Chapter 5: The Parade of Suspects Begins

After his dramatics, Goldie left Tough Snaps and Oranna alone in the office. He had gone to summon servants to summon his children.

Oranna and Tough Snaps were deep in thought, the weight of their situation resting upon them.

“This really was a bad situation, I had no idea what Golds would do to us if he didn’t get his money’s worth. No, the problem was Golds would always get his money’s worth, one way or another.” Snaps began narrating.

“This case kind of stinks too, doesn’t it eh Mistah Snaps?” Oranna replied.

“Yes, the case stank, stank of possibilities! Golds seemed to think that one of his family stole the jewel, a blur of blue with a hint of gold, but that was just one of the main possibilities!”

“It does seem pretty likely still that a master thief came in from the outside, but that means… “

“If a master thief did steal the jewel, then someone wants one of Golds’ children to be framed, which leads us to why the schemer wants that, but one other thing was bothering me about the case, something about scene of the crime”

“Why wasn’t the Genie Jewel used? Why was it kept in a room like that, with not much protection”

“I grinned, Oranna was really getting it, the method of thinking about possibilities”

Oranna tossed the cushion from the chair Goldie had been occupying at Tough Snaps. To their horror the cushion, which was likely worth more than the house they lived, burst on impact and creamy fluff went flying everywhere. One frantic collection of the contents and a rather good attempt at re-stuffing later and the cushion was returned to it’s seat, torn side down.

“Well, I wasn’t at all liking the way Golds was running this investigation for me, I needed more information, and I needed stuff unapproved by Golds. The only way to cut down the possibilities was more knowledge. So, I sent Oranna out to spy and talk to the servants of the mansion, while I was stuck listening to Golds’ relatives! The goal is to cut down the possibilities! One thing that’ll help with that is if the truthfulness of Dalbert Bluvert’s account is confirmed. To that we needed to make sure that he was as much a fool as Golds said!”

“You know, your speech impediment makes it really difficult to ask stuff politely doesn’t it”

Tough Snaps gave her a hurt look utterly out of place on the face of a hard baked gingerbread investigator.

“Gah, Ok, ok I’m going, just don’t give me that look!” Oranna protested as she slipped out the door.

Tough Snaps grinned after she left, of his hundred looks he always found the wounded animal to be surprisingly effective.

Tough Snaps didn’t have long to bask in the effectiveness of his manufactured facial expressions before the first person that Goldie wanted him to question arrived.

In stumbled a shewpog that was wearing what Snaps could only parse as a dress of belts, it somehow managed to look better than one would have thought the concept would be. The different snazzy buckles helped. This shewpog had golden eyes. Her hair was in six curling horns, or perhaps drills each pointing a different direction, one impeding the sight of one of her eyes.

Her fur was mostly blue, but began turning golden as it reached her head.

Tough Snaps mind could not reconcile that he was looking at a furry sack in a dress made of belts and that she actually looked pretty stylish.

“Are you, like, you know, that investigator guy papa was talking about it?”

“I thought I would be ready for the reality of someone referring to Golds as papa, but I wasn’t ready, this is just too odd” He mumbled.

“Ehhhh? What was that? Like you need to speak up and clearly, nobody will pay any attention to what you say otherwise!” The shewpog said.

“That was the whole point of mumbling, but I decided I had better not point that out” Snaps mumbled.

Then he gestured towards the office seat.

“I told her I was sorry, told her my name was Snaps, Tough Snaps, I was an investigator and I’d ask her a few questions, if she would just take a seat for a bit”

“Oh, well I’m Glory Goldie” She said perhaps a bit too eagerly edging her way to sit on the seat.

“Gotta say, you like, talk super fun…” she broke off from what she was saying into a scream of dismay as the cushion burst out its contents beneath her.

“The perfect crime” Tough Snaps murmured.

“Awwww nooo, like Papa is going to kill me!” Glory whined.

Glory directed tear filled eyes at Tough Snaps. “Mister, you have to help me, I’ll tell you whatever you want!”

Tough Snaps tried very hard not to narrate his gloating thoughts.

It did however become very hard to resist when the cushion proved effective at disarming the attitude of most of the 20 children of Gildenstan Goldie that were sent his way. He could only wish that it had been a deliberate plot on his part.

He hadn’t been expecting to be dealing with so many shewpogs, each with their own strange sense of fashion. The cushion really helped a lot.

He just hoped Oranna was having as fruitful a time as he was.