Chapter 20: Accidents of the freaky

"I'll tell you my sins, so you can sharpen your knife" – Hozier

- Wednesday, 7 pm -

Thanks to Chase's meddling, Silvex was now sitting in an Italian restaurant, while being on just about the worst date he ever had. Not only was it terribly awkward, Silvex and Rachel had almost nothing in common. That said, Silvex' game was very rusty. He hadn't been with anyone since his fiancé Axel 'died'. Three years ago. Ever since, Silvex had thrown everything into his work, becoming a total workaholic.

Rachel, sitting across from him, enjoyed the date just as much as Silvex. She had always admired the husky, but he seemed to be just as uptight as at the office. She still liked him, but after this experience, she wouldn't like to date him. Ever.

"So…" Silvex attempted to break the next in a long line of awkward, uncomfortable silences.

"So…" Rachel replied, the layer of ice between them was a lot bigger than either of them could break. Eventually, she just gave up. "You know what, I just don't think we're meant to be together."

"Agreed, we would not work. At all." Silvex replied. "We're just not very compatible."

"Actually, that's not what I meant." Rachel said, before explaining further. "I think the reason that this date was so dreadful is that your head isn't here. Figuratively speaking, that is."

"What do you mean?" Silvex asked. "You have my full attention."

"We both know that's a lie." Rachel simply replied. She seemed a little down about the date failing, but not as bad as Silvex would expect. "I think that most of your attention is somewhere else, with someone else. If you would like to talk about them, I'd be willing to listen."

"Them?" Silvex asked with a smirk on his face. "So you know, then?"

"About you being bisexual? Of course." Rachel replied, as she took a sip of her wine. "Everyone knows that the longest relationship you've had was with a guy, the fact you're here with me now proves that you swing both ways."

"Right…" Silvex remarked. "Coffee, doughnuts and gossip."

"The three things cops love most." Rachel added. "But which is it, a him or her?"

"Well, that guy I once dated, I recently saw him again." Silvex started to explain, while Rachel literally crept to the edge of her seat. "I thought he would be gone for good, but here he was again. And, to be honest, I think I'm falling for him all over again. So I'm sorry, Rachel. But you were right. While my head may be here with the two of us, my heart is still with him."

"Aww, you're just too adorable." Rachel squeaked.

In a dark van on the street opposite of the restaurant, two dogs looked at each other with complete surprise.

"Did I hear that right?" Chase asked his companion, who answered on the exact same tone.

"Silvex still likes Axel." Callum replied. Both of the canines were smiling from a mix of excitement, happiness and secondhanded embarrassment from the awkwardness earlier.

After their shift had ended, Chase had asked Silvex where he was going to take Rachel and then decided to follow his partner to see how the date would be going. When he arrived about an hour before Silvex would, he instantly spotted a black van. When he went to investigate it, he ran into Callum. The Labrador had just finished planting listening devices on the table reserved under Silvex' name and was on his way back to the surveillance van when Chase decided to check the van out.

After scaring the almost literal crap out of each other, they decided to team up and observe the date together. Chase couldn't help but ask why Callum was so interested in the date, and the lab explained that he wanted to know if Silvex might still have feelings for Axel. That's why the lab wanted to watch the date and Silvex' behaviour very carefully. Chase agreed to help, mostly to use the resources that Callum brought but also to learn the truth of Silvex' feelings. They thought they were ready for the stakeout, but that task involved a lot more cringing than they expected as they heard the awkwardness unfold.

But now, with the fresh revelation issued by Silvex, the whole thing suddenly got a lot more interesting. Callum hadn't expected such a straight answer. But the more Silvex talked about Axel, the more it became clear that the husky was head-over-heels in love with the German shepherd. While his partner's feelings were Chase's only concern during the surveillance, Callum was instinctively paying close attention to everything that the husky said about Axel. Axel's true identity, or the fact that he was still alive had to remain hidden. But much to the lab's relief, Silvex didn't say anything that could compromise the Ace of Spades.

After Silvex' confession, Rachel and Silvex continued chatting for about an hour. During that time, all awkwardness seemed to have faded. They seemed to have fun and it made the surveillance a lot less cringy.

- Thursday, 9 am -

Unlike the rest of the week, Chase rode to work on his own, as did Silvex. They had planned it in advance, in case Silvex' date lasted until morning. But even though Chase knew that wasn't the case, he really didn't want Silvex to know that he had spied on him.

He entered the precinct just after Silvex did, the husky hadn't even passed the Sergeant's desk yet. Chase quickly made his way over to his partner, who greeted him with a simple 'Good morning'. Both detectives then walked over into the Captain's office, where Captain Xavier was already waiting for them.

