The nights had been cooling for the past several weeks. Fog now rolled in off the lakes of Theeds beautiful vista. But there was no way to appreciate the beauty tonight, as the mist made everything blur together. Tonight, was one of those nights. A night. For murder.
Junior Detective Rance Valere was new to Naboo and had only just been relieved from desk duty to join his partner, Jarex 'Sticks' Mik-Dernal. The Senior Detective was only a few years from retirement, and was as tired as tired could be. Eyes were sunken, a cigar constantly at hand, and the air of someone who had once been a rebel against the system but now acquiesed under constant internal protest and self-loathing. He wasn't much of a looker either. Poor guy was on his fourth marriage, and even that was on the rocks.
"Hey Sticks," said Valere as he stepped into an upper class apartment in one of Theeds fancier neighbourhoods.
"Kid," came the grumbled welcome as Sticks didn't even offer a glance to acknowledge Rance's arrival.
"Any news on time of death?" Said the young newcomer as he rounded the corner of the internal wall of the entry way and into the opulent dining room.
There was a woman, mid-twenties by his estimation, slumped over the dining table that had been set for one. A kitchen knife was protruding from her back and blood stained her white satin gown. In her life, she would have been considered beautiful, surely one pursued by many an upper class suitor. Now she was just there, another poor soul lost to a murder's moment of unchecked rage.
"Neighbours reported noises around midnight, assumed it was a male guest and some handsy stuff" came the half-hearted reply. It was only a few hours or so after midnight. The Security Force had moved fast. Rance's attention was grabbed from his analyses of the victim by a datapad slapped into his chest.
"Read it all for yourself kid, I ain't yer nanny."
The Junior Detective fumbled the datapad as it was dropped into his hands. He managed to get control just before it tumbled to the ground. With a couple of taps, the screen lit up and all the current information on the case became available. He wandered around the room, glancing at objects and elements of the decor, while referring back to the datapad. He looked back at the table, and tugged at his duster jacket uncomfortably. There was something off about the setting. But he could not put his finger on it.
She had finished her meal. Her plate was clean and pushed aside. Her hands were above the table, and looked like they were open...slightly. Rance meandered over to her body, Magdalena Eretria as the datapad identified her, and tilted his head sideways.
Huh.
The meal was finished, plate pushed out in front of her, and then she had just stayed at the table? Why? Flicking off the datapad, Rance held it out tilted it sideways and closed one eye to line it up with her open hand.
Huh. Approximately...
Had she been reading? Watching something on a datapad? If so, where was that datapad now?
"There's nothing in here about her own personal datapad," he said, voicing his partial theory.
"Maybe she didn't have one," shrugged the older man from the other side of the room. He looked annoyed that Rance had interuppted his conversation with a security guard.
Everyone has one.
He took to wandering from room to room. To his mind, the decor in the place was unrelentingly garish. Paintings on the walls had bulky unsightly frames, the wallpaper was patterned with broad imposing colours and strokes. It was just all so much. Surely, it was a family home. A family of long, and high standing. He walked into the bedroom. The bed was made, neatly, professionally. He pulled open the top drawers on the dresser. Only woman's items. No stay in lover.
Finally, he stood looking out the window of the bedroom. He couldn't see anything beyond the opaque haze of light filled fog. But something caught his eye. Two sticks lay on the ground, short, almost unnoticeable amid the patterned shag style carpet. He stooped, picked them up, and then looked up towards the midpoint of the window. There were two soft grooves in the woodwork...he lifted the sticks and they matched in size.
So, Magdalena had been worried about someone entering the apartment when she was not around? She wanted to know when the window was opened. It was a common ploy, put a couple of toothpicks, or matches, in a closed door and when opened...drop! Quick little silent alarm for any paranoid individual to pick up on when they returned home.
Someone had come through the window. But the residue on the sill indicated that it had not been too long ago. Not midnight long ago.
Rance stiffened. Was there someone still here? Sticks' report said he had only been on scene ten minutes. Had he interrupted someone and not known it?
Reaching for the window, Rance nested his fingers in the well worn grooves of the window frame, and click the window opened swinging out of his grasp with the slight breeze being enough to pull it open.
His heart skipped a beat as the window clatter against the side of the building.
Detective Valere turned the datapad to camera mode, inverted the direction to look at himself, and then held it out in outstreatched arms...slowly sliding it out of the window, using it as a mirror to check around the corner.
| Ofira Ee'everwest |
