Final Faceoff + Aftermath

Everleason Police Department, September 23rd, 9:00 A.M.

Felix finally arrived at the police station. Damien Thrifter led him to the desk area so that the desk officers can do his prints. Damien then made a call.

The phone in the living room of Everstone manor began to ring, a newly hired 21-year-old butler, Philip Baste, walked in and picked it up.

"Y-yes?" He stuttered nervously.

"Hello, is Dr Smith awake?" Damien inquired.

"He's out back having a walk with his wife." Philip replied.

"Will you tell him that Felix Charris has arrived, and he is in the process of giving us his fingerprints?" Damien relayed.

"By all means, sir." Philip stated and placed the phone back upon the receiver. He walked out to the backyard and cleaned his hair and straightened his tie on his way.

Dan and Elizabeth were sitting on a bench, they were sharing copies of the files of the current case and talking about it. Dan spotted Philip and put the files away. He stood up and met with Philip.

"Sir?" Philip asked.

"Yes, Phil?" Dan asked.

"Is it okay to share that file with Mrs Everstone?" Philip inquired.

"She is a member of a crime fighting group that is backed by FORMAL and she has a badge. She also has some experience in mystery solving too. I have express permission from both the commissioner and Adam to ask her things to help me ascertain my theories. They clearly trust her as much as I do."

Philip gave him a sceptical look. "Sure. That makes sense. Anyway, a man from the police station called me and informed me that a man named Felix Charris was getting printed down at the station."

"Great. Eliza, I'm going down to the station to deal with this. I'll be back later."

"Be safe dear." Elizabeth spoke softly.

Dan waved goodbye and changed into something formal and put his badge on and attached his microphone to his tie and he went to his red vehicle and headed down to the police station.

Daniel soon arrived and he was led to interrogating room C. He entered and already waiting for him was Bill with a smug grin and Damien Thrifter with a thoughtful look upon his face and Felix sweating.

"What's going on in here?" Dan asked.

Bill laughed. "We got him."

"The killer?" Daniel inquired.

"Yes, it's our friend Felix here." Bill announced with a tone of 'I win, Dan.'

"How so?" Dan asked.

"His fingerprints were on the handle of those scissors that were found in Myriam's body." Damien stated. "But he won't admit that he killed her."

"Shut up, Damien. You shouldn't trust sociopaths; they are cold blooded liars." Bill interjected.

"Could you just remain calm, Bill. Let me sort this out. You two wait outside." Dan replied.

The two of them left. Dan took a seat and looked Felix straight in the eyes. "You know, if you stay quiet about whatever it is you know, or don't know, the more difficult things will be for you."

Felix breathed a sigh of relief. "So, are you willing to listen to me?"

"But of course. This is a serious matter after all. As it currently stands, you might be charged for the murder of Myriam Scott. So, how did your fingerprints end up on the handles of the pair of scissors that were in Myriam's heart."

"Because I stabbed her. But she was already dead." Felix added.

"Did you tell Bill that?"

"I tried to tell him, but he kept on shouting at me angrily and not letting me get a word in."

"Well, he does believe you are a sociopath. But you aren't one, are you?"

"No, of course not."

"So, why did you stab her if she was already dead."

"A man I believe was the real killer gave me $500,000 to me to do it."

"I beg my pardon. You mean to say, somebody paid you $500,000 to stab her?"

"He told me that she should already be dead, but come on, how could I refuse, it was $500,000 dollars. If she was still alive, I wouldn't have done it."

"Did you personally meet this man?"

"I did, but I wouldn't be able to describe him well, he passed me the money in a shadowy area and spoke as if he was sick."

"You do realise that manipulating a crime scene is still a crime, correct?"

"I know, but it was $500,000, besides, the punishment of that isn't as severe as a murder charge."

"Understandable. Before we book you, is there anything else you would like to say, perhaps anything odd you saw, something you forgot or haven't mentioned during your witness statement?"

"Now that you mention it, I did spot something interesting on my way into the complex that morning."

"What?"

"An expensive vehicle. I saw it twice, but I don't recall its plate. But it was white, and the interior was clean and there was an air freshener inside, I believe it was a vanilla one. I know it was also very expensive, nothing like I have ever seen before at that complex. Also, the druggies that lived below Myriam had moved their dirty vehicle, because it wasn't there anymore."

"You must also have noticed the lack of smell from the apart too, right?"

"I wouldn't know, they ordered pizza to a different address that morning, so I didn't call on that studio that day."

"Thank you for the information you have given us. I'm sure it will be important later."

Felix stood up and bowed and left the room where he was met by Damien, who put cuffs on him and led him down to a holding cell. Bill entered the room and closed the door behind him.

"Are you really going to believe those lies?" Bill asked.

"Are you really going to believe that they were lies?" Dan retorted.

Bill huffed. "Well, tell me what you believe then."

"I believe that the owner of the vehicle that Felix spotted was the true culprit and that he was there waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill the victim."

"Yeah, but how did they manage to do it? The only sign of damage is the scissors through the victim's chest."

"Well, if it wasn't the scissors that killed her, then it must have been poison."

"Poison? We don't know if it was poison."

"There is no other explanation, if the scissors were planted into her body after she died then she had to have been poisoned. We should get a judge to hand down orders to have the body re-examined, this time, an autopsy will be performed, no excuses."

Bill sighed. "But there were no foreign objects inside the place."

"The killer obviously took the means of poison with them, you know, to prevent us from even coming onto that idea. That is why they had to get Felix to stab the corpse."

"But why not stab the victim themselves?"

"They were already planned ahead to kill Myriam; they would have been able to keep their cool because they wanted to make sure the outcome they wanted happened. So, if they were to stab the victim, it would be without trembling. He had to make sure it was a trembling hand that put those scissors in her to make 'suicide' seem more viable as the actual cause."

