Welcome to Poseidon Resort - Part 13

Quincy nodded, “Alright, I’ll spill the beans. Part of it is bad new, I am unfortunately going to have to retire as the leader of this little organization. I’ve been recruited as a deep space scientist and that will require me to be gone for probably years at a time. If scheduling is lucky then I can probably make one out of three of these events. A tragidy to be sure.”

He continued, “Nitzan is one of the members who have been here the longest so I wanted to make him the next leader of the group. So I bequeathed to him the Record of Murders.”

Nitzan held up the large poorly bound book full of loose pages. It drew the eyes of everybody. The legendary record of all the murders and investigations that all of them had participated in. Only brought out once a year after the event to reminisces over all the previous events.

Marylou smacked her head, “Of course. Why didn’t I realize that was missing from Quincy’s room. That would have been an obvious clue about the entire scenario.”

“When I found it I realized that it meant.” Said Severina.

Quincy looked at the book full of memories, “Demetra was also one of the founding members so she also knew in advance about the change of leadership. I was pretty certain from the beginning that it was her but without evidence I wasn’t able to prove it. After all it was possible that one of the others also learned about it and decided to pull such a trick.”

Demetra smiled and said, “I’m not really opposed to letting Nitzan take over. He is far more serious about work than me so I’m sure he will be a much better actual leader than me. However that knowledge didn’t completely stifle the feelings of jealousy that I had. So I decided to give you a special sendoff but murdering the two of you.”

“I’ll tell you it was a surprise.” Said Nitzan, “I had no idea you were planning on murdering me that night. And here I was planning on doing something special as well. I guess I’ll have to save all my ideas for the next time. Although pulling everything was pretty unique. However did you convince Sarita to assist you?”

“It was really a coincidence more than anything else.” Said Demetra explaining. “I accidentally found her while I was wondering around. I managed to convince her to share a drink with me and we managed to hit it off.”

“Unfortunately I realized I do not have a high tolerance to alcohol.” Said Sarita. “After a while I mentioned how I was interested in the stuff they were doing but how I didn’t think I would be a very good investigator. If anything I would be a better murderer. I guess that convinced Demetra to trust me and she opened up her plan to me. Although things didn’t go exactly as planned.”

Demetra shook her head saying, “They rarely do.”

“At first I was basing my assumptions on the fact that the murderer hadn’t made any mistakes. When I fist realized that was a false assumption that was the real turning point for me.” Said Zosi, “That was when I figured out that you had tricked me.”

Somarliðr said, “Alright, alright, enough discussion. The food should be here momentarily and we should party. Quincy is off to explore unknown frontiers, Nitzan is our new organization, and most of the rest of us get to celebrate our victory over the murderer.”

“Penalty Game.” Said Severina.

“Oh, no, don’t worry about that.” Said Demetra, “it is better to enjoy yourself while you can. And I wasn’t really the chosen murderer anyways so I don’t think I will need to play a penalty game.”

Nitzan used this moment to smile, “Oh, well, as the new leader I definitely think you need to enjoy a penalty game, if you weren’t the murderer you need to be punished for breaking the rules after all.”

“This is an abuse of power.” Said Demetra and everybody laughed.

The party continued with the tension that had been among them during the game gone. They were speaking like old friends, which they were.

Nitzan handed over the Record of Murder for Clemens and Sarita to look over. It was full of stories about many different murders in many different places. Full of cruel murders, and brilliant deductions. More of a scrapbook full of pictures and small clippings than anything else but clearly important memories for all of them.

—-

With the mystery complete the days quickly came and went with everybody enjoying their remaining time at the Poseidon Resort. Dinners were being shared giving everybody a chance to speak and enjoy themselves before they would all finally go off and return to their normal lives.

On the last day before everybody would leave Nitzan and Quincy found Clemens and Sarita to speak with them.

“Nitzan, this is your job now.” Said Quincy.

“Alright, well, since our event is over it is about time for everybody here to leave. However I wanted to thank you for joining us in our mystery. And…” He paused, uncertain for a moment. Quincy just stood there letting him find the words, “If you ever want to join us again then you are welcome. We meet together once a year to do mysteries and you are free to join us. Our events are all over so you can use it as a chance to visit new places. Here.”

He handed out a small business card. There was some contact information for the group on the card. “You can contact me and I’ll make sure to let you join us for the next one if you want. Although you will need to step up your game we are quite competitive.”

Clemens took the card and looked at it, “Thanks, I’m not certain but maybe I’ll try it. It was fun and different than I had expected. What about you Sarita.”

