Death On Wheels: Chapter 8

"So what should we do first?" I asked Celeste. I wasn’t exactly a detective, and even watching a few episodes of a murder mystery show, I still don't think I would be able to accurately do this.

"Well, I read a whole bunch of murder mystery books, so maybe we can mimic what those detective characters do" Celeste answered.

Apparently she was in the same boat I was. We're going to have to follow the footsteps of fictitious detectives.  

"So the first thing we should do is examine the body and the scene around the body" Celeste told me.

"We're gonna have to look at my dead friend?" my voice cracked a bit as I asked, I had to clear my throat several times after.

"Well, yeah. We need to know how he got murdered." Celeste told me.

"Yeah but doesn’t the autopsy report have all that information? I-I don't want to look at his body." I sighed.

"There are things the autopsy report missed" I heard a voice say. A voice I haven't heard since we first got here.

I looked over and saw Anthony stooped over Ned's body. "I guess it'll be your loss if you don’t want to look. It's not like you'd know what to look for." he smirked as he mocked us.

"Hey! We're all in this together. If we all guess wrong we could all be killed!" Celeste reminded him.

"I suppose I could share information with you" Anthony tapped his chin. "But do I want to do it now or later?"

"Quit playing games!" I snapped.

"Games are fun" he whined. "Especially Hide and Seek."

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

He began to dig around Ned's body, which made me extremely uncomfortable. Not just the fact it was my dead friend, but also the fact he's just sticking his hands in his pockets and what-not like it's nothing.

"Any moron can seek what is hidden. Most will give up if it's too challenging" he began to tell us as he picked something out of Ned's pocket. "But it takes great skill to actually find what is hidden."

In Anthony's hand was a crumpled up piece of paper.  

"Is that a note?" Celeste asked.

Anthony smirked at us as he uncrumpled the paper and showed it to us.

"It's a note threatening him" he told us.

I took the note from him and examined it. The handwriting was quite sloppy and had ink smudges and read "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!"

"Who could have wrote this?" I asked.

"Anyone at this point, that's why you'll need to go find more clues and evidence" Anthony told me. "This is all I'm gonna help you with. Don't get in my way."

I shoved my hands into my coat pockets and rolled my eyes before walking away. Celeste shuffled to follow after me.

"We should examine the room now" she told me.

I stopped in front of the mangled face stuck onto the wall as I went to go follow her. Looking at it up close gave me even more of a sick feeling in my stomach, but there was something interesting that I found about the face.

"C-Celeste-" I called out to her.

"I'm here don't worry!" she reassured me as she squeezed my hand, probably thinking I called her out of distress.

"No I know, but look at this, as grotesque as it is. There's something off about it. Look at the edges." I pointed out.

Celeste lifted up her bangs to get a better look. She shuddered before looking away.

"The edges look really rough, almost like it was ripped off rather than cut off with a knife. And there's a claw mark on his cheek." I told her.

She gave it another look, a cringe on her face the entire time. "You're right! The murderer must have sharp nails."

I couldn't bear to look at the face anymore, so I went to go look around the room some more. I found very small bits of glass on the ground near the corner, but I didn't think much of it. Maybe he accidentally broke something and cleaned it up. Nac seemed interested in it though. I wasn't gonna bother asking her why. The last person I want to talk to is Nac.

I tried my best to try and gather evidence around the room, but the more I tried to look the more uncomfortable I got.

"Maybe we should just talk to other people and gather alibis like they do in those crime shows now" I told Celeste.

"We hardly even looked at anything!" she told me.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really uncomfortable in this room. I don't think I can do this right now." I admitted.

"Okay. We can always come back later." Celeste nodded in understanding.

The first person I went to talk to was Eddie, because he was the last person I spoke to before going to see Ned.

"Did you see Ned at all last night?" I asked him.

"No I did not" Eddie shook his head. "I'm sorry. I played a video game with Adam and then went to the gym for a little cardio exercise and then I went straight to my room."

"You didn't see Ned at all during that time?" I asked him.

"No" he shook his head.

"Okay..."  I sighed and turned to Celeste.

"Who else should we interview?" Celeste asked. I could tell she was a little upset that I was pointlessly interviewing people rather than actually looking at the evidence. I wanted to tell her to just go examine things without me, but I really couldn't be alone right now. Besides, Anthony looks like he knows what he's doing, and I'm sure there are other people who are much better at examining evidence than I am.

"Hmm..." I thought back to yesterday, the incident where Ned threw that bucket of lard on Honey and then hit Steve with the bucket. Then I thought of seeing Ned in Ule's room when I took down the picture.

"Let's talk to Ule" I told her.

I found Ule talking with Pizza Steve in the kitchen.

"Listen you piece of shit pizza boy, I want some goddamn answers! I keep seeing those mother fucking cheese hand prints on my fucking bedroom walls. This is ridiculous! Is he here or not?" Ule Gapa angrily demanded from Steve.

"How the hell should I know? If you want to know more about that cheeto engorged freak you'll need to talk to Uncle Grandpa. Besides, you have more important things to worry about right now, like solving this murder case!" Steve replied to him impatiently.

"You know more about it than you're letting on! I want you to talk!" Ule demanded.

"If you keep asking me the same goddamn question I'm just going to leave and you can kiss anything that I know about anything good bye. I told you I know nothing about the handprints or his whereabouts! Now leave! You owe me money for taking up this much of my time!" Steve hissed.

"I was only here for 2 minutes!" Ule screeched.

"2 minutes too long! My time is valuable." Steve told him coldly.

"Ule" I called out.

Ule angrily turned to me. "What the fuck do you want?"

"I want to ask you something about the murder." I told him.

"I didn't fucking do it!" Ule screamed at me, immediately jumping to conclusions.

"I didn't say you did. I wanna know if you knew if anybody else was in your room." I asked him.

"Yeah, that Cheesepuff Mike psycho! There's cheese puff prints all over the fucking room! All over the pictures! I had to take them down to clean them, and that's when I noticed there were two way mirrors installed in the rooms! I was able to see your stupid fucking room and your dumbass sleeping at 9 like a fucking idiot." he confessed to me.

I was relieved when he confessed to me that he knew about the two way mirrors, despite the fact the way he presented the information was irritating.

"There are two-way mirrors?" Celeste squeaked the question.

"Yeah, and you can see into the person next to you's room." Ule told her.

"Well I found that out too, and when I took down my own picture I saw someone looking back at me in your mirror. Unaware that I was able to see them, that is." I also confessed.

"WHO?!?" Ule demanded the answer, grabbing my shirt collar.

"I saw Ned." I told him.

"Ned?" Ule looked confused. "That little scoundrel! How did he get in there?"

"I don't know! But I saw him there shortly before the incident in the gym." I admitted.

"Ugh! What the hell! I'm gonna check the lock on my door cuz all kinds of people are coming into my room!" Ule hissed as he stomped away.

I turned to Pizza Steve. "Would you know how Ned got into that room?" I asked him.

He was ready to give me some kind of snooty remark before his face and demeanor turned serious.

"Maybe. I need more evidence for that to know for sure, though. I don't want to speculate." he told me seriously.

"Well speculating might help!" I tried to entice him to tell me.

He laughed. "You don’t know how this shit works do you?"

"Not really..." I began to say, but then I was interrupted by an announcement.

"That's enough looking around! Report to the dining room immediately!" Tanezumi told us with a malicious giggle.

Oh great... I haven't really even looked at much!

"Oh no!" Celeste slapped her arm sleeves over her face.

"Eh, don't worry. I'm sure you'll be fine." Steve reassured us.