A mystery in St. Louis (a Lackadaisy fanfic)

Another one Bites the dust

After a quick bye to Betty, I followed Bluebeard inside to start questioning. The staff present last night gave statements, including an interrogation. We interviewed our employees to gather information about yesterday and if they had seen Sasha Ballad before he went missing. Some employees mentioned serving him once, but no one noted anything unusual. Bluebeard even asked about the missing cats and the date of their disappearances. Only a few employees recognized them. One of the victims Benjamin Button, a regular at the eatery for breakfast and lunch.

"Can you describe his actions before the time he disappeared?" Bluebeard asked the waiter showing them the date. "Well, the only thing I can account for was that he was coming in more than usual," the waiter replied.

"Elaborate," Bluebeard insisted.

"Mr. Benjamin only came by a few days a week for either lunch or breakfast," The waiter recalled. "Come to think of it, he seemed to only come once on those days."

"Until the week following his disappearance, Interesting. Did he bring anyone with him when he came?"

"No, he usually dined at the bar seating,"

"Was there a customer, that spoke to him? or even sat next to him more than once?" I asked. But the waiter only shrugged. "Not sure, I only interacted with him when writing his order."

"And yet Benny's the one you remember."

"Customers that come on slow days tend to get more attention," the waiter added "We try making small talk to keep things friendly but most customers tend to keep to themselves."

"Right and the rest?"

"What rest?" I pointed to the photo of said cats. "Hmmm. Sorry, I don't remember serving them. Maybe this person," The waiter pointed to an M.B.N.D photo. "But that's all I know."

"Thank you for your time. We'll be in touch. NEXT!" he shouted as we interviewed more people. After we interviewed the cooks and hostesses, we found nothing new just that Benjamin wanted to travel someday, and had a small crush on one of the girls. We moved on to ask questions about the next regular aside from Benjamin my co-workers can recall.

The next victim was pointed out. Tom-tom, or Thomas O'Malley, was a regular who came to see the shows. So now we are interviewing staff who worked the night shift when Thomas showed up. I didn't know much about him since Bluebeard had the files but he said I would be interested in him for some reason.

"So, Tommy Boy only came for the shows before he went missing, right?" He asked Betty who I was nervous to be questioned right now.

"Yes," she responded, "He would order food sometimes but he mostly had either coffee or tea."

"Was he close to any of the staff? Performers? Waitress? Hostesses?"

"He was friendly to anyone serving him. He talked to a few of the musicians when they were on break."

"And what about you, Miss?"

"You don't have to-"

"It's fine Francis. I admit I was friends with Tom-tom he was nice and he taught me the song he used to sing with his friends. I asked him if he wanted to perform his music with me on stage but he said he was fine watching."

"Wait a minute the song? The one by The Scat Cat Crew. He gave you that song." I couldn't believe it the only song she could be talking about was one of my favorites as a kid.

"Yes, he was one of the writers. He said it was the song that changed his life." She said admiringly. I didn't catch her tone, my mind was somewhere else Thomas O'Malley, the O'Malley was in my club saw my performance, and taught my friend his song and now he's dead. Damn you fate!