The Case of the Missing Acara

     Edward, despite having already been aware of the truth, reacted with considerable aplomb. The Blue Quiggle threw one hand over his brow and gasped. Martha froze, coming to an abrupt halt in the doorway. Edward tugged the Elderly Aisha into action, bringing them both over to the sofas.

     Belle let out a nearly hysterical laugh, but bowed her head, swinging one arm out in a mock curtsy, and once again, knocking into the table between us.

     "I see the clumsiness wasn't affected," I laughed. "I'd wondered if that was just a part of the helpless persona you constructed for Sophie."

     "No," the Red Grarrl said, an unfamiliar, wry smile on her face; it was a look that ‘Sophie’ never would have worn. "It seems when you're used to navigating the world at the size of an Acara, it's a bit difficult to adjust to the size of a Grarrl."

     "I don't...I don't follow," Martha said, her magnified gaze rapidly moving between me and Belle. "How can Sophie be Belle?"

     Edward threw himself into the seat beside me. "Yes, esteemed Private Investigator Ada. How could Sophie be Belle? Please share your wisdom with us."

     Belle eyed at the Quiggle with something akin to revulsion.

     "Please, Martha, be seated. I'll start from the beginning."

     The Elderly Aisha sat obligingly, tucking her skirts beneath her legs and folding her hands in her lap. Her excitement regarding the case didn’t appear to have diminished, but was overwhelmed by confusion.

     I poured her a bracing cup of tea, and began my tale.

     "When I arrived at Avalon Lodging House, I sought a meeting with the Grarrl that penned me this note." I withdrew a sheet of paper from my bag, and set it on the table.

     "The author was distraught – they wrote that they had seen an ad in the papers for my business, and were desperate for my assistance. My presence was requested here, with the promise of payment should I be able to resolve the author's dilemma. The note was signed 'Sophie'"

     I gestured to Belle. "When I arrived this is who awaited me. A Red Grarrl who introduced herself as Sophie, and who was at her wit's end. I was told a tale of two friends who attended school together – Belle, a Green Acara, and Sophie – and of how at the eve of their success, when they were just about to go into business together, Belle disappeared. My client tearfully laid out my principal task: find Belle."

     I paused. "Now, I will admit my initial theories regarding this case were incorrect, but I felt immediately that nothing bad had befallen Belle – that her absence was deliberate. Instead, a different idea – one that my client guided me to deliberately – took shape in my mind."

     I withdrew a sheaf of papers from my bag and set it atop the letter.

     "I was given a set of letters that amounted to all of the supposed correspondence between Belle and Sophie over the past year, written while Sophie claimed to be travelling, and Belle was attending to her continued studies. They conclude with an invitation from Belle to meet here, at Avalon Lodging House with fifty thousand neopoints each, so they could begin investing in their new business – a bookshop."

     Martha was listening intently, nodding along. So far I had told her nothing she didn't already know.

     "It seemed to me that Belle had set up her unsuspecting acquaintance to be robbed. Having finished her studies, nothing tied her to this place anymore. I assumed her plan was to fleece Sophie, then run. Sophie was keeping the money in her rooms here, unprotected, as Belle had essentially instructed. Belle was familiar with the area, as Edward, the only other lodger at the house, informed me that a Green Acara had been in the area recently. It all added up. Robbing Sophie would be much easier than robbing a bank – and this neighbourhood is rude with Thieves guild business, so the crime would blend right in."

     Martha gasped.

     Edward cast me a warning look, which I took to mean that I shouldn’t out him as being involved in Thieves activity.

     Sophie had relaxed into the couch, but was paying close attention. She did not appear to be planning an escape – she’d poured herself a new cup of tea.

     "I waited in Sophie’s rooms overnight, camping out for Belle to arrive and attempt to steal the unprotected money. It had rained the first night, and the second night, the road leading up the hill was still muddy. I assumed that Belle would come on that third night, when she would leave no tracks, nor be caught in the rain."

     "But she never came," Edward said, cutting in.

     I frowned at him.

     "Sorry, sorry," he said, throwing his hands up. "This is your moment."

