Criminal Case: Grimsborough

Chapter 22: To Die or Not to Die-Part 2

After Margaret left the station, she left some cookies for Jones and while he was still eating, Jones asked Marie, "Did Mrs. Littlewood give you one of her cookies Marie? I could eat them all day if I had to."

Marie hand her elbow on her desk and her hand on her cheek and she looked at Jones while he was pigging out and she said, "She did and I had just one. But I thought I told you're gonna get fat if you keep eating like that and how can you keep on eating when we have a murder to solve?!"

Jones looked at her just as he was about to take another bite and he put the cookie down and said, "And I'm gonna do as you said cause we are in the middle of an investigation. Don't look so offended, it was a figure of speech after all. So let's focus on the case no shall we?"

Marie smirked at him for being so cute and yet so clueless. She then sat up straight and said, "Well so far, we still don't know who released the sandbag on Jacob's head at the theater and we have to find out who might have had access to it to start with."

Suddenly, Jones got an idea and said, "I heard a place called Galloway's Antique Shop lended some props to the theater, especially for this play. It might be worth a look don't you think Marie?" And soon the two officers left the station to explore the antique shop.

Once they got there, Marie's eyes marveled at the shop's beauty and Jones smiled and said, "It really is a beautiful shop isn't it Marie? Too bad the owner isn't here at the moment, I wanted to ask him a few questions and since he's not here I don't think he'll complain if we had a little look around."

Marie rolled her eyes and said, "You always want to explore something when no one isn't looking. I'm telling you David, sometimes I don't what's foolish; you or your brain." And soon they started to explore the shop.

Suddenly, Marie found a stack of newspapers and when Jones saw her finding them, he wrapped his arms around her and said, "On come on Marie, I love this shop with all it's antiques and it's old things. I just don't understand why you picked a boring old stack of newspapers first when we're surrounded by so many cool things already!"

Suddenly, Jones pulled away when he heard someone coming in and he got excited like a puppy when he saw it was Margaret Littlewood. Marie decided to search through the papers first and then she can join her partner so they can talk to Mrs. Littlewood together. Suddenly, Marie found an old article in the paper pile that tells her about one of Jacob Dawks' performances and how terrible it was. She looked closely and she saw that the reviewer was signed by someone named D.G. or Desmond Galloway, who owns the shop.

She showed it to Jones and he thought, that's strange, I didn't know he wrote theater reviews. Suddenly, the saw a man with an white fox stole around his shoulders walk in and Jones whispered to Marie that that man is Desmond Galloway. Marie then approached Desmond while dragging Jones with her and when he saw them, he gave the officers a smile and said, "Hello there officers, come on in. We have everything here that you need. Anything you want, you name it and I have it!"

Marie showed the man the theater review and was about to tell him about it, when Desmond started to explain to them about his merchandise; such as, a stylish clock for the police station, a new chandelier for their flat, a beautiful doll for their niece or a splendid base that's a rare item. Marie rolled her eyes and scoffed and she Ash outed, "Break off the chit-chat Mr. Galloway! We found this theater review about a performance headlined by Jacob Dawks. Did you write it?" And she showed him the review and Desmond looked at it closely.

After looking at the review, Desmond smiled brightly and said, "I kind of like this review cause it's a perfect balance of disdain and disgust. Just what that God-awful infamy deserved. I hated that play and Jacob Dawks was just dreadful in it. How that man managed to find work for so long is beyond me. I abhorred Dawks' acting and he didn't take it so well."