Parasyte Roach (part II)

The house was in an alley of Cheawuld Garden, not small, but not exactly big either. It was built lower than the neighboring houses. In fact it looked like they dug a moat and built the house there after. I don't know how it didn't get flooded with the rain. To get an idea, they had to make a cement ramp so that the car could enter the garage.

Arthur B Cooper, the wrong Cooper was there. Which is good. It would suck to get to the crime scene and lose the homeowner's story, since we only had the information the conventional police wrote in their report.

He was an old man with a gray and red beard at the same time, with a shirt which was bigger than his size, stained and stinking.

"Are you the new police? The specialized police?"

"Yes. We're the 'specialized police'" Where did he get that stupid name from? "We came to analyze the facts."

"Finally! I can't believe they forbade me to mess with my stuff. My own stuff! It was just a robbery! A theft! The bad guys came and took my microwave, my television, my money that was on the table. And also my reservations I had in the bedroom drawer. They ruined everything in the kitchen! And in the end they only took that. Someone oughts to get the bastards!"

I entered the house. Joey stood outside for a short brief before following me.

"Mind if I smoke here?"

"If I mind if you smoke here? Inside my house? Of course I mind! And I say more: you better stop coming here and putting on these strips and go after the thieves at once!"

"We are not dealing with common robbers, sir. This is a serious case. We need the crime scene intact."

"How sot? It was a simple breakthrough! There's no doubt! When you have a robbery you go in the car and pursue the bastards! I have their car license plate. The neighbor took note of it. They saw thy fleeing and..."

"Those involved are suspected of a murder, sir."

The old man fell silent in surprise. After that he started to get a little more helpful and less noisy.

The conventional police had placed the boundary strips in places of importance. Near the rack of the room, from which the TV had been taken, was one of them. There was one in the bedroom, which was lying on the floor, and one in the kitchen. They put them there so that nothing was moved until we arrived. However, this old man didn't seemed the type who would be interested in following the instructions correctly. He seemed to be the type who could be in danger of murder and instructed to leave the clues intact and yet he would interfere with the whole scene, forgetting the advice the next minute, which would make the whole job duller and harder.

"I had to mess with some things, you know... to make coffee and sleep. But what I could, I left how it was."

Ditto.

I went to the bedroom first. Everything was sprawled on the floor. I mean... Not 'everything' in the way Sprohic's apartment was when we investigated it last week, it was a more local 'everything', more like 'everything from inside the desk' only. The cabinets were still intact. Whoever did that knew exactly what he was looking for.

"You... er... did you say they are suspected of murder? They were looking for money, no? Everything is overthrown like this... My three hundred and fifty have disappeared from the drawer... I went to sleep and left everything on the floor anyway. I just disarranged the bed. And I put my laptop to charge."

I confirmed with a nod.

"Did you bring your laptop from work? You were working when the theft happened, right?"

"Yes. I was. When I came back everything was like this. And no… I keep the laptop in the closet…" He finished the phrase reticently and with inherent curiosity. Even he noticed a trace of contradiction. If this were really just a theft they would have taken that laptop as well. I tried to erase that contradiction from his mind with a comment:

"Lucky they didn't search the closet, right?"

"Huh... Yeah. Lucky..."

Joey finally came through the living room door and came toward us.

"Lucky the ass!" decided the old man "they still took my other things! Say do you... Do you think? Can you catch the culprits?"

I looked at Joey questioningly. He shook his head no. We wanted to find out if there were any characteristic marks left on the clay in front of the house, but he analyzed and got nothing.

"We'll get the culprits... I don't know about your things back, though... They must have already been dismantled and sold."

"Dismantled!? How...?" He was about to say something, but he stopped to think and saw that it made sense. "And doesn't the police have a compensation policy in these cases?"

"Unfortunately no, sir. You need to talk to your insurance."

Joey and I went to the kitchen, where they had taken the microwave. Really, there was a lot of stuff lying on the floor. Plates, glasses, cutlery... Kitchen utensils in general. However, everything had been dragged into one corner, probably by the owner of the house himself. There was still coffee and bread on the table. And a dirty plastic cup. Looking at the cabinets and only some of the doors were open.

I went to one of them at random and opened it. There were pots and bowls inside. They were still sorted.

I looked at Joey. He nodded back.

I spotted the place where the microwave should be above a small table. The fridge was right next to it. There was also a blender on the floor. It had probably been dragged to the floor when they took the device.

I opened the fridge. It wasn't exactly full, but it wasn't empty either. Everything seemed to be in place.

"Did you say the car and license plate were noted?" What kind of car was it?

"It was a van. One of those Blend 1.8. White... Hartmann saw them coming in and called the police first. The front neighbor."

"Did he see how many they were?"

"He said he saw two men... About twenty to thirty years old. He gave the plate and their description to the police. You have this information right? I've passed it before."

"Yeah, yeah... We are already aware of that information."

Looking back there, I asked Joey:

"Wanna scan here? On the walls... And there." I pointed to the exact spot where the microwave was missing. Joey went to get the scanner from the car.

The scanner was used to detect body fluids that were left as objects were handled. It was an artifact the conventional police didn't possess... I mean, it did, but not like ours. Ours was better for detecting whether fluid from aliens, lizardmen, or anything like that was left, so only SAD had one of those. My intuition told me that we would find something like that around.

Returning with the artifact, Joey began to work in the kitchen. In the meantime I went to check the room and bedroom once more. The owner of the house came with me, Probably to bother me more. Once in the room, I went to analyse the rack where the television was missing.

"Which size was your tv, sir?"

"It was a 49 inch smart led with high definition. It was very good. You don't know how hard I worked to pay for that beautiful. You better move your a... I mean... It would be nice of you to get it back if possible."

