The Commander Did it?

Medical Tent, 11:25 A.M

Brian brick was laying on the bed closest to the tent's flap. He was quite injured and out of sorts. There were tubes connected to him and he could hardly speak.

"Sorry I can't help you with healing abilities." Mikela Bruise spoke in an angelic tone.

Mikela was a nurse, so she was dressed as such, she was dressed in her uniform well, it hid her cleavage modestly and most of her skin was hidden. She had a short skirt, but she wore easy to clean pants to cover her hairless legs. She wore blueberry lipstick, and her eyes were dark green. The makeup she wore beyond her lipstick looked a little off, as if she had a little slip or fall while putting it on. She was not blind, but the doctor she worked alongside and the patients they helped all say she was a clumsy individual.

"But why?" Brian inquired; he was barely able to form these words. "I have insurance."

Mikela nodded. "I know. But this is training for us in case we get an uninsured individual, so all patients in this tent must be treated as such." She moved the monitor and tray of tools attached around clumsily and a sealed scalpel fell off as well as a box of gloves, a pair of tweezers and Brian's toothpaste.

Lee Andrew heard the commotion and entered the medical tent. Lee was a tall and skinny man with brown eyes, his hair was black, long, and neat. His face was well groomed with a small moustache attached to it. His military doctor's uniform was so clean that you would think it was brand new. "Clumsy Bruise, look what you have done now." Lee chuckled. "Can you believe this Brian; she is always making trouble."

Brian had a worrisome look on his face. Did he notice something?

"Sorry, I'll get this all cleaned up." Mikela said.

"I'll take care of it, who knows, you might accidentally stab me with that scalpel, you are that clumsy." Lee replied with a smile.

Mikela nodded and left. Lee turned to his patient and smiled. "Let's get you better Brian."

Obstacle course, 11:34

Daniel was halfway through the obstacle course. He allowed his partner Damien ahead of him, as this was where most of his 'accidents' occurred. Damien was going slow on purpose. Something that everyone at the camp could tell. A person from Tryismo would never act like that. Is what they thought. They would be right. Residents of the land of competition would be competitive, but today that was not the case for Damien.

Suddenly everyone heard Mikela screaming from the medical tent.

"Do not stop!" Leopold announced from over by the medical tent. "All those who have completed the obstacle course please wait."

Leopold took the green pin from the side of the tents flap and like magic the whole flap became unsealed. This pin was magical, it was sealing the door like it was a wooden door, but now the tent's flap was flapping slightly because of the soft breeze.

Mikela exited the tent and ran to the obstacle course where the officers who have finished the course were waiting. "They are dead!" She relayed to the officers standing by the end of the course.

Leopold went to the tower by the obstacle course and climbed the ladder. He took the megaphone from the basket at the top and turned it on. "9797!" Leo announced.

Daniel finished crawling under the netting with haste and stood to attention.

"9797. I will mark you down for your usual time of five minutes. Join the other officers. As for you 1376735, get a move on or you will get a DNF! I am sure that would look bad on the résumé of a man from the land of competition." Leopold announced with a smug tone.

Damien looked whiter than a sheet and bolted through the rest of the course as if he were Indiana Jones being chased by a bolder, except, as previously established, Damien did not have a hat on his head.

Damien finished with a time of 6:32.22, not the slowest recorded, but it would not be winning him any trophies.

Daniel got to the medical tent; his fellow officers were standing near the doorway. They allowed him to pass so he could get a beautiful view of what was happening.

William Storm was already inside, pacing slowly back and forth. You could use his movements to fix a broken metronome. (An instrument to help musicians to keep in time) He was perusing the scene.

There were two victims. Lee Andrew lay dead on the floor in a strange position, it looked like he was in a struggle but not with somebody else, did he have a medical condition or an allergic reaction to something in the room? It was clear that he was trying to escape his fate, but there was a bloodstain where is heart was located. Brian was on the bed, the monitor connected to him was turned off, clearly the first one on the scene did not like the sound of the monitor flatlining, so they turned it off. Brian had a scalpel in his chest. He could not have been in a struggle himself due to his condition.

