Spare The Rod: Solution

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Dani flipped over a page on her clipboard and reread all the facts of the case she'd jotted down, and it still seemed to come to the same conclusion. She'd tried thinking through things a number of ways, but it always pointed to the same thing. Well, it was worth a try.

 

She went up to the Hopkins/Sorrell door and knocked tentatively.

 

"Enter" said Mikey's voice from the interior. Dani did so.

 

"Mikey, tell me something, has Lisa been pouncing you or chasing you much lately?" Dani asked.

 

"No.. not at all, Dani" he begun, when the nature of the question he was being asked struck him. "Hey, you don't think that Lisa d-" he begun.

 

"No, I don't" she said, closing the door again. She then walked across to the Rydelle/Dodgson door and knocked.

 

"Come in" said a feminine voice from the interior. Dani opened the door and found them both there.

 

"Mikey says you haven't been pouncing him lately, Lisa" Dani said. "And I've noticed a change in you, too. I was going to ask what's the matter with you, but I think I know" Dani turned her gaze to Cindy. "Roommates are awfully good to talk to, especially when there's no other females on the dorm floor. I don't want to know what's affected you, Lisa, I want to know what's affected CINDY".

 

Cindy cringed and started sadly at her feet.

 

"I know you didn't do it" Dani continued. "But I also know you know who did. Should I ask you or just get the truth straight from Tony?"

 

"How did you-" Cindy begun, but sank wearily back onto the bed when she realised she'd let on too much. Lisa rushed across the room and comforted her in a well-meant hug.

 

"I've suspected all along, Cindy. Don't worry, I know it was an accident." Dani added, as she left. Cindy just started at the door as it shut in a dazed manner.

 

Dani then knocked at the Hawthorne/Durham/Nekohashi door.

 

"Yeah?" Kevin called out, and Dani opened the door. They were all there.

 

"I wanted to have a private talk with Tony about what happened last Friday night, but I can do it in front of you guys. In fact, I'd prefer it, so stick around".

 

"Uh.. alright" Brad said, suspiciously.

 

"Tony" begun Dani, turning to face him. Tony jittered slightly. "It's okay, Tony. I know it was an accident".

 

"You do?!" Tony spluttered. "How?"

 

"The difficulty with finding the murder weapon was the thing that set me thinking in the first place. You see, Professor Leahy had been stabbed in the chest with a pierced weapon that had no sharp edge, but expanded as it went along .. much like an ice cream cone, but he wasn't stabbed with an ice cream cone, obviously. And I got to thinking, no weapon was found in the stairwell, security forces didn't find any, and the metal detecor they installed would have caught anything anyone would have tried to smuggle out. They even scanned the GARBAGE, to no avail. So I got to thinking, what if the weapon wasn't metal. And what if it wasn't an everyday kind of object. What if it was .. one of your horns, for instance?"

 

Tony let out a quiet groan and touched his right horn with his hand tenderly.

 

"Aha, thought that was the case" she said, nodding. "You'd been taking an awful lot more showers now than you'd normally have. Psychological thing, I'd say. Anyway, Mikey noticed he wasn't getting pounced as much, which meant someting was bothering Lisa. The only thing besides a change in Mikey's mood that would alter how Lisa felt would be a change in her room-mate and female friend's mood, so obviously Cindy had something on her mind. And what would bother Cindy? Something wrong with Tony.."

 

"So, how did you know it was an accident?" Brad asked.

 

"Ah, that's the interesting bit" Dani continued, setting her clipboard down onto the desk before she continued.

 

"Here's the scenario for you. Professor Leahy finishes talking to me on the third floor, and because the elevator was broken, heads into the stairs to walk down. Meanwhile, Tony and Kevin are entering Richter and walking up to the top floor by the same stairs. They had to pass each other at some point, and my guess is it happened just at the top of the first flight of stairs, where his death took place. I'm hypothesising here, but Tony dropped something, possibly his books, and then while he was kneeling down to get them, Professor Leahy enters the flight of stairs above and in front of him, trips and falls to land, well, impaled on your horn, Tony".

