Exile: Well hello again ^. ^ In this chapter there's going to be a lot of technical jargon, so please bear with it. If there's any mistakes, PM me.
I don't own anything except my OCs and the plotline. And of course I don't own LA XD
Chapter Two: Time Record
5:34 PM November 16th, 2012
The Timekeeper, Los Angeles, CA
The remains of The Timekeeper, Miranda Lotto's clockwork shop, were still colored an eerie ash by the charred wood and warped metals inside the yellow tape. The Timekeeper was in the oldest part of Los Angeles and had not yet been renovated to be fire-resistant. The roof of the building had completely collapsed, and the rafters were no more than slivers of blackened wood. There were still all four walls of the store, but the decades-old brick and mortar had been affected by the fire as well, giving the place the look of a half-hearted construction job that had been snowed over with ashes. The inner walls of the store which had probably separated the workroom and the selling area was burnt down, having been made of thin drywall, and this allowed the investigator and the interns to see that spot where Miranda was most likely killed: an arrangement of grandfather clocks, all piled on the same area. "Hi, Daisya." Allen said, greeting the arson investigator, Daisya Barry.
"Nice to see you again, Allen. Wait, what am I saying? When two investigators meet, it means something bad is happening." Daisya replied dryly. "I haven't been able to do any soccer in days. But why'd Kanda tell me to come over here to meet you?" Allen opened his mouth to answer, but then nudged Rei and Raikou.
"These are the new interns, Ryuukei and Ikazuchi Raikou." Allen introduced. "Remember Kanda's little sister?" Daisya's mouth dropped a bit. "Don't worry, she's nothing like BaKanda. I just met Raikou today. They're not in the office doing paperwork because Kanda decided to torment me."Allen growled. "Anyway, we need you to tell us how the body was. Lenalee and the third intern are at the morgue at the moment, preparing to do an autopsy of the latest victim." Daisya winced.
"So it's another arsonist and murderer. Let's hope a third body doesn't turn up. If so, then Kanda gets permission to join the investigation." Daisya sighed. "Anyway, what do you need to know?"
"How was the body found, what the circumstances of the fire were, and any witness testimonies." Allen explained, checking off his fingers. "So what do you know?"
Daisya frowned at the questions, the tattooed triangles on his face making him look like a smiling clown. "Unfortunately, we have very few witnesses. The fire broke out around 11 PM last night. The zoo went ablaze at 8 AM in the morning. One witness actually is some homeless guy. Apparently Ms. Lotto would give him some money to buy food every now and then. He was going to drop by…"
"But then isn't he a suspect?" Allen interrupted. Daisya shook his head.
"Nope. He's completely clean. Unless poverty is a crime, no criminal record. The neighboring storekeepers knew the guy as someone that would do odd jobs for a bit of money. Good reputation."
"But that doesn't get him off the hook."
"We have solid camera evidence that he was in a neighboring café across the street at least half an hour until after the fire broke out. He was in the shop, facing The Timekeeper, and he was the one that yelled at the cashier to call the fire department." Daisya responded.
"He…yelled at the cashier?" Rei interjected. Daisya gave her an odd look, and she winced. "Sorry. But if he was frantic enough when he noticed that the clock shop was on fire, he yelled at them, than he probably wasn't the criminal. I take Psychology."
"Acting skills." Raikou shot back.
"It's sort of easier to tell if someone's acting when an emergency occurs- you know what, let's just look at that camera footage." Rei snarled. Allen's hands descended on both of their heads, and they halted the argument, feeling the annoyance their senior had.
"We were going to get to that. So if you two would please shut up, we'll get to hear Daisya explain a bit for us. So what did the techies pick up?" Allen said warningly, directing the last bit Daisya.
"Come on in. Be careful." Daisya said, ducking under the yellow tape that had been left around the perimeter and slowly picking his way through the ashes, splinters, and shattered glass. "At around 9:00, apparently Ms. Lotto had workers come in to do replacement for her lighting system, which I have to admit, could have used some improvements. The front office had standard fluorescent lights, but the backroom, where she did most of the repairs, was mostly a bunch of scattered lamps with different types of light bulbs, and most of them were the old, low-efficacy incandescent ones. A neighbor says that Miranda wanted to upgrade her lighting system because her eyesight was deteriorating. The workers, or should I say, worker, was seen carrying a toolbox, a long rectangular box that we are assuming held fluorescent rods based on the size people described, and was dressed in electrician's uniform. He or she is our prime suspect for the murder, as people also remember seeing them move around the clocks. However, even if he or she did move the clocks in the way that caused them to collapse on Miranda, they left well before 11, the estimated time of the fire's start."
