While Jones and Marie were sitting on the steps of the opera house, Jones felt something hit him on the head and they saw that it was a brick. The two officers dove to the ground bracing for more, but when the didn't feel anymore, Jones sat up, looked around and asked, "Is it over? Did you see where the brick came from Marie?"
It was then that Marie saw someone suspicious run back into the opera house. She scrunched her eyes and said, "That person is trying to stop us in our investigation. Well we won't let ourselves be intimidated that easily!"
"You said it baby girl! We won't be intimidated by giant snakes, projectiles or anything! Let's search around and see what they aimed at us and maybe I can get an ice pack too," Jones said while rubbing the goose egg bump on his head.
After they looked around, Jones and Marie saw no sign of their attacker, but Marie found the brick that was aimed at them. It was then that Marie saw a note attached to the brick and when she took it off, the letters were too faded to read. Just then, Marie found a key with a tag that indicates it's the key to the victim's dressing room. The first thing Marie looked at was the note that was attached to the brick that was thrown at Jones' head. She then brushed her powder over the note until the writing was visible enough to read.
On the note, it said, 'Roland had it coming! Now leave us be!' And at the end it was signed by 'The Opera Phantom.' Jones knew clearly well that since ghosts can't hold pens or tie notes to bricks, he knew that it meant that someone was playing games with them. Suddenly, a cloud of smoke appeared before them and then Marie noticed a man wearing half a mask on his face standing before them. He then said to the female officers, "I'm not playing games Inspector Marie! You've just fallen into the mystical world of the opera!"
Jones was also shocked when the man appeared before them and he said sternly, "I don't know about mystic pal, but you're gonna answer some questions for us right away!" And then he felt the pain in his head tinge a little and he grabbed the side where he was hit.
Marie then asked the man, "Are you by any chance, the Opera Phantom?"
The phantom bowed at Marie, took her hand and kissed the back of it and said, "Indeed I am malady."
Jones slapped the phantom's hand on of Marie's and he said, "Well phantom or not, throwing a brick at a police officer is a criminal offense! And you also wrote explicit threats against the victim of a murder!"
The phantom then said while singing out, "I AM INNOCENT! I, the greatest soul the opera has ever seen, I tell you now! It is the witch, the demon, she's the one who murdered this innocent man!"
Jones looked at the man curiously and asked, "I'm sorry, what?"
"It's Eve! The diabolic Eve! She sent her serpent to bring fear and destruction upon us all," the phantom said in anger and then he disappeared again in a puff of smoke.
Jones rolled his eyes and groaned out, "Not again! I can't believe I let him get away like that! Sorry Marie, but that phantom sounds like a crazy person to me!"
Marie started to think about what the phantom meant when he said Eve and then she said, "Do you think Eve and the serpent could be a reference to Harper and her snake? Let's talk to her and find out!"
Once they were in front of her, Marie asked her, "Harper, we just met with someone who calls himself the Opera Phantom. Does that name ring any bells? Cause he's made some pretty heavy accusations against you."
After she heard that phantom's name, Harper explained angrily, "I know that guy! He lives inside the opera house, in the basement or something, and I found him when I was looking for a place for my snake. He was crying like a baby and he was asking me to keep quiet and to not tell anyone that he was living there. I thought he was just some homeless guy cause he didn't seem that threatening. And that's how I got rewarded. Well, I shouldn't be all that surprised really. Ever since I had snakes, people have been teasing me and calling me Eve and all that.
"I've been working as an animal trainer for the opera house for years now, but they'll never see me as their equal or my snakes as nothing more than props! Those stupid people they just get what they deserve!"
After they were done talking to Harper, Marie brushed her powder over the dressing room key until a bunch of fingerprints were visible. She then turned the prints over to Alex so he can help identify them. While Alex was analyzing the prints, Jones was resting the lump on his head with an ice pack. He winced a little from the coldness and he said, "That phantom didn't have to throw that brick so hard! I'm glad I didn't get a concussion otherwise I can't work."
Marie looked up from her what she was doing and said, "Well if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have known all that stuff about Harper and her snakes." And she looked back down and continued.
Jones got curious and went over to Marie's desk and he asked, "What are you doing baby girl?"
Marie showed it to him and he saw that it was a sketchbook. Marie smiled and said, "I sometimes like to sketch when things get too busy. I've had it ever since I was a kid; My nana was the one who gave it to me."
"Did she teach you ho to draw too?" Jones asked and Marie nodded putting the last finishing details on her drawing.
When she was finished, Jones saw that it was a picture of him and he smiled and thought, that's really good! Marie then went on to tell him that she was quite the Van Gogh in her class; as well as a good Hemingway cause her stories were really detailed even though Hemingway spent some of his life fighting in the war and it took him a while to get inspiration back before he wrote 'The Old Man and the Sea.' Jones thought that it'll be quite different around Grimsborough once Marie transfers. He then thought, if only there's a way she could stay.
