De Tanga looked around for Zangulus for quite some time till he finally found him still mulling over his car.
Zangulus was so absorbed with examining the damage done to his car that he didn't notice De Tanga approaching him from behind.
Two thoughts occurred to De Tanga as he approached the art dealer. One that Zangulus might just be very good actor and was actually aware of De Tanga's presence. Or Zangulus wasn't the one who sabotage the cars. Because if Zangulus was the one who did do this to all the cars he wouldn't be so distraught over what he did to his car.
Does Zangulus not tampering with the cars make him any less of a suspect? No, he was still as much of a suspect as everyone else.
There was the fact that Zangulus could be acting, but that wasn't really what De Tanga was thinking towards. In Hallas and Death's dispute they used the cars in the argument thinking that the same person who destroyed the cars was the same person that murdered Mr. Boddy.
What De Tanga decided not to point out was that there was no real proof that the person that sabotaged the cars, the person who tampered with the phone lines, the person who kidnapped Gourry or even the person that broke into their rooms and stole their stuff was the same person that killed Mr. Boddy. Wasn't likely, but it was still a valid point.
De Tanga knew for a fact that there was quite a few people that might want to delay the investigation. Like for instances he had already uncovered Carbunkle and Martina's little money embezzlements. Either one of them could be hiding a dark secret besides who killed Mr. Boddy. Again not likely, but still a valid point.
"Mr. Brunette, may I speak with you for a few moments?" De Tanga asked in a quiet tone as to not startle the man.
"Ah-um, yeah sure Detective. What can I do for you?" Zangulus asked in a nervous tone.
"First, how about we go inside, it looks like that it might start to rain soon."
Zangulus followed De Tanga to Mr. Boddy's study.
"The reason why Mr. Boddy asked you to come here was about a recent painting you sold that he claimed to be a fake. And it was really a fake. Am I correct?" De Tanga asked once the tow of them had sat down. He pulled out his notepad and waited for Zangulus to answer.
"Yes, I sold him a fake. In fact practically all the paintings I've sold him were fakes. But the weird thing was that Mr. Boddy always seemed to know they were fakes even before he bought them. And then afterwards he's call me over and give me heck for it. Then he would be all nice and keep whatever art I had sold him. But he always made sure to remind me before I left that he could go to the police at any time with the art I sold him. And he'd go back to being nice and wish me good travels. I swear that guy was a real nutcase." Zangulus shook his head.
"So in a way he was blackmailing you?"
"More like threatening to blackmail me."
De Tanga nodded jotted down in note form what Zangulus was telling him. "Alright, tell me Mr. Brunette, what is your relationship with Madame Rose?"
Rather then look away or frown, Zangulus blushed. "Well I've been doing business with Mr. Boddy for quite some time. But whenever I came over here I never stayed long. Most of the time I was only here for an hour at most and I only saw the halls and Mr. Boddy's office. So I never got to see anyone of Mr. Boddy's staff except Mar- I mean Miss Rosengarten."
"And you became interested with Miss Rosengarten?" De Tanga prompted.
"Oh yes, almost instantly. And whenever I had to wait to see Mr. Boddy she and I flirted with each other." Zangulus paused slightly before continuing on. "I always looked forward to seeing her. Sometimes I would call the Manor at times when I knew that he would be busy or not at home just so that I could have an excuse to talk to Miss Rosengarten. And it got to the point that I would stay in town a few extra days just so that I could spend time with her when she wasn't busy. But then one day I came over to the manor after Mr. Boddy summoned me and I was shocked to find out that Miss Rosengarten had been fired! I pressed both Mr. Boddy and the maid Amelia, to see if I could find out where Miss Rosengarten had gone. From what they told me, she went off to Hungary to become a medium."
"I take it you went to Hungary right after that?"
"Oh yes! Right after my business with Mr. Boddy was done I rushed over to Hungary to find her."
"And did you propose to her once you found her?"
Zangulus didn't say anything.
"Well you two are married, aren't you?"
Instead of directly answering De Tanga's question he back to his story. "When I went to Hungary I didn't exactly find her right away. I was there for more then two months before I thought to check my home phone messages to see if she had left any messages for me. And she had. She left a message telling me where she was and where she was working. So I head off to where she worked and I went in pretending to be a customer. She didn't look up when I came in the room and sat down in front of her. She had her eyes on her crystal ball the whole time trying to keep her concentration. So we start the session and she is so absorbed with telling my fortune that she didn't realize it was me from my voice."