By this time, the group had reached the death scene, the clocks having been moved around slightly from the photo that Allen had seen just that morning, because the team had had to remove the body. Pointing at what appeared to be upside down V-shaped marks, "This is where the main part of the fire started. The smoke at a fire's start, if it is near a wall, tends to make this pattern on the wall. As you can see we're in what was the backroom. She was killed in the front, but the fire started in the back. We've got a few pieces of broken glass, a splintered, old pendulum clock, a weird lamp, and traces of an accelerant in the 2-foot radius around the fire's start, which is surprising since most people that have gone in the backroom claim that this corner was usually rather cluttered." Daisya explained this while pointing at every object, except the glass, which had probably been picked up by the technicians. "Any questions?"
"What was the glass from?" Allen asked, surveying the charred area. "I don't see any indication that there was a window here."
"I think that they were from a light bulb. There were dark, burnt pieces of glass as well. Most of the lamps here were either metal and got warped in the fire, or got burnt up because they were wooden. The light bulbs themselves are fine. Structural fires don't tend to hit the temperature that the glass is going to melt." Daisya explicated. "I don't know for sure, you've got to ask Lavi. He's the technician in charge of all the technicalities." Allen face palmed.
"Daisya, for the last time, your puns suck." Allen griped. "I don't know how many times Kanda told you to shut up with the lame jokes." Rei and Raikou exchanged glances. "And Lavi is not a freaking lab technician. He's our evidence analyzer and general test-runner."
"Do we want to know?" Rei asked hesitantly. Allen shook his head. "Okay. So what are we here for?"
"I don't know. This is actual fieldwork, you two. Crime shows dramatize the whole thing. There's no such thing as a "forensic investigator", cos' that is basically a whole bunch of jobs lumped together. The most people we'll have the day after the crime is some police to make sure no one tries to touch anything and the investigator. Can we get a copy of the surveillance camera footage, Daisya?" Allen said rapidly. He nodded.
"Sure, you'll probably get it tomorrow at soonest. Oh, yeah, you better ask Lavi the results of the GC-MS. I've got to go back to the Order to check in with Kanda about getting a shift change." Daisya muttered. "That dang idiot purposely gave me the night shift."
Allen shrugged. "Eh, well it's probably because you're dependable enough to take the shift with the most incidents. You two, any questions?" he asked Rei and Raikou.
The two exchanged glances before blurting out, "What's a GC-MS?" Allen and Daisya looked at each other with pained expressions.
"Ask Lavi. Now let's go back to the morgue." Allen replied hurriedly. "I seriously don't want to get into the details. Besides, Lavi is the carrier of all random information when it comes to the fine points. Rei, you of all people should know the extent of his knowledge." Her demeanor darkened at she recalled every single time Lavi had ruined her already not-so-intact sanity. "So bother him instead. Just make sure to do it on his break. So Daisya, mind telling us where that witness is at the moment?"
7:01 PM November 16th, 2012
Black Order Morgue, Los Angeles, CA
When Lenalee and Ekaterina finally emerged from the autopsy, Kat was both weary and wanting to vomit, whereas Lenalee just looked at her new protégé with amusement. "I'm assuming that you don't go to horror movies?" the older woman joked, and Kat ran to the water bottles, trying to swallow the bile that had risen in her throat. "Don't worry. It's not like that was a live person. Corpses are not going to rise up and sue us for murder by autopsy. You'll live."
No wonder lab techs warned me that she was frightening during autopsies. Kat thought as she gagged at the memory. The moment Lenalee Lee had stepped into the autopsy room, a whole 180 degree personality change happened. To say that Lenalee was…efficient with the autopsies was an understatement. She was an absolute professional, completing the autopsy within an hour with precise cuts and a shocking speed of observation. "Scary, huh?" Kat dimly heard the voice of her cousin Lavi say. "Kat? Lenalee, is she alive?"
"She should be. The autopsy actually went a little faster with Mizu being disassembled and all. But I suppose that she has no stomach." Lenalee's voice registered in her mind.
"The corpse had no stomach?" Lavi asked with shock.
"No. Your cousin, I mean. I'm trying to organize my observations in my head so I can write up that medical report. I guess I went a bit overboard with things and forgot to explain some stuff to her." Lenalee called back.
