The Investigation Begins

189 Daffodil Ave, January 14th, 1:35 PM

A Hyundai Getz coloured from back to front as gold, pink, green, black and purple approached the scene. On the driver's side door was a cartoon image of Adam Bolmer. All the officers at the scene already knew who the driver of this strange, yet awesome vehicle was. No doubt it belonged to the biggest fan of Rhombodian's favourite dragon leader, the car was owned and drive Captain Edwin Orange.

Soon Edwin parked the car into the lot of the bar that lay across the road from the crime scene. This bar's address was 188 Daffodil Ave.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" Asked a man who had just turned 22 the week prior, he was 178cm tall and he had brown hair and silver irises. He had a small goatee that looked slightly off-putting, and his face had some acne on it. He wore the Pub's uniform and fisherman boots as the pub was for people who fished at the lake nearby. This fellow was West Kiteton and his nametag read 'W. Kiteton, Mysterym, Assistant Manager.'

Edwin exited the vehicle and wiped off some bird excrement that had landed on his hood where the wiper blades couldn't reach. "Sorry, pal, but we are here to investigate the shop of miniature curiosities." Edwin spoke. "I hope you don't mind us burrowing this parking spot from a potential customer of the establishment your boss runs."

"No, not at all." West replied and peered through the passenger window. "That's Daniel, isn't it?"

Daniel knocked on the window, indicating to West to step back, West stepped back, and Dan exited the Getz. "Indeed, I am Daniel." Dan relayed.

"Sorry, I thought you couldn't hear me, I've ridden along with my dad in one of these cop cars and no matter what I shouted at the glass nobody outside seemed to pay attention." West explained.

"That's understandable, he must have also had the radio on 25/7 otherwise you might have noticed that the sounds outside could still get in, it's all thanks to Auditorium crystals, they can block sounds from leaving the interior of the car while also allowing the ambient noise from the outside to enter." Dan explained.

"Wow, I didn't know that." West stated with honest shock, "but come to think of it, I think I do recall birds singing during some of those rides, and I know that those didn't come from the radio as my dad is a fan of hard rock."

Edwin looked at his clipboard that he just obtained from his car. "Are you West Kiteton?" He inquired.

"Yes, that's right." West announced proudly.

"Says here that you were the one who reported the incident, would you mind relaying your story for the record?" Edwin asked.

"Where do I even begin? A tall guy, somewhere between 180 and 185 came into the pub and held a gun to my forehead, thankfully I had just returned from a bathroom break, otherwise I might have peed myself..." West began.

"Sorry, would you mind focussing for me, I don't think my man want to hear about your bladder." Edwin interrupted.

West giggled. "Sorry, sir. I guess I couldn't help myself. Anyway, the guy asks me with a somewhat robotic voice, you know like the virtual assistant: Rodger, but deeper and definitely robotic, where the golden idol was..."

"Sorry to interrupt, but what is this golden idol that you just referred to?" Dan inquired.

"I have never seen it myself, but it was probably some McGuffin to spawn trouble as this establishment has been swarmed by criminals ever since the old man started advertising it 9 weeks ago. I don't even know if it is real as I've never seen it myself." West explained.

"Strange, I never saw these advertisements." Edwin stated.

"Elizabeth saw them at the Chaston's gentleman club, she says that it is a bunch of nonsense. She also believes that the idol is made up to gain business." Dan relayed.

"Please continue your story, if you don't mind." Edwin added.

"Right," West added. "Anyway, I pointed him in the direction of the old man across the road, and the thief went over there, and I heard the sound of Markov's gun fire inside the shop and then I saw the thief, even though he was more of a silhouette than a man, fall. A minute or two later I heard a different gun fire and then I crouched down. I saw three figures leaving the store and head northward along the road. They were too far for me to get accurate measurements and forget about their descriptions. They were more covered up than an Arabian female."

Daniel and Edwin added these notes to their watches. "Is there anything else you would like to add? Just so we don't have to make the arduous journey back here?" Edwin inquired.

West rubbed his tiny beard. "I don't think there is, unless you think of a question I can answer." He replied.

"You mentioned you heard Markov's gun discharge." Dan stated.

"Yes, so?" West retorted.

"But you also mentioned that the thief was also carrying a weapon." Dan mentioned and Edwin's face went to an 'ah ha!' expression.

"Yeah, how did you know the old man didn't lose his weapon and take the thief's weapon and used that?" Edwin added.

