Investigation at Alcony Tower

Alcony Tower, Central Raintown Square, Centran, 10:20 A.M, July 6th, 2006.

Daniel and Damien entered the tower from the Albria entrance. They were stopped by some border patrol officers.

"What are you doing?" Asked a man with a German accent. This was Captain Gary Freckles, Captain of the Raintown Police Department. "Those are my guests, please let them through."

The border patrol officers bowed and allowed Daniel and Damien to pass by.

"You know, we would have just showed them our FORMAL badges and they would have let us pass." Damien announced.

"Well, I just wanted to save you time." Gary admitted.

"Sorry we are late. The hotel in this tower was fully booked so we had to get a hotel twenty minutes away from here." Dan stated.

"Why didn't you come earlier?" Gary asked.

"Dan doesn't like working off the clock." Damien added.

"Oh, I see. Dr. Smith, you must be a peculiar man. You wear a suit and tie when investigating like you are the captain of the police, but you are just a humble detective second class, am I wrong?" Gary inquired.

"You are not. So why did you call for me?" Dan asked.

"Well, I would have come to some conclusion by now, I mean not about the criminal's identity, that usually takes me one day. But frankly, I'm stymied."

"Captain Orange said that you and he are at the same level, how could something stymie you?"

"I know, but these things happen, I mean, have you ever thought that you couldn't find the right path?"

"I believe there might have been a time where that was true." Dan admitted.

"Then you understand. We're not flawless. I must be out of my element. None of my men seem to have any clear idea on the motive."

"That's where I come in, right?"

"Ja, that's right."

"Have you actually figured anything out?" Damien asked.

"The victim was Andrew Levlon." Gary stated.

Damien nodded. "He was the narrator in a few plays. His voice is exceptionally smooth, but in all the interviews he complains that he wasn't good enough."

"Exactly, he's only known for his voice work. So, we don't see any motive, at least not yet." Gary added.

"Anything else?" Daniel inquired.

"The victim had an appointment jotted down. See." Gary stated and showed Daniel a note.

Kevin Thrifter, ~3:00 P.M

"A friend of yours, Damien?" Dan asked.

"He's my older brother. He drives a fast car and he always beats me in races." Damien admitted. "But he's no killer."

"Can you be sure of that?" Dan added.

"His little brother is a cop, why would he get into trouble?"

"Rhombodian is a planet full of strange occurrences due to the fact people have access to abilities." Daniel proclaimed with a chuckle.

"Anyway, the crime happened in studio 17. It's above the train station in this building." Gary stated.

"This place has a hotel, a shopping mall, a train station and a tv studio?" Daniel inquired. "Is there anything Alcony tower doesn't have?"

"A baseball field, a basketball court, an airport…" Damien stated.

"Forget I asked." Dan interrupted.

Damien laughed.

Gary shook his head and led them to the elevators. They entered and went to the 16th floor.

Damien was astonished when the doors opened and revealed that they were outside the Chanel 17 studio. "No way!" Damien shouted. "The crime scene is here?" He squealed in excitement.

"You did show him the preliminary report, didn't you Daniel?" Gary asked.

"I didn't. I knew that if he found out he'd act like a child in a candy store." Daniel stated. "Besides, you mentioned this place yourself a bit earlier and he must have missed it, otherwise he would have started acting up a bit earlier."

"I see what you mean." Gary noted as Damien danced around in excitement.

"Damien, you're a twenty-four-year-old EPD detective, act like it." Dan stated.

Damien stopped in his tracks and fixed his uniform and badge and combed his hair. "Sorry sir. It's just…" he squealed again. "Andrew Artwick works here."

"I know." Daniel stated. "I watch the news too."

"Oh my gosh. We need to get a paper bag. If I see him, I'm going to hyperventilate." Damien noted.

Gary clicked his fingers and one of his officers came over, Gary whispered in the officer's ear and the officer headed to the elevator.

