Chapter Sixteen: Suspicious Circumstances

…

It was not detective work. Link had to admit that he shared DS Navi's cynicism. Receiving assignments in three different districts of Hyrulia had opened his eyes to a particularly harsh reality: serious crime did not have much reason nor was it always possible to catch a perpetrator. He had been witness to at least a dozen shootings since he had joined The Watch, and only one, maybe two (litigation still pending since he had last heard), had led to an arrest while neither perpetrator had a real motive other than just firing a pistol in a crowded street. The person still waiting for their day in court had come across as a lunatic that had not been particularly aware of what was going on around him. The one who had been put in prison for the other shooting had claimed that she had been aiming at someone other than the man that she had shot (and, given her frustration with a person she would not name, the target had likely been an estranged or former lover). Some of the deceased victims had not had a connection to anyone who would randomly decide to fire a gun into a crowded street, and the surviving victims were just as confused as to who would shoot them in broad daylight. Even if Link could bring in a suspect, the odds of even finding an associate to the shooter were working against the whole Watch. He had learned quickly that knowing his usual list of suspects and their actions was useless in light of having to regularly meet people he did not know (on top of finding out that people just did not like the Watch, whether they had had dealings with them before or not). As much as Link hated the idea, he had mostly consigned himself to the thought that this would be another random shooting. Even worse, it was very unlikely that they would ever find a perpetrator. The disadvantage that Link and the rest of the Homicide division had was that they could not respond any faster than the district stations' foot patrol officers.

Dealing with the nobility was worse when one was an officer of the Watch. Link quickly understood that he was not well-liked simply because he spoke with a country accent. Well, maybe "not well-liked" made him sound more important to them than what reality said. Many of the nobles Link had met had been shamelessly snobby with Link's superiors while Link himself was mostly ignored when he spoke. Having his words echoed by his supervisors just so the nobles would listen to an explanation was mildly insulting, and Link was not any higher in the Watch to actually govern that sort of unignorable authority. In fact, he fully expected Navi to be his speaker from now on.

With this information in mind, Link and Navi really had nothing to say on the ride to the crime scene. The East District was mostly a ride on the main road running east-to-west through all of Hyrulia, followed by a few turns into a busy business sub-division. One noticeable thing about the outer districts of Hyrulia was the shorter buildings and wider roads. This made sense once one understood the history of some of these outer districts, how the wider roads had been routes for transporting goods to the city from the outlying provinces and were still used by the local shops to receive their products while smaller couriers had to relay these into the inner districts. The intersection they were responding to was one of almost two dozen dotting the outer districts, every one of them a hub of traffic chaos.

And, just like today, they were prone to activities that brought things to a halt as far as the adjacent blocks. The Watch officers in the East District had set up a barricade around the scene using a pair of transport wagons and a handful of foot patrol to warn away pedestrians attempting to peek on the crime. Another patrolman was trying to direct wagons and carriages anywhere but the street that was blocked, his voice hoarse from ordering drivers to go another direction when they began to argue.

The wagon Link and Navi rode had remained stopped for about five minutes. Then the driver slid open a window into their compartment. "Sorry, ma'am, but this looks like the closest we'll get," she told them, leaning close enough to be heard over the bustle outside.

Navi heaved a sigh and rose from her seat. "Welcome to Homicide…" she grumbled more to herself than to Link.

Exiting the wagon revealed that they had stopped about half a block away. Around them, other wagons moved along at a crawl while bicycles were weaving dangerously through close quarters. Link had already spotted a couple of cyclists who had wrecked, writhing on the ground in pain while being cussed at by the wagon drivers they had struck. Their driver had already anticipated the hassle of actually reaching the crime scene and had made certain to pull close enough to the sidewalk so that the two could easily walk the second half of the block while the wagon slowly crawled forward. Foot traffic always cleared out better in these matters, and Navi and Link were able to walk up to the barricade.

One of the officers standing at the barricade gave them a grin through a stubble-covered face. "Well, well, well," he said, causing Navi to pause pulling her badge off her belt. "Detective Sergeant Navi and Provo-Constable Fieldview."

"Hey, Sergeant Buck," Link replied with a friendly wave.

"Hello again, Sergeant Buchanan," Navi said, her expression and tone professionally neutral.

"Didn't think we'd see either of you back in the district," Buchanan continued. "DS Navi, I thought you were transferring back to headquarters."

"I did," Navi said. "Homicide."

Buchanan looked pleasantly astonished, his head and shoulders tilting back in an exaggerated fashion. "Oh, really?" he replied. "Homicide, you say. I didn't know you had that kind of fascination with the work. Is that where you've been this year?"

"Mostly," Navi replied. "I haven't been called to the East District, or else I might've let you know before."

Buchanan nodded. "Makes sense for you," he said. Then he pointed to Link. "What about him? Last I knew, he transferred to the Ice District."

"And the Castlefoot District after that," Link said. "That's where I finished my probation. I'm a full constable now."

