Chapter Ten

MCITHQ

The statements of witnesses, and victims, had been concluded.

"Recording over," Grant said, and sighed heavily.

Rabil Patel lay covered with a warm blanket and felt his ears ringing. His partner, Ann, next to him and also covered with a blanket, was sobbing and at other times crying her eyes out.

Walter Grant's ears were also ringing. He felt sorry for the girl, but she certainly had a tone of voice that could break the glass in the interrogation room at any moment. He could understand her, but he felt that the statement would have to be taken again in later days when the poor girl was calmer.

The CHRD legal representative was also seated next to Ann and held a finger to her ear discreetly.

"I-it was horrible!" Ann sobbed.

"There, girl, there. I heard you," Grant said, trying to calm her down.

The two forensic investigators had been found in their apartments. First Ann, safe and sound, who when she awoke entered the subroutines of her Neurowire and was able to call for help. Then Rabin Patel, who, despite a black eye and some bruising, had no significant injuries. They were both scared, but they were alive and they were grateful for it. They had never been through anything like that.

After they were treated in an ambulance, and the doctors corroborated that they were both okay, they were taken to the MCIT facility. They should have been taken to the nearest police station, but since everything seemed to indicate that the attack on both of them had to do with Sil Moore's death, Grant decided not to waste time, and ordered both of them to be at the central station to take their statements and make an HRI. He didn't want to burden them with asking them for an invasive statement with a deep-dive.

"DCI Grant. Was it necessary for it to be now? They are still in shock," asked the legal representative.

"You know how it is, Gris. I'm sorry, but it's vital to take statements early on. They're not under arrest or anything like that," Grant said, pursing his lips.

"The code of conduct says that a representative must be there at all times if they are employed by MCIT."

"And they are, but they're not under arrest, at no point have I said they're not the victims… this is just a big mess."

"Does that mean we can go back to our work?" Patel asked, in a low tone.

"I don't see why not. Although it probably won't be for a while. This investigation is still going on," Grant said. What the hell is going on here?

For Grant the case had become a real headache in just a few hours. They had a killer who, using some unknown type of weapon, had taken the victim's head. That it was a trophy of his misdeed seemed at odds with the scene. Sil had been doing something before she died. But there were no unknown footprints that could give them a clear clue as to who they were looking for.

The mirror was something that could not be avoided, it was too much of a coincidence that it was something she bought only a day before her death. Not to mention that it had trapped an SID agent inside.

And now the case of the two forensic experts who had been impersonated.

That it would have been two killers who, at the risk of being caught, returned to the scene and took the body did not seem logical at all. Why do it when the police were crowding the scene, when they could have done it earlier and disappeared with the body? If that had been the case, instead of a murder, the case would have been a disappearance.

Grant looked at the two young coroners and sighed. "Someone from the emotional support department is going to talk to you two, and then a patrol will escort you home."

"Can't we spend the night here? What if they come back?" Ann asked, panicked.

Grant looked at the legal representative. "Will you take care of that, Gris?"

The woman nodded. "There will be a guard at the door of the domicile."

"Monday we'll meet again for a new statement, in case you remember anything else," Grant added to Patel and Ann. They both nodded. "Get some rest, you need it. Good night."

"Good night, sir," the two investigators muttered.

Grant took his folder with the profiles of the two and left the room. Stuart immediately got up from one of the waiting benches and walked over to him. He was wearing his visitor's pass around his neck. The two of them left the hallway and went down one of the staircases to the floor below.

"What happened?" Stuart asked.

"You and the professor weren't listening?"

"No… we're not gossips."

Grant looked at him questioningly and smiled.

"We weren't spying, I swear."

"I was joking. But well, there's not too much. Both of their NWDs were hacked to fool our systems."

"The quantum signature too?"

"Yeah, whoever did this is not an amateur," Grant pointed out.

For a Saturday night the building was pretty crowded with police and detectives busy on other cases. Some of them looked at Grant and Stuart as they whispered among themselves. News of what is going on must be spreading like wildfire by now, Grant thought.

He was sending all the case data to the main file. Then he would have to put everything in order for the preliminary report. It was quite likely that the Deputy Chief of Police would want to give a report to the press on Monday about everything that was going on. After all, it was a case that concerned Dark Events. Grant only hoped that by that time, the case would be closed.

Stuart followed Grant down another hallway and into the detective's private office. It was quite tidy, the old sleuth knew how to keep the place up. Stuart wished that someday he had his own office or apartment so neat without so many papers or pizza boxes from the night before.

Grant rummaged through his desk drawers, and pulled out the gun case with the service weapon. He kept it clean and tidy, but Grant hardly ever took it out for practice to renew his license. Throughout his career he had only had to draw it less than fifty times in a risky situation. He had ended up using the baton more than any other weapon in all his years.

As the automatic buckles of the holster tightened on the body, someone knocked on the office doors. A woman detective walked in and looked at the two of them.

"Sir, we just had a call. The LOS has just been found," the woman announced.

"Where is it?" Grant asked.

"Over the abandoned lines at the old station near here. The body it was transporting is not in the vehicle."

Grant looked at Stuart and then at the detective. "Send me all the data."

"Yes sir."

"What about forensics on the vehicle?"

"They're just waking up. They were put to sleep with a stun M-grenade," the detective explained. "The ones who impersonated the identities are gone."

"I thought so." Grant looked at Stuart. "What are you going to do, boy? Are you going back to Piershill, or are you coming with me?"

"My team is already back at Piershill with the mirrors. Professor Oxy will be in charge of leading the assembly of the mirror box. I'm honestly more interested in what's going on with the victim's corpse."

"I guess I'm going to keep you on my tail all night."

"Like snot to the nose," Stuart said. "Mixed operations... my favorite. Plus, you need a special consultant in case of DE."

"Yes. I know."

Under normal circumstances Grant would have been with another division detective on the case. But since Mallen had passed all authority to Grant, he was on his own at the time. It wouldn't have taken more than a few words and whoever was available would have accompanied him. But the situation was getting stranger by the minute.

Yeah... someone from Nevermore is better in this case, Grant sighed to himself. "Agent Stuart, do you have one of these I guess?" he asked, pointing to his tactical shoulder holster with the gun.

Stuart pressed the badge on his coveralls and instantly a holster with its respective tactical weapon appeared on his right pant leg.

"An MC12? You plan to use it as an insecticide?"

"Custom," Stuart said with a grin, sending the weapon's profile to Grant.

"Do you have a vest or SC?"

"Smart Memory Clothes."

"Well, come on then. We've got over twenty patrolmen searching all over the city right now. We're going to join them. You're our technical backup."

The woman stepped aside to make way for the two men and looked at Stuart. "Hey, FRT guy!"

At that Stuart turned around and looked at her seriously. He was sure the woman had said fart instead of FRT spelled correctly. Fart was the nickname some used worldwide to say FRT. An inside joke among security agencies, but one that honestly wasn't funny to Stuart at all.

"Yes, Detective?"

The woman watched her superior's back move away and said. "That's one of ours you've got there and one of the best."

Stuart nodded gravely and turned and walked away with Grant.

"Agent Stuart, honestly, was there any interest in the girl's body?"

"I believe this has to do with the information she was transmitting."

"But that information is not complete."

"No, but the portable units may have something to do with it. We still don't know exactly what all the data means."

"I don't need to tell you, but I don't like the way this is going at all."

"Don't worry, sir. I don't like it either." Stuart admitted.