Difference between revisions of "Dumped at the Cinema"

Latest revision as of 13:45, 28 September 2011

September 1, 2011

San Angeles Police Department – San Angeles – Earth The main headquarters of the San Angeles Police Department is always bustling, even in the wee morning hours, as shift cops bring in perps from street crimes, detectives haul in vi-crime suspects, watch commanders book incoming prisoners, and dispatchers transmit the latest crises to the proper precincts.

The main room consists of several clusters of desks, with one section set aside for traffic cops, one for burglary/homicide, and another for vice.

Crime scene analysts get their own little bubble of a room, sealed off from the investigative squads, while the weapons and evidence lockers are overseen by desk cops.

A soft chuckle escapes Izzy’s lips as she hears Faith and gives a grin. “Aren’t they just wonderful?” she asks with a glitter in her eyes. A pause before she eyes her closer. “You were there when the janitor went down, weren’t you? A friend of Detective St. John’s.” Faith has just walked by Iseul’s desk and is being engaged by the young detective.

Another busy afternoon for the San Angeles Police Department. There’s a bit of chatter in the dispatch room. A couple of detectives are grilling an armed robbery suspect. The interim chief, Raleigh Devrees, emerges from his office with a PDA in hand. His brow is furrowed as he ponders the display. He gazes around the bustling main room and points at Iseul and Faith. “You two,” he grunts. Waves the PDA. “Got something for you.”

"I was, although I wouldn’t go so far as to call us friends,” Faith replies with a shadow of a smile, “CSI Fairbreeze. Faith.” She looks to Devrees, then, “Ah, I smell a long day in the making. Shall we?” She makes an ‘after you’ gesture for Iseul and makes to the office.

“Koh, Iseul,” Izzy introduces moments before they’re called. Her brow wrinkles with a perplexed look. “Unusual…” she murmurs, mostly to herself but rises from her seat and buttons her jacket while trying to improve upon her slightly rumpled look. “Chief,” she greets politely as she walks toward the man.

Raleigh Devrees remains outside his office, not bothering to lead the duo inside. But he does drop his voice rather low, not quite to a whisper. “We’ve got a weird one. Usher at the Lowe’s Cinema in the Teedee called it in. Dead body in the alley behind the theater. He thinks it might be a Castori or a Demarian, which tells me he’s probably never gotten a good look at either. Check it out. Notify me once you know something. If it’s not a drunken bum cat dead of one last bender, I’ll need to bring in the district attorney.”

“Pleasure, Detective Koh,” Faith says lightly. She listens to the man’s explanation of the caise and quirks an eyebrow. “Curious,” she notes lightly, “On it, Chief.” And unless there is more to be had of the conversation, she turns away to go gear up.

Iseul nods as the chief speaks and then muses aloud, “Seems like there’s a rather large difference between a Castori and Demerian.” She mimics Faith in turning away to sort herself out and get equipment together. A pause and she looks back to Devrees. “Keep a low profile on this for the time being?”

“Low as you can, yeah,” the chief says.

“I’ll have to hitch a ride with you, then,” Faith remarks to Izzy, “The CSI van isn’t exactly subtle.” She grabs her case of goodies and her badge ID and sets out.

Rhodes Square – San Angeles – Earth When the San Angeles Planning Council in 2422 first saw blueprints for the centerpiece of what was known then as the Transport District, they were astounded. Architects at the firm of Stanford and Cohen proposed a massive complex that would include a spacious greenspace surrounded by music halls, concert complexes, and art museums. Such a plan proved cost-prohibitive, as the council refused to make taxpayers foot the bill for the ambitious design. The council found a benefactor in a reclusive artist named Jess Rhodes, who vowed to invest her fortune in the project. However, the staggering collapse of the virtual entertainment market of 2426 decimated her wealth. In the end, the Council settled for building a modest concrete plaza with a silver steel arch over twin gurgling fountains, with a holocinema on the south side and Crawford Street to the east.

An usher stands outside the Lowe’s Holocinema, looking nervously up and down the street every once in a while, like he’s waiting for someone.

Edward Morgan Teach is sitting on a bench near the fountain with what appears to be some kind of delicious sandwich held in his hands. He takes a bite from it every now and then, crumbs spilling onto his flightsuit, or onto the concrete.

