"So why exactly do you have a Investigation Soceity here? I didn't know there were too many crimes being commited here."
Drisnen smirked. He was walking along with Raorka and Lucerne on the path straight from the Fritten Inn towards the corner of the Dome of Temuril where the Mayor's Palace stood.
"We don't generally. Most of our activities involve reading through past unsolved crimes throughout the continent and putting forward and discussing our theories on the same."
Raorka was surprised by how much it sounded like the detective clubs he used to see at school back home.
"And you decided to invite us why?"
Drisnen's face grew grim. "This kidnapper needs to be stopped. The Mayor's men are useless, they have grown too complacent over the last few years of peace."
"And you guys are better how?"
"Because we have a better understanding of crimes. We study it as a hobby, we attempt to solve it ourselves and we have developed skills for the same."
"Why involve us?" Lucerne was the one who asked this question. She was walking quietly just behind Raorka.
"We need all the help we can get here. Currently we have four members in our society, and we definitely need more to stop the kidnapper. I know both of you quite well, Raorka only recently, and I can vouch for both of you."
"Are you aware of who the prime suspect of most of the people in this town is?"
Drisnen's face grew dark. "Ms Artemis would never do such a thing."
"So you do admit you know."
"I do, but I don't care much to give words to baseless rumors." He snapped back. Clearly Lucerne had touched a nerve.
Raorka didn't know Artemis that well, but from the few lessons he had had, he was inclined to agree with Drisnen. She had no motive he could think of, and besides she had to know that with any crime commited with a unknown criminal, she would always be the first suspect.
Presently they came in front of a small building about halfway between the Mayor's Palace and Fritten Inn. Drisnen opened the door and beckoned Lucerne and Raorka to come inside.
Raorka proceeded, with Lucerne close behind. Inside the door was a small room with a large desk taking up most of the space. Around the table were three people, two women and a man, and all of them looked up at Raorka and Lucerne as they entered.
"Let me introduce you guys." Drisnen said and stepped in front of the table. He had to squeeze past Raorka due to how little space there was to maneuver.
"This is Maris Goldengrove, our leader." Drisnen said pointing to the tall, blonde woman sitting at the head of the table. Her eyes were sharp and there was a small scar above her right eye. She regarded both Raorka and Lucerne with suspicion, though she nodded at Lucerne who responded in kind.
"This is Jareth Frostbane. You need help in a fight, he is the one call." Drisnen said pointing to the big, burly man at the corner of the table. His face however was soft and kindly and he smiled warmly at both Raorka and Lucerne in turn. His personality seemed to be the polar opposite of Maris.
"And finally the newest addition to our team before you two, this is Rowena Atar." Finally Drisnen pointed to a short woman, almost hidden completely behind Jareth's burly frame. She didn't even acknowledge Raorka or Lucerne, her face buried in a huge book.
"Don't mind her, she is a huge bookworm. Most of the time she is lost in some huge tome. But due to that she is the most knowledgeable person in town. You want information about the most obscure thing ever, you go to her." Drisnen explained.
And then he turned to Maris. "These are the two I was telling you about Maris. You know Lucerne already and I can personally vouch for Raorka."
Maris stood up slowly. She was extremely beautiful, but her beauty was icy cold. Raorka felt like she was the sort of person who could do whatever was required to get what they want.
"You do know Drisnen that outsiders are the most common suspect for this series of kidnappings right?" Maris said.
"Yes I do but I can vouch for Raorka personally."
"So you said. But unlike your witch, your friend here is not only an outsider but also extremely new to town. Surely you understand then why he is the first person we should be looking at." Maris' icy glare seemed to pierce through Raorka who shifted his eyes nervously.
"Come then. Let's not argue needlessly." Jareth was the one who spoke, and then smiled again at Raorka. "Even if your suspicions are true, wouldn't it be better for him to be here so you can confirm them yourself?"
Maris turned away muttering. "I didn't say he was the one I suspected."
Jareth smiled widely at Maris. "Then there is even less reason to object right?"
Maris sighed. Her expression seemed to soften a little before immediately hardening again as she looked at Raorka.
"Well then welcome to the Temuril Investigation Soceity. Both of you."
Drisnen also smiled happily and then looked towards Raorka with a wink.
.XX.
After this tense introduction, Drisnen brought out two chairs and then Raorka and Lucerne sat at the table, completely cramped.
"We have more space in our henhouse than here." Lucerne whispered grumbingly to Raorka who almost let out a laugh.
