Detective Merlin needed some help.
There were too many questions in the case that needed to be answered. And there wasn’t much time left. There was a saying two heads are better than one. The problem was, finding a second head.
“Romanov, need your noggin’. Gimme!”
“Ah. Not right now Merl.” Constable Romanov towered past Merlin in the office and sat down at a table that was two sizes too small for him. In between a skinny teen with tattoos all over his arms and a short old lady gripping onto her handbag. “Alright you brat, talk. Where’s her wallet?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about sir.” The Tattoo Teen rolled his eyes. “She was the one who tried to mug me!”
“Don’t play dumb, this is the 10th time we’ve seen each other in the station. Want me to call your parents again?”
“Go ahead. They’re more busy fooling around with others to bother answering your calls bro.”
“The name is Constable Romanov, not bro!”
Merlin glanced between the three party, lips pressed into a trouble thin line. He waved a hand to forget about them and he moved to another detective. “Hey, Barry. I need your feedback on--”
“Sssh!” Constable Barry interrupted Merlin with a raise of his hand. His other hand occupied with an office phone as sitting on his desk. “What was that sir? You were pushed down the stairs? Did you see who did it? Tall and thin? Red hair? Any distinct features? Young or old?...Old? Bold? Bald? C-Can you speak up sir!”
Merlin stared, before shaking his head. He then walked over to a third Constable. “Hey Allan, can you... Young man! Watch pron on your own time!”
“Th-they’re evidence! These videos aren’t mine at all!” Allen retorted with panic in his voice. He kept trying to find the power off button on his computer screen, to hide the—OH HOT DAYUM, SHE BENDING—Click, off! For safe measure, Allen shoved whatever NSFW he collected back into their evidence bag, “We just arrested a peeping tom. Prosecutor wants me to verify all the content hasn’t been tampered with before we put charges on him! They made me do it!”
Merlin pinched and waved Allen to carry on. While he looked around for another companion, someone came into the office. “Oh my dear Mama Sally! You’re here just in time--”
“Oh please for the love of god, leave me aloooone!” Constable Sally stormed over to flop in the chair of her desk, rubbing her face with a groan. “I spent the whole morning chasing after a flasher at St. Lucille’s All Girl’s school. Give me a break!” Just as she sagged in her chair to try and nap, her phone rang. A roar of frustration and he picked up her office phone. “Yeah?...More of them!? What are they running a syndicate!? For the love of—I’ll be right there. Arrest those perverts with extreme prejudice!” Sally slammed the phone, pushed Merlin out of the way, marched out, and loaded a fresh clip of rubber bullets into her gun.
Busy, busy, busy. No time for petty little questions.
Merlin sighed with a shrug of his arms. Then, he glanced at a door nearby. With the words [INSPECTOR SAUL] written on a plaque on the face of the door. A deep voice: “I have you now.” Rubbing his hands together he waltzed right up to the office and raised his hand to--
[Y-Yes sir! I understand! I-it’s ridiculous!] The voice of Inspector Saul seeped through the door and the office window covered in blinds.
Curious, Merlin leaned his ear to the door to try and get a better listen. Inspector Saul’s voice was trembling, no doubt dabbing his face with a kerchief by now.
[W-we’re almost finished the paperwork for the Diamond Hotel murder. I assure you we will have it ready before...I-I know I said we will have it done a few hours ago, b-but there have been some uuh...new information on the case that—Yes. Yes I know all of the evidence point to the killer and we have her in custody but—Yes. I know the media is watching closely and a swift conclusion is necessary. But based on what we found – what are the odds that someone else could be involved? A third party so to speak, I—]
There was a long silence in the room, as if the world flooded inside and sound died.
Stolen story; please report.
[....Yes. You’re right, there should be without a doubt Tessa Roads is the murderer...Yes sir we will finish everything before her 48 hours...Yes sir...Yes sir......Yes sir.]
“...” Merlin mulled his lips, waving his knocking fist up and down in empty air. He gave up in bothering the Inspector... Instead, he back pedalled to talk to someone else.
“Eve. What do you think?”
“H-huh!? Wh-what?” Police Secretary Eve snapped out of her busy thoughts. She was in the middle of sorting out her desk, organizing various folders and sweeping them to one corner after another. “Wh-what do I think what?”
