Deduction has a minion!

Hamish the Skullion

"Sit"
The young girl looked behind her and sat on the small armchair which was facing Deduction. She wasn't overly confident about visiting the world's most brilliant private detective, but this mystery wasn't just going to solve itself; she needed his superior brainpower.
"Now then Miss Cherry"
"It's Cahoots," she replied, "the name is Miss Cahoots."
"Cahoots, that's what I meant of course. What's the mystery you have for me to solve?"
"I was wondering.... er.... Mr Deduction, erm if you had ever tripped over one of those illusive Maliss minions – I keep tripping over them, but always find they run before I can catch them, and I was so wanting one for my minion collection. And I realise I'm rambling, but I really do want to catch one of those you see."
Deduction held up a paw, "those are fast little critters but you just need their favourite food – a bag of minion nip should do the trick.
NEXT!"


Miss Cahoots stared at him for a minute, absorbing the information. She knew he was intelligent, but the pace of his speech pattern had caught her unawares. Never the less, she caught the phrase "minon nip" and made her way to the local stores to purchase some.


Deduction closed his eyes, tenting his paws in front of his face. He would never sleep during the day, but resting one's brain was a necessity when one was such a clever private detective – after all, how could he solve such puzzling cases without a short break? He did hope that the next case would be more interesting though – he would never leave the flat for anything less than an 8, and that last case had to be a 3 at the most.


Opening his eyes, he spotted a different person sitting in the chair. This one looked slightly older, but with the unkempt hair of someone who had got dressed in a hurry that morning. Not just in any old hurry, but a hurry provoked by fear – only that would give the particular pattern of knots in her hair, that would prove a painful experience to remove.
"And how can I help you, Miss....?"
"Miss Nike," she replied, "and I'm here on behalf of Jaxon Skelly of the Pumpkin Patch – he refused to come into the city himself, but he needs your assistance. You see, each Morostide, he allows members of the Subetan public to enter his pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, and..."
"...yes I know that," he replied, "that's a well known fact. If you don't have anything interesting to add, then please leave."
"But he's afraid his minions are being stolen."
Deduction's ears pricked at the sound of his second-favourite word – stolen property had to be second only to a mysterious locked room murder, and there were precious few of those in this sleepy city.
"Does he have any evidence of any thefts? Other than the missing minions, of course."
"He does, Sir," she replied, rummaging in her bag for a moment, before pulling out a small see-through bag, containing a small tuft of.
Deduction took the bag and placed the fur under his microscope. "The fur of the Lesser-Spotted Snowflaik," he said under his breath, changing the magnification on the microscope and peering at the fur again, "and a small piece of something else as well. A small fragment of a dark green curled leaf."
Miss Nike gasped – Shadowglen might have trees, but their leaves were flat, not curly. As she racked her brain to think of any connection, Deduction tented his paws and stared at her.
"You've solved it already, sir?"
"It's quite simple actually, I was hoping it might be more exciting, but this leaf can only come from one source, and that's the Elemental Mage. All Mages drop some of their leafy manes at this time of year, to allow fresh growth. He's been hiding amongst the pumpkin patch, to avoid being spotted while his mane is looking so patchy."
"But, but what about the stolen minions, sir? Are you saying he had nothing to do with them?"
"Does Jaxon never follow the news?" replied Deduction, holding his phone towards Miss Nike. She looked at the screen, and realised it was displaying a news article from last Morostide, with the reminder that the Centropolis government had limited minion ownership to a maximum of 10 per person.
"Any minions beyond that amount will be removed by Centropolis representatives" she read, "so you're saying that they weren't stolen at all?"
"Precisely, and I suggest that Jaxon starts taking a daily newspaper in future.
NEXT!"


"Oh it's you again," he said as Miss Cahoots sat on the familiar seat in front of him.
"Yes," she replied," you told me to use Minion Nip, but it doesn't work – I tripped over three more Maliss on the way back from the store, and still couldn't catch them."
Deduction sighed, this case wasn't showing any signs of improving past a 3. In fact, it seemed to be rapidly progressing towards a 2.
"Did you try feeding the Maliss when you tripped over it?"
"Yes, I put some of the nip on the ground, and they ran away again."
"It's perfectly simple, can't you see?" He laughed at the embodiment of confusion staring back at him, "you're using Shadowglen brand minion nip for Delphi Beach Maliss – they don't like foreign food, so make sure to buy the nip from the right source next time.
NEXT!"


