Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Milo the Murder Investigator

[kaats711]

Murder in the Crux

[kaats711]

1.1 Getting involved

Milo had always dreamed about being Sherlock Holmes. As a scraggly young Sphinx he had put on his best suit, hat, scarf, and pipe and wandered around his neighborhood in search of crimes to be solved. Milo grew up in a poor and relatively dangerous part of the Crux so there was no shortage of crime for the plucky young investigator to solve. His mother forced him to stop going in search of mystery when the unlucky teen fell into the middle of a City Guard standoff and was held hostage by a powerful and hypotonic vampire for two days. After the ordeal Milo wasn't too sad to give up his passion for crime; he hung up his suit, hat, and pipe but always hung onto the scarf for it was not as distinctly Sherlock-ian.

It soon became abundantly clear that while Milo had had a knack for finding crime when he was looking for it, he was just as good at happening upon it when he wasn't in search of it. After the 3rd murder scene Milo happened to arrive at before the City Guard they became suspicious. Milo was hauled in for questioning and after seven hours was released. Rubbing his sore paws gingerly, the shackles were been kind to delicate Sphinxes, Milo was released by a begrudging officer who warned him that, "We've got our eyes on you kid."

Milo politely smiled back and turned to begin his way home. If the police are truly stumped, he thought following me around might actually be an ok lead.

He sighed. Clearly he needed to do his level best to stay away from any more police, dead bodies, and mystery. He planned to stay in hiding, at home, until this killer was caught to prevent any further suspicion by the City Guard.

On his way home he stopped by his favorite bakery, not many Sphinxes in his part of town had the extra money for fancy baked goods but Miss Dahlia always made a reasonably priced basic wheat bread for the majority of her customers, as well as the obligatory cakes and delicacies that a good bakery carries.

"Hello Miss Dahlia," Milo greeted the pretty Sphinx with a smile.

"Hello dear, what will it be today?" She replied with a beautiful smile.

Milo smiled awkwardly and turned more red as her gaze turned toward him. "Just some wheat bread Miss Dahlia," he responded quickly, "Oh- and a macaroon, I gave my mom a fright last night getting detained by the Guards....not that I did anything wrong! I was just a, errr, witness, it's a very important case." Milo was out of breathe after his hurried explanation and that only made him more red.

Miss Dahlia smiled sweetly, unflustered by his babbling "I just pulled some macaroons out of the oven. I'll get you a fresh one off the cooling rack." She padded thoughtfully back to the kitchen to fetch a macaroon.

Milo watched her go dreamily and continue to daydream about her leaving until his fantasy was broken up by a sharp scream from the back room.

"Miss Dahlia?!" He called fearfully. He jumped over counter when there was no response. He ran into the back room and burst through the doors. Miss Dahlia was sprawled out over the floor, cookie in her hand, and blood gushing from her neck.

Milo's first reaction was horror and dismay. Poor Miss Dahlia! His second thought was, Crap- I can't be here! He turned around to flee the scene, when he ran straight into the officer who had just released him.

"Fancy finding you here," the officer mused.

"I swear, I was on my home, I just stopped by...then this happened!" Milo stammered. His eyes darting back and forth fearfully and making him appear all the more criminal. He tried to compose himself, but between the body, the blood, and the City Guard who were suddenly everywhere, he found it hard to act calm. 

The officer looked at him disbelievingly, "Sure kid, you're coming with me." 

It took another seven hours of questioning before the City Guard once again believed that Milo was truly an unlucky bystander. Milo was exhausted and throughly overwhelmed. Why did these murders keep showing up near him? Clearly the City Guard had the same thoughts; the same officer who brought him in brought him a sandwich and sat down next to him on the steps of the City Guard jail he had just been released from. He introduced himself as Sarge.
Sarge sighed, "Look kid we know you aren't involved, or at least not knowingly. But clearly your a magnet for these occurrences. We don't have any leads, could you help us out?" 

Milo looked Sarge in disbelief. Sarge continued, "You'd work with an officer and we could make you an honorary assistant in the investigation." Milo's heart leapt into his throat, this is what he had always wanted.

Without a second thought Milo excitedly declared "Yes!" and thus Milo became a detective...of sorts. 

