Daisy sat at the bar, slowly sipping her beer. She and Primula had escorted Frederick back home and broke the news to his wife who had only the confused ramblings of a ten-year-old to go on. They asked her a few questions, but she could only give the same answers as her husband. The two walked back to the Green Dragon in silence, arriving at the same time as the three lads. They went in and Will got them each a drink.
“Normally I wouldn’t recommend drinking on a job like this, but considering what this job is, well …” Drogo downed the rest of his drink. “I think a couple of rounds are in order. This is nasty business.”
“And it happened in my business,” said Will as he poured Drogo some more. “Really nasty.”
Drogo nodded before taking a big gulp. “Yeah, but considering that the victim was someone who has argued with you before, and by all accounts, you kinda do have a motive …”
“But Will didn’t do it!” Robin blurted. “He couldn’t have!”
Drogo held up a hand. “I believe that too, but we must make sure every possibility is covered.” He cleared his throat and pulled at his collar. “Otherwise, the town gossips would mark him guilty themselves and we’d never hear the end of it.”
Daisy nodded and sighed. “He is right, Robin, his reputation would get a major beating. I don’t think … there would be a way back from this either. His reputation would be tarnished forever. We have to go about this the right way, but also carefully. We can’t jump to conclusions, and we can’t leave out any possibilities.”
Will sighed and nodded. “They are right, Robin, they have to be thorough.” He glanced at them. “I will answer any questions you have.”
Drogo cleared his throat. “Thank you. So, to begin, where were you last night?”
Will let out a huff. “I was at home all night.”
“Can anybody confirm that?” Drogo asked.
Will pursed his lips and shook his head. “Not for all night, except maybe my dog, since he got me up in the middle of the night to go outside.”
Drogo huffed. “And, unfortunately, he can’t speak, so, I guess we’ll just have to keep asking questions until we get to the truth.”
“But, what if the murderer, you know, lies about it?” Robin whispered. There was a brief moment of silence.
Drogo’s face became rather grim. “Then we would have to wonder if all the suspects lied, including Will.”
Daisy gulped. “Which, I think, is something we should worry about once it comes to that. We have to talk to more people, gather as many clues as we can, and try to piece it together like … like a puzzle.”
Drogo sighed. “Which means this could take a while. We’ll have to figure out the right pieces that fit together.” He turned to Daisy. “Which would be mainly your job.”
Daisy shot him a nervous smile. “Thanks, I’ll try to do my best.”
Drogo shot her a smile back. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“And what if we don’t figure it out?” asked Primula. Another moment of silence.
Drogo finally sighed as he sat back in his chair. “Then … I guess we would either have to call in one of the king’s messengers or just … let it go unsolved.” His brows furrowed. “Which I would rather avoid if possible.”
“I hope that doesn’t happen,” said Daisy.
“Neither do I.” Drogo sighed again. “But, we have to be open to that as a possibility.”
Daisy shifted in her chair and attempted to sit up straighter. “Then let’s see if we can’t solve this.” She turned to Primula and Robin. “Tell us everything you found.”
Primula and Robin walked them through their procedure. “I checked everything near the body,” said Robin, “but it seems the only thing that was disturbed was the wine. Nothing is missing from the Green Dragon.”
Daisy furrowed her brow. “That’s odd.”
Primula nodded. “It is. What else is odd is that whatever was used to kill her was blunt but was sharp enough that it scratched her, hence the blood.”
Robin let out a breath. “And we might not have known it was murder had it not been for that.”
Drogo nodded slowly. “You’re right. We might have thought it was a simple case of Stella falling, hitting her head, and falling head first into the puddle of wine, which would have drowned her.”
“But then, why would she have been here in the middle of the night?” asked Daisy. “It would d still look like murder either way.”
Drogo held up a finger. “Or, I would have assumed that she got in here to try and ruin Will somehow and had an accident, leading to her death.”
Will nodded. “Which is what I would have assumed as well, if it weren’t for the blood.”
Primula held up her finger. “Speaking of, we couldn’t find the murder weapon.”
Daisy and Drogo looked at her in confusion. “What?”
Robin bobbed his head. “We checked everywhere. We even looked outside, thinking they might have dropped it, but, nothing.”
“But what if it is still here? We don’t know when exactly Stella died. They could have had enough time to clean it.”
Robin crossed his arms. “If they turned on the sink at any time during the night it would have still been wet when we came in. It was dry.”
