May sat on a smooth stone, utterly confused by everything going on. Who murdered the Count, and how? When did he actually die? Who benefited? All of these questions were swirly in her head. Then they were supposed to dress to impress Cursula, who seemed less than impressed by anyone who stood before her. What was a girl to think? She finally was presented with something that made sense. A puzzle about families. Families! I love families! May quietly pulled out some paper that a fellow Traveler was carrying along with a pencil, trying various family tree scenarios. Would one of these make sense? she thought as she presented the papers to her fellow Travelers.

Kronus then chimes in with a frustrated voice. "I sure do hope we will get some clues here, it all seems rather odd and very few answers so far. We came here via the disappearing cat only to talk to Cursi for 20 minutes and then left to talk with oysters. I don't think we have accomplished much do you?"

Looking at the oysters....

"Okay so let me see these two Paul and Don are Father and Grandfather, and Jack and George are also Father and Grandfather."

Chook paced up and down, bored and feeling ready for some action. To her all this puzzling stuff was meaningless. Action and blood were more her line. But ........................ OYSTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were her favorite food. Now all she had to work out how to distract everyone from them and down the hatch they would go.

Emma strolled alongside Kronus, feeling a little letdown herself on their lack of progress. She was sure that the potion she had prepared would have produced more facts. Kicking the dirt with her foot she was determined to be useful to the group. Looking up, she noticed a curious look on Chook's face, she knew that look .... Chook definitely was planning something. She strolled over, hoping to assist her in any high jinks she may be planning....

Willow continues to write in her journal, the last words she penned were.. "All the Travelers looked at the puzzle May solved with relief, yet it was obvious something else was planned. Perhaps for the sake of the group it is best to not write the rest... after all, we can all have our private memories"

The alchemist would have been much more happy to get into action and working out a restoration spell with Krios. How hard could that be, turning a toad into a lizard? And where was Krios anyway?

She craned her neck and spotted her friend at the shoreline, deeply in conversation with Don, the oyster. She gathered her red train and tottered cautiously downwards, noticing that the sand consists of grains in all colors of the spectrum. With tiny hands and feet and dancing together, yet all had lost their head somehow. That is not surprising at all, Myra thought.

Krios said Farewell! to Don, the oyster, as he saw Myra approaching, hastening to meet her on her way down.

“Did you find out something new?” the young maiden asked, curious.

“Oysters are much more clever than I ever thought!” Krios exclaimed in awe. “They filter about 50 gallons water a day! And the ones living deep in the ocean produce pearls of all colors! And they are also fantastic gardeners and did you know that George won a royal trophy once for floriculture the biggest cave-dwelling anemone of all the known worlds last year...”

“Oh, is that so?” Myra answered absentmindedly, already thinking about this daunting puzzle. “I hoped he could have helped you with the riddle, perhaps…”

“He wouldn’t do this!” the red-haired mage answered, aghast. “He is an oyster of honor!”

This serves no purpose, Myra thought. “Krios, let’s find the others. Perhaps somebody had an inspiration concerning the relation riddle. Trixie is good with numbers and Val with columns, perhaps they already party on because they found the solution!”

Determined, she took Krios by the hand and dragged him along, Shimmershadow and the demons in tow.

Valera hated dresses, the rest of the team could see how uncomfortable the pirate was. For most of the journey Feng just followed the group quietly, but now he was a glorified mount for his owner who refused to walk in the extremely awkward shoes she put on.

This entire murder only got more and more confusing as more clues were revealed. Something currently seemed quite fishy to the pirate, they had to get some sort of answer from a bunch of oysters of all things…

Dejectedly Valera waved to Myra and Krios at the beach as she approached.

Their captain looked disheartened, Myra thought, and mended her pace. No wonder, these shoes they had to wear were hell! A little bit envious, she looked up at Val, neatly settled on Feng, then running her eyes over Shimmershadow. He had grown in the last year yet it would take a long time for all that she knows until he could carry her without a strength spell.

Since Krios was still muttering and marvelling about the fortitude and cunning of oysters, she walked over to Val and flashed a winning smile. “Hey Val, we get change our clothes soon! Yet first, we have to solve this riddle! Any ideas?”

Trixie was plucking at the hem of her dress, trying to avoid getting it wet. And as for her shoes... well, she couldn't see how they could be dancing here! Her heart sank at Cursula's words. She had had a feeling that this case was tricky, but to have it confirmed by Cursula, her head started to ache. But still, there was a new puzzle, and the team needed all the clues they could get. The obvious answer was clear, and technically she supposed it was correct. But perhaps there was more. So she started to plan out the relationships. "Aha, I think I have it!" She looked over at the rest of her team, Myra was trying to cheer their captain up. Trixie walked over to join them to try and find out what was wrong and to share her solution.