I confirmed with a nod.

"Also I already passed this information to the other policemen who came here earlier..." He added.

"Yeah, yeah..."

One more analysis on the room's mess. I took some pictures and then gave permission to remove the strips and prepared to leave. Now all that was left was waiting for Joey's scan. Information of details like digital and body fluids would come along with the analysis of conventional police expertise the next day, so we were just there to capture information that passed unnoticed by their area of expertise.

That is, information only someone with knowledge of paranormal beings can grasp.

I went into the kitchen and Joey was still working with the scanner. I asked:

"So? Anything?"

"A lot of things, lieutenant! You don't wanna know."

Arthur Cooper followed me again. It wasn't to mock him, but only instinctively that I pulled a cigarette from my wallet which was in my shirt pocket. He stared at me incredulously. As soon as I realized my action, I walked to the entrance outside the house in order to light it.

Once up front I checked my hone. There was a message from Sarah. While I was reading it I got a call:

"Lieutenant Dotson?" I answered.

"Hey Henry! I heard from Emma... What happened? Do you know the details?"

"Hi Ewalyn. How are things going on your side? So... We don't have information yet... It was certainly poison and certainly sent by someone, but other than that..."

I wasn't going to insist on the phone that it was Crane's boyfriend. But it was.

"Poor her. And she was recovering so well..." There was a lot of noise in the back of the call. She must've been still dealing with the murder of Jim Sanford.

"And how are things?"

"Here... Well... Things here are going to take a while. I won't be able to find anything today unfortunately. The forensics are doing their part and I'm going to the DEA building now for something, but you know how it will be there... Everyone will be willing to do my job in my place because Sanford was part of their team so... You know how it is.

"Sucks to be you... I'm going to visit Emma later. Wanna come together?"

"I'd love to, but... I'm going to take a while. I don't see myself finishing before seven."

"That's ok. Me and Joey are going to see Sarah to the airport... so I'll only visit her later. I believe it is better. She'll be better by then."

"Then it's settled. I'll tag along." I heard another voice on the other end of the line. I recognized one of the men on the support team. "Listen... I have to hang up. I'm going to the DEA now or this will never end."

"Okay. See you then. Good luck with Jim's case."

"Yeah," she said in a funny tone. "we're needing a lot of luck these last few days."

"Tell me about it. Well... We did have a hell of a luck here at the fake Arthur Cooper's house though."

"Oh yeah? Why is that?"

"Later I tell you the details."

"Kay then."

"See you then."

"See you. By-ye!"

She hanged.

"What is this 'fake' Arthur Cooper about?" I am indeed Arthur Bernard Cooper." The old man and Joey were behind me, near the entrance of the room.

"That? Huh... It's police code. Don't mind it... Joey... Anything else there?

"I'm done, Lieutenant." He hinted at the answer to my question with a nod.

That ending, we left the house. Instead of returning to head office we drove to the airport. Sarah asked us to come by message earlier. On the second floor of the airport there's a Boutique Lily's, where we are supposed to meet the captain before she definitely leaves for Silverbay and leaves those cases of the last days completely in our hands. Inside the car on the way to the airport, my partner and I were commenting the investigation:

"You mean there were traces of aliens in the kitchen? I had a good idea."

"Setting our long-haired friend aside, Emma said she fought an Euphorbe on that day, didn't she? A purple alien with black boils spread over its slimy skin."

"Sticky..." I exhaled smoke from my cigarette. We now were in the car on the way to the airport. I was driving and Joey was by my side. "If I'm going to put my hands on someone I want to beat these bastards from yesterday's attack. The alien who skipped the rooftops and killed the Johnsons can be saved for later."

"I agree."

"Tell me something, Joey... Those documents sprawled on the floor of the old man's room... Was that done by taking the documents slowly or was it done all at once?"

"Are you testing my investigating capability. lt? You know the answer."

"Then you realize everything was thrown there at once. It's not a test, I just asked because it is something I find strange... What's the use of throwing everything to the ground at once and leaving it in a heap? Normally they would have turned the pile slowly; in small chunks, to look for the envelope after throwing the papers on the floor.

"Yeah... It's weird... Looks like everything was made to simulate a robbery. They just wanted to get the money from the bottom of the drawer, maybe? So they didn't care about the papers?"

"The forensics better get all the fingerprints on that damn drawer."

Joey let out a muffled laugh.

"What's that, Lieutenant? No self-respecting paranormal being leaves obvious clues as prints. We've never been that lucky so far."

"That's why I want the reports. To see them empty and be sure it is a paranormal being."

"The scanner doesn't lie, lieutenant. It is a paranormal being."

I turned to the window and exhaled more of my cigarette. Joey attached:

"Even with all that... It's good to see you focused on the case. The lieutenant was so mad when you left the station I thought I would end up doing the work myself and you would keep arguing with the..."

"And I'm still mad, Joey!" I was just holding myself back to be professional. Once arriving at the airport I'm gonna call that Chapman Judas again and demand him to give me Galloway's contact."

Joey raised both eyebrows simultaneously in a provocative and annoying way, but I didn't say anything at all. He didn't know what to say for a moment and then let out:

"You know, Lieutenant... This fake Arthur Cooper... Lowe and I didn't find his name the day we researched the whereabouts of the invitation's owner. We found only that of the former alderman. Weird much? Maybe we should've searched beyond the main entries?"

"..."

"Maybe if we had done something about it, we could've prevented this attack?"

I shrugged.

"Don't think much about it. There was no telling."

How the hell were we gonna know someone would try to attack the wrong Cooper? Don't these guys in the traffic know how to gather information?