The soft tamp of heels announces Dr. Nirali as she sashays up the boulevard, commlink pressed between shoulder and ear and attention divided between datapad and walkway. Her course angles unerringly for the cinema at a businesslike pace, and the usher is paid a bored glance en route to the ticket window. “I need two passes for the ten-thirty showing of Alhiran Nights,” the Timonae gets out, fingers over the comm’s mouthpiece.

“With smell or without?” the ticket clerk inquires. He’s a pimply-faced human teenager. The centuries haven’t cured acne yet. Teach lifts his sandwich to his mouth again. It looks like it’s going to be another delicious bite, on another delightful day, before the fillings of the sandwich slide innocently out of the bun to fall on the ground. He glares at them for a moment before sighing and setting aside what’s left. Dusting greasy hands on a greasy flight suit, the human starts to clean up the mess.

The question catches the good doctor off-guard – the sharp downturn of lips and the severe arch of a stiletto brow are all the answer the boy gets for a good five seconds. “That depends,” Dr. Nirali drawls, each syllable casually barbed. “What do Alhiran nights /smell/ like?”

“They’ve got real Demarian musk, sand eel sputum stench, corpse stank,” the ticket seller informs Kaxina. “It’s not for everybody.”

Meanwhile, an usher stands outside the theater near the curb, looking up and down the street, nervous. Edward has just finished collecting the scraps of his lunch that fell on the ground. He picks them up and takes them over to the nearest waste disposal unit and drops them in it with a mournful sigh. “I was looking forward to that, too.” He mutters, looking about now for something to distract him from the rumbling of his stomach. The cinema seems to do just that.

“I will suffer quite enough of that from my date, thank you,” Dr. Nirali opines with disgust plain upon her features. Credits are exchanged, the passes uploaded to her datakey, and then without thanks or farewell she is turning to make her exit. Her feet catch up a step or three from the usher, and with another pardon begged of her comm, she frowns curiously at him. “Tell me – if events should necessitate a hasty retreat, where is the nearest exit from theater twelve?” An usher – human male, early twenties – stands near the curb outside the Lowe’s Holocinema. He has his arms crossed as he looks up and down the street, nervous. He jumps when Kaxina talks to him. He looks up at her, mouth gaping. A female, Timonae, talking to him! He has trouble looking up at her eyes, what with the chest being so much more apparent in his view. “Uh, front of the theater, left behind the curtains.”

An amused grin slides across Edward’s face. He adjusts his goggles so that they sit on his forehead, hazel eyes underneath take in the scene with some interest.

Kaxina’s hooded expression hovers somewhere around vague, vulpine amusement. “Clearly you have never stood someone up,” she assesses bluntly. /”Outside/ of the viewing area, darling. And have a care where your eyes linger?” Her request is paired with a manicured fingernail reaching to lift his chin toward her face and her smile – a ghost of a grin which fails to reach her eyes.

Two women walk toward the theater. “You look a little uptight,” the young Asian woman is saying to her companion. “We’re just checking things out and reporting on it. No huge investigation. I’m not quite sure you needed the case.” Izzy pauses as she looks around and then nods to the usher. “That might be our guy. Let’s go check.” And off she goes, barely waiting for Faith to catch up.

“Er, uh,” the usher replies to Kaxina. It’s about as literate as he gets, maybe. Then something seems to click inside the part of his brain that isn’t reptilian. “Oh. Well, there’s the mid-six chute. A drain we slide open to sweep in the trash after each showing. Slides you down to the basement dumpster. Smells nasty, but it’ll get you out without anyone seeing you…if you sit ahead of row six."

Reaching Kaxina and the usher, Edward gives an approving nod. “No doubt it’s a fine idea to have an escape route planned, I hear the things they play these days are just horrific.” The amused grin only gets wider as Edward regards Kaxina, for the most part avoiding eye contact with the usher.

Faith doesn’t need to catch up, her own pace quick as she follows along. “I work this job all day, with frequent overtime, take classes all night, and somehow have to find time between that schedule to feed myself and maybe – if I’m lucky – sleep. I’m always uptight. And I’d rather have the case and not need it than need it and not have it.”

Kaxina’s patient regard of the usher reaches its limit. /”Thank/ you,” she says in tones which aren’t grateful at all, she smile tightening momentarily before vanishing altogether. When she turns to continue on her way, she resumes her call without missing a beat – though the eyeroll thrown toward Edward eloquently sums up her opinion of the entire exchange.

