The Mystery of The Body Thief

Chapter One

drawing of Lady Annabelle by XstorywritergirlX

He opened his eyes. His head felt incredibly dizzy and memories flashed in front of him for no particular reason. Voices were calling a name, "Annabelle, Annabelle!" The name felt like it had a meaning, but for some reason he could not place it.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his wrist. "Sir," said a stern voice, that sounded as deep as a bass, "you suffered from severe trauma to the head and were in a coma for twenty-four hours." He stared at the speaker, who was a very thin man with white hair and silver glasses. His pointed ears stuck out at the ends.

"I w-was?" was all he managed to say.

"Yes..." said the doctor, as he paced around him, inspecting him, touching his hair, and at times poking his ears.

As the doctor was doing examining him, he looked around the room. In a bed across from his lay a girl with beautiful auburn red hair that draped around her like a veil, she had the most beautiful face and skin as white as snow. His thoughts were interrupted by the doctor who was holding up a magnifying glass to him. It was so close to him that he had a desire to reach out and touch it, yet he didn't know why.

"Who is that?" he asked, pointing to the girl. He was trying to keep his mind off the magnifying glass because he was afraid that, if he did not, he would snatch it out of the doctor's hands.

"Why, that's Lady Annabelle! She lost consciousness at the same time you did, servant boy!!"

——————————————————————————

"Annabelle, I have been wanting to say this for a long time. I..." Detective Inspector Time paused, thinking, No, that didn't sound right. "Annabelle, I know I didn't treat you like you could be a detective when I first met you, but I have been longing to say this to you. I—"

Knock knock knock!!

"Come in," he sighed. The door was opened, and Marigold walked in, she looked upset.

"Marigold? Are you alright?" he asked.

"Father, I have some awful news." she said.

"What is it?" he asked. "You can tell it to me, I can handle it."

"You know Lady Annabelle? The girl who you have worked with from time to time?" she asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Well...she, she, er...umm..." mumbled Marigold.

"She what?" he asked.

"She is in a coma." answered Marigold.

"She is..." he half whispered, he felt like sobbing. How could this happen to Annabelle? Annabelle was a trusted friend, and ally. He had worked with her, and she was very clever, intelligent, and brave. She had been kidnapped once, and managed to escape, but he never thought she would end up in a coma. It seemed like the most unlikely thing to happen to her. She was one of the strongest women he knew.

He sighed, then he turned to Marigold. "Do you know anything about the event that caused her to fall into a coma?" he asked.

"Well...I have heard that a servant boy, named Horatio, fell into a coma at the same time she did. However, I don't know much else." she said.

Time sighed. He didn't know when and if Annabelle would wake up again. If she didn't wake up again, he would never get to tell her the thing he was hoping and longing to tell her. He tried not to think about it, it was far too painful to think about. Well...maybe he should focus on the current case, after all it was quite baffling. Solving a mystery always helped him keep his mind off things that were bothering him.

"Anyway...do you have an update on the case?" he asked.

"The coroner said he would like to talk to you, about it."

"Wonderful." said Time. "I'll see him right away."

——————————————————————————

Time knocked on the door of the coroner's office. It was opened by a brown haired, freckled boy. He seemed to look familiar for some reason, yet he couldn't place where he had seen him.

"Hello." said Time. "You said you had an update on the case."

"Oh, I do. Also it's nice to meet you Detective Inspector Time, I'm Austen, Austen Truls...I actually just started working here yesterday," he said, shaking Time's hand.

The name Austen sounded so familiar, it was like he had heard it somewhere.

"Anyway...you said, you wanted an update on the Royal murders? There isn't much to say since the killer, did do a good job of hiding their finger prints from us." said Austen. "But...they were all killed in different ways, one was drowned, one was stabbed...and I could go on."

Time sighed.

"Have you interviewed the witnesses at the crimes scenes?" asked Austen.

"Yes, but none of them knows anything really. And there is one witness, who I think is crazy, who keeps saying his body got stolen and...ugh!" he sighed.

The door was opened by Marigold, she walked in.

"Father did you find out any new information about the case?" she asked.

"Well, not quite yet..." said Time. "Austen didn't finish saying what he was going to say."

"The only update I can give really, is that there is a weird residue, left on the victims. Though I don't know what it is." he said. "I will have the people in the lab inspect it."

Marigold wrote it down, Detective Inspector Time looked at Marigold and smiled. "It looks like we have a lead."