Hello everyone I'm back! Sorry for the lack of new chapters to this story had to move house and it took them 3 weeks to get the internet connected…Grrrr. Hopefully there will be more frequent updates while I speed run Mass Effect 1&2. And of course ME3 is just around the corner, has everybody played the demo yet?
Rev asked me about the feedback forum I setup to reply and why I wasn't using it, truth is I forgot about it but I will start using it again. But enough about me, on with the story…
Chapter 6: Who are you?
It had been two weeks since the Winslow suicide and since then there had been 4 more suicides, all women in their early thirties, all of them single with good jobs and all of them showed no signs of depression or desires to end it all and yet there was no relation to the other victim, they took place in different Wards and all the evidence pointed to suicide and yet I just knew they were murdered, now if only I could prove it.
It was early morning at C-Sec and everybody else had gone home but I was sure my murder theory was right and that there was something, somewhere we'd missed, which is why I was currently going through every crime scene image and video footage we had trying to find it. Luckily, thanks to holographic keyboards and touch screen displays it was each to flick through each image. I watched as the images passed by, not really seeing anything in particular until I spotted something that made me return to the previous image.
The image reversed, to a scene from the latest suicide. Everything in it was pretty standard as far as crime scenes go. But the thing that drew my attention was the crowd, specifically one person standing in the crowd.
I frowned as I looked at the man's image. He was a human male in his late 30s early 40s with slick black hair wearing a suit. It wasn't that the man stood out for any particular reason it was just that I was sure I had seen him somewhere before but I couldn't remember where.
With a yawn I rubbed my eyes and looked across the room, seeing the entrance to the briefing room and remembered the large display in there. Standing up I walked across the room into it and turned the display on before bring up all the images with crowds in and that was when I spotted him again, in every crowd at every scene. It had to be him.
Opening my Omni-Tool I brought up the communications application and picked Garrus's entry.
"Hello?" My friend's sleepy voice came through the holographic device.
"Hey, it's me I got a break in the case, get down here." I said.
"What?" Garrus muttered as I heard shuffling before a grumble "It's three in the morning."
"Huh? Oh so it is but I got a break in the case so get down here."
"What kind of break?" Garrus asked.
"A suspect." I answered with a grin. There was a long silence before Garrus sighed.
"OK I'll be right there…I assume you're at C-Sec?"
"Yeah."
"Alright I'll see you soon…and if you're wrong about this suspect I will kill you for getting me up this early." Garrus replied as he ended the call.
By the time Garrus had arrived I had already started a search for our mystery guy, although I had dozed off at my desk after I had started the search. I know this because of the smack to the back of my head my Turian partner gave me when he arrived.
"Ow." I muttered as I rubbed my head.
"You woke me up, it's only fair." Garrus grinned "So you said you had a suspect?"
I nodded and showed him the image of the man I had seen "He's in the crime scene photos." I said.
"So? There are a lot of people in this photo."
"True but he's in at least one at every crime scene."
At this Garrus raised an eyebrow…uh…well the Turian equivalent anyway. "That's unusual."
"Tell me about it." I replied as I pointed to my screen "I'm running a facial recognition search now but no luck so far."
Garrus and I spent an hour going over the little evidence we had again while we waited, mostly to kill time before we both fell asleep at our desks until the other officers started to arrive.
Unfortunately the search had yielded no results. To make matters worse a call came in saying that there was another suicide and this one wasn't far from C-Sec, at least it didn't take us long to get there.
"Alright you take the apartment and I'll take the crowd." I said to Garrus, who nodded as he walked over to the coroner. I started scanning the crowd with my eyes as I made my way over towards them and waved one of the C-Sec officers over.
"Yes Detective?" The Asari asked.
"Were you one of the first on the scene officer?" I asked.
"Yes sir, my partner officer Trenlan went over to the body and called it in while I dealt with the crowd."
"Good, good. Did you happen to see this man by any chance?" I asked as I brought my suspect's image up on my Omni-Tool.
"Actually I did, he's right over there." The officer replied as she glanced over to the far end of the crowd where I spotted the man, who luckily was watching Garrus and the Coroner and not me.
