Mirajane's hand covered her mouth. "Hold on…if that's the same person you met on the first day, it could very well be Perse's friend she mentioned before! He could have been part of the ruse from the beginning."

"Now that you mention it, I think he was one of the very first people through the door when we started," Lucy said. "He could have easily activated the chair then."

"Yes, it would make sense that he set all this up as soon as possible, and…he may have more help than just your renter. There was someone strange here a few days ago as well…" Cobra then told them of the beast-like woman he met outside the shop one day. He still wasn't entirely certain that she was connected but given everything else that had happened recently…he didn't want to leave it to chance.

Lucy's face took on hurt while Mirajane's grew sour with annoyance. "Why didn't you mention that right away?" she asked, arms crossed.

"Like I said, I didn't know if it was related or just another weird patron. I…" he looked at Lucy, "…thought I could take care of it if she came back." Her face had gone back to neutral, but he had a feeling that the hurt hadn't gone away.

Mirajane huffed. "Well, I suppose that's good to know, in hindsight. If that woman really is a part of this, I'm sure we'll see her again before long."

"Why do you think he's doing this in the first place?" Macbeth added. "Did it seem like he had a particular goal in mind when he was talking to you?"

Cobra thought about the way the man sounded on the first day, compared to how he acted yesterday. "He mentioned his 'dream' being fulfilled…and in the same breath seemed to imply that he wanted more. I think he's going to keep going by stealing via other channels now that this one is no longer viable. We need to stop him before that gets set up and find a way to give everyone who was affected back what was stolen from them."

The missing question how rang loudly in the enclosed space.