Clues at the Office

66 Yulendale Rd, Vegan Town, 8:35 AM

Daniel and Damien arrived in Daniel's beautiful red car. Dan parked his car into the spot next to the vehicle Kasey took here. Kasey was behind the wheel, she looked like she was in complete shock.

"Damien, sit in the car, I'll speak to Ms Brookes." Daniel stated.

Damien nodded. "Yeah, your thirty or so years trumps my five-year relationship by a mile."

"Are you thinking of tying the knot with Larraine any time soon?" Daniel asked.

"When I get my own place, I will, it would be awkward asking the landlady to marry me while I'm still renting from her company." Damien added.

Daniel left the car with a nod of agreement. Daniel went to Kasey's driver side door. Daniel knocked on the teal convertible's driver's side door. A moot point seeing as the top was down.

Kasey turned to Daniel with a blank catatonic stare.

"May I have your hand?" Dan asked

Kasey silently withdrew her hand from her side and slowly lifted atop the door. Daniel began to message it in a comforting manner.

"I'm Doctor Daniel Smith, although my doctorate is in the realm of quantum physics, I have knowledge beyond that that may be helpful in your current situation. Please remain calm and tell me what it is that's troubling you." Daniel explained in his calm fathering tone.

Kasey took a deep breath and relaxed at last. "Thank you, Daniel. I feel a bit better. I'm still a little shocked. Our sub-area's governing official has been taken out and I don't know what to do. I felt that he was as important as my father even though we are not even related."

Daniel opened the passenger's side door and got into the car and started to style Kasey's luxurious hair. "I heard that the whole dispatch office was just as upset about hearing about this too. But don't worry, I'm here now, and you've heard what they have said about me."

"Yes, yes I have." Kasey stated and wiped her tears. "They say your good."

"Of course, I am. I could never imagine being evil." Dan joked.

"I meant that you're a great detective." Kasey laughed.

"I suppose I am."

"You're very humble, aren't you."

"Boasting just puts others down, and as a member of FORMAL, boasting goes against everything I represent."

Kasey laughed. "Quite right." Kasey took her now braided hair out from Daniel's hands and glanced at her surroundings. "I see your with Mr Thrifter today, but where's David? I was hoping to see Mr Lancer."

"Typically, DJ likes solving cases on planet Earth. But he was given a permitted day off as the people renting his house in Argentina decided to throw a party and make a mess of his place, so he's down there to clean it up."

David Lancer's house, Palermo, Buenos Aries, Argentina.

David looked at his renters and gave them a stern look. "Alright." David stated. "I'm only going to ask one question." He took out a cigarette and lit it and gave it a single puff before giving his signature stare. "How the hell did you get vomit on the ceiling?"

66 Yulendale Rd.

"Anyway," Daniel continued. "I heard that you were the first one to stumble onto the scene. I hope recollecting such a thing doesn't hurt you emotionally, but we need to know what you saw."

Kasey nodded. "It feels like a blur, but I entered at 8:10 to inform Lucy that I had completed my task and she could sign off on my job well done. That's when I noticed that something was off. The Vegan Professor hadn't left the office since her appointment began at 7:30, surely what they were discussing shouldn't have taken 40 minutes."

"I see, mind catching me up, who is the Vegan Professor and what was their discussion supposed to be about?" Daniel inquired.

"Katrina Denmark is a vegan activist and an internet influencer; she is famous for her identity on RhomboTube." Kasey explained. "I think she was here to try and convince the mayor to revoke the Private Quarter's Rights bill."

"Ah yes. Man, time sure flies by. I remember when it used to be known as ROVSN. Wasn't that bill revoked and reintroduced 5 times over the history of this town?"

"Yes."

"What happened after you told Lucy you had finished your duties?"

"I asked her if I could see the mayor as I was concerned, she buzzed him on the intercom but after one minute of no response she instructed me to go down the hall and check things out. When I got to the door the FORMAL scanner was out of commission, so I used the lock pick in my FORMAL watch to get the door open."

Daniel pressed on the side of his watch which he obtained recently and took out the lock pick. "Huh, so that's what this is for. But I much prefer to use the lock picking toolset on my belt." Daniel stated.

"Anyway," Kasey continued as Dan placed the pick back into the watch, "after that I opened the door, the lights had been dimmed so it wasn't that bright in there and I saw Katrina unconscious on her chair and across the desk the mayor was laying on top of the desk with blood running down his left temple. I think he got hit very hard on the head by the stapler as it had blood on it, and it was damaged. I called dispatch and I'm sure you know the rest."

"Thank you. You have been brave. I do hope you get better from what happened, and I'm sorry for making you recall all these details, I know how hard it must have been."