"Ah, good morning!" The Captain greeted them cheerfully. "I have a case for you, and it's a tough one."

"Oh, what is it about?" Silvex asked as he accepted the file Xavier handed him.

"It's not as exciting as your last case, but I'm guessing this one will be harder to crack." Captain Xavier told Silvex. Despite the detectives' feelings towards their Captain, both Chase and Silvex had twinkles in their eyes. As detectives, the tough cases are always the most fun to solve. Captain Xavier continued his explanation. "About a week ago, an unemployed teenager was murdered. You'll be the third set of detectives to work on it."

"But, doesn't a murder automatically become a cold case when two sets of detectives pass it up?" Chase asked curiously. In the detectives' exam that he had less than a month ago, this was one of many questions that came up.

"Usually, yes. But this is a special case." Captain Xavier said. "Of the first detective duo, one turned out to be allergic to tropical birds."

"So, the victim had a tropical bird?" Silvex asked, before contemptuously adding: "Since when do detectives pass over cases because of an allergy to a pet?"

"It's not just one tropical bird and they weren't just pets to the victim." Captain Xavier replied. "You'll see what I mean when you get to the victim's house."

The Captain then dismissed both of his detectives, who chose to start their investigation at the victim's place of residence, like the Captain had suggested.

After he had received the list from Shadex, Rocky immediately got in touch with his former boss. Mr Night had been unavailable at that time, due to the difference in their time zones. However, when Rocky tried to call his predecessor today, he found himself to be in luck. Rocky had chosen to go with a videoconference, after sending both Callum and Shadex out of the room.

It took a while for the screen to load, but then Rocky finally laid eyes upon his former mentor.

"Hello, Mr Night." Rocky said as he saw Lewis Night's face appear on the screen. In the background, Rocky could see a near-white beach, with palm trees on its end. He also noticed that Mr Night was wearing a yellow Hawaii blouse.

"Oh please, Rocky. You're no longer my employee. Just call me Lewis." The old man replied. "But last night, you told my assistant that it was urgent?"

Rocky couldn't help but smirk when the old man used his last name as a normal word. At the office parties, they had a funny game to make the old man say 'night' as often as possible. Rocky burst out laughing the first time he pulled it off and he's always been amused by it ever since. That said, when Rocky rose through the ranks, a similar game was created about him, using both his first and last name.

"Yes, it's about a research project that you were a part of. It's called project Homicidam Donari." Rocky explained. As he did, he could slowly see the colour drain from Lewis' face. "I wanted to ask you some questions about your time with the BlueWater group, who were the first to work on it."

"What do you mean, first?" Lewis asked worriedly. His face was now as white as the beach behind him. "Don't tell me anyone else worked on it after we shut it down!"

"Someone did. A company called Inferno Industries." Rocky said. "A company that I just acquired."

"Listen to me, Rocky." Lewis said as he leaned closer to the camera. "You need to terminate that project, right now!"

"Only if you tell me everything you know about it." Rocky hated to have to act like this to his mentor, but he had to. This was the only way to get the answers, and Rocky knew it.

"Alright, I'll tell you." Lewis Night seemed to be really uncomfortable with the situation, but regardless of those feelings, the old man shared with Rocky what he knew. "About 4 years ago, I was approached by a CIA Officer named Axel Spade. I had been CEO of moon enterprises for several years now, but I also did my own research into the elements on the periodic table. It was basically just a hobby, but when that CIA Officer offered me a place on a next-level research team, I was intrigued. I signed up and before I knew it the research began. At first, it was only theoretical. We would combine metals at molecular levels and presume to know what the result would be. After about a month or so, Officer Spade challenged us to create a metal that was lighter than anything available, but also as strong as possible. It was a real headscratcher, but we eventually figured something out. That's when we discovered the real purpose of the research group. Officer Spade wanted us to help the CIA create a new type of bullet, a bullet that was lighter and stronger than any other. After the first prototype failed, I was relieved. I hadn't signed up to create a weapon. Me and a few of the other scientists worked together to destroy our research, but we were interrupted by the others. When they saw what we were doing, they called the police. Officer Spade tried to stop them, but he failed. By the time that the cops came, the entire research facility had been emptied and scrubbed clean. Each of the scientists had been brought to airports or bus stations, with prepaid plane or bus tickets to get us home. I never heard from Officer Spade again."

"Wait, so the entire goal was to create a bullet?" Rocky asked, astounded as he was by the old man's explanation. "It wasn't some accidental by-product?"

"I'm afraid not." Lewis answered. "I fear that the bullet had always been the intended result, but I could never ask Officer Spade about it."

