That required more effort than I thought. I now have everyone's alibis, those shows should've told me how tedious it was to talk to everyone about their day.

Anyone here stands out? I can't make heads or tails out of all of this.

Well... most of them seem reasonable and they don't overlap with each other. I kinda expected the killer to be a really bad liar and said something that really stood out but everything seems to be normal.

Maybe the killer has an ego? Just piss someone off and see how they react.

That might be taking things a little too far. But my top suspects haven't changed and if I apply a little pressure maybe I can get them to crack. What would the Captain do?

I dunno... die?

...

"Professor." I called out to Doogledert. "Sorry to pick you out of everyone but you said that you spent most of the night alone in your room, correct?"

"Yes I was checking over the geological map to find any peculiarities with the surroundings." He replied. "And Catherine had told me about the facility that was found, I think she told me around 10:30 pm."

"That's interesting... was that all you were doing in your room? You can't have spent the whole time looking over the map. What else did you do?"

"I told you I was in my room doing research."

"Sure. But I don't buy that, I don't buy you're backstory either!" I dramatically pointed at him. "Those guys in black jumped you but what for? Competitors? Trespassing? We're so far away from civilization we're practically sitting next to the edge of the Old Frontier, why would anyone bother chasing you out this far... unless... unless you've done some shit to earn their wrath!"

Damn I'm good at this. It was kinda sketchy that he didn't know why his group was targeted. And the Loch Ness Monster excuse was absurd enough to make us second guess if it was fake or not, he was probably just really lucky that it's actually real and it's here in Former North Dakota.

"I'm a real paleontologist, here I'll show you my ID." Doogledert pulled up a card that looked official enough but anyone can fake those. I think. I'm not a card expert.

"What's this about guys in black?" Savannah questioned.

"Professor Dogditch's friends got captured by some dudes covered head to toe in black but he managed to escape." Catherine explained.

"Why would I have any reasons to kill anyone, I just love bones!" Doogledert looked around the room.

"You... might wanna think about what ya said." Bill raised an eyebrow.

"The fact of the matter is that I'm only interested in fossils, I would never harm another person."

"He seems way to passionate about fossils to be faking it." Catherine stepped up to defend him.

"And... and he's knowledgeable." Engie also added. "To me he doesn't seem like he's lying."

That is true... the guy does know his stuff, enough to be a professor at least. And it's also true that he doesn't have a strong connection to the victim. I thought I got something there but this was a bust, I did manage to cross another person off the list.

"Wait a minute..." Annie spoke up, she was quiet for a while now. "The killer... it could be me!"

"What? Why would you think that?" Miley nonchalantly said, almost like she expected her to say something dumb.

"Well what if I killed her accidentally in a fit of rage! I could've strangled her and forgot." She made a strangling motion with her hands.

"She got stabbed to death." I said.

"O-oh then I guess it wasn't me..."

Yeah that one didn't go anywhere.

The big dummy's got a point. What if someone forgot that they killed her?

I'm noticing some similarities between you and Annie.

Don't compare her to me!

I still have another top suspect that I can question and it's...

"You!" I pointed out the ringleader himself, Paul Jeffrey.

"Me?" He was taken aback.

"Yes you. You're the head of Those at the Threshold. How well do you know your members, specifically the victim." I slowly walked up to him.

"She was a devout follower just like all the others. Of course she had her quirks but we all do."

It was a boring answer but he said it without missing a beat. Her death was most likely tied to the cult maybe she said something that she shouldn't or maybe it was a ritual of some sort, we really didn't have a clue on the inner workings of the cult.

"We're going to get down to the nitty-gritty here, you created this religion right? What for? How do you know that this Holy Light is going to be at the Equator?" My rapid fire questions clearly caught him off guard.

"What does this have to do with Mary's death?" Paul replied.

"Nothing or it could be something. I just want to know the origin and why this... pilgrimage is so important."

"It was the call of the Light that revealed this path to the Saint." Sam surprised me, I wasn't expecting her to be defending him.

"The guy won't hurt a fly, he ain't the type to do something so wrong." Another surprise defendant, this time it was Bill.

The rest of the cultists soon followed to defend their leader saying that I shouldn't question him or that I didn't know what I was talking about. It was like they forgot that one of them was dead with how hard they were going in on me for questioning their faith.

