Suicide?

Everleason, Cascoss, April 12th, 2:30 P.M, Everleason Police Department.

Daniel was sitting in his office. This was his first day in Everleason Police Department. He was wondering why it took so long for to set up this simple office, they were probably trying to figure out where to put the stuff that belonged to the previous tenant who went missing two years beforehand, but that's a story for another day.

Daniel had finally got into a comfortable situation, everything on his desk was set in a neat and tidy manner, just as Daniel preferred it, he'd also adjusted his seat to the perfect position. the office looked like it did in his mind's eye. Nothing could be any more perfect from his position. Of course this bliss wasn't going to last forever, because just as Daniel was about to begin relaxing his phone rang.

"Everleason police department, this is Daniel Smith speaking, how may I help you?" Daniel stated after picking up the phone.

"Daniel, some sort of incident has happened in Lincero, it's south east of here," said the voice on the other side of the phone. "Detective Lancer is already on the scene, also your assigned partner is already waiting for you in your vehicle."

"Yes sir, I understand. What's the addres?"

"Your new partner has already entered it into the GPS of your vehicle."

"Ok boss, I'll leave right away." Daniel then put the phone back where it belonged, ending the call. He then rushed to the car park. A man Daniel had not met yet was already waiting inside Daniel's crimson red car.

Daniel went into his car, and reached into his pockets to retrieve his keys, but his short search led to no results.

"Oh sorry sir!" The man in the passenger seat interjected. He then opened the glove compartment and retrieved the keys that started the vehicle from within. He then gave them to Daniel. "My name is Damien by the way."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Damien, and thank you for keeping my vehicle safe." Daniel replied.

"Hey, no problem, I mean I know this is a police station, but it's always good to be safe rather then sorry."

"I can already tell you are going to be of great assistance."

"Happy to help sir."

"Please, there is no need to be formal with me, just call me Dan."

"Really? I mean sure thing Dan." Damien stated, the conversation was finished at this point and Daniel started the vehicle, however he couldn't figure out how to use the GPS, Luckily Damien knew exactly how to operate it so Dan allowed Damien to get it working.

A strange female robotic voice was being emitted from the confounding machine. It was giving directions.

Damien explained how the GPS worked and Daniel listened very intently, even though Damien had very little experience with explanations as somebody else would find his talking boring.

After Daniel had finally gained a full understanding of the GPS he used it to navigate his way to the scene of the crime.

"Wow that's amazing, you learned really fast, you were pretty good at using that device for someone who doesn't have any abilities." Damien said in awe as soon as they arrived at the shopping centre across the road from the crime scene. Dan of course saw how many vehicles were parked in front of Kevin's house, it looked like they were about to transport the body to the morgue.

Daniel and Damien crossed the road as swiftly as possible, they both knew it wouldn't be long until the paramedics left.

When they finished crossing the road they were stopped by detective Lancer and a senior Sargent whose name was currently unknown.

"Hi Daniel, so who sent you in? This case is open and shut." David stated.

"Commissioner Rodgers did, and what do you mean its open and shut?" Dan replied.

"I'm surprised the Commissioner didn't tell you, he already has the full details of this case and he didn't bother telling you. Well if you really must know, this is clearly a case of suicide."

"Clearly? Then why would the Commissioner send me then? Does he not trust your report?"

"Knowing my luck he doesn't, that man is a total mystery, the only person who knows his face and his life, the only person he trusts, is his daughter. She is only fourteen at the moment, but she plans on becoming the youngest on the force, so she's studying super hard. I'm rooting for her."

"Do you mind if I look at the body."

"Sure, why not."

Daniel walked over to the ambulance and looked closely at the victims neck.

"David!" Daniel exclaimed. David responded by walking over to him. "Would you explain something to me."

"What have you seen?"

"This man committed suicide yes?"

"I'm very sure. We have already created a transcript of what could of led to this as somebody called the station and explained the three terrible events this man endured today."

"Then the rope marks on his neck don't seem to match up with that completely."

"He hung himself, that's the method he chose, so rope marks make perfect sense."

"Actually take a closer look, there are two sets of makings, when someone gets hung their head tilts. But there are two rings around his neck, one more complete then the other. I believe he was strangled before he was hung."

"That's preposterous. Too stupid to believe."

"Then what about his nails?"

"What about his nails?" Interjected the senior Sergent.

"I'm sorry, but we haven't met yet, your name is senior Sergent Morris, right?"

"Yes, my first name is Linda, so what is wrong with his nails?"

"Daniel!" Damien exclaimed from a distance, he was making gestures in order to convince him to come over. Daniel walked over to him.

