The First Lie

Auburn Road (street, not a suburb), Everleason, Cascoss, Ascossian, 9:00 p.m. (7 hours before Vincent Marlow was found)

Daniel was driving his crimson red vehicle northbound. Wait! I hear you say. Isn't Daniel's vehicle typically cherry red? True; Daniel's car is typically cherry red. However, sometimes he decides to switch his vehicle's colour. But he always changes it to a different shade of red. But why was he driving along this road? Good question. Yes, if Dan was heading to Everstone Manor he would never be over here. If you would recall, there is a judge in Everleason named James Goldan. I have mentioned him many times before in the other stories.

James had left some important documents at the courthouse and Mikey Shockmann was too busy to help out. So, James asked Dan to get the documents to him.

Daniel was just about to leave the cities borders and enter one of the suburbs surrounding Everleason. If you would recall the lovely township of Lincero, this was the suburb that Dan was about to enter when he noticed a car ahead of him, a sleek black Mitsubishi which shimmered in the lights lining the roads, started to swerve. Daniel activated his lights and sirens.

The man driving the car pulled over and Daniel parked behind him. Daniel approached the vehicle and noticed a short bronze-haired male inside. He had a beard and a moustache, and all of his hairs were unruly, even his eyebrows were wild. He stunk of sweat and alcohol. There was also the stench of hot wings wafting outward from the back of the car when he wound down the window.

"Can I help you?" Julian Kinous inquired.

"Sir," Dan spoke. "Do you know why I pulled you over today?"

"No, detective, I do not." Julian replied.

"You were swerving. I would like to know why."

Julian was a bit nervous. "I may have had a few during my dinner tonight."

"Wait here." Daniel went to his car and got out his breathalyser. He walked back and checked Julian's BAC (Blood-Alcohol concentration). The results showed .09%. Everleason's legal limit was .02% so he was over by .07%. "Sorry, but I will have to charge you with a DUI."

Julian stopped his car and opened his door and gave Daniel the keys. "Okay." He relayed and headed to Daniel's car.

"Wait." Daniel shouted. "I would like to see your license and registration. It is required for the paperwork."

Julian nodded and opened his glove compartment and showed the car's paperwork to Daniel and he showed Daniel his license.

Daniel perused the documentation and noted a discrepancy. "Sir, did you steal this car?" He inquired.

Julian shook his head. "This car is mine, is there an issue?"

"The license plate on here and the one on your car are different."

"Oh. I purchased that license plate from another and he hasn't given it to me yet. You can look it up if you like."

Daniel nodded and went to his car and did some research with the computer that the EPD added to his car and placed Julian's keys in his glove compartment. The screen showed that Julian did own the license plates on his car and that he couldn't recycle them until he got the new ones and the plates on his current documentation used to belong to William Storm.

Daniel took Julian's keys and headed back to Julian and he locked Julian's car. "Okay, Julian. Looks like everything is in order. I will charge you with a minor DUI since you are being so nice. But please make sure that this doesn't happen again. By the way. Your new plates used to belong to a friend of mine. William Storm, Lieutenant at the EPD." Daniel wrote Julian a citation and gave him the papers. He dangled the keys in front of him. "Go get a hotel room and I'll see you tomorrow to give you your car back. It will be waiting for you in the impound lot."

"Your not going to take me to the EPD?" Julian asked with a shocked expression.

Daniel shook his head. "I have somewhere else to go right now, I will let you get along now."

"What am I supposed to do?"

Dan pointed to Aurburn road station which was 400 meters away from their location. "It's free travel between Aurburn road and Everleason mall north station. Just put in Everleason mall in the ticket machine for a free ticket and you can take a bus from there to the hotel by the mall since the busses that goes around the mall are free."

Julian laughed and coughed. "Right. I completely forgot about that."

Daniel waved goodbye to Julian and he made his way to the station.

Dan continued his journey northward and dropped off the important documents at James' house and then went down to the EPD to print off the information stored in his computer about Julian and wrote up a late night report. He called for a tow rig to collect Julian's car. Daniel was so exhausted after everything that he fell asleep on his desk chair.

