ToT: Insert Witty Title Here Part 2

“You happened to hear that she had basic first aid training, so you just dragged her all the way here, barely even bothering to get her name in the process?” Cris, like so many people who had to deal with Samara, couldn’t quite believe her ears.

“That’s exactly what I kept saying” said David, who was leaning against a far wall. Cris had the feeling that he had long since gotten used to this sort of thing.

“She can help, can’t she?” said Samara, who was shifting her feet in the manner of someone who wanted the conversation finished right now.

“Well…” Cris hesitated. “Yes, she can, but…”

“Great!” said Samara. “See you in a bit, then.” She bolted out of the door, down the street. Cris stared after her for a few seconds, and then looked at the room’s other occupant. “So. Aveline, right?”

The Buizel nodded.

“Well, I assume you’ve been told what we’re dealing with here.” Cris walked over to a large cabinet and pulled out a basket full of bottles of medicine. “Some kind of mucous clogging up people’s insides. It’s blocking up people’s lungs, making it hard to breathe. Some people also have a hard time eating, if it gets in the throat. And those are just the symptoms we know about. It only seems to be in the chest so far, but I don’t even want to think about what’s going to happen if the stuff gets into someone’s bloodstream.” Cris handed Aveline the basket. “Your job is to test different cures on people. Do you have any moves or anything?”

“Nothing that will work on the disease itself” said Aveline. “But if any of the medicines don’t work, I can filter them out with Aqua Ring.” She seemed uncomfortable talking.

“That’ll do” said Cris, handing her the basket. “The patients are all on the second floor. David, you can… do whatever, I guess?”

David shrugged. “I have no idea why I’m here. Samara didn’t do a very good job of explaining why she’s here. Something to do with Addy.”

“Right” said Cris. “You go and look around town for new cases of the disease. Don’t bring them here- just bring me a list.”
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Samara kept going for several minutes before it occurred to her that she had no idea where in Mosswood Addy was supposed to be waiting. She asked around a bit and ultimately found her- actually, it was him today- at a café.

“Are you the waitress?” asked Addy, when she walked over to him.

“Er… no.”

“Where’s the waitress, then?” said Addy. “I’m planning an article on bad service in restaurants, and I might just feature this place-”

“If you can put aside the tabloid reporter thing for a few minutes, I’ve got something for you.”

“Tabloid reporter?!” Addy glared at her. “Just who do you think you are, young lady?” The glare vanished. “No, seriously. Who are you?”

“I’m the girl that’s going to make your day” said Samara, placing the Fableton library catalogue on the table. “Samara. You wanted evidence to help Leite, right?”

“You’re here about that, then?” said Addy. “Well, let’s see what you… the catalogue from her library? How’s this going to help?”

“Look at the bits I’ve underlined” said Samara. “That should make it clear.”

Addy flipped through the book, looked at the underlined bits, and looked askance. “How does this help her? What am I looking at?”

Samara grinned. “This catalogue is from a few years ago. The titles I’ve underlined are the same as the books stolen from the Scholars. Leite’s library already contains copies of those stolen tomes, and has for years at least. Logically, that means…”

Samara gestured for Addy to finish.

Addy’s face lit up. “She already owns them, so she would have had no reason to steal the ones in Tabira.” He snapped the book shut, reached into the bag, and pulled out the promised reward- to whit, a camera. “Means, opportunity, motive… and we just proved no motive! This’ll wipe that stupid grin off of Xavier’s face.”

“Yeah… wait, what?” Samara frowned. “Xavier? The Braixen highwayman half the Guild used as a training dummy a few months ago? What’s he got to do with this?”

Addy sighed. “He’s the one who made the accusation in the first place.”
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“They seriously took him at his word?” said Samara, looking disbelievingly at Cris. The Glaceon shrugged.

“The town caught him, and he managed to convince them to give him parole in exchange for helping find out who’s behind the thefts.” Cris grimaced. “He immediately accused the first person from out of town he saw. The accusation has to be investigated, no matter how blatant a lie it is. It’s the law, for some reason.”

Aveline cleared her throat. “Umm… sorry to interrupt, but could you explain who Xavier is? I’m new.”

“Bandit that worked the road until the guild dealt with him a while back” said Samara. “He’d go up to travelers on the road and ‘challenge them to duels of honor’, which is his polite term for mugging and pickpocketing. Petty criminal. Total scumbag.” Samara smirked. “Polite, though. Good taste in hats, too.”

“So why not just arrest him?” said Aveline.

“For the hats?”

“Wha- no, for the…”

“It’s because we can’t” Cris cut in before Samara could confuse the new girl any more. “He’s already been arrested for this stuff. Out on parole, remember? Plus, we don’t know where he is now. He skipped town after pointing the finger at Leite.”

“Isn’t that breaking parole?” said Samara. “In which case we can arrest him?”

“If we knew where he was, sure.” Cris shrugged. “Don’t worry. Fellin thinks he’ll come back. He’s still pretty battered from his stint near Tabira. He has to get treatment sooner or later, and all the doctors are here right now.”

“I’m thinking we shouldn’t tell David about this” said Samara.

“Why not?” asked Aveline.

“Because David would take the whole thing as license to snap Xavier’s neck” said Samara. “And we really don’t need Vander giving us another lecture on the use of appropriate force. He’s still mad at us about that Gallade near Fableton.”

“You talking about me?” said David, walking in.

“No” said Samara, quickly. “Yes. Sort of. Nothing important.”

David looked Samara in the eye for a minute, but mercifully decided not to pursue the matter. He handed Cris a list of names. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yep.” Said Samara. “Got a new camera for it, too.”

“Do you even know how to use that thing?”

“Sure. Just hold it up and… um… screw it, I’ll figure it out later.”

“That would be best” said Cris. She read the list and grimaced. “The sickness is still spreading, although it appears to be slowing down. David, Samara, go to the houses on this list and bring the sick here. One at a time. Aveline, keep working.”