Solve Me

(5), In Which Discoveries Are Made

"Miss Valdez, look around this room and tell me what you can discern from the state of it." Lily blinked, glancing around the room.

"Well, there's a dead body," she pointed out dryly. Thaddeus rolled his eyes.

"Obviously. Besides that." Lily hesitated.

"Well, its obvious there was a scuffle in here. Furniture is all in disarray. Judging by the fact that the blood isn't solely around the body - see, there's a bit here, and some over by the door - it wasn't an impact hit that killed her. She was hurt before she completely keeled over." She scanned the room once more, feeling a bit silly. "Um... When we were here last night I noticed the dent in that wall. I guess that means she, or maybe something else hit the wall really hard. I dunno, something like that.." Cheeks burning, Lily looked away, shuffling her feet awkwardly.

"Good," Thaddeus said, and Marcus was nodding. Lily looked up, unsure.

"Did I hit anything important?"

"Not really, no." Deflating, Lily glared at him.

"Well if you're so smart, what did you notice?" Lily realized with a start that she had chosen the worst possible question to ask. Marcus ran a hand down his face with a sigh as Thaddeus straightened up, blowing his hair out of his face, and obviously readying himself for a big explanation. Lily's heart sank as she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

"Well, Miss Valdez, while you did notice a few minor things, you skimmed over a few very important details. That dent on the wall was not just a dent. It had important evidence on it." Lily raised an eyebrow, staring at the wall.

"There's literally nothing on it." Kennett scoffed, giving her a sour look.

"That's because you don't look. If you had actually taken the time to inspect the wall thoroughly, you would have noticed that there was a specific aura about it, a feeling it gave you, like you've forgotten something and you can remember what. It's quite chilling, really. It's all over the room, but very heavy in that one area, near the body. And you also failed to mention the fact that there was a hair on the wall. Do you know what you can do with hair? Test the DNA. We can figure out if it was Miss Peckett or if it was the undecided creature, and if it is the creature, I can determine what it was fairly easily." Lily put a hand on her hip, a bit of hair falling out of her bun and into her face as she gave him an incredulous look.

"Alright then, Mr. Smarty-Pants. Why aren't you doing that yet?" He scowled, folding his arms over his chest like a pouting child.

"I'm not finished yet! You also failed to mention the fact that people must have heard the attack. So why did nobody do anything about it?" Lily thought about it for a moment. It was unnerving to her that she had slept through the whole thing. She nodded reluctantly, growing a bit more curious.

"Well, yeah. I guess that's strange."

"Exactly! The thing is, Miss Valdez, people did do something about it. There was a girl in here during the last moments of the attack. Her name was Mavis Smith. She lived right next door, and when she heard Miss Peckett screaming, she ran in. But there was nobody here except Miss Peckett." Confused, Lily tilted her head.

"What do you mean? There had to be someone here." Kennett grinned.

"Ah, but that's just it, isn't it? We're looking for a creature who is only visible to his victim. Which, narrows it down quite a bit, mind you." Lily scrunched up her nose.

"How much is quite a bit?" She scowled when he hesitated, making a so-so gesture with his hand.

"About thirty to thirty five options." Lily threw her hands up.