Heading up to the gates for the first time since first entering the town, he sternly approached Booker who had been left behind on guard duty.  Seeing the raptor approach with a not-too-friendly look in his eye, the guard stuttered out:
	"Y-y-y-you shouldn't-"
	"Shut the fuck up, fat boy."
He grabbed the bulldog's spear and threw it to one side before grabbing his throat and putting him against the wall, the guard surprised and scared to resist.
	"P-p-please, don't hurt me..."
	"I don't wanna hurt you, I wanna know something.  Where were you last night?"
	"H-h-here, always...never leave..."
	"What about your friend?"
	"C-copper was here too, swear to dog!"
	"Fine...did anyone between last night and today leave this town?"
The dog only shook his head slowly to mean no, genuinely afraid and showing a fear that James knew was the kind too afraid to try lying, but he tested nevertheless.
	"Are you sure?  Cuz if you're wrong, I won't leave you untouched."
	"N-n-no!  No one left!"
	"Good.  Sorry to bother you, officer."  He let go of him and kicked the spear back towards his feet.  "And for fuck's sake, have some balls.  You're a guard, act like one."
Leaving the unfortunately unconfident watchdog behind, he headed back into town, being careful to sneak around trees and houses as he pondered on who to interrogate next.  He went down the list of who was present in the town in his head.
Pellie was off the list because he had met her just before Daisy's death.  Tortimer was a possibility if it wasn't for the fact he was probably too old to choke anyone to death.  Brewster never left the bar, but he did decide to start there to account for Blathers and Celeste.  Even if it was already impossible because Daisy was his most loyal attendant and customer of the museum, while Celeste was just a little girl.
Then he remembered it was Saturday as he walked to the museum, and realised he could also interrogate K.K. if he knew anything.  Somehow, James could never imagine HIM doing anything so terrible.  But trying his best to be logical, he was out of town a lot, so he had to take the chance.
For now, he replanned his movements and started with Freya, the only one who had actually harmed Daisy before.

Knocking gently on Freya's door, she opened with a little fear to see yet again a lone raptor on her doorstep, and asked softly:
	"Oh...h-hello James.  I heard about Daisy."
	"Ah huh."
	"And I want to say, I'm so very very sorry about your loss."
	"Alright.  But...can I ask you a few questions?"
	"Of course."
	"Where were you last night?"
	"At home, I'd never go out in such frightful weather."
	"Really?"
	"Oh yes, I may be a wolf but I prefer to sit at home with a nice mug of cocoa...would you like one?"
	"...no thanks.  Did you see anyone near Daisy's house last night?"
	"I wasn't looking her way in particular, and it was too snowy to really see anything, as you well know."
	"Alright...I'll go then."
	"Ohhh...I wish she..."
	"Hmm?"
	"Oh nothing I was hoping she'd got a present was all..."
The warning light came on in his head, glaring red like the fury he would soon feel when he looked at her more intently.
	"Present?"
	"Well yes, I sent her one a few days ago, I was hoping it had arrived to her."
	"...it wouldn't be a rather soft package by any chance would it?"
	"Yes, it was a sweater actually I got for her, in the same patterns as her skirt!"
	"And...you decided not to come up to her door and give it to her or leave it on the doorstep?"
	"Oh I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise and of course I'd not leave the package on her doorstep, uff da!  It would get all wet...why are you so interested in that package all of a sudden?"
	"Well..."
He stepped inside, calm as he could contain himself to be, claws stretching slightly in sheer contained fury.
	"Just that, funny thing, the night she died, I was asked by her to get a package for her from the post office.  Someone slipped a little pink slip under the door and she asked me cuz it was too cold and well, I picked it up!"
	"Oh that's good to hear!"
	"Ohhhh...heheh...not really because had I stayed around SHE WOULD STILL BE FUCKING ALIVE!"
His fury suddenly rose in pitch as she screamed and tried to run back further in the house, but he grabbed her arm and shoved her against the wall.