There was a deep scarlet ashtray on the table in the corner opposite the bed Brian was laying in. It had a magical cigarette in it, it had burned out and was completely smoked up to the tip. The flavour of the cigarette was still visible on the end of the cigarette. 'Drag T.' It was a dragon's tongue cigarette. It must have been put out long enough ago to allow the smoke to dissipate as nobody in the room was having any sort of reaction, so the spicy scent was clearly gone.

There was also a drink tab underneath the victim's bed.

"So!" William announced. "Looks like the doctor was killed by Brian and then he killed himself to make us remove him as a suspect."

"Actually Bill…" Dan stated.

"5559, today and only today, you must refer to me as such or get in trouble with 221." Bill announced in return.

"Sorry 5559. But I noticed a few things."

"I was getting to that, now as I was saying, the victim looked like he was killed by Brian and Brian killed himself, however, that is what our killer wanted us to think! The cigarette in the scarlet ashtray and the drink tab below Brian's bed tell a completely different story. Is not that right 221!"

Leopold pushed through the gathered officers so that he could be at the front. He no longer had his cigarette, his drink and the drink tab that was in his pocket was now gone. "Surely you are not accusing me?"

"Well, you had motive and you knew the victim was allergic to peanuts and that these two had an argument before Brian's accident." Bill replied.

"5559." Dan spoke. "I have a question."

"Yes 9797?" Bill replied.

"How was his allergy triggered? It is clear for me that the victim was having an allergic reaction and that is what he died from."

"I see you too have noted Lee's unnatural position. Yes, his allergy was triggered by the dragon's tongue flavoured cigarette in the corner of the tent."

"I still fail to understand how that could be."

"Well, I'm pretty sure 12320 told you this, magical cigarettes give you the same feeling as smoking a real cigarette."

"Yes, he told me that during the case 1376735 likes to call 'New York, New Murder.'"

"Well, that is not the full extent of their magic. You see, there are multiple flavours of the cigarettes and by smoking those flavours it is as if you are consuming the thing they are flavoured after."

"I see. So, I am guessing anybody inhaling the smoke would also get the same results of the person smoking the cigarette. Which adds up since I have experienced that firsthand, I just did not realise it at the time."

"Well, 9797, you get it."

"Now that 9797 is done with his questions currently." Leopold spoke again. "Do you have any evidence beyond me knowing about the grudge between Brian and Lee and me knowing he is allergic to one of the ingredients in Dragon's tongue soup?"

"There is also the drink tab under Brian's bed. The drink tab that was in your pocket earlier is now nowhere to be found. I think that the drink tab under the bed belonged to the drink you were drinking." Bill spoke.

Leopold looked unhappy but there was no sweat. He was acting very cool, calm, and collected.

Damien finally arrived. Bill saw him and pushed passed Leopold and the other officers in the way. "1376735, are you not scheduled for emotional control training?" Bill asked.

"What? But I do not need that." Damien noted with a slight tone of anger.

"Oh, my goodness!" Bill stated in a faux, yet extremely convincing tone of surprise. "Is that Andrew Artwick!"

Damien turned on the spot and squealed. "Where?" He exclaimed.

"You were right." Bill noted with a tone of such light sarcasm that not even Daniel could notice it. "You do not need the emotional control training."

"For real?"

Bill shook his head, keeping in his laughter with a high amount of professionalism. "No. Now goes to your training." He spoke sternly and pointed in the direction of where the emotional control training took place.

Damien marched off heavily as he was quite upset. Bill observed him with intense scrutiny. He was not sure if Damien recalled the commander's ultimatum, so he kept a close eye on him just to make sure that he did not get into an 'accident.'

Bill went to Leopold. "So 221, you have had some time to think. What say you?"

"I say I am innocent until proven guilty, 5559." Leopold replied.

"But I have indeed proven you guilty, the cigarette and the drink tab prove it."

"Sorry, 5559, if I may interject." Daniel spoke.

"What is it 9797?" Bill inquired.

"9798, 12320, and I have noticed that 221 has a hunting knife and a gun." Daniel explained.

"So?"

"Why would he cover Lee's allergic reaction with a scalpel that was probably on the floor when he already had two other things on his person that could have done the same job?"

"Because the knife and gun are easily distinguishable. He used the scalpel that was on the scene. What makes you think it was on the floor anyway?"

