An Unexpected Solution + Aftermath

67 Muranice Rd, Endow Shopping complex, Endow, Cascoss, 11:32 A.M

Daniel thought about which member of the family could have taken the watch, ring and the vase. Daniel thought and thought, but there appeared to be no clear answers. Damien parked Dan's car in a spot in front of the path to the entrance. Diane parked her car in a disabled spot and placed her placard in the window. Immediately three suspects became two as Diane took out a wheelchair and helped Oliver get into it.

Daniel and Damien went up to her. "Which of your sons is that?" Dan inquired.

"I'm Oliver." Oliver stated. "My twin is Brian."

"Really now, why are you in a wheel chair?" Daniel inquired.

"Bike accident, I was riding and I fell and broke some bones in my legs, I was in hospital a few days. Mum and Dad had to put in an elevator so I could get to my room." Oliver explained.

"I see," Dan responded and he looked over at Diane. "You didn't tell me Oliver was in a wheelchair."

"That's because you didn't ask." Diane retorted.

"Does that elevator you installed go to the basement?" Daniel asked.

"Of course, it doesn't, there's not much down there, so Oliver had no reason to visit it." Diane elaborated.

Daniel nodded.

"Dan, can we go in now? Diane isn't the only one who needs to do their shopping." Damien interjected.

"Sorry, yes, let's go." Daniel announced.

"Mum?" Sherry announced. "Why are the police with us?"

"They are shopping." Diane stated, she tried to use an honest tone, but somehow Sherry knew she was lying.

They entered the shopping complex and went to Phillip's, a grocery chain on Rhombodian. They entered the grocery shop. There was a lot of things in the shop. There were isles for many things, including an isle containing foods and drinks from all over Earth.

Daniel saw the makeup section and separated from Damien and the rest of his group. He looked at the lipstick and noted there was six tubes of 'Midnight red' lipstick, it was Elizabeth Everstone's favorite colour. So, Daniel grabbed one and went to the counter to buy it.

"Midnight red? Good choice sir." Clara the cashier noted.

"It's for my wife." Dan responded.

"She has exquisite taste." Clara chuckled. "It's not our most popular colour, but a lot of people do purchase it."

Daniel nodded and he took a receipt. He returned back into the store and noticed Sherry in the makeup section. She was holding lipstick in her hand, suddenly she dropped the lipstick, Daniel went over to her.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asked.

"I'm perfectly fine Dr. Smith." Sherry responded with irritation. "I'm just getting the lipstick I dropped, it went under the display."

Sherry picked up the tube of Midnight red that she dropped and put it back on the display. Daniel noted that there were four tubes of midnight red now, but he thought nothing of it.

Sherry moved away and looked for her mother and brothers, the rest of her family was being followed at a distance by the watchful eye of Damien Thrifter.

Daniel noticed that the display was in a state of slight disarray, he straightened it out.

"Excuse me sir?" Stated a little old lady named Margaret.

"Yes?" Daniel stated as he turned to the old lass.

"Oh, I thought you were a member of the Shop Assistant Program. But you are an officer of the EPD!" She noted with a tone of embarrassment. "I wanted to know where to find something, but I guess you can't help."

"Oh, but I can. SAP is under the control of FORMAL, same badges, same company." Dan added.

"Yes, I know... wait! If you're with FORMAL then you can get help for me!" Margaret announced with a sweet tone of realization.

Daniel nodded. Daniel then took out his walkie-talkie and asked for a member of SAP to meet him in the makeup aisle. A few seconds later a young man showed up and noticed the lost lady, she told him what she was looking for and the boy led her away, they both thanked Daniel as they left.

Daniel was happy, at least he helped one person today, he just hoped that he could now help Ryan. He must have been feeling terrible about one of his children being a thief. But did one of them take the emerald?

Soon Damien and Diane started cashing out, they both had a trolley load of miscellaneous items each. Dan saw Damien's trolley and saw that he had a ton of snacks in there.

"Damien, can you afford all of that?" Daniel inquired.

"I work with an hourly wage with FORMAL, of course I can afford it." Damien added.

Daniel shrugged.

Soon they were out of the shopping centre, Daniel's mind was still not clear. He was still wondering what he could be missing, what could the answer be. He was frustrated. The cool crisp air, the nice warm star, the birds singing in the trees, none of it helped. Daniel felt like he was lost out at sea with no lifeboats or buoys in sight. He knew there was a detail that he had overlooked, but what could that detail be?

Damien and Dan entered Daniel's car and Diane gathered her family back in her car. Diane got out of the lot first and Daniel and Damien followed behind her.

