Chapter 3: Grey Area

Operations Booth, Police Plaza

Another day at the monitors. Bliss. This was what the centaur was born to do, and nobody was going to stop him from spending his days with his precious computers. They would have to saw his hooves off before they could make him leave. That is, if they weren't fried from his plasma tiles before that, on top of bypassing the security cameras and doodahs he had rigged up on the outside and inside of the booth. Moreover, if any idiot did manage to get through all those, there was always the voice-activated laser to dodge. Call the centaur whatever you liked, but Foaly knew that there were people out there who were out to get him. He had been proven right about Opal Koboi in the past, hadn't he?

'Born to be wild,' he hummed under his breath as he started up the system for the day. The night tech boys had limited access to the rest of the system, as Foaly had seen to it that no one – and no one, mind you – could get into his system and files without going through the labyrinthine and freakishly complicated security measures he had created. 'I drink my tea with chamomile…'

The first few news portals in Haven City popped up on the screens. Foaly scrolled through the news reports absently, still humming. Another busy day at the LEP shouting at recon jocks and getting on the other officers' nerves. Bliss.

A message icon appeared in the top corner of the main screen, flagged red. Urgent. Immediate attention. Foaly clicked on it, his humming silent for the moment.

Trouble Kelp's face came into view, a frown on the commander's usually calm face.

'Foaly,' he said, his voice uncharacteristically tight. 'Bit of trouble here.'

'What happened?'

'Murder on Elm Street. Theophilius Merrick. Found dead in his bed five minutes ago. LEP HQ got a call from a member of the staff, one hysterical maid who entered his room and found him dead.'

Foaly's fingers were dancing across the keyboard before Kelp finished his sentence.

'Right…Merrick, Theophilius. I'm bringing up his file here…let's see – rich old bachelor, owns a company dealing in transport, specifically heavy duty vehicles meant for moving goods. Any clues at the scene?'

'Forensics reported that his death took place four minutes before the maid found him, but besides that, they haven't found any clues. Thing is, Foaly…'

'Yes, Commander?'

'He wasn't murdered with a gun. It's just a knife wound. Through the heart too – he never had a chance, the poor gremlin.'

Eh? Foaly dropped into his swivel chair, mystified. Fairies these days preferred murder with more – well – high-tech weapons. Not that there were many murders taking place in Haven City – the gangs didn't go into open murder, preferring to stick to areas where skirmishes frequently broke out and the LEP didn't look too much into it. But if any fairy was to commit a murder right here and now, it would probably involve a gun. And if said murder was to include a certain fairy who was a well-known figure in Haven City, then there would probably be more than a gun involved. And also, when you factored in the possibility of said well-known figure being rich enough to employ bodyguards, then you had much more than a gun involved.

Who would be mad enough to attempt a murder with nothing more than a knife? Merrick would have had ample time to press the alarm or whatever security alerts he had installed in his place – so why wasn't there a warning before he was killed? And why did his bodyguards not know what was taking place?

Foaly trawled through the files on Merrick, calling up anything he could find on the fairy. News reports, interviews, press photos – but the fairy was clean.

'Foaly?' Trouble interrupted his thoughts.

'Yes?'

'Can you access the security footage at his place? It's a bit unethical, I know, but…'

But you can do it, can't you? The unspoken question hung in the air, but Foaly needed no further encouragement.

'Coming right up, Commander.' The centaur clicked the appropriate keys, going further into his system. Trust Kelp to know that the LEP's tech wizard might be less than ethical when it came to computers and hacking.

Ah, here it was. The footage: rewind to the scene, enhance, frame by frame…

Foaly's fingers froze above the keyboard, his mouth falling open in shock.

'Did you find it, Foaly?' asked the commander. 'Is there anything?'

'I'm sending the video and stills to you right now, Kelp,' he said, his fingers heavy. 'Coming right up.'

Beep. Message successfully received. Trouble Kelp clicked on the file, anticipating a shot of the suspect, or possibly, suspects. Just a few stills, maybe a good close-up, and they would have their fairy. Case closed and then there would be no need to panic.

'D'Arvit,' breathed Trouble.

'D'Arvit indeed,' muttered Foaly, going through the footage and stills for the second time in case he had missed anything.

'There's nothing there, Foaly. Nothing at all. One minute Merrick's asleep in bed, the next he's just…gone. With a wound in his chest.'

'Yep, Commander, I'm seeing it too,' said the centaur grimly.