"Well let us begin then." Maris said slapping the table. She was now standing up at the head of the table. To her left was the burly Jareth, to her right was Rowena, still engrossed in her volume. She had not moved nor looked up during the entire introduction and it seemed she still had no intention of doing the same.
To Jareth's left was Drisnen, occassionally smirking at Raorka opposite him, but otherwise looking seriously at Maris. And finally to Raorka's right was Lucerne.
"We have three consecutive kidnappings within a week, all possible conducted by the same person." Maris said, and then she brought out a white sheet of paper from behind her.
She took a pen and began writing.
"The first victim was Clara Nidstone." She wrote Clara on the paper. "Clara was a close friend of mine. She was due to get married this week. Let's review the facts of her kidnapping:
Clara was with her fiancee Jones till about 1am.
Then she returned home. This fact was corrobated by Jones as well as her own parents.
Her parents saw Clara go up to her room and verified that she was indeed in her room.
In the morning she was gone."
Maris clicked her pen off and looked at the paper.
"Did I miss anything?"
Raorka was thinking about how similar the pens of this world were with the ones back home when Rowena spoke for the first time.
"No struggle." She said simply, without looking up from her book.
"Ah yes of course, there was no sign of any struggle in her bedroom." If Maris was annoyed by this comment, she didn't show it on her face.
"Well, then we members of the Soceity have already discussed this case to death. Since you two are the newest members, care to advance any theories?" She said looking at Raorka and Lucerne.
Raorka hesitated for a bit and then said, "Well I had one but with the remaining two-"
He was interrupted by Maris raising her hand. "No, treat each kidnapping separately. For the moment discuss your theories solely with respect to Clara's case, notwithstanding whether it makes sense for the other two crimes."
Raorka shrugged and then said, "Well mainly considering the fact there was no signs of any struggle, my theory was that there was no kidnapping in the first place, Clara ran away from home."
"That was my theory too." Jareth said with an encouraging smile.
"Improbable." Rowena's voice came through.
"Excuse me?"
"I said it's improbable."
"Yeah of course now that there have been two more-"
"No." Rowena looked up from the book. "Even considering Clara's case alone it is improbable."
"Why is that?" Raorka was a bit peeved at being dismissed so easily out of hand.
Rowena looked at Raorka as if she were looking at an idiot.
"Simple really. Motive and opportunity are both missing."
"Motive and opportunity?" Lucerne asked confused.
Rowena sighed and then continued, "What motive could Clara have had to want to escape? She was in a happy relationship, her marriage was coming up and her parents were certainly neither abusive or even strict. She was able to go out with her fiancee till 1am and her parents happily allowed that. Does that sound like a household one wants to escape from?
But more important is opportunity. Suppose for whatever reason she did escape on her own. She would have had five to six hours at most before her parents alerted the Temuril soldiers. And she had to have escaped on foot, since there were no horses missing. So you really think a single girl on foot would be able to outrun the Mayor's soldiers on horses? She would be caught before she made it to the nearest town."
Having said her part, Rowena went back into her book, almost as if to discourage further stupid questions.
Raorka was stunned into silence. He was about to argue but as he thought about it, he realized that Rowena's points all made absolute sense.
"I'm sorry about her." Jareth said almost apologetically. "She is the smartest one out of us, but not the most tactful."
"I realized." Raorka said with kind of a wince.
"Ahem can we get back to the topic at hand please?" Maris sounded extremely irritated at this long detour from their main point.
"So we have heard why Raorka's theory wouldn't work. Lucerne got any theories of your own?"
Lucerne thought for a while before answering. "Well considering that she did not struggle, the main reason I can think of behind that is that the person who kidnapped her was someone she knew quite well."
Maris nodded. "Indeed. That does make sense bu-"
"Doesn't help us at all." It was Rowena again.
Maris sighed as if she resigned herself to being interrupted by Rowena everytime and waved at her to continue.
"Well if we rule out the possibility that she escaped on her own, the only reasonable possibility is that she was kidnapped by someone who knew her well, someone she would allow into her room at a time past 1am. There's just one problem with that."
"Her parents heard no one?" It was Raorka who answered the unanswered question and for the first time Rowena looked directly at him and nodded.
"Indeed, very good. Her parents swear that there was no one who entered the house from their door and they could hear nothing from her room either. They sleep on just the next room as was of Clara's, so if there was any talking or any disagreement or anything they would have heard it."
"What if they were using magik to hide the sound?"
"Now you are thinking new guy."
"Raorka is my name."