Drogo raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that? Sinks don’t take five hours to dry.”
“No, but we closed fairly late last night. She would have had to wait until we were far enough away before attempting to get in. The creak in that door can be heard for a couple of miles and we would have come running,” replied Robin.
Primula scoffed. “Yeah, like that time last year when Mr. Bracegirdle forgot his cap and tried to get in without any of us knowing to get it back, but we hadn’t gone a mile when we heard the creak and came running back.”
Drogo chuckled softly. “Yes, I remember that. Poor fellow was so drunk he wasn’t thinking clearly.” He let out a huff. “So, she had to wait an hour at least to get in without any of you knowing. But then that begs the question. Why was she coming back?”
Will turned to Drogo and looked him square in the eyes. “Will you keep what I am about to tell you a secret?”
Drogo blinked. “Uh, sure, sure, yeah.”
Will looked at him a moment before giving a short nod. “Alright, I don’t know how she found out, but I know she did. I’m brewing a new wine and a new beer. I wanted to have it ready for Yule and I was hoping they would bring in more customers. Plus, if it went over well, I would brew new wines and beers as specials for each of the holidays.”
Drogo blinked. “Wait, a new wine and a new beer?”
Will nodded. “It would explain why she came back. She was either planning on taste testing it for herself and/or attempt to steal it so I could potentially lose business so I would sell to her.” Will looked back at the floor. “And it would explain why she was back here.”
“But what about the mess?” Drogo waved his hand over the front of the bar. The mess from that morning was already cleaned up, chairs were righted, and tables wiped clean. “It looked like someone had been in a fight or something.”
“What if the culprit did that to mask the real reason for Stella’s death?” Everyone glanced at Daisy. She leaned over the counter. “Think about it. Stella was here with someone else, she had to have been, she couldn’t lift those barrels by herself. So she is here with the culprit to steal the wine and the beer, they get into some kind of fight, and she gets murdered. The murderer doesn’t know what to do at first in the aftermath, but then figures it’s best to make some kind of mess so we think that maybe Stella came in and caught a rapscallion.” She waved her hand at the front. “I would have thought that mess would have been something done by a rapscallion.”
Robin snapped his fingers. “You’re right! I had thought that too! That is, until I saw … her lying back here …”
Drogo drummed the counter with his fingers. “You know, it could still have been a rapscallion. This has taken things too far, but they have gotten physical with a couple of the farmers that have tried to stop them from tearing up their crops.”
“But they didn’t kill them,” said Primula. “Why would this be any different?”
Drogo’s fingers tapped out a faster beat on the counter. “That’s what we have got to find out. So, we might have another culprit to add to the list, one of the rapscallions. Just, which one? And why did this go so far?”
“I think that answer can be found once we get to the source of what’s making all these rapscallions do what they do,” replied Daisy. “This didn’t start until five years ago, and it’s been getting steadily worse.”
“Well, we’ll work on that angle. You concentrate on finding more clues concerning Stella. Especially finding that murder weapon.” Drogo stood up. “I’ll send the word out to my Shirriffs to detain all rapscallions and bring them in for questioning. We must get to the bottom of this, and fast.”
“Oh, and when you do, ask the Shirriffs if any were patrolling nearby yesterday when Stella was pushed and at any time last night. We’re going to need everything everybody has seen and heard both for the pushing and between when we left the Green Dragon last night and when we got back this morning.”
Drogo nodded. “You got it.” He put on his cap. “Best of luck to you.”
“Thanks, we’re going to need it,” mumbled Daisy before they said their goodbyes. As soon as Drogo left, the others turned to Daisy.
“So, what’s our next move?” asked Robin.
“Before we get to that, I have a question.” The others glanced at each other before turning back to her, silently anticipating her next words. “What happened to the trail of capers?”
“Oh that.” Robin shrugged. “They stopped in those bushes just outside the Green Dragon.”
Daisy rubbed her chin. “Heading towards Hobbiton?”
Robin gave a slow nod. “Yes. Think it’s important?”
She crossed her arms. “It could be. Do you have everything written down?”
Primula pulled a notebook and pen out of her skirt’s pocket. “Right here, adding it now.” Primula went to the counter and wrote it down.
Daisy nodded. “Good, thank you.”
Robin turned to Daisy. “So, we circle back to my first question. What do we do now?”
Daisy let out a huff. “I think we need to talk to Adelaide and Porto.” She glanced at each of them. “And we need to do it today.”