Laying It All Out (Part 2)

"The Mind Rewriter isn't supposed to do... whatever it is that happened to that girl upstairs," Cassidy tells the rest of the group. Most people are quick to dismiss her, but Chelsea is still curious to hear more.

"And what is it supposed to do?" She asks.

"Exactly what the name suggests: it rewrites someone's mind. You load a program into it and attach it to any device that can play videos. Once it's activated, it gives a 30 second grace period for the person who set it up to get away. After that, it senses when a person comes in close proximity to it, at which point, it automatically turns the device it's attached to on and brainwashes the target. Then, once the program finishes, the devices turns back off until it's properly set up again to ensure it doesn't reactivate when you try to collect it," Cassidy explains.

"So you don't have to be in the room to use it... That would explain how someone could use it on Noelle but still be in the dining room. It would certainly be an easy way to get an alibi," Abigail muses. She then turns to S.A.M., Pearl, and Lalita. "And is that the same explanation Cassidy gave earlier."

"I believe so," Lalita expresses as she tries to recall the earlier events. "And given that she was under my spell at the time, I find it unlikely that she was lying. People tend to be very... unfiltered once they're wrapped around my finger."

"That's all well and good, but nothing you just said clears your name," Mona points out to Cassidy.

"Hold your fuckin' horses! I was getting to that," Cassidy groans in annoyance. "As I was saying, the program that I had loaded onto the Mind Rewriter was one that promoted total obedience. It's supposed to turn whoever sees it into a mindless **** who follows commands without question."

"I'm guessing that's where that phrase about being a good **** comes from," Chelsea mentions.

"Exactly. But here's the thing: it's not supposed to do whatever the hell masturbation thing Noelle was doing. The program has nothing in it that should make a person hornier."

"And why should we trust you now? You haven't exactly been honest up until now," Isa reminds her.

"Why the hell would I want a mindless **** that's too busy gooning herself to follow orders? That would be fucking pointless! I'm the one who's supposed to benefit from having people under my control. Why would I care if they get to cum?" Cassidy retorts.

"Uh... that's a bit of a selfish thought process, but I suppose it makes sense," Isa relents.

"Why didn't you tell us any of this sooner? It would have been nice to know this information," Lalita scolds the younger woman.

"Because I knew you would all assume I was lying and accuse me of breaking the singer girl's brain. Which, may I add, is exactly what happened," the inventor quickly responds.

"Okay, let's assume for a second that everything you just told us is true," Abigail remarks in an attempt to entertain Cassidy's defense. "Surely that means you noticed that Noelle had adopted a mantra from your brainwashing device."

"Well, obviously. How do you think I found out someone stole the thing?" Cassidy asks sarcastically. "As soon as I heard her say that, I figured someone must have jacked my shit. That's why I tried to leave as soon as possible. I had to check to see if my assumption was correct."

"And?" Abigail prompts her to continue.

"I went around the house and checked everywhere I had hidden stuff. By the time I was done, I noticed two of my machines were missing. I've been trying to figure out which of you assholes took 'em ever since. Unfortunately, I still have no clue..."

"Two?" Chelsea questions.

"Yeah. The Mind Rewriter wasn't the only thing that was poached. I also had one called the Blackout Light. It's a tiny little thing, looks kinda like a pen. When you activate it, it shoots out a bright light that temporarily turns off a person's brain, effectively knocking them out," Cassidy elaborates.

"Wait, you mean like that thing from the movie with the aliens and the-" Chelsea starts to ask.

"IT'S NOTHING LIKE THAT!" Cassidy immediately interrupts her. She then takes a short breath to collect herself. "But anyway, you would know if the Blackout Light was used on you, so I assume whoever took it didn't end up using it."

Abigail takes a moment to considers what she just heard.

"Well, Noelle didn't show any signs of being 'knocked out' either, so that doesn't seem relevant to the case right now. Maybe we can circle back around to it later if necessary," she notes. "For now though, it seems like we're back to square one..."

"Wait, what?! You can't seriously tell me you bought that crap!" Sabrina yells.

"I'm not saying she's definitely innocent or anything, but Cassidy's explanation does seem plausible given what we know. At this current moment, we can't discount it as a possibility," Abigail explains to the influencer.

"Unbelievable..." the blonde woman huffs.

"So what? All of that discussion was for nothing?" Mona asks, seemingly a bit ticked off at potentially wasting so much time.

"Not necessarily. I think it's fairly safe to say the culprit used Cassidy's Mind Rewriter in some way. We just need some more evidence to get the full story," Abigail assures the redhead.

Hearing that causes Lalita to perk up slightly.

"Oh! Perhaps now is a good time to bring up what we discovered then. Chelsea?" She prompts.

"Oh, right!"

