Dilemma

Chaston Museum, Chaston, Cascoss, 10:34 A.M

Damien parked Daniel's car in the car park. It wasn't difficult finding a spot. There was about 100 customers for the museum. It was far less popular than the one in Everleason. Daniel thought because Chaston was such a big city, with familiar vibes with Fremantle back in Western Australia, that there would at least be a little bit more interest in the museum. But it was a museum, so Daniel shouldn't have expected more. Chaston may have had Fremantle vibes, it was nowhere near the ocean.

Daniel and Damien entered the museum. "Hello officers." Stated Frank Crystala. "How may I assist you?"

"Prince Crystala? What are you doing here?" Damien stated in an obvious state of shock.

"I was wondering where I saw your face." Daniel added. "You're in the papers."

"I'm working, what does it look like. I may be royalty, but that doesn't mean I can't live a normal life." Frank explained.

"So then, what do you do here?" Dan asked.

"I'm the curator's assistant." Frank replied.

"How fortuitous." Dan chuckled. "We were actually looking for him."

"What for? Are you looking into something? I know it can't be murder as your badges don't say 'homicide' at the moment." Frank noted.

"That's right. I'm surprised you haven't heard about it, police officers from all the major cities around Everleason, including this city, are swarming Everleason museum."

"I don't read the paper until I get home. It must have big if police from all over went there."

"Well, if you don't know about then you don't know, we have no reason to ask you about that, but we do have questions for John Kelvin, so please let us speak to him."

"He's in with the fake diamond. The rock and gems exhibit."

"Thank you." Damien announced. Damien left first and Daniel followed behind. The Chaston was a mirror image to Everleason museum, at least when it came to the rock and gem exhibit and the café. In Everleason museum, the rock and gems exhibit is in the far west section and the café is in the far east area, and Chaston museum was the opposite. The exhibits between the café and the rock and gems exhibit in the Chaston museum did not have the same titles of the exhibits between the café and the rock and gems exhibit in Everleason.

Daniel and Damien soon arrived in the rock and gem exhibit. Other than the curator who was dressed far fancier than necessary, there were only five other visitors in the room, looking, pointing, attempting to touch the exhibits but being yelled at by a guard.

John Kelvin had golden hair with glitter in it. It went down to his shoulders but no further, it was so clearly dyed. His clothes were purple and velvet, they shimmered in the light. Daniel was surprised that the man didn't add gold jewelry to his person to make the image complete. Maybe he didn't want people to think he was a pimp.

Dan and Damien walked up to him almost immediately. The case that held the gem was right beside him, he was in the upper left corner of the room, so Dan had to wonder why he had placed the display in such an area.

"I suppose you are John Kelvin?" Daniel asked.

"Is it that obvious?" John replied in a smooth voice.

"You are way too overdressed, yeesh!" Damien stated.

"Oh, it's just something that popped out at me when I opened my drawer this morning."John laughed.

"You have had this a while, there's a few tears on it." Daniel noted after a short examination.

"I bought this number when I had more money in my pocket than dreams in my heart. I don't regret getting it." John replied.

"We have a question for you." Damien stated.

"Oh really? What is it?" John asked.

"Did you steal the giant Emerald from the Everleason museum?" Dan asked.

"That was an emerald? All the pamphlets say it was a diamond." John stated with surprise. Daniel couldn't be sure if it was genuine or not.

"It says its an emerald in the small print." Daniel added.

"Well, not like I'd know that. The letters on the front of that pamphlet are so large I don't need to wear my reading glasses to understand what they say." John stated.

"So you need glasses to read small print?" Damien noted.

"Always had."John replied.

"So did you steal that emerald or not?" Daniel inquired again.

"Well if I did, I would have replaced it with my fake diamond, but if you check it now, you'll see that it's a fake." John stated and handed them a loupe, the tool jewellers use to examine gems.

The trio moved closer to the display case. John opened the lock with the key, this didn't trigger the alarm of course, and opened the door. Damien touched it and shook his head. There was no illusion powers changing its appearance. Daniel looked though the loupe, but this gemstone was indeed fake and made from glass.

"So are you satisfied?" John asked.

Daniel and Damien both sighed with noticeable sadness. They thought they were on to something. But everything had just been disproven.

"I suppose making you a suspect was a step too far." Daniel admitted.