Tell them the truth then. It's clear that they have no clue how fucked the path to the Equator is.

... I didn't have the heart to tell them when I first met but it would be on my conscience if I just let them go into the Old Frontier. From what little I heard of it it's a hellscape and no surprise because that's where a majority of the bombs hit North America in WW3.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Looks like reading actually got you somewhere, just throw them your knowledge and break this charade.

"I never trusted you..." Before I could even speak my head turned to whoever said that, it was Haven.

"The hell you talkin' about Haven?" Bill's face contorted in confusion.

"I could always tell this guy was shady from the moment I joined, it wouldn't be too far off for him to kill Mary!" Haven shouted.

"I always knew you're faith was weak Haven!" One of the cultists shouted at him.

"He always cared very little for our beliefs! That should be all the incentive you need to suspect that he's the killer!" Another said as they looked directly at me.

"Yeah screw that Haven guy! Riot!" Screamed Savannah amidst the frenzy of the crowd.

"Maybe we should all calm down and listen to each other!" Annie suggested, her towering figure got some of the rioters to settle down.

"Yeah no need to get crazy just yet." Miley joined in on crowd control.

Hahahaha! This is great! They start trouble and I'm justified in putting them all down and then BAM! No more murders if everyone's gone!

"STOP!" Paul's voice echoed through the room, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "Let me question you Haven, why did you join us then if you hated us so?"

I'm suppose to be the one asking questions here but it seems like I've lost control of the situation. Haven didn't look like he was going to back down an inch as he stared daggers at the Saint.

"Why? Because I hated living in the US! I was sick of living under their rules and being watched every second of my life! You can get put away forever for just littering and, trust me, they know when you litter! I looked for multiple ways to get out and when I overheard that you guys had a way to sneak pass their border patrols I was all for it, I joined immediately. The fact that we were being led by a whack-job like you didn't matter because I was going to be free." Haven laid everything out.

Everyone fell dead silent. For the cultists they didn't know how to feel about Haven pouring his heart out. For us it was kinda awkward being caught up in this dispute.

"What's wrong with the US?" Savannah broke the silence. "You only get arrested if you litter a lot in a short timeframe, I mean, they would have every reason to stop a serial litterer."

"Is that all you got from that?" Haven snapped at the girl.

"Haven..." Was the only word that left Sam's mouth.

The two looked at each other like they understood how the other felt, maybe Mary wasn't off when she said that they might be in love. One thing did stand out to me from that, it was the fact that they were from the US.

"Hold on... you're from the US?" Savannah also caught on to this... Savannah also caught on? As I turned my head to her, Rapunzel tapped her on the shoulder. "I mean, yeah we're from the US!"

"Well this discussion has been insightful but let's get back to the matter at hand." I clapped my hands to get everyone's attention. "What were you actually doing yesterday around 9:00 pm?"

"He wasn't around the gym." Haven pointed out.

"Yeah... I didn't see em for awhile after you guys got back." Bill motioned to Miley and Catherine.

"He was also missing when I went to the gym yesterday to ask him to help out with the repairs." Engie said. "It was actually Mary that told me where he was... I don't know if that helps..."

"Nonsense! I already told you everything." Paul sounded annoyed.

"We have two people that disproves you're alibi." This is great. I wasn't expecting Haven and Bill to throw out this juicy detail and Engie also said something interesting.

Dismantle this man!

"You're alibi holds no water!" I begin to circle the suspect. "It clear right now isn't it? From what Engie said it looks like Mary liked snooping around, of course knowing someone's favourite colour or what kind of movies they hate isn't too bad... but what if she found something out that you didn't want others to know? Maybe something about this religion?"

"She enjoyed sticking her nose into place where it shouldn't be..." Sam remarked.

"What you're saying is absurd! I was truthful about our cause from the start, I have nothing to hide." Said the man with something to hide.

"Well it seems you're very cautious in telling people about the creation of this religion... Let me spell it out for you, if Mary were to find out about the reasons behind this religion or why you're headed to the Equator you would totally silence her." It's time to find the truth.

"W-what? I would... I WOULD NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

"Holy shit!" Miley's swearing took everyone's attention away from Paul.

She ran up to the window that she previously closed and swung it wide open revealing Guard peeping through it.