Daniel walked to the tray that was attached to the heart monitor. "This tray has medical tools and backup medical tools in case the main ones break or are corroded. Yet there is only one scalpel on the tray and one in Brian's body. Somebody knocked this tray as each item should be in pairs, yet there is a pair of tweezers on the floor. There is also a manifest under the doctor's arm of all the things that were on the tray, the box of gloves and Brian's toothpaste are on the floor and on the list."

Bill re-examined the scene and now noticed the things Daniel pointed out. "You may be right about the scalpel being on the floor, but that does not eliminate 221 as a suspect."

"What about the drink tab?"

"What about it?"

"We all saw the one that was in 221's pocket but when I looked at the one under the bed, I got the feeling that something was strange about it."

"Like what?"

"I am not sure yet. 221, may I borrow the gloves and an evidence bag from your military belt?"

Leopold obliged Daniel and Daniel placed the drink tab in an evidence bag. "Thank you, sir!"

"You are welcome, Daniel." Leopold replied.

"You didn't refer to me as 9797."

"I will not be able to because of what Bill is about to do." Leopold then removed his military shirt revealing the white tank top he had on all along. He folded his clothes neatly.

"Leopold Hugo, until you are determined to be innocent or guilty in the murders of Lee Andrew and Brian Brick, I am relieving you of duty and confining you to quarters." Bill stated and Daniel shook his head.

Leopold passed his suit to Bill. "I know I don't have the authority to ask this of you Bill, but regardless of my innocence or guilt, would you please take care of this." Leopold spoke, trying his hardest to keep his sadness under control, but Daniel could see he was trying too hard to hold back tears and some did manage to flow from the now ex-commander's eyes.

"Of course, I will look after it. The one who deserves it will be grateful to see it in perfect condition when they go to don it." Bill replied.

The men saluted Leopold as he was prodded along by Bill. Despite the accusations that he had against him; everyone still had some respect for him.

"9797." Lucinda spoke. "May I have a word with you over here?"

Daniel followed her and David followed closely behind with a sour cherry flavoured cigarette in his mouth. He was wearing an illusion version of his signature overcoat and he was carrying an illusion version of his umbrella.

"Lucy and I discussed it." David spoke. "Both of us believe that 5559 has the wrong man."

"I thought you might see it my way." Daniel replied.

"I'm glad to hear that!" Lucy exclaimed. "I mean, good." She added in a quieter tone. "It's just…"

"He is your uncle. Right?"

Lucy gasped in surprise. "So, you know my mother's given name. Yes, Leopold is my uncle. I know he is an innocent man."

"Lucy, would you know why he would have a grudge against Dr Andrew? 5559 did point out that he had a grudge against Lee."

"Lee was an officer like us before becoming a doctor. He made a blunder on the job and quit his job."

"So, it was this blunder that made Leopold despise him. Care to elaborate on that matter?"

"Lee was chasing down a criminal and shot at him with his gun, the bullet went through the criminal and struck my cousin, Leopold's son in the shoulder. Neither of them died, but still, Leopold developed a grudge against Lee."

Daniel nodded. "That makes sense. Who extracted the bullet?"

"Dr. Victor Artwick, with the assistance of Mikela Bruise."

"Mikela Bruise? Why do I feel like I know that name."

David took his cigarette out of his mouth. "Because her name was on the manifest that you saw by Lee's side." He added. Breathing out the sweet-smelling cherry smoke.

"Oh, you're right." Daniel replied.

"See. I can be observant too when I choose to."

"I guess that must be a hard choice to make."

David cleared his throat and gave Dan his signature stare. "Mind saying that again?"

Daniel shook his head when he realised, he had just incurred David's wraith.

"Settle down 9797. I was just kidding." David looked away and continued smoking.

"You don't mind me calling you out?"

Lucinda went to Daniel's ear. "He actually has a great deal of respect for you." She whispered quietly. "Just don't tell anybody."

Daniel whispered back. "You know, I prefer to hear these things from the horse's mouth." David stomped out his cigarette and stood up straight. "So, Daniel. Where do we start?"

"I would say we get Damien involved as he doesn't like being left out, but that is out of the question." Daniel replied.