Akalia felt a small tug at the bottom of her long dress and looked down to see Gunther casually chewing on it. At least she would now have a purpose for the uncomfortable attire once the confusing mess they found themselves in was over. She looked over to her friends; Krios was mumbling to himself, Myra and a Feng-riding Valera were discussing the newest riddle, and a purpose-driven Trixie was heading towards them.

Akalia decided to speak with the oysters once more so she headed in their direction with a dress-chewing goat in tow. Kneeling before them, the oysters recounted their riddle to the confused elf. She thought about it for a moment, an obvious answer had crossed her mind but in this world she had begun to believe the obvious wasn’t quite what it seemed anymore. She wandered around lost in thought before leaning against the large stone leg of Feng.

Lilith began to chuckle as she took everything in, her chuckle turned into a belly fit of laughter. “This is absolutely mad.” She sputtered between breaths. Jasper rolled his eyes and slowly made his way towards the ocean, it had been moons since he had a good swim and he figured why not take a quick dip while the rest of them mulled over riddles. Trying to stifle her laughter Lilith made her way towards the rest of the group.

Myra saw her fellows approaching, Trixie’s eyes gleaming. Ah, the puzzle brain! The future looks bright! she thought, and waved to the drama student who was a glutton for books and riddles. “Do you have good news?” the alchemist asked, hopeful, not noticing that Krios was drawing a diagram in the sand with a stick while mumbling to himself.

Valera worried a bit as she watched Lilith break into a laughter about how mad the entirety of their visit to Wonderland has been. The group had encountered lots of twists and turns that’s for sure.

The pirate turned to Trixie as she exclaimed she figured it out. A giant wave of relief passed through the captain as their newest member was able to solve the puzzle.

The rest of the Pepperettes just stare at each other momentarily, thoroughly confused and slightly bewildered by the encounter with Cruella.

“Maybe...neither?” Paisley and Reaper say together. And Tea pouts. “I wanted to see if she would explode or something if we wore pink or white...and no one would let me! Now we’ll never know!!! I don’t think the rest of our lives will have any meaning now.” Lovecraft threw a withering glance in her direction. “You WOULD want to get us all annihilated by a sea witch, wouldn’t you?”

“What exactly is even happening?” Kaiidth says. “I think none of us have any idea at this point.”

Frieda emerges from the water, buck naked, brandishing her small willow fishing spear, “Except that we all love good food.” She shakes vigorously to shed the water and sand from her tail and sniffs the air. “And I could use some about now, there wasn’t much under the water, I think something else got to the fish before I could.”

Walking away from Cruella’s place, down the beach, the Pepperettes fall into silence. Suddenly, four chattering oysters appear by Lovecraft’s foot. “Did you know….” the oysters start up, but are immediately interrupted by a screech from Tea, who rushes to the front of the group. “Don’t worry, everyone! I know what to do!” And she bursts into song.

“"O Oysters, come and walk with us!" The Walrus did beseech. "A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk….”

Frieda raises her spear and takes aim, hoping the oysters will shut up and hold still for a moment.

But the oysters just look at her and go back to their jabbering. “SSHHH!” says Hollis. “I wanna hear what they’re saying!”

Meanwhile, Habeebi has found himself quietly whispering about what’s for dinner “Mmmm, I could make Garlic Oyster Linguini with these gibbering bivalve mollusk…”

After listening to the oysters, Spring sighs and kicks the sand. “Now we have to solve the family tree for the oysters? This trip is just getting stranger, and stranger!”

Lovecraft mumbles “So glad I brought my lounge chair with me. lays down Wake me when you all have the answer to the strange Oysters that are talking. I think I must have borrowed Witch's Rainbow or something.” “Budge over wife. This puzzle requires a lot of booze.” Reaper’s clearly already half sauced herself as she stumbles over the lounge chair and squishes herself in next to Lovecraft. She takes the bottle Love hands her, nodding when Love mentions having given up entirely on glassware at this point herself, slurring out a response “we don need glasses wife. Tha's why the botlum - betlo - bottles have small openings, plenty easy ta drink fum.” The last word is followed by a huge swallow and hiccup.

Frieda lowers her spear, flops her rear down on the beach, curls her tail up around her paws and draws a chart in the sand with the tip of her spear. “I think I may have figured out their riddle. If I’m right, can I eat the big one?”

The Pepperettes gather ‘round and listen to Frieda’s Oyster Solution.

“The Oysters sound like they are each other's grandpa... like the song I'm My Own Grandpa

Don and Paul are brothers of father , Jack and George are brothers from father . Both of these fathers are brothers to each other.

I am most certainly wrong, as I have been so far in this endeavor, but I cannot help at least trying...

“I think you’re right there Frieda pet, Hollis too. Sounds right, ‘bout as right as an’thin right now.” Reaper manages one last semi-coherent response before her head drops to Love’s shoulder, both of them dissolving into giggles with Paisley at something she whispered too quiet for the others to hear, a look of horror on her face before Reaper whispered something back and Paisley’s shoulders slumped in relief.

"I've got this! They're brothers!" Chloe assumed.

