Murder Briefing
Posted on Sat 23rd Dec, 2017 @ 4:31pm by Commander Mikaela Locke & Lieutenant Commander Andrew Eberstark & Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels & Ensign Joshua Schwartz
1,294 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
A Phaser as Deadly as a Candlestick
Location: Deck 14: Senior Staff Conference Room
Timeline: MD 4, 0900
[ON:]
"... and so," Doctor Addams said, summing up, "that's what we know to date."
Kellian nodded to Commander Locke at Dr. Addams' summation. The autopsy of this murder victim had not been performed with anywhere near the dramatic flair that Dr. Addams had displayed during the Dopterian freighter captain's autopsy the previous year. Dr. Eiffyhq, a gray-skinned Zeta Reticulan with large, dark eyes, had worked strictly by the book, despite an almost subliminal impression of glee at the opportunity to cut up a Human. The procedure had been about as exciting as watching a pet rock. In other words, Kellian thought, I nearly fell asleep. But hey, the autopsy results will stand up in court.
In Colonel Drake's absence, Mikaela Locke was seated at the head of the briefing room table. "It's not a lot to go on, is it?" she asked rhetorically. "We've got an unidentified victim, likely killed with a stiletto but probably not where he was found - which is weird enough as it is, but then you're saying the 'scene' that we, and specifically Doctor Graves, experienced at the séance was actually the murder taking place?"
"I make no claims whatsoever," Chlamydia answered. "I simply offer the observation that the circumstances of the corpse seem to match those which we saw in the glass. I further assure you that there was no trickery involved in the scene. It was not programmed, there was no holography involved. Psychic phenomena are well documented throughout the Federation, including the touch telepathy of Vulcans, the stronger telepathy of the Betazed... even the long-distance manipulation of matter demonstrated by Charles Evans in the twenty-third century, or Commander Gary Mitchell's apparent ability to create items from nothing." She shrugged. "One of my cousins has done substantial work on the genetic basis of such abilities." Her mind refused to follow that line of thought, but it didn't matter; not really.
Mikaela nodded respectfully. "Your reassurances are appreciated, Doctor," she said, leaning forward to rest her forearms on the briefing room table, and intertwined her long, thin fingers. "Do you think there is a way that we could somehow recreate the conditions of the séance in order to 're-experience' the scene, as it were?"
"There are too many variables to expect success," Chlamydia said. "My family has a reputation for macabre events, but no real ability to control them. We are simply more... adaptable... than many others."
"In any case, the results wouldn't be admissible in court," Kellian said. "The primary use of a repeat seance--if the participants could again make contact with the murder victim's, uh, spirit, would be to learn any further details of the murder that were forgotten or not noticed the first time." He paused. "I do have two sketches done by one of the seance participants, Ms. Purulence Addams, who is a professional portrait painter."
Kellian touched the screen of his PADD, and two images appeared on the briefing room's large projection screen. One was a close-up of the victim's face, and the other was of the alleged murder scene. Addams glanced at the sketches, her eyebrows rising, though she said nothing.
"I can't say whether it's the skill of the artist or not, but I'd call that a memorable face, and I'd think anyone who has seen this guy would remember having met him," Kellian said. "A search of Vanguard's identification database has turned up nothing. That's a problem, because we're supposed to have verified ID for everyone on this station, whether resident or visitor, civilian, or Starfleet personnel. It tells me this guy may have come aboard in disguise or concealed. That means we'll have to run a comparison between the cranio-facial rendering of the victim and all verified ID images of current Vanguard residents to see if we can track the victim down, in case no one recognizes him."
Kellian enlarged the second image. "We're running a comparative analysis of the sketch depicting the likely murder scene with the blueprints of Vanguard to see what locations on Vanguard correspond the closest with what Ms. Addams drew. That, however, presumes the murder took place on the station itself and not on a docked vessel. And it presumes that, wherever this location is, it isn't a modification of the blueprint design. Given the location of the crime scene we found, my guess is that the murder scene is close to Deck 1554, as dead bodies are heavy and unwieldy to carry for a long distance. It may even be in one of the houses. The killer may have transported the body in a device of some sort, but Deck 1554 is a reasonable starting point to search."
Mikaela nodded, "Good - keep on that. I'm also presuming that we're already scouring all possible manifests to try and work out who the hell this guy is? Until we can get a name on the victim, it makes it very hard to learn anything else. When did he arrive? Where did he come from? If this was a premeditated attack, was he followed here? All this hinges on an identity." She nodded towards Michaels, "Pull in resources from intelligence if you have to."
"Yes, I've got people checking manifests against verified ID images. Let me check our progress on his ID," Kellian said. "Running fingerprints is old technology, but it's tried and true." He tapped on his PADD for a moment. "I'm requesting the results from the FFIS. They weren't completed by the time I left my office to come in here." He waited a moment until a notification appeared on his PADD. "And they still aren't complete. FFIS could take several days. I'll check with Intelligence, and Security is already coordinating with Tactical."
Meanwhile, 1400 decks down, in unassigned civilian quarters ....
"Ya think dey foun' 'im yet?" a short man asked his partner.
"Whyn't you go look and let me know," the tall man said, turning over and punching the pillow under his head. "Write me from prison."
The short man frowned, not sure if he was supposed to go or not. He had a hard time figuring out orders with this one. Eventually, he decided a nap was in order for him, too. Middle-of-the-night disposal jobs were hard on a man's sleep cycle.
"Okay," Mikaela said, "Pass the information on as soon as you have it." She surveyed the other officers surrounding the table. "Let's get an ID on this guy. Let's get last known movements pinned down and let's find ourselves a killer. Report back as soon as you've made any progress. Anything else?"
There was silence for a moment as each of the participants waited for the others to speak. After a moment, Mikaela stood. "Then you're dismissed. I'll brief Colonel Drake shortly."
As Andrew listened intently on the conversation around the table and rose as the meeting ended, he finally noticed his PADD in front of him had updated with new information. He assumed it had to be a decent amount of time, because as he picked it up to read the news, the conference room doors opened with a visibly shaken Ensign Schwartz coming through.
As the man walked over to Andrew, he could tell the Ensign didn't care about the rest of the staff rising from their seats giving confused glances. As he stopped in front of him, Andrew gave a small nod and smile, doing his best to calm him down, although after reading the update on the PADD, he wasn't exactly sure how.
Staring intently at Schwartz as the Ensign still looked pale Andrew spoke softly, "It's okay, Ensign. Take a breath. We'll talk about it later."
Looking over to Locke, Andrew simply said, "Sir, we have another murder."
[OFF:]
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