Professor Layton: Conundrum of the Vanishing

Chapter Eleven

Byrne's group was standing on the beach about five minutes after everybody split up. He ran his hand through his blonde hair, which was rustling in the wind that flowed around him. "It sure is nice out today," Byrne muttered, closing his eyes as the breeze surrounding him blew each and every way. Byrne had never been the type to enjoy the great outdoors, instead preferring to stay inside and enjoy all of the wonders that the inside of the buildings of Psylias had to offer. Even so, he felt that you couldn't go wrong with a little bit of time spent outside enjoying the scenery.

"We can't get distracted by the outside and its wonders, I'm afraid," frowned Landry. "We need to look around for those weird men and figure out why the hell they're here."

"Do you have any ideas about why they could have appeared?" Byrne asked of Landry. "You live here, so I figure that if anybody was to know about why these men appeared, it would be you."

Landry shrugged and looked down. "I have as many ideas as you all. These guys showed up out of practically nowhere and now refuse to leave us alone. The men disappear into practically nowhere at night, so if you ask me, a good starting point would be to figure out where these people go at night. They might leave a few clues behind when they leave for their daily patrol of the city. If so, we can figure out what in the world is going on without having to meet any of them face to face."

"If you ask me, our main goal should be to avoid these guys as best we can. Seeing them face to face could put us in danger, and I personally am not one to jump into danger for no reason, unlike a few certain investigators into the Psylias case." Sofia paused in her speech to shoot frowns at Byrne and Caj, who both looked away. "Either way, let's follow Landry's advice and start looking for their nighttime hideout."

"Yeah. Sounds like a plan to me," nodded Roman. Byrne frowned at the small boy. He had been rather silent ever since Faith had gone down, which he knew was rather out of character for Roman. He couldn't stop talking normally, but now... He could barely force himself to speak. Byrne knew it had to do with the Dohim siblings and their sudden downfall. It had all happened so quickly... Byrne barely understood it himself, so he could see how it would take its toll on a young boy who didn't understand much about the world and the way it worked yet.

"Do you think that they're staying in a hotel?" Sofia asked Landry.

Landry shook their head. "I doubt that. If so, then they'd have to break their way in. Everybody shut themselves up inside of their houses, so there's no way that the hotel owner, a woman named Rheanna Tetris, would step out of her house to let them in and make sure they pay their fees. She's normally a bit of a shy woman, so stepping out of her house in a situation like this would probably give her a little bit of a heart attack."

"If they broke their way into a hotel, that would have caused quite the scene, which would have blown their covers to the public for sure, which would lead to them becoming a huge deal to the public. That all leads to them being found out and forced from the city being labelled as criminals," Byrne announced. "So they must have some other place of refuge... Do you have any ideas, Landry? There has to be some location somewhere within Bohimika where people could stay undetected."

"The only place I could think of is the tower on the beach. I don't know much about it since as long as I've known, it's been broken down since before I was born, but I think it might be a lighthouse. If so, the bulb up top has been broken for years on end, which would make it the perfect place for a criminal and their lackies to hide out without drawing any attention to themselves. Nobody goes there at all, so it's not like anybody would suspect anything of them for staying there," Landry announced.

"Do you know where this lighthouse is?" Byrne asked of Landry, his eyes growing narrow. It was rather obvious that he wanted to solve this mystery as fast as was possible for somebody of his ability. Roman theorized that it was because he wanted to go and visit Foliis in the hospital to check on her and make sure that she was recovering alright. Foliis, Faith, and Fey had to be taken to a hospital far away, on another island nearby, to be specific, since the hospital staff had locked themselves up at home as well. This meant that Byrne couldn't go and see Foliis whenever he wanted, which was bound to make him a little bit on edge regarding this entire deal.

"Yeah. It should be near the docks. You may have seen it when you came in, but I doubt it. The thing looks like a giant plant by now. Every inch of that thing's exterior is covered in some sort of vine or another, which conceals it from the eyes of the public most of the time," Landry told Byrne. "We don't have enough time to check it out before the sun goes down, but we can look into it tomorrow for sure. It might be our only hope at catching the men once and for all, after all."

"Let's head back to see the others now that we've figured out where the guys are probably hiding. It's already approaching that time. Standing around and deducing things takes up much more time than one would expect," Sofia told the group. She pointed to the path back to the town hall. "Let's get going."

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Well bad weather is over so updates will probably be coming in every 20-30 minutes until the updates for today are done

Also question

Would you guys prefer it if I went on and spammed OEAOM after LSG finishes or wait a few weeks to do it?????

-Digital