#

Cortz's residence, 12:01 P.M

Diane parked her car and Damien parked Daniel's car across the road. Daniel left the car and went up to Diane's car.

"Dan, will you be a deer and help me with all this shopping?" Diane asked kindly.

"Certainly." Daniel proclaimed and helped her with the shopping.

On their second trip Diane decided that doing it in silence would not do. "So," Diane stated. "I heard you bought some midnight red."

Daniel nodded over the bag he was carrying. "It's for my wife."

"How kind of you. I have some midnight red myself you know. My tube is two weeks old now." Diane elaborated as she stowed the bag she was carrying in the corner of the kitchen, and Daniel placed the bag he was carrying next to it. "In fact, do I look like I need a touch up?"

"Looks like you do." Dan smiled.

Diane took her tube of midnight red lipstick from her purse and started applying it to her lips, suddenly Daniel noticed something odd, the sticker was peeling, and the lipstick part that Diane was applying looked like new.

"May I see that?" Dan asked.

"If you must." Diane replied.

Daniel twisted the bottom and he extended the lipstick to its full length. Diane gasped in shock as she too realised what happened.

Daniel peeled of the sticker to see that there was a sticker beneath. "Diane, I hate to say this, but I know who in your family has been making things go missing."

Damien gathered up the four family members below the staircase.

"Good afternoon, children." Daniel announced. "You may not be aware of it, but your parents suspected one of you was a thief, and unfortunately, they were right."

All three children gasped.

"But which one of us did it?" Brian asked.

Daniel pointed his finger at Sherry. "Her."

"Me?" Sherry stated with a mix of shock and anger.

"Yes, I believe you have kleptomania. You see, there's one assumption I made that mislead me. I thought that the items that were stolen belonged to Ryan. I never asked who truly owned them." Daniel explained.

"No, you didn't." Diane added. "In fact, all of those items were mine." Diane stated.

"It wasn't until I saw Diane's tube of midnight red that everything fell into place, you must have realised your issue, but you had a problem, we were watching you, so that when you stole your next item you had to be cleaver. You dropped two tubes of Midnight Red at the shop and hid one on you and put the other back, and to prevent anyone from noticing you took the tube your mother had in her bag and peeled the sticker off and placed it on the newer tube." Daniel stated.

Everyone looked at Sherry, and Sherry only looked sad. "Yes," she spoke finally, "I did it, I stole those items, I didn't even realise I was doing it. My brothers warned me that something odd was going on and I looked in my room and found the stolen items. I put them in the safe behind the picture above our fireplace. My father would never have looked there as there was only a gun in there. But now that I have been revealed, I will return everything I stole."

Sherry went to the safe and retrieved three blue dice and the half-used tube of midnight red lipstick and gave them all to her mother. "I'm so sorry, I didn't even realise I was a kleptomaniac until recently. To make it up to you, I will make a movie for you." Sherry announced.

"You're going to make a movie?" Damien asked. "I don't know, it may take you a while."

"No, it won't, I'll be creating one using my illusion abilities." Sherry explained with a smile, a huge burden had finally been lifted of her shoulders and she was way more relaxed, she didn't even realise what Damien was actually saying.

Daniel sat down a chair that was turned away from the phone in the foyer, and he put his hand on his head as he started to realise something. "You have illusion powers?" Dan asked.

"Yes, everyone in our family does." Oliver iterated.

"Damien, they have illusion powers!" Daniel announced.

"Yeah, so they say." Damien announced.

"You didn't tell me they had illusion powers."

"Well, the only time I would have been able to tell would be during that drive, this house and that store were under power cancelling crystals, my power wasn't able to work." Damien elaborated. "In order for my ability to work, I need a clear vision path or to touch an individual. But if my power sees a PCC field then anyone, I'm looking at through that field could keep that power hidden because my power can't pierce through the PCC field. But I don't see why them having illusion powers is of any relevance."

Daniel perked his eye and gave him a look as if he was saying 'really?'

Damien slapped his face as he realised the same thing Daniel concluded mere moments ago. "They have illusion abilities. None of them could have stolen the emerald."

"That's right, because only an unknown signature was found on the fake gem in the museum, if one of them did it, there would be two, unless I'm wrong." Daniel added.

"No, you're right." Damien announced. "So, now we have no suspects."

Daniel shook his head and looked around and noticed some artifacts on the wall. "What are those?"

"Don't touch those! My husband is still preparing them for transfer." Diane exclaimed.

Daniel noticed that there were tags on the artifacts. "Did you say transfer?"

