do help the police once in a while."
"Ah… So, if I let ya in, can I really trust ya?"
"Of course you can, lad!" said Haddock. "This is Tintin we're talking about! No need to fear!"
After a few seconds Joey finally opened the door finally deciding that he was safe enough. Also with the same height and size as the Captain, yet curly black hair, he invited them in. They sat down in the slightly small, yet still comfortable apartment. It was an apartment with white walls, yet it had dark furniture and old pictures of his family in New York, which made the room appear darker than it really was.
He sat down in his old red couch, while the rest sat down in his dark brown sofa in front of him. "I don't know why this happened. I was just doin' my job."
"Tell us," said Tintin.
"About a week ago, I had just finished most of the filming from the movie. I was walkin' back home when… Some men stopped me." He said in a lower voice and tightened his fists. "And they beat me up."
"What?" They all said in unison.
"Yeah. I couldn't see their faces, because one of them blindfolded me, but I was pretty sure there was more than one man. They punched me a few times, and afterwards they said that if I were to ever get near Vermont Studios again, talk to anyone from the studio, or contacted anyone about this night, they'd kill me."
"Oh dear! That's dreadful!" said Tintin.
"I know. I was about to call the police when I came back home, but I didn't know if someone was following me. I was too scared to even think about it. So as I was told, I quit my job to stay away from the studio… and I refused to talk to anyone else about it."
"Do you have any idea who it could have been?" asked Tintin.
"Nope. Not a clue. But it ain't so bad! I might start my career in a bakery! I always wanted to do so! Actually, I wanted to be both an actor and to also bake my own special cupcakes! Wanna try some?" He went quickly to the kitchen and came back with medium-sized cupcakes with pink and white frostings on top, and flower designs on the top. The colors of the cupcakes contrasted with the colors of the apartment itself.
They later assured Joey that he'd be safe, and in Joey's request, they were not to tell the police about this, for the sake of his safety. Although it's most likely just to scare them, they'd never know: Someone might be able to infiltrate the police and find out that one of the men, including Joey, had confessed what had happened.
As they went downstairs, Jacq carrying a box of homemade cupcakes and eating the pink-frosted cupcake, they talked about it with each other. "So that's what probably happened," said Jacq still with some frosting on her upper lip. "Whoever threatened Joey also probably threatened the other men the same way." She licked the frosting out of her mouth and said, "OH MAN! Does this guy know how to make cupcakes!"
Then Tintin said with his finger tapping his chin, "The real question on my mind now is, to whomever did this, why didn't they just threaten Mr. Maroon himself? Force him to cancel the production?" Jacq, walking down the stairs behind the two men, took another big bite out of the cupcake, eating almost half of it. Tintin continued, "And it doesn't make sense for Mr. Maroon to be behind this, or else why make such threats in the first place? I feel he has something to do with all this, but I still don't know what."
Then Jacq stopped, still chewing. Tintin and Haddock looked behind and noticed her face. "Jacq?" asked Tintin.
"Oh my goodness…"
"What is it, las?" asked Haddock.
"This cupcake has cream inside of it!" She said showing her half eaten cupcake with white soft cream inside. "THAT'S SUCH A GREAT IDEA!" She proceeded to gobble the rest of the cupcake. She said with the mouth full, "BEST! CUPCAKES! EVER!" Tintin and Haddock gave an uneasy look at her. Then after she finished her cupcake, she said, "Anyway, Tintin, I'm on the same page. We should ask Mr. Maroon about what he knows about his." As she went downstairs and ate another cupcake, Haddock said to Tintin, "Make sure she doesn't eat too many."
They went to call Mr. Bucks and let him know that they discovered something important, but that he'd have to wait until tomorrow. "Please be patient, Mr. Bucks. We'll let you know as soon as we arrive," said Jacq on the phone booth. "Thank you. See ya. Good night." She hung up the phone and went out the phone booth to the men. "So… that was easy."
"We know," said Tintin and Haddock in unison.
"A bit too easy, in my book," said Snowy.
But just as the group walked back, someone hid in the shadow spying on them from afar.
A/N Part 2 Who could be the figure spying on the group? Who could've been the one behind all this? And why?
Sorry it took so long! I had to finish lots of essays for university. Sadly, because I had little time to finish this chapter, I couldn't make the chapter longer. Sorry if this chapter seems way too short. But now I need to finish some more assignments, and I'm travelling to Brazil in two weeks for a month, which means this won't be the only time I delay a chapter. So please, I beg for your patience. In the meantime, I left a hidden pattern on each chapter, except for chapters 1 and 2. Can you guess what it is?
Thank you all for supporting my fanfic, and I really love the fact you're all reading this!
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Hopefully, I'll see you all very soon! In case I don't see ya, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! BYE BYE FOR NOW!