The usher watches Kaxina turn away. He opens his mouth, raising a hand. Closes his mouth. Opens. Closes. Looks for all the world like a beached trout. And then he sees Iseul and Faith approaching. They look all official-like. That seems to distract him from the exotic Timonae woman, brings him back to the here and now. He shifts a glance toward the alley, then returns his attention to the police personnel and gives a feeble wave.

“Ma’am,” Iseul greets of Kaxina as she draws near and gives a smile. Izzy turns to her counterpart and laughs. “Then it seems that after this is over, I should take you out and make you relax,” she teases. “From what I’ve seen, staying so uptight really takes a toll on you after a while.” As they approach the now vacated usher, Iseul offers a smile, following his gaze toward the alley. “Anything fun back there? I think I lost an earring back there. Can you help me look?” she asks of the usher.

Edward spends a moment grinning at Kaxina like a fool, before his attention is brought back to the usher. He pulls a lighter from one of his many pockets and appears to be rummaging for something else when he sees the very official like people approaching. “Uh-oh.” He tucks the lighter away and pretends to be examining the ground with a supreme amount of interest. Just what /do/ they make concrete out of these days? Of course, you can bet he’s listening to everything going on. As soon as he’s sure that he’s not being addressed, the amused grin slides across his face once more.

Izzy catches Dr. Nirali’s eye on its periphery, receiving an acknowledging glance, and the Timonae is quick to match face to identity: this is the detective who asked after Kozlov in the diner. The consultant lets her stride slow and eventually halt at the adjacent hoverbus stop, as if she were simply waiting on the C-line and only coincidentally within earshot.

The usher blinks at Iseul’s question. “Earring? Aren’t you here about the …” His voice trails off and he jerks his head toward the alley. “The thing. In the place.”

“I have classes,” Faith replies to Iseul lightly, “With any luck we won’t be looking for that earring long enough for me to miss one.” She rolls her eyes and sighs before lowering her voice. “Yes. The thing. In the place. Show us, Captain Clueless.” Iseul sighs. “No subtlety in these kids anymore,” she mutters. She passes an amused look across to Faith and sighs. “Lead on.”

Edward chuckles. The human can’t help it. At least, until he realises he’s doing it. With a start, he pulls his goggles back over his eyes and goes back to studying the ground. “Oh I wonder what that is…” He murmurs and points at something indistinct.

No less nervous, the usher leads the way down the alley that runs behind the theater. He stops next to two large trash bins that have a gap of about four feet between them. Slumped against the wall between these bins, with a dark red stain on the chest of its ornate robes, is a creature that appears to be a little more than five feet in height and might be mistaken for an overgrown panda – its lifeless black eyes are masked in dark fur and it has rounded ears. Sharp fangs bristle in the mouth that hangs open. “Looks kinda like a Castori, don’t it?” the usher whispers.

Completely floored by the discretion and investigative finesse on display, Dr. Nirali shifts her weight to surreptitiously monitor the cops’ activity, all the while discussing the negative action on Sivad’s stock market and pontificating upon the planet’s economy in general. As the party moves down the alley, she allows herself to drift, roving with apparent aimlessness within the general area of the bus stop, but tracking the path of the detectives.

“It… does, a bit,” Faith replies slowly, brow furrowing as she looks the body over, “Never seen a panda one, though.” She crouches, setting her case off to the side and opening it up. “What do you make of it, Detec?” Her first order of business is procuring a small blood sample off the creature’s chest to run through a species ID field kit.

The response from the ID field kit is: GENETIC SEQUENCE UNDOCUMENTED.

A little less subtle, Edward tries follow the three, looking for all the world as though he were following a candy trail on the ground.

Leaning against the wall at the mouth of the alley, Kaxina rolls her neck and shifts her comm from one ear to the other, nonchalantly examining the state of her manicure and commenting upon the sudden spike in polydenum with doubtful tones.

Iseul crouches down next to the body and pulls a pair of gloves out of her pocket and dons them. Carefully, Izzy begins to search through the clothing, looking for anything in pockets or sewn into the robes – even a label for who made the clothing. “Hmm,” she murmurs. “Has the look of a Castori but not entirely. Besides the clothing, any indication that this is a sentient being and not a genetically modified panda bear that has been placed in robes?” she asks in a low voice to Faith.

