A/N: I know what you're thinking: "Marcel, you promised you would try not to post anything new until some of your current work was finished." I tried, honestly; I just failed. But, this story comes with good news: it's complete. Five chapters of a murder mystery, starring our beloved Penny. Five chapters I planned meticulously.
A story of this genre doesn't lend itself for my usual "by the seats of my pants" style of writing. It also doesn't lend itself to not have someone else look it over for whatever I might have missed; for the first time in quite a few years I enlisted the help of a beta, in this case the amazing bfm10 (by the way, you better be reading her "The Corollary Theory" story).
Some important notes, before we dive into the first chapter. First, this story is a Penny story. A certain bespectacled, cute experimental physicist does make a favorable impression on her, but it's not going to be a Lenny story. Other than Leonard and Sheldon, none of the other BBT characters are going to appear in this story.
Second, except for the first two scenes, every scene is focused on Penny, the way she is investigating the crime, and some of her inner thoughts.
Third, since I've been having so much fun with detective Penny, I've started a second story, which is nearing completion. This means that Penny Investigations is likely going to be a series. I felt a series should get it's own cover, make it stand out.
Fourth, yes I used a beta this time. She's done a bang-up job, fixed and suggested a lot of things. And then I made some changes here and there. The point being, any mistakes you'll find are most certainly caused by me changing things.
Lastly, chapters will be posted every single week, same Penny-day, same(-ish) Penny-time.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Big Bang Theory, Penny, Leonard or Sheldon. I can (and will) claim ownership of detective Kelvin Dale and any of the original characters that will appear in this story.
Penny Investigations: The Caltech Murder
Leonard shook his head as Sheldon walked into his office, after informing him that they were in fact two minutes later than they normally would be. Of course Sheldon had turned it into a reprimand and demanded assurance this would not happen again. Leonard knew better than not assure his roommate this would indeed not happen again.
He exhaled loudly, before turning around to make his way back to his lab, wondering why Sheldon insisted Leonard accompany him to his office every morning. They passed Leonard's lab, so it just didn't make any sense for Leonard to join Sheldon all the way down here, but Leonard did it anyway, knowing that not doing it would only cause him headaches. At least he got some extra steps each day out of it, which was probably a good thing, given his lack in physical activities.
He fished his keys out of his pocket as he approached the corner to the short corridor to his lab, his mind going over the various things he'd be doing this week. Most of the week would be spent on writing out the results and conclusions of the experiment he'd completed. Then he'd have to prepare his lab for the new exciting experiments with the military laser that was delivered last Thursday. And, of course, write down which direction he'd try first, including the conditions to be met to be able to decide if further experimentation in that direction was warranted.
Exciting stuff, though he had his doubts if what the military wanted out of this, would really be possible. Most of the excitement had to do with the financial compensation involved, which would help the university - and by extension, him - in financing other needed equipment. Luckily the military had over budgeted the whole line of experiments; Leonard was fairly certain he could perform all the testing needed to get all the required conclusions for half the money the military was going to pay.
Leonard stuck the key into the lock and frowned when he couldn't turn it. He retracted the key and pushed it in again, and this time the door unlocked. With his foot he closed the door behind him; he was going to work on the paper, and didn't want to be disturbed. Not that many people made their way down to his lab, but still. He put his trusty messenger bag next to his computer, and turned the computer on.
As always, his first action was to start his coffee maker and he turned around. He screamed as he was confronted by a dead person laying in the middle of the lab; seconds later his breakfast made a return visit, and it was sheer luck most of it ended up in the waste basket near his feet.
# # #
Leonard was still very much shaken as detective Dale began to ask him questions. Luckily, the man blocked his sight of the dead body on the floor, but they were still in his lab. Some of the questions were a clear attempt at trying to make him confess, or at the very least catch him on an inconsistency in his answers; they viewed him as a suspect, that much was clear to him.
Leonard glanced at the door as a blond woman entered. She was about his height and walked in like she belonged here, though she didn't appear to be like the other people currently swarming around his lab. She actually looked at him for one second, looked him straight in the eyes, before her focus shifted all over the room, checking everything. With his eyes he followed her, finding it almost impossible to not look at her.
"Dr. Hofstadter," detective Dale began another question. "What were you doing between ten pm and midnight?"
Leonard tore his gaze away from the blond woman. "In bed, going over the data of my latest experiments. Around eleven I put the results away, turned off the light and went to sleep."
"And you claim your roommate went to bed half an hour before you. So it's impossible for him to confirm you were there."
"Clearly Leonard's not the killer," the blond woman spoke as she approached them. Leonard had no idea how she even knew his first name; so far everyone had addressed him by his title and last name.
The detective turned to the woman, eyebrow raised, but he looked resigned, almost disappointed. "Care to elaborate, Penny?" What a wonderful name, Leonard thought.
Penny nodded. "Scratch marks near the lock indicate someone picked the lock, the victim is six foot one - considerably taller than Leonard, but the stab wound indicates the knife came down into his chest. Leonard is clearly right handed, but the killer is left handed."
Leonard was sure his mouth was hanging open; this woman had seen all that in matter of a minute? Detective Dale seemed less surprised, but was making notes, so she had at least seen a few things he and his team had not yet discovered. "Go on," detective Dale said, even sounding resigned now.
Penny smiled a little at the detective. "Cheer up, Kelvin, not all is lost." She pointed at the body. "The body was dragged in here. I noticed a little bit of blood right by the door, and a small trace from there to the body's current location. Interestingly, there's no blood in the hallway, so the murder seemed to have taken place by the door."
