Hello again :D ! This chapter is a bit more ,, I dunno "disturbing?" than the first. Warning for sensitive readers or something. But I tried to put some humor in it to.. Weel aaanyway I didn't make any big character descriptions but I kinda see Detective Tayala as a mix of detective Anaya and Samara. And I myself see Maya Johnson as a bit Alice Cullen-looking (not a big fan of twilight but her looks fit my character I think ,, but with 22th century clothes of course,, or well C-SEC uniforms ) But of course you are free to make your own version off the characters looks. Unless I already ruined it for you XD. (btw I guessed that the C-SEC headquarters is on the Kitoi ward)
And thanks nooneimportant2 for the review, of course you're right about the whole timeline thing. The main reason I put it at 2176 was that I wanted the rest of the species to be more used to humans and therefore I wanted it not to be to far from ME1s time. Thanks again
Year 2176. The Citadel. Kitoi Ward. C-SEC headquarters. Time 00:45 am
The great atrium at the C-SEC headquarters was packed. Hundreds of people had gathered there either to complain on C-SEC for being unable to catch the Tayseri Ward butcher. Or to swamp c-sec officers ,telling them that they suspect that one of their friends or family members to be the killer. All false allegations of course, mostly due to mistakes and antagonism or pure stupidity. Yet still Executor Pallin had of course ordered all the newest recruits to interrogate all the deluded civilians because the rules required it.
Garrus Vakarian interviewed an old and probably senile hanar woman, who suspected her husband to be the killer, these serious accusations was based on the fact that her husband had started to read more detective-novels than usual the last couple of months.
Why oh why does Pallin insist that we have to interrogate all these no lifers who actually takes their time to come to a c-sec office at 00:45 am, only to share their crazy suspicions? He thought, but he already knew the answer.
Do it by the book, or don't do it at all. Sigh,,, Pallin was just like his father.
After spending nearly ten minutes trying to reason with the old hanar, his omnitool suddenly flared green and he excused himself. If a c-sec investigators omnitool flares green, means that the officer must hurry to his or her assigned patrol shuttle. Several other c-sec recruits looked at him jealously when he walked up the stairs to the elevator.
He felt relived and nearly euphoric as the elevator stopped at the ninth floor which had the corridor towards the shuttle bay. Anything is better than interviewing idiots in the atrium, he thought happily.
As he arrived he saw his superior Detective Talaya a 310 year old asari who headed his division, and Maya Johnson a tiny female human who usually worked in the labs, wait by the shuttle.
Evenings Vakarian, you'll be working with me and Johnson on this one, jump in and I will explain.
As they took off from the platform, Talaya lit a cigarette, some kind of human gas intoxication tool.
-Aaah this is one of the many things that makes me glad the turians didn't bomb you humans back to the Stone Age, I simply can't get enough of those "cigarettes" . It is like they made them out of chemicals that make you crave them more and more". Talaya said after she breathed out a cloud of smoke.
-That's actually because of the,,, ehm eh never mind. Maya answered, but from the look of her it seemed like she thought that Talayas statement about cigarettes was very funny.
Garrus looked out of the window and saw that they now hovered over Tayseri Ward. He mused over how much more exiting his job had become since he had been transferred from the presidium. On the presidium he mostly spent his days stopping people from throwing trash down the reservoirs or to stopping other Turians from throwing trash at the Krogan statue by the consort chambers.
The wards on the other hands it actually felt like you made a difference.
He was disturbed from his thoughts by Talaya who started to brief them on the situation.
-OK, about ten minutes ago two patrolling c-sec officers found a dead volus in an alley close to the Dilenaga Concert Hall. The officers are still the only ones at the crime scene and you and I Vakarian " she pointed," are going in as backup for them while Johnson make a field autopsy. There is a chance that it is the work of the Tayseri ward butcher since nearly all of that freaks victims were found in an alley or it is a more usual robbery attempt that went wrong. But crime aren't that high in that neighborhood though.
Talaya flew skillfully through an airlock and got down on street level. They flew by the grand concert hall and stopped about two blocks from it opposite to a small alleyway. The two patrolling officers, a salarian and a volus (which was odd to see as a c-sec officer) waited by the entry to the dark alley.
Both of their omni tools were lit, and they had sealed off the area with blue light markers.