[kaats711]

1.2 Miss Dahlia 

Thrilled to be involved in the investigation, Milo bounded off away from the jail full of joy and vivre. 


"I'll send you partner over to the bakery!" Sarge called after him.


Milo had wanted to be an investigator for so long, now he had his chance to be apart of a real murder investigation. He really did feel like Sherlock Holmes. The Guard jail was in an old an particularly graceful part of town. The buildings were mostly brick and grey stones with elegant sweeping rooftops brushing down towards the clean, paved, and well lit streets. It made sense, the city always grew beautiful and safe the areas surrounding Guard posts. The well off citizens felt safer with Guards in the area, the less well off made sure to keep their modest homes well kept, and those that had reason to want to avoid the Guards...well they moved away. 

As Milo moved away from the station the large, lovely buildings thinned out and grew into houses and shops of more modest size and grandeur. This was were Milo had grew up. His mom had raised him alone in one of the smaller houses around here. She did her best to keep the house in good repair, her greatest gift was her green thumb and she kept a lovely flower box in full bloom on their window. The difference the flowers made brightened up their little abode and made it look like one of the nicer houses. 


Milo couldn't wait for his personal investigation to start. As soon as he approached the bakery his sadness creeped back over him. Miss Dahlia had a part of his community and a crush of his for quite some time. Her death would such a shock to his neighbors and her beautiful face with a pawful of warm bread would be sorely missed by everyone. He stepped into the bakery, it had been locked up by the Guard, but he knew about the back door. 


In the back room her body had not been moved, but out of respect had been covered with a white sheet. She had been sprawled out over the back floor of the bakery and just out of her paws reach was the macaroon she had gone to fetch for him. They had grown up together. Miss Dahlia's mom had owned the bakery before her. The neighborhood wasn't great but everyone struggling together lead to a close knit community. Those with shops and day labor were busy, so those that were home during the day took care of the entire gaggle of neighborhood kids. Dahlia was older than Milo but was always a great beauty and captured the hearts of many of the young folk. 


Once she took over the front desk and the early morning shift of her mom's bakery when she was old enough to be unsupervised with the oven. There had been a distinct uptick in business, especially from the boys of the neighborhood buying sweets. The bakery had done well with Dahlia beginning to take over. Her mother had been planning on retiring soon and fully turning it over to Dahlia. Milo really hoped the Guard was going to tell Dahlia's mom, he did not want to break this news to her. 

He looked at her body, she looked so sad and small on the floor. He knelt down beside her closed his eyes.



"Goodbye lovely girl," he whispered. He sighed and stood up, on the verge of tears. He took a deep breathe and decided to go wait for his Guard assigned partner outside. 

[kaats711]

1.3 Unexpected Assistance 

Milo stepped outside the bakery. He couldn't spend much more time with Miss Dahlia's body. He sat on the steps outside, but couldn't get her corpse out of his head. There was so much blood and all from her throat. That's actually sort of strange he thought Vampires are the sort that go after necks, but normally they are pretty clean because they drink all the blood. Why would a vampire just bite her and not clean up the blood- well I did burst in, but I doubt that would really scare a vampire off it's prey. I'd probably have been their second breakfast.


He got up and started walking around his neighborhood thinking. Ok. So a vampire wouldn't have left that big of a mess. So what else would go after a neck like that? Weres aren't interested in the neck arteries and they could easier go after an easier target. It's actually pretty hard to go after another Sphinxes neck, there's much easier targets that are just as good for killing if you're not interested in blood. Taking notice of his surroundings, Milo noticed he had wandered out of familiar territory.

Looking up he saw he had made it into a temple district- it was probably a pretty safe place for him to be if there was some sort of strange vampire on the loose. Out a temple of Bastet a lovely gold and navy Priestess carried out a similarly colored cub who was squirming and fussing. As the Priestess walked by him her cub notice his scarf and cooed at it reaching out to play with the multi-colored fabric.

The Priestess rolled her eyes, "Out of all the fancy silks, jewels, and gold baubles she has to play, of course she likes a Peasant's scarf. I'm sorry, my name is Avalon and this is my cub Nima. We came through the Crux to participate in a special ceremony to Bastet here, but Nima has been fussy since we got here and I can calm her- would you mind if she played with your scarf for a moment?"