"No, I should thank you, Daniel, I bet in a past life you could have tamed the wildest of beasts and make them tell you, their stories." Kasey replied. "Oh, and thank you for the new hairstyle, I think it's cute."

Daniel exited the car and gave a polite bow. "It was no issue Ms Brookes, have a lovely day."

Kasey smiled and started her vehicle. She waved goodbye as Damien and Daniel entered the town hall. They both waved in return.

Daniel walked up to Lucy. "Good morning, Mrs Brave."

"Morning Dr Smith, don't you start work at 10:00 AM?" Lucy stated with a slight bit of confusion.

"I do, but in the case of a murder I start early." Daniel explained.

"Well, let's hope that a crime doesn't wake you up in the dead of the night." Lucy joked.

"There's early and then there's a limit. If the crime happens between 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM, then forget about it, I'm not investigating it until 6:30 at the earliest." Daniel replied. "But that doesn't make your joke any less humorous."

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. "For a second there, I thought the joke went over your head."

Daniel laughed and noticed the almost bursting trash bin behind the desk. "The Golden Chariot?" He said as he read the big writing and the little notes written upon the boxes in fancy writing.

Lucy got up from her seat and tied up the bag in the trash bin and lifted it out. "It's a restaurant across from the rail station." Lucy stated.

"Do you enjoy that place?" Daniel inquired as he noted the many containers through the white trash bag that was at 50% opacity.

"Not particularly, I take the train into Everleason Central to get some quality food." She stated as she carried the bag toward the back and Daniel followed behind.

"So, who ordered all of those?" Daniel inquired.

"Awfully curios, aren't you?" Lucy added.

"My apologies, you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Lucy laughed. "Of course. But if you really need to know, I ordered the food without ordering the food."

"So, I'm guessing it was some sort of delivery error?"

"That's the gist of it, yes."

"All of those were delivery errors?" Daniel stated with surprise as Lucy dumped the bag.

"Surprising, right. I've called up and apparently, they couldn't find the errors, someone is trying to cover this up."

"It would seem so. But what was it that you ordered for delivery so many times?" Daniel inquired. As Lucy turned and walked back toward the building.

"FORMAL security cameras."

"Ah, I should have known. The camera located inside the mayor's office had been in a limited state for about a week now, am I mistaken?"

"You certainly aren't."

"Did you manage to finally get a camera?" Damien inquired as Daniel and Lucy got back inside.

Lucy lifted a box from beside her chair. "I was going to install it as soon as Katrina left the mayor's office."

"When did that arrive?" Damien inquired. As Daniel walked around the desk to join his side. He was imputing some notes into the watch.

"At 8:00 AM. Derek Caravan delivered it, he's not the one who mistakenly gave me all those boxes of food."

Damien and Dan both added this to their notes. "So," Damien added. "Who was the one who delivered those vegan delicacies if I may ask?"

"It was August Bully." Lucy relayed.

"The mayor's aide's twin brother?" Dan and Damien both questioned simultaneously.

"That's the guy."

"So, when was the last time you saw him?" Dan inquired.

"7:00 AM today. I started work at 6." Lucy replied.

Daniel nodded. "You wouldn't happen to know how the mix-ups kept reoccurring, do you? Once, twice or even thrice may be par for the course, but seeing the many containers make me suspect that this was no mere coincidence."

"I wish I knew, but if I were you, I'd ask François Bricken, he's the head waiter at the Golden Chariot; nothing passes by his nose unnoticed."

Dan and Damien both nodded. "Thank you." Damien stated. "We'll keep that in mind."

"Now, we are going to go review the scene." Daniel stated.

"Oh, really? They have already arrested a suspect." Lucy relayed.

"Who?" Damien asked.

"Katrina Denmark, I.e., the person that was last seen entering the office by yours truly." Lucy added.

"On what grounds did she get arrested? Were her fingerprints on the murder weapon?" Daniel inquired.

"How am I to know? But the man who arrested her, Alex Gravel, arrested her because a: she was there and b: he despised her." Lucy stated.

"I hate it when people allow their emotions be their driving factor." Damien stated.

"Says the fellow who gets excited at the mere mention of Andrew Artwick." Daniel relayed.

"Where?!" Damien exclaimed and looked around. "Oh." He blushed. "I see your point."

"But Damien is right. Just because you don't like someone, doesn't mean you should arrest them." Daniel added.

"Yeah, I remember that when you went to Arkahimious, you wanted to arrest your companion, but you didn't." Damien stated.

Daniel gave Damien a fierce stare. "We don't talk about that one, okay?"

"Yes, sir!" Damien added with a bit of fear.

