9:45, Goodlance Industries Corporate Building
The doors to the building automatically opened up as Daniel and Damien approached them and they walked through the opening that was created by the doors sliding away, they slid close once Daniel and Damien had taken three steps within the room they were currently contained in.
They approached the desk that was ahead of them, the carpet below them was burgundy with a line of sparkling gold a few millimeters from the edge.
The woman on the other side looked no older then thirty, she obviously used cosmetics which probably gave the illusion of her being younger. Her name was Margeret, they knew this because she was wearing a name tag.
"Excuse me Margeret." Daniel stated in his polite patient tone.
"Yes, how may I help you sirs?" Margeret replied.
"I'm Dr. Daniel Smith, I'm also a detective with the Everleason police department, I have giving up my studies as a physicist some time ago, but I still prefer to go by the title of Doctor." Stated Daniel.
"Ok…" She stated, she felt slightly belittled even though Daniel wasn't even using a rash tone. "Anyway Commissioner Rodgers has already assigned an appointment with Darwin Topson, the head of this building, your already 20 minutes late."
"Wait, Commissioner Rodgers knew we were going to be here around this time," Daniel replied, his mouth was open wide in shock. "How?"
Margeret shrugged. "That man is quite mysterious, apparently nobody has any idea if he has any abilities or magic, and nobody has seen his face since he graduated."
"Anyway, we should be heading to our appointment." Stated Damien.
"Oh, sorry. Just go into the elevator and press the top button." Margeret replied.
"Thank you." Daniel and Damien both quoted simultaneously. They then walked off the beautiful burgundy carpet and onto a diamond lane way. Of course the diamonds that embroidered the pathway to the elevator were just painted, but the artist went to great lengths to make them look as authentic as real diamonds.
They entered the magnificently decorated elevator and Damien, being taller in stature then Daniel, pressed the button to the top floor, the elevators alabaster doors closed so calmly that they didn't even hear any mechanisms or the door completing its shut. It was obvious from the outset that Goodlance industries were swimming in money. After all Goodlance industries was almost as big as F.O.R.M.A.L, which was the organization that headed System corporation. Basically the Planet of Regions would be a completely different place without one or the other.
Soon they arrived at the top floor, the elevator door gently opened and a gentle breeze from the room that was slowly being revealed fragranced the air to smell like you just wondered into a greenhouse filled with the most magnificent smelling flowers.
The room they saw once the door reached full open was the office of the man that Gregory Goodlance had put in charge of this building, Daniel and Damien showed the same amount of relief as neither of them had to wonder down a hallway and knock on the door.
The office of Darwin Topsin was coated in luxery, the walls, banisters, railings and carpets were all made from deluxe materials of white origins, but painted with a semi-transperent blue coat, the only thing that seemed out of place was the chair that Darwin was sitting on, it was an ebony colour.
"You guys are late." Stated Darwin in a somewhat impatient tone. "Would you gentlemen please hurry and take a seat, my next appointment fast approaches."
"Actually, we only have two questions that I can think of off the top of my head." Stated Daniel. "Who fired Kevin and why?"
"Jeremy Taylor and because he was late for a meeting."
"A meeting?"
"Yes, he missed three meetings he was required to be at in the last two weeks, I kept telling the organiser to select a time convenient for all those who are required to attent, but she never listened."
"Who is she?"
"Linda Morris, honestly, she's been here for two years yet it almost feels like she came out of nowhere."
"Not her again." Stated Damien.
"I was definitely expecting to hear her name again, after all we both knew that she worked here, I had no idea she already had so much influence." Daniel replied. Directing his statement at Damien.
"Now would you please leave." Stated Darwin, grabbing a handful of the unshelled peanuts that were in a bowl. "Your appointment is almost over."
"Nuts!" Daniel stated as Darwin gobbled them.
"Yes, Daniel, I know it sucks that we have to leave." Stated Damien, who couldn't have understood what Daniel ment as he hadn't yet made the intentions of his statement.
"Not nuts as in the the exclamation would make when thier in trouble, I meant the ones in the bowl." Daniel explained.
"These?" Darwin stated, using his index finger to point at the bowl. "I take to all the meetings as almost everybody enjoys them, except for Linda."
"Linda doesn't like nuts?" Daniel inquired.
"She despises them beyond anything," Darwin clarified. "My ability is 'Mood Sight', I can tell how someone feels about something. Linda hates nuts with a burning passion and she had a lot of animosity against Kevin."
"Damien we have to leave right now." Daniel stated with an intense worrisome tone.
"Good idea." Darwin interjected before Damien even had a chance to speak.
"Why are we leaving, and why does it seem like you want to do it so fast?" Damien inquired.