"A BIT overboard? That was more terrifying than watching Higurashi: When They Cry with Rei!" Kat cried, making Lavi start at the sudden outburst. "And Rei by herself is scary enough! Higurashi is absolutely frightening! But Lenalee with a scalpel is even worse!" she told her cousin, who winced.
"Well, that's Lena's serious side showing. Well, her ultra-serious side that will throw a knife at you if you bother her." Lavi explained with a grimace. "That's why Kanda tries to lock himself in his office with a good excuse every now and then so Lenalee won't bother him right after she does an autopsy. She only reverts back to her usual self after she writes up the medical report. And that medical report usually takes a few hours for her."
"No, I'm going to get some dinner first. I can't live on coffee and autopsies alone, Lavi." Lenalee interrupted in passing, taking off the lab coat and striding out the doors of the break room. "Tell Allen that I'll see him after I get some food. Ah, well nevermind." The door opened to reveal a haggard investigator and two equally fatigued interns. "Hi, Allen. What did Daisya say?"
"He said a lot of stuff." Raikou replied vaguely, sparing Allen from answering. "And we're hungry." Lavi's one eye widened as he saw Lenalee tie her hair back to her two pigtails, a sign that she back to "normal".
"Well that was fast." he muttered. "And really weird. She hasn't even touched the paperwork yet." He had, as Lavi would put it, a curious and helpful personality. Those around him, namely Kanda and Allen, would bluntly say that Lavi was trying at best and downright prying at worst. And the downright prying part applied especially to relationships. "Oi, Rei, do you think that Lenalee is interested in beansprout?" Lavi asked with a smirk, sliding behind Rei who simply decided it would be best to follow her brother's advice and ignore the eyepatch-wearing man.
"Why ask me?" she said bluntly. "And if you start up the rumor mill again, you know that Kanda's going to give you an extra workload. Or hunt you down with a katana."
"But that's no fun!" Lavi complained insistently. Rei gritted her teeth and elbowed the cheeky redhead.
"Lavi. Even though I'm younger than you, as your boss's little sister, I would recommend shutting up before I tell Brother that if you have enough free time to hypothesize relationships and love triangles, you have enough time to finish all those GC-MS tests from the fires." Rei growled, already annoyed by Lavi. Suddenly, she remembered the conversation between Allen and Daisya. "One sec, what's a GC-MS test in the first place?"
Lavi stopped rubbing his stomach where Rei had elbowed him and frowned. "A GC-MS? I thought you'd know something like that, dear Holder of All Random Knowledge."
"That's your title, not mine." Rei snapped. "Tell me please. I hate not knowing."
"A GC-MS, idiot, is a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer." Kanda explained, appearing out of seemingly nowhere. "You're professor didn't tell you yet?"
"I said don't freaking sneak up on us!" Rei yelled in shock. "And pray, dear brother, what the hell is a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer?"
"I'll answer that. Yuu should hurry back to your office before Lenalee gives you her medical report verbally…again." Lavi's cheekiness was responded with Kanda throwing a punch towards his face. "C'mon, Yuu! Don't be such an ice block!"
"Shut up and don't call me that! I'm going to kill you!" Kanda roared.
Allen and Lenalee, both who had been watching the proceedings with amusement, turned away and sighed. "Kanda and Lavi have been like this ever since middle school. You'd think that after they graduated university, Kanda would at least stop threatening to kill Lavi every time he's called by his first name." she said resignedly. "And that Lavi would have stopped being such a kid." Allen just shrugged.
"Hey, at least they keep it from being boring around here. But back to business, what did your autopsy reveal?" he asked. Lenalee straightened up and looked at him in the eye.
"The jugular vein was cut through, and Mizu bled to death. I took a sample of the adhesive and gave it to Lavi to test – it didn't look like blood- and there were no other injuries. The dismemberment was postmortem. The effect of the water on the body was significant enough that her skin was majorly pruned. I'm guessing that she was submerged in the water for at least a good 2 hours. All internal organs are present, except part of the respiratory tract. I'm guessing that it was caused when her neck was cut off. I observed a broken wrist and a shattered kneecap. Mizu probably tried to get away and failed, and the assailant broke her wrist and shot the kneecap to prevent any other escape attempts. There was no bullet, and the hole was hidden when the knee was cut off and reattached. The thing is that we don't know where the primary crime scenes are. This guy moved her to a secondary scene, so there's barely any evidence we can collect. No to mention the fire, too." Lenalee informed Allen.
