Chapter 12

The Light saw what Zusa had done, and was saddened. The Light came to Zusa, and perceived her. The Light saw her intentions, and was saddened. The Light shone upon Zusa, and drove her far from the Sel, banishing her back to the dark places. -The 33rd Quotation from The Way of Life.

Asuun had managed to get through 51 of the suspects on his list, all provisionally cleared, when he was notified that another body had been found. The department AI had determined that the initial site description indicated a high likelihood of it being related to his case. So he was notified of the crime, and given the details as they had so far been determined.

Asuun arrived on a pad that was just over 50m from the site. His AI informed him that no media drones had been allowed within a kilometer of the site. There had been some attempts using microbots, but nothing too aggressive.

The shop was located in a part of the city that was in the midst of some form of renovation, as far as he could tell. Walking to the shop involved stepping around 2 different work zones. Some of the buildings that were marked for demolition were still standing and Asuun could see why they wanted to renovate this area.

The buildings awaiting their turn with the wrecker were fairly old. Asuun would have guessed they were on the other side of a hundred cycles at this point. The changes in the safety code alone in that time, would have likely had them in violation of the current codes.

The location of the shop was in an older business structure, not too old, but starting to show it’s age from weathering. There were a number of businesses in the structure, but Asuun could see that there were empty rooms as well.

The victim had been identified as a store owner, named Seelen. The body had been found only a few hours ago, the victim had been found by his coworker when the coworker had arrived for work. The coworker was being kept in custody for now, but the security logs on his residence and on the personal vehicle he had so far are corroborating his story.

Seelen was discovered by the coworker when they arrived at the shop in the beginning of the business day. The initial time of death was placed as late the previous night, likely after the shop had closed. There was no sign of a forced entry. The victim was found near his configuration station, he specialized in personalizing AI personalities.

The victim was found sprawled on the floor, multiple stab wounds in his chest. The initial scans indicate he had some bruising on his forearms, indicating he had tried to block some very strong strikes. The majority of the bruising had been on his left forearm, suggesting the attacker had been mainly striking using his right arm.

The security screens on the windows showed no signs of damage and the only entrance to the shop is through the front door. There was no sign of forced entry and there was no entry in the security log for the door of the unlock code being activated, indicating the door had not been secured.

The body had already been moved to a security investigation lab for further processing, but the scene holo-projector was displaying the victim in the pose that he had been found, on the floor. It was not particularly close to the interface, Asuun noticed.

There were no security sensors inside the shop. There was a sophisticated lock on his AI configuration interface, but that did not show any signs of being accessed or tampered with in anyway. On a hunch, Asuun accessed the terminal interface, it recognized his security technician credentials, and gave him access to the administration element of the interface.

He checked the logs in the system and found that the lock had applied automatically after an hour of inactivity. The logs indicate the lock activated one hour and 42 minutes after the listed time the shop would have been closed. Now he had a timeframe of when the attack had to have happened.

Asuun moved off to one side of the room, taking it all in, and just let his eyes wander. It took him a few minutes before he found himself looking at a small figurine on the floor. It was beside a desk that had a few other items which looked more ornamental than functional.

He moved over and picked up the figurine. Nothing special about it, not made from rare or valuable materials, but well made. It suddenly dawned on him that he knew this figurine. It was a representation of a popular media presenter known for his witty comments.

This figurine was exaggerated slightly, showing all the eyes equally open, but with his mouth in a very friendly curve. Without being able to see his hands there was no way to tell if this was an aesthetic choice. The colouring on the figurine was a very good reproduction of the presenter’s natural colour, even including the small flecks of bright green scattered across his forehead.

On a whim, Asuun enabled the full room display for the holo-projector. He was able to find the small figurine on the floor in that as well. So he was able to confirm it had been there since the first scan of the scene.

He sat and looked at where the body had been found, the victims workstation, and the figurine. He was suspecting that the victim was likely working on his workstation, got interrupted by something, left the workstation, encountered the killer, bumped the table causing the figurine to fall off, and was killed where he was eventually found.

That made sense, but if that had been the case, why wasn’t there more evidence? In instances where a victim is able to resist an attacker, it is almost guaranteed that something of the attacker, will be left behind. Either on the victim, or at least in the environment.

No fibers or organic material was found on the victim’s hands, or under the claws. The claws did show some damage, obviously new. So we know the victim was struggling with the killer. Granted the victim had been following the current trend to decorate their claws, and had obviously gone through reduction surgery to minimize their size as well, both of which would reduce their ability as defensive weapons.

Asuun had his AI check on the status of the examination of the victim’s body. It came back stating that an official report was scheduled to be released already, but it was still not available. When Asuun asked for the reason it had been delayed, the AI informed him that there was an official hold on the information, pending further review.

Asuun had the AI identify who had placed the report under review and it informed him that the order had been listed as coming from the day shift supervisor for the medical investigation unit. Asuun immediately tried contacting them, but was told they were currently unavailable.

He left the scene, heading to the closest mat transfer site. He got the location of the medical investigation team that had possession of the body from his AI, and was able to transfer directly to their site.

As he stood there, getting his bearings, his AI connected to the site AI and located where Asuun needed to go to reach the day shift supervisor’s office. It was just a quick walk down a hallway, up a flight of stairs and down another hallway.

The section actually had someone staffing a desk to interact with anyone who came here. Asuun could see that he was not that old, probably the least senior in the section, he speculated.

“Hello, I am Security Technician Asuun. A body was brought in here for examination not that long ago from an active crime scene. The official report on the findings of that investigation are being held up by the day shift supervisor. Where would I find them?”

