Trampled Crops [MURDER MYSTERY]

Chapter 18: The Meeting

"I wonder what's going on here!" Demu said as she admired the marvelous interior of Rop and Preston's harmonious aboud.

"This place reeks of onions," Valentina muttered, scrunching up her face.

"Any clue why we're all forced to be here?" said Demu.

"Nope. I thought you would know, but I guess not."

"I think Piper found out who did it," Crimmy piped in. "I'm dead serious. Do you know who it was?"

"No, Crimmy. Do you?" Demu asked nonchalantly.

"You really wanna know who it was?" Crimmy grinned.

"Who was it, Crimmy?"

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Just spit it out!" Valentina demanded.

Crimmy snickered. "It was me. I did it."

Demu rolled her eyes. "Oh, Crimmy, stop messing around-- this is a serious matter!"

"Yeah, I know, lol. I killed Emu," he started laughing some more.

"Rop, why is it you've gathered us all here?" Tomato asked, turning to him.

"Yeah," Gretchin agreed. "I've got some work to do, and being here is slowing me down big time. This better be important."

"Oh, I'm sure it is," Rop said, smiling at Gretchin. "And, Tomato, I wasn't the one who brought us here; that was Piper."

"Wait, Rop~~Kun, you don't know why we're here?" Preston put in, gaping at Rop.

Rop shrugged. "Well, I think I know, at least. But it's definitely gonna be important."

"Yoooo! Wassup, heckers!" Avery called out as he entered through the door. Stacy Magnet followed close behind him, her scrawny fingers twitching and clicking.

"Hey, look! It's Avery!" Demu pointed out.

Avery spotted Demu instantly, and stormed in her and Valentina's direction. "You! Oh, Demu, you better have a good reason for what you did!"

Demu giggled. "I'm not sure what you mean, Avery."

"Yeah, me neither," Valentina chuckled. Avery's face went red as the two girls laughed between themselves. He was just about to argue with them when Piper came in through the door, and the crowd went quiet.

"Hey, everybody!" Piper said, looking around at the crowd. "So you're all probably wondering why we're all here. Well, I believe I've come to a conclusion on what happened to Emu." She glanced across the room to Tomato. "And, of course, Tomato, your crops, too."

"Get on with it, then!" Crimmy ordered.

"Yeah, I wanna hear this!" Tomato said with excitement.

"So, two days ago, I had Tomato come running into my office, claiming that one of his potato plants had been trampled. When I arrived at the scene the next day, I found nothing exciting around the property besides the crushed plant, of course. I will admit, I wasn't at all convinced why such a tiny thing mattered so much at the time, but, the further I looked into this, the more I understood." She nodded towards Tomato, and he nodded back understandingly.

Piper continued, "Right off the bat-- pun intended-- I figured out that Tomato and Avery had a pretty rocky relationship in the farming department. I won't get too much into those details, but the two had fought on multiple occasions, mostly concerning Avery's crops and how Tomato was always able to make more of a profit than him. I also learned that, at the time of the crime, Emu had been delivering a large amount of kelp to Avery, providing Avery with a pretty strong alibi. I learned, from this, that Avery had some kind of fascination with kelp, whether it was how it tasted or if he used it for his farm.