"OK he's a suspect so I need you to start moving some of these people away as discreetly as you can."
"Yes sir." The officer replied as I casually started walking towards the man. I could see Garrus turn around and started walking towards us and the entrance to the apartment and that was when the man caught me looking right at him and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he knew that I knew. Before I could react he took off in a sprint.
"Crap." I cursed as I started running "GARRUS THAT'S HIM!" I yelled, already seeing my partner running after the suspect, and man was he fast. Despite being further away from the suspect than me he had closed the distance between himself and the fleeing human.
Popping open my Omni-Tool I brought up the radio "This is Detective Kane; I am in pursuit of a homicide suspect with my partner Detective Vakerian. We are heading east towards the markets. Suspect is a male human, approximately 6'5 in height, Caucasian with dark brown hair, wearing a black suit, white undershirt and black pants. Any officers in the area to assist, suspect is considered armed and dangerous."
I watched as the man darted round a corner with Garrus hot on his heels. With a growl I increased my speed and turned the corner a few seconds later. Ahead of me I could see Garrus and our suspect darting though the crowd.
"C-SEC! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" I yelled as various civilians started crossing my path. Luckily the suspect made a left and started running down a flight of stairs, do doubt in an attempt to reach the Rapid Transit Station a few levels below.
"This is Kane, suspect still on foot heading towards the RTS terminal on level 23." I said through my Omni-Tool, already seeing several other officers joining the pursuit.
I ran a little further until I came to a railing and glanced over, smiling when I realised that the suspect would pass right below me, all I had to do was get the timing right. Of course if I didn't not only would it hurt like hell but I ran the risk of taking Garrus out instead.
With a shrug I climbed over the railing and waited…
Time seemed to slow down as I watched our man sprint towards us, his focus entirely on Garrus and the other officers chasing him down. I knew it would only be a few seconds before he was below me and I needed to drop just before that in order to land on him. Taking a deep breath I jumped.
Despite the fact I knew it was only a single level drop I wondered if it would still be enough to break my ankle. A thought which quickly left me when I hit the ground and luckily for me our suspect too who grunted as the air was driven out of him.
"You're under arrest." I grinned as I twisted his arms behind him back. My first arrest as a C-Sec officer, and I did it in style too.
"What the hell was that?" Garrus said as he and the other officers came to a halt beside us.
"Whatever do you mean partner?" I asked.
"I chase this guy this whole time and you just drop out of the sky and take him down."
"Well I wasn't planning on it." I replied "Besides if you hadn't been chasing him, he wouldn't have been looking behind him and seen me perched up there waiting."
A small grin formed on Garrus's face "You have a point I mean I saw you up there so I created the distraction for you by shouting at him."
If you're listening to this thinking that I didn't mention Garrus shouting, that's because he didn't…well I didn't hear him anyway but since he still claims he did to this day I'm not going to argue with him over it.
Shaking my head I hauled our suspect to his feet "I'm innocent!" The man yelled.
"Oh well then I'm so sorry, I'll just let you go then." I replied.
"Damn right you will."
"But first let me ask you a question genius, if you're so innocent why'd you run?"
"Screw you." The man snarled.
I just laughed "That's what I thought." I scanned him with my Omni-Tool to get a DNA sample before looking over at Garrus.
"So do you want to take him to C-Sec or head back to the crime scene?"
"I'll take the crime scene, you take him." Garrus replied.
"Fine by me." I replied "See you back there."
Garrus nodded as I handed our guy over to another C-Sec officer who had just arrived with a cruiser to transport him. I assumed Garrus or one of the other officers must have requested it when I landed on him. Another officer, another Turian climbed in the back with him leaving me to take the seat up front.
It wasn't a long ride back to C-Sec but the paperwork I had to fill out when I booked him in, along with his refusal to give us his name more than made up for it. I put him in an interrogation room and watching him through the mirror. The longer I kept him waiting the more frustrated and angry he seemed to get…So I decided that the best course of action was to let him wait a little while longer.
