During the night De Tanga slept soundly while Death stood watch waiting for his turn to sleep. Hallas had already fallen asleep in his chair during one of his and Death's card games. It amazed Death that he could so easily fall asleep in a chair.
At the moment Death was a newspaper that he had brought with him when he packed his stuff from home. He was reading a sports article when he heard something outside the room door.
Rather then move their makeshift barricade and check Death sat in pure silence and didn't move a muscle. He listened very carefully to try and figure out what he was hearing. It sounded like footsteps.
Someone is outside the door. Maybe someone woke up and got up to use the washroom. Death thought hopefully. He wasn't too keen on having to deal with a confrontation without his gun. Sure he had De Tanga's gun at the moment, but it just wasn't the same thing.
But the jiggling of the doorknob dispelled all thoughts of a late night trip to the bathroom.
Death almost gasped. Calm down Death, they can't get in here, the door is locked...
With a few clicks the person outside in the person unlocked door. Very slowly the person turned the knob and pushed the door open. But the door only opened a crack before it came to the barricade.
While the would be intruder tried to push the door open Death inched towards De Tanga and shook him awake. Within seconds De Tanga woke up. "Wha-?"
Before De Tanga could talk Death covered his mouth and motioned for him to stay quiet. Then he pointed at the door.
De Tanga nodded understanding what he was getting at. Both of them inched back near the door. Death handed De Tanga his gun. "Death, on my signal I want you to move the barricade and run over to the wall away from the door." De Tanga whispered to Death. Death nodded.
The two of them got ready. De Tanga gave the signal and with a swift movement Death moved the barricade and De Tanga aimed his gun on the intruder. With the sudden moving of what was blocking the door the intruder went flying forward. De Tanga at lunged at the intruder.
But unfortunately the intruder was faster then De Tanga and dodged him scooting out the door and into the hall.
"FREEZE!" De Tanga yelled down the hall aiming his gun running after the person. But it was too dark and De Tanga couldn't run as fast as he would have liked because he ended up tripping on one of the rugs. He quickly got back up and continued to try and chase the intruder but it was too late the intruder was too quick.
"Damnit." De Tanga cursed once he realized that he had lost the intruder. He sighed and looked around in curiosity. When he had yelled he had yelled pretty loudly but yet no one came out of their rooms to check what was going on. But then maybe it was because the rooms where soundproof. But that didn't make any sense because then Death wouldn't have been able to hear the person outside the room.
So just to see who was actually was stalking around the manor at this time of the night De Tanga went to everyone's rooms one by one and woke everyone up just to see who was really in their rooms. But that proved fruitless because everyone was in their rooms.
Only two thoughts went through his head as he went back to the room to relieve Death of his watch. One that there might be more people in the manor then they had originally thought and someone was hiding out unknown to everyone. But that had it's problems. How could someone hide out in the manor for so long and not alert anyone till now? But then the person could have just recently came here and is doing stuff now, or is hiding out someplace outside the manor. Of course that would imply that this person had a person on the inside helping them.
That didn't really seem likely enough to De Tanga which brought him to his other thought. He had already seen two secret passages so whose to say that there wasn't a passage that led to one of the bedrooms.
It's too bad I can just go and investigate everyone's rooms. I'd be attracting far too much suspicious attention if I just go up to everyone and ask if I can go and look through all their rooms. And even if I could I wouldn't be sure on what I would need to look for. Finding those secret passage can be a bit of a fluke. De Tanga sighed and went into the room. Death was standing near the entrance waiting for him. And incredibly enough Hallas was still asleep even amidst all that had just transpired.
"So did you get him?" Death asked once De Tanga got in the room and started to put back up the barricade.
"No I didn't catch the person. I tripped on one of those damn rugs. Whoever was here knows the manor well enough to navigate in the dark with no problem."
"And had a key to this room. That's how they unlocked the door."
"Well it the lock could have been picked." De Tanga sat down in one of the chairs once their barricade was back up.
"I checked the lock, there's no sign of it being picked. It was a key no doubt."
"Well since the person knows the manor so well he or she might have a set of the keys to all the locks in the place. Or maybe a master key that unlocks all the locks in the manor. I really don't know."
"It's a good thing we had the barricade or otherwise he would have gotten in. But what do you think he was after?"
"Probably my gun, the case file and my notes on this case. But how are you so sure it's a guy? Did you get a good look at the person?" De Tanga asked Death with a raised eyebrow. He himself didn't get a good look at the intruder because it had been so dark. So he didn't know if it had been a man or a woman.
"Well no. It was too dark. But I just assumed that -- "
"Death a valuable lesson I can teach about this line of work, never assume anything. Because once you start assume things without having fact to back it up then you are going to get yourself into trouble. Anyway it's late, and you should get some sleep."
Death nodded and went to bed.
De Tanga went and pulled out his case file and notebook to review the case over.
The next morning at breakfast everyone looked at De Tanga with curiosity. After last night's events they were a bit curious. More so considering that when De Tanga woke everyone up he didn't explain why he was doing it. He just went and moved onto the next door.
So when he came down to eat everyone was expecting an explanation. But De Tanga said nothing. He just acted as if those events hadn't happened at all. And no one wanted to go out and ask him because they themselves didn't want to look suspicious. So no one said anything about the previous night.
Other then that the breakfast wasn't very eventful. They ate and then they all left to do their separate things.
De Tanga pulled Death off into an area where he was sure that no one could over hear them.
"What's up Detective Tealson?"