"Why don't you write out your medical report and I'll review it later. I've currently got a…information overload from meeting with Daisya earlier. And not to mention I'm rather hungry." Allen proposed with a wince. As if on cue, a monstrous growl emanated from his stomach, and the investigator went red with embarrassment, making Lenalee laugh. "I'm probably going to grab some fast food, and then go home. Our shifts are almost over. I just seriously hope that the guy doesn't strike a third time. I've got enough problems with this investigation already. And there's Cross." Allen's demeanor darkened as he ran through the likelihood of Cross having a new pile of debts for him to pay when he got back home. "If that man has more debts for me to pay, I'm kicking him out."
"You always say that, Allen. But we all know that you have a small soft spot for your guardian." Lenalee sighed in exasperation. "Anyway, Raikou, Rei, Kat, you guys should be going now. It's almost 8."
"Not until I finish explaining to these deprived interns what some of the testing machines and techniques are!" Lavi yelled back across the room, the three interns in front of him. "Okay, so what did I just tell you what a GC-MS was?"
"A gas chromatographer mass spectrometer is a machine that tests evidence. The gas chromatograph has the evidence inserted into a capillary column, and the properties of the column, which is made various materials, will cause the evidence to separate while travelling down the column due to the separation by the different chemical properties of each molecule. The column holds the molecules and releases them at different times to the MS. The mass spectrometer then observes each molecule by ionizing them and calculating the mass to charge ratio. This test can be used for analyzing things from soil in agriculture to fire debris in arson crime scenes." Kat recited, Rei and Raikou lagging. Lavi activated his "teaching mode" and gave the other two a stink-eye.
"Rei, tell me what the machine used in ballistics comparison is and how it works. And the basics of ballistic fingerprinting." he snapped irately, ever the perfectionist. Said Viet winced and began regurgitating the information.
"The comparison microscope allows a ballistics investigator to lay two bullets next to each other in order to match bullets for ballistic fingerprinting. Ballistics fingerprinting is the set of forensic techniques used to match bullets or guns to the projectile or the firearm left at the crime scene. There is use of aforesaid comparison microscope, striation contrast, rifling, cartridge markings, and the obvious size differences." Rei wheezed, out of breath at the end of the last phrase.
"Raikou, what's livor mortis?" the lab supervisor asked.
"Livor mortis is a condition in which the blood in the corpse settles to the lower portion of the body. When the red blood cells are no longer influenced by the heart's beat, gravity pulls the blood cells down. Livor mortis is used by pathologists to determine the position of the body in death, and full lividity happens within 6 to 12 hours of death. Each cadaver is different, so livor mortis is only used to roughly estimate time of death." Raikou explained.
"Fine. Good. You guys pass. However, if one of you three decides that you'd rather work in the lab than the bloody crime scene or the autopsy room, than ask Yuu to transfer you to my department. Trust me, it is fun." Lavi said cheerfully. Kat nodded vigorously, still perturbed by her experience with Lenalee.
"Okay, we're going to go now, then." Rei said, bowing respectfully.
"You gentleman." Kat muttered, earning a psychotic smile from Rei that made Raikou step back in fear. "It's true. If only you were born with a Y chromosome…"
"Disturbing much?"Raikou asked Kanda shakily. "I mean, why is your little sister mistaken as a guy at school so much? I've seen girls crying because of…her."
"…Blame Tiedoll for wanting another son." Kanda muttered under his breath. "And for not realizing that she was a girl when we first met."
"Oh, Brother, when is our next shift?" Rei asked quickly. Her being mistaken for a boy was not a pleasant subject for her. Suddenly, Kanda's mouth formed the characteristic slasher smile that they had in common.
"You guys will be working with beansprout and Lenalee on this case. So I expect to see you guys every day until this thing is solved. No complaints, because Komui said that I have free reign with the intern program here." Everyone's jaw dropped in horror at the news while Kanda walked off. "So the sooner you find the guy, the sooner you have a break."
"…freaking frag grenades." Rei muttered, Allen giving her a sidelong glance.
"You have no right to complain, Rei. Apparently sadism runs in your household." he said sarcastically.
"Tell me about it." Lavi frowned. "If Yuu is like that, then I don't want to know what Rei is when she's sadistic."
"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT CALLING ME THAT?" Kanda's voice roared from down the hallway.
Exile: Okay, well supposing that you survived the jargon...
Review? I need critique, especially since I'm turning this in for a grade O. O