The robe does, in fact, have a label just inside the collar at the back of the neck. However, it is written in some kind of indecipherable script. Resting below his throat, there’s an amulet on a silver chain. The amulet is shaped like an eye, with a purple-pink crystal for a pupil. Detective Iseul’s commlink crackles shortly before the voice of Chief Raleigh Devrees can be heard: “Tell me something.”

Faith frowns and runs two more samples to be sure she’s not contaminating them. “That can’t be right…,” she mutters, “‘Genetic Sequence Undocumented.’ It’s telling me this isn’t a known species.” She seals up that bit of evidence before gathering visual documentation of the scene and the position of the body and all that fun stuff. “I don’t think we’ll know until we get it to autopsy. The M.E.’s going to have a field day with this case.”

Apparently not stopped from wandering, Edward stumbles in sight of the body. “Great steaming balls!” He exclaims. “Now that is some earring you’ve got there.” The humans eyes are hidden behind his goggles, but his grin has been wiped clean.

With a low, thrumming whirr and a hiss of servos, a hoverbus lowers itself to the boarding platform, and Dr. Nirali dutifully peels herself from the wall to crane her neck and examine its route marker. B-line. Frowning, she rests her back against the wall again, segueing back into her conversation with a sigh.

“Excuse me, you are trespassing,” Iseul snaps in Edward’s direction. “I could arrest you right now.” The usher gets a dirty look. “Make sure that he doesn’t go anywhere. I will need to question him later.” When Devrees’ voice comes over her comm, the detective stands and moves off a small ways to have a semi-private conversation. “Detective Koh here. We have not identified the body yet. Blood tests have come back unable to identify species. There is an item about the deceased’s neck that could help lead to an identification but it’s too soon to tell, sir.” Izzy covers the comm and looks at Faith. “See what you make of that pendant,” she calls over.

“Unknown species?” the chief inquires via the commlink. “Does it look like a homicide?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Faith mutters, glaring at Edward, “You make a habit of following people? Get back there out of the way and keep it down. Please.” She gestures the man out of the alley and then finishes documenting the scene. She glances Izzy’s way in absent recognition of the order and has herself a look at the pendant, pulling out her PDA to see what information she can find about the symbol.

“Holy great steaming bleeding mother mercy monster balls!” Edward continues to exclaim. “Oh look, and there’s blood all over the place. Great holy steatimg bleeding..” He continues to curse longer then he has in a good while, before looking around to make sure what-ever killed Fluffy over there isn’t about to come back for him. “Trespassing? Questions? Arrest? Great holy mother of all steaming…” Though he dutifully steps aside, and goes to back out the alley.

Similar symbols turn up in all kinds of historic records, but no identical matches for this specific design. The closest match, oddly enough, seems to be a pendant recovered from the ruins of a sunken city on Antimone discovered by xenoarchaeologists in 2602.

As Edward emerges from the alley, Kaxina endeavors to catch his eye simply by meeting his gaze – if successful, indicates the alley with a look and an upward nod, hopefully indicating that she will discuss it. But not here, and not now. “That rather depends on if the board can get its act together,” she is snarking into her comm.

“Plant your feet and shut your mouth before I add hindering an investigation to everything for getting in the way of a case,” Iseul snarls in Edward’s direction. “Stand in that corner,” she points to emphasize, “And stay quiet.” Her eyes narrow before she goes back to her conversation. “I’m sorry about that, sir,” she says. “I would think there are indications of murder, especially based on the amount of blood and the suspicious circumstances but I wouldn’t call it officially until after we’d seen an autopsy report.”

“Would it be considered brutality to tape his mouth shut?” Faith asks flatly. She sighs as her research turns up almost nothing. She reports her findings to Iseul and then rubs at her face with her upper arm. Now for a closer look at all that blood to see if she can identify the type of wound and a general idea of what made it.

His escape nearly complete, only to be foiled last moment by the crafty Iseul, Edward gives a little shiver. He has a last glance directed at the entry to the alleyway, perhaps considering making a break for it, but he trudges into the corner and makes himself comfortable. Clearing away rubbish and taking a seat. “See Edward? I told you, you follow police and they’re never looking for earrings, no Edward…” He mutters to himself under his breath. If anyone so much as glances in his direction, he’s ready to become very interested in the ground again.