"Congratulations, Link," Buchanan said. "I have to admit, I thought you were choking that last month you spent with us. Some of us thought you were transferring because you were expecting something easier."

"Sergeant Buchanan," Navi said with a sharp tone. Link glanced at her to see her hair switch back from maroon to black. "We are here on duty. The reminiscing can wait for a better time."

"Aye, you're right, Detective Sergeant," Buchanan replied as he rubbed the back of his neck. He used his other hand to point a thumb over his shoulder. "Inspector Keporra is overseeing the body."

"Has a member of House Merrill shown up yet?" Navi asked.

Buchanan shook his head and said, "I don't know yet. I haven't heard any screaming, so… I guess not."

"Where's the inspector?" Navi asked.

Buchanan turned to point through the throng of crisscrossing officers. "Over there, middle of the crosswalk."

Navi gave a sharp nod and began walking. Link offered a quick raise of the hand before following along. They received smaller but none-the-less friendly handwaves and nods from the regular officers they passed, many of them having to cross the crime scene in response to people in the crowd trying to cut through the barricade or spy on what was going on. It was a common response; there always seemed to be groups of people with nothing better to do than to eavesdrop on a crime scene, which Link felt was contradictory to the district's history as a more business-oriented location.

The person they approached was Police Inspector Gebora Keporra. A tall, lean man, his most striking feature were the thick, extremely strong glasses perched on his nose that made his eyes look double their true size. Given his preference for the business style of the light uniform shirt and trousers, approaching him often felt like trying to get under a lamppost that would not stop staring as one came closer. He often appeared grim, but he did not let his usual demeanor dictate the humored grin that he quirked upon noting Navi and Link approaching.

Navi stopped and quickly saluted by tapping the tip of her index finger against her forehead just outside from her right eye while her hand formed a vertical blade, prompting Link to copy her a second later. "Inspector Keporra," she said.

"Detective Sergeant Navi," he replied as he returned the salute in the same manner. "And Provisional-Constable Fieldview as well. Welcome back to the East District."

"Thank you, sir," Navi replied. "What is the situation?"

Inspector Keporra's natural grimness returned as he signaled two of the nearby officers to draw back a stained, white sheet on the ground. Underneath was the body of a young woman, maybe two years older than Link. She was dressed conservatively for a noble: a white, button-up blouse underneath a blue shawl and a long, plain skirt slitted up only to the knees on one side to increase movement. Her shoes were flat slip-ons with a basic design, favored by many who preferred to walk everywhere so long as there was no horse manure in their path. Her blouse had been stained red by blood and sported a hole almost centered on her chest. Her complexion was completely pale, and her wavy, blond hair splayed out against the concrete. Other than a simple gold chain around her neck, neither member of Homicide noticed jewelry or even a purse on her person.

"We don't have an identity on her yet," Keporra said. "When foot patrol found her, they identified her by her signet." He produced a silver ring bearing a signet seal. Navi picked up the ring and examined it. Then she offered it to Link. Link studied the design, trying to picture what the actual seal looked like. The letter "M" featured prominently in the middle, surrounded by six elongated, hexagonal gems (similar in shape to rupees save for a sharp edge on top instead of a flat face) which pointed at the letter in the middle and the outer border. Unfortunately, Link was not good enough at reading mirrored text to make out the motto in the lower half of the border. The ring itself was old, scratched, and showing signs of tarnishing. Surely, this was not the usual jewelry worn by a member of the nobility. However, at the same time, even the head of the house staff should not have been in possession of a signet; Link had busted a handful of staff using their noble family's signets illegally, and it was often a very serious case of forgery.

"Inspector, has this body been moved?" Navi asked. Link glanced down in response, and he could see why Navi would ask that. Having responded to random shootings, Link had gained a familiarity with how a body looked when a person was shot on the street. A person shot walking or otherwise in motion tended to fall in the direction they had been moving, often on their face and with a leg perhaps lying at an odd angle. A person shot standing still was more likely to collapse downward, causing their legs to fold underneath their body, assuming their death was instant. The young woman on the ground before him was face-up, her legs side by side and posed in such a manner that she was not lying straight but with her body curved toward her right. It was not a reasonable angle, as it would have indicated that, having been shot from the front, she was facing the person who had shot her. In such an event, there should have been at least a dozen witnesses walking in the same direction and able to see a person with a gun aiming it down the crosswalk.

"Yes, she was," Keporra confirmed. He indicated the side of the street the woman's feet pointed toward. Link and Navi followed his direction to see a sergeant taking testimony from a middle-aged woman wearing a light blue uniform dress under a white apron. "Missus Heron was on-hand to attend to the victim, but she says that she was already deceased and there was nothing she could do."

"A nurse?" Link asked.

Keporra nodded. "From a nearby clinic," he said. "She was on her way to work when she heard the shot, and she turned to find the woman on the ground."