     I relented, laughing. "Since you provided me with the information that finally set me down the right track, this is your moment as well." I turned back to Belle. "He interrupted you the night you arrived, rushing into your rooms because he heard someone cry out in pain. He was worried someone was injured – but there you were, sitting on the couch, unharmed."

     I paused. "You didn’t intend for anyone to realize you’d arrived so late at night – you wrote down your arrival as noon in the guest book, but Edward knew you arrived at midnight. He informed me of the incongruities between your story and what had actually occurred, raising my suspicions."

     Belle’s gaze shot to Edward, seething with barely contained hatred. "I knew he couldn’t be trusted. The night that you were in my suite waiting for ‘Belle’, I went downstairs to fetch a glass of water. On my way back I noticed the door to his rooms was ajar. He wasn’t inside. I had a feeling he was snooping around my rooms again."

     "Ah," I nodded. "So that’s why you stopped by your suite that night. To catch Edward and toss him out."

     Sophie scowled.

     "It didn’t matter. After you threw him out, I searched your suite, anyway. I found that five thousand unaccounted neopoints were missing from the money. Whatever it was you’d spent it on, I assumed it was the cause of your late night arrival, and that you’d either concealed it within your suite, or disposed of it when you heard Edward trying to enter your rooms that night. I found nothing in the suite...but I realized the window was the only place you might have tossed something to dispose of it in those fleeting moments before Edward caught you."

     "So we followed the stream!" Edward burst in.

     "Yes," I said wryly. "We followed the stream beneath your window and found what you’d discarded."

     I reached beneath the table, and produced the drawstring bag we’d discovered in the woods. I opened it and passed it to Martha.

     "We found an empty bottle and a set of rags. Naturally, our next step was to visit the apothecary to find out what the bottle was for. By then, an idea had occurred to me. I was meant to be investigating Belle, but I was investigating my own client, who, it was turning out, was equally suspicious, equally culpable in whatever strange happenings occurred here, at Avalon Lodging house...The characteristics of the supposedly devious Acara I was meant to be looking for, I found instead in my client. I needed confirmation. At the apothecary, we were able to piece together the truth."

     I paused, building up to the heart of the matter. "Belle and Sophie were one and the same. Belle had arrived in the neighbourhood a month ago to request a Red Grarrl morphing potion. Once we knew what must have been in the bottle originally, the rest of the story was easy to unravel."

     Martha gasped, pressing her hands to her face.

     I continued. "Earlier this week, Belle went to the bank, secured a loan, picked up the potion, then arrived here...at midnight. The cry of pain Edward heard was from the transformation caused by the potion. The discarded rags we found in the bundle are the ripped Acara clothing you were wearing when the transformation occurred."

     Belle’s eyed me evenly. I waited for her to accuse me of lying, to say I’d gotten some part of the narrative incorrect, that I was mistaken.

     She didn’t.

     "I underestimated you," she said at last.

     Martha was aghast. "But why do all this? Why not just take the money and run?"

     "My guess...Because she didn’t want to run. She wanted to spend her money in peace, but she knew that for that to happen, Belle couldn’t exist anymore. Belle would have to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder to see if the Defenders of Neopia caught up to her. But Sophie? Sophie could do whatever she liked. So she wrote fake letters, created this whole story, adopted a sympathetic persona...and we believed it."

     "I didn’t!" Edward chimed in. "Well, I believed she was, you know, a Red Grarrl named Sophie. But I didn’t trust her."

     I continued. "The final thing ‘Sophie’ needed was for the world to forget Belle, and stop looking for her or the stolen money. Hence why she invited me here. My purpose was to complete an investigation in which I found no trace of Belle, so that the results of my investigation – that Belle had run away, and there was no trace of her – could be reported to the Neopian Bank, and any potential case against Belle written off as not worth the effort to pursue."

     I turned to Belle. "You wanted to be the one to call in the investigation, because you wanted to be there to guide it to the incorrect conclusion. You couldn’t risk leaving it up to the bank. And it might have worked. In fact, I’m quite sure it would have, If it weren’t for –"

     "You," Belle spat, fixated on Edward.

     Edward grinned slowly, savouring her anger.