"Mr Phisher and Mr Wellenby took me for a fishing trip and on that trip Mr Phisher taught me about the sound of Mr Wellenby's gun. Said not to be spooked by it. So of course, I knew exactly what Markov's gun sounded like, Mr Phisher must have fired it at least 100 times during that long weekend." West explained.

Dan and Edwin nodded in agreement. "Sounds legit." Edwin noted. "But we will take this up with your boss, when do you expect his return?"

"He'll be back around 9:00 pm, if you want to send out some officers at that time, he'll be here." West relayed.

"Nah, we'll just tell the Aurime county rangers to speak with him, this area is just too far to travel for my little friend." Edwin relayed.

"If it weren't so late, I would gladly make the journey." Dan relayed. "After all, the train station is only a thirty-minute walk from here."

"Anyway, we are heading over the road, and ah, if you are feeling bad about Markov's demise, then we are obliged to say, 'sorry about your loss.'" Edwin added.

West waved his hand dismissively, "I barely knew the guy, his death has very little impact on me. Please do well on your investigation. I'm not sure what those three were after, but I rather they not return and be after me."

"Noted." Dan spoke and then the three parted ways, so to speak. West entered the pub to return to his duties, even though the police presence was making his current three customers nervous. Dan and Edwin crossed the road with Daniel heading ahead of the captain. The captain stopped and spoke to his officers by their EPD cop cars and Daniel headed closer and closer to the front door of this establishment. He quickly glanced upwards to the shop's signage, there was a pale wooden sign with dark yellow letters reading 'Little Things Curiosity Store,' dotted around the lettering were small figures of various items that could be found in store, such as planes, trains, cats, dogs and even wooden parakeets.

Lieutenant William Storm appeared from the door and approached Daniel to block his way. "Whoa, hot rod, what are you doing here?" Bill inquired.

"I'm here to investigate Bill." Daniel replied. "I'm a detective after all."

"No, this one is all mine and my team's. I'm in charge and I say you're out." Bill explained.

"What? Why are you so interested in heading this investigation and not letting me in, you know whatever happened in there I can handle it and help out." Dan retorted.

"It's not the body that'll perturb you, it's what's in the room that the body was discovered that might shock you." Bill added.

"Let me take a wild guess, you found something that indicated that our victim was up to no good." Dan guessed.

Bill almost dropped his jaw. "How did you...?"

"You told me that your interest is cases that involve criminals, isn't that accurate?"

Bill closed his mouth. "Yeah. You're right. Anyway, turns out our victim was producing fake organ donor cards. He planted then in the wallets of the people that tried to rob him, but he killed them before they could." He explained.

"He was a forger? But why? What did he have to gain by doing that?" Dan inquired.

"There is a reward for people who find dead organ donors and deliver them or inform the hospitals of their discovery. They earn 25% of the value of the organs that are taken from the donor. At one point there was a planet wide disease, even the people with the extinction ability were affected as the disease originated in Phyné. That was between the earth years of 1807 and 1825, during that time the rule changed to 50% and returned back to its 25% after it was over. Anyway, Markov must have used the rule to gain a load of money. Not many people can spot the fakes and some people don't bother asking why an organ donor would want to steal from some guy knowing the risks." Bill explained.

"I see, so those who are related to the donor also receive funds for their relations to the donors right?" Dan inquired.

"Yes. But my point is that this investigation is more of my specialty than yours, now if you don't mind." Bill stated as Edwin approached.

"What's going on Bill?" Edwin inquired.

"Captain, I was just relaying to Dan that I was fine investigating with my team and that I don't require his assistance." Bill relayed.

"Come on, give him a chance." Edwin relayed.

Bill sighed. "Come on Dan." He relayed reluctantly and gestured for Dan to follow him. Dan and Bill entered the shop.

"This is a nice place." Daniel announced as he looked about. "That photo on the wall, is that?"

"Markov and his father Anton. Yes, Anton was the one who taught Markov how to carve all of these wonders." Bill explained.

Dan tilted his head slightly with his hand on his chin and eyes closed in thought. "I'm wondering what drove him to commit the crime of federal forgery so many times." Dan spoke.

"We've been wondering the same thing, but there is nothing to help us in that regard." Bill added.

"How about his place of residence? Have you explored there?" Dan asked.

"Had you noticed that this is a two-storey building?" Bill inquired.

"I have, it's hard not to, so I suppose the window on the second floor belonged to his appartment?"