Rowena shrugged as if to say it didn't matter. "Whatever your name is, magik to hide any sound would work well. However what about the struggle part? If Clara saw her would be kidnapper use any form of magik, she would grow suspicious herself wouldn't she? And there would be some signs of struggle afterwards no? But there are none in her room."
"What if the kidnapper knocked her out?" Lucerne asked.
But Rowena shook her head. "It's not so easy to knock someone out and not leave behind any traces or not have a fight beforehand."
There was something tugging at the back of Raorka's mind, something which was triggered by Rowena's words but it went away as soon as it came.
"Let's move on from Clara. It's clear this kidnapping cannot be solved solely through this incident. So what if we add the next two kidnappings?" Maris said, attempting to bring some form of order to the conversation.
Rowena had now put down her book and was listening intently. Drisnen and Jareth had been quiet throughout but now even they leaned forward interested.
"Yeah we have discussed Clara's case to death since it happened. Let's look at Fiona and Jhoira." Drisnen said eagerly.
Maris paused for a bit and then looked back down at the sheet of paper in front of her.
"The circumstances of all three cases are quite similar. Jhoira was dropped home by her friends at 11pm, and Fiona returned home alone but her parents were at home when she did. And both of them disappeared the following night without any trace. Now the question is to all of you instead of just the new people. Any theories?"
Jareth was the first to speak, "Is it necessary to consider all of these to have the same kidnapper? Can't there be possibly three different criminals for each of them?"
"No. Too similar of a method for all three." The answer from Rowena was swift.
"Why don't you tell us what you think Rowena? Till now you have just been shooting down our hypotheses." Maris snapped back at her.
Rowena was silent for a while then she said through gritted teeth, "I can't. I don't know what happened yet." However it was clear that her frustration was directed more towards herself than anyone else. Even Maris realized this and quickly blurted out an apology.
Rowena however was already deep in thought and didn't seem to hear or even acknowledge it. Maris however continued on, looking at the others expectantly.
"I agree with Rowena, this has to be the same person. But I think we should look at a common motive to see if we can find someone with a grudge against all three of them." Drisnen said.
No no that's not it.
This wasn't done out of a grudge, it's almost as if.....
Almost as if what?
Again something triggered in the back of Raorka's mind but it slipped away just as quickly. He felt like he was agonizingly close to the answer yet unfathomably far.
"Yes, let's look at their friend circles. Lucerne you were friends with Fiona right?" Maris had taken hold of the discussion again.
Lucerne nodded.
"Did you know whether she was close to or friends with Jhoira or Clara?"
"No, I'm pretty sure she wasn't."
Maris nodded and was about to say something else when Rowena suddenly stood up, knocking her chair down. Maris looked at her in alarm.
"Everything alright Rowena?" She asked.
Rowena didn't respond directly but just looked at her. "At what time does the library close?" She asked quietly.
"The library?"
"Yes, at what time does it close?"
Maris frowned and looked at the large clock above the desk. "It's about 4pm now, so it should close in another hour."
Rowena didn't say anything else but bolted out the door immediately.
"Is she alright?" Raorka asked.
Maris shrugged while Jareth responded, "Don't worry she is often like that. Quite eccentric but a nice girl at heart. And quite clever too."
"I recognized that look in her eyes. It means that she has probably solved this case and is going to the library to confirm it." Maris said with a wry smile.
"Haha, if that's so maybe the discussion we are having right now is pointless if Rowena just goes straight to the Mayor with the culprit's name." Jareth said, also smiling.
"Well anyway we are going to have this anyway, if only to show that we could also reach the same conclusion as her if only with a bit more time."
And thus their discussion continued until late evening, albeit fruitlessly. It was dark outside and the clock showed 7pm by the time Raorka, Drisnen and Lucerne left the Investigation Soceity building. Rowena had not returned from her trip to the library.
"Well what do you guys think?" Drisnen asked as they walked back home.
"I think Maris doesn't much appreciate us being there." Raorka said carefully.
"Oh nonsense. Maris may come off as cold but she actually cares a lot about the Soceity. Once you both prove yourself useful, she will see the value you add here."
"Judging by today neither of us are master sleuths atleast." Lucerne said forlornly.
"No, the only master sleuths around here is Rowena." Drisnen said with a laugh, and soon Raorka and Lucerne joined him. Raorka wondered whether Maris was right and Rowena had actually solved this case.
Well we'll know by tomorrow.
Raorka shrugged and happily walked home to the Fritten Inn, sure in the fact that one way or other they would make huge progress on the kidnapping case by the next day.
However that didn't happen.
For quite a simple reason actually.
The next day, Rowena Atar disappeared from the town of Temuril.