Don't Wake Me, I'm Not Dreaming

74

"5, 6, 7, 8!"

As Mario and Luigi approach, Rachel's instructing several girls to do a routine, then when they stop, Rachel announces, "I'll have my choices as soon as I can."

"Still practicing?" Mario asks, knowing she's not.

"Team tryouts." Rachel replies, face looking pinched.

"You're already putting together a new team?" Luigi asks, surprised. "Little quick, don't you think?"

"Why am I talking to you two?" Rachel asks, bored.

"Mario and Luigi." Both of them flash their badges, then Luigi takes the lead, "Now before you so rudely interrupted, don't you think it's a little quick to be putting together a new cheerleading team so soon after Laura was attacked?"

"Laura was expendable, just like the rest of us." Rachel says. "We're professional athletes, whether anyone likes it or not. One team member down disqualifies the team, we gotta get another team ready, pronto. And something tells me you already know me and Laura didn't get along."

"So much so she threatened to rat you out for steroid use? Or you stalked her?" Mario asks.

"I'm not using steroids." Rachel replies, as expected. "And whoever was stalking Laura, I had nothing to do with that. Couldn't tell you anything even if I wanted to."

"You don't remember anything out of the ordinary?" Luigi asks. "Someone who looks like they're not supposed to be there? Olderish guy?"

"That doesn't narrow it down at all." Rachel says. "So no, I got nothing for you. And let me just put your inevitable questions about why I'm not all bent out of shape over Laura to rest right here and now: I didn't like her. Period. Doesn't mean I attacked her. I just sincerely could not care less that she was. Can I go now?"

"Until we have more questions." Luigi nods.

As Rachel walks away, Mario notes, "Guess I shouldn't judge someone on how they grieve."

"You think she's telling the truth?" Luigi asks, looking at him.

"About hating Laura? Absolutely." Mario says. "About not attacking Laura? Remains to be seen."

Just then, Mario's phone rings, so he answers it. "Whaddaya got, Snoozemore?"

After a moment, Mario nods. "You got it. We're coming right now.", then hangs up, telling Luigi, "We got another victim."

"Jim Orson." Snoozemore tells the team as the petrified body is loaded into the glass box. "Petrified in broad daylight."

"What does he have to do with Laura?" Mario asks.

"Nothing that we can determine on the surface level." Snoozemore says.

"Two petrified bodies at once?" Luigi says, already in his dreamwalking pajamas. "Little odd, don't you think?"

"When it comes to the darknet, 'odd' is an understatement." Spike says.

"Maybe if you were willing to tell us who assigns our cases, we wouldn't be twiddling our thumbs." Mario says to Snoozemore pointedly. "We could just call and ask."

"Enough." Snoozemore snaps. "Back to work, all of you." Then to Luigi, "Lay down on the Ultibed, see what we can't extract from his subconscious."

The team starts to move to their stations, but Luigi stops Snoozemore to say, "This doesn't change anything. The moment this case is done..."

"I tell you where your Uncle Tony is." Snoozemore finishes for him. "I know."