“Hmm… wouldn’t that involve leaving the resort.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to pressure you or anything. Just that it can be fun to get together and have fun with each other. You can make the decision whenever.”

Quincy clapped Nitzan on the back and said, “Good job. Give it a few more attempts and you will be perfect. I would also like to thank you for helping out this event. This place is a real gem and I’m glad I got to experience this place. Although I doubt I’ll be able to came back anytime soon, after all I will be gone for a long time. But if I were to see you again in a meetup in the future then I would be glad to see you.”

As they thanked Clemens and Sarita the others began to arrive one by one with their large bags. As Marylou passed by she said, “I managed to convince Isaac and Severina to leave a couple of their movies here. Your selection isn’t really that modern so hopefully future guests will have more things to watch. Well, have fun down here you two.”

Then they all gathered together in the elevator and waved to Clemens and Sarita as the doors shut and they were whisked away back to the surface.

“There are gone.” Said Clemens.

“Everybody eventually leaves. That is why it is a resort.” Replied Sarita.

“I’m still here.”

“For now at least.”

“That was fun though. Having just exciting guests. Between them and Esme everybody who has arrived here had been quite interesting. I wonder what kinds of people will show up next time.”

“Being interesting isn’t normally. Usually they just come and go without incident.”

“Did you try talking with them to figure out why there were here?”

“Umm… not really. I was busy… with work…” Said Sarita basically trying to evade responsibility for her own actions.

There was a moment of silence as the two of them just looked at each other. After that awkward moment Clemens managed to muster up the courage to ask, “Your work, it sounds very interesting. While I have watched the ocean a lot from the observation deck I’ve only been out there for short moments. Sometime do you think you could show me around outside? Just stuck in here makes me think that I am missing an important part of this resort.”

Sarita turned away not showing Clemens her face. Clemens was about to think she was going to refuse when she eventually said, “Sure, I can show you around sometime.”

Chapter Five — The Fish That Escaped

Clemens was in his room drawing a rough sketch. It was an underwater scene full of strange fish and other creatures. The center of the picture was currently empty and he knew what he wanted to place in the picture but that section was still empty, halted by his hesitation.

Then there was once more a notification over the speaker systems. It was the first new guests is quite a while. Ever since the mystery organization left the resort has returned to its normal quite self.

“Two new guests are arriving at Poseidon Resort. Please remember to treat other guests kindly and continue to enjoy your stay with us.” Said the voice.

Having reached a block in drawing anyways Clemens placed the picture on the pile with the others and left the room to go once more to the main hall while he tried to guess what time of guest would arrive this time.

When the doors to the lift slide open and the new guests stepped through them Clemens was at a loose for worse at the dichotomy of the pair of them. It was a man and a woman but they couldn’t have been more different if they tried.

The man was extremely brawny with a circular brimmed floppy had an the kind of shirt that was more pockets than anything else. He also carried a large fishing pole along with the bag that he dragged in. His outfit screamed fisherman more than anything anybody could possibly wear but it seemed so pointless. It wasn’t like there were any fishing holes, the only exits into or out of the resort were airlocks.

The woman who was walking beside him wore the most plain business suit that had ever been conceived of. She wore her hair in a tight bun and was the kind of person you would expect to be an extremely strict teacher.

While walking into the building the man practically shouted, “I’m back you monstrous beast! This time I will not be defeated!” And the woman just quietly followed behind him.

“Umm, hello.” Said Clemens timidly.

“You, who are you?” Asked the man who sounded very angry.

“Nice to meet you, I am Clemens. Am I correct to guess that this is not your first time here at Poseidon Resort?”

“That is correct. I have returned to take revenge on the terrible monster that humiliated me last time.”

“A terrible monster?”

“Eeyyyee, that terrible beast defeated me once but this time it will be different. This time I will be victorious.”

The woman stepped forward a little bit to say, “What he means to say is that he lost a fishing competition with one of the guests here last time he was here and he hopes to defeat her this time. Am I correct in assuming that the woman known as Sarita still dwellls at this resort.”

Clemens looked between the two of them trying to parse what just happened before finally saying, “Does that mean you are looking for Sarita? We can probably find her around somewhere. I didn’t know that she had such friends.”

“We are not friends. Enemies bound by an eternal code where we must fight again and again until the end of time.”

“He said rivals.”

“That makes sense I guess. How about you drop your bags off and I’ll go find her. If you give me your games I can tell her who arrived… although that probably won’t be necessary.”