"Officer O'brian is getting you a paper bag now, let's just hope we don't bump into him in the interim." Gary stated.

"I don't think he would be on this floor at the moment, the next news slot is from 11 to 12." Dan noted.

Damien slapped his face in realisation.

"What's the matter now Damien?" Dan inquired.

"I just realized that the victim worked for studio 17." Damien stated.

"That's right, he was hired to be the latest narrator for Entitlement Island." Daniel explained.

"He had my brother's name written as an appointment; do you know what that means?" Damien asked.

"Yes, your brother was meeting with him."

"No, it means that my brother knows Andrew Artwick." He squealed louder. "Oh, I'm so proud of him."

"Daniel, if you can't reign in your partner then I will have to ask him to leave." Gary announced.

"My apologies sir." Daniel stated and he looked at Damien in a way a father looks at his son when he is severely disappointed. "Damien, we are guests here, if you ever want to go from junior detective to detective third class then you have to act more professionally." Daniel proclaimed.

Damien hung his head. "My bad." He stated handling his badge, moving it back and forth. "I'll do better, I swear."

Daniel nodded. "You better."

Gary gestured to them and they continued to follow him to the editing room.

Dan and Damien entered the editing room. The body was still there.

"The victim was stabbed with a letter opener?" Damien noted.

"Fatally stabbed. The killer knew what he was doing." Gary added.

"This reminds me of 'New York, new murder.'" Damien noted.

"Sorry, what?" Dan asked.

"Oh, I read all your past cases and saw that the commissioner added some elaborations because your writing was so boring. Thanks to him, those case files had become so interesting that I gave each one of them a name." Damien declared.

"Really?"

"Yes. 'Misfiled for Murder,' 'Detective School Mystery,' 'murder at the studio,' 'fatal love triangle…'" Damien announced.

"Ok, I get it." Daniel interrupted. "So, I suppose the case file you are referring to is the one in which I solved the murder of Richard Yates, but as I recall the victim was strangled, not stabbed."

"No. The killer was stabbed, with a letter opener. The victim in this case was also stabbed with a letter opener." Damien explained.

"Yes, and it's a cheap letter opener too." Dan stated after a bit of examination. "The killer could have easily of purchased it from the post office in the mall downstairs."

"That's right. It took one of our man 12 minutes just to figure that out. It's the same brand as the ones in that post office so it came from there." Gary noted.

"Did you get the receipts?" Daniel asked.

"We did, but nothing concrete, our killer must have paid in cash so the we couldn't track him down." Gary announced.

"How about the footage?" Dan inquired.

"The footage? Of entitlement island?"

"Typically, episodes are filmed two weeks in advance. The footage here is dated almost two weeks ago, which means that this episode was about to air." Dan noted.

"Hey your right. Good eye. We'll ask the producer about it."

Suddenly the door opened. "Speak of the devil." Gary added.

"Sorry I'm late." Kevin stated in a booming voice. "I had a battle with the coffee machine, I'd tell you about it but the tale is too epic of a yarn for you to understand."

Damien got up and straightened himself.

Kevin had a look of shock and gave the coffees to the lieutenant next to him. Kevin went over and hugged Damien. "Damie! I wasn't expecting you. My you have grown."

"Kev? You're the producer of Entitlement Island?" Damien asked.

"Yes, Damie, have you not watched to the end of the show, or better yet the start. My name is there clear as day. 'Produced by Kevin Thrifter.'" Kevin replied. "Oh, I see you're not working at that second-hand shop anymore. That place didn't suit you anyway."

"Sorry I didn't know that you were the producer. I couldn't bring myself to watch a show with some of the most uppity people on the planet. I had to deal with some entitled people during my time at the second-hand shop. I would tell you all about it, but…" Damien gestured to the body.

"Oh right, him. You know he left us a dying message. My name was in there, so I felt compelled to listen." Kevin explained.

"The victim recorded a dying message?" Dan asked.