Marco Klank, the late night janitor saw Daniel and unlocked the draw marked 'portal' and took out a crystal. He teleported Daniel home and he and Elizabeth Everstone helped him into bed. Marco quickly retreated through the portal just before it closed completely.

#

Alleyway between 97 and 99 Carvaladis Avenue, 6:00 A.M (2 hours after Vincent Marlow was found)

David Lancer drove his bronze car and parked it near the scene of the crime. He got out and saw Edwin looking over the scene. "Hello Edwin, what do we have?" David inquired and put a cigarette in his mouth.

"We have a body, and you won't like who it is." Edwin replied.

"Is it one of my enemies? You know I don't give a damn who got murdered. I want to put the depraved soul who did it behind bars." David retorted.

"That's not what I meant, what I mean is that knowing the identity of the person killed may shake you to your core."

David looked at Edwin with a sharp stare and wondered who it could be that was laying dead in the alley. "Is it Lucinda or Daniel?"

"No, the victim is Vincent Marlow."

"Constable Marlow? One of us? The guy who got the Lupain family, Crysis family and Barmin family to stop committing crimes?"

"Yes."

"You were right, I don't like that. Not one bit."

Edwin presented the scene to David. The first officers to the scene had lighted the area with portable lights. David examined the body. "This is Vincent?" He inquired.

"Badge and ID confirm it." Edwin relayed.

"Did you notice the four errors?" David inquired.

Edwin hummed with interest. "Perhaps I did. But maybe you should remind me."

"Photographer!" David announced and Arthur Bently came over. "Do you have a good shot of the scene?"

Arthur nodded.

David put on his gloves and slowly removed the blade from Vincent's chest. His suspicions were confirmed. The murder weapon was not the Swiss army blade in his chest. The entry wound was a different size and shape to the weapon found in his chest. The killer used something else.

David shook the closed Swiss Army knife in the air. "As I thought. This was not the murder weapon. That is error number one."

"Good eye, David." Edwin replied. "I too thought that the Swiss Army knife and the blade used on it were out of place. But that's only one error, you noticed three others."

David nodded. "The victim is wearing his EPD uniform pants, they have a wet stain below the left knee covered in a yellow dust, that dust is actually sand, possibly from a construction site. The closest construction site is over 500 meters from this area. It is highly unlikely that the victim was murdered here, so I think he was killed elsewhere."

Edwin nodded. "Yes. I thought so too. Only two more to go."

"Now, I remember Vincent and he had a head with unruly black hair." David pulled at the golden locks of Vincent and all of his hair came off, it was a wig and his original black hair was revealed. "He was wearing a wig. Why? He didn't need to do that. Everyone knew him well and he would never fear people seeing him like himself. He would never don a wig."

"Correct. In fact, that wig is super new. See the tag! It's still on the wig, the victim didn't bother to remove it so it must have been the killer that placed it there."

David nodded. He made a note of the tag in question and passed it the note to another officer and that officer went to a police vehicle to search the tag and see when it was purchased and where. "There is still one thing off about this scene."

"Yes?"

"The shirt he is wearing is a distinctive yellow." David lifted the shirt showing the dark blue EPD uniform below. "But he is also wearing his EPD uniform. I suspected as much when I saw his uniform pants with that bright yellow shirt, and no FORMAL badge in sight. I bet our killer put that shirt on him."

Edwin clapped. "Brilliant. That is just brilliant. The best that the other officers could do when they arrived was spot two of those errors."

David puffed his cigarette. "To be honest, I just asked myself 'how would Daniel look at this.'"

Edwin chuckled. "Well, it worked."

David nodded. "But why is there four lies? I feel like that it is significant that there are four lies. You know what, it's time to do something dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Edwin noted with shock. "What are you thinking?"

"We should release an image and the location of the scene to the press and put in the paper and see if any readers slip up when we interview our suspects."

Edwin nodded. "Typically we keep as much info away from the press as possible. But in this case, since the murder weapon, the location, the victim's outfit and his hair are all out of order, I don't see any issue with that. Not one bit."