Milo obliged and offered a tail of the scarf to the transfixed cub.

"What brings you to the Temple of Bastet at this auspicious time" Avalon asked Milo.

"Well," Milo explained, "I'm actually trying to solve a murder... or three. There's been some crime that following me around for some reason. I'm not sure why, but anyways I was just trying to puzzle something out and walking helps me think. I just sort of ended up here." He shrugged and waved the scarf over the thoroughly entranced Nima.

Avalon eyed him suspiciously, "Hmmm, I doubt you would end up here simply by chance."

Milo raised his eyebrows at the Priestess, "What do you mean?" "Before I was Priestess I was Medium," Avalon said grinning," The deceased and I are on better terms than most. And if murder seems to follow you I bet they spirits have something to say about that."

"Can you help me?" Milo asked excitedly.

"Of course my dear," said Avalon with a coy smile. 

Avalon and Milo set Nima down on the temple steps surrounded by Milo's scarf and the cub happily curled up to sleep. Avalon gathered some candles from the temple and set them up in a circle. She beckoned Milo to come sit with her in the middle of the circle. She extended her paws to him, "Now hold my paws and close your eyes," she instructed.

Milo did as he was told and Avalon to hum and sway slightly. Milo felt a sense of dread creep up his spine. He was not used to the spirits and the idea of communing with them scared him. Avalon's humming turned into a quiet singing, it was mournful tune and did not assuage his unease. He suddenly felt cold and Avalon gasped, "Begone!" she said with authority and squeezed his paws, "You can open your eyes, I think I might have some information to help you."

Milo's eyes flew open in relief and he shook himself jumping out of the candle circle. The cold had been like and icicle being shoved up his spine. It didn't feel like the icicle had been completely dislodged. There was a cold radiating out from his core and he shook violently trying to warm himself. 

They moved back to the sleeping cub and scarf and sat in the sun, Milo rubbed his paws together still feeling the unearthly cold. "I have two pieces of good news and two pieces of bad news. The good news is that even in this city of unnatural monsters, what you chase is not supernatural- it only longs to be. It is also has remained in the shadows because it has influence within the city, you're not looking for a one of the masses. The bad news is that the reason the murders have followed you is that you have been around since the start. This is not random. The spirits tell me you have been linked to the first kill and the others have followed you."

Milo was shocked, "How was I involved in the first murder? I'm not a killer! The first body I saw had been dead for a long time before I even saw it!" Milo was perplexed, "You said there were two pieces of bad news- what is the second?"

"You were going to be assigned a partner to work with, correct?" Avalon asked.

"Yes.." Milo replied cautiously.

"It seems the killer doesn't like the idea of you having help, your partners is on the verge of being in spirit world." Avalon replied.

Milo looked at her confused.

"She's dying" hissed Avalon and thrust his scarf back at him as Milo gasped and turned to run to find his dying partner.

[kaats711]

1.4 Clues

Milo sprinted through the streets of Lamoria. His partner was supposed to meet him at the bakery and was coming from the City Guard post where he had been held. This is all my fault he lamented to himself That poor city guard got all wrapped up in my bad luck. He rounded the corner towards the bakery at a full sprint and nearly lost his traction on the sharp corner. Digging in his claws he sprinted back to the bakery, a quick check of the front a back rooms revealed no clues as to where his partner might be. It was a straight shot back through the streets back to the city guard headquarters so he sprinted off back to the head quarters hoping desperately to find his would-be partners along the way.

Frantically looking in allies and side streets as he headed back towards the guard headquarters, he almost missed the red smears along the walls of an alley near to the guard post. He skidded abruptly to a halt and sprinted, breathless down the ally toward the red smears. It was blood, a streak of bloody of pawprint was smeared on the ally wall. The ground was soaked in the bright red liquid. This must have just happened, the blood hasn't even dried yet Milo thought. Following the trail of ruby liquid, Milo ended up at a pile of garbage, frantically he pulled off the top bag to find the face of lovely, young city guard gasping for air while clutching her throat.

Milo gasped, "What happened to you? Who did this?"

She weakly pointed at the ally entrance.

"Who?!" Milo pressed. "Court....lord" she rasped weakly as blood gushed from her throat. Gurgling, she closed her and her breathe stopped.