Merlin leaned his arms across the wall of her cubicle. “Barrister Amelia. Madame Belle. Mrs. Cambridge. All three women are Liam Ferguson's lovers, but not a single one ever showed up on the night of the murder. Even when they all have motive to kill.”
“Yeah~?”
“But then we have Tessa Roads who is totally not Liam’s lover, yet we arrested her right after he was murdered.”
“...Aaand~?”
“Eve. I’m asking you. What do YOU think?”
The police secretary flipped several folders across her table with a sharp roar. “Merlin. Can’t you see I’m busy!?”
“And can’t you see I’m stumped!? I need a second brain, and no one else in this office is more convenient than you. Now, come on, help a brother out out here.”
“It’s clear Tessa Roads is the murderer. Evidence and all.”
“What if she isn’t?”
Eve swept her fingers through her curly hair to calm down. “Could it be a lover?”
Merlin rubbed a hand over his face. “Eve. I just told you. All three women were not at the crime scene that night.”
“I meant another lover, someone we don’t know.”
“...Another lover?”
Eve leaned against her desk, balanced on her elbows, and waved her hands about. “Ladies A, B, and C are women with power and money. Based on your reports, it’s clear they’ve been paying Liam to fool around with him behind their husbands’ back. Purely transactional. And from reading up on their records, they’re well above Liam’s age.”
“...I don’t get it.”
“Okay think of it this way~. Is being a detective a job, or passion?”
“Paying rent really.”
Eve snapped her fingers. “So job! Right? You get sick and tired of your job if you worked 24/7 right? No break, no holiday? You would rather go home, relax, and have fun. Waste your time playing video games, right?”
“...Aaaaaaaaah.” Merlin perked his head up. “So, a fourth lover as a hobby to relax to? Maybe someone with a sweeter tone.”
“Exactly!” Eve smirked with a clap of her hands, eureka! “Knowing men, they always see marriage as a responsibility or business. Passion dies out after a couple of years. That’s why they like to play it fresh and fool around with other women, be it an affair or one night stand! Women that wouldn’t give them pressure or just take their mind off. That or a head-empty fling!”
“...Something tells me you have experience.”
“Hey.” Eve snarled, making Merlin chuckle and hold up his hands in mock surrender. “You’re a guy, don’t deny it.”
“You’re right, you’re right. There are times, I just want to stay home and sleep and not come to work... So a fourth lover.” Merlin leaned his elbow on the cubicle wall. “Someone who knows Liam’s habits well enough...maybe slip in and out of the hotel without a trace...perhaps, hide her presence from his ‘business lovers’...
He scratched at his hair thicker than a Scottish Terrier, “Question is: would lover number four know about the other ladies?” Merlin thought over the new information. After drumming his hands on the cubicle wall, he flicked a pair of finger guns to the secretary. “Hey Eve, thanks a bunch. I feel better now. Love you—Don’t tell the inspector I said that or he’ll hang me. Gotta go, GG.”
Merlin left—Only to be dragged back by Eve.
“Waaait a minute. I helped you – now you gotta help me solve this mystery?”
“Oh ho? What’s got out beloved Eve all riled—Oh sh—”
Even revealed she had one of her office cabinets open. Other than coloured folders, there was a hidden collection of very fancy cosmetic products and boxes, the type a lady would use to adjust their make up after long hours at work.
A secret stash so to speak. The detective’s face lost its colour.
“I simply don’t understand it!” Eve flipped her hands as she dug through her stash. “I paid so much money for that Kaoganai Face Mask. Said to be made with authentic sakura pedals that can smooth the skin! The box claims it has six sheets, but I only count five! I searched high and low, thinking it fell out! Merlin if you can’t find it here, I think I got to take it back to the store and get a refund! This is a defect!.......Merlin?...Merlin where did you go?”
The police secretary searched around the investigators office. Constable Romanov was trying to break up a fist fight between a teen and old lady; Constable Barry was screaming into the phone to communicate with a deaf man; Constable Allen was...hiding something, but forget about him; and Constable Sally already gone out.
No Merlin. Only the double doors swinging back and forth, gone like the wind.