Chapter 12 Sinister and… Sparkly?

Lemmy's first reaction to this quiet, empty, phantom less display was to frown. He stood in place, doing nothing but frowning and keeping his eyes on the spot he had expected the dreaded phantom to be. All the while, he questioned this whole thing. It didn't make sense. It really didn't make sense.

"Wh… where'd they go?" Bob asked, his voice high and squeaky.

Ludwig shook his head. "I don't know." He walked over to Lemmy. "This is just… weird." He snorted. "Too weird really."

Lemmy nodded. Like he had previously thought, it didn't make sense. It made so little sense that, if someone were to come up to him and tell him about this sequence of events, he would think it was a made-up story. It was so outlandish, so bizarre and unorthodox, that not even someone who lived in such a fantastical place as the Mushroom World could fully wrap their head around it.

"You know," Ludwig said, "I think we should probably find out what they took before we try to tackle anything else." He turned toward Bob. Lemmy did the same thing, allowing himself to see the fright in the eyes of the clone and the seriousness in the eyes of the original. "Finding out that sort of thing might give us a clue as to what their motives are. At least, it will do a better job than trying to look for them."

Bob, despite looking like he was frozen in place, nodded. Together, all three koopas made their way back into the house. As Bob got right to work checking every room, Lemmy gave Ludwig a look while trying to combat all the questions and concerns in his mind.

"So…" Lemmy somehow managed to chuckle. "It wasn't Bob after all."

Ludwig snorted. "I could've told you that."

Lemmy shook his head, but not because of Ludwig's comment. "But… but here's the thing. Even though we now know that it wasn't Bob, we still don't know this phantom's motive or its origins." He pressed his lips together. "However, the fact that the phantom went after Bob specifically, after we had explicitly went to go question him, probably tells me that the phantom is following us around." He wrinkled his brow. "After all, Bowser's Castle and Bob's house are very far apart. Too far apart. There's no way that the phantom would explicitly target both unless it was keeping track of where the people in the first location head off to."

Ludwig shook a little when he heard that. "That is true." His eyes darted back and forth. "Oh man, doesn't that make me feel safe?" He tried to laugh, seal off his sarcastic line with a sign that it was supposed to raise the spirits of the people in the room. All it ended up doing, unfortunately, was make Lemmy feel even less safe. If Ludwig, a koopa who had superpowers, was afraid… well, what sane person would ever look at the situation without recognizing the danger?

"NOOO!"

Hearing Bob's cry, both Ludwig and Lemmy bolted over to the room. The followed the sound upstairs, to the hallway leading up to Bob's bedroom. What they saw was the clone, kneeling on his knees while aiming a dropped jaw and a tearful gaze along the wall lining the corridor.

"What did they take?" Ludwig asked.

Bob turned toward them, shaking like a frightened pooch. "My shoes!" He stood up to his full height. "They took all of my shoes! Every single last one!" He sniffled. "My entire collection… gone, just like that…"

Despite the sympathetic gaze that Ludwig gave to Bob, Lemmy felt confusion more than anything else. "Wait. Your shoes?" He looked at Bob. "No offense, but… why would those be so important?"

"You don't understand!" Bob trembled as he rose to stand up. "Those were my personal collection! They had been gathered together over the course of the past year! I spent a whole boatload of coins on them!"

In response to the confused look that Lemmy gave, Ludwig turned to face him. "Bob really likes shoes. They're kind of his thing."

"Ah." Lemmy said, finally starting to grasp what was being said. "I see." In a way, this was kind of similar to him and his sock monkeys. They held great nostalgic value, and definitely meant more to him than they meant to any random passerby or observer. This realization, in all honesty, got Lemmy's analytical gears turning.

"Hmm…" he tapped his foot, putting his hand to his chin as he considered things. "So this phantom steals items of personal value from their victim." He delved deeper into thought, so deep that he passed through depths that he normally wouldn't. "Items that don't have significant value to anyone else, nor items that can really be sold for large sums of money." He furrowed his brow. "So, if nothing else, I suppose we can cross 'getting rich quick' off of the list of possible motivations for our culprit."

"It would seem so," Ludwig said."Plus, I think it's safe to say a koopa was involved in this. It'd be hard for anybody else to carry this many shoes at once, so more than likely they put the belongings in their hammerspace."

"Hmm," Lemmy said. "Good point." He smiled at his brother. "So, I guess we have some sort of clue about the culprit now."

"Yep." Ludwig looked back over at the sulking Bob. "Still, it's extremely odd to me that they are stealing items like this. It's almost like this phantom has a personal connection to us."

THAT sentence stirred even more analytical gears in Lemmy's head. "Yes…" Suddenly, he gasped. "Wait." He pointed at Ludwig. "I knew it! I knew you were involved somehow."

Ludwig's jaw dropped before he groaned and rolled his eyes. "Lemmy, I told you it wasn't me!"

"Yeah, he did!" Bob said, stepping away from mourning the loss of his shoes for just a second. "And on top of that, you saw the phantom for yourself! You saw both of them in the same room at the exact same time! How could Ludwig possibly be involved in this?"

Lemmy snickered. "Well, I would agree that point does serve as a piece of evidence in proving Ludwig's innocence." He narrowed his gaze at the identical koopas. "But I don't buy it. Ludwig is definitely involved in this. He just chose an unorthodox method to approach this crime with."

Both Ludwig and Bob blinked, with Ludwig taking it a step further and putting his hands on his hips. "And what would that be?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lemmy smiled. "Why, by using the clone machine of course!"

