I Get These Suspicions

Posted on Wed 11th Jan, 2017 @ 4:10am by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels & Colonel Horatio Drake & Commander Zachary Hunt

1,548 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night
Location: Deck 576: Michaels' Office
Timeline: MD01: 2035 Hours
Tags: silentnight

Michaels read over the collection of Dopterian crew interviews and shook his head. It was like a soap opera had been created in novel form, and he was reading the train wreck. Murder investigations often had an air of ancillary drama about them. Murders were most often committed by people who knew the victim well, and motive was, after all, nothing but a story. But it never ceased to amaze him, nonetheless.

He started making lists, because that was how he worked, and projected them onto the wall of his office so the other three officers with him could see.

"All right, the locations of the suspects are claimed to be..."

Simoné Claus - game lounge
Angel Cranberry - quarters
Sara Flake - ?
Peter Penguino - ?
John Plum - ?
Frederick Presenté - quarters
Erick Rudolph - quarters
Phillipé Snow - quarters
Harry Star - ?
Isabelle Tinselle - in her quarters, or the lounge, or the infirmary...Who knows?
Cris Tree - quarters, in online multiplayer game

Michaels studied his list. "Who the hell was piloting the ship?"

"It's typical that everyone says they were in quarters, how do you ever disprove that?" Hunt said.

"We can verify if Tree was actually participating in his online game from the computer in his quarters," Michaels said. "For everyone else, we will probably have to use trace evidence or computer log-ins and see how well their responses to questioning tally with one another."

"Is there any way Tree can get around that? For example log on and leave it running? How long will that take?" Hunt asked.

"I've put in a request to the people who run the Starfleet: Universe game for a transcript of the chat log from around the time of the murder," Michaels said. "If I remember from my college days, gamers can either log out when they want to take a break, or they do sometimes use a tool that keeps them logged in so they don't get timed out for inactivity when they need to use the toilet or whatever. That way, they also don't miss anything that happened during the game. Tree strikes me as the kind of guy who wouldn't want to miss a thing, so I'm betting he at least used the tool when he went to get his coffee."

"As long as we can get that transcript we can work with that. Does he strike you as someone that would even leave to get coffee?" Hunt replied.

"Only to get a big mugful," Michaels said with a chuckle. "I'm surprised he doesn't have a coffeemaker in his quarters."

“So what do you gentlemen think?” Michaels asked, glancing at the other three men in the room. "I've never seen such a collection of apparent loners in all my life. I've got blood samples that prove at least one of these suspects was lying; other samples are still at the lab."

“If these responses are in general accurate, I think that I would not want to serve under Captain Kringle,” Paul Graves said with a lift of his eyebrows as he read his own copy of the interview responses. “I also think Ms. Claus is lying through her teeth."

He looked at the others. "I’m sorry to be of so little help to you, Lt. Michaels. I feel as if I am flying purely on instruments here, and it makes me feel distinctly uncomfortable. I am having to rely on visual and vocal cues alone. I realize that seems absurd to a Terran, but…even though all of the textbooks say these methods are valid, and any number of scientific studies say these are reliable methods, I just don’t trust them on a gut-deep level. I am working to overcome that distrust, but it's rather ingrained. Being with the Dopterians makes me feel as if I have been suddenly blinded, and all I can do is grope around in front of them."

"Did you get anything from Isabelle Tinselle? She's Farian, so you should be able to pick something from her. Apart from that, what you're feeling is how we always feel," Hunt laughed. "Kringle seems like the ship villain, did anyone actually get on with him?"

"Ms. Claus did, apparently," Graves said in an arid tone. He went on. "Ms. Tinselle disliked Kringle intensely. She felt...hardened but also frightened. Whatever relationship she had with Captain Kringle was not healthy," Graves said. "She reminds me of some Bajorans I've met, ones who were longtime servants of Cardassians during the Occupation."

"Oh, really?" Michaels said with an alert look. He gave a slight frown and made a note of that. "It would explain why there were certain questions she evaded answering--not necessarily guilt, but discomfort with discussing certain topics."

"Is Ms. Claus just playing with us though? Any of them actually seem like a guilty party?" Hunt asked.

"I'm quite sure she's playing with us," Graves said. "No woman outside of a holo-vid bats her eyelashes that much."

Michaels snorted. "They all do; none of them in particular do. I guess we could presume that Mr. Penguino did not murder Kringle, but even that is a truism only in mystery novels."

"Things go wrong when presumptions and assumptions are involved. How do we proceed with this investigation?" Hunt questioned.

"Exactly," Michaels said to Hunt. He glanced at Drake. "The only physical evidence we have of someone else being in Kringle's cabin anywhere near the time of his murder is, in fact, Isabelle Tinselle. A fresh bloodstain in the sink of Kringle's bathroom turned out to be hers."

Hunt took a moment out to have a think about everything that was said. He wasn't a detective but he sure felt like it right now, excitement rifled through him with doing something different. Although, should he be excited over a murder . "So she is technically suspect number one for now?"

Drake had spent the last ten minutes engrossed in a PADD - the Fighter Operations Department was starting to gather momentum and had already started test flights. He made a mental note to meet with the new Chief Fighter Operations Officer, who had come aboard whilst he was gallivanting around in search of a fire fight. His attention was brought back to the here and now when silence prevailed - that usually meant it was his time to say something.

"If the only physical evidence we have links Tinselle as being at the scene of the murder, then I see no reason why we shouldn't place her under arrest" He said, only taking a cursory glance up from his PADD.

He was beginning to regret getting so involved in this investigation. He was initially using it as a distraction from the mundane tasks that his position afforded him, but was beginning to get tired of this guess work and deduction... what had he supposed an investigation was?

"That's what we will do then," Hunt said, "I will get someone to place her under arrest now."

"Wait a minute--She was indisputably at the scene, but we don't know when she was at the scene," Michaels pointed out. "I'm waiting on test results showing the mRNA degradation rate of Tinselle's bloodstain, which would accurately tell us its age. We're having to set up test machines for all of the samples that are powered independent of the station grid. I don't want some bright lawyer arguing that our lab tests aren't admissible evidence because of our electrical problems. The hemoglobin oxidization shown under UV light at the scene was not precise enough. It told me the bloodstain could have been as much as 18-24 hours old when I looked at it--give or take a few hours either way. That's not good enough to prove murder or to justify an arrest."

"Point taken," Graves said. "Still, if Ms. Tinselle were brought in for more specific questioning rather than an arrest--since this bloodstain does prove she lied during the initial interview--it would be a good idea to do that as quickly as possible, before she lawyers up." He glanced at Michaels. "Who is their attorney, by the way? I'd like to meet the person and see if I can get an idea of their character...unless it's another Dopterian, of course."

"So far, they haven't told me they've engaged one--which is lucky for us, and it's luck that isn't going to last forever," Michaels replied.

"Luck never lasts forever, would be nice if it did," Hunt mumbled.

"So we all agree, Tinselle in for further questioning. How long before we find out if Tree had actually been playing these games? And do we need to question anyone else?" Hunt asked after his mumblings.

"I hope to hear back from the game company soon," Michaels said. "I requested a subpoena from the civilian courts for the game logs for that night and IP addresses of the participants. It being an MMO, they are numerous. Luckily, since we're only concerned with checking on one player, we should be able to verify Tree's activity quickly--once we get the logs."

Col. Horatio Drake
Commanding Officer

Lt. Commander Zachary Hunt
Executive Officer

Lt. Paul Graves, PsyD
Chief Counselor

(NPC)

Lt(jg) Kellian Michaels
Security Investigations Officer

 

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