"Yes, Dr. Smith, there's a microphone right there. An editing room isn't complete without one. Sometimes we leave little notes, other times we record lines we believe do not sound quite right. Seems he turned it on for some reason. By accident, I think." Kevin explained.

"Accident?" Dan noted.

"Yeah. When he died, he was doing his second episode. He previously only narrated plays. So, he was unaware that he did turn the microphone on. But luckily, he did. Here I'll play it for you."

Kevin typed in the keyboard and Andrew's voice echoed in the editing room. Everything that he said after he paused the recording was let known to everyone in his room.

"Hold on." Daniel noted. "The victim, Andrew, said that it wasn't you."

"Yes. So, you should clear me of suspicion, don't you think." Kevin added.

"You could have been wearing a disguise." Dan added.

"Oh? I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"He would have seen through it, even if I wore contacts and high shoes to make it look nothing like me, he would have seen through it."

"Did he have an ability?"

"We checked that." Gary stated. "He was an Earthling, rank F. No powers whatsoever. He was also class one with zero magical knowledge, he's not even registered in the Questlands."

"You could have simply said that there was nothing special about him." Dan stated.

"Oh, but he was special. He had an identic memory." Kevin elaborated.

"Which would explain why you believed he would have recognized you no matter what you did to yourself. Even if you created an illusion around you to make him see someone else, he'd know it would be you." Dan stated.

"See, so since he said 'you're not Kevin,' that means it wasn't me." Kevin stated.

"The recording isn't doctored either, we checked." Gary added.

"Sorry to have accused you." Daniel bowed to Kevin.

"Well, I hope the next time you accuse me, it would be an accusation of a bad joke, because at least then I could claim to be guilty." Kevin laughed. "Besides, like my brother I can detect abilities. This was none other than a classical murder, no powers were used at all. Which is rare considering we're on Rhombodian."

"So, did anyone have a motive to kill him?" Dan asked.

"No, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Kevin elaborated.

"What do you mean?" Dan asked.

"About two minutes of footage are missing from what was captured 13 days ago. I didn't see the footage myself and the editor in charge of it is out sick. The drone that caught those two minutes was destroyed and the copy of the footage on it was erased. They also erased the two minutes from the cloud. I got to give the killer one thing; they knew what they were doing." Kevin explained.

"So then, whatever was on those two minutes of footage must have been something worth killing over, they must have killed someone on Entitlement Island, but their killing was captured on film. So, you must be right Kevin, Andrew was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Dan stated.

"But the Midria kingdom hasn't reported any murders on Entitlement Island, so without that we'd wouldn't know if that theory holds water." Gary added.

"Well. If a body shows up, then we will be the first to go investigate. As I recall, the Midria kingdom has a full-assistance contract with FORMAL, which means if a crime happens on that island, then we are fully allowed to investigate it." Daniel noted.

"That's right. You and Damie can go, but I must remain in Raintown." Gary stated.

"Sorry, but only Kev can call me 'Damie.'" Damien proclaimed.

"I'm sorry." Gary stated. "Anyway, you can't actually just ship off to Entitlement Island, not without a crime being reported, remember you are still on duty, so you have to investigate this crime."

Daniel nodded. "So, here's what we know. The killer bought the murder weapon downstairs with cash, he came here and killed Andrew so he could delete some footage. If Andrew wasn't here, then it would be likely that no murder would have occurred. But we have no idea what was on said footage, it is likely that the one responsible did commit another murder on Entitlement Island."

"But without a body, we can't visit unless we were on vacation." Damien interrupted.

"I don't think any of us would want to vacate to that locale. Anyway, we know one more vital fact."

"What is that, Dan?"

"The killer was an expert in television, otherwise, how would they have known about the drone's memory and the cloud memory? What is a drone?"

"Earth hasn't invented them yet? They are small flying vehicles, most of them have cameras mounted to them to record things."

"Oh, my grandson has one of those." Dan chuckled.