Breakhill Road, Haven City

Holly Short fell out of bed a few minutes after the fairy communicator started beeping. It had been a strange dream that had kept her in Dreamland – there was something about Artemis, and then there had been Root yelling at her, just like old times –

'What's up?' she mumbled, answering the call.

Foaly's worried face flickered on the screen. 'Holly, we have a situation. Can you come to Police Plaza ASAP? Kelp wants to see you right now.'

'Right, right.' She was half-awake as she stumbled to the bathroom to wash her face. Kelp had not once called her this early since her reinstatement – this was an out-of-the-ordinary situation then.

I'm Recon, she thought sleepily as she slipped into her uniform. I'm supposed to expect things to be out of the ordinary. It goes with the job, Short.

Civilians crowded Police Plaza today as Holly pushed her way through the mob to the entrance. She was getting déjà vu – hadn't this happened on the same day that she was kidnapped by Artemis? No time to think about it though – Trouble would be waiting for her.

Foaly grabbed her just as she ran past the Ops Booth, pulling her into the room and slamming the door behind them. Commander Kelp was already in the booth, seated at one of the computers watching a video. Two other Recon officers were assembled beside the commander, watching the video with serious looks on their faces.

'Short.' Kelp nodded her over. 'What do you make of this?'

The video was a footage taken from a security camera – that much was clear – played on a continuous loop. She watched the video twice before she registered what had happened.

'But how did he - ?' she gasped, staring at the video of the gremlin peacefully asleep in bed one second, and dead with a wound the next. Four minutes later, a female elf entered the room, took one look at Merrick, and ran out screaming.

'Exactly,' said Trouble.

'Who is this then?' asked Holly. There was something familiar about the old fairy's face, but she couldn't quite place it…

'Theophilius Merrick,' replied Foaly. He clicked a few keys, pausing the video. 'I've run it through any filters I have, split it down shot by shot, enhanced it, broken it down, rebuilt it, checked everything, and…'

'And?' prompted Holly.

'There's nothing wrong with the video. It hasn't been tampered with before I viewed it.'

'How did you get this then? Isn't it on the secure network within the building itself?'

'Eh…' Foaly scratched his chin sheepishly. 'Forensics would be here soon with the evidence, but I thought this was something that couldn't wait. Hacking into the place was easy when Haven's networks are all linked anyway. The only truly secure network would be my system in here, of course.'

'So you're saying that someone tampered with the cameras before the murder was done, Foaly?' said Trouble.

'Could be, Kelp, could be.' The centaur didn't look too happy about it. 'But that would mean that it was an inside job. You'll have to bring in the bodyguards and all the staff in the place for interrogation then.'

'And that's not Recon's job,' Holly pointed out. 'We'll go after the suspects, but not do the actual interrogation, will we?'

'No,' said Trouble, his eyes on the frozen image on the screen. 'But there is something Recon can do.'

'What's that, Commander?'

Commander Kelp glanced at the two officers beside him – one was a major, the other a captain. Both waited silently for their orders, clearly knowing the duties expected of them in this situation.

'I want this to be done quietly, remember,' said Trouble. 'Utmost secrecy. Even the other branches of the LEP shouldn't get wind of it. Contact me immediately if you find what we need and I'll get Retrieval on it.'

The two officers nodded and slipped out of the booth. Holly watched them go, utterly bewildered.

'See, this isn't just the only thing, Holly,' said Trouble as soon as the door shut behind the two officers. 'There's more on the footage of the cameras outside Merrick's place.'

Foaly pointed to the new video that was now playing on another screen. 'What do you make of that?'

A figure could be seen lurking just within the shadows thrown by the wall bordering Merrick's property; seen in the dim light, it appeared to be dressed in drab grey from head to toe. Another figure slipped through the gates – Holly noticed that there was a gap there that would be mostly hidden due to the angle the cameras were fixed – before running lithely past the wall, keeping to the shadows and out of sight of the cameras. Nothing could be seen for a few brief seconds, during which Holly realized that she had forgotten to breathe. And then there was –

There was a flash of red, like a shot released from a Neutrino. The lowest setting, Holly noted in wonder, having worked with Neutrinos on numerous occasions. Then there was movement behind a pillar, which unfortunately blocked the view from the cameras.

A small body was pushed from behind the pillar, right into the camera's line of sight, with the fairy's hands and feet bound. Whoever had tied him or her up clearly wanted the cameras to record everything that had happened, leaving no doubt of the evidence. Then the grey-clad figure could be seen passing the wall again, in one flash, and it was gone, beyond the field of the external cameras.

