By David C. Daoust
Fancy’s day, had certainly taken a turn. It would surely affect her entire stay on Twin Crown- of this, she was certain. In point of fact, the sheriff had been shot! Shot before her very own eyes. Oh, but for the mystery: Why? Why had he been shot? This is all that she wondered; this was something she needed to know.
The sheriff fell away before her eyes, to reveal the boy behind the gun. She watched as the boy’s anger subsided, the blood drained from his face. She could almost detect the very moment that he realized what he had done. The other boy charged. The other boy, which she would come to learn was the sheriff’s son, a boy named Jessop. In all honesty, she witnessed the gun droop from the shooter’s grip just as said realization hit, though it was such a flash of action as Jessop throttled the boy, bodily, threw him to the ground; the gun skittered away either way.
Fancy witnessed the girl named Sadie jump in, futilely pull at Jessop; clearly frightened that someone else may come to harm.
Fancy, of course, was left out of any physical altercation, because she now possessed the body of a standard bot, which any denizen of the Onion would know, was as weak as a kitten.
Her ‘partner’ Nick, however, took a moment to prove his worth. Using his weight, he managed to force the enraged Jessop up and away from the shooter. He formed an impassable wall between them, ‘only cost him a bloodied nose.
The shooter’s fight had left him, she could tell. He did not bother to rise from the ground. In point of fact, scurried further away as Jessop was barely held at bay. His horrified eyes focused only on the sheriff’s fallen form.
Sadie tried to reason with Jessop; to talk him down.
Fancy approached and retrieved the gun from where it had been dropped. ‘Best in her care’, was her only thought as she slid it within her handbag.
Unsurprisingly, the medical droids showed up, almost immediately, to pack the fallen sheriff into the stretcher like bed between them, rushed him off to the nearby medical facilities. Nick was forced to wrestle Jessop until the Sheriff’s backup finally showed up; A posse of Deputies that quickly took them all into custody. Jessop finally calmed, still upset, confounded as he realized his father had disappeared while he raged.
That was all earlier in her day. She had followed along, gave her statement, (turned over the gun) then realized just how green these deputies really were. The sheriff was going to be down and out for at least a couple days… it did not take Fancy long, to talk them into hiring ‘Willian Fossick Investigation’ to help with the caseload.
It was not the first time they had worked with an official law enforcement agency- and this sheriff’s department certainly needed the help. Twin Crown was a mess. The walls may be refurbished, the homes rebuilt, but everything was still scattered, still on edge; of this, Fancy was sure.
The mystery of who shot the sheriff, which, admittedly, was no mystery at all, had led her through casework, led her to that ‘why’ she had been wondering. Led her to learn of the Assault of Sadie Blue, the very girl that had thrown herself in harm’s way… Sad fact was, something like what happened to Sadie Blue, a crime of that kind, very rarely found justice. Too many people involved, not enough people willing to talk, leaves everyone shaking their head; a shame.
It did not take Fancy long to get one Farrah Blue to hire Willian Fossick Investigations, to get to the bottom of what really happened. Luckily, this all took place before another of Grady’s sons walked through the Sheriff department’s door- to blow the investigation wide open.
Jace Bram showed up- to finally fill out a statement. ‘Gave himself up entirely, or tried to. Jace tried to take the blame fully.
Fancy saw through his lies, and pressed, kept pressing until it was ridiculous not to tell the truth. Before Jace knew it, he had given the full, true statement. The problem was that Jace could not say for sure who actually struck the girl. Nor even who threw that first punch, which was really what Fancy wanted to know.
Word spread of Jace’s action. More of the kids involved showed up to add to the puzzle. Something had shifted; maybe Jace broke the flood gates, maybe just the rebuilt town inspired a different mentality. People wanted justice, or people wanted it over with; either way Fancy had interview after interview…
It was not always easy to get people to talk to a bot. Nick would tend to start the dialogue, slowly Fancy would take over with the real questions.
This is how Fancy found herself sitting in one the interrogation rooms of the rebuilt sheriff’s office, across from one Kacy Cartwright, as she let Fancy and Nick in about her brother, Voss Cartwright.
“He’s an idiot,” she confessed, arms out wide, about as wide as her personality was big, she reiterated, “My brother is an idiot!”
“It’s that Wyatt,” Kacy quickly added, “I saw him pull that shit a dozen times… I heard him laughing about it later.”
“You saw Wyatt?” Fancy tried to clarify as she scribed notes in the small stylized notebook in front of her.
“Yeah.”
“Laugh about?” Fancy pressed.
“About how easy it is to get Voss to do stupid shit,” Kacy informed. “I don’t know, it’s like Voss needs Wyatt to like him or something… whenever there’s something, some line nobody is going to cross, Wyatt’ll push him, goad Voss into it… My brother falls for it every time.”
“That fucker Wyatt’ll laugh and laugh,” Kacy threw in, a lot more colorfully than Fancy was used to, “Voss doesn’t get it, he thinks it’s praise or something.”
“He gave you details about the assault?” Fancy, still writing notes, guided the girl to why she was there.
“Yeah,” Kacy recollected her thoughts, “He told me. He told me cuz he was sick about it. They had her cornered- Wyatt was yelling at her apparently, then Wyatt looked at him, at Voss, like ‘like really? This bitch is going to get away with this?’ and Voss just responded– punched Sadie square in the head. I mean, you know what happened from there. The rest of the idiots got the okay and it was just an idiot fest.”
“So, Wyatt just looked at your brother?” Fancy asked.
“That’s what Voss said,” Kacy’s hands went up with her shoulders.
“And there was more leading up to the incident with the Sheriff?” Fancy pressed.
“Wyatt wasn’t leaving him alone. He was pushing him. Making Voss worry about everything. I mean I don’t know where Voss got the gun, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Wyatt gave it to him,” her eyes narrowed as she shared her suspicions, “–Told him what to do.”
“Where would Wyatt get the gun?” Fancy asked.
“I don’t know, same place he gets the Numskull for all I know,” Kacy tossed in the pot.
“Numskull’s illegal in Grady?” Fancy fished it out.
“Yeah. Well, I mean, ‘band by the community’,” Kacy nodded, “Holy Roller town- aren’t you the cop?”
“Private Investigator. Just arrived on the moon,” Fancy briefly explained, then questioned, “So, Wyatt deals?”
“I mean, I don’t know if he deals,” Kacy backtracked a little, “A lot of the guys got Numskull on’em nowadays.”
Kacy silently watched Fancy write more in here notebook, before asking from behind a knowing scowl, “None of this is going to land on Wyatt, is it?”
“Not for a look. No,” Fancy stated simply as she finished the last of her notes, snapped the book shut, and rose from her chair; all the while trying to figure out who might be interested in hiring ‘Willian Fossick Investigations’ to get to the bottom of this Numskull epidemic…
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