《Killer Bay》Under The Thunder Dome
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"Gosh, Adalet, I can't believe there's another storm coming towards us!" Amy exclaims as they watched the storms clouds darken from the large bay windows, "people have barely had the time to get over Hurricane Yves... and now Hurricane Zelda may finish off destroying the town!"
"Adalet, I'm glad to see you. An evacuation site has already been set up in the Thunderdome stadium to make sure people will get to safety before the storm hits," Andrea informs them, "Colonel Spangler of the Army Special Projects Division has been put in charge of the evacuation."
"Oh joy," Adalet rolled her eyes at the sound of the military man's name.
"I'm sure you'll remember Colonel Spangler from Bayou Bleu, Adalet. He was a suspect in the murder of the soldier eaten by a giant carnivorous plant," she scowled, "anyway, I don't trust the man, which is why I want you and Amy to go to the Thunderdome and supervise the evacuation. Right now, if you please."
Inside the Thunderdome stadium...
"I see we have a visit from local law enforcement," Colonel Spangler dismissed the woman he had been talking to, "I am not quite sure why you are here, Capt. Adalet. We have the situation under control."
"We've been called in to reinforce security, Colonel Spangler," Adalet replied, "storm evacuations can derail in the blink of an eye."
"Pacific Bay Police seem to have interesting notions of jurisdiction. I suppose we can cooperate if it is necessary. But wait a minute!" he exclaims suddenly, "I see a crate over there that's been opened without my authorization! It's against protocol! Whoever didn't report this is on latrine duty for the full duration of the evacuation!"
"Seems like you may need the security help, after all, Colonel!" Amy beamed.
"Amy is right," Adalet smirked, "we'll have a look around the evacuation center."
The Colonel stepped aside to let the cops do their work. They searched the area for anything stranger or dangerous, but what they ended up finding was much, much, worse! Sprawled out in a storage chest was a man's body with a weathervane jammed down his throat. Near the body was a pile of army gear that looked to have been knocked off of a table.
"Oh no!" Amy gasped, "there is a body inside this crate! And there's a... a weather vane stuck in his throat! How gruesome! This poor man is dead beyond a doubt!"
"I know that man! That's Theo Mercier," Colonel Spangler told them, "hm, I should have known it would come to this..."
"You say you know the victim, Colonel Spangler?" asks Adalet, "we'll need you to stay here and answer some questions."
"And Adalet, you've already found a clue!" Amy cheered, "this messy pile of army gear does seem out of place, I agree. It could be hiding an essential piece of the puzzle!"
As the Colonel walked off to let them do their work, Adalet walked over to the pile of army gear. While Amy called in the murder to the station, the Muslim began pulling away at the gear to see what was in the pile. Towards the very bottom of the pile, she found a plastic water bottle like the ones being handed out around the dome, but this one had one major difference, it was covered in blood.
"Good catch, Adalet! You found an... evacuation water bottle in the pile of army gear?" Amy from not noticing the blood on it, "not that I'm doubting you, but shouldn't we be more concerned by the hand grenades?"
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Adalet turned the bottle in her gloved hand so that the red stains on the neck were visible.
"Oh, I see, Adalet! The water bottle seems to have blood on it. And you're just the person to collect a sample! Thank goodness we're teamed up again!"
Adalet swabbed the blood from the neck of the bottle and planed the red liquid in-between two micro slides.
"Excellent, Adalet!" Amy cheered, "now that you've collected a blood sample from this water bottle, we can send it to the lab for analysis!"
Once Roxie with some back up had arrived to take the body away and look over the crime scene, Adalet and Amy were able to go and speak with Colonel Spangler about the victim.
"Colonel Spangler, earlier you identified the victim as Theo Mercier. Can you tell us more about him?" Adalet questioned as Amy took down notes.
"Ha! As soon as he stepped into the stadium, we had reports of theft from other evacuees!" Colonel Spangler laughed humorlessly, "never mind the panic he was spreading about a lack of medical supplies! Theo Mercier was a real troublemaker... He seemed to delight in other people's misery."
"It seems like he wasn't making any friends in the stadium..." she mused.
"Definitely not," he snorted, "I can get you the address of your victim's house, but after that, you'll have to excuse me. There is a lot to do around here."