 

Tony grimaced and gave a light shudder. "It's like you were there".

 

"That's why you dropped Cardiovascular 102, because you'd got blood on your textbook for it and given the depot had sold out of books long ago, it was either continue the course with an obvious sign of your involvement with what happened or just not do it anymore" she continued.

 

"Kevin kept a clear head and you panicked, but Kevin dragged you to the bathroom on that floor and made you clean yourself up, then told you not to tell anyone because it'd complicate the matter and you'd possibly be convicted of a murder you never did, because the jury could decide you'd intentionally butted him in the stomach or something, right?"

 

"Yeah" Kevin said, quietly. "It was stupid, but once you make a decision like that, you gotta stick to it, especially since if you change what you say to the authorities, they won't trust you at all".

 

"Indeed" Dani said, "and of course, you wouldn't want Tony to admit to being there straight off the bat, Kevin, because then it'd implicate you"

 

There was a pause.

 

"Me?" Kevin asked. "How?"

 

"Well" said Dani, "I've been thinking. Tony's the clumsiest person known to man, sure. But what made Professor Leahy trip? And why would he be walking directly down towards a large student who was blocking the way instead of moving to the other side of the stairwell and just walking past him?"

 

"I..I don't know" Kevin said, "you can't read someone's mind. Especially after they're dead"

 

"Here's what I think happened" Dani said, pacing up and down the room, "you walk with Tony, when you see Leahy approaching by the stairs, as you KNEW he would because you were the one who put up the "Elevator Out Of Order" sign in the first place, you jostle Tony's arm and make him drop his books. He drops down to one knee to pick them up, and 'quiet as a cat' you run up the few extra stairs that'd place you by Leahy's side, TRIP him, and thus PUSH HIM onto Tony's horns!"

 

"That's a lie! You can't prove any of that!" Kevin yelled, getting to his feet.

 

"Tony wouldn't have seen a thing, he was stooping to grab the books, he wouldn't know WHERE you were, and if you WERE by his side, why didn't YOU get any blood on you? Why didn't Tony stumble onto YOU when he fell further? And if you were such a great friend, why weren't you helping him pick up his books anyway?"

 

"It's not true, she.. she's twisting my actions around" Kevin stammered, turning to meet Tony’s gaze.

 

"Kevin.." Tony said quietly.

 

"Hey guys, wait up a second" Brad said.

 

"No, Brad, we have to know. We have to know now" Dani said, quietly.

 

"No, guys, wait up" Brad said.

 

"Kevin, I think Tony has a right to know, he has to live the rest of his life not kno-" Dani begun, before Brad cut them off.

 

"Guys, we're doing the wrong script" he said.

 

There was a pause.

 

"Oh, we're NOT are we?" Kevin said, looking up.

 

"Yeah, this one's the 'Stabbing In The Stairwell' one. This is the wrong ending. We want to do the, uh.." Brad paused and flicked through a script by his side, "uh.. 'Spare The Rod' one, right?"

 

Tony laughed. "Ah, damnit. So much for my lifetime's guilt, huh, Kevin?"

 

"One for the blooper reel" Kevin laughed, reaching for a bottle of water. "You really had me on the ropes there, Dani"

 

Dani took a deep breath. "Whew. I get so fired up during the whole showdown thing. That's part of the reason why I like the role, ‘cos I get to be the 'So It Was YOU' person who waltzes round all clever and all that. Man. Can we save that one? I think I did well at that".

 

"Nah, come on, you got a whole sack of that, Dani, don't pretend you don't like it. Should we shoot another or get straight to the proper ending?" Brad said as he stood up and stretched.

 

"Better do the proper ending" Tony said, "okay, so, uh, am I required?"

 

"Guess you'll find out as to whether you get to speak to ME or not" Dani replied saucily as she walked out and closed the door behind her.

 

"Man, this is great" Kevin said, grinning as he set the water bottle back down in its place out of sight. “We should screw up more often” he added, jokingly.

 

"Okay. Places. Let's can this sucker and get on home" Brad said, settling back into his chair.

 

And so you go onto the REAL ending.