"I underestimated your understanding of psychology. I never thought of it that way."

Bill and Dan journeyed outside and to Bill's office and Bill picked up his desk phone and called Everleason hospital.

"Hello, this is Caroline Avue, how may I direct your call?" A feminine voice spoke from the loudspeaker on Bill's phone.

"I would like to speak with Yvelle Novastar, head of the morticians." Bill stated.

"Transferring you over to examination of deceased and disposal ward."

"Hello?" Yvelle stated with a booming voice. "How may I assist you?"

"Yvelle, would you mind preparing Myriam's cadaver for a post-death examination."

"Just one moment... according to this she had been moved down to the crematorium and is about to be processed. I find that odd. I spoke with her relatives yesterday and they wanted the body intact for a burial service."

"What?!" Dan exclaimed. "Who's down there?"

"Let me check... the only living person present there is Dr Carr, and my computer says that he was the one who changed the 'disposal preferences' to cremation."

"We have to hurry Bill; we don't have much time." Dan stated and he rushed out of the door as fast as a bullet goes upon being fired from a gun.

"Wait for me, Dan!" Bill yelled as he hung up the phone.

Daniel jumped into his car and started it up, Bill came out and huffed and puffed as he entered into Dan's car, sweat was dripping down his face and onto Dan's fine leather seats.

Daniel started the car and turned on the sirens and started driving out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell.

"Sorry about the seats Daniel." Bill stated as he noticed the sweat he used to decorate Dan's car.

"Don't worry about me yelling at you until after we arrest the murderer."

Bill gave Dan a downtrodden look. "I should have guessed you will not be letting it go."

Examination of deceased and disposal ward, Everleason hospital, 3 Scandinavilas Dr, Everleason, 9:26 A.M.

Daniel and Bill arrived with little breath and sweat dripping across the floor. They saw Nathenial looking at both of them with a big, wide, smug smile on his face. Daniel staggered over to him and grabbed Dr Carr's collar.

"Where... is... she?" Dan huffed out.

Nate pushed Daniel offed him gently and knocked on one of the furnaces. "I say she's pretty well done by now."

Dan fell to his knees. "I won't let you get away with this"

Nathanial laughed. "I'm afraid you will. The evidence you were looking for is gone now, you can indict me, but without proper evidence you can't convict me."

"Can we go now Dan?"

Dan sighed but still gave Nathanial an angry look. "We'll find some other evidence, and we will be back."

"No need to leave, my fellows." A sudden voice stated from the stairs. Emerging from the darkness was Alex Cryonix.

"Alex?" Bill stated. "What do you mean?"

"Well, that's because that wasn't Myriam Scott." Alex stated calmly and moved over to a gurney with a sheet atop it. He removed the sheet revealing the real Myriam Scott. Dr Carr looked shocked.

"But..." Dr Carr began to speak. "How?"

"When I got the notice that you wanted to cremate her despite her family's wishes to have her have a proper burial, I knew something was up. So, I called the family of the body you just burned and asked them if it was okay to disguise her for the purpose of catching a criminal even though it would mean that her body would be cremated. They said they were willing to put there wants aside to get another killer off the street."

Dr Carr's shocked face slowly turned into anger, and he began to run toward the gurney, but Alex knocked him down. "I wouldn't even try." Alex added. "The only in order ovens are in use and the others are out of order."

Dan took out his dart gun and aimed it at Dr Carr. "If I were you, I would come quietly."

"Dr Nathanial Oscar Carr," Bill stated, taking out his cuffs as he did. "You are under arrest for suspicion of murder." He then began taking him upstairs and read him his rights as they went upstairs.

Interrogation room B, behind the mirror, Everleason police department, 12:00 P.M.

Dan was watching David Lancer and Sabastian Stallion speaking with Dr Carr. Bill came in holding some documents.

"So?" Dan asked.

"Turns out the doctor paid off the drug users to stay at Everleason mall hotel for 48 hours and he cleaned up and hid in the studio below Myriam's place. The autopsy report also came back. She was poisoned as you predicted. We found a vail of the poison in that apartment, I guess he was so preoccupied with killing Myriam that he simply forgot about it." Bill stated.

"So, the car that Felix saw?"

"It belonged to Nathanal Carr."

Dan nodded and went over and knocked on the door. David let him in.

Daniel walked over and took a seat. He gave Nathanial Carr. The others in the room stood as far back as they could.

"Let's not mince words." Dan stated. "You have done something very cold, and I want to know, why?"

Nathanial looked at Daniel sadly. "Myriam stole my daughter's designs for three weeks. She took away the profits from my daughter. She took my daughter's life, so I thought the best thing to do was take hers." He admitted.

"But you must have been aware that your daughter was planning on pushing charges of plagiarism toward Myriam. So, why go forward with it?" Dan inquired.

"Because, with all the powers in our world, and magic, a lawyer could have come up with any bullshit and allowed her to get away with it."

Aftermath

Nathanial was sentenced for murder in the first degree, he was given a life sentence for how atrocious his plan was, killing her in such a way, poisoning her and having someone else make it look like she was killed some other way to get away with it. The jury was definitely not on his side. He will be spending many years in Everleason prison.

Felix Charris was sentenced to return the $500,000 to Phoebe, he was also sentenced to 6 months of community service, but he didn't lose any of his previous jobs, as long as he never did any crimes again for any reason, he would keep his jobs.

Phoebe won her plagiarism case against Myriam's family and was given the profits for her clothes plus 10%, and Myriam's family paid for both the courtroom costs and attorney fees, and nobody argued about it.

THE END!