"What do you want to know first?"
"Well first of all Sergeant Gray, how about we start off with where Mr. Boddy's body is and what you figure to be the cause of death." De Tanga looked over to the Sergeant to see that he was staring at the ground avoiding his eyes. De Tanga looked around everyone else in the room. All the suspects were avoiding De Tanga's gaze and they seemed nervous too.
"I don't think I can tell you what I think the cause of death was." Zelgadis' voice was calm despite the uneasiness that was displayed him his face.
"And why is that?"
"I only got a quick look at Mr. Boddy's body when I got into the room. Realizing that he had been murdered I went to gather everyone in the manor to question them. When I got back to the room where Mr. Boddy was I discovered that he was gone."
De Tanga raised an eyebrow at Zelgadis. "Gone? You mean so say that his body just disappeared?"
"Yes. I believe that Mr. Boddy was moved to another room in the manor but not sure who did it or the means from which they moved him."
"What do you mean by that?"
"When I went to examine the room that Mr. Boddy had been in I couldn't find any traces that could give me any clue of where Mr. Boddy could have moved. In fact there hadn't been any traces at all. No blood trails, no dirt no nothing. The only visible thing was the blood that you can see very visibly which is where Mr. Boddy had been found." Zelgadis fidgeted with the cuffs of his uniform. It was obvious that he was uncomfortable in this line of questioning.
"And you have no idea who did this?"
"Not a clue. When I went looking for everyone the room was unattended. Anyone of us could have moved him before we were all gathered together. And we've tried to search around the manor if we can find where Mr. Boddy's body had been moved to, but we haven't managed to find where the body had been hidden."
As Zelgadis talked De Tanga took notes on everything that the young Sergeant said. De Tanga wasn't surprised that the body was missing. If it weren't then it would have made it too easy. "Tell me Sergeant Gray from what little you saw of Mr. Boddy before he disappeared what do you think could have been the cause of death? Also I'd like you to tell me what you did when you discovered his body."
"Well when I found Mr. Boddy he was laying on his stomach covered with blood and blood surrounding him. I guess I would say that it might have been a wound to his front or his head. But there was so much blood it was hard to say. I went to check his pulse and I discovered that he was dead. And that's when I left to look for everyone."
"Why did you come to living room? Did you hear a noise?"
"No I was looking for Mr. Boddy and his maid Miss White told me that he might be in here."
Everyone's eyes turned to the young Miss White who fiddled with her apron in her hands nervously.
"You don't think that I-I-I kil-kil-killed Mr. Boddy do you?" Amelia stuttered out with a horrified expression.
"No one is saying that you did Miss White. But tell me how did you know that Mr. Boddy was in the living room?"
"I didn't know, I guessed. Mr. Boddy sometimes likes to go into the living room with a book that he got from his library to read on the couch by the fire. Or he used to before he was..." Amelia trailed off with tears threatening to pour down her cheeks. "I can't believe that someone would want kill Mr. Boddy! He was such a nice and kind man! It's so unjust!"
"Well that would seem so... How about you all introduce yourselves and tell me your reasons for coming to the Boddy Manor." De Tanga looked around the room for the first volunteer. No one said anything for even looked up. I guess I'll need to pick someone. He looked over to Zelgadis who cleared his throat to speak.
"Well as you already know I'm Sergeant Zelgadis Gray and I came over to the Boddy Manor because I thought I saw a prowler sneaking around his estate."
"Tell me Sergeant Gray, why exactly were you in this area of town in the first place? It's kinda far from the city, and it was a stormy night on top of that."
"Well I had been called to this area by a far away neighbor of Mr. Boddy who spotted a prowler sneaking around her property. I went over there asked some questions and help out the woman and then I went driving around to see if I could question anyone about the possible prowler in the area. Then when I went by Mr. Boddy's estate and saw someone sneaking around, so I went in to investigate." The annoyance in Zelgadis' face became more apparent. What does he suspect me as the killer?