"Hi, I was wondering whether I should've knocked... oh hey Captain Sa-Sweeper." Guard's head jolted to another direction, now looking at the hostage.

"Wait she's your Captain?" Catherine eyes went wide.

"O-oh Guard here meant to say Corporal, ha ha rookies amiright?" Dealer said from out of view. "Also why am I second in the stack, I should be up there!"

"Nuh uh I'm the negotiator remember? And Mirabelle's the only one that can hold the two of us so that leaves you the middle."

"Okay okay! Ask them what's going on!"

"Hey, uh, I didn't catch your name but..." Guard leaned over the window to look at what's going on inside. "Wow is this a cosplay convention?"

Miley shoved Guard out and slammed the window shut. We could hear them plummeting to the ground, there was an especially heavy thud. Miley returned to us and readjusted her glasses.

"Continue."

"... so where was I... ahem. If the origin of this religion isn't shady then come out and say it instead of dancing around the topic!" I confidently pointed at the man, my signature move at this point.

Boo...

"Well I... it started because... the reason I made..." Everyone's eyes was on Paul.

"Get on with it. Even the people that followed you from the beginning have no idea why you started it." Haven pressed him further.

Paul was sweating, his eyes never stayed in one place, it looked like he was hoping someone would come and answer for him. Every time he opened his mouth he would instantly close it as if he was terrified that what ever would come up would screw him over. The longer he waited the more I felt the faith of those that followed him falling apart, this should've been an easy answer if he actually believed what he was selling.

"Because... because I didn't want to die alone..." Paul said under his breath.

"What? I didn't catch that." Miley wanted him to shout it out.

"It's fake, it's all fake! The Holy Light was just something I made up. I did it because I didn't want to die alone! This whole thing started because I was too scared to die alone! Talking someone into suicide is hard to do but if I somehow managed to convince a few people to join me on a journey all the way to the Equator we'll eventually die to whatever is out there! I just... this just accidentally turned into a religion and started getting more followers than I expected..." He was in tears when he explained it.

Okaaaay... it actually was a suicide cult.

Wow this guy's nuts.

"Okay you son of a bitch, you made this more complicated than it needs to be. I don't give a shit if I'm being insensitive but get some help, for the love of god see someone. You started a goddamn religion just so you can horribly die to radiation with a bunch of strangers, if you were scared to die you picked one of the worse ways to go." Miley ranted.

"I threw away everything for this journey!" One of the cultists shouted.

"You idiot! You complete dumbass! Why did you do that? How did any of you fell for this shit! You are all dumb!" Now she was going off on the members of the cult, someone should stop her.

Paul seems like he was having a panic attack as he huddled himself on the floor. He kept going on about how he didn't kill Mary. It was honestly pathetic to see.

"I always knew you were trash but this is too much. He's the killer, right Silver?" Haven wanted me to convict him on the spot.

"I didn't kill her! I was in the washroom! I get panic attacks so I always hide it from everyone so I don't seem weak!" Paul said while still on the ground bawling like a baby.

The other cultists were furious that he somehow tricked them into following him this far. They started berating him, some even started getting physical and stomped on him but Annie and Catherine pulled them off. They screamed for justice and declared him the murderer, I mean he technically was going to get them all killed buuuuut...

"He isn't the killer!" I shouted at the angered crowd.

"What makes ya say that?" Bill said as he was helping out by maintaining the mob.

"For one thing, his alibi doesn't conflict now. He was busy freaking out in the washroom at the time."

"But he could be lying. If what Engie said was true, and I have no reasons to doubt her, then Mary liked snooping around and if she knew the truth Paul would have a reason to kill her." Doogledert said.

"That can be explained with my other point. He's too much of a coward. He started this whole cult just to get people to die with him by natural causes, he went out of his way to do all this when he could've just killed people and then himself." I explained. "He wouldn't kill someone with his own hands."

This is pretty sad to look at.

"Damn this is pretty sad to look at." Savannah commented.

Hey I said that!

The rest of the cultists seemed to calm down as they looked in disgust at their former saint. I didn't really think that it would get to this point honestly, I was just trying to provoke him into admitting that he was the killer. If he didn't snap I would've changed targets but... I guess this still works. Still this case isn't over and I still have a top suspect in mind...