"Anyway, we should still investigate the scene even though an arrest has been made, the lawyer representing her case may need to talk to us and we'd like to be there when that time comes." Daniel stated.

Lucy nodded. "Very well. Do move on."

"Oh, two more things if you don't mind." Dan stated quickly.

"Yes?" Lucy replied.

"I will need the photos from the malfunctioning camera as well as a list of times you saw people go about the building." Dan stated.

Lucy smiled. "I'll get on it right away, Dr Smith."

Daniel and Damien walked down the hallway, the door was open, and the lights were no longer dim. Two police photographers were taking pictures of the scene and the victim was still in place, there was a mannequin the size of Katrina slumped in the seat on the door's side of the room. The victim had been removed and some tape took his place.

"Damien, what do you think of everything in here?" Daniel inquired as he stepped over the tape to have a look around.

Damien narrowed his eyes and gave the scene an examination. He spotted the name tag and walked over to it. "Percy," he stated toward the photographer nearest him. "Did you get a picture of this."

"I sure did." Percy replied in a cockney British accent.

Damien nodded and picked up the name tag and examined it closely, he noted that there was not a single piece of thread upon it and then he placed it back down and walked on over to the body and looked where the nametag should be and there wasn't much damage to John's blue striped suit. "Looks like someone messed up the scene to make it look like there was a struggle."

Daniel nodded. "I had figured as much when I first saw the room."

Damien was awestruck. "How? You didn't even look at the name tag closely like I did."

"I didn't have to. Have you noticed the documents scattered around the place?" Daniel inquired.

"Half of this room is documents, so yeah, I noticed."

"Look at the blood on the documents, it's not a splatter originating from where the victim was sitting, in fact, there's a sheet soaked in blood in the corner of the room. So, my deduction is that the victim was killed with a stack of documents next to him and after he was killed the blood soaked into the stack and sometime after that the killer spread the documents across the room in order to conceal the fact that the victim knew them and had no reason to struggle against them." Daniel added.

Damien looked around again. "Oh, now I notice it."

Daniel nodded. He picked up the stapler with his gloved hands and examined it. "I'm quite saddened."

"Because the stapler is your favourite colour, and it is covered in blood." Damien stated.

"Why did it have to be with a teal stapler, I might not be able to look at that colour for a week." Dan added.

"Are there any prints on it?" Damien inquired.

"It looks like nobody has touched it." Dan stated and took out his fingerprinting dust. He dusted it gently. He spotted some prints. "These prints are in a peculiar pattern." He announced.

Damien looked at them. "They appear to be facing the wrong way."

"Are you sure?" Daniel asked.

Damien took the stapler. "Allow me to demonstrate with this mannequin." He stated. He lifted the stapler up with the bloodstained side facing away from him with his right hand and the bottom was facing Dan as Damien held the stapler high. Damien then used his hand to slowly bring the stapler down and touched the mannequin lightly. He then repeated the process with his left hand. "That concludes the way the killer must have struck the victim, now if you noticed I had the bottom face toward you."

"Yes, I did." Dan noted.

"The fingerprints should be facing toward the blood, yet on the stapler they are facing the opposite direction." Damien concluded.

"No guesses as to who these prints belong to if that's the case." Daniel added.

"No doubt they belong to Katrina, as if the evidence against her enough." Damien added.

"Yet, the fingerprints are not facing the way they should for the accusation to hold water, which means that she was being set up to take the fall."

Damien nodded. "Yeah, but who will do that and for how long have they been planning this?"

"It also means that there was a possibility that the killer was thrown off balance by someone or something. They did have the thought of forcing the unconscious Katrina to place her fingerprints, but something must have been on their mind, some distraction, as they did not do the job right."

"Your right Dan, your always right. But that raises a question, now, doesn't it? Why was Katrina unconscious to begin with?"

Daniel pressed some buttons on his watch and got through to the MRPD.

"Hello, this is Rodger, how may I direct your call." Stated a British male voice.

"Rodger, this is badge 9797, direct me to acquisitions and booking." Daniel stated.

"As you wish [Robotic voice] Dr Smith. [end robotic voice]"

"Greetings, this is Yvette Hula of acquisitions and booking." Stated a lovely young lady.

"Mrs Hula, I wish to know the condition of a Ms Katrina Denmark, she was arrested by a man name Alex Gravel."

"Please hold Dan." Yvette relayed and then some nice music played over the watch for a minute. "Are you still with us, doctor?"

"Yes Yvette."

"She is still regaining her colour, but other than that, she has no external wounds. We had a female nurse check each inch with permission to be certain."

"That wasn't necessary. I'm certain no maniac is going around shooting ladies with tranquilisers in their pleasure zones."