Penny frowned at the door, or rather, Leonard realized as he followed her gaze, the floor right by the door. She walked over, grabbed the door and half closed it. After a few seconds of looking at the side of the door that faced his lab, Penny walked back, slight confusion on her face.
Detective Dale had a slightly amused look on his face, Leonard noticed. "Something bothering you?"
"Sorta," Penny admitted. "The blood splatter pattern is kinda odd. I mean, there's hardly any splatters. The victim was stabbed from his front, no blood out in the hallway, and the door is also blood free. There should be something behind the victim as he was stabbed."
"As well as in front of him," Detective Dale added. "As the killer pulled out his knife, blood splatters would follow."
"You are assuming our killer removed his knife immediately. But if he left it in there, allowing the body to drop and only pull it out after the body is on the floor, preferably after waiting a while to ensure the blood pressure has dropped, there would hardly be any splatters. And any splatters would go up and come down almost straight."
The detective nodded, but Leonard was starting to feel sick again. Penny's matter-of-fact description had the unwanted side effect of him seeing the dead body again.
She didn't seem to notice, as she scanned his lab again. Suddenly she walked toward his storage bench, in the back corner of his lab. She studied it for a few seconds, before turning around. "Leonard, is there something missing here?"
Leonard walked over, happy to be further away from the dead man still laying on the floor, though thankfully covered with a tarp. He frowned slightly, as he didn't often go to this section, until it was time to switch projects. The first thing he checked was if the laser the military had delivered last Thursday was still there. It was, but as he looked more closely he realized it was, in fact, not completely there. "Um, seems like a section is missing from the high powered laser the military provided."
# # #
Penny stared at her computer screen, on which she'd put the evidence of the burglary at Caltech. She looked again at the photo of Leonard Hofstadter. Her intuition told her he had nothing to do with either the murder or the theft, but she couldn't objectively rule out his contribution to the theft. She really hoped he had nothing to do with any of it; he seemed like a nice guy and he was kinda cute.
She sighed and forced her attention back to the evidence at hand. She zoomed in on the images of the dead body. The stab wound was determined to be the cause of death by the medical examiner; not very surprising, as this was the only serious wound. She panned to the report; male, late twenties, six-one, and in good physical health. No personal belongings, not even an ID.
Clearly the dead man hadn't wanted to inadvertently leave any evidence, which put him in the criminal column. Too bad his partner had decided to double cross him. Or did he? Penny suddenly sat up straighter, staring ahead. Kelvin and her had come to the conclusion the burglars had gotten into a disagreement, resulting in one dead partner, but what if there had actually been two burglars trying to steal the same thing?
She glanced at the clock. Caltech should still be open. Penny turned off her monitor and grabbed her jacket, checking to assure herself she had both a set of latex gloves as well as a couple of evidence bags and left her apartment, rushing downstairs to her car. As always, she took speed limits to be suggestions and arrived at the university in under five minutes. She showed her ID to the police man posted, who informed her his colleague had just gone into the lab, at the request of Kelvin. She entered the building, making a beeline for Leonard's lab, but decided to check the hallway first.
She studied the floor once more, this time much more carefully and meticulously. There was absolutely no indication of a struggle here, neither was there any sign of blood ever having been there. She looked at the lock once more, studying it up close. Whoever had picked it, didn't seem to have much experience in doing so. But they seemed to have had the foresight of wearing gloves, as there had been no prints whatsoever.
There really was no way to determine who had picked the lock, or even if it was picked twice. So, maybe her new hypothesis of two burglars wasn't correct either. What if the killer had removed any personal belongings the victim might have had on him? That was definitely a possibility, but that did not necessarily mean the killer had tried to prevent anyone from finding a link between him and the victim.
But why had the victim been here, then? What possible reason could there be for him to be out here, near Leonard's lab? The only reason seemed to be the missing laser equipment. The man had been in good physical health. Could he be military, guarding the lab to prevent it being stolen? Even in civilian clothing, a soldier would have had dog tags on him. Closing her eyes, she recalled the victim and the photo's she'd studied. There had been a thin stripe of slightly lighter skin on his neck; not exactly hard proof of there having been dog tags, but still.
But how then, would he have been surprised by the killer? Assuming the victim had been guarding the lab, he would've seen the killer coming, wouldn't he? She glanced down the corridor; the lab was at the very end, so the closest the killer could've been would be the lab across, which had its door towards the junction to the main corridor. That's a good thirty feet. That didn't seem to be enough to catch a trained soldier off guard, at least not to the extent of there not being any struggle.
Penny stood up straight and looked around herself. If she'd be guarding the lab, where would she put herself? Only one answer, right in front of the back wall, with the lab's door to her left. She'd have the best view of the corridor, could easily see the door of the lab on the right, and see anyone passing by in the connecting corridor. No, there was no way a trained soldier could have been surprised by the attacker, not when he was standing in this position. There were no blood splatters on the wall anyway, she'd already thoroughly checked that earlier today.
She turned to the lab's door and reached for the doorknob, deciding to take one more look inside. At the same time, one of the police officers opened the door from the inside. Sharon - Penny had met her on several investigations before - gasped and put her hand on her chest.
"Geez, Penny, you scared me half to death."
"Sorry," she apologized, then turned her eyes to the floor. It took only a second to find what she'd hoped to find. She retrieved her cell phone and selected Kelvin's contact.
To Be Continued