After a while, Alex was done analyzing the prints and he called Marie and Jones to the tech lab to tell them what he found. Once they were in front of him, Marie asked, "So what did you get from the key Alex?"
It was then that Alex explained, "Well it wasn't easy to find a match, but I finally managed to isolate one fingerprint from the key that you found at the opera house. Turns out, the fingerprint belongs to Annabel Stewart, who's an understudy at the opera."
After they heard that, Jones thanked Alex knowing that the key was a goldmine and soon they headed out to talk to Annabel. As soon as they were lead to Annabel's dressing room by one of the stage hands, Marie and Jones entered it just as they heard the young woman practicing her part. When she heard them come in, she looked at the two officers and asked, "What is it that you two want? Is it about Roland's death?"
Jones nodded and said, "We found your fingerprints on a dressing room key that might be connected to the murder."
"The keys pass along to different members of the cast and since I'm an understudy, I've handled it like everyone else. But Roland was a nice man, even though we never saw eye to eye sometimes," Annabel said to them.
Marie then asked her, "What were you and Roland in a conflict about?"
"What do you think?! I want the leading role and I need it! I'm rehearsing with everything I've got but no matter what I do, it's never good enough! I've been working day and night to become an opera singer. Plus, I'm training more than anyone else, but he never saw that," Annabel explained.
After their talk with Annabel, Jones and Marie were heading back to Roland's dressing room. Jones then looked down at the key in the evidence bag and said, "Well, it seems that this dressing room key has helped us get one step closer to the truth about Roland's murder."
"And the only way to find out more about his killer is to have another look in the dressing room he died in," Marie said and Jones highly agreed.
After they got there, they looked around the vanity table when Marie spotted a teacup and when she took a whiff, the cup smelt a little strange. She also found a safe on one of the shelves that might have some sort of connection to their victim. The first thing Marie did, was type in the code to unlock the safe. Once she got the code correct and the safe unlocked, she and Jones looked inside and saw that the safe contained a lit of files. Knowing that they couldn't look through them all, they sent them to Alex to be analyzed.
After Marie was done with the safe, she started to take a sample off of the teacup. Once she did that, she and Jones noticed that there were some tea stains left on the cup and it was then that they concluded that the tea might've been the last thing their victim drank before he died. Soon, Marie sent the tea sample to Grace to be analyzed. While both clues were being analyzed, Marie heard a scream coming from the direction where Olivia's desk was.
When she got there, Marie saw her rival on top of her desk again and Ophelia standing near by shaking her head in embarrassment. Marie then asked, "What is it this time Livi?"
Olivia looked at Marie in fear and exclaimed, "A snake! A giant snake slithered out of nowhere and now he's cuddled up underneath my desk!"
After she heard that, Marie's eyes went wide thinking that there's only one snake in the station and it must've escaped. Just then, Nathan ran up towards them and then he stopped at Marie's side, looked at Olivia and said, "That's my fault Detective Rosa! I turned my back fo a minute at the big guy must've slithered out after I took Marie and Jones' victim out of his mouth!"
"Well can you get it out?! I'm tired of jumping up here whenever something I don't like crawls underneath my desk," Liv said while shaking like a leaf.
Marie rolled inside and said, "At least you didn't have Buck underneath your desk Liv."
Liv glared at Marie while Nathan was getting the snake out. After a few minutes, Nathan finally got the snake out and the three female officers saw that it was coiled around Nathan's neck and arms. Ophelia then said, "Be careful that it doesn't constrict and eat you Nathan. Giants snakes like that don't like to mess around."
Nathan smiled and said, "Don't worry ladies. I know exactly what do to around snakes." And he started to head back to his lab, but first he told Marie that Grace was looking for her and Jones and she thanked him for the message.
Once they arrived at the forensics lab, Grace explained, "I've analyzed the substance you got off the cup Marie and it is tea. To be more exact, it's actually Jasmine tea. But that's not all! I also found mixed into the tea were medication or to be more precise, sleeping pills."
Marie and Jones started to think carefully and Marie said, "Maybe Roland was taking the sleeping pills on his own or someone drugged him to kill him! And who would know better than his wife if he was taking medication or not!" And soon they left the lab to go and talk to Beatrice about her husband.
After they arrived at the opera house and were escorted to Beatrice's dressing room, Jones asked her, "Mrs. Vane, did your husband take any medication at all? For example, sleeping pills?"