"Thank you for your time, Colonel Spangler," Amy said closing her notebook, "we'll leave you to the evacuation and go investigate our victim's home."
Once Colonel Spangler had given them a piece of paper with the address for the victim's house on it, the cops left the Thunderdome and drove through the storm to the neighbourhood. They looked around the flooded street for anything that could still be used. Dean and Hunter found a torn photo floating in the water, and while Amy grabbed it, Adalet climbed onto the roof of the victim's house and grabbed the satellite dish that had the word 'Theo' and a red skull painted on it.
"Holy smoke! Look at all this water! It feels like Hurricane Zelda is already in full swing, and it's not even near the town yet!" Amy gaped as she wadded through the water, "but despite all the water, the dogs managed to find a torn photo in front of the victim's house! If anyone can restore it, it's you, Adalet!"
"There's also this," Adalet hefted up the dish and pointed to the paint.
"You also found a radar dish? Oh, you're right, there's the victim's name written on it... and a red skull!" she says, "this looks ominous... But I'm sure you'll be able to retrieve the rest of the message that was written on this dish!"
Adalet and Amy walked back up the hill to where they had parked the car and set their clues down on the hood. She first dusted the missing
"The message reads: "Theo, you cheated me! Watch your back!"... Someone was really upset with the victim!" Adalet whistled, "Hannah is great with electronics. Maybe she'll be able to tell us more if we send her that radar dish!"
While Amy brought the radar dish into the back of the car, Adalet picked up the torn pieces and taped them back together. The image looked to be an old picture of the victim and another man who looked to have just caught a fish. But the ink from the other man's face had been washed away slightly from the storm.
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"I knew you would piece together that photo from the victim's house in record time! What is it of?" Amy asked as she came back.
"A photo of two men holding up a... very weird looking fish. I recognize Theo, but the other man's face has been washed off..." Adalet showed her the image.
"You think those blurry features will be enough for you to recognize this man in our database, Adalet?" she pondered.
"Here's hoping!"
Adalet logged on to the police database and searched for the man by what features she could make out from the smudged picture. It turned out that the man in the picture with their victim was no other than Theo Mercier's father, Hugo Mercier.
"You did it, Adalet! Now we know the man in the photo next to our victim is... Hugo Mercier!" Amy read over the older woman's shoulder, "Hugo Mercier?"
"He must be Theo Mercier's father," Adalet told her, "you can definitely see the resemblance."
"You're right," she agrees, "we should go see Mr. Mercier and tell him that his son is dead... I'll try not to get emotional."
Adalet and Amy walked back down the hill to the victim's house and knocked loudly on the front door. They waited a few cold moments for Hugo to open the door, and the man had to grab his hat to prevent it from blowing away.
"What do you want?" Hugo demands, "if you ain't here to help me, you have until the count of three to get off my property!"
"Sir, please calm down. We are the police," Adalet tells him, "I'm afraid we have bad news about your son, Theo."
"That good-for-nothing fool! What did he do this time?" he hissed.
"I'm sorry to have to tell you this," she apologized, "but your son was murdered. His body was found in the Thunderdome stadium."
"Murdered?! Well... That boy cared more about thieving than staying with his own flesh and blood!" he proclaimed, "you do wrong in your life, it's going to come back on you... I told him not to evacuate, I told him to stay with me and protect our home! But he left, and see where that got him!"
"But, sir," Amy cried, "Hurricane Zelda will be there in a few days! You should really consider evacuating!"
"I'll never leave this house, you hear me?" Hugo brandished his fist, "even when Theo abandoned me during Hurricane Yves, I stayed put! And I'll stay through Hurricane Zelda, too!"
Later, in the morgue...
"Man alive, I am exhausted! I came into Jazz Town yesterday and helped my aunt evacuate. But I'll be better after fifteen cups of coffee..." Roxie inhaled the scent of her freshest cup, "at any rate, I know which ill wind sent your victim to my autopsy table. He died from a combination of blood loss and respiratory failure."
"By the weather vane?" Adalet inquired.
"The weather vane jammed down his throat is definitely the murder weapon, Adalet! There's a small mystery here, though, because the top of the weather vane, the rooster, is missing..." she points to the empty end, "but on the half that was still jammed in the victim's throat, I found something interesting: blurred fingerprints with traces of chicory!"
"So the killer drinks chicory?" Amy pulls out her notepad, "I'll write it down straight away, Adalet!"