"Yeah. Sometimes you can not know that you don't have all your ducks in a row." Damien added.

John locked the display and looked at both of the detectives. "Now if you don't mind, I have a business to run."

Daniel and Damien left the museum with sadness, anger and frustration.

Damien called Captain Edwin's phone while Daniel attacked his car in frustration. "Oh, no Daniel! Don't do that!"

"Why not? It's my car, and it will be fixed by next week anyway." Daniel replied.

"What's going on?" Edwin stated.

"Daniel is just upset that we've been pushed back to square one. Could you please put Philece on the phone? She was very helpful earlier." Damien explained.

"Yes, she's still here and she has a few updates for you." Edwin added and then he handed his phone to Philece.

"Hello?" Philece stated.

"Hi, Philece, Daniel is punching and kicking his car." Damien reported.

"Uh, oh. I guess he didn't like what he found when he got to Chaston museum." She stated, and laughed. "I guess that John Kelvin is no longer on the suspect list."

"Well we have four other suspects anyway." Damien added.

"Oh really?" She noted in a curious tone. "I thought you said you only knew one person who fit the four criteria Dan provided and we know he's not guilty."

"We haven't met the other four suspects yet, but we know they exist."

"Oh, who are they? I might be able to help."

"Sorry, but that is between Ryan, Daniel and I."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he even disabled our recording devices so that nobody else but us knew who they are."

"Dang. I guess he trusts you most."

"You had some updates for us?"

"Oh yes, a system agent did the test and he said that the signature was unidentifiable, so someone without the illusion powers used an illusion stone to create the illusion on the stone."

"You know you didn't have to add that last part."

"Oh right, you already had that knowledge because you're a Rhombodian after all."

"Well, thanks for the help. We'll see you later." Damien hang up the phone and then he noticed that a thin tree was now snapped halfway up it's thin trunk. "What happened?" Damien exclaimed with shock.

"I may have kicked that tree a bit too hard." Daniel remarked.

"What kind of fifty year old human are you!" He announced.

Daniel shrugged and entered the passenger side of his car. There was a bit of damage to his vehicle now. Damien looked sadly at the vehicle. It wasn't even his and he felt sad that such a shiny car could have such damage.

Damien caressed the hood, and he didn't notice Daniel getting a look of impatience on his face. Daniel honked the horn and Damien snapped out of his daze and sat in the driver's seat.

"I'm so sorry Dan." Damien stated.

"It's not your fault. I let myself get ahead of myself. I don't like this case, not one bit. Now we have to investigate Ryan's family. He seemed so innocent. I can't believe he thinks one of his own family committed such a crime. You saw how many officers were at Everleason museum." Dan replied.

"Yes. I was there. Anything is possible. Besides, now we know for sure that whoever swiped the emerald could read that small print." Damien explained.

"I suppose that could be true." Daniel stated downheartedly. "I just can't believe I was wrong." He added in a sadder tone.

Damien felt sorry for him. John Kelvin was a good prime suspect, but now they had to remove him from their list. Daniel wondered if he missed something. Could the one who took the emerald really have been one of the members of his family.

Damien began driving Daniel's vehicle. They headed in the direction of Ryan's house. It was back in Everleason.

#

Corkz's residence, 55 Shifting Lane, Everleason, Cascoss, 11:00 A.M

Daniel and Damien approached the door and knocked on it.

Ryan's wife, Diane opened up the door. She looked no older than a forty year old lady. Her hair was short and she was short too. The top of her head reached the bottom of Daniel's neck.

"Oh, you must be Daniel Smith, my husband told me to expect you." Diane announced. "Why don't you come in and make yourself comfortable?"

Daniel and Damien entered the two-story domicile. The walls were a beautiful sky blue colour. Diane went to the left and into the kitchen. She started heating up the kettle. "Would you like anything to drink?"

Diane asked in a inquiring tone.

"I'll have coffee." Stated Damien.

"I'll have some earl grey tea if you have any." Daniel added.

"You're in luck Dan, you don't mind me calling you Dan? Anyway I have earl grey tea." Diane replied.

"You may call me Dan. It's all fine." Daniel replied.

"So how's your investigation going, did you find the person who has been taking our things and the diamond?" Diane asked.

