Later on everyone gathered in the Boddy Manor's grand dining room. Everyone was seated at the table with their meals on their plates in front of them. It was very quiet in the large room with only the sounds of clanging silverware on the fine china as people ate. But the only the people who were eating were Gourry, Hallas and Death. Everyone else in the room stared around the room suspiciously. Either some were still shocked and unsettled about the dead body that had appeared in kitchen or very few people weren't uneasy about eating the food that was before them.
De Tanga himself looked around the room suspiciously. Someone in that room had placed that body in the kitchen. He found it quite interesting that barely anyone was eating. Well if anyone in this whole room could be able to commit murder then it's possible that Miss Peacock or Miss White could have poisoned the food. Neither of the two woman are eating so they might suspect the other of poisoning the food. That or they are too unnerved about what just happened that they don't have any appetite. De Tanga thought back to how upset both woman seemed to be when he, Death and Hallas had came onto the scene. That's provided neither were acting. He stared down at the meal that had been placed in front of him. It both looked and smelled appetizing though De Tanga for the life of him couldn't figure out what the dish was. Is this poisoned? Would Miss Peacock or Miss White intentionally poison the food? But that would put too much suspicion on either of them. So it wouldn't be such a good idea to do that. But then whose to say that someone else could have poisoned the food during all the commotion concerning the mystery dead body that appeared in the kitchen.
De Tanga mentally sighed and saw that everyone appeared to be watching Gourry, Hallas and Death very closely. The thought hadn't occurred to either of the three that the food that they were consuming could in fact be poisoned. But it really didn't seem to matter because the three of them seemed to be fine. Once everyone else had noticed this they too started to eat. De Tanga mused on this occurrence. So I guess this is how everyone knew the food not to poisonous once everyone was restricted to stay in the Boddy Manor. They just waited until Colonel Mustard ate and waited to see if anything happened to him. If nothing does, it's safe to eat. If something does then it's not safe.
Once everyone had gotten through their meals De Tanga decided to start his little group discussion. "If I may have your attention everyone, there are a few things I'd like to discuss." De Tanga cleared his throat before continuing. "Now I know all of you are curious to identity of the body that was discovered in the manor kitchen. Of course once I find out who it was I will let you all know. Though I bet I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of you might think that body was in fact Mr. Boddy. But I must warn you all, it might not be Mr. Boddy. And if it isn't, then chances are we might have a double murder on our hands here. And I'm also going to warn all of you that Mr. Boddy and person recently discovered might not have been killed by the same person. So not only might we have two murders here, but maybe even more then one murderer."
Some people in the room gasped while others seemed to be deep in thought. De Tanga noted that some of them didn't seem to be surprised. Well I guess I wasn't the only one who had come to that conclusion. "Now the next thing I wanted to talk to you all about was concerning the structure of this manor. It has come to my attention that there are one or more secret passages in the manor that lead from one room to another. I was wonder if any of you where those passages might be?" De Tanga looked around to the group. Not one person said anything and some even seemed surprised about what De Tanga said.
"There's secret passages in here? Mr. Boddy never said anything about there being any in the manor before." Xellos mused
"So you weren't told anything about it?"
"No I wasn't. But then my old friend was very secretive."
"That's assuming that he even knew about them himself."
De Tanga gave Carbunkle a strange look. "What do you mean by that Mr. Green?"
"Well Mr. Boddy inherited this manor from his mother. It was built many years ago and unless you have the original flooring plans then of course you wouldn't know of any secret passages that are in this manor. It's quite possibly that either Mr. Boddy wasn't told of the passages or he wasn't given the flooring plans. So maybe he didn't know."
"True. But does any of you know?"
Everyone shook their heads. It was exactly what De Tanga had been expecting. He didn't expect someone to be able to tell him about the passages. He just asked so that he could see everyone's reactions. "Tell me Mr. Green is there anyway that I could get my hands on the original floor plans to the Boddy Manor?"