Bill nodded. "That's right, the stairs on the left of the counter lead to one door and there's stairs on the right of the building that lead to another door." He explained and pointed the staircases out. "The rear door of the apartment are locked with a non-magnetic pin bolt, as for the front door, it is locked by a Questlands lock, only a key from that region can unlock it. We've contacted the Questlands and they say it'll be an hour before they have finished creating a new key for the lock."

Daniel looked about. "How about I turn an hour into a minute or two?" He said as he took note of the windmill on display in the window.

Bill just shook his head in compliance to this request. "Knock yourself out, but there's no way you have guessed where that guy put his key."

Dan picked up the windmill and examined it until he found the hatch underneath and discovered the key to Markov's apartment, the key was painted in a gold coat, but some of it had chipped away revealing the crimson metal beneath. "This is Rubrium, from universe 772, the universe that contains the planets of Corial and Adam's home world Hythense. It's basically that universe's form of iron. None of our tools or forges are strong enough to melt down and form this metal, no wonder some people have to wait 1 week for a new key. It would also explain why none of our magnets don't work, we need a magnetic force 1000 times than a magnet that could move regular iron." Dan noted.

Billy laughed derisively. "I had no idea you had done so much research old man. But let's test your luck and see if it actually works."

Bill headed upstairs and Dan followed closely behind, and a muscle figure followed behind Daniel. It was one of the officers who were already at the scene.

Bill arrived at the door and suddenly felt a compulsion. "So, how did you know to check the windmill?"

Dan put on a glove and pushed in on the railing and presented the mass of dust he had collected to emphasise the following explanation: "Of all the objects that were on display in the window, it contained on it the least amount of dust, suggesting that it was the item that was touched most recently."

Bill narrowed his eyes in frustration. "I would have noticed that too, given enough time." He relayed.

Dan nodded. "I don't doubt that 5559." Dan chuckled.

"Yeah, bring my badge number into it, why don't ya?"

"Anyway, who's Mr Muscles?"

"Vincent? He just fears that you might stumble down the stairs."

"That's not my real name." Vincent relayed.

Bill rolled his eyes. "You're a member of my squad, the V squad, Vincent is your codename, how many times do I have to explain that?"

"I'm aware of that, sir, but Dan doesn't know that, so I said that to get you to inform him of that." Vincent explained.

"Right, I have my own team." Bill relayed.

"Yes, you've mentioned it twice, see I remember." Dan relayed

"The members are Luke Hallow, aka Vincent, Garry Gale, aka Val, Hillary Unity, aka Vanessa, and Rhoda Jewels, aka Valery. While they are working along my side you must refer to them as such, is that clear?" Bill explained.

Dan nodded. "I suppose, if that is fine with your team as well, right Vincent?"

Vincent just nodded and Bill proceeded to unlock the door, the Rubrium interior turned and clicked loudly to signify that the door had unbolted, and Bill turned the rich mahogany knob and pushed the dark green door open.

"Here we are, the victim's home sweet home." Bill announced, bowing with finesse. All of this was just for show of course, he was just trying to be entertaining to try and lessen the darkness around the case.

Daniel patted him on the back as he passed by the still bowing Bill. "Thanks for the theatrics, but next time wait for a bigger audience, then you'll make a bigger impact." Dan advised.

Bill stood up again. "Well at least I know you appreciated it." Bill spoke, he didn't seem to be perturbed by Daniel's statement, however, Daniel didn't think these thoughts were true, but only spoken to gain favour.

Regardless, the three looked around the room.

Vincent opened a draw to the desk opposite to Markov's bed's foot. He found the victim's diary. "Boss, Dan, is this what we are looking for?" He announced.

Dan and Bill joined Vincent. "Good job Vincent." Dan relayed; Vincent returned a bright smile. It must have been something in Dan's tone that made Vincent have a very genuine and great smile, as he must have been told this before by Bill, but Bill's demeanour made the results of his previous findings unearned.

"Thank you, Dan." Vince added.

Bill grabbed the book off of his subordinate, Daniel and Vincent didn't like the way he just took it.

"Are you sure it's fine to look into that?" Dan asked jokingly.

"The guy is dead and a criminal, so it's fine." Bill relayed while Vincent gave a small chuckle in response to Dan's rhetorical question. Bill opened the diary and another key fell out; it was a regular stainless-steel key. "That is interesting." He noted as he saw the key fall out. "Get that Vincent." He ordered.