"Too obvious, right?" Devin asked hesitantly. "That can't be it."

"It could!" Chloe snipped. "Maybe for once it's the obvious answer."

Devin looked out of the corner of her eye at Marion, whose face was scrunched. Marion seemed skeptical that they were all brothers too. They could take the risk of giving that answer, but they really needed whatever information the oysters could provide them if they were planning on solving this case.

"What do you think, Marion?" Devin asked.

"Who cares how these snails are related? They could all be sisters for all we know--or not even related at all," she complained.

"Oysters, Marion. They're oysters!" Chloe chimed in.

"Oysters, snails, clams... it's all the same."

"I'm sure you wouldn't like it if someone called you a banshee--"

"I don't think brothers is the right answer," Devin said, cutting short what seemed to be an argument brewing. "If it was, that means they could all be cousins too."

"I suppose you're right," Chloe said, a little disappointed.

Each took a few minutes to think it over once more.

"Can someone repeat what they said again? My brain feels fuzzy," Chloe requested.

"Paul is the same relation to Don as Jack is to George. Paul is also the same relation to to Jack that Jack is to Don. That's all we've got to go on," Devin said, perplexed. "I don't understand how any of this--wait, I think I've got it! I've been stupid; I kept thinking that Jack would need to be the oldest. He's not, though, Paul is! And I kept thinking that some would be in the same generation, but they are not."

"What? How do you figure?" Chloe cocked her head to the side.

"Paul is to Don as Jack is to George. Paul is to Jack as Jack is to Don. Paul is Jack's father and Don's grandfather. Jack is Don's father and George's grandfather. It all fits."

"I'll take your word for it," Marion said.

"That would mean that Paul is Don's grandfather and Jack is George's grandfather, making them the same relationship. Paul is Jack's father and Jack is Don's father, making them the same relationship too. Then Paul is George's great-grandfather. I don't know if Don is George's father or his uncle, though, but the generations are figured out at least. Paul is first, then Jack, then Don, and finally George."

"Sounds good to me," Marion nodded.

"I hope the information helps finish this," Chloe interjected. "This has gone on long enough!"

When you arrive back from Cursula's, Lapin comes running toward you.

"You were SO right!" He announces breathlessly. "He was actually killed by poison! It was in the shattered teapot!"

Nutsy beams happily. "At last! We know for sure."

"For sure it was overkill. Multiple murderers? Or maybe just one very clever one. Let's look at what we know: The triplets weren't together at the time of the murder, and one was being blackmailed by the Count, or at least threatened. Bob most likely isn't the murderer..."

"Unless he's very clever," Nutsy reminds her.

"Yes...but I don't think so. We also know that at least one, possibly two of the suspects was in love with Mary Sue,"

"All right!" exclaims Fiddle Dee Dee, "Yes, I love her, and she's mine!"

"Is not!" shoots back Fiddle Faddle. "She's mine!"

They begin to fight, and Fiddlesticks has to pull them apart. Mary Sue rushes out in tears.

"Well, that settles that," observes Lapin.

"Not necessarily," says Nutsy, "but it helps."

"I wish we had a guest list from Mad Chatter, but she claims she lost it. Names with "T" isn't much of a clue. It had to be someone with a deep grudge against the Count, or something to protect, but who, and what was the large crushing object, and the cutting tool beyond Bob's razor? So many questions, not enough answers."

"I think I have it!" exclaims Nutsy. "Get dressed for the denouement, my girl, and let's bring this mad murder to a close!"

"Uh, uh, uh...shall we all go?"

Looking down at her own casual attire, Willow was tempted to run back and change until her elbow was grabbed by May who leaned close and whispered...

"Quit worrying"

Emma simply nodded with a grin. Taking a deep breath Willow gazed at each in turn.

"Ready for Tea'

Suddenly everyone looked at Kronus..

"Will you speak for us?"

Kronus blinked slightly in surprise then gave a nod. At the party, his voice was easily heard as he spoke their conclusion.

So looking at the other faces,

"we have come a long way to find the the trail is very well muddled.."

Kronus rubbing his face vigorously then his eyes and up over top of head pulling on his last few remaining hairs... A look of surprise came to Kronus as he looked at the bunch of hair that was in his fingers and then he tried to place the handful of hair back on his head. He then watched as it fell and floated to the floor.

"Umm err sorry about that"

Kronus mumbled to the group watching him as a gentle wind from the open door at the tea party blew the offending hair happily across the floor.

"Motives are upon all. So that makes things even more challenging. And we still have the teapot missing for a year. Well also the fan and gloves left at the scene. I think the gloves were to keep from coming in contact with the teapot that had the poison in it. So where does the fan fit in to all this. Maybe if you love someone enough you take something of the one you love and it was left by mistake. It could be just that simple."

Kronus started checking the things off on the fingers of his other hand.