De Tanga fought the urge to badger Zangulus to get to the point. He was growing tired of this long drawn out story. But he didn't want to be rude, so De Tanga kept his mouth shut and continued to listen.
"So we end the session and I told her, For a psychic I'm a little surprised you didn't know something. She snapped at me asking what she should have known while finally looking up at me. I can still remember the shocked look on her face at that moment."
"What were you surprised that she didn't know?" De Tanga asked while pretending to be still taking notes down. De Tanga wasn't though; the detective was actually doodling instead.
"Well what I told her was, That you didn't see this coming, and then I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me."
"And she said yes?"
"Oh yeah, she did." Zangulus grinned largely.
"So her reason for coming here wasn't because she saw a vision was it?"
"No it was completely false." Zangulus answered. "The only reason she came was because she was sick and tired of me going off for days or weeks on business and leaving her at home alone. So she decided that she was going to come with me this time."
De Tanga nodded his head while finally taking notes again. "I thought her story didn't seem too plausible."
"Well please don't tell her I told you. So had asked me not to say anything."
"How come?"
"Because we're still trying to keep our marriage a secret."
De Tanga decided not to press him further, though her was a little curious as to why they'd want to keep their relationship a secret. "Well if you really want to keep it a secret then I'd suggest you two should stick to sleeping in your own rooms rather then sleep together." De Tanga suggested.
"Yes Detective. Is there anything else you want to ask me?"
"No, I think that will be enough. Thank you for your time Mr. Brunette."
"No problem."
Both of them nodded to each other before going off in different directions.
De Tanga strolled through the manor again while contemplating his conversation with Zangulus. With the information he'd just acquired new motives but also some information that disproved some of his earlier suspicions concerning Martina. But one cancels out the other so she still ended up being just as much as a suspect as she had been before.
According to his notes he had spoken to only four of the ten suspects. By this time he had wanted to at least talk to half of them. But due to certain events that wasn't possible. And not that his means to contact the station or anyone else outside the Boddy Manor were cut, it was a little more critical that he solve the case quickly.
"So, who should I talk to now?" De Tanga mused eyeing the names of the suspects he had left to speak to. His eyes fell upon the name of Professor Xellos Plum.
The Chief let a few of the other officers know that he was going to be leaving for a few hours. But he failed to mention on where exactly he was going. He figured it would be better if no one knew that he was going to the Boddy Manor so as to not start any rumors. The thought hadn't occurred to him that the reason De Tanga hadn't contacted him was beyond De Tanga's control.
He eyed the parking lot for reporters as he approached his car. Not a single camera or suspicious person was in sight.
The Chief let out a sigh and shock his head at his paranoia before getting into his car and starting up the engine.
After a bit of searching through the manor, De Tanga finally found Xellos sitting outside in the gazebo drinking tea. At this point it had already started raining and it was coming down pretty hard. If it had not been for the gazebo's roof Xellos would have been soaked. But the gazebo did nothing to keep the man warm from the cold winds being as how open gazebos are.
De Tanga shock off some of the rain from his coat and joined Xellos at the little table that was situated in the middle of the gazebo.
"Have you come to join me for tea Detective?" Xellos asked after De Tanga had sat himself down in one of the chairs.
"No I'm afraid I haven't. I've actually come here to ask you a few questions."
"Oh what a pity. And here I have all this tea that I couldn't possibly drink myself. It's going to cold. Please, you must have some. It's not a good idea to sit out here in the cold without something to keep you warm." Xellos said while pouring some tea into the cup in front of De Tanga.
De Tanga mentally frowned. If he drank the tea he ran the risk of being poisoned if Xellos had put something in the tea. But if De Tanga refused to drink it then Xellos might suspect that De Tanga was suspicious of him.
Luckily for De Tanga, Xellos poured himself another cup from the same teapot as he had poured for De Tanga, and drank some it.
Though De Tanga still had his suspicions he still accepted the tea.
"So why are you out here in the rain for? Isn't this a cold place to be drinking tea?"
Xellos grinned. "I didn't come out here to drink tea. But I'm only drinking tea because it's cold."
"So why sit out here at all?"
"To watch the rain of course. Since the gazebo has no windows I can sit out here and watch the rain clearly and enjoy it without getting wet."
De Tanga decided not to comment on that and instead got back to his questions. "Professor Plum how long did you know Mr. Boddy for?"
"Oh quite some time! We were friends ever since we were kids."
"How did you two meet?"
"Our families have been friends with each other for quite some time. So we of grew up together."
