Clues on Red Deer Trail

Mayor's office, Entitlement Island, 8:20 A.M

Dan and Damien entered the mayor's office. Damien was immediately awestruck by the beauty waiting inside.

"Good morning." Daniel stated. "You called for us?"

"Are you Dr. smith and junior detective Thrifter?" Andria asked.

"That's correct." Damien replied. "You look wonderful today."

"Oh, aren't you a charmer. Sorry but I'm already taken." Andria stated.

"Engaged?" Dan added.

"That's right." Andria retorted. "You must have realised that I haven't yet taken my husband's last name. Your Elizabeth didn't take your last name, did she?"

"No she didn't." Dan stated. "But we are married nonetheless."

"What did you know about the victim?" Damien asked, his tone was a little sad at the discovery that this beautiful young youth was already engaged.

"Her name was Velma Patania. On the first day she showed that she was regretful of her actions. She thought that someone was an employee when they were a customer and slapped them, which won her a trip to Entitlement Island. She then started acting entitled again two days later." Andria explained.

"Since you knew the victim, how were you not aware that she had gone missing?" Dan added.

"The crew and I just assumed that she went looking for the immunity statue. But now we know it was because she was murdered."

"Why didn't the crew go looking for her earlier?" Damien asked.

"She returned to her old ways in such an extreme fashion that none of them wanted to go find her to face her fury." Andria added.

"But surely they would have gone looking for drone 27, it was destroyed two weeks ago after all." Dan stated.

"Follow me." Andria announced. "I know people who could clarify that matter." Andria left and the two detectives followed behind her. She lead them to a tent in the far east of town.

"Hey Mayor." Dimitri Caste, a film technician stated as the trio entered. "Hello detectives."

"You are?" Dan asked.

"Dimitri Caste, I have charge of the cameras." Dimitri announced and he gestured to the numbered screens.

Daniel noticed one screen said '27 a.' "27a?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, drone 27 got wrecked two weeks ago, so we replaced it." Dimitri stated.

"You didn't go looking for it?" Dan asked.

"Our show makes a lot of money, we can afford to lose some cameras." Dimitri elaborated.

"But I remember that Kevin stated that the memory card was removed, how could he have known that if you guys didn't go to the drone?"

"The drones send reports to our monitors when they are in trouble, one of the messages that can be sent is one telling us that the memory device had been removed."

Dan nodded. "Oh, I see. So you guys didn't need to go looking for it to know that the memory card was gone or that it had been destroyed. You just replaced it without exploring further."

"That's right."

"So, I take it nobody was in this tent when that drone was destroyed?"

"No, sir, it was lunch break."

"So, nobody ever saw the footage captured by it, the footage that Kevin said was destroyed."

"Nobody would have seen that footage until a few days before the episode was to air. The episode was supposed to be edited that day, but it is now delayed."

"So they will still show the episode?"

"It has to be edited with another editing room in studio 17, since our one is a crime scene, but yes. It will air by tomorrow."

"That would be the episode from which that two minutes of footage disappeared, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Was Andrew narrating that one?"

"Yes, he was. He was looking over his performance when he died."

"How did you know that?"

"I read the interviews he gives the newspapers, he's a perfectionist, he always believed that his performances were a little off in one way or the other, that's why he was in the editing room at that faithful time."

"So the killer took him out because they were afraid that perhaps he had already seen that two minute piece of footage that showed him killing Velma Patania."

"Ah, that would explain why drone 27 was all the way up at red deer trail, it was following Velma. I had a feeling she was with someone that day since she never went up there, nobody did."

"So then, why were you up that way, Andria?" Daniel turned to face her.

"If you look at my calendar, it will all become clear." Andria announced.

Daniel nodded. "I believe our killer knew this island and knew that the area in which Velma was found was somewhere people rarely visit."

Dimitri, Damien, and Andria all nodded.

"Can we see your calendar?" Damien inquired.

"Sure." Andria led them all the way back to her office and presented the calendar on the wall. Dan noted that she walked along the trails on the weekends, the day she discovered the body was a weekend on Entitlement Island.

"You walk one trail on Saturday and another on Sunday." Dan noted.

"Correct, I do a cycle. There are five trials on the island, so the last time I visited the red deer trial was three weeks before I came across Velma's lifeless body." Andria stated.

"Nobody else walks the trials?" Dan asked.

"You know how people on the island are, they think that enjoying nature is beneath them, some do walk the trails just before it's announced that the show-runners have given them the 'reformed' status, at which point they get out of here faster than you could say Entitlement Island."

Damien laughed. "I would also run for the hills from this place if I ever became 'reformed.'" He announced.

"Well, Damien," Dan stated. "In order to become reformed, you first must become entitled."

"That's never going to happen." Damien stated with a more serious tone.

"Anyway, that's enough about trails and cameras, I think now would be the time we actually visited the body." Dan stated.

"I'll drive you there." Andria announced.

"Thank you mayor, you are the best." Dan stated.

"Oh, there's no need for that." Andria laughed. "I'm just doing my job."