"Death how far do you think it would take to get to Melissa Potiron's home by walking?"
Death scratched his head. "Um I don't know... It would definitely take a long time..."
"And you do remember how to get there right?"
"Yes. What are you getting at?"
"I know that this might sound a bit much, but Death could please leave for her home. If you go there you could probably use her phone to call the station and get some back up."
Death was silent for a few moments as he thought this over. "Alright. But it's going to take a long time for me to get there."
"I know so you'd better pack."
"Okay. I'll go get packing right now."
"Thanks Death."
"You're welcome Detective."
With Hallas' help Death managed to get in the kitchen and pack for his long trip without Amelia knowing about it. De Tanga was very specific to Death about making sure that he keep his trek out of the manor a secret. Neither of them knew what some of the suspects might do if they found out that Death was leaving like this. So he was just better off with no one knowing.
Once he was packed Death went and left secretly through one of the back doors of the manor. And as stealthily as he could he made his way over to the main road trying to make sure that no one saw him leave the Boddy property. On the main road Death let out a deep sigh. The road ahead of him was long and he wasn't looking forward to walking it. Well at least it's a cloudy day, this would be hell if it was hot and the sun was blaring down on me. Thus Death began his trek.
De Tanga decided that the next person that he wanted to question was Gourry since he hadn't had the chance to talk to him yet. Problem was trying to find out where he was. Gourry was an odd person so De Tanga had no idea where he would find him.
Eventually after a long time De Tanga found Gourry asleep in one of the rooms that looks out into the front yard.
"Colonel Mustard?" De Tanga asked quietly.
Gourry just mumbled in reply but still asleep.
"Colonel Mustard!" De Tanga shook the man awake.
Gourry woke up very dazed. "Huh?"
"Sorry to wake you up Colonel Mustard, but I need to ask you a few questions." De Tanga asked getting out his notebook and a pen.
"Uh, okay sure. What do you want to ask me?"
"Before you had said that you came to the Boddy Manor because of something very important that concerned Mr. Boddy. And you also said that you couldn't remember what that thing was. Do you still not remember any details about it?"
Gourry thought very hard for a few moments. "No sorry I can't remember a thing." Gourry laughed nervously.
Well thought as much, but it was worth a shot. De Tanga mentally sighed. "What was you relationship with Mr. Boddy?"
"He was friends with my dad. They used to go traveling together when they were younger."
"How did your dad meet Mr. Boddy?"
"I don't know... My dad told me once a long time ago but I can't remember how they met..."
"Okay then, how well did you know Mr. Boddy?"
"Not very well. I'd only seen the guy once or twice before I came here." Gourry squinted his eyes as he strained in thought. He knew that he might have met Mr. Boddy more then just twice but he couldn't remember much else.
"Could the reason you came here to see Mr. Boddy be something to do with your dad?"
Gourry's eye's brightened up. "You know you could be right! Maybe it was dad that sent me here. Gosh I wish I could call him and find out."
De Tanga jotted down a reminder in his book to try to get in touch with the retired Colonel Mustard the next chance he has to use a phone. "Well thank you Colonel Mustard for answering my questions."
"Oh you're welcome."
"Bye then."
"Bye."
De Tanga walked off and Gourry went right back to his sleeping.
Death stopped and sat down to eat his packed lunch. He was sitting on a large rock that was not to far from the main road on the edge of the forest. As Death ate his lunch of fruit and sandwiches he looked from one end of the road to another.
He wasn't sure how long he had been walking but it had seemed like a very long time. And what was worse is that he didn't even feel like he was making any progress. The road just went on and on with no visible end or any other residential areas.
But on the plus side, he couldn't see the Boddy Manor or property so he must have been walking a far distance already.
Besides of the sounds of Death's breathing and eating the area was pretty silent. It wasn't windy outside so there was no rustling trees. And oddly enough there wasn't an animal in sight. Not even a bird flying in the sky. Which gave Death the creeps. Walking on the main road as he had been Death had expected to see at least one car drive by. In fact he hoped that there would have been a car just so he could see if he could catch a ride with someone.
Yes he was well aware of the dangers of hitchhiking but in this situation he was almost willing to take the risk. But alas Death saw no cars at all. Not a single soul drove by, the road remained deserted with Death as its' only exception.
With his meal done and his belly full Death got up and continue his walk to Melissa Potiron's home.
De Tanga was reviewing his notes when Ms. White called everyone to lunch. Slowly he got up and walked to the dining room where he was the last person to come. Well almost last person.
"Detective Tealson where's Officer Noir? Doesn't he want lunch?" Ms. White inquired.
"Oh don't worry about him Ms. White. He's busy at the moment and told me to tell everyone to just eat without him." De Tanga replied before Hallas could say anything. Hallas wasn't one to keep secrets very well and he was afraid that if he let Hallas talk he could accidentally spill out information.
"But wont he be hungry?"
"He said just to leave something for him in the fridge and he'll eat it later." De Tanga lied. He was a little unnerved about lying like this. This is okay for now, but what I going to say when it's time to eat dinner? De Tanga thought about that as he ate his lunch. I'll have to think up something soon.
Death kicked a stone in his path as he walked. More walking, and still no other signs of human or animal life. The road remained empty and the forest remained quiet.
He stopped to get check his roadmap when something unseen crept up behind him. If Death hadn't been so concentrating on the map he might have heard of the person that was nearing him. But he hadn't and the unknown person jumped Death from behind covering his mouth a damp white cloth as he tried to struggle. The next thing Death knew his vision went black and he lost consciousness.