Edwin whistled to the police photographer and whispered David's plan to him. The photographer looked shocked but he wasn't going to argue with his captain so he made a mental note to release a copy of the images to the press.

"So," Edwin added. "What is your opinion? Mine is that this is all a bit complicated. What are your thoughts?"

"I am not too sure, I know that there is at least three places to get further information and perhaps a suspect will come out of the woodwork."

"Three?" Edwin noted. "What places are those?"

"Bremile, Lupain Casino and Everleason Entertainment district xXx Crysis Theatre." David replied.

Edwin nodded. "Ah yes. The Barmins, Lupains and the Crysis families. Three major mafias of the Cascoss Capital. Bremile is a suburb that is associated with Everleason, but like Darkrun, there isn't much law and order there and criminals run wild."

David looked at Edwin in confusion. "I already knew that."

"Sorry, I muse sometimes."

"Sure."

"But wait, why would you want to speak with them? The heads all agreed a ceasefire. No more organized crime. They promised."

"Maybe someone disagreed with that and wanted to send a message by killing the one who made them turn away from their criminal ways."

"Ok. But what about the Everstone family? You only said there were three places you could get information, yet the Everstones were also visited by Vincent."

"True, but we already have someone to take care of that, now don't we."

Edwin laughed. "Right you are. Daniel will speak with them and he can give the information he retrieved to you."

David nodded. "Alright. So, what will you do now captain? Will you be summoning Dr. Smith?"

Edwin nodded. "Everyone keep this scene secure so Dan can get a look at it."

The other officers nodded.

David stomped out his cigarette. "I noticed the lieutenant isn't here."

"Bill? No, he isn't here. I guess he got delayed. Well, I don't think it matters much. It's all hands on deck. Vincent was a well known officer, I want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible."

David entered his car and drove off.

Now all Edwin had to do was wait patiently for Daniel to come down and see the scene of the crime.

#

Elizabeth Everstone's bedroom, Everstone Mansion, Everleason, 7:45 A.M

Elizabeth got out of bed and Daniel woke up alongside her. Daniel went downstairs and got his tea and the morning paper. He read the front page and he was shocked. He almost spat out his tea. Elizabeth came downstairs as well.

"Elizabeth, look at this." Dan noted.

Elizabeth took the paper and she was shocked. "No, this isn't right."

"Poor Vincent." Dan relayed. "He had so much potential…" Dan noted and took a sip of his tea and then he realized something. "Why did you say that?"

"I guess I can't hide that from you, now can I?" Elizabeth noted. "Yes, it's this picture. There's something wrong with it."

"What do you mean. It's a police photograph, although, there is much more information in the paper as usual about the crime. Mentioning the weapon and disguise. I wonder if this was a terrible blunder or maybe… no… Elizabeth, what did you do?"

"Huh, you see through all ploys don't you. Someone knew I might slip if I saw this and they were right."

Dan nodded. "After all I have heard over the past year, that doesn't surprise me. But, for you to notice a discrepancy would mean…"

"I should have told you, but you were sleeping so peacefully. The report says a homeless man discovered the body at 4:00 A.M."

"That's right, says that right here. You are a very fast reader."

Elizabeth shrugged. "Just comes with the territory of being an Owlmierey. But, as I was saying, I actually saw the body at 3:30 A.M and at that time, the murder weapon was a standard kitchen knife, not a Swiss Army knife."

"Oh dear. That may be bad for you. Was there anyone to witness you?"

"Perhaps the officer that scared me away."

Daniel sipped his tea with confusion on his face. "Sorry, but what do you mean? No officers knew the body was there until after 4:00 a.m."

"Yes, I thought that too was odd. But after I spotted the body, I heard a police siren nearby and I couldn't take any chances and I ran."

"Oh dear. This doesn't bode well for you. If David or Bill heard this, you might be in cuffs. Especially if Bill knew."

Elizabeth looked at Daniel sceptically. "I suppose you are right. Even with my standing as 311 in FORMAL, I could still be accused and jailed because of my connections."

