The Investigation Continues

Markov's basement workshop, 2:40 PM

The desk closest to the stairs Daniel was descending was covered in the tools required for forging organ donor cards. There were silhouettes made from thin white tape indicating where the tools should go. Some of the tools were not where they were supposed to be. Two of them where on the floor, there were also semicircular marks on the edge of the blue desk, clearings in the dust it had amassed. This told Dan that someone grabbed the desk as they hit it, with their back facing it. There was no dust in the semicircles at all, suggesting to Dan that the person who was pushed was wearing gloves, and since Markov was dead on the floor and not wearing gloves, that meant that it was someone else who was wearing gloves that was pushed toward the table.

The force of the person Markov was fighting hitting the table was enough to cause the box of 211 cards to be knocked over and all of the cards were now spilt upon the floor.

Other then Daniel and Vincent, there were three others in the room.

Gary Gale wore an EPD uniform and was 189cm tall. His position was behind the blue desk at the back of the room, there were three blue desks in total, the way they were positioned looked like the Japanese katakana symbol for ko. Returning to Gary's description, his hair was black as night and his eyes were the same green you'd see in a rainbow, he had a moustache and a thick brow, and he had no lashes. There was some dark circles under his eyes and an emerald wedding band on his finger. There was a hand shaped bruise on his face, there was clearly some trouble in paradise for him. Gary was the heart of the group, the one who could get anyone to admit anything, the one with the most social prowess. He'd be referred to by his codename of Val from this point forward.

Hillary Unity was a 177cm tall female who had a big belly, she probably weighed around 155kg. She had a uniform that was one size too big and you could note that it was a bit loose. She had pink armbands and her face, although chubby, was beautiful. No blemishes in sight, but there was a crescent moon birthmark under her left eye. Her eyes were sapphire blue. She had crimson hair, and it was long. Her ears were visible and she had earrings that were two hands shaking with one another. She was the brains of the group, always coming up with solutions to the most arcane problems. She will be referred to by her codename of Vanessa from this point forward, she was waiting on the right of the room near a corkboard of Markov's designs and bar graphs of his profits. Daniel was bemused by the fact that the victim even knew how to use bar graphs.

The next member of the V squad with their nose near the fallen cards was the one codenamed Valery, AKA: the resource manager of the team. Her true name is Rhoda Jewels. She had dark yet fare skin, it was shiny. Her face, although hovering just above the floor, was neat with a low nose and slightly large lips, she had a nose piercing in her right nostril and her hair was dyed violet and styled in a rebellious style. Her eyes were a light brown colour, and she had an orange ribbon around her right wrist and a black bow tie on her collar. She usually wore a handbag, which was laying on a small table that was bought in from the outside.

Of course, you've already met Luke Hallow, AKA Vincent. He had golden wrist bands and a golden tie, his badge had a gold trimming and his hair was blonde with flecks of gold in it. Tattooed on his muscular right forearm was the great staff Wendelbee. His left forearm showed a shield with the coat of arms of the Hallow family, it too was a tattoo. He was 201cm tall. He was a goliath and Dan was surprised he could make it through the door.

Valery heard Vincent's footprints from a mile away and she stood to attention as Daniel began to examine the shotgun propped in the corner. "Vincent, who's our friend?" Valery inquired in her dark voice.

"This is Dan, he's with Bill." Vincent relayed.

"Are you on his side?" Valery asked Dan.

Dan continued to examine the shotgun. "Would you elaborate?" Dan replied.

"Do you enjoy the way he treats us?" Valery detailed.

"From what I've seen he doesn't care for your happiness, and sees you for your skills only, that's no way to treat a human. You should feel pride for all the good that you have done, and I absolutely do not like that he makes you feel like your work isn't worth a damn." Dan stated, putting the shotgun into his gloved hands and examining it thoroughly. "This was touched prior to the victim picking it up." He noted.

Vanessa came over, as she was the closest and gave Daniel a big hug, Daniel wasn't too surprised, he heard her coming. "I'm glad you're not on his side, he fat shamed me a few days ago and that made me feel awful." Vanessa relayed.

"Well, the bigger you are, the more there is to love." Dan relayed.

"I wish he saw it that way. I don't know why he has to be so awful. Why does he see us like slaves and treats you as an equal?" Vanessa replied.

"Well, I'm a second class and you are all third class. Perhaps he just treats people who are your rank and lower has underclassman, or perhaps he treats me better as he's afraid of what I would do if he made me mad." Dan guessed.

"Regardless," Val relayed in his mid-light voice. "We'd like to make you a part of our little family. You can be the fun uncle who comes on weekends."

Dan chuckled. "I'd like that."

"So," Vanessa added. "What made you think that the gun was altered by someone?"

"There's not much dust on it, meaning it's been handled, and the bullet holster is dust free. The old man probably already had it loaded some time before the day he was killed, the people who planned to kill him saw the gun and checked it, when they realised the gun was loaded, they probably swapped out the bullets with blanks. We can also tell it was loaded prior as there is an ammo box atop of this supply cabinet that is open, but is dust covered, meaning only the required amount of shells were removed when it was loaded a few weeks or months ago." Dan concluded.

"That's the theory I was able to come to as well when I examined the gun and the box." Vanessa relayed.