Carbunkle thought for a few moments. "I'm not sure. You have to check around with the city records. But I figure if they are still around, then they are in the manor somewhere. If the Boddy family was anything like Mr. Boddy then they wouldn't have trusted anyone with information such as that. So they would have stored in the manor rather then trust it with the city."
"I see." De Tanga made a mental note to get Hallas or Death to check out the city records.
"Wow that food was good! Those two girls are good cooks!" Hallas grinned as him Death and De Tanga left the dining room. They had spent in total about five hours at the Boddy Manor.
"Yes it was good I guess." De Tanga said while looking over one of his papers.
"Were you feeling sick Detective De Tanga? You barely touched your food the whole time."
"I don't usually eat much anyway Death. Anyway, I want you two to keep on an eye on things while I'm gone."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm just going to go outside for a few moments to go and call the station. I have to find what's going to happen once we go home for tonight. I wont be too long."
"Okay Detective."
De Tanga walked over to the large heavy doors of the main entrance of the Boddy Manor. They squeaked rather loudly as he opened the door.
Outside the manor the sky was black the air was cold and frigid and it was very quiet outside. The only thing that De Tanga could hear was the faint sound of the wind breezing through the branch's of the trees that were on the Boddy Manor. Being as secluded as Mr. Boddy's home was, it was much too far away from the sounds of the city. Even though there were roads that did go by the manor, they weren't used that often. Most of the time the roads were only used when someone was planning on visiting Mr. Boddy.
De Tanga shivered in the cold autumn air as he pulled out his cell phone to phone up the station. Once the number was dialed De Tanga waited for someone to pick up.
"Hello, Fendelli City Police Department, how may I help you?" A young woman answered the phone. De Tanga recognized the voice, it was a girl named Amber.
"Hi Amber, it's Detective De Tanga Tealson. I was wondering if you could direct my call to the Chief, I need to ask him something concerning my current case."
"Okay Detective Tealson, just wait a moment please."
A few moments later the police chief picked up on the line.
"Hello Tealson, any news on the Boddy case?"
"Well that's what I'm calling about. I need to know what you are planning to do when Death, Hallas and I leave for the night."
"I was planning on assigning a few officers to watch over the manor to make sure that the person who killed Mr. Boddy wouldn't kill anyone else."
"That's a good idea Chief. I'll make sure to debrief the officers when they get here."
"Um Tealson..."
"Yes Chief?"
"You wont be needing to debrief anyone."
"Oh so the officers already know of the case?"
"No, there wont be any other officers coming by the manor."
"But you said that you were going to have some officers watch over the manor while the three of us leave for the night."
"You three are the officers that I'm assigning to watch over the manor tonight."
"What?"
"It would be too suspicious to send other officers over there considering that we made sure that Sergeant Gray stayed there along with all the other suspects. If we send any other people over there to relieve you three then Gray will realize that we suspect him as a possible suspect. And if he is the killer then he might do something rash if he found out we suspected him. So that's why the three of you have to stay there."
"For how long? Just for the night?"
"Until the case is solved."
"Until the case is solved?!?! But that could be weeks from now! And none of us brought any clothes with us!"
"Yes I'm aware of that Tealson. That's why I want you guys to go to your homes at different times and get the stuff you'll need for a couple of days. But you have to make sure that at least one of you three is at the manor at all times."
"But Chief is this really necessary?"
"It is Tealson. Now I want you to do what I say and report back with me if you have any news. Speaking of news, have you discovered anything useful yet?"
"A few things, but nothing I can prove yet."
"Who's your most likely suspect?"
"At first I suspected someone more then the others. But as the night went I realized that he wasn't the most likely suspect. The more time I spend here the more I see that anyone one of these people could easily have been the one that killed Mr. Boddy. But I haven't talked to everyone personally yet, so I'll have to see. So as it is right now I can't say anything for use yet Chief."
"Okay Tealson. Call me if you get anything else."
"Sure Chief. I'll talk to you later."
"Goodnight Tealson."
"Goodnight Chief."
