Just outside the AKPD, 11:40 A.M
Dan started walking toward the mayoral tower. The human forms of the foxes that passed him averaged at a height like his own. However, as he walked along, he saw a very distinctive black-haired man with orange eyes that shone like the sun. His hair was neat and short. Almost like a bowl cut but far more eloquent. He wore a zebra tie that was cut in half at a diagonal, he wore a black suit and the reverse of it had a stripped pattern of teal and red. His pants were tan and looked like they had been bought from the finest store. His shoes were black and shiny and expensive looking. He was so tall that he could be a stand-in for an NBA superstar. Daniel had a bad feeling about this man, he pushed passed him as fast and as covertly as he could.
The distinctive man paid Dan no mind at first, but he suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned back around. He strolled behind and to the side of Daniel and the man reread the initials on the side of Dan's woolly hat.
"D.S Smith?" The man's eloquent voice announced.
Oh no, please don't let it be him. Dan thought to himself.
"I thought it was you, where would you be without that fine hat of yours?"
It is him! Dan tried to hide his dread as best as he could before turning to face the music. "It's Drake, right?"
"Gasp! Drake? No, my name is the great, wonderful and eloquent Dr. Draconias Myth! Do I look like a male duck?"
"I think I'll stick with calling you Draconias."
"By all means."
"So, you are the famous Rhombodian Vulpinologist I keep hearing about."
"That is indeed who I am. So, you have accepted my offer?"
"Unfortunately, I have."
Draconias frowned. "Why is it unfortunate?"
"Because I get the joy of talking to you."
"Well, people have told me that speaking to a character such as me is quite droll." Draconias laughed in a most eloquent manner.
"Maybe that is true for others..."
"But not you? Are my words too intense for you? I thought that a well-travelled soul, such as yourself, would enjoy my company. So detective, where are we heading?"
"I don't think I invited you to join me."
"Yes, I'm inviting myself. The articles in the newspapers say that you are a great man. I want to see it for myself firsthand."
Daniel sighed. "We'll I can't deny you coming along with me, you are my client after all. But I may have to charge you more than standard."
"Oh? You have already spoken to that dreadful Colonel Argyle Jundice. He must have said that he was going to charge you for using police resources."
"How could you possibly know that?"
"I've been questioned in the AKPD thirty times, twenty of those times I was a witness, but you must have already known that."
"That I do. Anyway, we shouldn't waste any more time chatting, I have some people to question."
"Quite."
Daniel and his new acquaintance kept walking along the long and crowded streets of Arkihimious and continued along the route to the mayoral tower.
#
Mayoral tower, secretary's office, fifth floor, 12:12 P.M
The elevator chimed as Dan and Draconias arrived on the fifth floor.
"Oh, Draconias, the mayor wasn't expecting you today." Lila said.
There is really no need for me to describe Lila Protuve, after all the victim disguised himself as her on the day he perished. She was wearing her blond hair in a braid, and her dress was the same pink one the victim was wearing, and she was wearing the same purple bra. Her breasts were small, she could easily have hidden them when she disguised herself as Drew 14 days ago. Her face was very feminine, it would have been beyond difficult to make her face look like a man's face. She was wearing the most beautiful ruby lipstick and her eyes were a piercing blue, and they shone like diamonds. Her eyelashes were short and her eyebrows neat. Her lips were so perfect that they may never have cracked or blistered in her life. She was also wearing pantyhose and the shoes she donned were the exact same ones the victim was wearing, just smaller as the ones the victim wore were so big that if she wore them, they would fall off before she could take a single step in them.
"Yes! look who I bought!" Draconias moved aside and gestured in front of Dan as if he was showing a shiny red Ferrari that was just revealed after the curtain hiding it was drawn.
"Daniel Smith? The Daniel Smith? As in Detective Dan?" Lila exclaimed; she could barely keep her excitement hidden. "If I knew he was coming I would have put on something much more formal."
"There's no need for that, you look perfect the way you are." Dan replied.
Lila almost fainted. But she kept her composure as she had to be professional. She cleared her throat. "Should I inform the mayor that the great and powerful Dr. Draconias Myth has arrived and brought along a very special guest?"
