Mystery Science Murder 2088
Chapter 1
My Telitech had flashed to life making the annoying buzz that a
cheap cell phone would make. The light emanating from my device had cut through
the otherwise enchanting darkness. Who in
the world is trying to reach me at four in the morning? I clicked the
button on my temple and the message popped onto the screen.
"Get to the office." The message was sent by Claire.
Claire was the relatively uptight forensic analyst at the MegaPlex
East Side precinct. She had been at the office for about a month now. Best in
the business they told me. Being a Detective, such as I, meant that her job and
mine were relatively intertwined. She was an interesting person but I didn't
even like mother enough to see her at two in the morning. I extended my arm
over to my nightstand and blindly rummaged the surface, knocking over a case of
cheap cigars I picked up at the shop under my apartment and a bottle of now
room temperature beer. Finally I grabbed the keypad I had been searching for
and sent Claire a simple message.
"Why?" Hopefully she would understand the severity of my
situation, the ridiculousness of her wanting me to get up from my soft bed and
go to work at two in the morning was truly the definition of a national
calamity. A message quickly darted onto my screen.
"I'll explain when you get here." And I assumed that would
be the last message I would get from her until I got there.
I rolled unapologetically slowly out of the warm comfort of my bed and
slipped on some black jeans, a white long sleeved shirt, and my black jacket.
My view in the mirror was a very middling sight my black slicked back hair
looked especially greasy and my beard was slightly longer than I had liked but
I was still presentable. I grabbed my odd assortment of keycards, my wallet
that had been passed down from my dad to me, the badge I had worn every day of
my life except for Sundays, and my gun. I slid the cold, metallic revolved slug
cannon into the holster on my hip and set off.
The MegaPlex is disgusting, a city of scum and villainy. The cold
air rushed to meet my face, as did the smell of bourbon, sweat, and
industrialization. The 'Plex is a sprawling mega city that encapsulated all of
New York to Chicago and reaching downwards to about Tennessee, I wouldn't
actually know though. The closest I’ve ever been to the capital was maybe a
little outside of New Jersey, you really have to be something if you want to
get into York. Wealth is so unevenly distributed throughout the ‘Plex,
neighborhoods full of disgusting low-life’s only looking out for themselves
next to slums and ghettos. I've had opportunity's to live closer to York but
something about Chicago just keeps me clinging. My restlessness has always been
a trouble maker and my thirst for adventure is always unquenched leaving behind
the bitter taste of dried saliva and not so dry blood. The main reason for me
joining the force in the first place was my nature to hunt down adventure, and
what’s a better place than the precinct on one of the most dangerous cities in
the ‘Plex.
I walked into a tiny coffee shop less than two minutes from the
office; also it happened to be the only coffee shop open within a ten mile
radius. I swung the door open and greeted the man behind the counter with a
smile; he just stared blankly in my general direction.
“Morning!” I almost screamed it out giving the kid behind the
counter a jolt of somewhat needed energy.
“Little early for coffee isn’t it?” The kid said which kind of took
me a back because I thought I was here for a cup of coffee not health lessons.
“Never too early for coffee, you’ll learn that soon enough.”
“What can I get you?”
“Two coffees, black,” I reached into my jacket pocket to grab a cigar,
just my luck. “And a box of cigars.” The kid scurried off to make the coffees;
I just stood by the counter watching the outside through the windows. Nothing
caught my attention the sewer grates still steamed, no cars were on the road,
and just a few gang bangers wandered the streets looking for prey. The streets
were filthy. The coffee shop looked run down with wood covering up holes in the
window, cracks in the floor, and all types of creatures poking their heads
through.
“That’ll be 12 munyan.” The kid said to me. Quickly, I turned around
from the window and gave the kid the munyan. I opened the cigars and stuck one
in my mouth and lit it, letting out a puff of toxin that was very reminiscent
to the air I breathed in every day. I grabbed the coffee, bid farewell, and
exited the fine establishment. I continued walking down the street, examining
the surrounding area, and adding puffs of toxin to the atmosphere. The streets
were desolate; the lights for many shops were off with the ‘Sorry, we’re closed
sign’ outside of them. I walked for another five minutes until a noise had
caught my attention, grunts. The alleyway across the street revealed the social
situation in the ‘Plex. Three guys of about average height towered over a
defenseless kid. They wailed on the kid for less than ten seconds before I
showed up behind them. I placed the two cups of cups of coffee on the floor.