	"OH DOG NOT AGAIN!"
	"FUCKING RIGHT AGAIN, CUZ IF IT WASN'T FOR YOUR FUCKING PACKAGE DAISY WOULDN'T BE DEAD!"
	"PLEASE, I DIDN'T KNOW!"
	"LIAR!"
He brought out from his jeans the pink slip that had started this spiral.
	"LOOK!"
He shoved it against her whimpering face as she read the slip, confused and shaken.
	"Th-th-that's not mine-"
	"Don't you DARE fucking lie to me you CUNT!"
	"I NEVER WROTE THAT, I SWEAR ON MY LIFE!"
	"Really?  You convinced enough to watch me kill you?"
He punched her full in the jaw as she collapsed on the ground, shaking and screaming for help as he tore furniture all over the place that she tried hiding behind.  She scrabbled on all fours desperate to escape his quickening reach.
	"NO!  PLEASE JAMES, NO!"
	"WHERE'S YOUR FUCKING FENG SHUI NOW BITCH!?!?!"
	"NO, STOP, DON'T KILL ME!"
	"I'LL CHOKE YOU LIKE YOU CHOKED DAISY YOU FASHION WHORE!"
James soon leapt upon her with grim determination, as his claws gripped her throat and started to strangle her.  Not all the way, but just enough to make her fearful, her pathetic pleas for help turning weaker as her tears stained his hands.
	"Please...stop...a-ah...ghk!  P-plea-hukh!"
	"If I can't have Daisy back, I'm gonna make sure the killer won't come back either..."
	"I...didn't write that..."
	"Don't you fucking lie..."
	"PLEASE!  I can prove it!"
	"Hmm?"
	"Let me...write something..."
	"...hmm."
He stopped putting pressure on her larynx and pushed her towards the sofa.
	"Where's a pen and paper?"
	"I-i-in the dresser, top drawer left."
He went to the intact dresser and scurried in the drawer to find her pen and notebook, giving them to her forcefully and bringing out the pink slip again.
	"Write down exactly what is written on here."
	"B-but-"
	"WRITE THE FUCK DOWN WHAT'S ON THIS FUCKING PAPER YOU FUCKING BITCH!"
	"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!"

She started to shakily write out the exact words, too scared to miss a single comma while whimpering to herself, before finishing her note which James snatched from her.  Examining the two different papers, he realised with an angered heart that Freya could not have written it.  Even with her shaky terrified hands, her writing was far too neat, too cursive, and almost unreadable to his public upbringing other than the odd i or e.
	"...you're innocent."
He said this with a somewhat saddened tone as he took the pink slip as his one shred of evidence.  Had she been the killer, it would have been so much simpler.
	"I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have judged you."
	"I...I know how you-"
	"If you say you know how I feel, don't even fucking say it because you will NEVER know how I feel."
	"SHE WAS MY FRIEND!"
	"SHE WAS MY LOVER!  Don't push your fucking luck and be glad I let you live with only a bruise!  ...but you are her friend."
And then an idea came to him as he asked a final question.
	"Did anyone in this town not like Daisy?"
	"Wh-what?"
	"SAY WHAT AGAIN AND I WILL RAPE YOUR FUCKING EARS, SLUT!  DID ANYONE HATE DAISY!?!?!"
	"N-NO, NOBODY DID, I DON'T KNO-O-OWWW!"
She was left crying and hiccuping in the corner as he left her, frustrated with himself, and angry at Freya for her package.  But before he left, he made peace with her, or tried to uselessly saying:
	"Daisy would have loved your present.  Thanks."
And with that, he left Freya terrified in her own home, amidst her ruined furniture.

With that dead end, knowing the killer wasn't surely going to be someone as stupid as Freya, he headed onwards down his list seeing who else could have done it.  In theory anyone of them could have, but he remembered from the police who would always pull him over that there was always motive.  Who would have the motive to kill Daisy?
He soon realised tht none of them did, and the only one he suspected to have any little bit of motive against her, he just terrified the living daylights out of.  And that meant without motive, anyone was a suspect.  With that reasoning out the window, he had to think about strength.
Daisy was strangled, someone had to overpower her and choke the fuck out of her...who would be strong enough to do so?
With that in mind he went to the strongest villager.  Knocking on the door of his seaside house, Rasher opened with a disheartened look.
	"Hey..."
	"Hey."
	"...lissen.  I'm sorry."
	"For what?"
	"Well, yer girl, dude...whole town heard all about it, just evil."
	"Mmhmm."
	"Yeah...I know yer kinda not talkative but dude, if ya need anything, just ask, I'm totally cool."
	"Are you?"
	"Well yeah...we're buddies right?"
	"Of course...buddy."
Rasher was a little put off by the strange attitude of his friend but he tried to ignore it.
	"So anyway, watcha want?"
	"I wanted to ask you a few things."
	"Shoot, brah."
	"Where were you last night?"
	"Chillin' here, working mah reps, the usual.  Needed to keep warm last night, right brah, thought maybe some ice fishing but thought nah too crazy."
	"Alright.  See anyone?"
	"Nah.  Come on dude it was a damn blizzard out there!"
	"Well...didn't you say you survived in extreme conditions?"
	"Aw man that was like the jungle...what are ya saying?"
	"Oh nothing...I merely assumed someone as fit as you could be able to do some nasty stuff out there."
	"...you sayin' I killed Daisy?"
The boar beefed up, insulted at the suggestion.
	"I don't know who killed Daisy, but I am not leaving this town until I find the killer, and you better hope it's not you."
	"You think I'm like that huh?"
	"I'm going for everyone here.  Don't feel insulted Rasher, you just live here."
	"Well lemme tell ya sumthin', bitch."
He poked the raptor's chest threateningly to punctuate each word.
	"I.  Don't.  Hurt.  Girls.  And considering what I heard, that makes me better than you."
The raptor snarled at Rasher for the admittedly true insinuation.
	"Don't even THINK about starting a fucking fight with me."
	"Oh yeah?  You can't kill me."
	"Look at these claws.  You think they're for cutting apples?  Unless you want me taking your chinny-chin-chin fucking clean off, you don't start pushing me."
	"Well you got my word on it.  I never went near Daisy that night.  I was here.  All night.  Flexing my badass pecs."
And with that, he slammed his door shut, thoroughly insulted and leaving James with one less person to handle.  He could try and fight him and beat a confession out of him like with Freya, but he wasn't entirely sure if he could take on the well-toned pig.  Plus he was his best friend in the town.
But then he remembered the slip.  Knocking on the door again, he hadn't noticed Copper coming around the side of the house.  He was less than amused.