"No!" cried Milo, dragging more garbage off of her and picking up the lifeless body.

"I'm sorry," he whispered tears welling in his eyes.

He stayed with her body, holding her lifeless form until the city guard found him, covered in blood, in a pile a pile of garbage crying. He couldn't help but think this was fault. Avalon said that this darkness was following him- why? He was perfectly ordinary and the death toll around him was beginning to take it's toll. He was taken back to the City Guard station, eventually Sarge came and found him. "I'm sorry this is happening to you kid- it's not something you should have to deal with."

Milo nodded solemnly. "I heard her last words." he whispered, looking up at Sarge he asked, with tears in his eyes, "What was her name?"

"Lily," Sarge replied solemnly, "Do you mind asking what she said...at the end?"

Milo sighed, "I asked her who did this to her and all she said was 'Court' and 'Lord' before she...passed."

Sarge nodded, looked at the cobblestones for moment, and said, "Well it sounds like she recognized her attacker was noble, we can't get much more than that. Luckily, there's a limited number of those in the city. Why don't we take a look through some records and see if there's anything in there." Milo nodded and followed Sarge off the steps and towards the library.

Milo sat sullenly in the corner of library by a large wooden table. The library was dim, musty, yet still overwhelming huge and airy with large vaulted ceilings. The dark wood throughout the building made it seem dark yet the huge amounts of head space made the library seem cavernous. Milo had not been to this library before and it made him deeply uncomfortable. Sarge slammed down a large, dusty book next him, causing Milo to jump- he had been engrossed in the carvings in the ceiling and had not seen the large sphinx approaching. The book looked ancient and was quite hefty.

"This," grunted Sarge, " is a record of all of Lamoria's nobility, past to present. Luckily most of these Sphinxes are long gone and unlikely to be terrorizing the city. But we need to get a list of current living nobility." Milo nodded and slowly the two began to compile a list of all living nobility. It was arduous, as everything was organized by house and name and intermarriages lead to multiple listings of the same Sphinxes. They excluded those that had fallen out of favor as if their family no longer had the money to look lordly, Lily probably wouldn't have identified them as 'Lord.'

Hours went by and Milo and Sarge took turns listing and crossing off names on their list and napping in the corner. Luckily the eerie feel of the library left it mostly deserted and no one seemed to mind their talking or napping except for a single elderly librarian who came around once an hour to whisper "Hush!" at them. By the time the sun was going down they had an extensive list of names, Milo cleaned it to a shortened version of their note taking scrawl while Sarge napped. He counted the names on the list- there were 60 living noble decedents that could have been Lily's killer. He sat back and looked at his list, a few more names could be scratched off- particularly famous or important Lords and ones that were involved in the running of the court. Mostly because, as best Milo could guess, they would have been easily identified, and someone surely would have noticed if they continually disappeared at strange hours of the day and night. That brought the list to 47. Still too many he thought. Sarge awoke, looked at his list, agreed with his edits and stretched out, "Now it's time for some real police work kid," Sarge grunted.

"We have to go find all 47 of these nobles?!" Milo asked incredulously.

"Well unless you have any more information that could narrow the list," shrugged Sarge and padded towards the door. Milo sighed and followed.

By noon they had found 15 of the nobles and crossed 12 off the list. The 12 were either extremely elderly, children, or extremely weak. One young Lord they watched attempt to pick up a bucket full of water for two minutes and immediately crossed him off the list as the young Lord clearly did not posses the strength to murder a butterfly. Sarge bought them a couple of sandwiches and they sat on a curb in a wealthy part of the city as they nobility walked by.

"I thought this might happen," comment Sarge in between bites.

"What?" asked Milo, confused. "Well the nobility has been around for a long time, one way to keep the money and the name in the family is to have few children- later in life- and marry relatives. There aren't a bunch of young, fit Lords or Ladies running around the city at a given time and even the young ones aren't always...capable of murder, psychically. I think by the time we see everyone on this list we won't have more than 10 or 15 that could even be suspects."

Milo nodded, he was surprised at how few Lord and Ladies looked able to actually take down a city guard.