De Tanga hung up his phone and grumbled in discontent. As nice as the Boddy Manor was he wasn't all too pleased about having to spend not only the night there, but the next couple or days or weeks there. Gives me more incentive to solve the case quicker. De Tanga darkly chuckled as he went back into the manor.
He walked over to where Death and Hallas were talking.
"Oh hi Detective Tealson! So what's the news from the Chief?"
"We have to stay at the manor until we get this case solved."
Both officers gasped.
"You mean we have to stay HERE? But there's a murderer here! We could get killed in our sleep." Hallas said with wide eyes.
"Yes I know Hallas but it's what the Chief has ordered us to do. And we have to go to our homes and grab the stuff we're going to need for the next little while and come back here. But there has to be someone in the manor at all times. So I'm going to suggest that you two go first and I want you two to take one car and go together. I don't want Hallas getting himself lost on the road." De Tanga handed Death a piece of paper with Hallas' address while Hallas gave De Tanga a sour look.
"Is that really necessary?"
"With your directional sense, unfortunately it is. I'll see to our rooms while you guys are gone. So you two better go now and get back soon."
"Alright Detective Tealson." Death nodded at De Tanga as he left with Hallas.
De Tanga sighed. Oh well I'd better go and find Miss White about getting some rooms.
Amelia was in the kitchen washing dishes from the dinner. She sighed in discontent. Amelia wasn't too pleased about having to go back into the very same room that a dead body was discovered in nor was she happy about having to wash all the dishes. There was a mountain high pile of dishes that needed to be washed and there was only Amelia to do them. It was one of things that Amelia got very sick of, washing dishes. Since she always has so much to wash being the only maid her hands were always sore wrinkly from all the hot water. She had pleaded to Mr. Boddy in the past to get a dishwasher because they're so handy and useful but Mr. Boddy never wanted to buy one. Being as stingy as he was never wanted to spend his money on extra non-essential things like dishwashers, television sets, or computers. So that left Amelia having to suffer with what she had to work with.
Amelia frowned as she picked up another plate with food that was literally caked onto it.
"Miss White?" A voice said from behind her.
Amelia screamed, involuntarily sending the plate flying through the air almost hitting the person who was behind her.
De Tanga almost didn't dodge the airborne plate in time as it crashed into the wall. Whoa! I really gotta stop startling her like that! It's hazardous to my health. De Tanga sweatdropped.
"Oh Detective Tealson! I'm sooo sorry! I didn't mean to almost hit you with that plate!"
"No, it's alright I'm perfectly fine. But it's I that should apologize to you. This is the second time I've startled you today."
"I'm really sorry. I guess I'm just a bit jumpy right now."
"Well you've got a good right to be."
"Yeah I guess you are right. So what is it that you want Detective?"
"I need to know if there is three spare rooms that myself and officers Hallas Beige and Death Noir can use for the time being."
"So does that mean that the three of you will be staying with us as well?"
"It seems so."
"Alright, well this mansion is quite large as you know so I know for a fact that there are many spare guest rooms right now. So I can get three of them made up for you all."
"Okay I only have one request, I want all three rooms near each other."
"That I believe I can do. Will you come with me?"
A little while later Amelia showed De Tanga to the room that he was going to sleeping in for the next couple of days or weeks. Like all the other guest rooms, it was designed differently from each other but thing remained constant as in every room of the Boddy Manor. Above the doorway of the room overlooking the bed hung another portrait of the late master of the manor, Mr. Boddy. The expression in the picture was like the others in the sense that Mr. Boddy appeared to be thinking but otherwise it was a very expressionless portrait.
De Tanga unnerved about the thought of having this portrait staring at him while he sleeping decided that he to take the portrait off the wall and put it someplace else. But when De Tanga tried he found out much to his discontent that painting had in fact been nailed to the wall very securely. He realized that unless he wanted to spend like an hour trying to pry off those nails then he was going to have to deal with the dead Mr. Boddy hanging over the doorway staring at him. So his solution was to throw a cloth over the painting.
I have a feeling this is going to be a very long night...