AWKWARD ZOMBIE

"Flighty, maybe....."

Pierce's face becomes stern.

"But stupid, no! If Joe had been looking for the body, he HAD to have passed by the river! And since Joe didn't move the body from the river, where it would look most incriminating for him, he couldn't have chased Bud to Re-Tail. Which means...."

Pierce turns to Diana.

"You lied to us about seeing Joe at Re-Tail, rookie."

"What if we assume Joe's testimony is true, doroing? If Bud was murdered at Re-Tail while Joe was searching his house for a shovel, there's a very good chance that Joe would've never come across the body."

"Of course, this would mean that it was not Joe, but Diana, who was the murderer."

Daisies Marcato. Stop beating me to all my posts. Leaving this here anyway.

"Let's not be too hasty, rookie. We can't prove that she killed Bud. But we can prove that she's lying about seeing Joe at Re-Tail."

Diana's eyebrows raise a bit.
"And if Joe isn't the one who did the deed, it stands that we don't have proof on who exactly is the killer."

"But these all seem to have conflictions. I'll see if I can make a general idea of what happened... So Bud can't sleep and goes for a walk, passing by Joe's house. Pierce, you said Joe placed a pitfall seed in front of his house, correct? Joe, being paranoid, saw Bud and went outside to see if he left anything suspicious. Bud ends up at retail, where he is attacked and stabbed in the eye. Was the knife inserted into his eye pre-mortem or post-mortem? Said murderer begins to drag the body and notices the prints in front of the house. They then begin to struggle around a bit to provide the illusion that there was a fight in front of Joe's house to incriminate Joe. They could have seen Joe leaving his house and have lived in a house nearby(Me or Octavian) or been following Bud and noticed Joe, realizing the footprints would seem imcriminating, and taking the opportunity to frame him."

"I'm sure that will come to light when you tell us why you lied about seeing Joe at Re-Tail."

"I looked a bit closer at the mud that I moved Bud to. There were the paw footprints, large enough to only be Bud's, and the pair of the bird's--Joe was the closest bird and what with the footprint analysis earlier today and his testimony...I made the guess that it was his." Diana looks a little embarassed.

((it's on the first post, terra.))

"So what did you ACTUALLY see last night? Without making assumptions, if you please."

"I saw Bud, lying not breathing on the ground with the knife in his eye and blood on his face."