Professor Layton: Conundrum of the Vanishing

Chapter Nine

Quinton led his group up the stairs and into the town hall. Randall and Reina were still standing in the same places they had been standing in before. Quinton thought that he was going to be sick staring at them with their sickly sweet smiles and overly peppy grins. Happiness made him feel queasy most of the time, but in a situation like this one with people who never stopped being happy? Quinton didn't stand a chance. He didn't know how much he could take. This would be a test of his patience, and he desperately hoped that he could pass.

"If you would excuse us, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett," Misa began as the group walked into the room that contained Randall's desk, "my investigators and I were wondering if we could speak to you about what you already know about the case. We believe that hearing this information could help us solve our mystery."

"I see!" Reina exclaimed. "We can give you as much information as you desire, my young investigators!"

"Where is Landry? I believe that she would like us to talk to us about the case as well," Randall said.

Toya shrugged. "I forgot. She's either trying to talk to the townspeople or she's looking into the weird men you informed us of upon our arrival. One of those. I can't remember which one, though."

"I see..." Reina whispered. Her voice was much quieter compared to the last time she had said it. "Either way, please go on and ask us about anything you wonder regarding the case."

"When did the men first appear?" Quinton asked.

"About three weeks ago or there about," Randall replied. "They've been walking around town nearly constantly every since their arrival and nobody can catch a moment of peace. They also keep on making suspicious phone calls."

"What sort of suspicious phone calls?" Misa questioned.

"We can't really say what the calls were about, but they were talking rather quietly and intensely, so it must have been something rather suspicious. It's only obvious with all of those descriptors for their calls," Reina told the group.

"What about the men's living quarters? Do you have any idea where they're staying within the city? They must be somewhere within Bohimika. They wouldn't go by boat to another area of land near here and then return just to be suspicious around town," Valentine said.

"We have no idea where they're living for the time being. They've been walking around during the day and practically disappearing at night. They could be hiding out in one of the many caves near the shore of Bohimika, but we can't say for sure until we send somebody to check it out. Of course, we can't do that since none of the people are willing to leave their houses long enough to speak to anybody, let alone search for anyone they may or may not know," Randall said. "I'm afraid that there's nothing else we know about their living quarters, sadly. A true tragedy."

"Hm... There's not all that much we have to go on with so little information," Casey commented with a frown.

"Yeah. I don't know how in the world we're supposed to solve this mystery with this much to go off of," Talia commented. "If I were the one writing a book about this with so many confusing plot points right from the start, I'd probably take a knife and stab the book before it got any further into devlopment."

"That comment aside, what other questions do you guys have?" Valentine asked his teammates. He looked between them all, waiting for one of them to ask another question. Nobody gave an immediate question, which made the blonde boy let out a small sigh. This mystery was starting to seem more and more hopeless, even if things had barely begun and next to nothing had gotten a chance at being solved.

"Hm... Let's think... Do you have any idea as to why these men showed up?" Toya asked next, breaking the uneasy silencce that covered the area for a grand total of two minutes.

"We have no idea. They just appeared one day, and about two days later, our citizens began acting oddly and now refuse to leave their homes. I doubt that they'll speak to any of you no matter how much you plead and beg with them for any words of wisdom regarding the case," shrugged Randall.

"It's all quite peculiar. I have no idea what I'm supposesd to make of this mess. Many nights have been lost to restless thoughts over this odd incident," Reina admitted.

"So the people stopped opening up after the strange men appeared... Maybe their strange phone calls were to the people of the city. If that's the case, then the strange men could have been making calls to them to make them stay in their homes out of fear or confusion of something they don't understand," Casey suggested.

"We'll never know until you all solve this mystery for us!" Reina exclaimed, shrugging gently.

"We believe in your skills, young ones!" Randall cried out, a smile on his lips. The shine of his bright white teeth was starting to blind Quinton. The teenager was starting to wonder if he'd even be able to see after this case was solved and he had escaped the acquaintance of the Bennett husband and wife duo. Their smiles were just so crystal clear... Quinton hadn't seen something that light in ages.

He hated it.

"I don't know what other questions we're supposed to ask," Toya admitted. "The others aren't going to be meeting up with us again for another fifteen minutes, so I guess that we could run into the street out front and talk through a few deductions of ours. I can't really think of anything else for us to do, so..."

"That sounds like a decent enough idea," agreed Misa. "Let's go on outside and begin thinking our way through this mess of a case."

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I got tons of ideas on how to wrap this book up much better during this chapter that's good

Also fun fact Randall and Reina are lowkey based off of Sahwit from Ace Attorney

They all wear an ugly purple color, have dark hair, clasp their hands together constantly, and have an irritating smile

Are you seeing this now

-Digital