Daniel spat out his tea. "You're higher than me?" He inquired with shock and surprise.

Elizabeth laughed. "Looks like the cat is out of the bag. But never mind that. I guess you too want to see what is going on with Vincent Marlow's death, right?"

"I have to admit, it has tickled my curiosity. Listen, if you want to tell anyone else what you saw, make sure it is David and not Bill. Okay?"

Elizabeth smiled and nodded. "I never trusted that man, something has always seemed off about him, yet I don't know why."

Daniel was now a bit confused. He has known William Storm for a few months now and was not at all wary of him. However, he knows that if William had the chance to arrest Elizabeth, he'd make it as hard as possible for her to be released.

Daniel went through the manor and into the garage and started his vehicle and began driving to the scene.

A few minutes into his drive his radio emitted David's voice. "Good morning, Dan. Have you heard what happened to Vincent."

"Yes. My wife saw his body before the homeless guy found it." Dan replied through the radio. "How did you know I was awake?"

"Technology, my friend. Computers are so cool, aren't they. It told me that your car was turned over so I knew that either you were awake or that your car had been stolen. But nobody would take your car."

"I see."

"So, it looks like I got my first hit."

"Pardon?"

"I don't know what to say… I honestly don't think that Elizabeth is guilty, but she saw the body and one of the four lies."

"So that's why all that information was there. There are four inconsistencies which you and Edwin noticed. You released them to see who else would notice the inconsistencies as they would likely be the killer or a conspirator."

"My thoughts exactly. Now, I have to get off the waves. I'm parking my car and I'm going to talk to Isaac Crysis."

Daniel nodded and continued driving. Hopefully David could deal with Isaac Crysis by himself.

Daniel was still driving and he soon arrived at the scene of the crime where he left his car and went to Edwin. Bill soon arrived as well and he wasn't in his sleek black car as usual.

"Bill!" Dan spoke in shock. "Where's your car?"

"It's at the paint shop." William Storm replied.

"What? Why?"

"Some ass went and scratched my paint job with their keys so I had to let my car get repainted."

"I guess it won't look like garbage anymore after it gets repainted."

"Dan, speak your opinion and not Damien's. This is no time for jokes."

"Calm down, Bill." Edwin added. "Just let him get in the mood. Daniel has a way of approaching things, so, stand back and watch the magic."

"Why?" Dan added. "Didn't David already note the four discrepancies?"

Edwin laughed. "Indeed."

"Do you think he missed something?"

"Maybe, it's not unlikely for him to do so."

Dan nodded. "You are right. He does sometimes miss things. He can be a good detective when he tries, and he must have tried this morning."

"You should have seen it, he reminded me of what I used to be like. Nowadays I can guess things from a single look."

Dan looked at the victim and put on gloves and lifted the wig and noticed the hairs in the hairnet. "Look at all of this hair on the inside of the wig." Dan showed the wig to Edwin.

Edwin smiled. "Yes, that is odd. Don't you think Bill?"

"How so?" Bill replied.

"It means our killer placed the wig on the body after killing him and removed it just to put it back on." Daniel concluded.

"That's a reach. There's no way you can know that for sure." Bill replied.

"I would ask my son." Edwin noted. "But it's not easy to speak with ghosts."

"I don't doubt I am wrong. His hair loosened as he was dead. So it started coming off. So, when the killer removed the wig some of the follicles came loose and now here they are trapped in the wig." Dan relayed.

"But that is just a theory." Bill retorted. "You have no way to prove it."

"I'll ask the coroner and see if she agrees with Daniel's findings, anything else?" Edwin added.

"No. I think I will go join David as he already covered everything else."

"He did."

"I know where he is and I know the address."

"May I come with you?"

"What about your car?"

"Oh that? Jenifer will come down and take it back to the station, when it comes to driving, you trust someone from Tryismo. 0 crashes caused by locals in 3 years running. However, in that time frame there have been 780 road accidents caused by foreigners or animal collisions."

"Ok. Hop in, we're off to the adult theatre in the entertainment district." Dan added and off Dan and Edwin went. What were they going to discover? Only time could tell.