Bob gasped. "Wait. Are… are you saying I'm responsible?"

Lemmy laughed. "No, you silly goose!" He looked right back at Ludwig. "No, Ludwig was much more sinister. He wanted a way to mess with us, a way of constructing a 'whodunit" sort of scenario. However, he also wanted to keep his hands clean, make himself look like he had nothing to do with any of the crimes being committed tonight." He stepped closer to Ludwig. "So, he used the clone machine. He created another clone of himself, a clone that he trained to commit these various atrocities while wearing a black cloak that he had constructed himself!" Lemmy puffed out his chest. "And that was who attacked Roy and Celia! That was who stole my sock monkeys! THAT was who stole Bob's shoes!"

Both Ludwig and Bob stared at Lemmy, their jaws practically touching the floor. All the while, Lemmy was left to feel like the smartest koopa in the whole world out of (supposedly) solving this very complex mystery (seriously, he couldn't believe how fast he did it! He must be some sort of analytical expert!).

That is, until Ludwig glared at him. "Lemmy…" he sharpened his glare to look even more incredulous. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Lemmy's heart raced. "No it's not! It's exactly what happened!" He looked Ludwig right in the squinty eyes. "It all makes sense! In fact, I dare you. I dare you to give me one argument as to why this isn't the case!"

Ludwig snorted. "Okay. Well, first, I can point out the logical inconsistency in your little 'aha' speech." He squinted at Lemmy, staring him down in a way that even he (the cynical Ludwig) had never done before. "If I wanted to make sure that nobody knew I was the secret mastermind in this scenario, why would I use the clone machine at all? The being I would make from that would look exactly like me. Therefore, when the phantom's identity actually is uncovered, then it would become plainly obvious that I was the one doing it, and my plan would fall apart." He snickered. "If I wanted nobody to suspect me, then I would more or less be shooting myself in the foot with the method you described."

Lemmy blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. After blinking his eyes out nonstop, he pulled away. "Okay. Okay, I see what you're saying." He sighed. "Your story checks out."

"Darn right it does." Ludwig stopped glaring at him. "Now, cane we please put the idea that I'm a suspect behind us once and for all?"

"Yes," Lemmy sighed. "Yes, we most certainly shall." He shook his head, taking his Shellock hat off and fidgeting with the rim. "But that still leaves us without any clues who the culprit is…"

"Well, why don't you guys examine the crime scene?" Bob asked. "No person can go through a place without leaving even a little bit of evidence of them being there. DNA strands. Footprints. Strands of hair or some sort of bodily fluid. If you search around this place, I have a feeling you'll find something."

Lemmy blinked at Bob. "Wow. You certainly know you're stuff when it comes to these sorts of things."

Bob chuckled. "I have been getting into murder mystery novels recently."

"And it's a good thing you have," Ludwig said. "I think searching for clues sounds like a great idea." He looked down at Lemmy. "You search inside the house. I'll search the yard."

Lemmy nodded. Within no time at all, both Koopas got straight to work. Lemmy had pulled a magnifying glass out of his hammerspace, using that to check every nook and cranny. He made sure to cover the entire pathway that the phantom likely would've traveled down when they were rushing to the door with Bob's shoes. He didn't let the magnifying glass be lowered away from his eye for even a single second. He just searched, searched, and searched.

But unfortunately, his search turned up fruitless. He didn't find anything in the hallways. Nor did he find anything significant in the kitchen. The only thing that he really saw were the pieces of a glass cup that had shattered when the phantom more than likely ran into them. Lemmy observed the pieces, puzzling over this and feeling less and less confident that he would solve the case.

"I don't get it," he said to Bob as he picked up and examined a shard. "You would think you would be right Bob, that our culprit would leave some kind of fingerprint." He placed that shard down and picked up another one. "But I don't see any physical evidence at…"

He stopped. Something on the shard caught his eyes. It was hard to see; in fact, Lemmy had to squint even while looking at it through the magnifying glass. However, it was definitely there.

"Bob, come look at this."

Bob came up, and he did a double take after squinting at the shard. "It… it looks like glitter."

"Yeah. Purple glitter." Lemmy looked at it in confusion. "Hmm. This is really strange. Why would any criminal worth their salt leave glitter on the scene of a crime?"

"I don't know," Bob said. He smirked. "I will tell you this though; this isn't like anything in any crime novel I've ever read."

Lemmy nodded. "Well, either way, we should probably preserve this and take this to a lab for analysis." He turned to Bob. "You don't happen to have any plastic bags here, do you?"

Bob smiled. He telekinetically opened a drawer on the other side of the kitchen, pulling a box full of plastic baggies out. Not letting his telekinetic hold go, he opened one of the bags before mentally lifting the plastic shard and putting it in. Before Lemmy could even ask him to, Bob put the other shards in the bag too, much to Lemmy's delight.

"Thanks!" Lemmy took the bag. "You know, that was smart of you, using telekinesis like that. It helps to keep the evidence in tact."

"Thanks." Bob grinned. "I'm just glad I could help."

Lemmy nodded. He put the bag in his hammerspace, deciding to search for more evidence. Before he could, however, Ludwig came back into the house.

"Did you guys find any clues?" he asked, his tone surprisingly urgent.

"Yeah." Lemmy furrowed his brow. "Why, is everything okay?"

Ludwig lifted his hand, revealing that he had his phone in it the whole time. "Iggy just called. We need to get back to the castle now." He shuddered. "There's been another incident."