A/N: A shout out to my anonymous reviewer! Yes, things are about to get weirder... Glad you liked it. :)
Chapter 4
The mayor had made sure the door to his office was closed as the four people adjourned for their meeting. It had been confirmed that the body Corporal Roth had found was Sarah Negrete. Her parents had come down to the mayor's office and were a mess. The undertaker had promised to hold onto the body during the funeral preparations but did not mention to the parents that Elphaba and town doctor, Doctor Howat, wanted to look at the body after this meeting.
"Since I only had a cursory look at Sarah, I cannot say she was murdered for certain. I would agree that clean feet and wearing only undergarments certainly points in that direction," Chief Celli spoke first.
"What exactly is the circumstance of her disappearance?" Fiyero wanted to know.
"Her parents found her bed empty a couple of mornings ago. The fact that she was not found in her nightgown would suggest that she maybe never got into it or changed her clothes before leaving the house," Celli explained.
"Teenage girl sneaking out of the house. Not exactly uncommon," Elphaba said.
"No, but Sarah never did anything wrong. She would apologize after saying darn. This girl was not the type to worry about," the Chief said.
"So, you think someone tricked her?" Fiyero wondered.
"I'm sure of it. We found shoeprints at the farm that did not belong to the family or the farmhands. They were next to prints that could have matched the shoes that Sarah normally wore. We couldn't compare shoeprints as her shoes are missing," Celli told them.
"What kind of shoes?" Elphaba wanted to know.
"They would appear to be a work boot, but the size suggests a small man or a female. Someone with small feet," the Chief said. More and more Elphaba could understand why the mayor had made that comment about the Witch of Ugabu.
"We heard that some odd things had been going on in your town," Fiyero wanted to see if he could get the Chief to admit what the mayor had been talking about earlier.
"Normally, we're pretty quiet but admittedly over this past week, we've had more disturbances than usual. A few drunken disorderlys, not unusual, but we had a few break-ins. Mostly what was taken was food, clothing, and random items that the homeowners couldn't understand. We don't have a large, unhoused population here. Neighbors here share so break-ins are odd," Celli explained.
"You're forgetting that dead goat that was found," Mayor Smythe gave him a look.
"Dead goat?" Elphaba knew that some magic required animal sacrifice but it was rarely practiced anymore.
"Farmer Pepper found one of his goats drained of its blood. None of the meat was taken. Someone managed to get into his barn, take the goat, without waking the others, and then snuck by the dog," Smythe said.
"I'm not convinced it wasn't a member of the family," the Chief spoke up. Elphaba gave Fiyero a look. This was definitely weird and could definitely lead them to a possible witch.
"We need to send a letter to Lady Glinda. We will be here for a few days," the Prince announced.
"We can handle this sir," Chief Celli said.
"You have a possibly murdered teenager and the possibility of someone causing trouble. I'm not suggesting we bring in the Gale Force from the nearby detachment but what I am suggesting is that we let Miss Elphaba look at the girl's body and the goat – if you still have it," Fiyero told them.
"I shall get you our trusty mail Pigeon," Mayor Smythe offered.
"Chief, if you could lead me to the undertakers, I would appreciate it," Elphaba said.
"Take Roth with you," Fiyero did not want to leave his future wife without backup. So far everyone had been fairly accepting of the former "Wicked Witch" but there were not so open-minded people everywhere.
"I shall snag him," she promised before she and the Chief left the room.
To Be Continued…