Andria led them to her car and they all climbed in. Andria then drove them to the start of the red deer trail.

#

Red deer trail, 8:56 A.M

The trio walked the trail backwards for five minutes before arriving at the scene.

There was a wizard whose skin was bronzed from tanning in the sun, he was in the shade, he must have been the person who was keeping the body preserved, even though the body had been decaying for two weeks already.

Daniel and Damien made their way down the hill while the mayor stayed on the clearly marked path, she didn't want to get any closer.

Damien was carrying a bag, a bag full of things that would be helpful, including a forensics kit. Daniel was well trained in forensic science. I stated earlier that he began learning before 'New York, New Murder.' So, he'd already become well versed in it since then.

Daniel noticed that the body was quite dishevelled, not in the fact that the body had been decaying but what remained of the victim's hair was a mess and the jacket she was wearing was out of sorts.

"Was there a storm in the last two weeks?" Dan shouted out.

"I can hear you fine Dr Smith, there's no need to shout, but yes there was, the winds that day were very strong." Andria stated.

Daniel put on some gloves and opened up the victims jacket and found that she was wearing a visitor's badge which was previously hidden because the winds from the storm that Andria mentioned had moved about the jacket to hide it.

"The killer must have been expecting one of the crew to find the body and take it away." Dan stated.

"What makes you think that?" Andria announced.

"The victim is a contestant, yet she is wearing a visitor's badge." Dan stated, Damien took a picture of the badge.

"Ah I see. Most of the crew wouldn't be aware that she was a contestant because we have so many entitled people on this island, she'd just be another face in the crowd. They would just think she slipped and fell and because she was wearing that badge, they'd take her back to the mainland to get her body identified."

"She didn't slip and fall though." Daniel added after a bit of examination. "There is blood on that rock over there, but the wound on her head is more of a square shape than a rock shape."

"She also isn't wearing heels!" Andria added.

Daniel looked and saw that the victim was wearing appropriate shoes for the occasion. "Good eye!"

"I know, I'm talented."

"So Dan," Damien stated. "What did cause the injury?"

"I may have an idea. Hey wizard, summon me a sextant." Dan proclaimed.

"A sextant?" Damien wondered. A sextant appeared to Daniel's side. "Why a sextant."

"The captain on the ship was using an inferior quality sextant that couldn't have cost him more than $2. Any sailor worth their salt wouldn't use a tool that cheap." Dan elaborated. He then took the sextant and aligned it with the wound, it was a match. "I'm beginning to feel that the one who took us here may be the one responsible."

"Maybe someone stole his sextant. After all, you heard what Kevin said a few days ago, right? The person who killed Andrew erased the cloud save of the two minutes of footage that went missing. How could a sailor who is a rank F do that?" Damien inquired.

"He's a rank F? No powers whatsoever?"

"There are no PCCs out at see, when I saw him at the captain's table I immediately saw that he had no ability."

"Right, because of your ability detection."

"Yes. You have a good memory."

"You've used it many times before, so of course I remember."

"It certainly helped you out in 'the deadly love triangle.'"

"You mean the deadly love square, there was a forth person involved in that romantic interlude." Daniel clarified.

"Oh right, the victim. His ex-wife divorced him so she could be with another man."

Dan touched his nose to signify that Damien was right.

"Well," Damien noted. "I'll change it back when we get back to the office."

"You two sure talk a lot about everything else but the crime you're supposed to be investigating." Andria announced, laughing as she did.

"Oh, right. Velma was murdered, and we have to find the one responsible." Damien slapped his head.

"Quite right. So you thought because the victim was wearing proper shoes that she was in fact murdered?" Dan inquired.

"That, and she may have been seeing someone. Before she intensified her resolve and returned to being an atrocious entitled person, she stunk of man's cologne and the sea. She was definitely sleeping with one of the sailors from a visitor's vessel."

"Why a visiting vessel?" Damien asked.

"The crew of the drop off vessels never leave, our crew offloads the passengers and then the drop off vessels move on out like a bat out of hell." Andria elaborated.

"Yes, the first mate of the S.S Gloom stated that they do not need to renew the supplies as the only ones on board the drop off ships when they leave port would be the members of the crew, they must have had enough food on board to feed those on board for the five day trip back which is why they would never need to leave." Daniel deduced.

"That's right Daniel. The crew and I discussed that matter, which is why I know about it." Andria admitted.

"I see." Daniel noted. "So your belief and my belief are one in the same. You think that it was a sailor and so do I. A sextant is the most likely murder weapon as the one the wizard summoned matches the wound. But I doubt we'll find it. But maybe the victim left something for us to find, something that will determine her killer's identity finally."

"But Dan." Damien announced. "I took plenty of pictures, but I don't see anything of interest on the body, whatever it is your looking for that she left behind wasn't on her body."

"Did she have a domicile?" Daniel asked.

"Yes, she was living in the apartment complex on Burgundy road." Andria stated.

"Then I think it's time we check the place out." Dan announced. Damien and Andria nodded their heads in agreement.