Trampled Crops [MURDER MYSTERY]

Chapter 7: The Dandruff

Piper knocked on the door to Stacy Magnet's pyramid-looking house. As she waited, she glanced over to Tomato, who was working out in his farm. When he noticed her staring, she turned away back towards the door.

Piper knocked again. This time, she heard what sounded like rummaging from behind the door, a door closing, then the slip of a chain, and the door opened to reveal the one and only, Stacy Magnet. She had bright, dandruff-speckled blond hair and was extremely skinny, with long, knobbly fingers and elbows. She sort of resembled a gerbil.

"U-um... Hello..?" She mumbled. "Do I know you?"

"Hey, I'm Piper. We've met before, I'm pretty sure."

"I.. don't remember that," she said definitely.

"Oh."

"Well, what is it you want?" Her eyes drifted over to Tomato working in his garden.

"I'd like to ask you a few questions," Piper answered. "May I come in?"

Stacy looked entirely reluctant. "I... I don't know. One sec."

She slammed the door in Piper's face, and her footsteps disappeared away behind the door. She could hear papers ruffling, a drawer opening, a cup chinking, a door opening, and something rustling before Stacy finally returned. "Okay.. come in.. haha."

Piper ambled inside and Stacy closed the door behind her. The walls and ceiling looked to be centuries old, filled with cracks and holes. Little spots of sunlight were sprinkled around the floor.

"Nice place you've got..." Piper said halfheartedly, examining the hideous pink-and-purple banners hung up all around the place.

"Thank you.. It's kinda messy, I know. I don't get very many visitors."

Piper noticed a corner of the carpet was flipped up, so she kicked it down to the ground. Stacy Magnet twitched. "So, what do you want to know?"

Piper glanced down at the carpet, then back to Stacy. "Well, first, I'd like to know if you've heard or seen anything weird going on with your neighbors. Avery and Tomato, specifically."

"L-like.. what?" Stacy combed a strand of hair out from her face.

"Arguing? Any strange sounds?"

Strangely enough, Stacy's face lit up red. "Oh. Oh! Sorry, it took me a second. I mean, occasionally, Avery and..." she gulped. "T-Tomato.. ahh, they'll fight sometimes. It's all about farming and stuff. Nothing really all th-that interesting..."

"Uh-huh.. Was there anything that stood out to you recently about their fighting?"

Stacy shrugged. "I dunno. It's kind of all background noise to me. As you can see, there's a lotta h-holes in my roof... I hear a lot of everything, so I just kinda t-tune it out."

"Did you hear anything weird yesterday night? Like, maybe crunching or things being thrown? Footsteps?"

"Uhhhhh... I don't think so. Well, I hear Tomato working outside all the time. And Avery, too. Those two make a lot of noise, especially around one another... Avery's always the one to pick the fights," Stacy answered, picking a piece of dandruff from her hair and eating it. Piper did her best to pretend she hadn't seen that.

"Did you see anyone go up to Tomato's house last night?"

"Tomato's house..?"

"Yes, Tomato's house."

Stacy's bony fingers ripped at the fabric of her pants. "No.. I don't think I did. I can't really remember. I was pretty busy..." She glanced around the room until her eyes fell on a small painted figurine of a cat. "Painting."

Piper nodded skeptically. "I see... So... You've seen Avery and Tomato arguing, yes?"

Stacy Magnet nodded.

"Have you seen anybody else arguing with Tomato?"

"Recently?"

"At any time."

Stacy thought for a moment. "Weeellll... Yes, I've heard quite a few people argue with Tomato... I'd say a lot of people out there dislike him, but that doesn't mean, at all, that he's a bad person."

"Who did you hear Tomato arguing with?"

"Well..." She stroked her greasy hair. "I don't know a lot of them by name, but... There's definitely Avery. Then there was this strange man that looked like a cross between a snow golem and a white cat. That guy came along a while back, probably a month or so ago, asking for nether warts or something like that. Tomato told the man that he could just get it himself, but the man kept asking for just one, and it escalated into a whole thing..."

Piper knew who the cat man was immediately. She pulled out her notepad and added Bleek to the list of names. She wasn't sure if Bleek was back in town yet or not, but if he wasn't, then he would be in the clear.

"Anyone else?"

"Oh! There was a big one," Stacy said suddenly. "Oh, yeah, this was... quite the ordeal. That pufferfish guy-- Crimmy, I think? He came up to Tomato's house and kept annoying him about random things. Then, Crimmy started blasting out water from his mouth onto his farm. Tomato got really, really upset by this, and Crimmy kept on claiming that he was helping Tomato by watering his garden... Oh, poor Tomato..." She looked down at the ground. "Then there was this other girl that came along yesterday afternoon. She had brownish hair, that's all I know. She went up to his mailbox and put slime around the edges so it was stuck. I'm not sure, at all, why she did. When Tomato found out, he was furious, and he had to chase her away with a hoe."

Piper added Crimmy and "mischievous brown-haired girl" to her list of names. "How long ago would you say the thing with Crimmy was?"

"G-give or take a week. I'm pretty sure it was last Thursday..."

"And did you catch anything else from the brown-haired girl with the slime? Anything that they were yelling about?" Piper asked.

"Well... she kept saying his crops looked... scrumptious. It was really weird... I'm pretty sure she tried to dig up his potatoes and shove them in her mouth, and that's when Tomato chased her away. I saw it all play out from my window," Stacy pointed towards a tiny window that was masked by a thick, black curtain. Strangely enough, Piper hadn't noticed the window when she was outside.

"Okay, one last thing and I'll get out of your hair," Piper said, glancing up at the infestation of dandruff in her scalp. "So, what were you doing last night around 9 o'clock? Were you inside?"

"Yeah... Pretty much."

"Did you go outside at any time last night?"

Stacy shook her head. "No. I didn't leave the house yesterday at all, except for when I checked the mail when the delivery girl came around."

"And that was during the day?"

"Yes. I don't remember exactly when, but it definitely wasn't nine o'clock at night..."

Piper nodded and stood up. "Alright, thank you for your time. Is it okay if I come back to you sometime? In case I need you for something else?"

Stacy took a second to find the words. "Y-yeah... I guess."

"Alright. Bye," Piper said, letting herself out. She glanced at her list of names as she walked out by Avery's farm. Bleek, Crimmy, brown-haired girl. Alright, she thought.