Sarge's prediction held true, by the time the sun was setting they had seen everyone on the list -helped immensely by a family picnic being hosted by one of the City's prominent Lords. The final list had 12 possible suspects. All young Lords that looked physically capable of taking down Lily. They had excluded 16 young Ladies, 8 of Milo found actually quite threatening, because Lily had specified her killer was a "Lord" not a member of the nobility, though they did keep a separate list of ladies in case they did need to broaden their search later. "Now comes the hard bit," said Sarge, Milo looked at him confused- they had an actual reasonable list of subjects, how could the next bit be any harder.

"You see Sphinxes don't like to be accused of murder and well the list of suspects we have do have certain connections which could make our job hard."

Milo nodded, accusing the Lords of the city of brutal crimes certainly wasn't going to go over very well with the nobility. "So who do we start with?" asked Milo.

[kaats711]

1.5 The Note

Sarge was right- the twelve young Lords were not keen to be questioned about murder. One by one they were brought down to the station, some quickly, some kicking a screaming while their noble parents grimaced and looked on. Being disgruntled was an appropriate reaction to an untrue accusation, but requiring a complete squad of city guards to be taken in was excessive; one young and particularly displeased lord required that last effort as his parents covered their eyes and shook their heads. Milo and Sarge spent time with each of the suspects. While there were some real hotheads and a few bouts of harsh words, none of them really seemed that threatening and even worse was their the fact that almost all of them had air tight alibis for the times of the crimes. The three lacking alibis were not that suspicious either: one shook with fear the entire interview, one stared dumbly at them and inquired what an alley was, and the third had been visiting a well know mistress of the city and while she would not divulge her client list of schedule she personally vouched for his character and his lack of freedom during the bakery murder. 

After a long day of interviews Milo looked at Sarge dumbfounded, "I don't think any of them could have done it."


Sarge sighed, "I know kid, it's hard to think who we could have missed." Sarge's large frame drooped noticeably the older Sphinx was clearly at an impasse.


"What if we look into the girls?" asked Milo.


Sarge shook his head, "That's grasping at straws, the more I think about it the more I think Lily would have realized her attacker was female and said 'Lady' instead of 'Lord'. It's got to be one of these boys!" Sarge shook his head frustrated.


Milo sat back and thought through their interviews, none of the Lords struck him as a killer- some were a bit creepy, some a little hostile or aggressive, but nothing that said psychotic, want to be vampire killer.

A frightened looking young City Guard approached them reluctantly, "Ummmm...Sirs?" he said uncomfortably looking at Sarge, "This got delivered to your desk a while ago, but with all the booking and paperwork it got kind of lost... but we just found it and I think you should see it."


The Guard held out a scroll to Sarge who snatched it angrily, grumbling "Incompetent you officers, you can't get off your lazy asses to tell me what's going on." He unrolled the scroll, took a quick look at it, then turned to the young officer and screamed, "GET BACK TO YOUR POST AND TELL YOUR INCOMPETENT FRIENDS YOUR ALL ON NIGHT DUTY FOR THE NEXT MONTH!!"


The young Guard quivered, wide-eyed and sprinted back towards where he had come from. Milo looked at Sarge somewhat frightened as the large Sphinx  muttered angrily, pacing back and forth. "Look at what those morons forgot to give us," he hissed and all but hurled the scroll at Milo.


Milo ducked then tentatively leaned  down and picked up the scroll. Unrolling it, he started reading it, while keeping one eye on the angry pacing Sphinx. 

The Note Read:

Well, well boys aren't you two the super sleuths. I've given you quite and interesting collection of bodies, no? Well it's not going to get any better I'm afraid. I have, let's say, a plan or a list- a plot that involves some more nefarious acts, some bloody, some just unseemly. You're doing your due diligence but maybe look into getting some therapy or bring some bags with you from now on. But this is not all for fun, I'm doing my due diligence for a greater purpose and so your poking around in my business has been less than pleasant for myself and my associates. Though I did see the group of Lords you had rounded up earlier- an interesting cohort I must say. They certainly aren't innocent souls, but they lack my precision and foresight. Plus they have simply no flair for the dramatic which everyone knows a good villain must have. Otherwise it's no fun. I have big plans for the next few days and so I say goodbye, but Milo- Irene sends her best. 
Ta!- M

Milo froze, his blood chilled. Irene. That name filled him with terror and dread. Irene was the seductive, hypnotic vampire that had held him hostage for two days that were rather blurry in his memory. The City Guard had told him that the blurry memory was common and it was perfectly normal to not quite remember what happened after vampiric hypnosis. What he could remember was filled with terror and blood. He wasn't sure he wanted to remember any more. Irene had seduced him into 2 days of a fear filled nightmare he was eager to never deal with again. 