"Just inform him that Daniel Smith has come to question him."
"But before that," Dan added. "You were here on the day in question."
"Yes, I was indeed there on the day in question." Lila replied. "I can't believe such a terrible thing could happen. Nobody has figured out how the killer got in or out. It's a big mystery."
"Would you mind telling us your side of the story?" Dan asked.
Lila relayed everything that Draconias had written in the prologue. There were things she couldn't add as she couldn't recall some of the less vital details.
Daniel nodded. "Thank you for your time, would you inform the mayor that we will now see him."
Lila nodded and called ahead to the mayor's office to let him know that Daniel and Draconias will shortly be arriving.
Lila pointed to the door to the left of the door that sealed entry to the mayor's aid's office. Dan opened the door and allowed Draconias to go ahead of him. The length of the hallway was the same length as the mayor's aid's office, which made perfect sense since it was directly next to it. There was even a clearly visible blue door on the right side that Daniel didn't see in the VR representation since he never looked at the wall on the other side of the door. This door connected to the mayor's aid's door, and it was locked shut. The door was there because this hallway also connected to a clearly marked bathroom.
The two men made their way passed the bathroom door and to the end of the hallway and knocked on the door.
"Come in." The mayor's voice announced. His tone was mid-tone, and it sounded a bit upset, he must have still been getting over his sadness.
Daniel and Draconias entered the mayor's room. He was reading papers and typing on his computer.
Gary Avalong was a few millimetres shorter than Daniel. He had black hair, and he was wearing a black tie with the image of an opaque azure diamond at the bottom. He was wearing a clean and well-tailored bronze suit and he wore beneath it a navy-blue dress shirt. His pants were the same colour as his shirt, and they were made from linen. A set of silver rim glasses with golden lenses lay on the table on the right side of his pen cup.
"Oh, hello Draconias, and you must be Daniel Smith, right? Your hat is as iconic as David Lancer's brown overcoat." Gary said.
"Yes, I am Daniel Smith, it is nice to meet you." Dan said.
Draconias went around and picked up the glasses to take a closer look at them. "These are interesting."
"Drake! Put those down! They were my grandfather's!" Gary shouted angrily.
"Well, he didn't have bad eyes, there's no magnification on these at all."
"Draconias, please don't mess with the mayor's stuff." Daniel said.
Draconias put the glasses back on the table. The mayor put the glasses back into the drawer in his desk. "Great, now my work is going to be harder."
"Why's that Mr. Mayor?" Dan noted.
"Gary, please call me Gary." Gary replied.
"Sorry. Gary, why will work be harder?" Dan asked.
"Those we're not normal glasses, those lenses were special."
"How so?"
"They fix my dyslexia."
Daniel nodded. "I see. We're sorry to have forced you to put them away. So, they fix conditions dealing with eyes?"
"That's right. They could even let a blind man see, but the crystals that the lenses of my glasses are made of are so rare that it costs over $14000 just to get a pair, and that's in our planet's currency." Gary elaborated.
Draconias whistled. "Daniel, how much is that in AUD?"
"$7000 AUD, a simple conversion since $1 AUD equals $2 RHD (Rhombodian dollar), the exchange rate between AUD and RHD is always the same no matter the date. Makes it much easier to keep a track of it." Dan replied.
"So, why did you two fine gentlemen come and visit me today?" Gary inquired at last.
"We want to know what occurred." Dan said.
"Be as detailed as you can."
"Somebody came through the door you two entered through. They were disguised as Ferolian Ferox. They knocked me out and I don't know what happened after that." Gary explained.
"Ferolian? I thought his name was Feral?" Dan noted.
"That's the name he came to be known by after he took so much of the funds that this office needed to help Arkihimious. But he will always be Ferolian to me." Gary elaborated.
"Do you think you could recognise the one who knocked you out?"
"No, I never saw his face."
Dan nodded. "That's a shame. How did you think he got in?"
"Probably through the bathroom window."
"Then we shall check that out!"
"First you interrupt me on the phone, now you take the thoughts in my mind. I was about to say something similar! Anyway, thank you for your time, Gary." Dan bowed and exited the office.
"Au revoir."