They thanked Roxie for her work and told her to get some much-deserved rest. After the coroner had settled down at her desk with her large cup of coffee, Adalet and Amy headed over to the forensics lab to check in with Yann about the blood sample they'd sent him.
"Adalet, Amy," Yann greeted the two women, "I can confirm that the blood on the water bottle you found on the crime scene is the victim's!"
"And a dead body can't hold a water bottle," Amy joked, "so the killer must have been the one who touched it!"
"That's right. And there's more! I can also tell you that the killer needs fear no mosquito! The blood on the bottle was slightly pink, so I did some tests and... It turns out that blood got mixed with insect repellent!" he informs, "which makes sense, in a way. With the stagnant water and heat, Jazz Town is facing a malaria threat..."
"Hm, so we know the killer uses insect repellent! Thank you, Yann," she beamed, "I'll write it down!"
Once they had the newest piece of information added to their file, Adalet and Amy left the lab and headed down the hall to Hannah's office.
"Hello, Adalet! Interesting radar dish... You really know how to customize your hardware!" Hannah smirked, "I can tell you that this type of radar dish is the preferred model for on-the-spot weather reporters and... storm chasers!"
"Like Peggy Pascal, the storm-chaser?" Amy says lost in thought, "the one we suspected of murdering that weatherman?"
"Yup! The kook who thinks Hurricane Yves was man-made! That's her!" she confirmed.
"Why would Peggy be threatening our victim?" Adalet wondered out loud, "come on, Amy, we'd better go ask her!"
Hannah had taken the liberty of calling Peggy into the station for them. Adalet and Amy walked down the hallways to the room where the storm chaser was placed and sat down at the table across from her.
"Seems like you have an issue with defacing weather equipment, Peggy," Adalet hums, "we found a threat you made to Theo on a radar dish... Theo, who was murdered earlier today!"
"Murdered? Talk about instant karma..." Peggy snickered, "Theo sold me this radar dish for my storm tracker... But it was faulty! And he wouldn't give me my money back!"
"So you threatened him? Isn't that a little extreme?" Amy questioned.
"I needed that radar dish so that I could monitor the storm!" she exclaimed, "I can't let what happened during Hurricane Yves happen again, don't you understand?!"
Later, at the station...
"So let's see what we have so far in our investigation of Theo Mercier's murder... Colonel Spangler was furious because Theo stole things from the storm evacuees..." Amy summarized, "an idea supported by what Theo's father told us about his son's priorities. The victim also tricked Peggy Pascal into buying a faulty radar dish for her storm tracker, which Peggy didn't take well at all."
"Adalet, we have a crisis on our hands! There's been a break-in at the town square pharmacy. The pharmacist says the place has been ransacked!" Andrea tells the captain, "prescription medicine has been stolen! If people are buying and selling this stolen medicine, public health is in danger!"
"What can we do to help, chief?" Adalet asks jumping to her feet.
"We have a photo from the pharmacy's video surveillance feed. Do you recognize this man?" she inquired holding up the image.
"Oh, dear..." Amy gasped, "that's Theo Mercier! Our victim stole that medicine!"
"Talk about a coincidence! Well, now that we know our victim was behind the robbery, Adalet should have a chat with Mr. Lamothe, the pharmacist," Andrea suggests, "and while you're at the pharmacy, look for more clues about Theo's last hours alive!"
Adalet and Amy took the surveillance photo of the victim robbing the pharmacy with them as they rushed down to the wrecked main street. They entered the trashed medical shop and found Claude attempting to catalogue everything that had been taking from the shelves.
"Thank you for coming so quickly, Capt. Adalet!" Claude cries once he saw the cops, "I cannot believe someone would break into my pharmacy! Even my trusty chicory cannot settle my nerves."
"Mr. Lamothe," Amy shook the pharmacist's hand, "Capt. Adalet identified the person who robbed your pharmacy as Theo Mercier..."
"Him again?! The nerve! I caught Theo shoplifting multiple times. Cough syrup, sinus medication, over-the-counter stuff..." he listed, "but I can't believe that he would steal prescription medicine! I am afraid for the population of Jazz Town if these get into the wrong hands!"
"You do not need to worry about that, Mr. Lamothe. Theo Mercier was murdered," Adalet informed him.
