Solution + Aftermath

Burgundy Road Apartment complex, Entitlement Island, 9:18 A.M

Andria parked her car in front of the complex in the space reserved for her vehicle and she opened the door. Daniel and Damien bowed to her and entered. Drone 14 followed them in.

The trio entered the elevator.

"Hello drone 14, it's nice to see you." Andria announced. "Why don't you go and meet us on the forth floor."

"You talk to the cameras?" Daniel inquired.

"Everyone does, but usually it's 'get that thing out of my face,' 'oh my gosh, I don't want to be on tv,' so on and so forth. You should be grateful Dan, your skills are going to be on TV." Andria stated.

"Oh joy." Daniel stated unenthusiastically.

"What's the matter? Stage fright?" Andria giggled.

"I think he just likes it when it's a photo, not a video." Damien elaborated. He then slapped his face in realization. "Wait if Dan is going to be on Tv, then I'm going to be on Tv! Oh I hope Andrew Artwick sees me."

"Damien is a fan of Andrew Artwick?" Andria noted.

"You should see his office, you can't find a single inch that isn't covered in Andrew Artwick merchandise. I shiver at the thought of what his house looks like." Daniel explained.

The elevator doors finally opened and they proceeded to Velma's apartment, drone 14 shortly showed up and followed the trio into the apartment through the open window above the door.

When the trio entered, the room was in a state of disarray, the bed was unmade and the mattress thrown aside, the sheet and rugs were over on a chair and all the boxes under the bed were all but empty and the contents that were removed from them laid across the floor.

The trio's faces filed with shock, the only things that remained undisturbed were the items on the shelf that looked like a mantelpiece that was above the faux fireplace.

Damien gave the items a look of curiosity. "I wonder why the person who ransacked this room didn't mess with the stuff up here?" Damien pondered loudly.

"I'm not sure, he also didn't empty these boxes completely it seems." Daniel noted and got down on the floor to search through the boxes and the things that were contained in them as well as the items that used to be contained in them.

Damien picked up the decorative vase on the right side of the faux mantelpiece; empty. He looked closely and carefully at the candelabra. Nothing. He shook the decorative vase on the left side of the candelabra.

Ding… ding… ding…

There was definitely something rattling about in it. Something metallic perhaps.

"May I open this?" Damien asked.

Daniel got to his feet, he couldn't find anything of note in the boxes or their contents.

"I don't see why not; the victim can't stop you." Andria stated.

Damien opened the urn and took out a wedding band from in it. "Oh, how sweet, it's an engraved wedding ring, you know if I ever get married this is the type of ring I would buy." Damien announced.

"The victim's?" Daniel inquired.

"That's impossible. She was the daughter of a jeweler, she wouldn't have something that cheap, in fact when she arrived here, we found that she had stolen five wedding rings from her father's store. Besides, she wouldn't accept something like that if she were engaged." Andria clarified.

"She was single?" Daniel asked.

"Yes."

"So, why was there a wedding ring in this vase?" Damien asked.

"I wouldn't know." Andria added.

"May I see that?" Daniel asked.

"Sure." Damien stated, and he carefully handed the ring to Daniel. Dan read the inscription.

Elle, my heart is yours forever - DB

Daniel looked at the drone that was observing them and noticed the red blinking light.

"That light…" Daniel pointed to the drone. "That means we're being recorded, doesn't it?"

"That's right. Why?" Andria announced.

"I have a few calls to make to make certain, but I think I know who this mysterious DB is." Daniel stated and he smiled at the camera. "You might want to come along; you do not want to miss what's coming up."

#

S.S Gloom, captain's cabin, starboard side, 7:00 P.M.

Dexter was atop the roof above his cabin, looking though his sextant.

Daniel climbed the ladder to meet him. "Hello, Dexter, your first mate said I'd find you here." Daniel stated.

"Well, it is a lovely night, and you know how I love stargazing, especially through a sextant." Dexter stated. "So, I suppose we'll be shipping out now?"

"You can if you want, but there's nothing waiting for you on the mainland except for some cops that will relieve you of duty and take you to jail."

"What on Rhombodian do you mean?"

"You know, I started subconsciously suspecting you of Andrew's murder the night we met by the bow and stared at the sky. I didn't know why until I noticed that the drone recording us had a red blinking light. Most things that record things have those red blinking lights, including the microphone inside the editing room of Entitlement Island. That is why Kevin Thrifter knew that Andrew's dying words were recorded."

"Ok, that's something odd for you to bring up, but how would that put any suspicion on me?"

"Because, on that night you let something interesting slip from your mouth. You said 'it's too bad that his last words would never be heard.' Maybe you're not aware of it, but the episode that he narrated would still go on air, so if you'd ask anyone what his last words were, they'd tell you it would have been the last words at the end of the episode he narrated. But you knew that he spoke words beyond that point, the only way you could have known that is that you were there when he died."

"That's pretty clever, I got to admit, but I don't think that will hold up in court, even if you did record it on that badge of yours."

"True. That's why I made some phone calls, I asked Captain Freckles to show pictures of you to the shop clerks at the post office and the ship themed souvenir shop, as well as Andrew. They all confirmed that it was you at each location."

"Is that all the evidence you have against me? They could be lying, it's not enough."

"Yes, that's where your first murder comes into play. You killed Velma Patania on this island two weeks ago and you destroyed drone 27 when you realized that it had captured your crime. Velma must have found your wedding ring somehow and she was going to tell your wife about your affair with her, you must have been having affairs with ladies all across Entitlement Island, after all they couldn't tell anyone on the outside about it. She must have hidden the ring. When you couldn't get the information of where it was hidden out of her, you bludgeoned her with your sextant which you then disposed of. You went to her apartment and tried looking for your ring, but the first mate honked the ships horn before you found it. You had to go or lose the opportunity to destroy that footage."

"That's a very clever tale, but without anything to back it up, it mays as well stay a tale. You can't prove that I know enough about technology to completely destroy footage of a crime you claim was caught on film and you can't prove that I killed either Velma or Andrew."

"Actually." Daniel showed the wedding band that Damien found in Velma's apartment. "I think this ring is enough to at least prove that you and Velma were involved. I looked you up, your wife's name is Eleanor, Elle is short for Eleanor after all, will that be enough proof?"

"You know Daniel, it's a terrible shame. I have to ruin another sextant." Dexter rose the sextant high in the air when suddenly a gun cocked.

"Put the sextant down!" Damien shouted, he had climbed a makeshift ladder on the other side of the roof and drone 14 was hovering behind him.

"Drone 14, huh? That one has some good high quality, not at all like drone 27, which I had to destroy to cover my crime." Dexter stated. He tossed the sextant into the sea. "A pilot is only as good as his instruments. I couldn't replace my sextant with something of higher quality, they would have done a credit check and my plan to escape would have been ruined. I asked her where she hid the ring, if she took it with her when she was eliminated then Elle would have known that those words that were engraved were a lie. The sea is a horrifying place, but there is no beast more terrifying than a woman scorned."

Page Break

Aftermath

Dexter was found guilty of both murders and his knowledge about recordings and how to erase things from the cloud were both revealed. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison with no parole.

Eleanor divorced Dexter and married Leopold, a far more honest and trustworthy man. Since Eleanor one the divorce suit against Dexter, she became the owner of the S.S. Gloom, which Leo renamed so it could travel all across the Rhombodian oceans.

When Leo and Elle got married, they did not use rings with engravings ever again because one could easily break a promise even if it's written in stone.