"Farewell Dan, I hope our paths cross again, and Draconias." Gary added.
"Yes?"
"Stay out of trouble."
Draconias laughed. "I wouldn't dream of getting into trouble."
Gary nodded. "Just stay out of trouble."
Daniel and Draconias exited back into the hallway and opened the light blue door that hid the bathroom behind it. The door had no knob, it was one that you can simply push to open it, the other side did have a handle so one could leave. The door had a pneumatic door closer (the hydraulic piston found above some doors that close by themselves) it was a shiny silver. The bathroom looked like a normal bathroom. There was nothing to note.
The windows at the end of the room were short and one was opened inward. There was no type of lock on them. Daniel went over to the window, but it was slightly too high for him to see anything. Daniel took an evidence bag out of the package of evidence bags on his belt and took a pair of tweezers from his suit's left inside pocket and passed them to Draconias.
"What on Rhombodian do you want me to do with these?" He inquired with a look of grand confusion.
"I thought I saw something caught in the window up there, would you get it for me? I'm too short."
"Oh!" Draconias looked at the window and noticed a piece of fox fur stuck in the side of the small window. "I see what you want, and I, the great and observant Dr Draconias Myth, shall get it for you!" He exclaimed triumphantly.
Dan had his hand upon his face in irritation.
Draconias used the tweezers and took the piece of fur and put it in the evidence bag. "Looks like our culprit Is a fox!"
Dan rolled his eyes. "Wow! That is so unexpected!" Daniel noted with sarcasm.
"Don't patronise me. Of course, the killer was a fox, I meant to say that our killer entered in fox form and left in fox form."
"Was that the hardest deduction you have done?"
"You already guessed that?" Draconias frowned. "But of course, you did, I wouldn't expect any less from the fantastical Daniel Smith."
Daniel blushed in embarrassment. "It's just Dan, there's no need to give me any ridiculous titles."
Draconias laughed. "I bet you'd like to hear me apologise for using such a title?"
"Only if you want. My main concern is that fur, we need to find out which fox it belonged to. Maybe we will have our killer."
"I can't believe the AKPD didn't find this!"
"I don't think any of them were tall enough to even notice the fur let alone obtain it."
"Quite right, you are taller than most of the members of the AKPD. Too bad they can't decide what their human form looks like."
Daniel smiled in realisation. "I think our killer was already disguised as Ferolian when he transformed into their fox form before entering the mayoral office."
"I think you may be right. Which means that they had their own reason to kill Drew, but they were also aware of the threats that Ferolian made to him."
"How much does it narrow it down."
Draconias took out his folded monogrammed handkerchief and placed it to his left eye, pretending to be sad. "Not much I'm afraid. He spoke his threats in front of the cameras."
"So, anyone could have done it, except for you since you are not a fox."
Draconias folded his handkerchief perfectly and placed it back in his pocket. "That's right, I am indeed not a fox, I'm a Rhombodian vulpinologist."
"So, we need to find people who did have motives against the mayor's aid. Do you have any ideas on who that could be?"
"All of my notes are at my hotel; without them I can't tell you much."
"Well, that is a shame. You should go to your hotel and retrieve them, and I'll talk to Ferolian."
"But you don't know where to find him."
"He worked here once, otherwise he couldn't have done the crime he did, so his address should be on file, maybe in the archives, but nevertheless I believe they are here."
"Ah! Good thinking, not even I thought of that. Very well. I shall retrieve my notes and meet you later."
Dan paused. "You know where he lives."
"But of course, I do."
"Where does he live."
"99 Foxtrot Lane, across from the hotel I stay at."
Dan looked down at his feet. "Great," he mumbled, "and just when I thought I would lose you for a bit."
Draconias put his right hand to his ear. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"
"No, of course not." Daniel said looking at Draconias. "I just feel a little disappointed that I won't get to find the information because you already told me."
"Oh, I didn't realise that would be so upsetting to you. Please forgive me."
So Draconias walked off, and Daniel followed reluctantly behind him.
Daniel hoped for this adventure to end soon. He still was not happy about this, not one bit. But he would have to endure it, just for now.
They dropped off the fur at the police station before going ahead.