One of the guys turned around to look at me.
“What do you want?” The man was probably in his late twenties,
average build, charcoal colored hair, and enough scotch in his system to turn a
man blind. I assumed his friends were no different.
“You are actively committing a major felony under charges of
assault. Other charges may be issued at the station. Put your hands in the
air.” I spoke out the standard protocol for an arrest but the man did not seem
interested. His body bobbed gently due to his inability to stand straight. When
I finished he spat to the ground and tapped his two other friends on the
shoulder.
“This boy is trying to arrest us,” they laughed obnoxiously loud to
one another. “I think we got to teach this boy a lesson.” His speech was
slurred, hiccupping every third or so word.
My cigar was getting a little short; I would need a new one soon. I
took a long blow and flicked it to the side. I clicked a button on the side of
my Telitech to alert the closest officer. The first man who I had the
wonderfully pleasant conversation with rushed towards me with arms out.
Unluckily for him, his entire position was radically off, due both equally to
his intense drunkenness and his inability to fight. He swung a left hook
towards my face, he was too slow. I grabbed the hook with my right and down
swung with my elbow for a satisfying crunch and then immediately followed it up
with a strong left. I felt his nose break as my fist jabbed into his face; he
flew backwards and collapsed to the ground. One.
His two friends flanked my left and right. The man on my right came in for
a punch but I quickly ducked under it and kicked his leg. He fell down to the
floor. I didn’t hit him hard enough to stop him but his friend was getting in
close. I whirled around to jab the other man but he had grabbed a broken
bottle, he grazed my face just enough that the guy got the jump on me. He
wailed on me for a moment before I grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his
body; I moved with the hand and threw him against the wall. Two. His other friend was trying to
stand up but before he could get up I pulled out my gun and aimed it at him.
“Freeze!” I yelled at him. Hopefully he would listen. I would prefer
not to shoot him, too much paperwork. He looked up at the gun and smiled. He
started to stand up, my gun still trained on him. I was being cautious.
“You want to shoot me?” He asked modestly.
“Not really.” I stated.
“Why not?”
“Stay quiet and get on the wall.” I moved the gun over to the wall
and then moved back to him.
“You killed my friends, didn’t you?”
“No, they’ll be getting up. I hope I can say the same thing for you.”
“Well.” He said before collapsing to the ground. Three?
I rushed over to his body trying to wake him. Blood began gushing
from his back. The red liquid flowed on to the alleyway filling in the tiny
crevices. I flipped him over to examine his back and found what seemed like a
small dart precariously lodged into the lower left of his back. I pulled out
the pseudo-dart and examined it with my Telitech. It appeared to be a tiny
projectile, five inches in length, silver handle, and an engraving. I turned
the object to observe the engraving. It looked familiar but I couldn’t quite
figure it out. I looked at the engraving closer. MM. I stuck the object in my pocket and walked to the kid. She
looked like she was no older than seventeen or eighteen with dark brown hair a
fresh cut from her cheekbone to her jaw. I helped her to her feet.
“Are you alright? Do you need any medical attention?” She looked
alright, she’ll need someone to check out the cut and to see if anything is
broken but other than that she looked fine.
“My head hurts.” I glanced at her again to get an idea of what she
looked like. She was wearing a Silver Condor shirt with a member’s only jacket
over it; she had parachute pants on and was wearing fingerless gloves with a
satchel over her shoulders.
“Ok, that’s fine. We will dispatch a medical team to take a look at
you when we reach the station. If you don’t mind, we will need to question you
when we reach the station,” What she was wearing finally hit me, “Just an off
the record comment: I think you’re a hundred years too late for the party.”