-We heard an omnitool ring in the alley when we walked by, and when we first saw the body we thought he had passed out but t, t,then we s,saw all the blood. The volus officer stammered. He was clearly not comfortable with having his back against the alley and he had his small volus-designed gun drawn.
-Ok, you two guard the entry to the alley while we help Johnson examine the body. Talaya ordered while she entered the alley.
-Yes ma`am, answered the more composed salarian officer.
The body lay nearly unhidden only about seven yards into the alley by a trash compressor. The volus lay on its stomach in a pool of dark brown volus blood.
-I get the feeling this is the work of a certain Tayseri ward butcher, I've been to two of that freaks crime scenes and they always have this much blood. said Talaya bitterly.
Maya kneeled by the body, careful not to step in the blood. She scanned the body with her omnitool. The orange light shined over the body and several holograms appeared at her omnitool.
-hmm Volus obviously, male and in his forties. The DNA-scan identifies him as Tal-Suran, owns an omnitool store close to Tayseri point.
Garrus looked at and noticed a burn mark on the volus shoulder.
-Johnson there's a burn mark on his environmental suit, on the shoulder. It looks like a taze mark if you ask me.
-Just like the others, the freak stuns the victim then dissects the poor fellow and takes out one or several organs. Luckily,, hmm if you call it "luck" the victim never regain consciousness before he or she dies. But still,, dissect someone when the person is still alive is not just sick, it is an abomination. Maya said with anger in her voice.
Garrus felt disgusted, he had read about the case in the news and hearing it during briefings, but hearing it while the same seeing a victim first hand made him sick.
-We have to catch this freak, finding anything useful?
Talaya had also joined in and started to scan the body with her omnitool.
-This guy has no criminal record at all, but he seems to be in a divorce, he was scheduled to meet his wife in court tomorrow. The poor bastard is going through a quite bitter separation it seems.
-I don't think we need to focus on that ma´am; the killer's targets are always random. The poor guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Garrus said angrily.
Garrus felt a bit wrong to hear her talk about the victim like that. He watched Talayas reaction but she didn't seem surprised or angry like any turian superior would be.
-Guess you're right but that tone with any other superior would not have been a good career move,, remember that Vakarian , Talaya said seriously.
-Sorry ma´am it won't happen again. Garrus said while he felt a wave of relief.
-I hope you two are done because I need someone to take pictures before we flip him over, Maya said loudly while she scanned the victim's omnitool.
-Yes! She suddenly called. The guy has,,,, or well he had a HRHI-omnitool. The newest model too, it also has a pulse meter. To see if the owner is in need of medical treatment. This model can even warn the owner and suggest that he or she needs to go to a doctor. If I read the resent recordings I might ,,bingo! The pulse meter is designed to shut down when there is no pulse to record, when the omnitool is taken off in other words. The tool is registered as "taken off" at 00:14am and 17 seconds. Maya said while she thoroughly scanned Tal-Surans omnitool
-But he didn't take it off; it was his hart that stopped. Garrus realized
Exactly! Maya agreed, I don't think we ever had a chance to state such an exact time of death on the other victims.
Her head suddenly jerked up.
Oh look! two minutes before death he has four seconds with a much higher pulse than normal, I think that's probably when the killer attacks him. And then his pulse suddenly become so slow that it is called "sleeping pulse" by the program, which must mean that the killer managed to stun him at that time. Maya said while Garrus assembled the crime scene camera.
-Good job Johnson, I knew I wouldn't regret bringing you along. Talaya said while she helped stepped out of the way for the crime scene camera. The camera started to hover over the body and took pictures in dozens of angles.
-WHAT? Is that volus dead! Garrus, Maya and Talaya jumped simultaneously.
A turian and an asari holding hands had somehow managed to sneak up behind the three investigators and now stood and both stared at the corpse.
-What are you two doing here! This alley is roped off and civilians are not allowed her. Get back behind the blue sealing immediately. Garrus said with as much authority that he could.
-What we didn't know the area was sealed off; we are just taking a shortcut. Said the turian
Garrus was confused for a second, why did the two officers let these people in?
Maya seemed just as confused as he was but when he looked at Talaya her face changed from confusion to understanding and then to pure rage that made her biotics flare up.
She turned and screamed to the two C-SEC officers guarding the entrance to the alley.
-YOU DIDN'T SEAL OF BOTH SIDES OF THE ALLEY YOU IDIOTS!