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Gen 2, Part 8: Muenda
Back to: Gen 2, Part 7: Grunt, Curious Next: Gen 2, Part 9: Beaker, Grunt, Curious


Case report on the disappearance of Earl E and Tim Lee DeMise

I have come to the conclusion that the circumstances surrounding the Muenda family are highly suspicious. Earl leaves their daughter at the altar, disappears overnight and nobody even thinks to question them more than once? Sure, Lerato Muenda is a high-ranking police officer, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least look into it. Every other lead has given me no trace. The trail ends at the Muenda house, no matter how you look at it.



Of course, the family has proven resistant to investigations in the past. It’s always the same lines, they were very disappointed in Earl, they went to bed early, the bride was crying all night, the next day they learned that Earl had disappeared and assumed he had run off with the floozy he left their precious Olive for.

Well, for starters, I’ve found the floozy and he - yeah, that’s a detail Earl neglected to mention - didn’t run off anywhere. In fact, he figured Earl had gone through with the marriage. Investigated Floozy. Floozy didn’t know anything.

There’s two more dirty little details I did know though. First of all, Tim Lee. Definitely knew about his brother. I found some sketches in their old house, which led me to find the guy. And suddenly, revenge seems a lot more likely as a motive for killing the brothers.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the DeMise house received a phone call the night they disappeared. From a booth at the graveyard, which is near the Muenda house. Of course, there’s no proof, so the family argues, anybody could have gone there and tried to pin the disappearance - no protocols ever have them say ‘murder’, it’s precious - on the jilted bride.



Of course, this leaves a P.I. like me in quite a pickle. The family has enough money to protect them even from the official investigations and I’m as inofficial as they come.

So I took a different approach.

Shitty? Yes.



Effective? Hell yes.





Case report on the disappearance of Earl E and Tim Lee DeMise

Having successfully integrated myself with the family, I was able to observe their behavior and came to the conclusion that neither the parents nor the youngest daughter would be capable of murdering two individuals in cold blood. I suppose they might have bribed both brothers to leave town and don’t come back, but Tim Lee was already planning to do so anyway and he probably would have taken his brother with him.

No, I am sure the two were murdered.

And by none other than the eldest daughter, now my beloved wife.



Funny thing is, the parents don’t seem the type to cover up a murder for their daughter’s sake. But here they are. They have to know something. I believe that they are simply in denial and intend to confront them about it when I know their daughter is away.

It’s funny. Every time I stand on this spot, in the garden, I get this weird feeling, like I’m missing something important. But it’s just a normal garden, for homegrown vegetables.

(Scratch that last part from the report, what am I even writing?)

(Got a letter from my client today, complaining about the lack of reports. Was sure I had sent them off. Shit, Rigger, you’re getting old. Eh, I’ll make something up about how I wanted to wait until there was something worth reporting.)





“This way.” Rigger walked straight across the driveway.

“Olive’s pottery shack?” Peponi asked amused. “I’m sure we will find some crimes against good taste in there. The poor girl never had an eye for art, but she’s trying.”

“This is ridiculous.” Lerato said, her arms crossed. “Why are we breaking into Olive’s shack in the middle of the night, like she’s some kind of criminal?”



Ignoring the couple’s complaints, Rigger cracked the lock open and entered the room. “I don’t know much about pottery.” he said. “But if this is pottered, the wife’s a better potterer than I took her for.”

Grabbing his fingerprint scanner, he went to work.



Lerato and Peponi entered the room and looked around in dismay.

“This can’t be healthy. We need to have a talk with Olive about whatever hobby she is doing.” Lerato shook her head.

“I think I’ve seen that before.” Peponi said slowly. “My mother was into this stuff, you know, black magic, dancing in the moonlight, great mother earth, that sort of thing.”

“Well, Olive needs to take up a different hobby. This can’t be good for her mental health.”



“If it were that easy, I wouldn’t have brought you here.” Rigger said. “If it was just a question of Olive doing weird magic tricks instead of pottery, that wouldn’t be a problem. But both of you can confirm that Earl E DeMise was never in this room, can you? Then why are his fingerprints here?”

Peponi went right at him. “Why are you bringing this stuff up now? Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who believe that she killed him!”

“In my professional capacity as an investigator hired to find Earl E DeMise’s killer, I actually do.”



At these words, a shocked silence followed and was broken by a key turning inside a lock.

Olive was standing outside, with an angry look on her face.

“So that’s where I find you?” She glared at Rigger. “Sneaking around my back, breaking into my private room, involving my parents in your detective games?

“Well then. Have it your way.

“I am sorry, mother. This should not have happened. But I can’t let you or father go now. You’ve seen too much.

“Inflammo.”



At Olive’s words, a fire broke out in the shack. The flames spread quickly and consumed Peponi, Lerato and Rigger in a short time.

Not even bothering to watch the events, Olive turned around and left the house. She would need an alibi.



When she returned the next morning, Olive reported the fire and her missing family. She cleaned the shack of all the sooth and dirt.



Then she took a long bath in her lonely big house.


Making Rigger Mortis a private investigator was a pretty late idea. I knew what Olive's reasons for marrying Earl, Hugh and Ichabod were, but Rigger stumped me. So I had him investigate the first murder, leading to Olive burning him and her parents. All three of them died by fire according to the wiki.

And that's what I needed the shack for. Although it did survive the fire. Olive still keeps her magic stuff in there.

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