"Carol's life is in danger." Upon hearing these words leave Daniel's mouth he understood the importance of Daniel's mood, he had to block out anymore questions as he knew it would be for the best not to cause any delays.
They went back to the elevator, the doors opened and the group that was next in line to have a discussion with Darwin were inside, the duo and the group of six swapped places in the blink of an eye.
The elevator began its descent. Daniel seemed quite anxious. "So you believe Carol is in danger." Stated Damien.
"Yes, and I believe that she's going to be poisoned by nuts once again." Daniel replied.
"You believe that the person who's going to poison her is Linda."
"You heard Darwin, why would he lie about his ability, besides if he did you would be the first to say so."
"You're right. Her memory manipulations only effects peoples perception of how long people belief she has been around."
At this time the elevator reached the lobby, and they both rushed out the door, Daniel gathered a newspaper on his way out. In Daniel's mind there was only one reason why the doctor would give him false information; somebody from a gang threatened him. Once outside he called somebody that could tell him if Linda had in fact being in contact with a gang.
They both rushed back to the Everleason fire station.
#
10:00 A.M, Everleason Fire station.
Upon arrival at the station they split up and looked for Carol. It didn't take long for Damien to find Carol asleep in the bunk room. Damien called over to Daniel and he came up to see what was going on.
Daniel was worried over nothing, but he still felt some slight concern, why was she sleeping at this early hour?
Robert walked out of the shadows in the back of the room. "Someone tried to kill her." He stated.
"Did you see anything?" Daniel inquired.
"No, except her allergic reaction, who is doing this?"
"You saved her?"
"Yes, now please answer the question I asked you."
"We have reason to believe that Linda is the one who poisoned her."
"Linda? Why?"
"She wants you to be with her."
"I know, but she said she recanted her feelings."
"She was lying so that you wouldn't think that she would try to kill Carol."
"Oh, that makes sense. You're lucky she isn't here."
"Good, we need to make her believe she succeeded." Damien stated.
"You mean you want to trick Linda?" Stated Robert.
"Well, yes," stated Daniel. "But we don't have definitive proof that Linda is indeed the mastermind behind these events. But if the mastermind believes Carol is still alive then the mastermind will continue to attack Carol. So it's best that only the three of us know that Carol is alive."
"So basically you're doing this to protect her." Stated Robert.
"Anybody else know what happened?"
"No, they all left to fight a fire."
"Alright, take Carol to your house and make sure she promises to not leave until we have the person trying to kill her behind bars."
"Of course." Robert then lifted Carol up, struggling as he did so because his arms were still bandaged from the burns that he had.
"So what do we do, Daniel?" Damien inquired.
"Let's consider all we have learnt so far." Daniel stated.
"About that, you made a phone call, and you haven't told me the results of that call."
"Oh, sorry. I called Jim Hurricane, an assassin working with a mob group in Everleason."
"He talked to you?"
"He knows who I am, besides, he saw me as no threat, anyway, he stated that somebody had asked one of the three mobs in Everleason to have one of their members bribe Dr…"
"Pymin."
"Thank you. He was bribed to forge false results. Apparently the person who orchestrated this plan is currently anonymous, Jim Is looking into this person right now."
"But if we want certainty of the identity of that person, then we need to get another test on that DNA, since the results were false the first time around."
"That first one took awhile, so what else do you suggest?"
"I know a trustworthy doctor who will help us get those results, his name is Alex Cryonix and he has the ability to help wounds heal, he isn't allowed to use his ability unless the situation absolutely requires it. He is also a veteran Questlander."
"So he has magic knowledge as well?"
"Yes, one of the spells he learnt was object recognition. Getting permission from system should be easy if Linda hasn't already used her ability to get to them."
"Linda's ability is quite the obstacle sure. But there must be someone within System we can trust."
"David will help us."
"You sure?"
"I may be new, but I could see he was a man to be trusted."
Daniel and Damien went back to the car, and they began driving back to the office.
#
10:30 A.M, Everleason police department
Daniel and Damien went in through the doors and sped toward David's office. Upon arrival the older of the two knocked on the door and they both patiently waited for a response, however thier waiting was short-lived as David told the duo to enter the office a few seconds after Daniel knocked on David's door.
They entered the office. David for once wasn't smoking; Daniel was curious, as this was the first time he saw David without a cigarette in his hand, or in his mouth. The matchbox which was quite visible in one of David's jacket's pockets only had one match left within it, but Daniel presumed that David probably had other ways to light the cigarettes he was so well known for smoking.
"Are you in a good mood David?" Damien inquired.
"Not really, but that is not why your here, is it?" David replied.
"You are correct David," stated Daniel. "We require your help."
"You have access to System correct?" Daniel inquired.
"System Corporation's database is something I have used in the passed, and yes I do still have access to it."
