First Witness Testimony
NAME: Gimel
PROFESSION: Warrior
ASSOCIATION WITH THE ACCUSED: First responder at the scene
“So you’re the one who first discovered the scene of the crime?” I clarified.
“Yes.”
Déjà vu hit me the moment I spotted the man in question. I was pretty sure I had seen him somewhere before.
Maybe I should ask.
Character Select: Gimel
Dialogue Option: Inquire about past
“Have I met you somewhere before?” I asked.
The man nodded. “Yes. Ten years ago, I fell into the water and you saved me.”
Oh, interesting. Come to think of it, ten years ago Ruijerd and I did save someone during the rainy season. I remembered the cute little boy wagging his tail at me in gratitude.
Boy, that sure brings back memories.
Anyway, that didn’t matter right now. I had to focus on solving this mystery.
“When you found Pursena ten days ago after she’d stolen into the storehouse and eaten all that food, how did the place look? Can you describe the scene for me?”
“Uh, let’s see… The boxes of lizard jerky were cracked open and Pursena was curled up in front of them, fast asleep. Her stomach was all bloated and she was cradling the food with her hands, a smile on her face as she mumbled to herself, ‘I can’t eat another bite.’”
I could picture that so vividly in my mind. Perhaps because it sounded almost exactly like the scene I’d witnessed a few brief moments ago.
“In other words, no one actually directly saw her eating the jerky, correct?”
He nodded. “That’s right. Although, we did find some of the meat stuck between her teeth, and her saliva smelled like that of some of the half-eaten jerky she’d discarded nearby on the ground.”
Huh. The Doldians sure did have a unique way of investigating. A person’s innocence or lack thereof could be established by smell alone. They had absolute confidence in their schnozzes. As far as they were concerned, finding the scent of the stolen goods on someone’s saliva was all the proof they needed. But it wasn’t foolproof.
“You say that her stomach was bloated with food, but am I correct in assuming you don’t actually know whether it was the jerky inside her or not?” I asked.
“No. But her burp also carried the scent of the lizard meat. I’ve eaten it before, so I know exactly what it smells like,” he said.
Or maybe it was foolproof, whoops.
If they could detect the scent of whatever was inside her belly, then it was practically guaranteed that Pursena had, in fact, devoured the jerky. Assuming no one had cut her open with giant scissors and stuffed her stomach full of the jerky, that is.
“Was there anything else?” I pressed him, hoping for something. “For instance…footprints belonging to someone other than Pursena?”
“No. No other footprints, no other scents, and no other hair found at the scene.”
Interesting. Well, in that case, the true culprit had committed the perfect crime.
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