"So, it seems your ahead of the game. Bill wanted to know what the order of events were, would any of you like to give it a shot?" Daniel asked.

"Our best bet is that after the victim shot the guy who was trying to steal from him, who didn't die because Markov's gun had been tampered with prior to the thief's appearance, Markov rushed down here to collect one of those cards." Val explained, pointing to the cards on the table. "But he was interrupted by one of the thief's accomplices. He tried to shoot the accomplice with that shotgun only to discover that the gun was empty, so Markov resorted to hand to hand combat and rushed at the accomplice with a chisel in hand and managed to push the accomplice into the table with the cards on it, which explains the semicircular imprints and the tools being out of sorts as well as the reason the box fell off the table. But little did Markov know that his attempt to kill the accomplice was just a distraction so that the thief's second accomplice could come in and give a kill shot."

Daniel clapped his hands. "Then the three walked off into the sunset." He added. "A brilliant tale, and the most likely order of events, well deduced team."

The four smiled such bright smiles. Finally, they felt that their efforts were recognised. This must have been the first time that their emotions have been authentic in a while.

"Yet," Vincent added. "That doesn't help us at all in figuring out who any of our three killers are. We only know that there were three of them."

Dan nodded. "Vanessa, since I saw you with your face near the ground, I want to know if you saw any clues that might help."

Vanessa lifted herself up. "I've looked around, I don't see anything of note."

Dan walked a lap of the scene, squeezing passed the members of the V team as he walked around. "I noticed that nobody has moved the victim. I have also noticed that his left hand is below him, there is a hunting knife to his left, and the chisel is over to the right. But his handwriting is right-handed. He must have kept that hunting knife on him in case he lost his chisel, and he did when he was shot."

Valery clapped her hands. "Of course. The victim didn't die immediately from his wound. After all, the location of the bullet would knock him down, but he could survive a few seconds. Maybe in the time before he finally perished, he used the blade to get a single piece of evidence and then hid it below him. All without being noticed by the killers."

"That makes sense," Dan relayed. "He admitted that he trained under Rodger Rounds in his diary, and we know that he is an assassin with good tactics. He must have used those skills to his advantage in his dying moments."

The V team nodded their heads. "Maybe we should move the body." Val stated.

"Let's mark it out first." Vanessa relayed.

So, they marked out the position of the body, and once they marked it out, they moved the body aside.

The victim was holding a piece of a boot, he must have cut it off of the boot of the person who made the semicircular markings on the desk nearby. The sand was dark, and flecks of shiny blue in it. "Is this bismuth?" Dan inquired.

Vanessa examined it. "It's cobalt blue pigment." She added. "These are flecks of glitter. It's used to attract fish in the lake 12 minutes north of here. Some of the glitter gets trapped in the sand by the shore. Clearly the person who wore the boots this came from set up camp in that area."

"I see. So I take it that you know a lot about this area?"

Vanessa nodded. "I am the brains of the team and I used to be a part of the Aurime county rangers when I used to live in Torus."

"The lake is halfway between here and Torus, so no doubt you knew about it and everything related to it." Dan noted. "It appears that the victim has given us a lead. I hope it's useful."

"So we know that they planed this in advance and they set up camp near the lake." Vincent added.

"Thank you for your help today guys. I'll head upstairs and find out from Bill who Elliot's friends are. After all, we know that Markov killed Elliot and made it look like Elliot tried to steal from him making it appear in the eye of the law that Markov was innocent and was just protecting himself and his store. If his friends looked into it, there is a chance that his friends discovered the truth and planned to take Markov out." Dan explained.

"Alright. We'll finish photographing this place and get the paramedics to move the body." Val relayed.

Daniel made his way back up the stairs into the basement and went back into the showroom. Bill had a written list of Elliot's friends ready.

"So, Bill. What do we have?" Daniel asked.

"Elliot has a father named Johan, and a mother named Sandra. He also has a brother who used to be named Lamprey, but he changed his name due to teasing. His friends were a girl named Kara Render, and three males, Frank York, Jeremy Urchin and Robin Phisher." Bill explained. "I bet at least one of then were involved."

"Robin Phisher is 42 years old and is the proprietor of the bar across the road. According to his assistant manager, who is also on the list, he was doing a fishing trip, probably to the lake just northeast of here. We also know that one of the killer's accomplices must have come from that area, or was camping over there. I think he was friends through the association that Robin had with Johan." Daniel deduced.

"Did you figure out that Johan and Robin had a relationship just because his first son's name was originally Lamprey?" Bill inquired.

"It was just a hunch until you confirmed it." Dan relayed honestly.

"You sly mother hugger." Bill retorted. "Regardless, I don't think Elliot and Robin were such good friends that Robin would want to avenge him, besides, as the proprietor of the property across the road and since his address is listed on those advertisements located in the northern areas of the Everleason metropolitan area, its likely that he is aware of what Markov was really doing."

Daniel nodded in agreement. "Looks like we need to question him and his assistant." He stated.

"Let's head across the road and speak with him." Bill relayed.

Daniel and Bill crossed the road, to the Fisherman's Rest pub. Daniel pondered how close he was to answers. What will Elliot's friend say?