Vincent reluctantly collected the key and added it to a pocket in his uniform shirt.

"Do you know what you're looking for?" Daniel inquired.

Bill looked up from the book with a sharp stare. "I'm a lieutenant. Lieu-ten-ant. Are you seriously questioning whether or not I know what I'm looking for?" Bill retaliated, his impatience, frustration and anger issues were on full display and even though it wasn't directed at Vincent, he shook in his boots as if it were directed toward him.

"I wasn't aware that having curiosity was a trigger for you." Dan relayed.

"I never wanted you here Dan. I don't need you I already have four teammates. But if you must know, I'm trying to find the page relaying to Earth date October 25th, 2006. It was on that date that Markov had his fourth thief visit his store, the thief threatened his life, and the thief was shot by him. However, a customer entered at the moment the bullet came out of Markov's gun and after it passed through the thief it hit the customer, thankfully the thief had absorbed all the lethal force of the bullet and it wasn't able to kill the customer, but after that Markov left his store and set up shop here." Bill explained.

"I see, so your deduction is that on that day things changed for him in more ways than one." Dan added with a nod.

"Yeah, thanks, I don't need your input about it." Bill added as he skimmed through the book.

"Any luck yet?" Dan asked.

"It's not here." Bill relayed.

"Maybe he has another?"

"No, the book starts halfway through 2006, the page pertaining to that day is just gone. All I could find was this key." Bill took out a key that was sandwiched between the pages for October 24th and October 27th.

"Where was that?"

"It had taken the position of where October 25th and 26th should have been. 26th is rewritten on a piece of paper taped to the back of the book and it has no relevance."

"Then perhaps the key would help us find where that page actually went." Dan concluded.

"Yeah. But what does this key unlock? All the other locks are already unlocked. We found the keys to the shop on the victim."

Daniel put his hand to his chin and started thinking as Bill skimmed over the entries.

"How about the golden idol?" Dan asked.

"No such object has been located." Vincent relayed.

"Is there anything in there that proves it exists?" Dan inquired, looking toward Bill as he did.

"Yeah, he purchased it on the same day he purchased this store and the apartment above it. It's all here on the retelling of October 26th." Bill stated and presented the document upon the back of the diary.

26/10/2005

I have purchased a rare antique, a golden statue of the Rhombodian goddess of illusion. I'm keeping little Imoson away from prying eyes. I just hope she likes the painting I did for her. She's going to be looking at it for a while.

"Wasn't there a painting behind the cashier desk?" Dan inquired. As he admired Markov's curvy signiture.

"Yeah, that's a print of that sunflower paining by Van Gogh." Bill relayed.

"Maybe we should investigate it?"

Bill shook his head. "Imoson would not be appreciated of the work, besides, didn't the story say that she'd be looking at the painting? We didn't find the statue out in the open staring at it."

"Obviously, the Van Gogh is not what the writing refers to, as Markov specifically mentioned that he created the image himself, a print like that seems a bit beyond his skills as a carver." Dan noted. "But perhaps it's a good idea to give it a look."

Dan, Bill and 'Vincent' went downstairs, and Dan walked behind the counter, and he noticed damage to the wallpaper to the right side of the picture.

Bill noticed it too. "The wallpaper is lumpy." He spoke.

"As if something pushed up against it over and over." Dan noted. He pulled at the painting on the right side and there was a small sound as the picture began to swing. Dan stepped back and a safe that required a key to open was revealed. Dan used the key that was in the diary on it and opened the safe, the things that were hidden in the space behind the painting showed themselves to the world.

Inside was a 30cm tall golden visage of Imoson. Imoson herself was 189cm tall with long braided hair that was coloured pink and purple, her figure was skinny. She wore pink and purple as those colours represented her to a T. Her face was angelic and blemish free. Her lashes were long, and her brow was thicker than a usual brow. Inside the safe stood her face and upper torso, including her medium sized breasts, a golden version of her top covering up the inappropriate stuff and the upper part of her arms.

On the reverse side of the Van Gogh print was an A4 sheet of paper with a drawing of Markov's family cottage in Alminier, the fine white snow, the lovely green roof, the evergreens in the background. It was a fine drawing. Dan spotted the curvy signature of M. Wellenby, it was the same as the one that was imprinted on the page affixed to the back of Markov's diary.

Dan now noticed that the idol was not just that, it was affixed rather tightly to a wooden cylinder with a drawer at the front. It was clear that this idol and the drawer below it was of the same package, one couldn't have been bought without the other.

