Case of The Confounding Jester (Editing)

Chapter 6

Blade and I spent the next few days verifying Michael's alibis. 

We checked with the Irish Pub. Thankfully, they had cameras and after painstakingly going through the footage, we confirmed that Michael was at the pub and nowhere near the restaurant during the jester episode. 

We then interviewed Michael's neighbors who were old, nosy biddies. Luckily for him, the old biddies confirmed that Michael was drunk and singing loudly in front of the house at the time of the jester episode in the school. 

We concluded that Michael was a copycat and arrested him for vandalizing Jennifer's property.

Unfortunately for the police department, once the people in the town heard about Michael's case, there was a sudden influx of jester copycats. New members joined our team. For the next few weeks, we spent majority of the time identifying the copycat crimes and solving them. My headache was thankfully absent since Michael's incident and the original jester has also been unusually absent.

With a splitting headache that I hadn't had in weeks, I groggily picked up my ringing phone and responded, "Hello, Detective Peter here." 

Blade responded, "Hey Tums, get down to Ally pharmaceuticals. The jester may have hit again. This time, he pushed down shelves holding medicine and there is a lot of damage." 

In a hurry, I went to get dressed only to find my hand bleeding with a small piece of glass sticking out. Unable to recall how I hurt myself, I carefully applied first aid and went to meet Blade.

Blade met me at the crime scene, "The jester entered the store, laughing like a maniac. He knocked down the shelves and ran out."

I nodded, noting the scene and said, "Darn, the crime scene investigators look tired."

Blade agreed, "Yeah, they have been running all over the city investigating the copycats." He continued, "This could be the original. He was wearing the same getup." 

We left the investigators to their work and went to meet the chief at the precinct.

I made up my mind to come clean. We entered the chief's office and before anyone could say anything, I said very quickly, "I might be the jester. I'm having blackouts whenever the jester strikes." The chief and Blade did not comprehend as I spoke too fast and I had to repeat.

The chief and Blade looked at me in stupefaction. They then burst out laughing boisterously. I was offended. Here I was confessing to a crime that will kill my career and send me to jail; and they were laughing. LAUGHING! I huffed and folded my arms, looking cross. 

"Tums, you can't even walk down the street without a mishap and you think you are the jester. Ho ho ho. Ha ha ha," laughed the chief. 

Blade had doubled over with laughter. Wiping his eyes, he said disbelievingly, "Don't tell me this is what is bothering you. I bring you coffee every day because the department is terrified of you going near it and you think you have enough dexterity to be the jester. He rode a unicycle, juggled purses, blew horns and smashed shelves without falling once. That was funny Tums."

They both ignored me and went back to discussing the case. "You are over-complicating the case. Go back to basics and start from the scratch," advised the chief. The chief continued, "The crime scene investigators found blood at the recent scene. They have sent it for analysis. We'll run it against known offenders and other registered individuals in our database. However, it will take some time. Meanwhile, continue your investigation."

I shook myself. The chief and Blade have valid points. If I was truly the jester, then there would have been mishaps during the crime. With renewed vigor, I looked at the case file and realized that we had indeed missed the basic stuff. 

I asked, "Hey Blade, how many places can you get this exact costume? The mask and hat look unique too."

The entire day we went to different shops and found out that the costume and hat were very common. Additionally, a few of the costumes and hats were stolen preventing us from narrowing down the list of suspects. On the other hand, the mask was unique but we couldn't identify the seller. 

I pondered as we headed back to the precinct, "I wonder what's the jester's motive and reasoning. It's so random and confounding. The only lead we have is that mask." Blade shrugged uninterested. Tired, but hopeful that we were on the right track, Blade and I decided to call it a day.

***

I entered my house and began to remove my shoes. I stilled. Something was wrong. My gut was screaming. I had been in far too many hair-raising situations to ignore it. 

Was there someone inside my apartment? Did I arrest them before? Are they seeking revenge?

I take out my gun and cautiously search every room. There was nobody around. Maybe I was wrong.

I put my gun away and begin to sit down, glancing at the coffee table. I freeze. The sinister-looking jester mask was sitting atop the jester clothes and hat.

What in the world was going on? Am I going insane? I pull out my phone to call Blade and stop with my thumb hovering over the dial button. I recollect the way he was laughing earlier. He won't believe me. What do I do?