"And Axel didn't violate orders by shutting down the project either, did he?" Rocky asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Technically, he was the one that shut down the project." Lewis answered truthfully. "But that was solely because he couldn't risk the police finding our research."

"Did you manage to finish the research?" Rocky asked, hopefully. If what the old man was saying was true, then this project was far too dangerous to ever be finished.

"No, thankfully not." Lewis replied, which made Rocky relax. "We figured out the right compounds, but the amounts were wrong. So the bullet Officer Spade made was useless."

"I guess that's the one good thing about all of this." Rocky remarked, thankful that the project had indeed never been finished. "Don't worry, Lewis. I'll try my best not to let that research be completed. For what it's worth, the only part of the file that remains is a list of people who worked on it, nothing more."

"That's good." The old man said, suddenly appearing years older. "Then I leave it in your capable hands."

Chase and Silvex quickly arrived at the victim's address, where they were met by an open door. Seeing as that wasn't usually a good sign, the entered the house with their weapons raised, which sacred the crap out of the teenagers that were sitting in the living room. After a quick explanation and an apology from Chase and Silvex, the two detectives sat down with the three teens. As it turned out, the three teenagers were housemates with the victim. Two of the three were girls, the last being a boy. Since they lived together, they all knew each other pretty well, but Silvex got the sense that they didn't like each other very much. They seemed to be nice enough to each other, but not quite like they were friends. After talking with them for a while, Silvex learned that they all had different interests and that they had almost nothing to bond over. Almost. There was actually one thing that the three could discuss and make them seem like the best of friends: Sarah Under, the victim. Specifically, they discussed how awful it was to have her as a housemate. As it turned out, she made their life a living hell and there was nothing they could do about it without upsetting her. They complained about everything she did, from never showering, to leaving stuff all over the place. Sarah would complain about Levi's alarm clock being too loud and too early, even though her birds were louder and would often scream all night long. Sarah would also pretend to be involved in every story anyone told, like with Casey. A friend of Casey's committed suicide, a friend who Sarah claimed was basically her best friend. Casey was certain that they had never even met. Angie, being the third housemate, was a bit of an introvert. She dressed almost exclusively in black, and she didn't say much. But when she was asked about Sarah, she could complain about a thousand things that Sarah made her life miserable with. On top of that list was hygiene, a concept which Sarah didn't seem to know anything about, if the detectives were to believe her.

At the end of the interview, both detectives had as conclusion that neither of these teenagers knew the saying of not speaking ill of the dead. Regardless, they were just given three likely suspects.

Afterwards, they went upstairs to look at the victim's room in the house. The second they opened it, both detectives wanted to close it again immediately. It felt as if they were hit in the face with the force of a speeding truck, so strong was the odour coming from her room.

"Did we mention that she was a hoarder too?" the detectives heard Levi's voice call from downstairs, but neither of them had the strength of mind to answer. They had somewhat recovered from the smell, but then had to fight the urge to throw up as they looked into her room. There was barely any place to stand, for everything was covered with stuff. The cupboards along the walls were piling over, the floor was covered with boxes, trash bags, shopping bags and regular trash. Not to mention the fact that there was bird shit everywhere. Silvex then closed the door as quickly as he had opened it. They would just have to investigate a different way.

- Thursday, 1 pm -

After recovering from the nightmarish room upstairs, the detectives were sitting in the house's living room as they discussed the file.

"So, the cause of death was strangulation." Silvex stated. "The wire that was used had been found on the scene. Other than that, the killer left no forensic evidence."

"The body wasn't discovered until four days after the time of death, the stench from her room drowned out the smell from her rotting corpse." Chase read from the notes left by one of the former detectives. "The previous detectives looked at the housemates as suspects, but they all had alibis. Other than them, the victim had no one in her life, except for a 'scumbag' boyfriend. He also had an alibi."

Chase took out a few photos from the file. They had been taken at the crime scene, her room. The body was found sitting against one of the many birdcages, the rope lying about a foot away from her. The room had been locked from the inside, but the rooftop windows were open.

"Well, I'm not seeing anything." Silvex said, with a sigh that told Chase that his partner had given up. Chase, on the other hand, just spotted something.

"Hey Silvex, take a look at this." Chase said as he showed Silvex a picture of the murder weapon. Chase pointed at the edges of the wire, which seemed unnaturally ragged. "I have a wild theory, what if it wasn't murder?"

"What do you mean?" Silvex asked curiously. He valued and respected Chase's detective skills, but the husky had serious doubts. "You think it was an accident or something? I've never seen any strangulation marks like that in accidents."

