Chapter Twenty: Settling In

…

Circling around the majority of traffic probably saved them about two hours of travel. It was still early evening by the time they returned to Watch Headquarters in the Central District. White joined Navi and Link on the walk in to look at transport assignments. They parted just after stepping through the door so that she could check in with the desk sergeant just outside of the madness that was the front lobby. Navi and Link navigated the jungle back to the Homicide office.

"Hey, DS Navi!" spoke up Detective Inspector Aran Dover from his desk in the far corner. Navi and Link glanced in response to the fit, middle-aged man, taking in a thinning pate of short, blond hair wearing a white button-up shirt and black, wrinkled slacks. His left hand, appearing gnarled but whole from some kind of accident, toyed with a pocket on the black trench coat lying on his desk. "Heard you got a partner!"

Navi grumbled under her breath, "Don't remind me…"

"Oh, Detective Sergeant?" Navi glanced to her left, toward the interrogation rooms, as Detective Inspector Bohn stepped out. Bohn was only a few years older than Dover and heavier around the stomach, although not as much as Wheatland. His black hair was short and healthy, and he wore a cream-colored polo shirt over which were a pair of bright red suspenders holding up khaki slacks. "Do you still have the evidence inventory from that suicide last week?"

"Yeah, why?" Navi asked.

"We got the release order from the courts," he said as he moved toward her desk. "I need to turn it in to the property clerk."

"Hang on…" Navi moaned as she quickly strode behind her desk. She pulled open a large drawer full of paperwork and hauled out a handful of pages. "It should be here somewhere…"

Bohn indicated Link and asked, "Your new partner?"

"Unfortunately…" Navi groaned as Link approached the desk.

Bohn gave a grin and introduced himself to Link. "Nice to meet you," he said as he held out a hand. "DI Chester Bohn."

"Constable Link Fieldview," Link replied as he clapped hands together with Bohn. "Looking at Detective Constable Link Fieldview."

"Got a feeling you wouldn't be here otherwise," Bohn said. Then, as Navi looked through the forms, he asked the side of her head, "So, where have you two been all day?"

"Assignment," Navi replied crisply.

Link gave her a half-grin and told Bohn, "Homicide in the East District."

"Save the report for Wheatland…" Navi said to Link, her eyes still searching through the paperwork. She pulled out one page and read the name aloud, "'Tallance Harbors'. Right?"

"Yeah, that's it," Bohn said. He took the paper and said as he made to leave, "Thanks."

Navi heaved a sigh and, after taking a seat, asked Dover, "Where's Wheatland at?"

"Think he went to the lav," Dover said. Then he quickly added, "Weeeell… that might've been about an hour ago. Actually, come to think of it, he's been going to the restroom quite a bit today."

"It's called 'dysentery'." Attention drew toward the source of the voice as Wheatland stepped further into the office, one hand resting on his belly. "Thank you for noticing, Dover; you really are a detective."

"Thank you, Superintendent," Dover replied, grinning at Wheatland in spite of Wheatland's sarcastic tone. "I try my best."

The next sound Wheatland made could have either been done in irritation at Dover or in response to his squirming intestines; even he was not sure. The sound itself could be described as a moan if it had come from a large ranch animal. He decided to turn to Link and Navi and ask, "So, how was your first time out?"

"Great!" Link replied with a grin while Navi moaned, "Horrible."

Wheatland blinked at the difference in reaction, unsure how he was supposed to interpret them together. So, he asked, "Is your case just another random shooting? Not that I really expected it to be anything else."

"It is something else, sir," Navi said just as Link opened his mouth. Link quickly clapped it shut to defer to his superior. Wheatland frowned at her response. "I… We have… found evidence that the shooting might have been deliberate."

Wheatland's eyes widened. "You're serious?" he asked.

Navi nodded. "Constable Fieldview took witness testimony and discovered where the shooter fired from. She was shot from an alley. And, in all likelihood, the shooter was set up for the shot. Whoever it was attempted to clean up powder residue and used the alley to escape."

Wheatland sighed and crossed his arms. "I don't suppose you're not just playing into the nobles' fears that they're being targeted," he said.

Navi gave her head a subtle shake. "No, sir, it doesn't seem like that. A random shooter doesn't think to wipe up gunpowder after a shot. A random shooter doesn't call his target's attention to make the shot easier. This appears to be the work of a professional killer."

"Oh, no…" Wheatland said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Professional killer? Hired killer?"

"Possibly, sir," Navi said. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms and added, "The problem is figuring out who hired him."

"Think it's a feud?" Wheatland asked.

"It's hard to say. Don't worry, Superintendent, I'm hoping myself that this isn't a feud. Believe it or not, House Merrill actually seems to be quite decent as far as nobles go. If another House is targeting them, they don't really seem to know it. We should be learning more about the… politics, I guess, here in a couple days."

Wheatland gave her a confused look. "House politics? What are you talking about?"

Navi sighed and explained, "Constable Fieldview has… an associate who is familiar with the Houses and the relations between them. She is supposed to be bringing us more information about House Merrill soon."