“Koh,” comes the voice of Chief Devrees over the commlink. “D.A. Barrister is heading your way for a look. Full cooperation. Be sure to cordon off the crime scene and gather all the evidence you can.”

“Yes sir,” Iseul says. “We’ll report in if we find anything.” Once she finishes on the comm, Edward gets another dark look. “We’re calling this one a crime scene. Tape it off and start collecting evidence. You know the drill…” She sighs and motions for the usher to join her. “I’m going to need to get your official statement, sir. Let’s start with a name.”

“Evan Torres,” the usher replies, his gaze drifting to the dead alien between the dumpsters. “I was bringing out the trash from the manager’s office when I found the body.”

If Dr. Nirali overheard anything about an incoming officer, she does not seem to care. The kamiroid is leaning against the mouth of the alley, engaged in conversation over her commlink, with fair eyes boredly surveying foot traffic and occasionally checking the bus stop. It would appear she’s waiting on the C-line.

Edward Morgan Teach is behaving /very/ well. He’s sat in the alleyway where he was told to seat and he’s kept the curses in his head for a good minute or so. Every now and then he glances at the corpse, shudders, and looks away.

“And you thought I wouldn’t need my case,” Faith muses, getting out her laser emitters (‘Crime Tape’ is the brand name, look at that!) and setting up a perimeter to cordon off the alley. “That’s what curiosity gets you, buddy,” she remarks to Edward lightly, “Mind your own business next time.” On her way back to the body she puts in a call for the M.E. and then carefully sets about scouring the scene for evidence to gather. Signs of a struggle, blood spatter, an idea of what happened to the murder weapon, etc.

It’s about this time John appears from up the street, heading up to the officers in charge. “The Chief gave me a heads up of what you found. What do you have so far?” he inquires as he uses his eyes to get what clues he can himself. There are no signs of a struggle. No blood spatter, except what leaked out of the corpse after slumping against the wall. And no murder weapon obvious nearby, but who knows what might be found in the dumpsters.

Iseul is standing off to the side with an usher from the movie theater, smiling warmly up at him. “This the first time you’ve seen a dead body?” she asks gently. “How often do you have people out here in the alley?” she asks. “Smoke breaks, trash out to the dumpster… anything. How often do these dumpsters get emptied?” She has her PDA out to take notes.

Everyone looks busy enough. Edward gets to his feet, looking very sorry. Or at least as sorry as possible. It’s hard to tell what with the hair, the goggles, and the grease. He casts another look at the entry of the alleyway. “It’s basically our break room,” Evan says, shrugging. “Dotie and Carlisle had been out here smoking about thirty minutes earlier. They didn’t see anything weird! Maybe he walked in off the street or something?”

“Unknown race, sharp force trauma, no sign of a struggle or the murder weapon, no ID, no exact matches for that pendant it’s wearing,” Faith rattles off to the D.A. mildly, “And no bloodspatter, which is exceedingly odd with this amount of blood. So either it was stabbed exactly as it’s sitting and the weapon was pulled out slowly, or it was dumped here very /cleanly/. I’m waiting for the M.E. to take a crack at some more information and then give the okay to move the body.” She continues investigating as she speaks. Looking for anything out of place, and putting off the dumpster diving until the outward scene is fully processed.

Dr. Nirali sighs ponderously, weighing something said to her, and excuses herself a moment before bowing her head ever-so-slightly into her fist. The severe slant of silver-white bangs spills into her dark-complected face, curtaining her eyes as they shutter themselves. A heartbeat passes, two – and then she coughs politely, clearing her throat and blinking away tears, before begging forgiveness a second time from her commlink.

Ethan steps into Rhode’s Square from Crawford Street, looking at his PDA. Of course, he makes a bee line for the gaggle of police officers, apparently having been told to come here, but not actually briefed on what he’d find. Whee!

John Bannister takes a closer look at the victim when ‘unknown race’ is mentioned. “You’re not kidding… looks like a giant mutated panda bear or something.” he says. “Let’s hope the ME can give us a better picture, because one way or another we’re going to have to get a lead on a suspect.” he says, frowning a bit. “Nothing gets my goat more than the one who gets away…”

And speaking of getting away, it’s time for this bird to leave the nest. Or at least, give a very good attempt at it. Edward tucks his hands in the pocket, casts a glance to make sure no-one is looking, and starts to sneak out of the alleyway, whilst still maintaining a casual air about him. He’s not very good at it.

