Killer Bay

Hanging by a Thread

"Adalet, I'm glad to see you. This message from the Puppeteer really worries me. "Hello, little puppet! I hope you'll like my show. After all, what would a Carnival be without a good puppet show?" Andrea reads off the message from the paper, "this is an open threat that the Puppeteer will start killing again! And the Carnival is today! Adalet, I want you to patrol the parade with Frank, an-"

"Patrol the parade?" Frank groans, "I was looking forward to staying in and spending some quality time with my turtle..."

"Frank, just do as I say, for once, will you? Yann is late for work again, and I'm tired of you answering back to me like an irreverent teenager. I'm still Chief of Police here! Sorry, Adalet. I don't mean you, of course," she apologized, "but you really must be alert, so the Carnival takes place without incident. With the Puppeteer's message in mind, we cannot leave anything to chance! I also need people to do a security check in the storage rooms. Adalet, you will make sure everything's alright. I'm counting on you!"

"We're on it, chief!" Adalet salutes.

Later, in the Carnival storage room...

"I don't know what's wrong with Andrea today, she's like a nagging mom," Frank complained, "I've never seen her like that before, she's really on edge and worried."

"Well can you blame her? A psychopathic killer has basically promised to kill someone else today!?" Adalet reminded him.

"Oh, well. At least here in the storage room, we can have a little more fun, Adalet. What do you say we try on costumes, turn off the lights and scare each other?" he laughed at the glare she gave him, "OK, I get it, we're here to look around. Alright. Let's start with that pretty-looking marionette in the corner!"

Frank led Adalet over to the marionette he was talking about. As they got closer to the puppet, they saw some things that looked to have been forgotten, they picked up a red handbag and broken pieces of metal and wood with the intent of bringing them to the carnival's lost and found, and the garbage. But those plans went out the window when they realized that the marionette was in fact a dead body!

"What the... The victim's been all cut up and linked back together with chains! She looks like a morbid puppet!" Frank exclaimed shielding his eyes.

"Uh-oh," Adalet squeaked, "and if we have a victim displayed as a puppet, then it means the Puppeteer is back!"

"I can't believe this: after ten years, the murders have started again!" he gasped.

Her face fell, "and I know who this is... It's Dinah Cooper, she was a jazz club dancer... Her son recently turned fourteen."

"She was one of the first suspects you met in Jazz Town, wasn't she?" he recalled, "poor girl... I know you won't let the Puppeteer get away with this, Adalet!"

"And first things first," she sent a quick text, "we should send the body to Roxie."

"And since we found Dinah's bag, let's have a look inside and see what clues we can find!" he says placing the red bag back down, "and whatever these pieces are, I trust you'll put them back together while I go get some fresh air. I'm feeling queasy."

Frank stepped out of the storage room to go wait for Roxie. After he had left, Adalet picked up the broken pieces they had found earlier. She glued together the pieces and repaired the dancing trophy to its former glory. With that done she turned t Dinah's bag. She dug through the bag and found an invitation that was slightly faded in some places. She dusted the paper to recover the missing words and just as she was about to read what it said, Frank returned.

"You were pretty quick at restoring that dancer figurine, Adalet. This is why I always let you do the handiwork!" Frank smirked picking it up, "this dancer figurine has Dinah Cooper's name on it! And there's something written on the base... "Freddie, I am an artist, not a toy!" An unfortunate choice of words from Dinah, given she ended up like a puppet."