"We should split up! I don't want to follow you around all day, damn it!" Perona complained.
"Alright, go on then. Nobody is stopping you, you're a big girl." Cherry waved her off.
Perona harrumphed and dragged Cabernet away somewhere. Only she knew if she really wanted to investigate herself or if she just wanted some alone time with her girlfriend.
Cherry and Robin continued to the village doctor.
As one would expect from a clinic in such a small settlement, it was equally humble and likely doubled as the man's home.
They stepped inside, a bell ringing above their heads as the door struck it to announce their presence.
"I'll be with you in a few minutes! If it's urgent, please scream in agony!" A deep, manly voice called out from through a door.
Robin swiftly silenced Cherry with several newly bloomed hands, having read her intentions to cry out in mock pain. She might find such antics amusing, but annoying the doctor now wouldn't make their investigation any easier.
After a few minutes, a hulking beast of a man squeezed through the door and allowed a very pregnant woman to pass through before shutting the door.
He had graying hair pulled into a ponytail, stood maybe two meters tall but was disproportionately wide in build. His arms were thick and hairy, and he had a bit of a beer gut poorly hidden beneath his white coat.
"Hello! You are a stranger to me, I am the village doctor! You may call me Doc Gidall!" Doc Gidall practically shouted in his deep, booming voice.
"Nico Robin, and this is Harpin D. Cherry. We are pleased to meet you." Robin spoke politely.
"Those names seem familiar to me! No matter, what can I do for you?!" Doc Gidall asked.
"We would like to ask about the victims of the recent-" Cherry started.
"Very bad for business, that! Can't fix the dead, better to just be hurt so I can make money! HAKHAKHAK!" Doc Gidall interrupted.
Cherry narrowed her eyes. People like this grated on her nerves. Mostly because it was rude to interrupt someone, but also a little bit because she was the type who loved to hear herself talk.
"Can you tell us about the bodies?" Cherry began again.
"Oh yes, very strange! They were mostly drained of blood and the stab wounds were precise! Only Patrick was stabbed from the front and only he had any defensive wounds!" Doc Gidall said.
"Someone the first two trusted, but the third did not perhaps?" Robin reasoned.
"Why are you asking about this anyways?! It's not your responsibility, is it?! You seem strong enough to take care of yourselves too, so you don't have any need to worry about a killer on the loose!" Doc Gidall questioned.
"Call it our good deed for the year." Cherry said. "Why don't you tell us about yourself Doc? What's your story?"
"Moved in here maybe 30 years ago! Came into the Grand Line on a pirate ship, but I realized after experiencing Reverse Mountain that I wasn't cut out for it! Settled down on the first island we came across and been here ever since!" Doc Gidall reminisced.
"Do you stay out late very often?" Cherry asked.
"Sometimes! I get restless and go on nighttime walks when I can't sleep!" Doc Gidall answered.
After a bit of chatting, they left the oversized doctor to his business.
"Goes on nighttime walks does he? As a pirate doctor, it's not unthinkable that he'd be skilled with a knife, and he'd probably be trusted by the victims." Cherry posited.
"He's very open about it, though. Doesn't seem like something an intelligent man would admit to if they were the killer." Robin analyzed.
"Let's see if we can have a chat with the hunters, maybe figure out who Patrict didn't trust enough to turn his back on." Cherry said.
Meanwhile, Perona and Cabernet decided to go see the mayor of the village.
As one of the wealthier members of this particular settlement, they naturally found his home where the bigger houses were in the village center.
The mayor's home was two stories tall and was not too bad in the width department either. It even had a little courtyard with a flower garden and a decorative iron gate, a mark of true opulence in such a place.
Cabernet knocked on the door and soon after an older woman in decent quality clothing with some sparse gold jewelry answered the door.
She looked the two of them up and down with a sneer.
"MY HUSBAND isn't interested in you FLOOZIES!" She slammed the door in their face.
A few moments of silence passed as Perona was too stunned to react.
"What is a floozy?" Cabernet asked.
Perona shook herself out of her stupor and became incensed.
"Nobody calls my Cabby a floozy! Or me, for that matter!" Perona growled. "Cabby! It seems that you knocked a bit too politely! Try doing it the rude way!"
Cabernet's face scrunched up trying to understand the underlying meaning, as she was sure Perona had meant to insinuate something.
She couldn't figure it out though, so she decided to just do what she wanted to do.
Smiling viciously, Cabernet hammered her fist into the door. The first two seemed to cause the whole house to tremble from the force, and then the third directly broke down the door.
Cabernet glanced at Perona, and was pleased to find that her choice seemed to be the correct one from the satisfied smile on Perona's face.
"Who do you think you are! Get out this instant before I call the constable!" Shrieked the older woman, whose faint trembling betrayed her inward fear.
An old man rushed down the stairs. He looked as if he had once been a handsome man, but had allowed his looks decline over the years.
He was about to berate the strangers who had broken into his home before noticing the nearly shattered door lying on the ground beneath their feet, as well as the crack door frame that once held it.
As such he swiftly put on his politician's smile and tried to deescalate the situation instead.
"Goodness, what did you do to offend these folks, Jilly? I am terribly sorry, my wife has started to go senile so I hope you won't take her words too seriously." The man, presumably the mayor, said.
His wife nearly exploded with rage at his words, but she managed to contain it and remain silent. It was hard to refute his words when she truly had insulted them without any provocation. As such she decided to simply let her snake of a husband talk their way out of trouble and chew him out later.
"He's worse than the mean bitch is. His smile feels so… icky." Cabernet said to Perona bluntly.
The mayor resisted the urge to scowl. His wife on the other hand took a great deal of satisfaction in his mask being seen through so easily. She really didn't care about being called a mean bitch, she'd been called far worse.
"You're so right, Cabby! I can feel his nasty eyes crawling over my body too! Blegh!" Perona said.
At this point Jilly actually started to feel guilty for judging them so quickly and unfairly.
"I apologize, ladies. It was terrible of me to insult your honor like that and I have no excuses for my abhorrent behavior. Could I invite you inside for some tea? I hope that I can assuage any offense I have caused you." Jilly said, using her own political skills to ease the crisis.
"Sure, as long as HE isn't invited." Perona said, pointing at the mayor.
"Excuse us, I need to speak with my wife for a moment!" The mayor interjected. He didn't know how the situation had steered so far from his favor so quickly.
He dragged his wife aside and started to furiously whisper at her. Although their words weren't quite audible, it was easy to see that it quickly devolved into a bickering match.
Jilly turned away from her husband, despite it being clear he wasn't finished.
"Shall we go to the parlor?" Jilly said, leading the two women to another room in the house.