“Do you remember hearing anything? Maybe a scuffle or any suspicious behavior?” Iseul asks. Attention turns to Bannister as he enters, offering a polite nod in greeting and then to Edward, clearing her throat. “Sit,” she growls at the man.

A few moments later, a dark hoverwagon whirs to a stop near the alley. The word CORONER is printed in red letters on the side. With a hiss, the car door opens and from the vehicle emerges a lumbering Zangali in a white lab coat that actually appears to be two normal lab coats stitched together – complete with extra sleeves that sort of trail along on the ground as he walks down the alley. He passes through the laser line unscathed and stomps to a stop near the body. “Huh,” he grunts.

Evan shakes his head at the detective’s question. “No, I didn’t hear anything.

Edward appears to be startled at being detected so quickly again. “I uh… I dropped this!” He bends over and picks up a candy wrapper. “See? Can’t forget this. No no.” And with that the human is sitting down again. Albeit a bit closer to the ‘tape’ and freedom.

John Bannister pulls out his own PDA and takes a few notes of his own. Seeing that the officers have it well in hand, he nods to Faith and prepares to take his leave. “Have the full report sent to my office as soon as possible.” he says before heading to catch a hovercab.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Faith replies to the D.A.’s back, before her eyes light on the zangali, “Ah, there you are. I have a challenge for you, Too-Tall – unknown race sitting right there. Think you can reasonably approximate a time of death?” She geas back to the body and crouches nearby, prepared tot ake up an assisting capacity for the zangali.

Ethan steps through the security cordon without a shock, probably because he’s got his detective’s badge on hand, and is careful not to step on anything relative to the investigation. he strides over to Iseul, giving the coroner a quick nod of recognition, and asks quietly, “What’s the situation?”

“Thank you for your time, Evan,” Iseul says with a smile to the usher. “If you think of anything else, please contact me.” She offers him her card with PDA number. She looks up at Ethan, “Dead body. Still working through the details. Take a look if you can stay out of the ME’s way.”

The Zangali kneels beside the dead furred alien. Snaps a glove on one hand that would fit over Faith’s head and probably suffocate her. He lifts the chin, leans forward, sniffs. Pokes a little at the chest wound. “Never seen this kind before, but there’s no rigor. Still a little warm. Doubt he’s been dead more than a few hours.” His fangs clack together and his scalp rills twitch. “Should be more blood.” His eye membranes flick as he shares a mountainous puzzled look with the CSI.

“Yes, well, that can be discussed on the morrow. … Yes, thank you,” Dr. Nirali is saying, fair eyes watching the descent of the bus as it grunts and groans for the curb. Shouldering her purse higher and straightening her posture, the financier wraps up her first call only to speed-dial a second. “Allison? Get me John Christian Falkenberg. Ask him…” Her sandals click-click-click on the pavement as surely as the devil’s hooves. “… Ask him if he would like to see a movie.”

“Thinking the wound was inflicted port-mortem?” Faith asks the M.E. mildly, “That would help explain the lack of bloodspatter. Although not completely. Can you tell if the body shows any signs of having been moved?” She nods a greeting to Ethan, “Got ourselves something new here. You wouldn’t happen to have run into any mutant pandas before, would you?”

“Need him on a table to be sure, but first glance,” Zototh “Too-Tall” Salaban shakes his snout back and forth, “that’s the killing wound, I bet.” He gets to his feet and walks to the right side of the right dumpster, away from the corpse. Turns to face the movie theater. He flops back against the wall of the salon that the dumpsters rest against. Cracks the wall, causing a brief tremor. Then he sags until he’s slumped sort of like the dead body. “Not very far to move. Tricky way to dump a corpse.”

“Can’t say I’ve met a mutant panda ever.” Ethan says, scratching his beard, “Never even heard such a thing. Witness on hallucinogens, maybe?” He looks a bit confused at the very prospect.

All this talk of corpse dumping stirs up the appetite something fierce, and Edward begins digging around in those pockets of his. Not moments later he produces a half eaten candy bar. Peeling the rest of the wrapper away and discarding it, he shoves the candy in his mouth and chews thoughtfully.