Shocked by what she was hearing, the woman shook her head and said, "No, never! Roland hated sleeping pills and he said that they interfered with his creativity! I never understood his side of the argument cause I take sleeping pills every night and they work wonders when you're stressed out!"
Interested, Marie said, "I must say, I never once realized being an opera singer is so stressful. I always thought that it came naturally."
"You have no idea how much work we have to do! Opera is my life Inspector Marie and I will do it no matter what; even if it means learning how to handle snakes for a show! And to think that Roland wanted me to take a break! He kept on saying that I was working to hard, but I'm sure he just thought that I was too old for the role! Bit I'll never stop singing," Beatrice cried out.
On their way back to the station after their talk with Beatrice, Jones said, "Did you hear what she said Marie? Roland didn't take sleeping pills and yet we found traces of them in his evening tea!"
"Which probably means that Roland has been tricked into taking the sleeping pills. Which explains why the snake didn't wake him up," Marie said in theory while Jones stared at her wide-eyed and thought, that's one hell of a deduction!
It was then that the two officers realized that the killer has access to sleeping pills and Marie said that they should check all the suspects and see who takes sleeping pills. Jones nodded in agreement and he thought in his head that they already know Beatrice takes them. After a while, Alex was done analyzing the files and he called Jones and Marie to the tech lab to tell them the results.
Once they were in front of him, Alex explained, "I looked into those files that were in the victim's safe and apparently it seemed that Roland Vane and Adam Bentley were a lot closer in relations than we realized! Those files are actually family heirlooms, school papers, drawings, pictures, etc. It turns out that Adam was Roland's foster brother and he spent several years with the Vane family!"
Surprised by what they heard, Jones and Marie remembered Adam telling them that he didn't even know their victim. Soon, the two officers set out to talk to him. As soon as they arrived back at the club, Adam saw Marie and Jones approaching him and he said sadly, "Hello again Miss Marie and Inspector Jones. I'm sorry, but I don't know if I can help you. I didn't know Roland..."
Jones creased his eyes in anger at the man and exclaimed, "You can cut the lies Adam! We know you and Roland were foster brothers! Why would you hide something like that from us?"
Adam shushed Jones and told him not to be so loud while he looked around nervously. He then explained, "Okay, it's true. We both grew up in the same foster home, but our paths didn't cross again until he came to Maple Heights! I know he just tried to look after me like he always did when we were kids, but I couldn't let people know that I came from the foster system! My reputation would be destroyed after that! I just want the people of Maple Heights to see me as one of their own. But for that to happen, I had to reinvent myself entirely!
"But now that Roland's dead, I regret turning my back on him. He was the only family I ever had and I just threw him away like he meant nothing. He deserved a better brother than me."
After they watched Adam walk away with slumped shoulders, Jones' face creased into sadness and he said, "Adam wants to desperately fit in with the crowd of Maple Heights that he had to sacrifice everything he had. I almost pity the poor guy."
"Handsome as he may be and I hate to sound so harsh, but the people here would never see him as one of their own. No matter how hard he tries or how wicked his schemes are, he'll always be an outsider. Just like I was," Marie explained with a dark tone.
Marie then suggested that they tell the chief what they know about Adam and Jones rolled his eyes and said, "Alright. I don't see how all this really matters, I'd rather not upset him any further."
A few minutes later in Chief King's office, Jones and Marie were finishing explained to King about how Adam grew up in a foster home. After they were done, the chief said, "Well, it's just as I suspected. This young man has been lying to everyone from the start."
Jones looked down and said, "Sir, I don't like Adam either, but I think he only wanted a chance at..."
"Jones, this conman has managed to even fool the mayor! A perfect strangers whom we virtually know nothing about has been gravitating around the most important person in town! If anything happens to Howard Johnson because of Adam Bentley, I'll hold you personally responsible! Is that perfectly clear?!" Chief King exclaimed angrily to Jones and Jones nodded repeatedly.
King then dismissed them to go and continue solving the murder of Roland Vane. Later at the police station, Jones and Marie were at their desks and Jones said while propping his feet up, "First the snake and now Roland's been drugged? This case is getting weirder by the minute baby girl! And I'm not talking about that ghost..."
Suddenly, there was a proof of smoke and the Opera Phantom appeared before them and said, "FEAR MY WRATH!!! For I'm the Opera Phantom and you have disturbed my sleep!" And after the phantom pointed a finger at Jones, it was then that Ramirez came into the room wearing a ghostbusters outfit and he started taking pictures with his camera.
Ramirez then put the camera down and said with a smile, "I got it! I got a beautiful picture of a not-so-scary ghost!"
Angered, the phantom exclaimed, "For the love of god, you blinded me! I must retreat!" And after the Opera Phantom disappeared with a swish of his cape, Jones asked Ramirez if he can see the picture he took.