"Yes, all museums transfer artifacts between each other. My husband has a box filled with the necessary paperwork. The practice is not illegal. He just takes some of the articles here to examine and clean." Diane elaborated.

"Does he do business with the Chaston Museum?" Dan asked.

"He did for a while, there was one item that John kept asking Ryan to transfer but Ryan always said no." Diane stated.

"Let me guess, the Emerald?"

"That's right. But when that incident happened three weeks back, Ryan stopped giving him artefacts from Everleason museum."

"What incident?"

"John didn't lock up his fake gemstone, and a young boy noticed and took it with him, a guard did catch with the lad, but it was too late, the young lad dropped the gemstone and it fell down the stairs. The gemstone survived but John's credibility was lost."

"The gemstone didn't break? But it was made of glass!"

"Yes, John made it himself from glass he also made himself, he has the masterclass ability, so anything he makes is pretty much indestructible."

Daniel's eyes shined. "He has the masterclass ability! But of course! That's how he tricked Damian and I. Damien I have a plan to get John to confess to his crime!"

"So, it was John after all? He made a trick to make us guess otherwise?" Damien stated. "That bastard!"

"I have a few phone calls to make so we can set it up." Daniel stated.

"Ooh! I can't wait, this is going to be great." Damien rubbed his hands in anticipation.

#

Chaston Museum, Chaston, 5:00 P.M

The museum was starting to close, John was in the gems and rocks exhibit. He was now wearing a blue suit and a gold shirt. His hair was still gold, but there was half as much glitter in his hear now than when Dan, Damien and he first met.

Daniel entered the rock and gems exhibit much to John's surprise.

"Detective!" John announced with obvious shock in his voice. "I wasn't expecting you back here."

"Oh? When would you have been expecting me? Did you expect us to stay on a wild goose chase for a few more years?" Daniel asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." John explained.

"My original theory, the one I told Damien was correct. You did steal the emerald, you did see it change when you returned it here, you did return to the scene of the crime and you did create an illusion to make us believe that it was someone else." Daniel stated.

John gave a nervous laugh. "Did you forget already, when you visited earlier you saw that my gem was a fake, someone else must have made the fake you found."

"Yes, that was what distracted me. I never realised that you actually made a second fake to make any smart people investigating the case realise that they were backing up the wrong tree."

"Well, Dan, how are you going to prove that this gem is real? It would still be the same gem you saw earlier you know."

"I don't doubt it is. But we're going to repeat the test we did earlier, but with a little difference." Daniel whistled. "Bring it in."

Damien and Philece brought in the display case containing the fake gem from Everleason museum. John immediately noticed that the magnetic metal that aligned the edges of the glass panes of the box were coated in a thin coat of paint made from Emperor's gold. He started to sweat.

"Where did you get the emperor's gold from?" John asked with some nervousness. "Adam isn't going to like knowing that something that is harmful to dragons was obtained by you."

"Actually, it was Adam who obtained the emperor's gold for us. I wonder, why would seeing emperor's gold make you nervous? Unless you know that it will cancel any magic you might use on this faux gemstone." Daniel added. He put a blue sticker on his finger, the same type of blue sticker that Philice used earlier. "So should we proceed with this test?"

John slammed his fists down on the case to the fake gem in the corner of the room. "There will be no need for that." He stated.

"So, you did take it?" Daniel asked.

"I did. I studied that guard for weeks, when it was his shift, I stole the emerald and replaced it with the original fake gem I had in this museum. But when I put the emerald into the case beneath my fists the PCC above my museum removed the illusion and I saw my big mistake. I went back to Everleason museum, I got lucky, Percy was asleep and no officers had arrived yet. I put an illusion on the gemstone and went back here. I created a new fake just in case an officer figured out my scheme. I even kept an eye on the gemstone in Everleason just in case somebody tried to pause the illusion." John confessed. "All because I was jealous of all the attention he was getting. I suppose you don't want to hear what the plan was after you lost my trail."

"Not particularly, but I feel as if you're going to tell me anyway." Dan stated.

"When the police stopped looking, Ryan would have to admit the gem was a fake, and eventually his museum would be as empty as mine is. Once that happened I would 'find' his hidden gem and lay claim to it, making my museum popular beyond belief."

Daniel nodded his head. "Too bad I figured it out."

"Yes, good game, Daniel, Good game."

Aftermath

Sherry got appointments with a psychiatrist and eventually healed herself of her kleptomania.

As for John, he was charged for grand larceny and given 45 years in Everleason prison.