"Do us a favour, remember when we asked the mortician to have the skin under the victim's fingernails examined."
"As if I would forget something that happened yesterday."
"Any way, the skin was put through analysis and the doctor who got the results, Dr. Pymin, gave us false information. We need the true results."
"Daniel, when you get the chance just ask somebody which people are most likely to get affected by mafias, this is Cascoss, it's one of the most progressed countries on the planet, we have all sorts of information available. So you want me to make a call to Dr. Alex Cryonix?"
"I mean, that was the doctor we were going to suggest." Damien replied.
"He is a good doctor, 8/10 patients agree." David stated.
"What about the other 2?" Daniel inquired.
"They're in comas, not Alex's fault though."
Daniel looked at David in a concerned manner, even though David wasn't the person he shouldn't be aiming the look at.
"Anyway, will you contact him or not?"
"Sorry, of course I'll contact him. Plus I actually have something I wanted to give you." David then reached beneath his desk and took out a gasoline container, part of it was stained with oil.
"Uh… thanks, but we already filled my car a short time ago." Stated Daniel.
"It's not for your car, I found this in the victim's room, which was where the fireball was supposed to begin, Carol stated that she heard somebody leave through the window up stairs, and since the candles in that room were already lit and that the gasoline trail led to no other room I concluded that the would-be arsonist must have escaped via that window. I went back in there after you left, and found this under the bed, there are no fingerprints on it."
"How about the barcode, somebody must have purchased it."
"Yes, the owner of this object is Linda Morris."
"She did."
"But alas, she stated that this item was stolen, she almost caught the thief, the thief apparently slipped in an oil spill, which is why the container has oil on it, she made the report before Kevin's demise."
"She could have been lying."
"That's what we believe, since we didn't see any evidence of a break in, or any trace of a theft taking place, despite the story of the thief slipping in an oil spill, there were no oily footprints near Linda's house."
"No oil was spilt at her place either was it?"
"No oil spill in or around the house."
"She probably made the whole story up." Damien stated.
"We have to bring her in for questioning. As for you David, I think it strange that you believe the gasoline was robbed from within her house or an extension of it, like a shed or a garage."
"Go on."
"Gasoline is known for fueling vehicles, so why would she keep it tucked away in her house? If she were to somehow run out of fuel somewhere she wouldn't have access to her gasoline canister."
"I see what you're saying. After I talk to Alex, I'll get a search warrant for her car."
"As for us…" stated Damien. "We have a suspect to bring in."
Daniel and Damien then checked for recent fires, as they knew that since nobody other then Carol and Robert were at the fire station, and Robert himself did indeed confirm that the firefighters had left to fight a fire.
The most recent fire was at an industrial area, which was still under construction, the fire was put out just a few minutes ago which meant that the crew fighting it must already have started thier journey back to the fire station. Daniel and Damien headed to Daniel's vehicle, and Daniel drove the car this time and they went to the fire department, they hoped this would be thier last journey there for a while.
Soon they had arrived back at the fire department. They both went inside. They saw all the employees gathered in a circle, they all had upset looks upon thier face, except for Robert, it was hardly noticeable, but he was faking his sadness, Daniel and Damien soon realised what was going on and played along.
"What's going on." Daniel inquired.
"Robert just said Carol passed away." Stated a female firefighter.
"Oh, I'm sorry for your lose."
"Why are you here? She died from accidentally eating nuts and not medicating herself in time."
"We're here to question Linda Morris about Kevin Heartly."
"Your investigating that?"
"Believe it or not we are."
"Linda is over there." The firefighter then pointed to Linda.
"Thank you."
They slowly walked around the circle of upset fire fighters until they were directly behind Linda, they tapped on her shoulder. She tilted her head up and turned around.
"Wait do you want?" She asked with tear-filled eyes.
"We would like to ask you questions down at the precinct." Damien stated.
"What if I don't want to answer questions?"
"Then we will arrest you for suspicion of murder." Stated Daniel.
"What?" Stated Linda.
"To tell you the truth, since we have gathered a lot of evidence so far, we believe beyond a doubt that Kevin was murdered, so please come with us." Daniel stated.
"Fine, let's go." Linda stated.
All three of them entered Daniel's vehicle and then Daniel drove them back to the station. Once they had arrived back at the station Daniel and Damien led Linda to a questioning room. During thier journey David Lancer joined them, Daniel noticed him and figured that he must have had something he wanted to share, information he found.
They soon arrived at the questioning room.
"Alright Linda, it's time for you to confess." Stated David as soon they all had taken a seat.
"What, does he even have the authority to speak?" Linda inquired.
"He oversees this investigation." Stated Daniel. "Besides he's above us."
