Late on a rainy summer night, Sonic was getting worked up in an interrogation room. It was a small, dimly lit, windowless room in the back of a rented office in a building on a busy street in Crisis City. On the front door of the office, the frosted window is inscribed with the words "S, T & A: Private Investigators".
In the interrogation room, Sonic is getting frustrated as he paces the floor. He stops, lights another cigarette, and drags up a chair. "You're not exactly being cooperative right now, are you?", he says as he sits down.
On the other side of a small, folding table, Shadow is seated. "I'm being as cooperative as I can, sir" he says spitefully with an ambivalent look on his face.
Sonic lets out a sigh. "Why?", he asks, rubbing his red eyes. "Why are you being so difficult? Just tell me what you know!"
Shadow leans forward and says "I'll tell you what I know then. People are dead, and you're wasting your time here with me".
Sonic's exhausted frustration turns to raging anger. As he stands up quickly, he says "we know you're connected to the crime in some way. We found your name and all of your information on one of the assassins. So stop playing dumb".
Shadow leans back calmly and says "it's unfair to be on uneven playing fields, don't you think? Maybe you could tell me what happened. Then maybe I could shed some light on the situation".
"If it's all the same with you, I'll be asking the questions here", Sonic grumbles as he leans on the table, "but allow me to refresh your memory".
Sonic's P.O.V.
It was the night of April 27th, 1952. We got an anonymous tip about some suspicious murders. I leaned back in my office chair and turned to my assistant, Tails. "Any new information?", I asked.
Tails tossed me a folder containing all the info we gathered on the case. He replied "a string of murders on 9th Street, between the hours of 12:00am to 3:00am. Two bodies, both shot dead".
"That's two today, one yesterday, and two last week", I mumbled as I scanned through the folder. "Five in total. All within the same time frame, and all of them shot in the head with a .38 caliber pistol. Are there any other connections between the victims?", I asked.
"Not that I can tell", replied Tails sardonically, "but I'm no detective".
Just then Amy walked in. "I have a connection for you", she exclaimed. "All the victims were wealthy men who frequented a bar owned by a Mr. Shadow". Tails rolled his eyes and left my office. Once he was far enough away, Amy stepped closer.
"I don't trust him", she said. "He seems suspicious".
I crossed my arms and leaned back, saying "as far as I'm concerned, all he's done was help us".
"I don't know, something about him seems off", Amy whispered, watching the door to make sure Tails didn't return.
"Well, I'll deal with that later. For now, let's go check out this bar", I said. But Amy had other ideas. She wouldn't be satisfied until she got to the bottom of her suspicions. Ugh, I should never have let her go to Tails' apartment alone. I haven't heard from her since.
Anyway, I walked into the bar and looked around. Above the din of the crowded, smoky bar a voice broke my concentration. "Hey!" it said. I looked toward a table with an echidna seated there. He said, "are you new here?"
"As new as one can be, I assume", I replied as I took a step toward the table.
"Have a seat", he said, gesturing to the empty chair on the other side of the small table. I complied, still eyeing the room for any other suspicious activity. The echidna told me to what there and got up to go to the bar. He ordered two drinks, and when he came back he asked, "so what brings you here?"
"A friend told me about this place. He says good things about the service" I replied.
"Your friend is a smart man" he said. He looked at the drinks with a suspicious expression before handing me one. After a bit of drinking and chatting, he said "let's you and me go for a little walk". Unsure of where this was going, I reluctantly agreed and we headed outside. As we walked, he made small talk and I had to lie about my job.
We ended up in the alley behind the bar. He was acting very strange by now, which I just chalked up to the alcohol. He stopped walking and turned to me. As he reached into his coat, he slurred, "the joke's up, Soni—", but collapsed before he could finish. As he fell he began to draw his arm back out of his coat, now holding a .38 caliber pistol with a suppressor on it. I searched his pockets and found a small notebook. The first several pages were filled with writing and some had photos attached to them. As I thumbed through the notebook it occurred to me that the people depicted and described in the notebook were the victims of the recent murders.
I turned to the last set of pages that had any writing on them. The picture attached was of me. It was followed by a couple pages of details, including "onto us" and "high priority". On the echidna's hand, "do NOT mix up drinks" was written. At this point, I knew that the murders must have been organized by whoever this guy was working for. Inside the back cover of the notebook, it said "Boss: Shadow the Hedgehog". This assassin must not have been too bright.
So the next night, Thursday night, I decided to head to the bar again to see if I could catch you in your tracks. As I was getting ready to leave my office, Tails leaned in the doorway. "Tails", I said, "I'm going out to see if I can put an end to this guy's crime streak after all".
Tails stood upright to block the doorway. "But Sonic! It could be dangerous. And I would hate it if something happened to you before I got the chance to give you a proper goodbye...". He slowly started to unbutton his shirt.
I walked up to him. The top of his head reached about to my eye level. I said to him "Tails, I want to, but I can't what about Amy? What about Sha—", but he cut me off.
"I hate to say it, but it's probably already too late for Amy. And as for Shadow, what's the rush? He has no way to know that you are on his trail. And so far, no murders have happened on a Thursday night". He leaned in and said in a whisper, "let's just live in the moment, just this once". I succumbed to his sweet siren song and took him in an embrace. He began to kiss me passionately.
But after a while I realized that I could not leave it up to chance. People's lives were at risk and I had to put a stop to the murders before anything else happened. I got up quickly, got dressed, and ran out of the office, despite Tails' pleas. I ran as fast as I could to the bar. It was closed, just as I thought. But a light was shining through the cracked door that led to the back room. I carefully picked the lock and crept inside. I walked as quietly as possible to the door crack and peeked in to see you frantically packing boxes alone.
I pulled my pistol out of my coat and busted the door open. "Stop right there!" I shouted, pointing the gun at you. You quickly turned around with your hands in the air. Luckily you complied peacefully, insisting that since you had nothing to hide, you had no problem coming in for questioning, but that you wanted to stop for dinner first.
3rd Person P.O.V.
"And that's the story up until now", Sonic said. "So, are you ready to talk, or not?"
"You still owe me a dinner, Sonic", Shadow said.
"I don't owe you anything", he replied.
"Well, that was an interesting story. But I must say, with a heavy heart, that I don't know anything. But –", Shadow was interrupted by Tails entering the interrogation room.
"Hello, boys", he said.
"Tails, what are you doing here? Did you learn anything new about this guy?"
"Actually I did", Tails answered. "It turns out he has a lot of money".
"What do you mea-", Sonic began to ask, but he before he could finish, Tails pulled out a gun and shot Sonic in the chest.
"And I mean a LOT of money", Tails added.
"Has the dame been dealt with?" Shadow asked.
"Oh, she won't be talking much", Tails explained, holding the still smoking pistol. "I caught her snooping around my apartment, and she almost took the envelope of money you gave me. She would have brought it straight to that meddling detective Sonic. What about Knuckles? What happened to him?"
"As dumb as he is, I knew he'd accidentally drink the poison sooner or later. Of course he did", Shadow said, standing and stretching. "Now come on, let's go get dinner".
As they exited the interrogation room and walked towards the front door of the office, Tails stopped and said "there is one more thing I need to do before dinner".
"And what's that?", Shadow asked.
Tails once again unholstered the pistol and shot Shadow right in the back. "Oh, just... tying up loose ends".