     A curious expression had overtaken Martha’s face. She gulped down the rest of the tea at a prodigious speed, eyes flitting from me to Belle, digesting the reality of what had unfolded in her home these past few days.

     "Well!" she announced. "This is all very strange and exciting! Goodness! Now what? Do we call the Defenders?"

     "No," I said, looking at Belle. I had an inkling she knew what I would say.

     "Now you let me go," Belle said.

     I nodded. "Now we let her go."

     "What? Why?" Edward jumped to his feet.

     "Because she hasn’t technically committed any crimes. She missed one interest payment on the original loan – that’s it."

     "She tried to defraud the bank!" Martha exclaimed. "Take her away! Straight to the dungeon."

     "Martha!" Edward let out. "Quite vicious, aren’t you?" He looked at her approvingly.

     "We can’t prove that," I said. "She never actually told me to submit my findings to the bank." I frowned. "In fact, she told me not to."

     "But that was part of an act!" Edward nearly shouted, joining Martha in the fray. "She would have asked you to do it if you pushed a little more – that was her plan all along!"

     It pained me to admit the truth. "We can’t prove any of this."

     Belle rose from the sofa, her shimmering dress swirling about her, giving her an almost ethereal aura. "And now," she said, "I believe I’ll take my leave. I have to head to the bank and pay off some interest on a loan I recently procured." She went to the door, paused, and turned. "There aren’t actually Thieves Guild operatives guarding the doors, are there?"

     I shook my head.

     Belle laughed. "Goodbye, Private Investigator Ada," she said, almost mockingly. "Until we meet again."

     Then she stepped through the door, and left.

     "...Now what?" Martha asked.

     I didn’t know.

     When I’d arrived at the lodging house only a day past, I hadn’t expected anything remotely like this to unfold. It was strange. II hadn’t caught Belle, but I was awash with the thrill of victory. A case like this was what private investigators lived for – a worthy opponent, high stakes, and the excitement of the chase.

     We lapsed into a strange silence, each pondering this strange twist of fate, until predictably, Edward began to speak.

     "Fifty thousand neopoints…" Edward said. "You know, I almost get why she did it...What I'd do with fifty thousand neopoints…"

     He turned to me accusingly. "You'd probably buy antique books."

     I laughed. "And what would I need antique books for?"

     "You seem the sort," he sniffed. "Or worse, you'd spend it on something horrifyingly practical, like a – a new telescope for your crime lab."

     I couldn't resist.

     "A telescope? For what purpose? To investigate astronomical mysteries in my non-existent crime lab?"

     "You know what I meant," he muttered, "a microscope." He paused, then brightened, teeth flashing. "You've got to admit, though, that a telescope can come in handy when solving mysteries. There was that business in Altador recently –"

     "I'd like a telescope," Martha said, cutting in.

     Edward beamed.

     I wasn't about to disagree with Martha.

     "Well," Martha said, rising to her feet. "This was quite something!"

     I nodded. It had been.

     "But now that it’s all over, who’s ready for dinner?" She bustled to the door, off to fetch food, then stuck her head back in. "And another pot of tea, yes?"

     Edward laughed. "Always."

     I nodded. After the excitement of the past two days, that sounded wonderful.

     "Tea and dinner. And then I’ll be heading back,” I said.

     Martha frowned. "And where is it you’d be heading back to?"

     "The NeoLodge," I admitted. I thought of my cramped room and grimaced.

     "That bad?" Edward asked sympathetically. "You know, I once stayed in Cockroach Towers for nearly a full year. It wasn’t so bad – if one doesn’t mind cockroaches, I mean."

     "Hush, Edward," Martha said. "Ada, you don’t have to answer now, but perhaps you’d consider renting a suite here instead? I’d be delighted to have you. No, no, don’t give me your response yet. I’ll go fetch that tea and get dinner started." She swept out of the room, carrying out the empty teapot with her before I could get in a word.

     Edward looked apprehensive. "What are you going to tell her? Surely, you’re not going to…" He noted my grin, and groaned. "Oh, for Sloth’s sake. You are."

     I laughed, a spring in my step as I considered the days of tea and comfort ahead, and left to tell Martha my answer.

     The End.