Chelsea takes off her top hat and reaches into it. A second later, she pulls her hand back out, now holding the reassembled wine glass, the cracks still clearly visible on the dish's surface.

"We found this wine glass out in the flowerbeds in the backyard. At the time, it was completely shattered. We had to get S.A.M. to reconstruct it just to know what we were looking at," Chelsea tells the group as she holds the object out for everyone to see. "You think it could mean something, Abigail?"

"Hmm..." Abigail ponders as she examines the glass. "I'm not sure. It does look just like the one Noelle had earlier today. Although she wasn't the only person who had a drink, so it's hard to say for sure."

"That's pretty much the conclusion we came to," Lalita agrees.

"Perhaps it would be advantageous to show the rest of what we found as well," S.A.M. suggests.

"Oh, good idea!" Chelsea replies with a smile.

The magician walks over to the dining room table and sets down the glass. She once again removes her hat, but this time, she holds it over the table. She reaches one hand above the top and forcefully taps on it a few times. Each time she does, a few tiny pieces of glass fall out and onto the table. Once all the pieces are out in the open, Chelsea puts her hat back on and steps back so everyone can see the small pile that has formed.

"These pieces were too small for S.A.M. to rebuild. We're pretty sure they form some other item, but there's not enough for a second wine glass, so we're not sure what they are," Chelsea adds.

Everyone looks over the tiny shards of glass, but given their size, it is difficult to determine anything from them. Even Abigail seems stumped by the pile in front of her.

"Yeah, I've got nothing. The pieces are too small to get anything from. And I can't really think of any tiny glass objects I've come into contact with recently," she muses.

"You've gotta be kidding," Mona rolls her eyes. "Staring at a bunch of glass pebbles isn't going to get us anywhere. I feel like this is a dead end."

"I have to agree with Ms. Amazon on this one," Cassidy says. "No way we're getting any information out of this pile of sand."

"But they look so cute and sparkly! It kinda reminds me of that, like, little juice container!"

The room goes quiet as everyone looks at each other. Eventually, the women all turn around to see Blondie giggling to herself as she stares at the shiny glass pieces.

"Hold on, Blondie. Did you say juice?" Abigail asks, unsure of what the bimbo means.

"Yeah. The one that Ms. Smarty-Pants gave me," Blondie clarifies as she points at Danielle.

The rest of the women just stare at Danielle, who seems just as confused as all of them. However, a curious thought pops into the woman's head after a second. She reaches into her lab coat and pulls out on of her potion vials. She then picks up a few bits of glass and compares the two.

"Oh my god..." she mumbles to herself.

"What? What it is?" Chelsea asks anxiously.

"I don't believe it... Blondie's right... This is the exact same type of glass as the ones I use in my lab... This is one of my vials! I'm sure of it!"

All the ladies are in awe of the fact that Blondie was able to figure out something like that. That is, until Sabrina is suddenly hit by an epiphany.

"Wait a second! That's it!" She calls out. The others quickly look at her, clearly waiting for her to elaborate. "Danielle? Didn't you tell me that basically all of your chemicals increase libido?"

"Yes. That's correct," The Latina confirms. After a moment, she realizes what Sabrina means and hastily begins searching her lab coat. It doesn't take long before she gets a look of realization. "One of my sexuality supplements is gone! Those are some of my most powerful aphrodisiacs!"

"I knew it! Don't you guys see what that means? If Noelle's drink was spiked with an aphrodisiac..." Sabrina begins.

"Then that would explain why Cassidy's device wasn't able to properly brainwash her!" Abigail concludes as she finally realizes where Sabrina was going.

"That... actually does make some sense," Cassidy notes. "If she was hit by a supernatural amount of arousal in the middle of the programming, it could explain why her brain got caught on one specific message and started to repeat it over and over again. That's where the mantra came from..."

"Aha! See? I really am the greatest!" Sabrina boasts.

"Alright, let's not go too crazy," Isa warns her. "Soooo... does that mean Danielle did it?"

"What?! I most certainly did not!" The chemist responds aggressively.

"To be fair, you have been attempting to get test subjects for your various concoctions the entire evening," S.A.M. points out.

"But that doesn't mean I would **** someone's drink without them knowing! I'm not that unethical!" Danielle argues. "Besides, even if I could have slipped something in her drink when no one was looking, how would I have gotten the glass into the backyard? I haven't been out there a single time. And I was in the dining room the entire time from when Noelle left to when Chelsea found her. There's no way I would be able to sneak a wine glass out of the bedroom."

"Actually, Danielle brings up an interesting question: how did the glass get out in the flowerbed?" Abigail poses to the group. "As far as I know, no one went outside after Noelle first went upstairs, and it wouldn't exactly be easy to move that much glass all that distance during the investigation. The risk of getting caught would just be too high."

