Chapter 1: A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Synth Walk into a Bar
October 2289
A Hubflower for Magnolia: The Case of the Jilted Lovers
Chapter 2: Roses Are Red, Blood Is Too
On the way to Goodneighbor, Magnolia mentioned that she remembered the young man saying something about the Finches. That gave me a lead worth following. I also had one of my unsolved cases in hand, something to use as reading material while I would be spending the night in the Rexford. That was Case #321556, Red Roses: Murders in the City of Flowers.
The case was actually something that had been troubling me for some time. It was as cold a case as I had in the past 200 years. Before Diamond City, I had been in contact and a member of other communities, all of which have disappeared through various raids and attacks. One of those communities was appropriately called Rosehaven. Though roses have gone the way of the hippopotamus, the town had a beautiful array of hubflowers and carrot flowers surrounding the city. The old language is still poetic, and let’s face it, roses are more poetic than hubflowers. Like that book of lyrics I used to have—well, the old Nick--I still remember the beginning of one song: “My lover is like a red, red rose / That’s newly sprung in June; / My lover’s like the melody / That’s sweetly played in tune.” I believe it was by a fellow named Bob Burns. Must have been a fancy rock ‘n’ roller or something.
Anyway, Rosehaven, like most places in the Commonwealth, tried to recreate pre-war circumstances while unfortunately being populated with post-war people and, well, things like me. What it had going for it was a desire for a return to innocence, a time before the Great War went and returned everything to the original Big Bang. There were many who had never experienced nor had any real concept of the world before the Great War, but they still knew they hated living in a place where monsters were very much real.
Unfortunately for Rosehaven, while the people of the settlement spent their time idealizing a return to innocence, the rest of the Wastes were most certainly not becoming more innocent. Gangs in love with violence topped with violence reigned supreme throughout the land. Almost all the gangs I knew of had similar missions, though a few tried to become a little more organized and civilized. Most of them just wanted to see people bleed. That’s where Rosehaven comes in. And, no, it wasn’t a raiding party that started the, um, deflowering.
I remember the day as being May 17th and there being a festival that day celebrating life and vegetation. I was helping a fellow by the name of Barbury Newchurch place flower wreaths on the buildings of the town when we heard a scream behind one of the buildings. Barb and I hustled to the location where we discovered the town upper school teacher, Mr. Sanderrick Youthnot, with a steak in his heart cavity and flowers as stuffing within his clothes. Yes, I do mean a STEAK in his heart. A nice cut of the town’s prized milking Brahmin, Sweetitty, had been sliced up into bits, and stuffed into the cavity where Mr. Youthnot’s heart had been. His heart, as well as his left eye, which was replaced with Sweetitty’s coordinating eye, were never recovered.
Mr. Youthnot had long been suspected of deflowering the entirety of Rosehaven’s teenage female population, so the immediate suspects became the fathers and older brothers of all the girls in the upper school. Needless to say, the town was in an immediate uproar and the festival was canceled. Additional suspicion rose up in Daisy Cornfield and Eleanor West when they expressed more anger over the cancelling of the festival than Mr. Youthnot’s demise. I just thought they were ********.
During my time in Rosehaven, I was also hiding or, more accurately, denying who I was. Yes, I knew I was a synth and so did everyone who lived in Rosehaven. They were just like most places, reluctant but willing to give me a fair shake. However, as soon as anything went wrong, the long gaze of suspicion broke my way. Instead of being a cop in hiding, I was more like a criminal in the open, at least by some settlers’ viewpoints. In this case, Barb was quick to point out that I was incapable of being the murderer for two reasons: I was with him and he had observed the awkwardness of my synth hand when it came to using a knife. I tried to explain that my right hand was indeed capable of using a knife just like anyone else, but Barb shushed me, and everyone quickly forgot about me.
Instead, the town became a tizzy, a wandering collection of people each suspecting the other, all while we thought the killer of the town was among us. Following a town meeting, a list of the most likely of suspects arose, and Mayor Hartflower along with Security Captain Freddy Thumbs vowed to lead the investigation.
One month later to the day, June 17th, the owner of the trade booth, Maxine Sea, was found dead. Like Mr. Youthnot, she was mutilated. In her case, she was missing her left arm and right leg, and like before, her clothes were stuffed with flowers. Hubflowers.
Before any of us could solve the case, a few other mishaps led to the demise of Rosehaven and the case of the killer stealing body parts and leaving hubflowers—and steaks---in the victims’ bodies had to come to a premature close. By the time things were settled down enough to return to Rosehaven to investigate, I was in a town of one. Me, myself, and I. Either raiders hauled off the lot as slaves or super mutants took them all as an evening snack. There was literally no person, no blood, no evidence of life left. It was strange, but the case of the murders in the city of flowers was no more.
To tell the truth, I was more disappointed in losing the case than losing the town. But I do know this: using hubflowers as a calling card is unique, and whoever was behind Rosehaven’s killings has to be behind Goodneighbor’s.