"Three things taken and three brothers all in love with the same woman "Mary Sue". Fiddle-sticks, Fiddle-Faddle, and Fiddle-DeeDee Then 3 things all occurred to the body of the Count. He was poisoned, then cut up and then crushed. Maybe the fan was used to gather up some of the dirt and brush that was tossed on top of the Count? All three of them kind of getting even with the Count in that they each had a go at him, wouldn't you say!!"

Looking at all his comrades...

"I think that all three of the Fiddle brothers are guilty of Murder...."

Then Chook and May and Emma chimed in...

"We think Percy is our murderer."

May explained..

"Percy the Marmot is our guilty suspect, attempting to frame Fiddlesticks or The Countess, with Fiddle-Faddle and Fiddle Dee Dee or The Countess and Mary Sue covering up and assisting."

Willow glanced between the others still puzzled but nods..

"Alright, the majority seems to agree our murderer is Percy, Nutsy."

They all take a sip of their tea at the same time each privately hoping the majority of the group was right.

“I think we do. This is difficult… I feel like I’m no closer to knowing who the murderer is than I was when The Count was found,” Devin grumbled. She shuffled the papers around a bit.

“Perhaps it would be easier to narrow down who didn’t do it first,” Marion interjected.

Devin nodded.

“Based on what Nutsy said about Bob being left-tailed, I think it’s safe to assume he didn’t do it,” Marion continued. Chloe and Devin agreed with her.

“What about the Countess?” Chloe asked.

“I don’t think the Countess did it,” Devin added. “I know she did not particularly like her husband, and she would was in love with Bob, but if she did kill him, wouldn’t she have sought out Cursula right away to turn her back?”

“Good point.”

“Unless she knew it would make her look guilty,” Marion retorted.

“Still… I don’t see that any of the other clues point to her.”

“Unless the fan belongs to her. We don’t know who it belongs to.”

“What would a fan have done to him though?” Chloe snorted.

“Nothing to kill him. It was the poison, remember? But it could have put her at the scene,” Devin reminded her.

“Oh, right.”

“It is her house though. If it is her fan, it could have been put there at any time. Or she could have been covering up the murder if she thought that Bob committed it, which is likely,” Marion tutted.

“Fair enough. Are we agreed we don’t think the Countess did it?”

“Agreed,” the other two said.

“I also don’t think Percy did it. There’s not even a trace of evidence that we’ve gathered that would point to him.”

The other two murmured their agreement. They shuffled through the papers again, looking over what they had left.

“The teapot belongs to the Chatter,” Chloe changed tactics. “Do we think she was telling the truth about it being stolen?”

“She doesn’t seem to be a liar, or at least that’s what Lapin says. I think she was telling the truth. She’s been nothing but cooperative for the whole ordeal,” Devin added.

“So that leaves the Fiddle brothers, the Cat, and Mary Sue,” Chloe concluded. She pulled the sheets of paper with the clues pertaining to them to the top. Her face fell. “Just about all of them have motive.”

“Unfortunately,” Marion agreed.

The trio went silent, lost in thought.

“Maybe we should’ve found more clues,” Devin admitted. “This mystery is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think our successful solve last year made me cocky, or went to my head… whichever fits.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Devin!” Chloe reassured her, patting her shoulder. “I think we’re doing well. C’mon, let’s look at the Fiddle brothers first.”

“All right.” Devin nodded.

“We know Fiddle-Faddle was the brother being blackmailed or threatened by the Count. I think that means he has more motive than the others for killing him, since the other two only really seem to have motive because they love Mary Sue. They probably would’ve done anything to help her, and if what everyone says is true… The Count was very abusive to her.”

“But the brother that would’ve had access to the teapot was Fiddlesticks,” Devin countered. “He’s the only brother with ‘T’ in his name.”

“Couldn’t Fiddle-Faddle have taken it from Fiddlesticks though?” Marion asked.

“Were the Fiddle brothers clever enough to have thought of stealing the teapot at all?” Chloe asked.

“I don’t know,” Devin contemplated. “Maybe, but perhaps not. It's possible that a couple of the brothers thought that one of the others did it, or Mary Sue, so they could've been one of the ones covering it up.”

"Do we think Mary Sue did it?"

"It's possible, and she would've had just as much motive as anyone, but why would she have left clues that clearly point to her at the scene? The gloves found were hers. The murderer clearly used the gloves to protect themselves from the poison and hoped that using them. Leaving them would make us think that Mary Sue did it. They also used a teapot that belonged to the Chatter. Whoever the murderer must have either tried to frame Mary Sue or the Chatter."

“The Dervishire Cat has been overly helpful. It’s a bit suspicious, don’t you think?” Marion asked. “He’s helped us with the time of death, told us about Mary Sue’s gloves, and pointed us in Cursula’s direction.”

“A little… And the Chatter said the Cat belongs to the Countess, and he’d do anything for her,” Chloe pointed out.

“If that’s the Cat’s only motive, is that enough? I also feel that if the Cat did it to help the Countess, it would be the same as if the Countess had done it herself. She would’ve already gone to Cursula for help turning back to a lizard,” Devin argued.