"Well, with Leopold out of the picture, it is now up to 3754 to tell us what to do. He would say get back to the schedule, but we should chat with him about that." David replied.

"Then I guess we should start with the obvious." Lucy noted.

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing." Daniel announced.

"Let me guess, since I am a little behind as usual, you are talking about that drink tab that Bill spotted at the scene, the one that you are now carrying with you, Dan." David spoke.

"You have definitely gotten better at this." Daniel said with a smile.

"Well, I do have to be on the mark now, just so I can rival you and Lucy." David chuckled.

"I do have to give you some credit David." Lucy added. "Daniel, you know that he and I share a wall and have an adjoining door. We have solved many mysteries together over the last two years and a bit. He sometimes sees things that I do not, and I give him ideas he may miss. We are a good duo."

"So, I have heard. Where were you during the last times I was with David, solving mysteries with him?" Dan replied.

"Where do you think? I was in my office dealing with mounds of paperwork." Lucy revealed.

Daniel laughed. "Yes. Some days you have so much paperwork that when you stack it all up, it feels like you are looking at something that is taller than Mount Everest."

"I know you two are having a good yarn." David noted. "But don't you think we should go to Leopold's tent and figure out what is up with that drink tab we saw at the scene."

"Quite right David. Let us go."

The trio headed off and walked to the Commander's tent.

#

Commander's tent, 11:55 A.M

Edwin Orange saw Dan, David, and Lucy approach.

"9797, 9798, and 12320. It is so good to see you. Leopold is trying his best in there but, he is so upset. I cannot believe that 5559 thinks he did it. Can you?" Edwin asked.

"You should know him better than that 3754, he is the lieutenant after all." David stated with a new cherry flavoured magical cigarette in his mouth.

"I know, I know. But it is like he is an entirely different person when he thinks he has his man. At least when you arrest the wrong guy you feel a sense of guilt and regret. You have a better guy lot than 5559." Edwin added.

"You arrest the wrong people, David?" Daniel inquired and Edwin coughed. "Sorry, 12320."

"It happens to the best of us." David replied. "Besides, in those situations my hand is forced. I know they are not guilty, but I must do it because the evidence tells a different story."

Daniel nodded. "But 5559 shows no remorse for his arrests no matter if the person is guilty or innocent."

"That's accurate." Edwin added. "5559 stops asking questions when he gets his man, nothing like 12320 at all."

"So, may we go in?" Lucinda inquired.

"By all means. The faster you wrap this one up, the sooner we can put a stop to Leopold beating himself up, metaphorically of course." Edwin opened the tent flap and let the trio through.

Leopold was sitting at the far end of the tent looking sad. His bed looked like it came from a king's palace. There was a military kitchen on the right side of the tent with a fridge. There was a framed map of the country of Cascoss mounted on the wall in front of the desk that Leopold laid his head on.

Daniel went to the fridge and opened it.

"Hey, Daniel!" Leopold stated. "Would you get me a creamy cherry soda from there while you got it open."

Daniel looked over and saw that his face was on the desk. Daniel saw that a whole shelf of the fridge was full of cans of creamy cherry soda. Only three slots were empty, so the commander had already consumed three of them today. Daniel took one out and passed it to Leo.

"How did you know it was me that opened your fridge." Dan asked.

"Lucky guess. You were the first to think that the drink tab at the scene seemed a little odd. Not even I noticed that. I must be losing my touch." Leopold announced.

"That is okay Leopold. We will get you out of this. I promise." Dan spoke. "May I have the drink tab?"

Leopold sat up straight as best as he could and opened the drink and pulled the tab off the can. Daniel saw him do it in one quick motion, he had done this before.

Daniel took the evidence bag out of his pocket and took the new drink tab as Leopold passed it to him. He took both articles over to the kitchen's bench and placed both the evidence bag and the newly acquired drink tab atop the bench.

Daniel instantly noticed that the two drink tabs did not match.

David walked over and saw Daniel's intense look of scrutiny. "Is there something the matter Dan?" David asked.

"Look at these." Daniel replied.

David examined them too. "The shapes of the metal and the holes are different." David noted.

