The bar wasn’t hard to find as the town was small and it was the only place that had any sign of life. Muffled laughter and music could be heard from the other side of the heavy wooden door. There was a sign on it saying: No sheep allowed! Collins did not want to know why such a sign was needed. He pushed the door open and just as he expected everyone got a little more quiet and most of the focus shifted to him. You wouldn’t expect anything less from a small town.
A middle-aged lady was working the counter. Her hair was red and curled, mostly tucked behind a yellow scarf that matched her yellow dress. She smiled at Collins from across the bar and waved for him to get closer. Collins walked over, bartenders were usually the best source of information after all. That, and he needed a drink.
”Oh, hello there mister detective~, you’re the talk of the town you know?”, the woman greeted him cheerily as Collins sat down on one of the tall wooden stools. He shrugged his shoulders before leaning on the counter.
”Evening, miss, how about a simple glass of brandy for this worn out traveler?” He figured that the drinks here would be more expensive so he placed a generous amount of money on the counter. The woman giggled at his request and only slid half of the coins into her own hands. She handed him his brandy, the glass a lot more full than one would usually pour out. He hesitated before saying a quick thanks and sipping the drink. It wasn’t the best but it would do.
”So~, I only heard a detective is arriving in town but I’ve yet to hear your name sir, I’m Peach by the way”, the woman said as she placed the bottle of brandy back in its’ place.
”Detective Collins. Pleased to meet you, Ms. Peach”, Collins introduced himself.
Ms. Peach smiled widely at him before leaning into his space, ”Well, Mr Collins~, have you found any clues yet?” Her voice was melodious and filled with curiosity.
Collins raised his eyebrow at her, ”Pardon me, miss, but you seem to be quite excited about a tragedy?”
”Oh, sorry, I just…Nothing ever happens here you know? And sure it’s sad what happened to Sherry, I didn't know her very well but I think she was a nice girl. You can’t fault me for being excited about a mysterious murder though. Life gets boring here pretty quickly”, she said, waving her hand at him dismissively.
”I see..”, Collins wasn’t sure what to say to such a statement. He drank his brandy in small sips, before starting to question her, ”Could you tell me about the Hemmigway family?”
”The Hemmingway family?” She asked surprised before smiling at him mysteriously, ”The Hemmingways own this town and all the land. They also herd hundreds of sheep and our town is basically dependent on them for survival. They have a huge manor closer to the mountain and they own most of the forest around there as well”
Collins raised his eyebrows in surprise, ”Wow, they seem quite rich”
”Well, when you’re basically a demigod, it’s to be expected that they would monopolize over us mere humans” Ms. Peach laughed nonchalantly. Collins took a moment to rty and figure out what in the hell this woman was suddenly on about.
”Haha, right…”, he awkwardly laughed, trying to play off his disbelief. Ms. Peach wasn’t fooled though. She smiled wider,
”Mr. Collins, you are skeptical aren’t you?” She seemed to be having fun with Collins’ mental struggle.
”Well I mean…”, he began to say but Ms. Peach quickly sushed him with a single finger against his mouth.
”Shh, there’s no need to explain, I understand. Every tourist that comes here are the same. But if I may broaden your worldview, if you turn around and look over there, all of your doubt might just wash away~”
And so he looked over to where she was pointing and he saw….He wasn’t quite sure what he was witnessing. A young man, with dark gray hair was chugging down an entire bottle of whiskey as people around him cheered him on. This wasn’t what was strange though, what was strange was that the man had wolflike ears pointing out of his head as well as a tail that wagged behind him quite visibly. Those…were a costume, right? But how were they moving on their own….? Was this village holding a huge prank on him? Was he dreaming? Surely this wasn’t….
Collins got up from his seat and strolled over to the table where the commotion was happening. As he got closer the man stopped his chugging and slammed the empty bottle on the table. Miraculously the glass didn’t break. The people who were shouting and cheering earlier slowly stopped laughing as they turned to look at the detective who was now standing next to them in complete silence. Someone cleared their throat and the wolf ear wearing man turned to look at the detective. He seemed to be having trouble seeing well. Who knew how much he had drank even before this bottle of whiskey.
”whoreyou~?”, the man managed to ask in his drunken state. Collins stared at him, still trying to think his way out of this. He decided he should just ignore the ears for now, he didn’t want to make a fool of himself. If this was a prank then ignoring it and pretending like you didn’t care was a good option. What he needed to do was solve a murdercase.
”Elliot Hemmingway?”, he asked, wanting to make sure this was the person he needed to talk to. The man started laughing and swaying all over the place, ”Hahahaa, nooo~ that’s my name!”
Collins really wanted to go home. Focus on the case, he told himself. He cleared his throat to gain back the drunkards attention.
”My name is Detective Collins. I was asking if you are Elliot Hemmingway. But I guess that’s clear now”, he said, with a heavy dryness to his voice.
”Oh? Yeah, that’s me alright! So you’re the detective that’s here for Sherry’s murder! I didn’t-” *hic* ”-do it if that’s what you wanna know~”, Elliot slurred and someone next to him began to laugh. Interviewing someone while they were drunk wasn’t great because it was hard to get any clear answers out of them. It could, however, be fruitful if the person let something slip by accident. Collins drew a chair for himself without asking and sat down.
”How did you know Sherry?”, he asked immediately, not even slightly bothered by the fact that there were many other people around them.