“Unless the Countess didn't know about it. Or maybe he hoped she wouldn't think about Cursula right away and pointed us in her direction so that the Countess would get what she wanted and woudn't be guilty.”

“Brilliant!” Chloe exclaimed. “I think we’ve done it!”

“We've come to the best possible conclusion, I think," Devin sighed. "We better go bring things to Nutsy and the others.”

The trio rushed off to get ready for the reveal and let the others know about The Dervishire Cat.

“I dun even know where ta begin…” The viera sighed before taking a seat and trying to use her brain. “This is too looney even fer me!! EVERYONE HAS THE MOTIVE!!”

Flailing around in anger over how she couldn’t help much in solving the mystery, Val put her hat back on and pouted. This puzzle was indeed puzzling to her and it made her angry and frustrated.

“The Count is dead, the Count is dead, hickery hickery hock. Somebody ran up the clock. The clock struck four and down he came, hickery hickery hock!

Suspects are five, six, seven or eight, was it Mary at the cottage gate? Or was it the cook, swinging a plate, or was a lover sealing Count’s fate?

Who would sneak in, do poison kill? They say this is a female’s skill. Was it the Chatter muzzling him or did Mary do something grim?

The Count is dead, the Count is dead, hickery hickery hock. There wasn’t much of a shock a complot staged some murder mock, hickery hickery hock!”

Krios sang and with a loud clonk, he sat down onto the grass with a flop, scratching his head because this time, the murder and suspects bewildered him much more than in their adventures before. All seemed to be hazy and it seems like everybody could assign a motive.

“I think it was a female in any case! Cherchez la femme!” the red-haired mage smirked and his demons fluttered up and down, cackling excitedly.

“Watch your tongue, my friend!” Myra rebuked, yet with a smile. She also thought that a murder done with poison points to a female and the fact that two others covered up and tried to frame others perhaps showed this would be the females ardent and perhaps secret admirers.

The young alchemist caressed Shimmershadow, absentmindedly. This was really tricky… It could also be that the poison was chosen for other reasons, Myra thought, and that it doesn’t point at a woman at all yet was used to frame another. She looked around and studied the faces of her friends. “What do you think who did it and who covered up afterwards?” she inquired, still puzzling over the whole issue.

Trixie listened to Krios’ song, it was quite a catchy little ditty, maybe it would help get the gears in her brain working. This was definitely tricky! “Let’s look at that guest list again. Surely if the poison had been in the teapot, then our primary suspect must be on that list.

The Count. Hmm.. well we could probably rule him out, though I suppose we never considered suicide. Doubtful though, I think?

The Countess. She clearly doesn’t like her husband, knowing that she was tricked into marrying him, she seems to really, really like Bob. Francine told us though that Bob didn't do it, but the Countess didn't know that. Maybe this means that the Countess was one of the people who helped cover up the murder. She came across the Count’s body, saw the cut throat and thought that Bob did it. Of course, this means that we can cross out the Countess as the murderer. But this means that somebody had come across the Count’s body before the Countess and cut his throat… hmm… So that leaves us with the Cat, Fiddlesticks, Lapin and Percy. Oh and I suppose the Chatter herself.

We know that the Cat didn’t take the teapot, and that he's VERY attached to her. If he thought she did something he would try to cover it up. Maybe he was the other person that helped cover up. He saw the broken teapot and thought it was the Chatter? Oh, I feel like I am going round in circles here, guys!” Trixie throws her hands up in the air, dramatically.

Akalia listened to Krios’ song while patting Gunther’s head. This was very puzzling indeed, even Trixie seemed to be at a loss. The elf scratched her head messing up her hair in exasperation.

“Find me a stick Gunny. I need to see this.”

The little goat just stared at his master with blank eyes before watching her get up and find a stick herself. Coming back to her little spot, she drew out everything she knew about the relationships between all suspects and residents of the weird world they were all trapped in.

Once done, the elf looked at her handiwork and became all the more confused. She hoped that it would help somewhere. When she looked up to her companions, the Captain was drinking, Krios and Myra were still talking amongst themselves, and Trixie still looked like she was going around in circles.

Akalia picked up Gunther and approached the newest member with hopes that they could wrap their heads around this backwards, upside down murder case in Wonderland.

Lilith walked in circles for a bit before leaning up against a tree, surveying the rest of the group she began playing with strands of her hair. “One step forward, seven steps back.” She mumbled as she watched Akalia scribble lines in the dirt. Jasper was next to Val passing the flask back and forth. Walking towards the group Lilith looked over the diagram Akalia had drawn. “Are we making this into a mountain?” She asked. “All this information and we are just a muddled as when we began. What are we missing?” Putting her hand to her forehead she looked over Akalia’s diagram again.