“Thanks.” She chuckled to herself.
I glanced at her one more time before pulling up my notes. I pulled
out my keypad and jotted down a couple of notes and questions. She stared
silently at me while I continued writing. Finally, I began hearing the sirens
blaring so I took that as my cue to take our little friend to the front of the
alleyway. I looked to the girl.
“The other officers are here. Follow me.” I told her. She accepted
and went with me to the front of the alleyway.
As we walked to the front of the alleyway, I turned to the girl.
“What’s your name?”
“My name’s Melissa McNeil.” I nodded and jotted the name into my
Telitech.
“What number can we use to get a hold of your parents?” I asked her.
“462-739-0541, someone should pick up.” I wrote the number down and
quickly checked to see who it was owned by. The result came up for the Saint
Joseph’s Cemetery. I looked at her in confusion.
“That’s a cemetery.” I said
“Yup.” With that I understood.
The police car pulled up to us as we stood at the edge of the
alleyway. The hot red/blue lights where soothing, I closed my eyes and let
myself soak it in for a brief moment. The two officers got out of the car.
“Detective Ruller.” The man emerged from behind the driver’s side
door. He was about 6’1 with a large and blocky chin, his hair rippled slightly
with the early morning winds. It was just my luck.
“Top of the morning to you, Hendricks.” My voice was still gravely
after taking a bit of beating in the alleyway. My ribs were sore and my back
was no better, I felt like shit.
“What the hell did you do this time?” Hendricks asked me. His
partner started pulling himself out of the passenger seat grabbing his Case Book
Tablet and pen.
“I’ve got two suspects
subdued and a third was killed.”
“Killed?” Hendricks nodded towards his partner who was already
furiously writing in his CBT. I heard him mutter obscenities under his breath.
Hendricks eyes immediately darted towards the girl.
Hendricks hates me… passionately. It’s a long rivalry that has
circulated between us for years. He goes to great lengths to prove that he is
better than me in just about everything. I don’t hate the guy, I just don’t
respect him and look at him for what he is, an asshole.
“Also, this girl was the victim. They were assaulting her.” I raised
my hand and gestured for Melisa to come.
She walked over and stood in front of Hendricks and I. Hendricks
grabbed the CBT from his partner and began jotting down a couple of notes
before passing it back to the unnamed partner. The CBT only had a couple of
notes jotted down from his partner and now Hendricks had etched something into
the thing. They had written on the first page of the CBT, so I guessed we
caught them on their off time. Officers are supposed to write any cases or
information down in the tablet. Luckily I had the notepad application; it made
stuff like this much simpler.
“Good. We’ve got all the information we need. See you at the
station” Hendricks said gritting his teeth only slightly. Melissa probably
didn’t realize the bitter hatred that the man held for me.
“Sure.” Melisa said. I pulled out my keypad one last time and opened
up the notes function.
“Why were those guys kicking your ass?” I asked her. I yawned
slightly wishing that I had that cup of coffee in my hand.
“Uh…Uhm.” She paused trying to gather words. I waited for another
moment.
“Anything?” I asked.
“Uh.. They were drunk and just started hitting me” Odd, hopefully
she can tell us more at the station.
“Alright, let’s go. Hendricks, drive me and our friend here to the
big house.” I flipped around and started walking to the car.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Hendricks barked at me.
“Into the car.”
“We can’t give you a ride; we’ve got a couple cases here that we
should sort through.” He gave me a snarky look, expecting me to step away from
the car.
“Really? A case at two in the morning. There’s no need to lie, I
know we caught you at a slow time or else you wouldn’t have come over to help
little old me,” I gave him a quick smile and sat down in the back of the car. I
rolled down the window. “Also, call an ambulance here so they can get our rather
torpid friends out of that alleyway. And get my coffee.”
A dick move? Yes.
A worthy dick move? Absolutely.
I looked through the window and saw his face, absolutely stunned;
his partners jaw was essentially on the ground. After a moment he reached for
the radio on the side of his uniform, requested an ambulance, and turned around
to get my coffee. Poetry in motion.