It took a minute for the medical technician to respond, Asuun had been very brusque in his statement and it seems to have caught the younger Sel unprepared.

“Uh..sorry, you are looking for the day shift supervisor? Did you request an appointment? It is a little later than normal for her to sched...” he responded as he was quickly checking his interface.

“No, I did not arrange for an appointment.” Asuun interrupted the flustered med tech. His name was shown as Wylor in the name plate section on his uniform. “Look, I am the chief investigator in an active case, and this body is related to that investigation. Where can I find the day shift supervisor? If they are not around now, then I just want someone that will be able to release the examination results.”

The tech could not seem to decide where to look, his eyes kept moving back and forth, from Asuun to his display.

“The day shift supervisor has gone for the day. If you would like to request an appointment..”

“Are they the only ones that can give me access to the report?” Asuun spoke over him.

“I..uh, I don’t know.” the medical technician managed to get out, looking up at Asuun.

Asuun just looked at the technician for a few seconds.

“Is there another supervisor on duty at this time?”

“Yes. Argilla.”

“Please contact Supervisor Argilla. Tell them that Security Technician Asuun would like to see them as soon as possible. Tell them that this is urgent.” Asuun managed to keep his voice level throughout.

“Yes...I mean, yes sir...uh, right away.” the technician focused on his display for a few seconds, fingers moving rapidly.

Less than a minute later, Asuun saw a uniformed figure come out of a near-by door, and approach the front desk. He was moving before the technician pointed toward him.

“I am Supervisor Argilla. You are looking for me?”

“Not specifically, but I am hoping you can do what I need.” Asuun’s reply was unenthusiastic. “I am Security Technician Asuun, and I am currently working on a murder investigation. The body from the crime scene was brought here for examination earlier today. I am able to verify that the report was finished, but it has been blocked from my access on the authority of the day time supervisor. Can you release the report so I may access it?”

“I don’t see why not. Come with me please, I will see what has been done.”

Supervisor Argilla moved back to the doorway he had come out of, Asuun following closely. Through the door was a hallway with several doors on either wall. The hallway continued the soothing colour scheme that was prevalent in the rest of the public area of the department. Subtle blues, oranges and tans were used in a particularly boring combination to cover the walls, doors, door frames, and floor.

He moved down to the second on the left, it opened as he reached it. The revealed room was nothing more than a generic functional office with the obligatory landscape scene on one wall. There were 2 uncomfortable looking couches in front of the desk. Argilla moved behind the desk, and took a seat, bringing up the display.

Argilla sat down and activated the terminal. Asuun could see him looking, his eyes and hands moving quickly, the gestures sure and steady. After a minute he stopped moving and seemed focused on whatever he was seeing.

“I found the report that you are looking for. I can’t unlock it.” Argilla spoke in a disbelieving tone.

“Why not?”

“The report was submitted earlier, but it has been moved out of the department files. According to the log..it has been moved to the Advocate department.” Argilla sounds a little confused at this.

Asuun could not see why the Senior Advocate would be so determined to get involved in this investigation. This level of interference could have some serious backlash for him. His actions could easily be perceived as interference in an active investigation and could lead to an official reaction that could cost him his position.

Asuun did not want to have to go back to his supervisor to get this dealt with, but he was not sure how to approach the Senior Advocate. There has to be something back with the original investigation that is prompting this obstructionist behaviour from him.

“Is there anything else that I can do for you technician Asuun?” Asuun got the impression that not too much happened on the evening shift. The Supervisor had been sitting quietly, waiting for any other questions.

Asuun thanked the Supervisor for his assistance, and headed back to his office. As he was walking, he had his AI go over the case information from the previous killer, looking for any connection to the Senior Advocate and the killer, any of the victims, and any of the locations that any of the murders occurred at.

Asuun could not see what advantage the Senior Advocate got out of this action. At best, it would delay his investigation a few hours only. But that did not make sense either, why would the Senior Advocate want to delay his investigation?

Regardless of his reasons, Asuun had a murderer to find, and it appeared he would need to deal with the Senior Advocate first. While heading back to his office, he sent a short message to Lusant, updating her on the new problem. It occurred to him that he would need to get his AI to re-examine the evidence to ensure that nothing else had been blocked by the Senior Advocate.

Asuun explained his concerns to his AI, and instructed it to review all information related to the murders. He made sure to emphasize he was interested in any irregularities in the investigation path, or evidence handling.

Assun was relieved when his AI finished its analysis, and did not find any other irregularities with the case. It did report that the Advocate’s office had duplicated all of his notes, as well as all reports that had been filed so far.

Asuun sat in his office, trying to understand what could have motivated the Senior Advocate to violate protocol this badly. This had gone far beyond professional curiosity.

Asuun instructed his AI to review any documentation submitted by Senior Advocate Nethyn’s peers, and colleagues, when he was the lead investigating security technician on the previous series of murders.

Asuun specifically configured his AI to look for...oddities...in the notes. Anything that was mentioned by colleagues, peers, or supervisors, that were not in Nethyn’s notes, but were related to the investigation at the time.

Once that was done, Asuun sat back and considered the overall actions of Senior Advocate Nethyn. No one got to his position without knowing what they could, and could not, get away with. He had to know that Asuun would discover his actions, and report this violation of protocol.

The only thing that made sense to Asuun was that Nethyn had a motivation that overrode these considerations. Whatever it was, it would need to be something worth being removed from his position possibly.

Unless Nethyn could somehow show some sort of connection to this case. Asuun could not see how this was a real possibility. This was clearly a different killer from the one that Nethyn identified all those cycles ago.

That made Asuun stop for a minute, could he just dismiss this possibility?

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