Princess Callie

Chapter 18: Investigation

The foyer was still a mess from last night's attack. Luckily a few chairs survived so I had somewhere to sit while I waited for Kevin. The waiting would have been a lot more bearable if Octavio just let me have a phone of my own.

"Are you ready to get started?" I looked around and saw Kevin standing right behind me.

"Ahh! Don't sneak up on me like that!" I quickly got up and faced him.

"Sorry. I just want to get started as soon as possible. The longer we wait the more likely the trail will go cold." Kevin was sounding uncharacteristically excited to get moving. He pulled up a chair of his own and sat on the other side of a table. He then took out a piece of paper and a pen. "If we're going to find the perpetrator. I need to know exactly what happened. Don't leave out any details. No matter how insignificant it may be."

I took a deep breath trying to remember what happened. "Alright... it all started after you told me the surgeon was in the courtyard. I ran out there as fast as I could hoping to catch him. He wasn't there. Then four assassins super jumped and surrounded me. They said someone was willing to pay a lot of money to kill me."

"What were the assassins using? What were they wearing?" Kevin asked while he was scribbling something down.

I took another moment trying to remember the appearances of the assassins. "There were two boys and two girls. All of them were octolings. They wore outdated military equipment and were using octobrushes. None of them were elites though."

Kevin had his hand under his chin. "Hmm octobrushes. It's hard to get weapons like that unless you're a samurai. Maybe they had a supplier or a shopkeeper decided to break the law."

When he said that I remembered something from the day before. "While I was in Octopolis I wanted to buy a weapon. He showed me where I could find a weapons shop. The shopkeeper wanted me to show my ID. I didn't have it at the time."

"Didn't he recognize you as the princess?" Kevin asked.

"Maybe. I don't really remember our conversation but I think he said he couldn't sell to me without proper identification." I answered.

"Alright so what happened at the shop?" Kevin leaned forward.

"I tried to leave but he said he could make an exception for me if..." I trailed off. I didn't want to finish my sentence.

"Sounds like he wanted you to perform a sexual favor." Kevin answered for me. I just nodded without saying a word. I didn't want to admit what happened but Kevin said every detail was relevant to the investigation. "What happened next?"

"I told him I would come back with my ID but he wouldn't let me leave. Then he tried to force himself on me. If it wasn't for Sebastian h-he would've..." I didn't want to tell him.

"I understand. What did Sebastian do? What happened to the shopkeeper?" he asked trying to move things along which I appreciated. I didn't want to go into any more detail.

"Sebastian heard me screaming and came to my rescue. He killed the shopkeeper." I confessed.

"Wait he killed the shopkeeper?" Kevin sounded extremely surprised. I suddenly felt like I made a mistake. "That's really serious! When was this?"

"About a few hours before the assassination attempt." I answered.

Kevin started muttering mostly to himself but he made sure I could hear every word. "Hmm. This doesn't rule out that shopkeeper entirely. I doubt he would be pulling the strings even if he were still alive."

I barely paid attention to that. I was worried Sebastian would get arrested. "What's going to happen to Sebastian?"

"Sebastian? It's complicated. Right now I don't think anybody knows what happened yet but they'll find out eventually. When they do, Sebastian would likely be arrested." Kevin explained. "But don't worry. I won't be the one to tell them."