"You may think it wasn't necessary but even if the chances are astronomically small that someone would put a woman to sleep using her downstairs area or her magnificent peaks, but you must cover every probability, no matter how small."

"You should have at least brought her dinner first."

Yvette burst out in laughter. "Well, all you need to know is that if the cause of the knockout was via drugs, then she would have had to have consumed them."

Daniel nodded. "Thank you for your time, and I'm sorry if I made things awkward."

"Well, you should have used adult words, what are you embarrassed of?"

"I mean, I could if I wanted to, but it's just not in my nature to state the biologically correct term for what people have downstairs. Thank you for your assistance and farewell."

"No, thank you doctor, you made me laugh today and that is the best medicine." Yvette stated and hung up.

Damien looked at the cups on the table. "Well, if she swallowed tranquilisers then she didn't take any liquid to help them down." He noted.

"Not only that, but Yvette mentioned that Katrina was still regaining colour, which means she was pale when she was picked up." Daniel stated.

"Poison?"

Daniel shook his head. "Her recovery was too fast for any poison I could think of."

Damien looked around the room. He looked and looked. He thought and thought. Then he remembered something. "That lady earlier."

"Which one? We've met a few today."

"The one with the MRPD, when you spoke to her, she was catatonic, and you were able to help her make a quick recovery."

Dan hummed. "Yes, I recall. How does she solve the conundrum in front of us?"

"We are all members of FORMAL." He said and he brought up Kasey's profile on his phone. "We keep no secrets from one another, so we know how to bring you up when you are feeling down. Look she has a mild case of hemophobia, she is uncomfortable around blood, which explains the reason she was out of sorts when we saw her."

"Then, that must mean that Katrina has a more severe case of hemophobia. Which would explain both why she is a vegan activist and why she was found unconscious. It would also explain why she went pale. Brilliant thinking my friend."

"Do I get a gold star?" Damien asked.

"Children get gold stars; I'll highlight your contributions in the case file when I write this stuff up and I'll let you pick the colour."

"Can I name this one?"

"You've named the others, who am I to stop you? Anyway, we still have a mystery to solve, since you are on a roll, as they say, I'll give you the honour of picking and driving to our next location."

"What are our options?"

Before Daniel could answer Damien, Lucy Brave showed up. "Sorry, I went as fast as I could. Here's the photos the camera took as well as the list of people I saw and the times I saw them."

Daniel looked at the list.

John Hugeman ~ entered office at 7:00

August Bully ~ delivered Golden Chariot food at 7:00

Katrina Denmark ~ entered at 7:22, went to mayor's office at 7:28

Kevin Bully ~ entered John Hugeman's office at 7:39, seen leaving it at 7:42

Ebony Bully ~ Delivered food to her husband at 8:00 sharp. Kasey Brookes ~ Entered at 8:11, went down to mayor's office at 8:13

Daniel examined the photos.

7:20 Nothing out of the ordinary

7:34 The victim and the accused were laying atop the desk; the lights were still on, and the stack of paper had not been knocked down or spread across the room.

7:40 A hand wearing a class ring from a class in 1995 is picking out one of the documents in the stack. Dan noted that the ring looked like the one the victim in front of him was wearing. It must have been from the same class, the number on the ring under the graduating year was indiscernible.

7:50 The photo showed the crime scene in its current state, just without the photographers currently taking photos, Daniel, Damien and Lucy in them. The image was dim as the lights were turned down low.

8:00 Same as above.

8:10 Same as above.

8:20 Same as above but Katrina had been replaced by a mannequin and the photographers were now on the scene. Also, the lights were now at full power.

Daniel nodded at these photos. "So, the scene was altered, and the lights were dimmed just after 7:40. Seeing that Lucy saw Kevin enter the office at that time, then it means we might need to see him. Is he still in the office?"

"He sure is." Lucy stated. "He's not working, but he's still here."

"I know you said I could take you anywhere I wanted, but we need to speak with this Kevin guy."

Daniel nodded in agreement. "His office is the door to the right at this end of the building in the hallway, right?"

"Well, that would be correct if you were facing down the hallway from the reception end." Lucy noted. "But the office would be the first door on your left when you leave this room."

"Well accuracy one way doesn't mean your dumb." Daniel relayed happily. "It just means I was looking at the wrong angle."

"Nothing wrong with that. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to my house to get some meats, you don't mind?"

"As long as your place is within MRPD jurisdiction, then we don't mind. We'll contact you if we have more questions."

Lucy left and Daniel and Damien were ready to move on and question Kevin Bully. But one question was plaguing Daniel's mind. The photos were each taken at ten-minute intervals, all except one. Why?