"I don't know if it's deliberate or not, but I can hear you dancing around the truth."

"His associate is… a pickpocket, sir."

Wheatland raised an eyebrow and turned to Link. "Constable?"

"I met her about three years ago when I was assigned to the East District, sir," Link said. "I've never caught her doin' it, but I know what she does. She only steals from nobles, and she learned a long time ago which ones were the better to steal from."

Wheatland shook his head and told him, "That doesn't make it sound any better."

"She steals from the rotten ones, sir," Link said. "The ones that'd sooner step on your face than look at you. You know the type, sir."

"You do realize that, if you ever catch her, you will have to arrest her."

Link shrugged. "She's that good, sir."

Wheatland muttered something incomprehensible. "So, you don't think it's possible this is a House feud, then?"

"Actually, his associate believes that it isn't, sir," Navi said. "She seems to be familiar enough with House Merrill that she found it hard to believe that someone was targeting them, let alone another House."

"You trust her?" Wheatland asked Link.

"I trust her more than the nobles, sir," Link answered.

"I actually like the sound of that, Superintendent," Dover spoke up. Wheatland glanced in his direction. Dover shrugged and added, "We know the nobles like to lie about their affairs."

"She knows how to get to public records, sir," Link continued. "She doesn't have to do anything suspicious."

"A pickpocket?" Wheatland asked, his voice oozing skepticism.

"She's a finnicky pickpocket, sir," Link replied. "She only steals from the worst."

"Well, we've certainly dealt with worse…" Wheatland grumbled. Then he asked aloud, "Well, if it isn't a feud, what else do you have?"

"Given that the killer appears to know her routine," Navi said, "we have two possibilities, sir. One, she had a stalker she was not aware of."

"That killed her?" Wheatland asked. "Most stalkers are abusers or sex criminals."

Link shrugged and said, "Could be buckin' the trend, sir."

"Which is why we think the second possibility is more likely, sir," Navi said. "We think she may have been killed by someone inside the House. So far, indications are that someone who had a familiarity with her routine arranged to kill her, and our investigation thus far points to someone in House Merrill."

"What for?" Wheatland asked. "Inheritance?"

Navi shook her head. "The only one who stands to gain Lord Merrill's inheritance is only five years old, sir. It may be a decent inheritance, but, unless Lord Merrill made other arrangements in the event his children died before him, it isn't likely anyone else stands to gain the inheritance."

"So, what? It was something personal?"

"It's hard to say, sir. We don't have any suspects yet. I suppose that would be the obvious motive, but most people we've met talk about her being shy and quite nice. If there is a grudge in there, it isn't really obvious. Hopefully, we will learn more soon. Uh, unfortunately…" She paused and started scratching the back of her neck. "… we may have to start interviewing the staff at House Merrill."

Wheatland nodded his understanding. "I'm sure Lord Merrill isn't too fond of the idea, either," he told her, "but it has to be done if he expects his daughter's murderer to be found. You are sure the parents had nothing to do with this, right?"

"Yes, sir, I'm sure. They were quite distraught and took offense to the idea that someone in the House arranged for her murder; their reactions felt genuine enough. They are eager to find out who did this."

"And then, in the end, we still might not know who did this," Wheatland pointed out.

"Without a suspect, yes, sir, that's likely," Navi admitted. "Still. I don't think we would have this information if it had not been for Constable Fieldview."

Link turned to lean his bottom against her desk and placed the back of one hand against his head as part of an exaggerated show of nearly passing out. "Oh, my heart, I think DS Navi just complimented me," he said.

"Being a smug little ass, sir," Navi quickly added.

"Sir?" Link asked Wheatland.

"You want me to scold her for that?" Wheatland asked without any hesitation in his incredulous tone. "You are a smug little ass. But it's nice to know that you two seem to be working well together." He pointed at the desk and told Navi, "Make sure he knows how to file paperwork around here; I've got a feeling he'll be here for a while."

"Yes, sir," Navi said. She pulled open the middle drawer to find a pen and added, "Sir, do we have a case number yet?"

"Oh, right…" Wheatland groaned. He quickly stepped to his desk and picked up a folder. Then, he set the open folder on the desk as she retrieved a form from another drawer. "There you are, middle of the page." He returned to his desk and took a seat.

Link had to switch sides in order to look at the folder. Then he leaned in to look at the form Navi was filling out. "Thus begins the paperwork…" he muttered.

"Too boring for you, Constable?" Navi asked.

"Well, as long as you're the superior, I don't particularly mind," Link said, giving his shoulders and arms an exaggerated shrug.

"We don't have a suspect yet, so I'm just filling out the incident report," Navi said. "You should pay attention; I assume you would like to be the superior at some point."

"Given the choice, I'd rather do it solo."

"You aren't given the choice. A special division doesn't work like patrol; you must have a partner to ensure that the investigation is handled appropriately."

Link glanced at the surname she had written at the top of the form. "'Nopennovag'?" he read aloud. Then he glanced across the office when he heard Dover snort.

"They told me to choose something," Navi replied. "Their mistake."

"What does it mean?"

Navi looked up at him. "You've read about fairies, right? You should know we don't have any genitalia."

