Once home and sitting on the decrepit couches of the upstairs living room, David spoke.
“Ok. Let's hear it. One at a time.” He told Niala.
“That reward! Six princes?! Do couriers get paid that well?” She asked as she leaned forward in rapt attention.
David rolled his eyes. “The money, of course it's the money.” He scoffed. “No, we don't always get paid this well from public postings. This was a private posting though, so that's different. The better a courier's ranking within organization, the higher rewards we can pull.”
“What's your ranking? Are you super good? Is that why you managed to get six princes just like that?!” Niala bombarded.
“That's three questions at a time. Calm down.” He sighed.
“I'm ranked pretty high. I have a very good posting completion rate and I work quickly and efficiently. It's also almost certainly going to be eight princes and not six. We're investigating a mass disappearance of people. I know something potentially lethal is at play.” He explained.
“You think it'll be that dangerous? You don't seem concerned...”
“I do, and potentially lethal just means we have to be extra careful. Now, how about we talk about the case itself?”
She blinked. “Oh, yeah! I was thinking that it didn't make sense that nobody reported the disappearances, or maybe people did but they weren't followed upon, which is strange because it doesn't seem like it would have been that hard to notice something was wrong from looking at the logs, but there's also the-”
“Stop!” David said, both hands up.
Niala blinked, then gave David a sheepish smile.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. She was way too excited, he just knew she'd be a handful. However, at the same time, he couldn't deny that she had the kind of mind needed to solve mysteries; curious, inquisitive, analytical.
And her enthusiasm was kind of contagious.
He chuckled. “Ok let's... take your notebook, and we can brainstorm ideas and questions. Write them all down in a list and we'll... go from there?”
She eagerly nodded. “I'll go get my notebook!” She said as she ejected from her couch and raced to her bedroom, coming back with a notebook and writing implements. She plopped back down on the couch, opened the notebook flat and started furiously listing questions without any of his input.
Niala filled out one page, then a second, then started working on a third without seeming to slow down. A bead of sweat rolled down his brow.
Just how many questions did she have rattling around in there.
David felt robbed of his thunder. As he read through the multiple pages of questions, ideas, thoughts, suppositions and deductions that Niala had just vomited onto paper, he had to face the mounting evidences.
He thought of himself as a rather smart person, with a solid head on his shoulder.
Niala? He'd figured quickly after meeting her that she was also very smart. She'd just seemed to have been a bit sheltered, to have had limited interactions with the wider world.
He hadn't realized he was looking at a potential genius.
He couldn't, and he'd tried, come up with another question or aspect of the case that Niala hadn't written down, with barely any of his input. He'd been relegated to answering her questions about the proper procedures of an investigation and nothing else.
He glanced up at her from behind the notebook. She was eagerly smiling, waiting for him to finish reviewing the list.
A list which, as far as he could tell, covered every single bases. Oh, it was a mess of branching thoughts and ideas that would have to be compiled and ordered, but the framework for everything they could figure out about the investigation from the current information they had was written in here.
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He sighed, closing the notebook and looking up at Niala.
“So?! How did I do?” Niala instantly asked.
He smiled. “It wasn't a test.” He shook his head.
“I really don't want to admit it, but you're probably better than me at deductive logic. Just by a little though.” It was a lie, she was much better than him, but a man needed to keep his dignity.
She blushed a little, and started to fidget as her ears flopped around. “You... think so?”
“Yes, Niala. Everything in there.” He tapped at the notebook. “Is basically everything I think I could have figured on my own, and then some. So... good job?”
The beaming smile she gave him made him forget... everything.
He eventually cleared his throat.
“Right. Let's sort everything out and see if we can figure our next steps.” He said, opening the notebook and grabbing a pen of his own. Niala came to sit next to him and they began discussing on how to proceed.
Several bells later, deep into the afternoon, David and Niala were finishing up their preparations. There were small stack of pages everywhere, several notebooks had been retrieved and used, and snacks and empty cups were strewn about.