”Sherry? Oh…she was my-” *hic* ”-brothers ex”, Elliot too sat down as he was clearly about to fall over. The person sitting next to him helped him stay still.
”Oh? What was their relationship like? How did they break up?” Collins kept interrogating him.
Elliot swayed a little despite someone holding onto him, ”They seemed to be happy, but…”
”But?” Collins leaned closer.
”But my dad was against it” Elliot managed to blurt out. He placed a hand over his mouth, almost throwing up but keeping it in for the moment. Collins ignored this as he kept asking:
”Why?”
Elliot took a breath before slapping his own face to keep himself awake, ”’Cause she was” *hic* ”too fragile”
Too fragile, Collins pondered in his mind.
”Why would that matter?”, he asked.
Elliot began looking more and more green in the face but he still answered, ”She can’t-” *hic*”-birth, too weak”
Then he threw up, on the floor, right on top of his (presumably) friend's shoes.
”Oh my god, Elliot, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”, the friend exclaimed angrily. The others around them were either laughing about the situation or disgusted by it and left. Collins sat there wondering how old fashioned this town could be if the parents cared so much about childbirth.
Ms. Peach walked over from the counter, her hands placed assertively on her hips.
”Really? Again? I’m not cleaning it up!”, she said as she handed the mop to the friend who got puked on. He looked at her in despair and began to beg,
”Me? Can’t you see I’m a victim here? Ms. Peach, please help me! I can't take care of this idiot alone”, he pushed the drunkard off of him and laid his head on the table. He seemed to have passed out.
Ms. Peach sighed deeply and rubbed her temples, ”I have other work to do, you know? This is the third night in a row that this has happened! You could have told him to stop drinking after the second bottle!”
The friend looked at her irritated and began to argue, ”You know he wouldn’t listen to me! He never does! You’re the one that served him that third bottle despite knowing he wouldn't be able to handle it!”
Ms. Peach looked taken aback by his argument and got more angry, ”Well what do I care? I get paid for serving drinks! What do you want me to do?”
They had a standoff that was quickly won by Ms. Peach and the friend began to swear,
”Shit, fuck this shit!”, he said as he took off his dirty shoes.
”Clean. It. Up”, she said through her teeth before turning around and leaving him to mop the floor.
Collins walked over to the other side of the table and took a flower vase from a shelf behind them, grabbing the flowers and pouring the water on the passed out drunk. Elliot screamed as he woke up and shook his head violently from side to side, splashing the water over everyone near him.
”What the fuck, Elliot?”, his friend snapped while still mopping the floor, ”And also what are you doing?” He was talking to Collins who placed the empty vase back on the shelf and the flowers back in it.
”He is easier to take home if he is awake”, he simply stated. The friend laughed at him mockingly,
”He’s not going home, he never is”, he said and dunked the mop into a nearby bucket. Collins watched him dunk his shoes in to clean them up. Elliot was awake now but his eyes were unfocused and he wasn’t aware of anything around him.
”Then, where does he usually sleep if not home?”, Collins asked as he helped the drunk man up.
”At my place, or some other guys in town”, the friend stated. Collins wasn’t sure if that sentence had some hidden meaning to it but decided to ignore it for now.
”Does he not have a good relationship with his family?”, he asked while throwing Elliot’s arm around his neck and supporting him to walk. The friend went to Elliot’s other side and did the same thing.
”Take a wild guess”, he said as they carried the drunkard out of the bar. The air outside felt refreshing after exiting such a stuffy place.
”Then, I shall leave him to you?”Collins asked the friend as they managed to get Elliot to throw up once more so he would sober up a bit.
”Oh hell no!”, the friend suddenly said and turned to Collins, ”He has stayed at my place five nights in a row now, he keeps eating my food from my fridge and even stole some of my money from my safe, though I was kinda stupid for putting the combination as his birthday but still!”
Collins made a mental note of that last part but glaced over it for now, ”Isn’t his family rich? Why would he need to steal from you?”
”He might be an adult but he still has an allowance. He keeps drinking all of his money away, of course his father isn’t going give him free access to the family funds”
That made sense. This young man had it rough, it seemed. Collins sighed as he knew where this conversation was going, ”So you would rather a complete stranger such as myself take him to my temporary room than to have him at your place?”
”Well, you're a detective”, the friend answered, as if that was somehow a valid point, ”I don't see why I should be so worried. I have an intuition for these things anyways and you don't seem like a bad guy”
Collins stared at him in awe of his boldness. This idiot was an awful friend, though he did have a right to be angry after Elliot had presumably taken advantage of his kindness before. Still, who would leave their friend drunk to a stranger? Maybe it was actually better that Collins took care of this drunkard. At least he wouldn’t be pushed onto someone else and be in danger.
Elliot got up from the bench, he had been resting on and suddenly flung himself to Collins. He grabbed the detectives arm and leaned his full body weight on the man.
”See? He likes you! Maybe he’ll even let you pet his ears later!” The friend said mockingly and quickly ran away from the scene.
”Now wait a minute!” Collins yelled after him but the man was already out of sight. Sighing deeply, Collins cursed in his head. He glanced at the half aware man hanging from his arm. It hadn’t even been a day in this town and he had already roped himself into some sort of a mess. Elliot glanced over to him and smiled like an idiot. He began to laugh at something in his own head and almost fell down. Collins grabbed him and held him up.
”I hope you know I will give you a lecture in the morning, Mr. Hemmingway”, he said to Elliot who didn’t register a single word.
What a disastrous start to his investigation.
