People are Complicated

Sitting in the corner of Alyx's office, Cole's fingers were flying through the air. After looking through Mr. Jenkins' office, the duo had returned to their floor, to look over their notes and discuss strategy. Cole was currently typing out a brief report for Mirai. A few minutes after arriving in Alyx's office, Cole had received the logs from the day of the murder, and Mirai had asked him to add them to his report.

/Office 01: Sally Hopkins. Door Log: 4:29 am, 12:11 pm, 12:39 pm, 8:02. Self reported times: 4:28 am, 12:13 pm, 12:41 pm, 8:05 pm./

Cole was shocked, as he filled in the report, that the logs showed that Sally had either lied, or did not correctly remember when her door was opened. Personal clocks were never wrong, and Cole wondered if the incorrect times meant that someone had tampered with the logs. 

/Office 02: Jake Jenkins. Door Log: 5:30 am, 6:34 am, 6:41 am./ Mr. Jenkins logs were also strange as they only showed when he arrived and when Cole, and subsequently Alyx, had opened the door. As he added it to the report, Cole hoped that it would not make him look guilty, as he became more sure that the logs had been altered. The other possibility that someone was waiting for Mr. Jenkins from the day before…

/Office 03: Sivil Casper. Door Log: 6:07 am, 10:08 am, 10:32 am, 11:01 am, 1:03 pm, 2:02 pm, 3:28 pm, 5:57 pm. Self reported times: 6:07 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, 3:30 pm, 6:00 pm./

Sivil's times seemed to be unaltered; Cole had thought the man had been estimating his times when he was talking to Alyx. But that might be even more suspicious, maybe Sivil had forgotten to change his own logs, or maybe he had changed them to look like his normal day. Cole brushed the thought aside, at the very least the logs showed an employee who liked to arrive late and leave early. The logs also conveyed that Jan had likely been cleaning the office at 10:08, something that Sivil had failed to mention. It gave Cole the image that Sivil did not view Jan as important, barely a human.

/Office 04: Jam Hardy. Door Log: 5:51 am, 11:59 am, 1:58 pm, 7:02 pm. Self reported times: 5:50 am, a few minutes before 12:00 pm, a little before 2:03 pm, 7:00 pm./

Jam's times matched up what he had told Cole and Alyx for the most part, but oddly his start time was a minute off. Cole had no clue what that could mean, unless it signified another reason to distrust the logs.

/Office 05: Sara Chekov. Door Log: 6:03 am, 11:11 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm, 3:21 pm, 5:55 pm. Self reported times: 6:03 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm, 5:55 pm./ 

Sara had not remembered when she had taken her bathroom breaks, but the way the other times lined up were suspicious. Why were they so exact? Cole thought that Sara's logs were the last straw, someone had definitely tampered with the logs. Now he needed to look into who would be able to do such a thing. He couldn't imagine that everyone in Resource Management could access or alter the logs.

/Office 06: Sinje Daniels. Door Log: 5:59 am, 2:13 pm, 4:00 pm, 4:01 pm, 4:02 pm, 4:03 pm, 4:04 pm, 4:05 pm, 4:11 pm, 4:12 pm, 6:01 pm. Self reported times: 5:59 am, 2:13 pm, 6:01 pm./

SInje had the strangest logs. It did not make sense for someone to mess with them, by adding her leaving her office over and over again, so far past the time of the murder. Why had Sinje been going in and out of her office at 4:00? It was almost like she was waiting for some sort of summon, that either never came or was received at 4:12. Cole added the oddity to a list of questions that needed answers.

/Storage 01: Jan Ansar. Outer Door Log: 6:28 am, 6:35 am, 10:06 am, 10: 36 am, 12:09 pm, 12:50 pm. Self reported time: 6:30 am. Inner Door Log:/// Unauthorized to view///.

Alyx had not asked much about Jan's day, so there was not much to report, but it was pretty easy to figure out Jan's day from what the other logs displayed. The part that Cole was more interested in was the inner door. Was it like the one in Mirai's office? And if so, why was he not allowed to access its logs?