	"Stop right there!"
	"Oh...hello."
	"Save your false greeting punk.  I tried to be nice with you but I don't tolerate violence in my town."
	"I think the time for tolerating violence is well fucking past."
	"You are coming in either way.  James Campbell, I'm arresting you for the assault of Freya which you committed today, you do not have to-"
	"Oh spare me the fucking warning, I know it by heart and it's not gonna work."
	"Maybe this will."
Without warning he lunged his spear towards the raptor's leg, barely giving him time to dodge.
	"HEY, what the-"
Another spear lunge came that was too quick for the raptor to grab ahold of, but enough to dodge once again as he picked up some nearby sand and threw it into Copper's eyes.  With his foe temporarily blinded, he strafed away from the spear and kicked him in the chest full on.  He soon piled onto him, grabbing the spear and holding it to his throat dangerously.  The briefest flash of violence ran through his head begging to plunge it into the guard's neck.  But something held him back.
Cop killers don't live for long kid, said a voice from his memory.
	"Get up."
Copper did so, slowly with the spear kept at his neck.
	"I let you get off easy last time Copper, but you're in my way, and I don't like that."
	"So what are you gonna do, kill me?  It won't make you any better than the killer."
	"Don't even compare me to that fuck!"
	"The way I see it, is someone's about to kill someone.  That makes them a murderer, no matter what the reason is."
	"All I ask is this.  Stay out of my fucking way."
	"And if I don't?"
	"You die."
	"I don't think you can do that, James."
	"...don't test me."
He made a little push forwards and cut the chin to let Copper bleed a bit, making him grunt.
	"I nearly slipped.  Don't make me do it again."
	"You won't.  Besides, what would Daisy think?"
	"DON'T YOU DARE SAY HER NAME!"
	"YOU WANT TO BE A MURDERER ALL FOR THE SAKE OF CATCHING HER KILLER!?!?!  I'm TRYING to help you, YOU'RE the one hindering all of this!"
	"Because I don't want him arrested!  I want him TORTURED!  EVISCERATED!  FUCKING MAIMED!"
	"I know...but I don't.  I believe in justice, James.  What do you believe in?"
With no reply to this, he knew somehow Copper was right in the sense that the guard couldn't and didn't really want to kill him.  This also struck him off of James' suspect list by the passion he had of justice.  He knew this guy was a straight arrow, especially if he did not tolerate vigilantism.
Throwing the spear away, he ran off as Copper gave chase.  But with his younger better agility, he was too fast and nimble, and easily disappeared from sight to lay low for a while until Copper got tired out enough.  James decided to catch a show later on at night.

At the museum, Blathers was sleeping as always until night time truly came, but was soon rudely woken up by an impatient raptor.
	"AGH wh-what what, OH...James...oh my dear boy."
	"I know Blathers."
	"My deepest condolences to you."
He offered a hug but James was too suspicious of everyone to accept it as he waved his hand in refusal.
	"I just need to relax somewhere."
	"I see.  You can stay here as long as you wish to.  Who could have...done such a thing to that wonderful girl?"
	"That's what I'm trying to find out actually."
	"Ah...have you found any clues?"
	"Well...only this."
He trusted Blathers enough to show him his one scrap of evidence he had, seeing he had the best relationship with Daisy, next to James himself.
	"Wh-what's this?"
	"Someone wrote this to lure me out of the house.  No way was this an accident."
	"Well being murdered implies not."
	"But it has to be deeper than that.  Someone knew about Daisy not liking the cold, me being there, me going out to get her stupid package!"
	"Did you find the one who sent it?"
	"Yeah, it was Freya but it's not her writing."
	"I see...the cowardly reprobate this murderer is.  I don't want to sound merciless...but I hope you find him first."
	"Really?"
	"You may think I'm an esteemed haughty curator, but I have my own dark sides when pushed.  And when somebody harms my most dearest friend and patron...well...that makes me rather vindictive."
	"...right.  I'm gonna sit down at Brewster's, maybe some coffee will inspire me."
	"Whatever suits you."
	"If any of the guards come here-"
	"-then you were never here."
	"Heh...thanks."
With a fellow assurance from the curator, he walked down into Brewster's Roost, desparate for a drink after all the shouting and running he had done the past several hours.