"What's the matter Damien, you seem spooked."

"There's a matter we need to discuss, get into David's car."

They both entered the rear of David's vehicle, Daniel was surprised to see that David didn't show any emotion to this turn of events.

"What is it? Your kind of scaring me."

"I'm sorry about that, but you shouldn't trust senior Sergent Linda Morris."

"Why's that?"

"I detected that she had an ability, her power is Time Flies, basically she can make others think she's been doing specific things for longer then she actually has. I believe that she has been with the force for two years, but she might have used her ability to alter my memory."

"How do you know about her ability?"

"My ability is to tell when somebody close by has an ability, I can also tell you thier ability, how it is used, and it's weakness. Linda's weakness is the ability known as memory transference or Memfer for short."

"I knew I should have studied those system books before I came here, I only know of a few abilities that some of my  colleagues had, such as the ability the deceased had."

"You know about Kevin's ability."

"But of course. The file was teleported to my desk with Kevin's identity and abilities. It was not hard to read that information. But don't you think we have had enough chatting."

"Yes, but first tell me what you discovered about the victim's finger nails?"

"I saw blood and pieces of skin under and attached to the victim's nails, he tried to fight of his assailant and failed. It's too bad we can't tell David about this discovery with a possible imposter hanging around the crime scene."

"Yeah, I've got a bad feeling about this."

#

Lincero, cascoss, 2:50 P.M, Kevin Heartly's house, living room.

Daniel and Damien were now entering the crime scene for the first time, this was the living room, it was also the room where the supposed suicide occurred. Damien, filled with naïveté, thought the irony was uncanny. But Daniel knew that if David was murdered, and then hung to make it look like suicide, then both event's happened in the same room.

There was gasoline all over the floor, Damien had replaced his signature cigarette with air. Even with his downsides, David was still a cautious man.

"What's with the gasoline?" Daniel asked.

"My guess was that the victim was going to light this place on fire." David replied.

"How on earth was he going to achieve that?"

"We found some lit candles in the victim's bedroom upstairs, they probably had been burning for some time. Obviously these were supposed to start a fire up stairs, the fire would then be accelerated by the gasoline and this whole place would have been gone. Thankfully we found the candles before they set the house alight."

"I see."

"You know you still haven't told me what was up with the victim's nails."

Daniel then took a pen out of his pocket but he did not have anything to write on. Damien saw the distress Daniel was in, and gave him his notebook. Daniel then jotted something down, Damien couldn't understand what Daniel was writing, Daniel was writing something in morse code.

Daniel knew for certain that David was able to read Morse code, after all David used to head many search and rescue parties.

David and Linda both looked at the piece of paper that Daniel was now presenting them. David slowly read it and understood the message Daniel was giving him, so David headed back outside, obviously the paramedics had already departed, so David went searching for the photographer.

"What was that all about?" Linda asked.

"That was morse code." Daniel replied.

"What did it say?"

"I saw someone touching your car."

"You think I'm dumb enough to fall for that? That is something you could have said in front of me. Now tell me the truth." Linda exclaimed, she was now quite infuriated.

Daniel was in quite a bind. Damien told him not to trust her. Daniel himself also believed that she had been on the force for quite some time also.

Suddenly Daniel's mobile phone rang, he answered it.

"Hey Dan, it's me David."

"Hey David, what is it?"

"It is as you said, there is blood and skin under the victim's fingernails, I've called ahead to the coroner and he'll send the samples off to get examined by lab."

"Oh good, any other news."

"Yes, did you know I participated in the Questlands?"

"How is that important?"

"The point is I've studied magic, I generally don't use it, but I knew the second I arrived and an officer was already there, I got suspicious."

"I can guess who your talking about."

"That's right it was Linda, I asked Lieutenant Johnson, and he pulled up Linda Morris' file, she was assigned this job today, there's no way she should have the rank of senior Sargent."

"Thank you." He then hung up the phone. "Linda, are you aware it's illegal to lie to an officer of the law?"

"Yes I should arrest you for not telling the truth."

"Correct as you may be, I'm certain the commissioner will pardon me for my transgression, the same can't be said for you however. Using your powers to manipulate peoples perceptions is much more illegal then the action I took. So, what will it be."

Linda began to sweat. "Sorry I just didn't want to feel left out. I'll leave now and go back to the fire station."

"Oh, I thought I recognised your name." Exclaimed Damien. "Your a fire fighter from the Everleason fire station."

"Is that true ms. Morris?"

"Yes Daniel, it is. I better go before they realise I'm late." Linda left the scene with an innocent smile upon her face.

Damien was now of in the corner of the room sulking.