"I see Ryan isn't the only one who thinks that the one stealing from this house is the one who also took the Emerald." Daniel noted.

"How did you know it was taken?" Damien added.

"Ryan told me about it." Diane added.

"Well," Dan replied. "We did have one lead. Someone outside this family who might of taken the gem, but when we talked to them it turned out to be a dead end."

"Oh really?" Diane announced and she returned with Damien's coffee, some cream and some sugar. "Your tea will be ready soon, I didn't know how you took your coffee so it's pretty black."

Damien added some cream and sugar to his coffee and raised it like he was toasting someone. "It's all right. Now it's to my preferences." He laughed.

"You know Dan, I bet you came up with a brilliant deduction." Diane added.

"He did." Damien added. "It was something out of fantasy, but it explained everything, but he was wrong." Damien added.

"Daniel Smith wrong? I can't believe that." She said as she dusted her hands and headed back to the kitchen.

"Neither can I." Damien added.

"Are you done making me feel bad? Yes I got something wrong, I'm human. I wish I could say the same about both of you." Daniel explained.

"We may be Rhombodians, but we are just as human as you. I mean look at Adam Bolmer, he's a dragon and his more human than both of us combined." Damien replied.

"He's your earl grey Daniel." Diane stated and returned with Dan's tea. "I hope it's to your liking."

Daniel took a sip. "It's pretty good." Daniel noted.

"Thank you. I hope I didn't ruin your conversation." Diane retorted.

"That's okay. That was a conversation I rather not be having." Daniel admitted. "So about the things that were stolen, are you sure they were stolen by someone in this family."

"It had to be one of our children. It certainly wasn't me, I'd remember it." Diane explained. "The watch went missing first, I left it on the table before my husband took a shower and I showered after him, when he checked on it, it was gone. I put the class ring in the polisher we have down stairs but it wasn't there when the polisher's timer expired. As for the vase, it was always above the fire place, but it's gone now. We've looked all over the house and couldn't find any of it. There was no real big issues. The items that were taken weren't that expensive but, it's the memories they hid that we want back."

"Are you certain it wasn't an outsider?" Damien asked.

"Our house may have some really old fashioned protection." Diane explained. "But it is very strong. Once the protection is in place nobody can get in or out without someone else in the house knowing. Our protection was active during the time all three objects went missing, which is why my husband believes that one of our children committed the crime."

"But he had you as a suspect." Damien added.

"My husband has always had trouble with misspeaking, he has adjusted himself nicely, but it seams you had catches him one of those moments. He and I were always together when the incidents happened. I was in the bathroom while he was taking his shower, waiting for my turn. When the ring was taken we were having diner in our bedroom, so we don't know who went down to the basement to take the ring. When the vase went missing we were watching the tv in the lounge room, and the fire place was across the house in a diagonal line." Diane elaborated.

"You checked all your children's rooms?" Daniel asked.

"Every nook and cranny. We couldn't find them. We even shook them down, they were carrying blue dice, but none of them contained what we were looking for. We wouldn't even had to press the one pip side as an image of the first item absorbed into a blue dice appears on the six pip side." Diane elaborated.

Daniel nodded his head. "As a user of blue dice myself, I was aware of that fact." Daniel added.

"Well, that's not much to go on, is it?" Damien noted.

"Even after all that explaining, none of that helps. Why don't we all go out and get some fresh air." Daniel stated.

"Good idea. I was about to go shopping. I'll gather up my children and you can get your car ready Daniel." Diane added.

"But I won't be able to fit everyone in." Daniel stated. "My car can only carry up to five and Damien is my partner, I can't just leave him hanging. Besides he knows these roads better than I do."

"I'll be driving my kids. If you'd like to go off ahead, would you meet me at 67 Muranice Avenue, that's the address of Endow shopping center in the suburb of Endow." Diane explained.

Daniel nodded. "You get that Damien?"

"I did." Damien replied.

"Then let's head off. Hopefully some shopping will help us relax and clear our heads and then the mystery will finally reveal itself." Daniel proclaimed.

"That's the spirit Dan. Let's get going." Damien announced cheerfully. They entered Daniel's car and Damien drove the car in the direction of Endow.

Diane gathered her three children. The oldest was Sherry, she was 16 years old in earth years. Brian and Oliver were twins. Both of them were 14 years old in earth years.