"Well, I heard about the 'no surnames' thing, but the 'no genitalia' thing? How does that figure in?"

"We fairies don't have surnames because we just don't work like that. We like to remind Hylians when they try to get us to conform to their society. Believe me, I've known others to do worse."

"You're tellin' me you fairies do this sort of thing all the time?"

Navi shrugged. "Most of us think it's just a compulsion, but we don't really know where it came from. It just happens."

"Noted," he said with a wide grin on his face.

Link sat with Navi and took notes on the way she filled out the incident report. Most of it was similar to the reports he had had to fill out working patrol. He quickly saw, however, that some speculation went into the reports as well since they had yet to determine any solid details of the crime committed. The main point was that she was noting it as 'intentional homicide', and she explained that Homicide detectives were expected to make such judgment calls so that their superiors could keep track of where manpower and resources were directed. If the case was not to be further investigated, such as a suicide or a false report, she would mark it as such, and it would be filed away. That was about as far as the speculation went, though, and she explained that details such as suspects and motives would be filled out in an arrest report for the Royal Prosecutor's Office to use in trial.

Following the paperwork, the two sat and batted their observations between each other and even bounced a few ideas off Dover and Bohn. In the end, the discussion did not lead to any further conclusions. Navi ended her shift and left early while Link had to stay behind and fill out paperwork to finish his transfer into the division. It was a reminder to Link that he would need to find an apartment in the Central District since trying to commute between there and his current apartment in the Castlefoot District was more time and hassle than he could afford. He could not even attempt to commute that evening because it would take him far too long to get to the apartment and get a decent amount of sleep before having to return to headquarters the next morning. DI Bohn gave him the address of an apartment building not too far from headquarters, explaining that he used to rent there when he was still a constable on transport duty. In the meantime, Link decided that the temporary dormitory at the headquarters building would suffice to get some decent sleep; he would see about getting the apartment if he had time tomorrow. Wheatland told Link about a small sandwich shop within a few minutes' walk from headquarters that liked to cater to Watch officers working the late shift, so Link stole out a few minutes to get a cheap dinner.

The following day would prove the kind of work Link would be doing from now on. Roll call took place early, but, since Link had stayed in the dormitory, he was able to get in first. Not that he really benefited from it; the senior officers of the division were handed the two assignments that popped up during the shift change. He and Navi mainly waited around the office. Navi worked on paperwork while Link looked around to make sure he had a good idea of what resources were available to him. Of course, until he actually passed the detective's examination, it would not be much. Homicide had a few uniformed officers at their disposal, and this pool was shared between them, the Financial Crimes division, and the Watch Conduct division. There was no armory near their office, but DS Crosswind showed Link a storage box in the office for ammunition and percussion caps as well as tools to service firearms. Link decided to clean his short-barrel, four-shot revolver since he had not had the opportunity to do it for a few months, having been working on his application for detective status and still patrolling in the Castlefoot District and further complicated by not having access to such expensive tools to do it at home.

Another assignment came in while he was working on the gun, but it was handed to other detectives. In fact, the day's assignments were quite minor in the face of the Merrill homicide. One was a mugging that ended in the perpetrator being choked to death; his victim was a rancher that had roped him and, being used to handling large animals, had strangled him in attempt to keep him from escaping. The detective working that case, Detective Inspector Devon Rusk, explained that, while he had to arrest the rancher, he anticipated a lack of action from the courts since many witnesses could confirm that the deceased had instigated the confrontation. Detective Sergeant Pace Gray had responded to a drowning in the Factory District. While tragic, he ruled it an accident based on witness testimony that the victim was drunk and wandering alone near the river. The third assignment, Link found out early that evening, turned out to be a false report from the Telma District. Detective Sergeant William Jester had responded to what was thought to be a shooting; a person who was admittedly playing around with a pistol accidently discharged the weapon into his neighbor's house. The district station sent for a homicide detective when their patrol officer reported in that the neighbor was not answering the door. However, by the time DS Jester and his partner showed up, the patrol officer had broken into the home and discovered that the deaf old woman who lived there was alive and quite confused and startled by the event. The patrol officers took the shooter's weapon as a punitive measure, informing him that it would be returned to him in two weeks after he paid a fine for reckless discharge of a weapon. Just listening to Jester talk, Link had the impression that the shooter was too stupid to be in possession of a gun in the first place.

Wheatland let Link wrap up his shift early so Link could go find an apartment. Bohn's recommendation panned out; the apartment building had a few vacancies, although Link was stuck having to climb four flights of stairs to reach his new apartment. Still, it was better than he had expected, and he would be able to move his belongings from his apartment in the Castlefoot District later. Since he planned to be with Homicide for a while, he considered buying a mattress to replace the cot he had swiped (technically, although it was meant to be thrown in the trash anyway) from his assignment in the Ice District and had been using for the past year. He christened the apartment with his first dinner, half a sandwich from the shop nearby, and turned in while reflecting on how slow of a day it had been as he laid on the hardwood floor using his uniform jacket as a pillow.

The next day would prove far more interesting.