"And what was the name of the woman that you went to see before coming over here?"
"Melissa Potiron."
"Thank you very much Sergeant. Now how about Miss White? You work here part time as a maid for Mr. Boddy?"
"Yes."
"Do you normally stay nights here?"
"No. I only did it that day because of the storm. Mr. Boddy insisted that I stay the night because he didn't want me to have an accident on the road because of the storm."
De Tanga nodded his head while writing down the information that she told him. I'll have to get Hallas or Death to go over to Miss Potiron's place to check out Sergeant Gray's story. "Thank you Miss White. Now who's next? How about you?" De Tanga asked the suspicious man in the dark purple suit with the dark purple hair and glasses.
"Oh me? Well I'm Professor Xellos Plum. I'm a dear old friend of Mr. Boddy. I came over here in hopes that he might want to help out with an upcoming archeology expedition that I plan to go on." Xellos fiddled with his glasses while smiled a little half smiled.
Amelia narrowed her eyes at the estranged Professor. It was apparent that she didn't like him too much. De Tanga saw this from the corner of his eye. I think I shall question Miss White about Professor Plum later on when I can speak with her alone.
"And how exactly were you hoping Mr. Boddy would help you out?"
"I was hoping that he might want to help fund the expedition. You see the organization that I work with is a little low on its funds."
"And you stayed the night because of the storm right?"
"No actually Mr. Boddy and I had arranged for me to stay for a couple of days for my visit before I came to town. It is so rare that we'd have time to see each other."
"I see." De Tanga didn't like the way that Xellos continued to smile. If was as good of friends with Mr. Boddy as he said then I doubt he should be so happy and cheerful as he is with the murder of his friend. De Tanga turned to the blond man sitting off to his side with a sword attached to his belt. "So who are you, and why were you seeing Mr. Boddy for on the night of his death?"
The blond man looked at him blankly for a few moments before he finally talked. "I'm Colonel Gourry Mustard. I came to see Mr. Boddy because of something very important."
"And what was the important thing?"
Gourry sat there thinking very hard for a few minutes. Everyone starred at him waiting for him to speak. "You know... I can't remember at all." Gourry said while rubbing the back of his neck with a goofy smile.
Everyone in the room facefaulted.
De Tanga regained his composure and referred back to his information on Gourry Mustard. Mr. Boddy was a good friend with Gourry's father whom was a retired Colonel himself. According to the file, Gourry suffers from a learning disability and a very poor memory. But despite that he is very excellent with his swordsmanship skills and is a very talented marksman. "Alright then. How about you Miss?"
The woman with the long fiery red hair glared at De Tanga. "I'm Lina Scarlet. I came to see Mr. Boddy about selling an item to him. I heard that he liked to collect lots of interesting an expensive things and I thought he might be interesting in the item that I had acquired recently."
"And that item would be...?"
"A very expensive and very beautiful blue diamond. I acquired in a trade I did recently in Spain."
De Tanga nodded his head. Five down five more to go. He looked over to the woman with long blond hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in a shade of light pale pink with a matching hat. From the case file De Tanga knew that this was Mr. Boddy's great-step-niece Filia Peach. "So you're Miss Peach, correct?"
"Yes."
"So what were you doing at the Boddy Manor on the night of the murder?"
"Well I decided after quitting my job that I want to take a vacation. And since my great-step-uncle always encourages my family to come and visit him I decided to take him on his offer."
A woman in the room snorted at Filia's words. De Tanga looked to the aqua haired woman whom was getting a very evil eye from Filia. "And you are?"
"Martina Rose." Martina spoke in a very grandiose manner.
"Actually her real name is Martina Rosengarten. She changed to that after she left for Hungary." Amelia spoke timidly. Until the day of Mr. Boddy's death Amelia hadn't seen Martina in a long time, but even now Amelia still felt timid and uneasy around Martina.
"Now why would you know that Miss White?" De Tanga asked with a raised eyebrow.
