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| "Mammoth" the NOUN, not the adjective. It's actually pretty minor, as mysteries go. |
Like all great epics, this story begins in mediās rēs; like most Speed Saunders stories, this story begins with Speed doing something ridiculous. Specifically, staring with mystification at a hollow mammoth tusk.
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| Maybe it's actually a cornucopia on a diet, Speed. |
Speed manhandles the tusk, which was the weapon in the death of "Bushland Bill" Mercer, The Explorer. "I'd like to see the corpse!" Speed demands.
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Officer: "Do you hope to spot a clue we missed?"
Speed: "No, I just REALLY like looking at corpses. A lot." |
The victim was circus folk, but for some reason the police are investigating the murder anyway. Must be a slow week in Saunders City. So Speed examines the body in gory detail.
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| How about PETA? Madness gives you strength, you know. |
So Speed goes to "overtake" the circus with the Strongman already a likely suspect.
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| "I will simply write down my intention to do so on this paper, which will cause it to happen straightway. Always works for me!" |
The next panel (and day), we find Speed a dozen miles away (having borrowed some workwear from his cousin, the farmer Perseverance Saunders) applying for work as a roustabout for the circus, because just solving murders using his infinite power as an Ace Investigator can get a little boring after a while.
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| I am now really curious to know what FAILING to wash an elephant looks like. |
Fortunately, Speed, among his other talents, is an expert pachydermic masseur. He probably learned it while infiltrating PETA in a previous adventure.
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| If you are wondering why the elephant is wearing a blanket monogrammed with "J", it is unexplained in the story, but I assume the creature's name is "Jumbo". |
We will learn the results of Speed's mammoth massage tomorrow, but in the meantime, I urge you to consider why this monstrous figure is not IMMEDIATELY the main suspect:
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| You KNOW he committed war crimes in Pepperland. |
