** Date: 08.06.1029 PNT // Saturday **
** Time: 17:47 // 5:47 PM **
** Location: Ecosystem Mika // Habitat Melissa // District 6 // Sector 3 // Okomashi Alley 56 **
Back at her apartment, she poured herself another glass and looked through the evidence. The victim was a guy named Pedro Wey Hu. One of the managers of last night's event in The Time Machine. Every event he worked on turned out to be a hit. This time he even had one of the biggest stars present, ril.0. No apparent connection to the other victims yet.
“Time for the witnesses.” She opened one of the video files. Interrogations were done by Peacekeeper Mendez. “So first, Ellis Greenburg.”
*****
Peacekeeper Mendez: Hi there. So, we went through your data. Ellis Greenburg, student at the Milford University in District 5, Sector 5. Is that correct?
Ellis: Yes.
PK. Mendez: What do you study?
Ellis: You... You should already know that a-also.
PK. Mendez: Yeah, you are right, I do. Just testing you. So, sixth semester law. What were you doing in the park?
Ellis: I-I don’t have to answer that.
PK. Mendez: No, you don’t. But if you don’t and something comes up in the future that connects you to this case-
Ellis: But it won’t. Because I had nothing to do with that.
PK. Mendez: I believe you. I really do. Honestly, it doesn’t even look like a murder to me. The man just froze to death.
Ellis: Froze to death? In here? You are not the -
PK. Mendez: I am not what?
Ellis: …
PK. Mendez: … Look, it is Saturday, and I just want to go home to my wife and children. You don’t have to tell me every meandering detail. Just give me something so I can let you go. I know, you don’t know anything worthwhile.
Ellis: … Okay, look, we were just smoking. We just came from Arkas Kebap. If you want, you can check my wallet transactions. We had something to eat, wanted to smoke in the park, and then there was the corpse. Well...and some guy in a yellow raincoat. I saw him in the club, too. But to be fair, my friends didn’t see. I might have been tripping.
PK. Mendez: Guy in a yellow raincoat, that’s something. Did you find that corpse?
Ellis: …
PK. Mendez: Did one of your friends find the corpse?
Ellis: …
PK. Mendez: Who-
Ellis: Look, I told you everything I know. You cannot keep me here. I am going to go now, and if you try to stop me, I will sue you.
*****
“Okay, that was absolutely useless... Next in line, Rey Emily Mansfield.”
*****
PK. Mendez: Name?
Rey: Rey Emily Mansfield.
PK. Mendez: Occupation.
Rey: Student at the Milford University.
PK. Mendez: What do you study?
Rey: Engineering, sixth semester.
PK. Mendez: Okay, Rey, let's get to the real stuff. Your friends have been very talkative.
Rey: No, they haven’t. Well, maybe, Joel. But you didn’t get anything useful from him.
PK. Mendez: … Yeah, okay, you are right. Especially because your friend Joel is-
Rey: A dick, I know. Also, we don’t know shit.
PK. Mendez: …
Rey: Look, this is what happened. We went to the Time Machine for a night out. After that we went to Arkas Kebap to get something to eat. Then we went to the park to have a smoke and finish the evening. Then there was the corpse. End of story.
PK. Mendez: The Time Machine is pretty exclusive. They don’t let anyone in that easily. How did you?
Rey: Joel sucked the bouncer's dick.
PK. Mendez: …
Rey: Can I go now?
PK. Mendez: Yes, please go.
*****
“So the killer, if there was one, was definitely in The Time Machine. But that’s no new information.” She opened up the final video file. Unlike the others, this one was almost an hour long. “For fuck’s sake…”
*****
PK. Mendez: Name?
Joel: You already know all of that shit. You also know that I am studying law, just like Ellis. So let's get to the good stuff.
PK. Mendez: Okay then, what did you see that evening?
Joel: Oh my fucking god, so much. So first we went to The Time Machine. Of course we had to wait for ages, because the fucking line did not move.
PK. Mendez: Yes, I was about to say. That club is very exclusive. How did you get in?
Joel: I sucked off the bouncer. Anyway, so we got in and…
Joel kept on talking about every single detail of the club. The ambiance, the music, the weird clientele, the different bars, the architecture, and even every small detail about the lighting inside. He made sure not to talk about the others. He didn’t want to drag them into this; even if he hated Vikka, he hated the cops more. This went on for more than half an hour. With every word that came out of his mouth, the Peacekeeper would visibly lose some life force. Nothing he said was anything new or anything useful. Just him wasting time until finally…
Joel: So after eating up, we went to the park. Which was unusually foggy. Every other day it is really nice, but today there was a dense fog.
PK. Mendez: Are you sure you weren’t just a little bit too drunk?
Joel: Maybe I was. I don’t care. You have to find out.
PK. Mendez: Who found the corpse?
Joel: Oh, that was me, yeah. Totally me. I had to take a piss, walked into that bush and - *bam* - there he was. Dead guy.
PK. Mendez: Ok…
Joel: Honestly, he seemed like an asshole anyway.
PK. Mendez: Why is that?
Joel: He ran into me in the club, and instead of apologizing, he just insulted me.
PK. Mendez: …
Joel: Just rude… Can I go now?
PK. Mendez: Yeah.
Joel: K, bye.
*****
“I can’t believe this asshole actually had something useful to say.” Kelly turned off the visualizations and rubbed her eyes. “Fog and a yellow raincoat, huh?” She went through the camera footage of the club. The man in the yellow coat was nowhere to be seen.
She followed the victim around the club. After midnight he met with the organizer of the event, Reji. Then he went into his own room. A young woman followed afterwards, and Pedro left. And coincidentally, this woman seemed to be friends with the three witnesses.
Pedro went back into his room. He stayed there for a while and suddenly came running out of his room. He frantically ran through the club. Everywhere he walked, a dense fog followed him. He ran into Joel and then out of the club.
“Two more witnesses, and I should probably look around Pedro’s room.”