Trixie studied Akalia’s diagram, in particular looking at the relationships for Fiddlesticks, Lapin, Percy and the Chatter. “Hmm.. Fiddlesticks. He’s in love with Mary Sue, who was being harassed by the Count. Could he have murdered the Count to protect his love? Lapin, we don’t know a lot about him, though he has an unknown reason for wanting to get rid of the Count, and he seems to be certain it was Bob, was he trying to frame the poor lizard for some reason? Percy. He has easy access to the particular poison used. The Chatter. Well it was her teapot. She is fond of the Countess, would she go as far as to get rid of the Count for her? Hmmm…” Her eyes roamed the diagram, searching for inspiration. She was drawn back to Mary Sue. “Mary Sue, she wasn’t at the tea party, but would Fiddlesticks have stolen the teapot for her? She has a motive for wanting to get rid of the Count. It’s her gloves at the scene. Too many things to think about here. Which theory sounds the most plausible?”

“I knew it would be a woman!” Krios exclaimed excitedly, “Mary Sue used her charm to get the males into attending to her wishes and looked sweet and unsuspicious at the same time”

“And she has no alibi for the time of the murder!” Myra mused.

“We are getting there!” the young mage declared. “Good reasons have to yield to better ones!”

Myra and Krios looked at each other, there goes that idea… Back to the beginning.

“Perhaps I should conjure a mind clearing spell!” Krios suggested. “There seems to be a lot of confusion and thick veils cover secrets…”

“Ever tried one?” Myra asked, haunted. She knew Krios was a great magician but yet knew he would most likely fail on his first attempt. To be on the safe side, Myra made a beeline for her other friends who seemed to be in deep thoughts, too.

Trixie was still looking at the diagram. “You know, I’m concentrating too much on the guest list. Yes, Fiddlesticks is on it, but all the triplets look the same, the Chatter can’t tell them apart. Fiddle Dee Dee has a huge motive for wanting the Count dead. What do you think guys, Dee Dee snuck in?”

“He´s definitely the Fiddle in question!” Myra said, twisting her bluish hair around her fingers. “With his record, suspicious by all means!” Krios exclaimed, nodding and the demon pair mimicked his action in a ludicrous way.

At this point in time Valera’s head was spinning, from both the copious amounts of alcohol as well as the struggle to figure the murder out. If it wasn’t for the random message pointing out Mary Sue wasn’t the real culprit, they would have accused someone who was innocent. Then again nobody was really innocent when it came to this murder since everyone seemed to have it out for the Count in one way or another.

“FIDDLE DEE DEE IT IS!” The pirate shouted as she jumped to her feet and adjusted her ridiculous getup. “Bein blackmailed’n’all is a mighty motivator! That and love!” The drunk viera wobbled around getting nods of approval from her colleagues. With a quick turn, Valera faced the citizens and yelled, “The lot of ye should be ashamed! Hopefully now that this is settled ye can sort out yer differences and things can get back tah normal… Whatever ye consider ‘NORMAL’ Here.”

Fiddle-Dee-Dee’s severe gambling problems leads him to steal the entire life savings accumulated by him and his brothers Fiddle-Faddle and Fiddlesticks. The mean old Count finds out about the crime and blackmails him, resulting in a midnight meeting where Fiddle-Dee-Dee meets the Count and pays him off to keep the toad’s mouth shut.

The Mad Chatter, out for a midnight stroll recognizes the Count, but is unable to ascertain which of the Fiddle brothers he is with, they all look the same to her. She can’t hear what is being said, but she does know that the Fiddle is handing money to the Count. She tells the Dervishire Cat of what she saw, but otherwise thinks nothing of it.

After the exchange, Mary-Sue goes to work for Percy. She admires his style and becomes a very helpful assistant. It also seems that Percy may reciprocate her feelings, but no one is quite sure. This, of course, makes Fiddle-Dee-Dee jealous and he tries to think of a way to take Mary-Sue’s attention away from this new rival. Having his brothers out for her affection is more than enough.

A few days later, the Mad Chatter holds a tea party, and only guests with the letter ‘T’ are invited. Fiddle-Dee-Dee finds out about this restriction, the Mad Chatter is a chatter, and pretends to be his brother - Fiddlesticks - after realizing that Percy would also be there. A plan forms in his head that he could take out the Count who blackmailed him out of all the money and place the blame on the Marmot.

Before the party, Fiddle-Dee-Dee visits Mary-Sue when she’s working for Percy and steals the Marmots gloves, however, Fiddle-Dee-Dee confuses the small gloves with that of Mary-Sue’s. On his way out, he finds the Ethylene Glycol, in the form of Antifreeze, and sneaks off with it as well. He hopes that because the Marmot needs the gloves for his style that Mary-Sue will be turned off because of the lack of them. He also hopes that the lack of antifreeze will make his job as the Bunbus driver that much harder.

Fiddle-Dee-Dee arrives at the party with his spiffy new gloves as Fiddlesticks and chats everyone up. He finds out that the Mad Chatter saw him, or one his brothers, giving money to the Count. As payback he decides to steal the Chatter’s teapot. Perhaps he can sell it in order to gain back some of his money?

