Zargon, Week 15Eris never knows what to expect when she takes on a case. After dealing with a possible accidental death at the discotheque and the theft of the library's computers, she was a little disappointed to find herself going to a private home. But this turned out to be rather unusual.
"I saw this prowler running away," Ruby Doe said excitedly. "She had blond hair and looked a bit like the actress in that movie."
"Which movie?" Eris asked.
"Oh, the one where the girl goes crazy because this guy won't see her any more and she ends up killing his kids' pet rabbit. Fatal something. And Maliya here has a stalker some woman's been calling her and leaving notes. I bet it's the same person."
Maliya had more to add. "I haven't said anything to encourage her. She said she wanted to rescue me from a dire situation. Aunt Ruby and Aunt Beverly can get a little boring sometimes, but I would hardly call living with them 'dire.' But I don't know for sure that it was Emilia. I didn't see anything."
"Thank goodness I put flame retardant on the lawn," said Beverly. "Who knows what might have happened otherwise."
"Flame retardant?" asked Eris.
"In case you haven't noticed, it hasn't rained in Willow Creek for three generations now," Beverly said tartly. "I predict a wildfire any day now."
Outside, Eris did indeed see scorch marks on the lawn. It looked as if someone had tried to start a fire several times.
Near one of the marks she found a sneaker. One of its laces was broken, which might explain why it fell off. It smelled of a popular fire starter sold for use with barbecue grills. The shoe was a style that might be worn by a man or woman. Given its narrowness, she deduced it was a woman.
Back at work, Eris conducted further analysis on the shoe. The sole had traces of flame retardant not too surprising, given where she found it. Outside, she saw Maliya Patel, coming to the station to see what progress they'd made. Eris didn't have any new information for her.
She started adding clues to the case map. So far they had a suspect, but no understanding of the motive.
Eris went home scratching her head. Even if the perpetrator was this woman who had a crush on Maliya, that didn't explain why she would try and set fire to her house. But that evening she watched a popular movie on TV. Perhaps a fire was the "dire situation" the perp had referred to.
The next morning Eris put out an All Points Bulletin based on Ruby's information. She soon got a call from the library. As Eris approached the woman, she sniffed. Definitely the lingering odor of fire-starter, and yes, she did resemble the actress from
Fatal Attraction. And her name was Emilia Smedley.
Eris arrested her.
The woman was not happy about being photographed.
And even less happy about adding her fingerprints to the data base. "I don't like getting ink on my fingers," she said.
Inside the interrogation room, she was defiant. "Do you have any idea who I am?" she demanded.
"Emilia Smedley," Eris said calmly. She told her that she was being charged with attempted arson. "We have witnesses who placed you there, and we also have your shoe. DNA analysis has confirmed that it belongs to you. So now is the time to confess if you want anything resembling a good deal."
It turned out that Eris's hypothesis was correct. Emilia had hoped to make Maliya fall in love with her by saving her from a raging inferno.
"You're lucky that her aunt put down flame retardant," Eris told her. "You'd have been the one who needed rescuing if you'd gone into a raging fire drenched in kerosene."
That evening Eris was careful to take a bath and change her clothes before setting to work on her rocket with an acetylene torch.
The next night Voldemort asked if he could stay up late. He just needed to make a couple more emotion potions before finishing up the Whiz Kid aspiration. Since the next day was Saturday, and his birthday, Eris and Coleman gave him permission.
Eris made a hamburger cake. She had to leave for work before his party, but Malfoy, Braylon, and Coleman were there to celebrate.
Malfoy handed his green trumpet to Voldemort and took his turn blowing out candles.
Skin and eye color aside, the two brothers are virtually identical.
Voldemort called up Lyrica and invited her over, too.
"Your trumpet is off-key," she commented.
Despite her unfortunate choice of hats, Lyrica turned out to be quite pretty.
Voldemort and Malfoy had to wait until Eris returned from work before they could change into their earthling clothing. Voldemort went out to start collecting fossils and crystals.
He also took a trip into space and managed to pick up his first space rock. He just hoped he'd have as easy a time getting the other six.
