Chapter Six
It took the better part of the morning for Mana and Theseus to complete their lists. After they each had one they compared them and made one list after they crossed off the duplicate names. Once that was done Theseus crossed off all of the people who had moved to town recently because he and Percival had already looked into them. In the end they had a list, a very long list, but it was a start.
"I guess now we can cross names off based on age." Mana said speculatively as she and Theseus looked at the list. "We at least know that this guy is probably around the younger victims' ages. But to be safe I would say we cross off anyone under 18 and anyone over 40."
"That's still a lot of names." Theseus pointed out.
"That's starting to get annoying." Mana told him.
"What?" Theseus asked in surprise.
"You saying that there is a lot of names. Like no shit Sherlock." Mana rolled her eyes.
"What else would you like me to say?" Theseus sighed.
"I don't know, something helpful?" Mana snorted.
"You know that I would say something more helpful if I actually had something more helpful." Theseus said.
"I know." Mana exhaled sharply. "I'm just frustrated."
"We all are." Theseus replied.
"So I guess that the next step is to try and rule people out based on alibis." Mana said.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Theseus asked.
"Well we know that Sheila was killed around 11 PM and we know that Jake was killed around the same time. So we can start by poking around to see what we can find." Mana answered.
"You want us to Facebook stalk everyone on the list?" Theseus asked in confusion.
"Well, I mean not everyone will have a Facebook but it's worth a shot to at least cross off some names." Mana shrugged.
"And after that?" Theseus questioned.
"I don't know. I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Right now I just want to cross as many names off the list as possible. We could probably cross a few names off of the people that are physically unable to murder someone. You know, like if they're in a wheelchair." Mana added.
"I guess I'll hack into the hospital again and do that and you can Facebook stalk everyone else." Theseus sighed.
"Why do I have to start the Facebook stalking?" Mana huffed.
"Because it was your idea." Theseus pointed out.
"Fine." Mana sighed and got to work.
"Wait!" Theseus exclaimed an hour later. "Me, Percival, and Newt are on the list!"
"Yeah, and? I included Tierney too even though I'm positive they didn't do it. Anakin is on the list too. And that one guy, what's his name? He owns that bakery, you're always saying how Newt loves it there." Mana shrugged.
"You mean Jacob?" Theseus asked. "He's on the list too?"
"Yeah, I mean I don't think he did it. Just like I don't think any of the mob members did it either." Mana replied.
"If you don't think they did it then why did you include them in the list?" He asked in confusion.
"I just wanted to be through. I figured we would just cross them off after we got the list together." Mana said.
"Oh." Theseus blushed lightly.
"Yeah, oh." Mana rolled her eyes. "If you want we can keep you guys on the list, but I think it would be a waste of our time to investigate all of you."
"No, no, point taken. I'll just take us off." Theseus said quickly.
"I can't believe it took you this long to figure out you were on the list." Mana teased him.
"In my defense there are a lot of names. It's not my fault that I haven't read them all." Theseus pointed out.
"It is kind of your job to read all of the names." Mana pointed out. "We are trying to find the name of the murderer. And that kind of requires reading names."
"No comment." Theseus said and then with that they fell silent and went back to their tasks.
It was about an hour later that Percival finally returned and Mana gave him the low down on what they had gotten done so far and he joined them Facebook stalking everyone on the list. The three of them had been working in silence for a while when Mana's phone dinged with a text.
She looked down and smirked as she red the text. "Is there something you would like to tell me Percy?"
"Ah no, I don't think so." Percival said in confusion.
"Newt just texted me to ask me if it was ok to ask you to meet him for lunch at Jacob's bakery." Mana told him.
"Oh? Well, is it ok?" Percival asked.
"Yeah, but we should all go. I think we could all use a break." Mana said and shut off her computer and stood up. After a second Percival and Theseus shut down their computers too and stood up.
“Ok, but before we go, no talking about mobs.” Theseus told Mana seriously.
“That’s fine, I wasn’t going to discuss mob business in front of Jacob anyway. But I am not telling Newt that mobs don’t exist.” Mana rolled her eyes.
“I’m ok with that.” Theseus nodded.
“Can we go now? You know before Newt decides to track us down and he finds out about mobs anyway.” Percival interjected.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Mana said and the three of them exited the building and locked up before they headed to Jacob’s bakery.