Bill joined Dan. "Man, to think this was hiding here, and here I thought that the golden idol was not a sham after all." Bill relayed.

Dan nodded. "He actually got the idol. Imagine if he actually did die due to an actual thief. Do you think they'd be able to discern the truth behind the cryptic clues?" Dan wondered out loud.

"I'm not sure, maybe. It is a possibility, anyway, this thing looks legit, I wonder how much of a price it would actually fetch." Bill relayed.

"If it is real, it could catch up to $300,000 RHD. If it is real." Dan added.

"I think we have something that may help." Vincent relayed. "I'll just check with Vanessa, she's the resource manager of the V team. She always has whatever we need at the right time. I'll be right back."

Vincent opened the door to the basement and went down to meet with the rest of the V team. Soon he returned with a vial of white powder. "This is stannous chloride," he announced as he presented the vial like he was advertising it as a pill bottle filled with miracle pills. "If the gold is real, this powder will turn it purple."

"Is that true Dan?" Bill asked.

"I learned a load of science in order to proceed through my prior career, and I can confirm that what he says is true. If that powder comes in with even invisible fragments of gold, it will change purple." Daniel added. "Did your resource person have that actively available?"

"She has the same charm on her carry bag as Damien has on the bag he's always carrying around, and she collects all sorts of useful stuff that only becomes useful if the circumstances are right, apparently she's had this bottle for two years." Vincent explained.

Daniel nodded.

"Well," Bill interjected. "Go for it already."

Vincent pushed into the already cramped space and put his pointer finger into the powder and then pushed it against the idol and it turned purple.

"So, maybe it's just gold plated." Bill retorted.

"Thank you, Vincent, please return to standing over there as this area is a bit too small for three." Daniel requested as politely as he could. Vincent managed to make it out of the cramped space. "As for you, you don't have an ability to lift metal, do you?"

Bill shook his head. "Unlike my name, I'm an Earthmancer, I control earth and clay and rocks but not ores and metals, the metals just phase through and get stuck beneath the hunk of dirt I picked up with my abilities and after placing it back."

Dan tried to move the idol. "It is very heavy. I think the whole thing is gold, but we can also ask someone to move it to a testing facility."

Bill snapped and knocked the cash register of the desk. "I don't care whether or not the gold idol is actually gold or not. I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHERE THAT PAGE IS!" Bill exclaimed.

Dan was taken aback, and Bill pushed him aside. He found a piece of scrunched paper behind the statue, checked the date and tossed it into the nearby wastepaper basket. "Where is it?!" Bill exclaimed as Dan retrieved the paper that was thrown away.

"There's a drawer under the idol." Dan reminded. Bill gave him an angry stare and looked directly at Dan as he opened the drawer. The page he was looking for was right there in the drawer, as well as a key to a safe deposit box.

"Oh, here it is." Bill relayed in a dismissive tone.

"What does it say?" Dan inquired.

25/10/2005

I can't believe what happened today. A thief came to my store, trying yo rob me of my earnings, just like the last three times. I told him that the code to the safe behind me was located in the windmill, that gave me enough time to shoot the bastard. But alas, the bullet passed through him and hit the arm of an innocent customer as he entered the store.

He said he was grateful that his life was spared and forgave me for the bullet hitting him after it took the life of a criminal. He told me that it wouldn't have mattered if the bullet that passed through the thief took his life as he had an organ donor card, and if I killed him by accident, I would have potentially saved another.

I then got to thinking and did some research. There is an archaic rule that says that I could gain money for finding people with organ donor cards. This gives me an idea. It may take me a while, but I'm going to milk the criminal scums for all that they are worth, I'm going to learn all I need about forgery to make these cards, but first I must obtain one for myself. Look out thieves, your life-ruining career is going to change into a life-giving career, and I'll be keeping all the profits.

"No doubt this guy felt justified killing thieves and selling off their organs to the highest bidder." Dan relayed as he continued reading the piece of paper that was thrown aside.

"I'm surprised that nobody knew that he was up to no good." Bill added.

"But someone did find out, they were murdered before they could tell the world." Dan relayed and handed the piece of paper to Bill. "It seemed that our friend Markov had an employee, one Elliot Doubledaze. When the police investigated the case, they found Markov innocent as he was threatened by Elliot who had a weapon which he discharged, but the truth that the rangers didn't bother to uncover because they believed Markov's story to an absolute degree is written right here."