Before Amelia had a chance to speak, Martina spoke first. "Because I used to work for Mr. Boddy. I was his secretary for quite a few years."
"Before you went to Hungary?"
"Yes before I went to Hungary."
"And why did you go there?"
"I wanted to get out of the country and try something new. So I went there, changed my name and became a medium. I've always had psychic powers even when I was very little so I figured that I'd make a business out of it." There was a note of superiority to her voice as she spoke all snobby to them.
Everyone in the room sweatdropped. Amelia just shook her head at Martina.
I guess I should talk to Miss White about Miss Rosengarten as well as Professor Plum later on. De Tanga mused to himself. "So then Miss Rosengarten -- "
"Miss Rose." Martina interrupted with a very stern tone.
"Alright, so then Miss Rose, why exactly did you come back here from Hungary to see Mr. Boddy?"
"When I was in the midst of a séance I saw a dark, ominous cloud descending on the Boddy Manor. I knew that once I saw it that Mr. Boddy was in danger so I came here to warn him of the possible danger."
"But he was killed anyway."
"Yes, he didn't believe me that he was danger, but he should have heed my warning."
"I suppose. So which one of you is Mr. Zangulus Brunette?"
"That would be me." A man dressed in a dark brown suit and hat spoke from the back of the room.
"So Mr. Brunette, why exactly were you here? It says in my case file that you are an art dealer. Where you here to see Mr. Boddy about selling a piece of art to him?"
"No. Mr. Boddy asked me to come to his home. He invited me to take a look at some of the artwork that I had sold him a few months ago."
"Why?"
"Apparently there was a question of authenticity of the pieces."
"Ah I see."
There was a spell of silence in the room. There was only two more people left and neither one wanted to talk. Finally one of them decided to talk. "I'm Miss Sylphiel Peacock." A woman dressed in blue spoke up in a very soft voice. She had long dark hair and bright green eyes that were behind her glasses.
"Alright Miss Peacock, why were you at the Boddy Manor that night?"
"I'm an amateur ornithologist, so I'm always looking around to see if I can find interesting, rare or endangered birds. Durning the day of Mr. Boddy's murder I was driving by and I saw a pair of pied-bill grebe nesting near the Boddy Manor house I decided that I was going to see Mr. Boddy about donating part of his estate to the Salvation Society later on. So I went to see Mr. Boddy about the birds later on that night."
"And you were asked to stay the night because of the storm."
"Yes that is correct."
De Tanga wrote down the information. I'm going to need to get some information on the Salvation Society. So let's see who left? Ah yes Mr. Boddy's accountant Mr. Green. De Tanga looked over to the silent accountant. He was a tall man dressed in a dark green suit with semi-pale skin, his green hair neatly combed and a bored expression on his face. The only thing that seemed odd about Mr. Green was the fact that he had a palm-sized garnet that seemed to be attached to his forehead. "So by process of elimination that makes you Mr. Carbunkle Green." De Tanga asked the only other man left in the room that hadn't spoken yet. [Relm: I'm using Carbunkle's human form. I didn't think that it go with the seriousness of the fanfic if I made Carbunkle be in his esper form.]
Carbunkle nodded his head and resumed to look off to the side with a bored expression.
"So Mr. Green why were you here on the night of the murder?"
"I'm Mr. Boddy's accountant, I was here because I was supposed to look over Mr. Boddy's income statement and general journal. I was asked to come because Mr. Boddy was curious to why he seemed to be missing equity recently."
"Missing equity? So he was missing things like money and such?"
"No he thought he was missing assets, but in real fact he wasn't. And it was a big waste of time too. I come all the way over here just to assure Mr. Boddy that everything is alright and I'm stuck here because of the stupid storm. And now I can't leave because I'm a suspect in this murder investigation." Carbunkle huffed with obvious annoyance.
"Yes well Mr. Green once this case is solved you wont be restricted to stay in the Boddy Manor. So I hope that all of you will help out in any way you can so that we can make this investigation go quickly." De Tanga said to everyone and they nodded in reply.