D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 2013: Chapter 2013 Three More Suspects Part 1

— Kat —

After going through everyone Kat had no idea who could be the culprit. Nothing at all stood out to her amongst the descriptions. “Alright, I can narrow it down to three people,” stated Lin.

Kat turned a confused glance over to Lin. “How? The instructors seemed fairly helpful, none of the students stood out to me. The mission desk people were maybe a little suspicious but there were like, eight of them and apparently you narrowed it down to three? How?”

Lin shrugged, “Eh it wasn’t too hard. Though admittedly I know of quite a few of the people mentioned so I’m not just operating on the information that Jen here handed out. Not too much more than Angie probably has though.”

“We didn’t have any proof for about half of the names listed. We just had suspicions they were involved in the organisation. We certainly didn’t have any crimes to pin on them,” admitted Angie.

Jen, suddenly realising that she’d just told a guard about her very illegal organisation. “Errr….” Jen looked over at Lin. “Why didn’t you stop me! I talked about everyone! I am so dead when the instructors realise I gave away most of their names. This was like, lesson number one!”

Lin shrugged. “We’re basically cutting ties with the Diggers due to everything that’s happened up to this point. I’m also not sure how many are going to be punished. Things in the city are super chaotic and a little thing like this? It’s going to fly under the radar.” Though when Lin said that last part the unspoken ’or else’ was quite easy to hear. Well, for everyone except Jen who still seemed to be panicking a bit.

Angie sighed, “As much as it annoys me… Lin is probably right,” Kat felt a twinge of a lie in that sentence, but it passed too quickly to pick out what exactly was causing the issue. “Things are going to change a lot and you’re unlucky to suffer for betraying them. Well, any more than you already have considering the fact someone is trying to kill you. I would appreciate if Lin would elaborate on who she believes is responsible though?”

“Of course,” agreed Lin easily. “The first is Stacy Digger! A little brat that I think had a crush on Olivia. Not only did she dislike you for not being a Digger and butting into her class, but you took her crush from her.”

“Wait, Stacy isn’t like that. I don’t even think she’s gay?” offered Jen not altogether too certain. “I mean… she was part of a few conversations about which boys were the hottest. I didn’t have strong opinions but she did. Are… you sure?”

“Oh I’m sure she’s at least bisexual. She’s got a lot of ’repressed lesbian energy’ that she’s practically stewing in. I’d bet she’s angry at you for stealing the girl she was interested in, even while hating herself for being gay, or for not understanding why she’s so angry at you all the time.”

“I still feel like that’s a bit… far…” offered Jen softly. “She even gave me a pot of bruise cream once after a particularly bad practice with ’The Darkness’”

“Call him Tim dear. Just because he’s annoyed the Shadowmancer armour didn’t choose him doesn’t mean you should encourage his edgelord fantasies,” Lin gently chided.

Jen blushed a bit before pausing and glaring up at Lin. “I didn’t even know that was his real name! It’s not like he goes around announcing it!”

Lin shrugged, unconcerned. “Regardless, the bruise cruise was a nice gesture and to me says more that she wants to end up as the third in your relationship but considering the whole ’repression’ deal she’s got going on, I suspect she doesn’t realise that herself. She also has the skill at enchanting, and the anger to hurt you, but not quite enough to do it in person or more permanently.

“I’ve determined that the bomb probably wasn’t meant to kill you. An acceptable casualty perhaps, but not the planned outcome. I think they wanted to capture you actually. Which is something I’m still pondering on… and I could be wrong about. So feel free to keep thinking it was an assassination for now.”

“You really think it was Stacy?” asked Jen.

“Eh, I said one of three most likely and I stand by it,” confirmed Lin.

“Right and the other two?” cut in Angie before an argument could start. She wanted something to send off to Ramor before the end of the day, and Kat might not be around to keep Lin ’in line’ later. For now she was at least willing to humour things and share insights.

“Ah, well the next one is Appoline Fleur, the poison expert,” explained Lin, with a glance at Jen, as if she was waiting for the younger girl to make a comment to the contrary.

“Um…” Jen noticed the attention. “That… well I think she’d rather poison me to death but I can believe she’d want to kill me. She just has the air of someone who would poison they own mother for a few dollars if asked. I have no idea how they’re not behind bars.”

“Oh that’s easy. It’s because they just like MAKING poisons. They don’t tend to put them to use personally,” explained Lin.

“Wouldn’t that imply she’s not the culprit?” asked Angie.

“True, but in this case she considers me responsible for getting her mother killed and certainly isn’t happy about it. She might not use her poisons personally but more than once she’s tried to take me out through intermediaries. I could believe someone was hired to use some poison to take out Jen and they stumbled onto the old bomb enchantment. Though I do admit that in this case it’s more that she has a strong motive and a history of attempting murders that can’t be pinned on her then any hard evidence.”

“I don’t personally know if we found any odd traces of poison and whatnot at the scene but it’s something to look into,” said Angie as she scribbled on her notepad. “And you say she’s among the most likely?”

Lin nodded. “She’s one of the few people with the right combination of anger and guts to make the attempt. Though I really doubt she’d have been here in person if she’s responsible for setting the whole thing up. Still, she might see it as a way to get back at me and if she did, I’m quite sure she’d take it.”

Angie continued scribbling. “Alright. Not the strongest link, but I suppose at the moment we’re mostly looking at suspects because the evidence was rather spotty all things considered. Between the two you’ve already mentioned does one seem more likely than the other?”

Lin shrugged, “Not particularly. It depends on the circumstances of the crime. If Appoline has been planning this for a while and saw a chance to implement I’m sure she would… but I don’t know how much she thinks I care about Jen, nor if she really did think about getting back at her. Sure she has a strong grudge against me, and she’s not been shy about collateral damage when it’s just my family… but I do admit she’s been careful to avoid the youngest members in her multiple attempts.”

“And you don’t want to go after her for any of those?” asked Angie.

Lin shrugged, “It’s how these sorts of things go. I wouldn’t have wanted the investigation it would bring at the time. These are all old attempts now. Perhaps she’s let the grudge go.”

“But you don’t think that?” asked Angie.

Lin shrugged, “I suspect not but I haven’t seen her in person for quite some time. So it’s hard to say.”

“Alright then,” nodded Angie. “The final person?”

“Davis. Davis Digger,” said Lin firmly.

Jen practically jumped in her seat. “Davis?! But… but he never seemed threatening to me, he was never once mean and he just… I don’t even know if he could stomach trying to kill anyone?”

Lin made a ’so-so’ gesture. “That’s what he wants you to think. Though I agree he’d love to be able to foist the actual killing off onto others. Davis is an ambitious one. A young buck trying to climb the ranks. I noticed he was friendly with everyone but not really friends. He’s made sure to cultivate his position carefully and I’d bet he was angling for a takeover of the organisation before he’s turned forty.”

“But why me if that’s the case?” asked Jen.

Angie nodded along. “Indeed, why Jen in that case? From my understanding, the fact the organisation wasn’t too fond of her would mean eliminating would by him few benefits. She certainly wasn’t in the way.”

Lin nodded, “Certainly… but I see two possibilities. The first is that he was going to use her as an example. To show that he COULD kill someone so well protected. Even in my semi-retired state the idea someone could get away with something like that? It would be a boon to him and a blow to me. Considering I did miss it before the bomb went off, someone did well.

“The second possibility… is that the older Diggers were after her. It’s possible they wanted to be more aggressive about things. Perhaps the family’s passive stance was not to their liking. It certainly won’t be now…”