Criminal Case: Concordia

Chapter 1: Welcome to Concordia-Part 3

AN: Before I start, I want to clear up some facts about Marie Holmes and her great grandmother Marie Porter. Marie Holmes was born in November, so her birthstone is topaz. While Marie Porter was born in January, so her birthstone is garnet. That's all I got to say. Now on with the story.😊

After they arrived back at the airship, Marie and Maddie were reviewing the case. What they learned so far was that someone poisoned Lieutenant General Vogel about 10 hours before he died. Maddie soon became confused and she said, "Given that he had an influential role overseeing immigration at the New Haven Center, could the murder have been linked to his job or was the motive personal?"

Charlie soon came by and told Marie that the chief had arrived and he wanted to meet her which made Marie's eyes go wide with surprise. Maddie also heard that and she looked at Marie happily and said, "Looks like he's finally going to brief you on the squad's primary mission when you see him Marie!"

Marie became nervous when she was told that and she thought, I hope it's nothing too dangerous. It was then that Marie was met with a handsome man with his brown hair combed back and he looked at Marie kindly, held out his hand and said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Arthur Wright, Chief of the Concordian Flying Squad. I take it you're Miss Marie Porter, the new recruit, right?"

Marie took the chief's hand and said, "Yes sir."

Chief Wright nodded and said after they pulled their hands back, "Wonderful! I do hope you're enjoying your time with us so far."

Marie then said while fidgeting nervously, "Sir, Maddie said you'll tell me what the flying squad's mission is."

Chief Wright nodded and said, "I'm afraid I won't have time to brief you on the squad's mission now my dear. I have a rather important soirée to attend, so I must be getting off."

As Chief Wright left, Maddie tried to stop him, but he was gone before she could say anything. Marie then said, "What an odd fellow."

Maddie blushed in embarrassment and he said, "Sorry about that Marie. Don't take it too personally. The chief can be rather particular, but he's a good man. Besides, we still have a murder to solve!"

Marie nodded remembering what they were supposed to do and she suggested that they go back to Main Street because deep down, her instincts are telling to her go back and look. Once they got back to Main Street, the two women were searching around the tavern doorway until Marie found a jar of coins on the ground. When Maddie saw the jar, she got confused as to why someone would leave their loose change lying around. Marie noticed a faded tag on the jar and she thought about what it would say when she recovered the writing.

She also found a key with a torn piece of paper underneath it and she wondered what the key unlocks along with what the paper said. Marie also found a crate full of empty bottles and she thought about searching through them. Maddie became excited knowing that Frank Vogel's killer won't be able to allude them for much longer now that they were hot on their trail. The first clue Marie looked at was the jar of coins and she took a brush and powder that Maddie gave her and brushed over the faded tag until the writing appeared.

Once that was done the two women looked at the note and they saw that it said, 'Mr. Vogel, this is all I have.' And at the bottom, it was signed by Seamus O'Neill. Maddie furrowed her eyes and she said in a stern tone, "When we spoke to Seamus earlier, he claimed that he hadn't even heard of the victim. But this jar proves otherwise!"

Knowing that Seamus has some explaining to do, Marie and Maddie entered towards the docks where he works to talk to him. As soon as they got there, Maddie crossed her arms and looked at the man sternly and she said, "Mr. O'Neill, you told us earlier that you had never met Frank Vogel. But we found the jar of coins that you gave him!"