Chapter Two: Princess Daisy
The Grand Mushroom Hotel, located in the eastern district of Toad Town.
Princess Daisy of Sarasaland laid sprawled out on a coverless mattress, arms tied with rope to the poles of a usually fancy bed and head messily chopped away from the body. Her face showed pure shock, her mouth slightly open, eyes that had been widened now slightly slumped: a look of inevitable surprise only capable in death. Her crown was missing. The blood that had gorged from Daisy's neck had soaked incredibly deep into the bed's mattress.
"I don't know what happened!" Daisy's personal servant, Birdo, squealed. "I was out of the hotel for the day in order, in order to get some refreshments, but, but, when I got back to the room-!"
"What kind of refreshments?" Mario questioned. He wasn't sure what exactly to ask.
"What kind of…what kind of refreshments?" Birdo shrieked hysterically. "What kind of question is that?!"
"Calm down, lady!" Mario snapped his fingers loudly. The sound echoed through the room like a bone snapping. "Just tell me what you were buying!"
"Food! Snacks!" Birdo cried. "We, we hadn't been in the, the Mushroom Kingdom for a long time, so we wanted some of the, some of the delicacies here!"
Mario waited for some further answer, but nothing came. Then again, what else had he been expecting? "Oh."
Birdo was clearly suspicious, easily suspect number one. She was the only other person who had access to Daisy's room, having the only other key. Unfortunately, there were two problems there: the door had been broken into, and the window looking out into the small garden outside had been shattered. The pieces of glass lay outside, so it was clear that the door had been broken into, and then the murderer had jumped through the window. Probably.
Birdo- now she's an interesting case. Mario thought distractedly. We used to be enemies, and then she changed. She changed her role- from enemy to some strange kind of party guest. How the hell did that happen? I always meant to ask her about that. He was getting the feeling again of a multitude of strings being attached to his arms and legs.
"Aa-HAH! You must be the murderer of Larry Koopa!" Detective Pennington barged in, pointing viciously at Birdo with a flipper. "And now you've murdered the dear Princess Daisy!"
"Pennington," Mario said with a growl, preparing to tell the overeager detective to shut up and get out. There was almost no way Birdo was the killer- and there was no reason for Iggy and Daisy's murders to be linked, other than the fact that they were both strangely vicious for the Mushroom Kingdom. It was a coincidence that Iggy's body had been found just a few hours earlier; he'd had to have been dead for at least three days based on the water and fish-inflicted damage to his body. There was no reason for Birdo to be connected to that.
No- Birdo had only just arrived in town a few days ago, hadn't she? She and Daisy had come in on the Mushroom Kingdom's famous Excess Express, reporters swarming them for the first few hours after their arrival. The reporters had remained around them like flies. Unless Birdo had snuck off somehow, she had a watertight alibi for Iggy…no pun intended. Not to mention motive…
It didn't matter anyway. Everyone could sense the tension in the room. The toad police wanted to arrest someone, and at least with this murder there was a clear suspect. Despite his lack of rank, Mario could sense all eyes on him, waiting for the order.
He threw one hand up carelessly in the air. "Go ahead." Whatever. He just needed to have some faith that he'd find the real killer soon enough- at least, the killer responsible for what had happened to Daisy.
"C-c-cuff 'im…er, uh, her…" Captain Toad ordered as nervously as usual. Birdo shot him a furious look before a heavyset police toad grabbed Birdo's arms from behind and handcuffed them together.
Birdo begin struggling immediately. "What are you, you doing!?"
"Birdo," Captain Toad declared after stepping back a few feet. "Y-y-you are under the arrest for, uh, the murders of Iggy…"
Mario shook his head.
"Uh, I m-mean, you are under the arrest for the murder of Princess Daisy of Sarasaland." Captain Toad continued on. "You have the right to remain silent when questioned; anything you say or do may be used against you…"
"You can't FUCKING DO THIS!" Birdo suddenly screamed, causing everyone in the room to jump, Captain Toad managing to even higher than Mario.
"…in a, in a…" Captain Toad struggled, sudden panic overwhelming him. He gestured to Toadbert to continue for him, and then he left the room in a hurry. Mario scowled and after glancing over at the crime scene for another few seconds, followed. It had been exciting at first: seeing the body, but now he wanted to be out of the room. He'd leave Pennington to investigate with his usual nonsense.
Rope tied Daisy's arms to the bed…if rope was used to strangle Iggy, than that'd be a connection, wouldn't it?
"Mario." He was stopped in the hotel lobby by Captain Toad, who looked oddly concerned. "A-are you alright?"
"What?" Mario asked bluntly. He felt perfectly fine. Did he look like he was panicking or something? Heck, he should've been the one asking the question to Toad. "I'm great, I feel like I have seven lives. Why?"
"You…you seem stiff, Mario," Captain Toad said nervously. "I…I don't know. You're h-hardly reacting to this." He shifted. "Er, I mean, I don't mean to sound, er…"
Princess Daisy was a personal friend of mine, wasn't she? Mario thought miserably in his head. But I don't feel any different than usual. What does that mean? Does that mean I don't really care? Or does it mean that even before this had happened, I already felt like a friend had died? That wasn't from Iggy, was it?
Then again, who was Daisy to me anyway? She played games with us, and I even rescued her once…but then, what else? Did we even really like each other? Were we just pretending to be friendly? To align our kingdoms? I feel like I hardly even knew anything about her.
"Mario, I'm r-really sorry!" Captain Toad butted into his thoughts. "I, I wasn't thinking…!"
"It's nothing…" Mario said tiredly. "Was there anything else? I really need to get somewhere." He really needed a drink at Podley's.
Captain Toad fidgeted. "No…well, actually, um…"
Birdo, thrashing and screaming, interrupted them. Birdo and several police toads, Pennington not among them, headed for the front door of the hotel. Once they were out, and the serene lobby was quiet again, Captain Toad turned seriously to face Mario.
"M-Mario, I have a kind of instinct for"-He cleared his throat at this point-"…for certain things, and… I feel like Birdo was lying."
"You think she killed Larry and Daisy?" Mario shrugged.
"N-not necessarily…but," Captain Toad looked around nervously, Mario wasn't sure for what. "I'm sure she was lying about what she was out purchasing when Princess Daisy was murdered."
That was oddly specific, but then Birdo hadn't said much, had she? She was going to be questioned further down at the police station, at least…
"So you think she was lying about what she bought…but not that she was buying something?" Mario asked skeptically.
"I'm not sure…" Captain Toad looked around again, and then shook his head. He still seemed to be incredibly nervous about something. "I…I don't know. Um…I'll see you later at t-the station?"
"Uh…" Mario was surprised by the sudden end in the conversation. "Yes…tomorrow." After his hard drink he wanted to investigate Larry's death a bit more.
"G-got it." Captain Toad nodded almost imperceptibly and then began walking away. Mario was still standing in thought when Captain Toad turned back for a moment.
"T-terrible this had to happen the week before the Kart Tournament, huh?"
It was an odd detail for Toad to bring up, but when Mario thought about it, Princess Daisy had been planning to attend, hadn't she? In fact, that was why she had come to Mushroom City.
Mario sighed as Captain Toad finally left the building. What a mess. What a goddamn mess.
And then even worse: he remembered he'd have to tell Luigi about what had happened.
/A/N/: This story follows two major themes: the mystery of the murders, and some realizations Mario begins to have about the world he lives in. The murder mystery is more important overall, but expect the narrative to also be affected by the other theme of the story. Thanks for reading!