"Are you okay Damien?" Daniel inquired.

"I can't believe I didn't trust her!" Damien screamed, his nose running intensely, and tears streaming out of his eyes in a cartoon-ish manner.

"Seriously, that's what has you all torn up." Daniel replied, his face looked as if a small laugh was about to burst forth from his mouth.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." Damien stated getting up and wiping all the fluids from his face. "Let's get back to investigating."

They now began investigating the room, Damien looked around the floor of the area to see if he could spot any footprints, there were already a few that belonged to fellow officers, but those ones only went from the main entry hall to the chair, telling him that the others closed the case without any proper investigation. Damien also kept a log of where he made tracks so he wouldn't mistake his shoe prints for somebody else's.

Daniel checked around the area below the chandelier, he picked up the chair and got on top of it, but there wasn't enough height to reach the chandelier. So he had to look at it from the top of the chair. He saw that the chandelier had no damage from the weight of somebody being hung, and no wonder, Daniel could almost see something attached to the hook which the chandelier was attached to. He asked Damien for some binoculars, and Damien obliged.

"How is it that you always have what I require?" Daniel asked.

"This bag has a wormhole attached to my house, as long as I'm able to obtain it I can get it through here."

"so basically, if you can't lift it you can't get it through the portal."

"Yes."

"I see." Daniel proceeded to look through the binoculars, and sure enough there were fragments of rope on the hook which the chandelier was attached to, that was why the chandelier had no signs of damage, the rope was attached to here. But Daniel had to wonder who removed it, and for what reason? Did an officer remove it after cataloging where it was? Obviously the rope would serve to further the "suicide" theory, after all, the fact that someone was able to throw a rope high enough from the chair so it would latch on around the hook is impossible unless you took in account the victim's ability.

"Damien, how much do you know about this case?"

"Not as much as you do."

"There's something I want to ask David."

"Call him."

"Will do." Daniel stated, he stepped off the chair, and gave the binoculars back to Damien. "Keep searching, I'm going outside."

"Sure thing."

Daniel walked outside, David was still there, he was smoking another cigarette.

"Those are going to kill you." Daniel stated.

"It's not like I don't plan on quitting." Damien replied, smoke flowing out his mouth as he did. "Besides, I have healing magic, so I can heal some of the damage done."

"Yes, but not cancer."

"What did you want anyway?"

"I need to know more about this case."

"Look, I'm slowly starting to believe that perhaps it wasn't suicide, but nobody can be certain of what happened."

"You stated that an anonymous tipster gave you a list of the terrible things the victim endured today."

"Well not exactly my words, but if that's what you want, then I will oblige." David then opened his car and took out a small piece of paper out of the glove compartment. "Here you go. I hope this helps you."

"Thanks David." Daniel then walked back into the house to meet up with Damien.

"So Damien," Daniel said as soon as he entered the room which contained the staircase. "Did you discover anything in the short time I was gone?"

"I actually did, thank you for asking. There are foot prints leading to the cutlery drawer in the kitchen and back." Damien replied.

"They didn't belong to any of the detectives."

"I have a photographic memory, those footprints are from a brand of shoes a woman would wear, furthermore, the only woman we know who was here was wearing firefighter boots."

"So those footprints belong to a person, most likely a woman, who wasn't with any of the police, also those footprints don't belong to Linda Morris."

"That's exactly what I was saying."

"So who was the first officer on the scene?"

"Sergent Matthew Almond. He left as soon as Linda and a crew of other officers arrived."

"A woman made a call to the police right."

"Yes, that's correct, she didn't give a name, and I don't know if Matt told anybody if that woman was here when he arrived or not."

Daniel looked at the list David gave him. "Kevin finalised his divorce with his wife today."

"I can't believe that anonymous person knew about all three of those events."

"What's the name of that woman? The one on the other side of the divorce."

"If you mean to say Kevin's ex-wife, then her name is Carol. If you were asking about her lawyer, then her name is Penelope."

"I was talking about the wife, do you know where she might be."

"No, but perhaps when we get back to the office I can ask Matt."

"Or maybe you can call the commissioner, he doesn't typically leave his office, and he has all the numbers of the people who work for him."

"I didn't think of that."

"Well, lets head off, I doubt there is much more clues to find here, after all this crime was committed very carefully."

"So we're heading back to the office."

"No, where going to where Kevin crashed his car into another vehicle, and on our journey you can try to get in contact with Matt. It would also be wise to ask him about the missing rope."

Damien nodded in agreement, and then the both left the house and went into Daniel's vehicle. You're probably wondering why Dan picked to go to the crash scene first. Well it's because that area was the closest to Kevin's house.