"Let me explain, no interruptions." Chase said, to which Silvex nodded. "From her housemates, we know that she never shut up about her damaged ankle for which she refused to seek treatment. They also mentioned that she was a wannabe insomniac and occasionally didn't eat for days on end." Chase summed up. "What if all three of those things correlated? What if her ankle gave out when she was trying to tie the rope onto the birdcage for the birds to play with? If she collapsed in the right way, it would put the wire around her neck like that. If she hadn't eaten or slept for several days, it could have left her body too weak to get up again."

Silvex didn't say anything for quite a while after Chase had finished his explanation. Through the whole silence, Chase braced himself for the mocking criticism that most detectives would have given him. But, when Silvex finally opened his mouth, it wasn't to make a mockery out of Chase.

"But how did the wire get loose?" the husky asked Chase. The shepherd tried to find even a hint of sarcasm in the husky's voice, but Silvex seemed to be completely serious.

"Maybe one of the birds bit through it?" Chase suggested, and explanation that seemed plausible enough. "What if we had the lab test the wire for bird saliva?"

"If we're right about this, then it would be the freak accident of the year." Silvex remarked. "Let's do it."

- Thursday, 4 pm -

In a different part of Coastal City, Captain Xavier was taking a stroll through the park. He was no longer wearing his uniform, instead, he wore ordinary clothes and a baseball cap. He seemed nervous for some reason, which is why he was carefully being monitored by a certain German shepherd.

Axel was following the Police Captain with extreme caution. If Xavier was to figure out that he was being followed, it would blow their entire operation. Most people are relatively easy to follow, but people like Xavier were taught to instinctively look over their shoulder. Axel and all his officers had similar instincts, albeit on a much higher level than Xavier. Unless they were very well distracted, Axel and his team could simply not ever be followed covertly. Xavier could, although extreme caution is warranted. That's why Axel was tailing the Captain and not Shadow, the easily recognizable, unforgettable, gigantic wolf.

Axel followed Xavier all the way through the park, passing by several benches and other people. Xavier eventually sat down on the last bench. Axel snuck into the bushes several feet behind him. From his bag, the shepherd took a portable parabolic mic. It was smaller than the one used by the police, but the sound quality was just as good and it was very portable. The only downside was that it was massively expensive. From his position behind Xavier, Axel could see that a small object was stuck underneath the bench. Not a second after Axel spotted it, Xavier subtly took it. It turned out to be a burner phone. Xavier pressed some buttons before holding it up to his ear. At that point, Axel activated the parabolic mic and aimed it right at the phone.

"Hello, ma'am." Axel could here Xavier say. "You were right, Silvex has not been a problem since my return to duty."

It was a scrambled voice that answered, much to Axel's disappointment. Despite the scrambling, it was still recognizable as a female voice.

"I expected as much." The voice replied. "Do you have any updates about the next stage?"

"Not yet, ma'am." Xavier replied. "But I am making preparations. I'll have an update by Monday."

"Good." She commended. "Use dead drop Lima 5."

"Understood, ma'am!" Xavier replied, before hanging up. He then put the phone on the ground and stomped on it repeatedly. He then kicked whatever was left of it into a nearby stream. Xavier then turned back the way he came and he walked back towards the precinct. Axel followed him at a distance.

Axel reached into his bag and pulled out a phone, with which he quickly contacted Shadow.

"Shadow, it's me." Axel said as the wolf answered the phone. "We were right, the target just made contact."

"I heard." Shadow replied. "It's a shame that the voice was scrambled."

"Yeah, but at least we now know it's a woman who's in charge." Axel said. "Let's call her the Madam for now."

"Understood, should I pass this info along to the detectives?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, they need to know." Axel said, before coming up with a little idea. "In fact, send them everything from the surveillance today. As a sign of good faith."

Chase and Silvex had just arrived back at the precinct, where Rachel was still at work in her lab. Chase had called ahead to ask her if she could check the wire for bird saliva, which she was more than eager to do so. Maybe a little too eager.

Anyways, the two detectives were now standing in front of Rachel, who was studying the wire. They knew better than to disturb Rachel while she was working and therefore they waited in silence until she finally looked up.

"Well, gentlemen…" Rachel paused. She was purposefully building up suspense and Chase hated every second of it. When she finally continued, Chase could barely contain a sigh of relief. "The ends of your wire do indeed have traces of bird saliva on them. Congratulations, you have found the freakiest of freak accidents. I never expected to find a non-sexual accidental self-strangulation."

Chase couldn't believe it. He had just solved his first case! Looking over at Silvex, he could see that the husky was proud as well. Of course, the second Silvex saw that the shepherd was looking at him, his face turned back to normal.