In the bar, he tried to relax and think over who was left to talk to.  Of course he asked Brewster just to clear him of suspicion and he amicably showed his innocence by proving he was at the bar at the time of the murder, thanks to a receipt on his cash register from serving coffee to Blathers near enough at the time of the incident.
	"Blathers gets coffee 6.15pm always."
	"Boy people love their routine around here don't they?"
	"Him too.  Wakes up at 6pm.  Checks the place over."
	"Wait, didn't he always wake up at like 5pm or so?"
	"Very cold days.  Tends to sleep more."
	"Oh.  Well, okay."
Brewster's presence always seemed to calm him down as he tried to strain any last tears out of him, as well as relax with some coffee.  He also wanted to wait to talk to K.K. and keep low until the heat was off.  Around the same time as always, at 8pm, he saw the dog sit upon the spotlight.  He realised also that he had never once seen the dog singer enter the bar.  He just seemed to appear on the stool at 8 o'clock precisely.
	"Howdy James."
	"Hey."
	"You up for a song tonight, my friend?"
	"Not tonight...I need to ask you something."
	"Go ahead."
	"You...heard about what happened in the village?"
	"Mmmmnope."
And with a willpower of some acceptance, he said with a heavy sigh:
	"She's dead, K.K...someone killed Daisy."
The dog looked surprised at the news before looking saddened.  Only his eyes moved slightly, for he never changed his tone.
	"I'm sorry to hear that.  And how do you plan to deal with that situation?"
	"Find and interrogate every single person in this town."
	"Everyone?"
	"...not everyone.  Gotta try and be logical.  That old tortoise is way too old to strangle anyone.  And his secretaries, they seem pretty tight to the hall.  Blathers would never hurt Daisy, she's the only person who loves the museum!"
	"You should never judge people by their appearance."
	"But that's the thing, everyone here has an appearance that makes me not think they did it, so I have to do away with that and think who could have possibly done it."
	"...what about me?"
	"W-w-what?"

K.K.'s comment surprised the raptor as he looked up suddenly, the singer gently adjusting his guitar with a little tuning of the string.
	"Consider this, James.  I'm young, I'm healthy, mysterious in coming here only every Saturday at night, and I did know quite a bit about you and Daisy."
	"...yeah.  You're right."
	"But do you suspect me?"
	"...no."
	"Why not?"
	"There's...something about you.  I can't ever imagine you being violent or bad in any way.  I try to but it's impossible, like you're an angel."
	"Hehehe, an angel?  That's new.  I appreciate your high opinion of me, even if it's a li'l naive.  But there ya go, judging by appearance.  The thing is James, I can already tell this death has the entire town in chaos, and you're the repercussion that's spreading waves throughout the place.  On my way here I heard about Freya, and your li'l warpath startin' to build."
	"You saying I should stop?"
	"If I did, would you listen?"
	"No.  Not even to you.  Like you said before, either my love for Daisy or your music was stronger than the other, and I chose Daisy.  Now I'm going to make sure she's avenged, when I rip that fucker's throat out."
	"Violence begets violence.  What if that person has a lover or a friend?"
	"Then he or she shouldn't have started it in the first place!  You wanna get on a high horse and tell me to be better than him and not kill him or her?  Well I'm sorry but I can't fucking do that, there's only ONE lesson when with me.  I.  Am.  Vengeful.  I don't go hiding in a bed panicked and sad, I fucking get out there and rip them to shreds!"
	"And if he or she gets you first?"
	"I'll make sure they never forget me, or at least somehow find controlling their body a little more...difficult."
	"Well..." he turned slightly towards James, focusing with soft eyes.
	"I don't condone whatever you will do...but I don't have the nerve or strength to stop you.  I do value my fingers to make my existence worthwhile after all.  But I want you to realise one thing, James."
	"What?"
	"This is a community.  We are all connected by the tiniest of threads like a spider's web.  And if one person is hurt, everyone feels it.  Don't feel like you're the only one who cared about her, okay?  You wanna make it justice, not revenge."
	"Alright, whatever.  I gotta go.  If anyone asks, I wasn't here."
And with that, he ran off into the night, sneaking out of the museum to avoid the guards who might be prowling nearby.  The guitarist pondered aloud to Brewster:
	"Told you he'd liven things up."
	"Real shame.  Think he'll catch the killer?"
	"He'll never leave until he does."