"That doesn't make sense, your older then he, yet your his underling."
"I just became a detective recently."
"Seems dumb."
"Look, be quiet! This is important." Stated David. "My search has turned up some interesting things."
"So has mine." Stated Daniel.
"Just let it out, why am I even here?" Linda stated angerly.
"Alright, firstly, we discovered three things that pointed towards murder; one: there was skin underneath the victim's fingernails, suggesting he fought for his life, but failed. Secondly, the mark caused by the rope was an odd shape considering he had hung himself, he was strangled first by the rope, and then hung. Lastly, if the previous point didn't make it clear enough, the rope was attached to the chandelier's support hook, the victim and I are around the same height, and the victim's job required no certain feats of strength, so he'd probably wasn't the strong type, yet he somehow managed to through the rope high enough to have it catch something that was so high up; this would be impossible unless he used his Higher Class ability, but the rope didn't even have a fading skill symbol on it. This means someone else must have thrown the rope onto the hook."
"So you have proven that he was murdered. I Honestly don't see why you had to go for three reasons, the rope around the neck should have been where you stopped and realised it was murder."
"True, but I wanted to be super sure."
"If you asked me, I would say that you wasted your time, but what has this all got to do with me?"
"The skin underneath the victim's nails came from somebody other then the victim," Damien inputted. "We had the DNA of the skin examined, but the doctor who gave us the results lied to us and gave us the wrong answer."
"I guess that's tough luck to you."
"You underestimate the power of the technology on this planet, we did a secondary test, this time the test showed that the DNA from the skin belongs to you Linda."
Linda then did a smirk as if to say 'good try boys, but I have something to show you that will disprove what you found.' She proceeded to roll up her long sleeves to reveal that none of her skin was damaged. "Nice try, but I'm pretty sure falsifying evidence is a big no-no, and when the commissioner hears about this he will not be happy."
"Oh really?" Said David, taking out a bottle of liquid. "This bottle contains a liquid makeup remover, the remover removes makeup in 30 seconds without damage to your skin, or my money back." David then forced the spray onto Linda's arms, Linda tried to fight back, but because she never participated in the Questlands, she quickly lost the battle and the truth was revealed. Her skin was damaged, which meant she had used makeup to cover it up.
"How did you know?" Linda inquired.
"You think I'm colourblind?" David stated. "When I graduated I had a major in art, even after seven years I can still tell when things are fake versus things that are real, besides, once I got those results, I figured you might try something, like cover up your wounds with makeup."
"Yes, but you can't prove that these wounds were made that day."
"True, but we did find a gasoline canister you had purchased the previous day."
"Yes but it was stolen."
"Sorry, but that's impossible, the gasoline was actually in the trunk of your car, there was a leaking oil container in your car's boot, plus the leaky oil left a strange circle, which meant something with a circle base was removed from the vehicle recently. Oh and don't say this was ill-gotten evidence. I had a warrant." David then took the warrant out of his coat and laid it gently in front of Linda. "Besides, there was no signs of break in on your boot. So the report was false."
"You guys are annoying. What motive would I have had to kill Kevin anyway?"
"He didn't save Carol." Stated Daniel.
"Pardon?"
"Carol was falling for another, as Carol's husband it was up to Kevin to stop Carol and Robert's love from taking flight. You killed him because he failed to save his wife from falling in love with another. After all Kevin's boss detected animosity within you."
"Using someone's ability to prove your point, how taboo."
"I know, but look at this." Daniel then placed down the newspaper down and turned to a certain page. "Yesterday Kevin's divorce was something that happened at the everleason court, there's a person who works at the paper company who likes to thank those who both participated in the case, such as the judge, and the attorneys. But the reporter also thanks those who watched the case. The names in the watchers are those who gave consent to be mentioned in this article. Your name is in this article, meaning you watched the divorce proceedings."
"Yes I was there, what does that prove?"
"Your vehicle was also spotted both near where Kevin crashed into the person with inverse, and also in the parking lot of the supermarket across the street."
"So?"
"You were following Kevin, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. You saw Robert enter his house, which is why he was targeted to be the one you would frame for Kevin's murder if push came to shove. Since Kevin had your skin under his fingernails it means he fought with you as you strangled him. Plus we also know that you were trying to get rid of Carol so that you could have Robert all to yourself."
Linda now realised that she was in hot water, she didn't see anyway out of this situation.
"I don't have an attorney, would you please get me one, I'm not continuing to talk without one present."
"Of course."
Eventually Linda made a deal and confessed her crimes, later on she went to court, where it was revealed that Carol was still alive which made her rage, she got 45 years with no parol, she was lucky that her outrage didn't add too many years to her sentence. All the truths were finally revealed. Yet another case solved by Daniel Smith.