With the teapot in a gloved hand, or rather up his sleeve, Fiddle-Dee-Dee heads home for the night. While walking, he gets the brilliant idea to steal the Count’s crown. He needs money for his gambling addiction after all, and the crown would get him a hefty sum. But first he needs to knock the Count out. Then he remembers the antifreeze he stole. Perhaps he could get the Count to drink it, and he now has the perfect dispenser -The Chatter’s teapot.

With the plan in mind, Fiddle-Dee-Dee waits for the Count to contact him again. He knew the old toad, he’s a mean, greedy Count who wouldn’t just let him go after one exchange. This is blackmail after all! After being contacted, Fiddle-Dee-Dee slips on the gloves that he thinks are Percy’s and heads over to the Counts with a teapot full of antifreeze. Why not frame the little Marmot for the job? Mary-Sue wouldn’t look at him anymore!

When he arrives, Fiddle-Dee-Dee notices that Bob has finished some repairs on the wall, and a fresh coat of green has been applied. Fiddle-Dee-Dee meets the Count who is eating some jelly cakes and offers to pour the Count a pot of his ‘special home brew’ the Count obliges and takes a nice big gulp. Throughout the conversation the Count begins to get dizzy and discombobulated. He gets up to go out the garden for some fresh air, knocking over his plate of jelly, and leaning on the freshly painted wall for stability. Both of these end up covering his beautiful ivory shirt.

Fiddle-Dee-Dee follows the Count outside, still holding the teapot in a gloved hand, and the silver platter in the other. With the poison not working fast enough to knock the little toad out, Fiddle-Dee-Dee tries to knock the toad out with the platter but to no avail. He drops the platter to the ground then smashes the teapot over the Count’s head. The Count falls unconscious on top of the platter, but is still alive, until the poison completes its job. Fiddle-Dee-Dee steals the crown, and leaves the gloves that he believes to be Percy’s and skips off into the sunset. He killed the Count, framed Percy, and has the crown. Mary-Sue will now be his!

Later, the Dervishire Cat heads outside for some fresh air and the first thing he notices is the dead body of the Count and the Chatter’s beautiful, but smashed, teapot. Worried that his friend may be in trouble if it’s found, the Cat does the only thing he can think of - cover-up the Chatter’s murder. With a giant claw he slashes the neck of the Count. Perhaps with this the blame will be shifted to his Mistress’s Mister, then he would have the Countess all to himself. It’s what any territorial male cat would want isn’t it? With the throat slashed, the Dervishire Cat makes to head inside, but sees Mary Sue’s gloves on the ground. Not knowing what to think about that, the Cat heads inside to sleep.

Finally, the Countess heads outside for a stroll in her beautiful garden. But what does she find? The dead body of her husband. She is far more scared that Bob may have committed this murder with the neck being slashed like so, then realization hits her - her husband is dead. Her husband that cursed her in the form of a frog. In moment of anger, and wanting to hide Bob’s involvement, the Countess takes her rage out on the dead body. She twists it, she jumps on it until it’s flat, and with her anger subsided she attempts to cover up the body. She grabs anything she can get her fingers on. Leaves, dirt, even fennel from the garden. She finally leaves the scene, not realizing that she dropped her fan in her rage.

The paper reads as follows: The killer put poison in the teapot which came from the Resident Chatter's party, so it's almost certainly someone who was at the party.

We know that Bob didn't kill the Count and he tells us that the Countess is also innocent. But they didn't know they were both innocent until after the murder was discovered when they finally had a chance to talk with each other. (We've been told the Countess didn't know that Bob didn't kill the Count. That means they hadn't had a chance to talk yet. So he also didn't know that she was innocent.) When Bob first saw the Count's dead body with the teapot nearby, he was afraid that something had happened and the Countess had finally killed the Count. (The cook was over the side of the hill and Mary Sue had left the house to work for Percy, so Bob thought the Countess had served the tea.) In order to try to divert suspicion from the Countess, Bob cut the Count's throat with his razor, deliberately using his tail backwards to make it look like a right-handed cut so as not to completely implicate himself. Who else but an experienced shave could make such a clean cut? And tails are at least a bit ambidexterous since they wag back and forth a lot. That's how the green paint stains got on the Count's shirt. Bob had been doing repairs and using the green paint. He didn't notice it on himself because he is already green. The jelly stains on the sleeve were from the Count who had jelly pastries with his tea and was a sloppy eater. Bob also broke the teapot over the Count's head to try to make it look like a physical assault, rather than a poisoning. He also hoped that breaking the teapot would make it harder to find out that the poison was in the tea. These were also done to try and protect the Countess.