"And would you say that you two were really good friends?"
Xellos raised an eyebrow. "Yes of course. Why?"
"From what I've been told you two didn't always get along. Like on the night of Mr. Boddy's death you two were apparently having an argument with him." De Tanga said while checking over his notes.
"Well all good friends do have their tiffs."
"What were two arguing about?"
Xellos took a sip of his tea before answering the question. "We were arguing about money. I didn't come here to see if I could money out of him. I came to see him and get the money he was going to lend me. You see he already said that he was going to lend me the money for the project before I came here."
"What happened?"
"Well when I got here he gave the impression hat he was still going to still lend me the money. But then on that night he called me to his study to talk. It was then that he said that he wasn't going to lend me the money. Apparently he had looked into my new project and he didn't think it sounded like a real project. He claimed that it was all a ploy just to get at his money and that I was lying to him. That I wanted the money for myself and he didn't think I had any intensions of paying him back."
"And that made you angry?" De Tanga prompted while jotting down notes in his notebook.
"Yes and not because he wasn't going to give me the money. That just slightly annoyed me because I had already told the members of my association that I was getting the money. But it didn't make me angry. What made me angry was that he had the gull to call me a liar and claim that I was trying to screw him over." Xellos shook his head in the act of disgust but it contrasted with the grin on his face.
"Hmm... I see. Did Mr. Boddy have a history of going back on his promises?"
"Yes he was an extremely paranoid man, more so then you might think. He thought everyone was out to get him, out to get his money or just out there to screw him over. He'd break promises if he thought that the person was actually trying to get something out of him unlawfully. But just as paranoid as he could get he'd turn right back to his too trusting self. So he's disagree to something and then agree to it right after. Or he'd agree to it then disagree to it right after. It was like there were two different people in him that were constantly having an argument with each other on what he should or shouldn't do."
De Tanga raised an eyebrow. This wasn't the first mention of Mr. Boddy's sudden personality changes that De Tanga had heard about.
"Okay... Can you tell me why you never called Mr. Boddy by his first name?"
"Well it's actually funny, you couldn't call him by his first name, not even when he was a kid. I think being as rich as he was did that to him. He thought he was the most important person in the world and everyone had to call him Mr. Boddy or sir. If you called him by his first name he refused to answer you. He was just weird in that way."
"Did you consider him as you best friend?"
"Why yes of course he was! No one could ever replace him."
"If that's so how come you don't really seem that bothered or sad about his death? Your best friend was murdered in his home and yet everyone always sees you smiling all the time. Would you like to explain that to me please?"
Xellos was silent. But the usual cocky grin that was normally plastered to his face was gone. It was replaced by one lacking emotion at all. "We all have our own ways dealing with grief Detective. This mask of happiness that I wear, I wear for two reasons. I know that Mr. Boddy would be extremely distressed if he knew that I was sad about his death. I know that he's want everyone to be happy."
"And the second?"
"I wear it to also psyche-out the killer. I want him or her to think that I'm on to them, and I want to make them nervous."
"To what end?" De Tanga asked but was almost certain of the answer.
"To see who gets nervous of course. So that I might spot the killer and bring him to justice."
"Or her." De Tanga corrected.
"Yes, or her." As if of a flick of a switch Xellos suddenly went back to being cheerful with his cocky all-knowing grin.
"Well thank you for your time Professor Plum."
"You're very welcome Detective. On and Detective could you do me a favor?"
"Yes?"
"If you find out who the killer is could you tell me, I'm dying to know."
"If I do find out, I'll make sure you know. Good day Professor." De Tanga got up and gave Xellos a nod before sprinting back to the manor.
Quite a while later, the Chief finally pulled up in front of the Boddy Manor. What had started out as a simple rain shower turned into a raging storm much like the night before.
The Chief noted all the cars parked in front but didn't notice the condition of the tires. He got out of his car and quickly locked it before running over to the front door of the manor. He knocked and waited for an answer while he attempted to dry his clothes. The door opened but the Chief couldn't see of hear the person who opened the door. But the Chief assumed that the person said to come in since they opened the door. He couldn't hear anything because the noise from the storm.
The Chief wasted no time in getting inside and out of the cold.
"Hello I'm the city Chief of Police and I'm -- " The Chief started to say as he turned to meet the person who let him in but was greeted with a sudden blow to the head. The Chief crumpled to the floor falling unconscious.
The person who clubbed him stood over the Chief and grinned before picking up Dr. Steel's report and dragging the Chief's unconscious body off someplace.