Sarge had noticed the blood draining from Milo’s face, “What is it kid?” he prodded.


Milo spoke slowly, “Irene, she is…uhhh… were you there at the stand off a couple years back with the Vampire?” he asked.


Sarge nodded slowly, he had a look in his eye that made Milo think the older Sphinx knew where he was going with this. 


“As I’m sure you put together, I was the hostage. Irene. Irene was the vampire… She’s powerful, very powerful, and uhhh hypnotic. What I do remember was horrible; I had no control over myself. If she’s involved, I’m scared.” Milo finished shaking. Irene had so traumatized him that he had given up on his dream. He thought the City Guard had captured her, but clearly they had not. She was free and she remembered him.




Sarge gave him an awkward pat on the back and sighed, “We had her in custody, I swear, but she hypnotized someone into killing a guard and freeing her three days after the arrest. We looked for her for months but there was no sign of her anywhere, so we assumed she had fled town. Someone would have seen her if she was still around.”


Milo pulled himself away and growled, “Why didn’t you tell people she was out there? And clearly you’re just bad at looking for her! She’s still here! She’s probably been here all along! You and the City Guards are just useless at catching her!”


Milo finished screaming at the older sphinx, his eye clouded with tears of rage. He turned and ran down the steps away from Sarge, he couldn’t stand to be around him any longer. He ran away blindly, trying to the keep the tears in his eyes, but failing. He stumbled, fell, scraping his knee- he swore loudly and some of the Sphinxes out for a walk in the neighborhood looked at him with concern and offense.

He picked himself out and kept going. He knew he was being illogical but the thought of Irene being out there just filled him with such terror- he felt out of control. His heart was racing (in part from the running), but the cold sweat and shaking was all fear based.

He found himself at the outskirts of the city when his legs gave out from shaking. He was sobbing and his body was drenched in tears and sweat. He was outside one of the beautiful townhouses they had visited earlier to pick up a lord from his elderly grandfather.

To his horror and icy, yet seductive voice whispered over his shoulder, "Oh darling, you are a mess! It's taken you so long to find your way back to me and you look like hell. What sort of reunion is this?"

Irene. 

[kaats711]

2.1 Irene

Irene was behind him. Milo could feel her cold presence radiating from her. He turned slowly dreading what he would. There she was in all her beautiful and terrible glory. Her eyes glowed and pulsating and hypnotic red, her beautiful and porcelain skin was flawlessly perfect and she smiled at him with her blood red lips pulling back to reveal sharp and glistening white fangs. Her red curls cascaded down her back and all around her face, but not out of controlled, each one was a perfectly lacquered ribbon. Her hair met her silky black fur at the base of her neck and twined it’s way seductively all the way past her gorgeous curvy body. 

Milo was a strange mixed of attracted to her and very, very scared. Irene had that effect on others, it was like your body had a visceral reaction to flee from danger but at the same time her beauty entranced you and you could not move. Milo experienced this phenomenon despite the fact he had already experienced the aftermath. 

Irene smiled seductively, “Missed me darling?” 

Milo stared at her, his mouth moved slightly, almost of it’s own accord, as if he was trying to reply but no words came out. 

She laughed melodically, “Silly boy. You were a lovely plaything. I’m so sad we didn’t get to finish our game.” 

Milo’s eyes bulged in horror, Oh gods, did she mean to kill me?! Is she here to finish he job? 

Irene read his expression easily and laughed again. “Oh daaaarling, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to talk! You see, I’ve acquired a new, well, friend. He’s a dear and you have something he wants.” 

Milo looked at her blankly again. He didn’t really have anything; confused, he proffered up his scarf to Irene. It was the only thing her could think of that he could easily give up. 

Irene chuckled, “You are darling, no it’s not your scarf, or any physical. You see I left a little something behind when we last spent time together.”

In progess