Chapter 15: Identity Parade
"Okay, let's go over this again," Chief Jacaré said to Larson, who was lying in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around his chest. "What exactly happened in the junkyard between you and Vanessa?"
"I've told you everything twice," Larson said irritably. "Vanessa showed me Roxana's body, claiming she was an animatronic, and then she shot me in the gut. When I came to, Roxana's body was gone and that threatening note was left in my coat pocket."
"And you think Vanessa wrote the note?" Jacaré asked.
"Who else could have written it?" Larson snapped. "You should be trying to catch Vanessa instead of wasting your time questioning me! She's dangerous and mentally unstable."
Jacaré broke the pencil in his fist and stood up. "Larson, I'm trying to gather as much information as I can to go after this lunatic. But I don't appreciate your attitude right now! And frankly, I'm not sure I entirely believe your story. So I'm putting you on suspension for the next two weeks to clear your head."
"You can't do that to me!" Larson tried to sit up in bed, but the pain from his side made him lie back down. "Assuming Fazbear Entertainment is making humanoid animatronics and trying to pass them off as real people, that could lead to all sorts of legal problems if one of them kills a real person. That's why I've got to find Freddy."
"Freddy is not your concern. And neither is Vanessa," Jacaré said, walking away. "I'll find them both myself!"
After watching the footage on the camera, Fredi was able to clearly remember what happened during the attack. Yet he was frustrated his memories from the pizzaplex were still fuzzy. Though particularly with the security guard and her connection to the person in the white rabbit costume who confronted him on the roof. Ozzie tried to help him remember by bringing up several articles on the pizzaplex, which described various children disappearing and the fire that burned most of the building down. G was just as silent as ever during all this, but he kept looking at Fredi with a guilty expression. Then Ozzie took the camera footage and cross-referenced the city's database to find the remaining attackers' identities.
"So I know these aren't their real names, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure out which animatronic they are based on their pictures," Ozzie said to Fredi and pulled up several images. The first pair of images were a still frame Roxana in her red-and-black get-up from the camera footage and then her campaign picture where she wore the red dress.
"Let's start with Roxana Lupine, whom you know as Roxanne 'Roxy' Wolf," Ozzie began. "She was a mayoral candidate who wanted to integrate more robots into the workforce, which made her a controversial figure to the blue collar workers that feared these robots would take away their jobs."
"Course what they don't know is Fazbear's animatronics are already doing that at the Freddy's Cafe restaurants," G said, breaking his silence much to Fredi and Ozzie's surprise.
"Even if Roxy took a pro-robot stance, I think she ran for mayor to mostly satisfy her ego," Fredi said. "Because she talked to herself a lot at the pizzaplex and believed she was better than the rest of us."
"I see. But that further convinces me Fazbear was banking on Roxana's election as Mayor to make it easier for them to make humanoid animatronics and not deal with any legal repercussions if an animatronic should injure or kill someone," Ozzie responded. He then brought up images of the police chief and his still frame from the camera footage. "This is Monro Jacaré, who became the new police chief of Endopolis' police department a few years ago. Many have criticized his methods for being too brutal. And he endorsed Roxana for her nomination, which would make sense if he was an animatronic."
"He is," Fredi stated. "Monro's real name is Montgomery 'Monty' Gator, and he had aggression problems at the pizzaplex. He also replaced my friend Bonnie as bass guitarist for the band I sang in after Bonnie mysteriously disappeared."
"Do you think Monty had something to do with Bonnie's disappearance?" G asked.
Fredi paused with a concerned look on his face. "I think he did, but there was no way I could prove it. Plus, I didn't have much of a say in how things ran at the pizzaplex."
"The other two attackers are Chicana Gladstone and Sunny Dewdrop," Ozzie interjected, showing images of the white-haired girl and the man with the crooked face from Fredi's flashback. "Chicana doesn't have a job, but she has mukbang videos on the internet. She became controversial after she started eating literal garbage in her videos, and the kids started imitating her causing parents to complain."
"Glamrock Chica ate garbage, so Chicana has to be her," Fredi guessed. "And the crooked-faced man is Sun, who was also known as the Daycare Attendant."
"So he took care of the little kids?" Ozzie assumed. When Fredi nodded, Ozzie chuckled. "That's ironic. Because his official occupation is a child psychiatrist."
"I remember the Daycare Attendant," G said, clenching his shoulders. "He gave me the creeps."
This answer surprised Fredi. "So you are Gregory?"
Reluctantly, G nodded. "I didn't want to admit it because I couldn't believe you were Glamrock Freddy. You look so different now, and I saw you die. So naturally, I thought you were gone forever."
"You mean, when I fell off the roof of the pizzaplex?"
G nodded again. "Every part of you was broken. And then you said, 'You will always be my superstar' before shutting down permanently."
"So if you were there, then you know why I was attacked by a person in a white rabbit costume. Do you know who that person was?"
Before G could answer, a series of sharp knocks came from the door. Ozzie got up from the table and looked through the peephole. When he looked back at Fredi and G, his eyes were extremely wide.
To be continued…