Once again, the women all pause to try to think. A few even pace around the room a bit as they try to think of how the glass ended up outside, including Chelsea, who seems to be wracking her brain as hard as she can.

"So she had the glass when she went upstairs... but then it was in the flowerbed by the time we got outside... that much glass... all that distance... risk too high..." she repeats Abigail's words to herself as she tries to think. Then, she freezes. "Too... high? Wait..."

In that moment, she gets an idea. The magician rushes out of the room, to everyone else's shock and confusion. Without much information to go off of, Abigail decides to follow behind, which prompts everyone else to follow suit. Chelsea ends up leading the group outside, where she tries to remember exactly where she found the glass. After successfully identifying the location, she looks up and sees it: an open window directly above the flowerbed.

"The window!" She cheers before turning to look at Lalita. "Lalita? Do you by any chance know what room that is?"

"Uh..." The model tries her best to draw a mental image of the house so she can answer the question.

"Based on my calculations, that should be the room Noelle is in," S.A.M. chimes in helpfully.

"That's what I thought!"

"So what exactly does that mean?" Mona asks, trying her best to follow along. This entire process has only reinforced her preference for physical activities over mental ones.

"It means you don't have to actually travel from the bedroom to the backyard to move the wine glass. All you have to do is drop it and the vial out the window! That's why they were both broken and the pieces were dispersed all over the place. They shattered from the impact of falling from two stories up!"

"The culprit must have been trying to dispose of the evidence. They probably didn't expect that anyone would be able to spot the glass scattered in the flowerbed," Abigail mentions.

"That's what you get when you doubt the Amazing Lady Presto! I've done so much crowd work, my eyes have gotten used to spotting small details from a distance!" Chelsea exclaims proudly.

Feeling very satisfied with herself, Chelsea begins to head back inside with the rest of the group. Once they all return to the dining room, they resume their discussion.

"Okay, so why know the how, but I feel like we're still not any closer to figuring out who actually did it," Sabrina says with a sigh.

"Perhaps I am missing something but it still seems to me that Cassidy is the most likely suspect," Pearl throws out. "I mean, she claims someone stole her technology, but there is no actual evidence to support that statement."

"Hey, fuck you! Haven't I helped enough to make it clear I'm not the bad guy here?" Cassidy asks.

"How do we know you didn't make all of that up to throw us off the trail?" The psychic asks back.

"Is that how you want to play it? Well then how do we know you aren't trying to push all this suspicion on me to make yourself look innocent? Huh? Maybe you're the one trying to frame me!"

"Well, what about Danielle? It's awfully convenient that she also had something stolen from her that made this crime possible..." Isa remarks.

"Hey! What did I do to you?" Danielle snaps.

"I believe we've all failed to mention that Mona was the only person on the second floor alongside Noelle at the time of the incident. She would have easily been able to drop the glass out the window before we arrived," Lalita says.

"What the hell?! I thought we were past that!" Mona grits her teeth. "And what about you? This is your house! You could have easily navigated around this place without getting caught!"

The women in the room start to get louder and louder as they start to accuse one another. As the scene starts to escalate, Abigail and Chelsea are left staring at the other ladies, unsure of what to do.

"There has to be something we're missing. I feel like we're so close. We just need that last little piece to make everything click," Abigail says.

"You know, Sabrina said we know the how, but I'm still not sure we even have that much figured out. There's still a bunch of stuff I have no idea how the culprit managed," Chelsea replies.

"Like what?"

"Well for example: how did the culprit set all this up? It feels like it required everything to go perfectly. Like, they had to get a potion from Danielle and the Mind Rewriter from Cassidy, then go hook up the device to the TV, then slip the potion into Noelle's drink, then dispose of the glass when no one was looking. It all seems so difficult. And that's just the stuff we've talked about so far. I mean, what if Noelle didn't take her drink upstairs when she left? I'm pretty sure she almost didn't," Chelsea rambles off her thoughts as she tries to come up with a solution.

"Wait... that's actually a good point. If the culprit spiked Noelle's drink, then they would need to somehow ensure she never left it unattended after that point. That's kind of an important detail to leave up to chance. So how did they get her to remember to take her drink with her when she left?"

"Well, we are a bunch of mind controllers. Making someone hold onto a glass isn't exactly a difficult suggestion to implant in someone's head. I'm sure most of us could have done it," Chelsea notes.

"Yeah, but not if-" Abigail suddenly stops herself as something dawns on her. The gears begin turning in her head. And that's when it hits her. "...That's it."

"Huh?"

"I got it... Everybody, shut up!" The other women quiet down and look at Abigail. It's rare to hear her raise her voice like that, so they are all curious to hear what she has to say. And once she has the room's attention, that's when she says it. "I know who mesmerized Noelle Timbre..."