Throughout it all, Niala had been some of the happiest and most engrossed that David had seen her be, which in turn seemed to have buoyed his humour without him realizing it until he found himself simply smiling as she continued to impress him.
He eventually stretched his back, before addressing her.
“I think we've done enough. Let me run down the list...” He said as he picked up a piece of paper title Master List.
“Retrieve more skeletons.” He read, before nodding. “An obvious but important first step. Physical evidences are always important in any investigation. Since I've so far retrieved only a fraction of the disappeared people, it's likely I will find some additional clues as I uncover more remains.” He looked at Niala, who simply nodded in turn with a determined look.
“Second item; talk with relatives and friends of victim.” He read from the paper. “Another very important step. As you listed here.” He picked up another paper. “We might find links between the disappeared that we aren't aware of right now. We also need to figure out why this number of disappearances have went unreported until now and this is a way to answer that question.”
“Don't forget my other point.” Niala added.
David nodded. “The idea that the extra disappearances from the past 40 years are unrelated to the yearly ones. You noted copy-cat and obfuscation. I have an idea of what you meant but please explain.” He asked her.
Her eyes twinkled, ears twitching, as she happily explained. “Copy-cat, I thought that the two events might be unrelated and only share similarities, being the time and manner that people disappear. Obfuscation, I wondered what if maybe someone had noticed the disappearances and was hiding their own nefarious actions by making them look as if they were from the same source.” She looked at his reaction.
“Interesting suppositions. However, keep in mind, suppositions are only worth thinking about to keep your mind open to potential aspects you haven't thought of yet. Running off suppositions is how you waste your time and energy on false leads.” He said.
“For now, we focus on gathering evidences. Me with the skeletons and you, if you feel up to it, talking with the friends and relatives.” He proposed.
“Why wouldn't I feel up to it?” She questioned.
He blinked. “Because you're... a bit socially awkward?”
“I am not!” She protested.
“I lost count of the number of times I've seen you blush and stammer when talking with other people.” He pointedly stated.
“I just don't like talking about myself or my personal life! I can interact with people just fine!” She argued. “I'm not socially awkward!” She repeated, glaring at him.
He held her stare for a few seconds. “Ok, I believe you.” He surrendered, returning to the pieces of papers.
“You're lying!” She accused.
“I will act and speak as if I believed you. Is that better?” He asked.
She glared at him some more, before grumbling. “I both like and hate what you just said, and I hate that I do.” She said, pouting.
He smiled “That's my trick, to be equally likeable and disagreeable.”
“You just end up being annoying!” She exclaimed.
“All in a day's work.” He sagely added.
“Forget it!” She said, grabbing another piece of paper and shoving it at him. “Keep going!”
He impishly grinned as he took the piece of paper.
They kept working together well into the night.
The next morning, with an old woman's brew in hand, David reviewed the previous day's work while Niala finished getting ready.
While the night before they had covered an honestly ridiculous amount of theories and suppositions thanks to Niala's hyperactive mind, in the end it was as he'd advised. While it was good to think about all the possibilities in order to keep an open mind and avoid tunnel-vision, if you wanted to reliably conclude investigations you had to work with facts, which meant skeletons and interviews.
As such, he was going back into the Hungerwoods to try and find as many skeletons and remains as possible, while she was going to be interviewing all of the missing people's acquaintances.
A quarter bell later she felt ready enough with a pouch full of notebooks, the list of missing people and sporting a cute little green hair bow near one of her ears.
She saw him off at the north gate, wishing him luck and telling him to stay safe. She promised she'd have a nice hearty meal ready when he'd get back, so he had better get back or she'd be very angry at the wasted food.
He smiled and gave her a thumbs up before walking off. She watched him go until the forest swallowed his form.
Then she stood there for a little bit longer.
And finally, she turned around and headed into town to go meet and talk to a bunch of people she had never met. The thought starting to make her feel anxious.
Maybe I am a little bit awkward with people... not like I'd admit it to him though.
Does Niala have social anxiety?
