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After the surprise arrest at the Arconia, Sam returned home. Seeing his heroes cuffed and humiliated, doing the perp walk and then pushed into a police car, was the most depressing moment of his life.
It was soon after he plopped down on his bed to mope that he got a note on his phone - Marv requested a group chat in 15, titled "Mabel a killer?!?!?!"
Sam sighed. What was it with people?
Everybody was already on by the time it started. Nobody was going to be late to this one. There was a short discussion about whether anybody under 18 should be allowed in this discussion (ie, Grant), but he was there during the arrest, and in any case, he wasn't about to leave.
Marv started off the session. "Okay, so as we said, our guys got arrested, and the police are saying that Mabel killed Bunny, and that Charles and Oliver were helping her."
"There's no way Mabel killed anybody," Sam broke in.
"Her knitting needle was the murder weapon… " Marv answered. "And we already know she dreams of killing people with it. As Chekhov said, a knitting needle that appears in the first scene, must be used by the last scene."
Sam didn't let that stand. "That's true only in fiction. We're talking about real life. In real life you don't have that nice symmetry."
Grant snickered. "We have never seen that she actually knits anything."
"So?" Paulette joined the discussion. She was a die-hard Mabeline.
"So obviously it's only there as the murder weapon," Marv said, picking up on Grant's logic.
"Maybe she knits when she's not podcasting," Paulette responded.
Marv wasn't about to let go. "Look, she's the obvious suspect. She comes from a poor, crime-ridden town."
Sam gasped. "You're saying that all the people from Bayport are murderers?"
"No. But Mable is the odd one out here. Besides, she keep secrets. She didn't tell the others who she really is, she kept her back-story hidden. So how do you trust her now?"
"Because I do. She already told Charles and Oliver everything. They're a team now."
"Really? And how do we know she didn't have another goal in mind that she never talked about?"
Sam thought he'll find some solace with his friends, instead, it seemed that it was a shout-fest where everybody only cared about their own opinions.
He tried moving the discussion back on track. "Let's put aside the question whether Mable really did it. We all want to know who the murderer is, right?"
There were a few slight nods from the other members in the discussion, which Sam took as enough encouragement to continue. "We know there's another murderer in the building. Long before the team focused on Jan, we thought that the murderer needed help and couldn't do it alone. So let's do what we're good at, and find out who it is."
"Let's start with Mabel," Marv interjected.
"Okay…" Sam agreed. He thought she couldn't possibly be the murderer, but if they were going to go over everybody, he was willing to discuss her too. "Let's start with Mabel."