Percy also didn't kill the Count. He is not the one who took Mary Sue's gloves, so he is not the one who left them by the body. We know that he was busy driving the Bunbus and delivering guests (we know that's at least partly true because he delivered us). But he did come across the Count's body and noticed the opera gloves and fan. He knew that the gloves belonged to Mary Sue. Percy doesn't love Mary Sue, but she works for him and he is fond of her. Besides, he really didn't like the Count. He isn't a killer, but he really enjoyed driving the Bunbus over the body and crushing the Count's lower extremities to divert attention from Mary Sue. All the leaves and dirt were blown over the body from the wind of the Bunbus takeoff.

We know that the Resident Chatter isn't much of a liar and that the murder teapot is hers but was taken from her party. We also know that she saw one of the Fiddle brothers in the woods at midnight giving an envelope to the Count.

The Dervishire Cat didn't kill the Count. He is devoted to the Countess and wouldn't have poisoned the Count when the cook and the housekeeper were both absent. Also he wouldn't suggested talking to Cursula and taken us to see her if either he or the Countess was the murderer. (And Cursula may not have known who killed the Count, but she certainly wouldn't have shown up for him if he were a killer.) Besides, he also tries to protect Francine, when he thinks she is going to make Cursula angry, so he is basically a good, if mischievious cat.

We know it wasn't Mary Sue, because a voice from somewhere told us so.

As for Lapin the White Rabbit, the detective is almost never the murderer. Besides, he seems to be almost the only one without any reason to kill the Count.

Fiddlesticks is the only Fiddle who was a guest at the tea party. That's where he took the teapot. Like both of his brothers he is in love with Mary Sue. He stole the brother's retirement funds because he thought if he had enough money, Mary Sue could quit her job and live with him. The Count knew that he took the retirement funds and was blackmailing him. We know that he was the Fiddle that the Resident Chatter saw in the forest at midnight giving the Count an envelope. Fiddlesticks took Mary Sue's gloves and opera fan because he wanted to have something of hers (apparently he likes to take things). When he realized that Mary Sue was in love with one of his brothers rather than him, he got really angry. When Mary Sue leaves the house because the Count calls her a slut, and the cook is still hanging over the edge, he has his chance He serves the Count poisioned tea. He killed the Count to stop the blackmail and then tried to frame Mary Sue by leaving her gloves and opera fan near the body. If he can't have her, no one will!

Nightshade fidgets and HeiYu quietly waits while Francine takes the paper over to Nutsy. While their paper is being read, both HeiYu and Nightshade keep an eye out for Fiddlesticks. She quietly lays a hand on his arm, "Don't worry. One way or another, you should get a chance for some sort of action soon. Just hold on a few more minutes."

Jill groaned in frustration. "I heard Nutsy say he knew who did it, but I have no clue!" The others gave her sympathetic looks and Jeice nodded in aggreement.

Calie sighed, "Let's go over what we have again." She pulled out a pad of paper and pencil as the others laid out the notes. As they went over everything again, they just became more frustrated.

"There are too many unanswered questions," Jill said as she leaned back in her chair. "Too many things that require a fantastical sense of logic to reason with." Calie looked at her in confusion as Galaxia added, "Well, we can definitely say the murder was premeditated. You just don't 'accidentally' poison someone unless you're a complete idiot in the kitchen."

Ichigo nodded in agreement and added, "I think the items left with the body look more like they were planted there. It just looks too sloppy for a premeditated murder."

Some time later...

"Well..." Jill sighs. "I think we're as close as we're ever going to get."

Calie, Ava and Galaxia nodded tiredly. "Let's try to put it together. I think we're ready to solve this." Ichigo added with determination. The entire group was feeling less than stellar after all the trials and tribulations they went through during this investigation. "Right... so here's what we think happened." Jill takes a deep breath and flips through her notes.

The Solution

Fiddle Faddle was the triplet who had stolen the shared life savings and was being blackmailed by the Count. He is also in love with the mistreated Mary Sue. This means, he has a clear motive for murder. However, someone else was also aware of this and decides to use it to their advantage - pulling off an elaborate scheme with some help.

Thanks to the Chatter, we got all the information she wanted to give us:

• One or more of the Fiddle brothers were in love with Mary Sue.
• One of the triplets were being blackmailed by the Count.
• The Dervishire Cat also puts the suggestion that it was a love triangle murder to throw us off.

With assistance from the Cat, the Chatter steals Mary Sue's gloves and wears them to commit the murder. After killing the Count with poisoned tea, the Chatter then breaks her own teapot over the Count's head and leaves the gloves behind to frame Mary Sue.

One of the Fiddle brothers discover the body and thinking Mary Sue had committed the crime, slashes the Count's neck and smears his shirt with green paint to frame Bob, who would have ample motive to want the Count dead.

The Countess also comes across the body and upon seeing the Count's neck wound, assumed that Bob was the murderer. To cover up for him, she puts her fan down and finds something heavy to crush the toad's lower half, covering him with dirt and leaves afterward.

"So there we have it. Our murderer is the Resident Chatter." Jill concludes with finality as she looks over to her colleagues, glad that it was finally over.