"Well! This may be for the best. Theo was a threat to the general public!" Claude declares firmly.
Claude excused himself to the back shop and gave the cops privacy to look around the shop. Adalet picked up a bright red heart-shaped box of chocolates off the ground while Amy nearly tripped over a duffel bag that was half-hidden behind the counter.
"Wow! This pharmacy is adorable! It's so old-fashioned! And, despite it being picked over, we still managed to find clues, Adalet!" Amy cheered picking up the bag, "this bag belonged to Theo Mercier, our victim! I wonder what we might find inside..."
"And this box of chocolates was from our victim," Adalet chimed in, "it says "Love, Tango Theo" on it... The rest of the message is faded..."
"I wonder who the victim wanted to give that box to? But I'm sure you will be able to uncover it!"
They placed the bag and box of chocolates down on the counter. Adalet unzipped the duffel bag zipper and began looking through the contents inside. The bag must have been what Theo used for his robberies, as it contains lock picking tools, black hats, some fake credit cards, and a crowbar. But the thing that didn't seem to belong in the bag was a torn ribbon.
"So what did you find in Theo's bag?" Amy asks, "just a broken piece of string with "Thunderdome" written on it..."
"But check this out, Amy," Adalet points to a dark stain on the ribbon.
"Oh, you're right! The string has blood on it! Good point, Adalet, blood always has a story to tell. We'd better get it to Yann!" she says taking it to bag up.
As Amy began to bag and tag the ribbon to send to the lab, Adalet slid the chocolate box closer to herself. She got her brush and powder out and began dusting the note attached to the box. The message was short, stating who the box was for and that it was meant as a sign of apology to the receiver.
"Did you discover who Theo's box of chocolates was for, Adalet? ... I'm silly, of course, you did!" Amy giggled.
"Hmm... the tag reads "To Jazzy Dinah, Forgive me! Love, Tango Theo"... Dinah... The name sounds familiar..." Adalet tapped her lip with a finger, "Oh! It must be Dinah Cooper, the cabaret dancer we met during our first investigation in Jazz Town!"
"You're right, Adalet," she nods, "We should check in with Dinah Cooper and ask about her relationship with the victim."
After dropping off the ribbon at the station for Yann to look at, Adalet and Amy continued to the Jazz club where Dinah worked. When they found the dancer, they asked her about the chocolates he had sent to her.
"Theo's dead? Dang... He probably had it coming, though... Awww, Theo, you foolish man..." Dinah shook her head with a tisk, "y'all know he was a small-time thief and conman. He would even take my chicory drink and never replace it, how pathetic is that? That box of chocolates you found was probably stolen, Adalet. Theo was only romantic when it cost him nothing."
"So you were in a relationship with the victim, then? How serious was it?" Adalet inquires.
"Theo and I were together off and on for a while. But I just couldn't let it get too serious. I loved him, but I could never trust him 100%. Plus my son Louie is at an impressionable age," she adds, "Theo wasn't exactly setting the best example for him. Speaking of Louie, can I go now, Capt. Adalet? I need to get our things together so we can evacuate to the stadium!"
Analyze Bloody String...
"Hey there Adalet! I had a look at the bloody string you found in the victim's bag and the blood definitely belongs to Theo," Yann confirmed for them, "but there's more! I also found a build-up of chicory drink and insect repellent!"
"Oh my gosh! So the killer must have touched this string!" Amy guessed.
"Undoubtedly. And I'm sure you noticed the word "Thunderdome" on the string, Adalet. It turns out this is actually part of the badges handed out to the evacuees, so they can be identified," he explains, "of course, the killer must have replaced this broken lanyard by now. Which means you're looking for someone wearing a Thunderdome evacuation badge!"
"Well done, Adalet! Thanks to you, we've got yet another piece of evidence against the killer! Now what should we do..." the rookie wonders.
"Adalet! There's an urgent matter to attend to!" Andrea saved them from having to ponder for too long, "the water levels are rising! You had better get back to the Mercier residence before all the evidence gets washed away!"
Adalet salutes, "heading to the victim's home right away, Chief Marquez!"
Back at the victim's house...
"What have your eagle eyes caught this time, Adalet? A torn document? With your puzzle prowess, we're sure to find out what it's all about!" Amy praised, "you also found a pile of debris? What makes it so different from all the others?"
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