"I bet he does."

"Kev, if I can call you that?"

"You may, if I can call you Dan." Kev replied.

"Do you know anyone who visited Entitlement Island who is also an expert in editing?"

"Nah, I'm afraid I don't" Kevin noted with a sad face.

"Do you think anyone here might know?"

"There are many in my crew who could answer your questions, but they typically don't come here, the only ones working on Entitlement Island that do work here are ones who know little about the comings and goings of the place. Maybe ask Andrew? He knows something?"

Damien started hyperventilating and the officer that Gary was speaking to earlier on the first floor appeared and gave Damien a paper bag.

"Thank you Tyler O'brian." Gary stated. "You can return to your duties."

Tyler nodded and looked around the scene.

"He's mute." Gary added. "But I speak Rhombodian sign language."

Daniel nodded. "I was wondering why he seemed so reserved."

"Okay." Damien stated, trying to hide his excitement the best he could. "Let's speak to Andrew Artwick."

Daniel and Damien left the editing room and went to Andrew Artwick's changeroom. They knocked upon the door.

"Come in." Andrew stated.

They both entered. Damien was trying his hardest not to squall, but Andrew could tell he was failing to keep his composure. Andrew was a tall man, taller than Daniel Smith by 17cm. His hair was blond and short, his face fit his anchor-man job to a T, his face was bare, and his eyebrows were very thin. His tie was covered in multi-coloured dots, and it was bronze. His shirt was blacker than coal and his leather jacket were as red as Aire's rock. His pants were a light tan colour and reached down to his socks. His shoes were black, shined, and shimmered.

"Let me guess," Andrew stated and put his finger on his head. "You are my biggest fan, and you would like my autograph?"

"Oh, my goodness!" Damien announced, he was metaphorically jumping up and down on the spot with excitement, and it was clearly reflected in his tone. "Yes, a thousand times yes!"

Andrew wrote his autograph on his personal notepad and gave it to Damien.

"Your stationary is personalized to you?" Daniel inquired, noting that Andrew's name and a cartoon version of his face was on the paper he passed to Damien.

"That's right, I'm that popular." Andrew stated. "Now, Damien, be on your best behaviour, the police are investigating in this area, but I don't need to tell you that twice."

"Andrew Artwick knows my name." Damien squealed.

"For goodness' sake, Damien, he can read your badge." Daniel stated with a tone of impatience.

"Oh, right." Damien blushed with embarrassment.

"Well, I know you didn't come so Mr Thrifter here could embarrass himself to no end, so please tell me why you came to see me, and please make it quick as I'm supposed to be on the news in a few minutes." Andrew stated.

"Do you know anybody who is a master editor that visited Entitlement Island?" Daniel asked.

"There was a person earlier, I did not recognise him. I believe saw him before in a different outfit with either more or less facial hair, but he was wearing a visitor's pass, but no other real name tag so I did not know his identity. He told me he was an editor, so I asked him to prove it, I showed him a little cartoon I made, and he fixed it up. I of course revoked the changes as I did not want to craft a whole new test, and I let him go. It was not until Damien's brother told me that Andrew had been killed that I realised that I accidently aided and abetted a criminal." Andrew explained.

"Sorry about that. But you do not need to worry, we have no grounds to arrest you as aiding and abetting only applies if you had advance knowledge that a crime will be committed." Daniel proclaimed.

Andrew put his hand to his heart and sighed a sigh of relief.

"Everyone to set." A lady announced.

"Looks like I have to go." Andrew proclaimed and looked at his mirror and adjusted his tie. "Oh, one more thing!" Andrew stated as he was exiting with his door opened. "That man I spoke about, he smelt heavily of sea air." He shut the door and went to report the news as he did every day at 11:00 a.m.

Daniel processed this information, but it did not help him narrow anything down, but it did confirm to him one thing. The killer must have come from Entitlement Island as the only way to or from that island is with a sea voyage.