"That is right. But both look like they are in perfect condition, neither of them is bent, despite being pulled of a drink. I think the one in the evidence bag came from a different van from a different drink brand. I also think that the way that they were both pulled from their respective drinks was different. But I need a microscope to prove it." Daniel explained.

"I think you are right." David placed the tab to the creamy cherry can and got a new evidence bag from within the room and marked it 'cherry' he also marked the other evidence bag with a huge question mark. David went to Edwin. "Hey, 3754. Make sure the crime lab gets these examined under a microscope."

Edwin nodded and used the walkie-talkie he had on him to get someone to pick up the evidence.

"But Daniel," Lucy spoke. "What does it mean?"

"Someone is trying to frame Leopold. Although the reason is not clear." Daniel replied.

"Maybe the killer had their own motive for killing Lee, and because he and Brian were good friends, he tried to warn Lee of the dragon's tongue cigarette, and because Brian knew the identity of the killer he too had to die." David explained.

"That seems likely. But I must wonder how he could have not known that something he was deathly allergic to was in the room. I once smelt the spicy smoke those cigarettes produce, and I know the effects they can do." Daniel added.

"That is because Lee was a spice master, he had the ability to make the Scoville units (a measure of how spicy something is) as high as his ability allowed it. His level was such that he would have not felt the effects that you did when you smelled the smoke of a dragon's tongue cigarette." Lucy explained.

"How about the smell of the soup itself?" Daniel replied.

David shook his head. "It is only served on Rhombodian and all the restaurants that serve it tell you that it contains peanuts. He may have known the scent but since he never ordered the soup for himself, he would never have known that the scent of Dragon's tongue soup came from dragon's tongue soup."

"In other words, he could have known the scent but never the origin of the scent." Daniel added.

"That's the gist of it." Lucy replied.

"So, we're looking for someone with a motive, who knew about the victim's allergy and was aware of what happened to Lucy's cousin." Daniel spoke.

"Maybe it was one of the people who accused him of malpractice." David said with a puff of the cigarette in his mouth.

"How long have you been sitting on that information?" Dan replied.

"A while. But it stopped about three weeks back when suddenly he went from sloppy to being better than Dr Cryonix and Dr Artwick combined."

"Is that an over-exaggeration?"

"Probably."

"How many patients did he have before then?"

"Brain was one, and there were two others."

"Brian is clearly innocent since he could not have placed those two pieces of evidence due to the condition he was in before he was murdered. I think we should figure out why after helping three people who though he was so bad that they wanted to sue him with malpractice that he suddenly became the god of fixing people up."

"So, how do we do that?" Lucy inquired.

"We visit his house of course." Daniel added.

"Why his house?" David asked.

"Somebody had to be paying attention to him getting malpractice accusations from your first three patients is highly irregular, so his actions were being recorded. I think that if he was indeed a terrible doctor, then he will try and do something to hide it. I have the feeling that the way he was able to do that is at his house." Daniel explained.

"Ah. Good thinking. I should read those case files that Damien raves about." David chuckled. "Maybe I'll get a better perspective."

Daniel went to Edwin. "Will 1376735 be joining us?"

"Sorry, 9797. He is booked for the entire day. He needs some discipline." Edwin's explained.

"You should not push him so hard. He will just keep trying to run if you do." Daniel explained.

"How do you know?"

"Damien is still like a child. If you keep punishing him then you are holding him back from his true potential. What would you prefer, an officer that does his job, or one that quits after a year due to burnout?"

"The former."

"Then let him tag along with us, and allow me to handle him from now on, I'll make a man out of him."

"How can you be so sure of what you are doing?"

"Do you have children?"

"I did. I told you what happened to them."

"Right. But you know how they were, right. It has been so long that you have forgotten how to be a father. You should not be treating him as an officer of the law. You should treat him as your son. If you do that then I expect you will see a change in him."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Have I been wrong yet?"

"No. You have not. Okay. You can bring him with you. But from now on, at the next boot camp, you will take care of him."

"I will remember that. Come on, let us go."

Daniel, David, and Lucinda went off and collected Damien. Their investigation could finally begin. Daniel still wondered who killed the doctor and his patient and why? Will he find the answers he is looking for at Lee's house.