'Did you find the body?' she demanded, as Foaly rewound the video.

'LEP Investigations did,' the commander replied quietly. 'The shot didn't kill him, just knocked him out. But there was no evidence on him.'

'No blood? No knife? Nothing?'

'It seems that he was just a staff in Merrick's household, nothing out of the ordinary.'

'But he slipped through the gates, like he was trying to get away from something…' Holly's sentence trailed off into silence as the commander shook his head slowly.

'He said he remembered nothing from the murder; said he didn't even know there had been one, in fact. Retimager didn't turn up any results, he hasn't been mesmerized and nobody did a mind-wipe on him. The investigators asked him about his strange behavior leaving Merrick's place, but he said he was just sneaking off on his shift to meet some friend elsewhere. He's still under investigation, but he'll probably be let off soon – there's no evidence against him.' Trouble rubbed his temples, sighing.

'So who was the other person then? Did he commit the murder?'

'I ran the footage through any filters I've got,' said Foaly, shrugging. 'The fairy was shielded when he came to the gate fifteen minutes before the murder took place, and then he unshielded a few minutes after. Whoever it was, he didn't enter the place.'

'But he could have been stationed there to frame the one who left Merrick's place, couldn't he?' asked Holly.

'It's not likely, Holly.' Foaly gestured to the other screens in the room; reports and timelines displayed the evidence and sequence of events. 'There's no evidence on the kid we found.'

'So there are two people in Haven with knowledge of the murder,' said Holly. 'One who was responsible for it, and one who tried to stop it – or tried to catch the culprit and hand him over to the LEP. But the one who knew about it caught the wrong person, so the one who did do it is walking free right now, but probably in hiding in case the other catches up.' A thought struck her. 'Hold on.'

'Yes?' asked Trouble.

'Did anyone leave the place after that?'

'Nope,' said Foaly. 'I've been keeping my eye on the footage from the cameras from the time the murder was committed up to this very second. No one left the place besides the kid we got in custody – whoever who tries to leave it would have to get past the LEP; they turned up almost immediately after the call was made.'

'So it might be one of the staff who murdered Merrick. But why?'

'That's right,' said Foaly. 'And we don't know why. So, Commander, who do we go after first?'

Diggums and Day PI firm, Haven City

'So you want us to go after a murderer,' said Mulch, his face solemn.

The pixie Doodah Day shook his head in disbelief beside him.

'I'll be working with you guys too,' Holly said, sighing. 'Commander's orders.'

'Why can't you LEP people handle your own business and not come to us?' said the dwarf, frowning. 'We're just PIs, hardly professionals, according to you officers.'

'It's not only the murderer we're after, Mulch,' said Holly patiently. 'We need to find the other one too – the fairy who mistakenly thought he or she caught the murderer.'

'So who're we after again?' said Doodah.

'The one who tried to catch the murderer. And the murderer too, if we can.'

'Why do we need all this secrecy?' Mulch asked. 'It's not like the rest of the LEP involved in this wouldn't have seen the clips you just showed us.'

'Commander Kelp thinks it's best if we don't go about this too openly. The public would expect us to go after the murderer, naturally, but they don't need to know about the other person. And too much publicity would probably scare this mysterious vigilante into hiding. So it'll all be kept hushed up.'

'Hmmm.' The dwarf tugged at his beard thoughtfully. There was something wrong about this; his reliable old instincts were telling him the same thing. Trust the hair, Mulch. It's telling you that this might be one of the stupidest things you would ever do since the firm started. It might even be the last stupid thing you would ever do.

'How much?' he said finally.

'What?' Holly stared at him, taken aback.

'How much would we get for our consultation fees?'

'Once a dwarf, always a dwarf.' She shook her head and smiled. 'I'll ask the commander about it when I see him next.'

'You do that, mind.' Mulch got up from his seat, raising an eyebrow at Doodah. 'Well come on, partner, what are you waiting for? We have a murderer to hunt, and a mysterious vigilante as well.'

'Oh boy,' muttered Doodah, following Mulch out the door. Exorbitant consultation fees or not, there were some things that he really wished he didn't have to risk his life for.

Holly trooped after the dwarf and pixie into Haven City, her hand straying to the Neutrino in its holster. She was back in Recon again, all right.

A/N: Two chapters! I'm a bit pressed for time as we head towards the new year, so updates may be erratic. I wrote the earlier chapters some time ago, so if there's anything you think that needs to be edited, please don't hesitate to tell me - I'd be happy to correct it :)