Miss Cahoots shook her head and left the room. She never knew Maliss could be so picky about their food, but she was determined to catch one, so she walked to the station to get the next train to Shadowglen.


The next person to enter the room looked different. She had an air of uncertainty about her, but it wasn't just the usual awe of Deductions' expertise, this person had the air of someone who hardly ever visited the city. As she walked to the chair and sat down, Deduction reasoned that this particular person was a martial arts expert, her short cropped hair being more practical than a long ponytail for her kickboxing bouts. Her once sturdy walking boots had been patched three times.... no, four – there was a slight patch on the left heel as well, demonstrating a clear attachment, no doubt that inexplicable thing called sentiment, to her chosen footwear. She was the proud keeper of at least three Tigreans, the claw scratches on her arms giving that away, and a master of four different languages, given the choice of tattoos on her wrist.
As she sat, the sight of a small ring caught Deduction's attention, the ring of the Raven. He knew at once that this was the case he would leave the flat for – this would be at least a 9.9.
Rubbing his paws eagerly, he waited for her to speak.


"My friend is missing," she said quietly, "He was last seen at twilight in Shadowglen. I've made inquiries, I've gathered some clues as well. Normally, I wouldn't ask for help. But rumour has it that there's a pack of vampires and werewolves roaming in the area and I'm deeply concerned for my friend's safety. People don't just vanish from a shopping centre, leaving their bags on the ground--but he did."


Deduction tried to not let any emotion show, but a missing person, vampires and werewolves was just too good to be true, and he flicked his paws slightly as he leant forwards in his chair.
"I will need to see the location he went missing from," he said, "maybe in due course you would accompany me there."
Tenting his paws in front of his face again, he continued, "you say you have some clues? Normally I wouldn't bother asking what they were, but you seem the kind of lady who would spot the unusual, so could you elaborate? Especially on those to do with the weather and the ground at the time of his disappearance?"


"Yes," Raven said, "I have a vehicle waiting to take us." She nodded and pulled out a small bag from her pocket. "This is a piece of his shirt, which as you can see has been ripped off. I spotted a few drops of what appears to be blood heading off in the direction of a crypt. This I can show you at the location, as well as the placement of his bags. It hasn't rained in ages so the ground was hard except about 20 paces from where he was last seen. There is an indentation there, that I can't make out. Also I spotted what appears to be a necklace when I went back to reexamine the location. I left it there because it was very hard to see and thought it would be best if you saw it where it laid--assuming I was able to acquire your help."


Deduction smiled slightly at the apparent detail his client had noticed, but knew that any great consulting detective would always need to see the scene for himself.Looking at the shirt, he agreed that it had been ripped, although there was an unusual thread running through the edge. That would warrant further investigation, so Deduction placed it in a bag to prevent any damage to the threads.
"Let's go to the location," he said, standing and gathering a few other things from the table beside him, "but one question first, did your friend normally wear a small pendant either on a leather chain or a leather bracelet?"


She nodded. "Yes, he wore a necklace with a raven pendant on it, just like the ring I wear." She showed him the ring, not aware that he had spotted it.


Raven took him to the scene. There were three rocks near the shopping centre. "The rocks are were the bags were. I was afraid of the bags themselves being stolen. Those are in the vehicle if you want to examine them." She pointed towards the wooded area. "The indentition is about 20 paces away and the necklace is over there." She then pointed to the small red drops. "See, they head in the same direction. As if maybe someone got a small cut during a struggle."


Deduction looked at the ground, checking there were no more clues that his paw prints would disturb, before stepping over to the indentation. Drawing a small magnifying glass from his pocket, he inspected the indentation, spotting a tiny hair on the edge of it.
"Werewolves," he said under his breath as he bagged the hair for further analysis, "this hair comes from the back leg of a werewolf. Judging by the thickness of the hair shaft, I would say it was a large male werewolf, in its mid twenties."


Raven followed and watched carefully, if she could be of any help, she would do whatever she could.








Credits

Deduction is based on Sherlock Holmes from the BBC series Sherlock, which in turn is based on the detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Deduction header courtesy of haunted-by-numbers
Magnifying glass by Lyotta
Tiled background is a default pattern from Photoshop CS5
Huge thanks to User not found: nike for the pet and idea in the first place
And massive thanks to cahoots, Ravens and User not found: nike for supplying cases for Deduction to work on - he couldn't have solved them without you!