“Hard to believe but that’s what it looks like we’re dealing with,” Iseul says as she gestures toward the body. “When the uniforms arrive, we should have them start a thorough search of the surrounding alleyway and dumpsters for the murder weapon. I know it’s a longshot but it’s possible we could also find forensic evidence that will help us catch the killer.”

“You lost me,” Faith murmurs, sighing and rubbing at her face with her upper arm again, “I’ve been awake too long, Too-Tall. So… if the wound killed it, do you have other theories for the lack of blood? And what on earth is that little demonstration supposed to mean?”

The Zangali medical examiner gets back to his feet with a grunt, knees popping loudly. “No blood trail. No tarp. Bet there’s no knife in these dumpsters. I’ll get the body locked up in the morgue for the time being. You might want to talk to the Castori ambassador. Maybe this is one of their cloning experiments gone wrong. They’ve got those teleportal things. Time-space holes. Maybe our guy got stabbed on Castor, bled there, staggered through a portal, and wound up here.”

Ethan nods to Iseul and says, “I’ll stick around to help out with that. Not as though I got anything better to do than investigate a homicide. Chief still ain’t assigned me proper.” he scratches his beard and peers at the body, “Uh… Don’t suppose it could just be an albino or somethin’?”

Edward, sufficiently bored with the scene starts to look about for the entry to the theatre’s basement dumpster, the one that had been discussed earlier. He figures he can but try. Not moving from where he is, the human peers about from behind his goggles.

“Faith tried to do a species check via blood sample but it was unidentified which complicates things a bit,” Izzy replies with a shake of her head. She smiles up at Ethan, “I have a feeling the chief wants this one taken care of quickly. We already had one of the legal types on the scene to make sure we had everything under control.” Oh no, the detective has not forgotten about Edward yet and she clears her throat loudly. “Since you were so interested that you /had/ to traipse across a crime scene, I’m surprised you want to leave so soon.”

“You think he just… showed up out of nowhere?” Faith blinks, “Popped into the alley by random chance through a portal? That’s… going to be really difficult to investigate. Lovely. Would you like help moving the body or do you think you’ve got it?” She rises up from her crouch and sighs. “I think I misspoke before. Definitely more than just a long day. Still have to look through the dumpsters, it’s standard procedure.”

“Got it,” the Zangali replies, brushing himself off before walking back to his car to open the back door and remove an antigrav gurney. He gives that a push back down the alley and sets about loading the dead alien on the gurney. He swivels his snout so that he can gaze back toward the street as another bus pulls up. A few curious onlookers are gathering, including a news vid recorder. Grunting, Zototh shrugs out of his oversized lab coat and drapes it over the body before pushing the gurney toward the car.

Watching as the body moves by him, Edward grunts. “Well, you see…” He starts in reply to Izzy. “It’s me wife and all. I said I was getting the milk substitute and would be back soon. I didn’t expect to find bleedin’ what’s what of the bleedin’ homicide game bleedin’ show.” He mutters darkly under his breath. “Some bleedin’ earring, I tell you what.”

Ethan shakes his head and says, “Very odd… Never heard about anything like this in twenty years…” Ethan peers around at the scene and glances at Iseul, then Edward, “What’s his story?”

“Of course it is,” Iseul replies with a smile. “But if you cooperate then you can be home to your wife as soon as you can,” she says smoothly. “Now, come on over and we’ll have a nice chat.” She looks at Ethan and rolls her eyes. “This lunatic follows us onto the crime scene when we’re trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m holding him to make sure he hasn’t compromised our evidence in any way.” Her eyes narrow. “Also need to make sure he isn’t our perp that’s come back to get a good look at his work.”

Edward picks himself up off the ground again, dusting himself off and sighing. “Of course,” He replies, wry grin across his face. “I guess I just popped off for my lunch break, stabbed a mutant polar bear, and then decided to eat my lunch by the fountains.” He trudges over anyway. “And I resent being called a madman. I’m sane. I have a certificate.” In an alley going off this square, Edward, Ethan and Izzy are talking behind some secure police tape.

Ethan shrugs and says, “Why did you break the security cordon, though? Not payin’ attention? Either way, we need your DNA, fingerprints, shoe size…” He’s joking about that last one. At least, I hope so.