The answer to Cole's question was likely about some dumb rule between departments. The company seemed to have a lot of rules, and the fact that Mirai had not pushed for Cole to be given access, likely meant it was too much work for something she deemed as unimportant.

Cole added a brief summary of his inspection of Mr. Jenkins' office. As he finished up his work, the door opened and Alyx walked into her office. She had been called into a meeting by Mirai, a few moments after they had left the crime scene and returned to her office.

"How did it go?" Cole looked over and asked, not expecting any sort of coherent response. 

"Pretty good, we don't have to work overtime." Alyx was uncharacteristically peppy, causing Cole to do a double take. He had expected a grunt of some sort, why was Alyx so energetic after a long day of work?

"Do you have anything else you need to do today?" Alyx kept the conversation going. Cole blinked, realizing that Alyx was getting back on track. "I just finished my report, but I still want to look through some of the documents I have on Resource Management."

"What are you talking about? I meant after work. Do you even know what time it is?" Alyx unleashed a few questions that felt nothing like her questioning of Resource Management the day before.

Cole checked the time. It was 6:12 pm. Technically the work day had ended twelve minutes ago. "Uh, I don't have any plans after work. Just eating and sleeping. Why do you want to know?" Cole stuttered out, hoping he was answering Alyx's question.

"Well tomorrow is our day off, so we are going out tonight." Alyx's usually emotionless voice had a noticeable tint of excitement that caused Cole to be unable to properly respond. "We are?" He had forgotten that they did not work the next day. The company followed the common practice of three work days followed by one off day. It was a schedule that was designed to maximize efficiency and combat burnout.

"Yup. I know a great place to eat. Even better than Midnight Bowl." Cole remembered bumping into Alyx at his favorite restaurant, and he was suddenly excited. While he doubted there was a better place than Midnight Bowl, he thought that anyone who went there had to have a good taste in food.

"Okay when can we go? Right now?" Alyx chuckled at Cole's sudden change, before responding. "Go home and change out of your work uniform, I don't want to see it anymore. Make sure you dress nice, or maybe I won't want to be seen with you."

Cole frowned, he had heard stories of places that needed a certain dress code to enter, and wondered if that was what Alyx meant. Before he could ask her, she brushed past him, walking to the elevator.

"Meet me in front of Midnight Bowl's alley in an hour." Alyx hurried off after speaking, leaving Cole to his thoughts. An hour seemed like a long time to head home and pick out an outfit.

With a shrug, Cole entered the now empty elevator. His stomach was already imagining the delectable food that Alyx had promised. 

Having been granted an hour, Cole decided to walk home, under the rays of the dying sun. The sun started to set at 6:00 pm on most days, granting a wave of relief from its overbearing presence. 

The city was slowly coming to life. Lights flickered on, and people began to move through the streets. Six was the common time for the work day to end, and in the city, people liked to celebrate finishing a hard day on the job. Days off were not synced between companies, or even departments, but the late hours of the night were still filled with excitement. Those who had to work the next day, would deal with the consequences later.

Once in his apartment, Cole stood looking at his rack of clothes, after taking a quick shower. What did Alyx mean by 'dress nice'? Cole didn't have any sort of suit or formal wear. 'Hopefully I don't get kicked out of the restaurant.' Cole thought as he decided on a pair of skinny gray pants, and an oversized shirt with an image of a shattered robotic hand on its back.

Cole pulled on his boots, once he was dressed, and hesitated. Was he supposed to comb his hair? He ran a hand through his hair, it was still damp from the shower. In a few seconds, he had brushed it into, what he thought was a more sophisticated look. 

While combing his hair, he remembered something that his mother had given to him, before he left home. A thin gold necklace. What had his mother said when she had given it to him? 'I want you to be able to look your best when you go on dates.'

'Wait a second. Was he going on a date with Alyx?'