"Which means she changed the body's position to attend to her," Navi concluded. "And we have no idea which way the shot could have possibly come from."

"Not yet," Link said as he offered the ring back to Keporra. When Keporra took it, he turned and started walking toward Mrs. Heron. "Hey, Sergeant Scrivens!"

The sergeant turned around in response. "Oh, Provo-Constable Fieldview," the man replied through a voice graveled by old age. He showed Link as surprised an expression as he could muster under the perpetually tired sag of his face. His age easily well into his sixties, Link often wondered how much longer Sergeant Brutus Scrivens was going to loiter around the East District station until he could bother himself with retirement.

"It's just 'Constable Fieldview' now," Link told him. "Can I talk to this woman for a moment?"

"Sure can," Scrivens replied, turning a page on his notepad.

"Missus Heron?" Link asked.

"Yes?" the woman replied.

"You were the person who repositioned the victim?" Link confirmed.

"Yes, I was," she said. "I-I only meant to help."

"I just wanted to ask you how you found her," Link said. "When you first noticed her, was she lying on the ground flat, or did she have her legs folded underneath her body? Like she just dropped straight down?"

"Oh, um… I believe her legs were underneath her. I didn't have to roll her, but I had to lift her thighs so that I could pull her legs out to lay her flat."

"Did you turn her at any time?" Link asked.

"Yes, I do remember doing that. I was concerned that someone driving by might not notice her lying in the road, so I turned her so that she was lying inside the crosswalk lines."

"Do you know how far you had to turn her?"

Missus Heron scrunched her face as she thought. "Well… I can't say for sure, but it didn't seem like it had been very far. Maybe just…" She held up one hand level to show Link, and then used her opposite hand to add an angle underneath after slowly opening a gap between her hands with her fingertips as a pivot. "About that much?"

Link glanced back at the victim. "So, you're saying that, when you pulled her legs out, her feet were pointed into the street?" he asked.

"Yes, something like that."

Link turned around to examine her hands' positions again. Then he let his eyes wander the road to his left, a direction away from the massive intersection. With most carriages and bicycles preferring the right side of the road for driving, Link assumed that, with foot traffic crossing at the time, the right side of the road opposite of where they stood would have been crowded. And since the victim's feet were pointing to their side of the crosswalk and Missus Heron had not needed to turn her much to get her inside the crosswalk, Link reasoned that the victim had been facing the sidewalk along this side of the road. The shooter would not have been in view of others in the crosswalk.

But then… Why had the victim stopped and faced that direction? Had something caught her attention?

"What've you got, Constable?" Scrivens asked.

"Hmm… a different direction," Link told him before he started walking away. "Hey, DS Navi?" he called as he followed the sidewalk. Navi, still speaking with Keporra, glanced in his direction. "I'm gonna be over here a bit."

"What for?" Navi asked.

"Checking the angle," he replied. Navi could only share a shrug with Keporra.

The street in this direction was just the side walls of the nearby buildings, meaning no store fronts. He first came to a door onto the street from the pharmacy that sat on this corner. He tried the doorknob to find it locked, and the door did not look like it had been damaged or broken into. Link doubted it was the place from which the shot was fired; the staff inside would have likely reported hearing the shot from the back of the store. Just a few steps further was an alley.

And this caught Link's attention. The foremost noticeable feature of this alley was a pair of crates blocking part of the entrance. Link saw that these waist-high crates had been wiped of some black substance. Wiped, but not completely; in the small corner formed by one cleat on top, Link could see a small amount where no cloth or hand could reach. He used the fingernail of his right pinky to dig some of the substance out and sniffed. A sharp mix of smoke and brimstone, the unmistakable smell of ignited gunpowder.

Link rounded the crates and lowered himself to one knee. He let his eyes skim the top edge of the box with his focus toward the crosswalk. He could see Navi and Keporra from where he hid as they spoke with someone else (the subsequent cry of mournful hysteria led him to believe that it was the representative of House Merrill they had been waiting for). Link pulled his baton from his belt and positioned it as if it was a rifle, his hand forced to imagine a gun handle for lack of a functional equivalent. He sighted down the "barrel" at Keporra. And he concluded that this location might have been the point from which the victim had been shot.

And if someone had gone to the trouble of hiding in an alley, it seemed reasonable for once that someone might have actually been aiming at the victim.

Link glanced around at the nearby ground. Other than a few pieces of trash paper, the concrete was clear of dirt. He stood up and quickly replaced his baton. Then he turned and looked further into the alley. Trash cans, more crates, laundry hanging between windows from the second stories. Link angled his head to see traffic on the next block at the other end. If anything else had been disturbed, it was not apparent. No witnesses, either; this part of the district often was not hospitable to the homeless because store owners did not like them cluttering areas around their businesses.

Link started down the alley at a slow pace. He watched each step out of concern he might crush something important underfoot. His eyes swung left and right in search of anything that did not belong. Not that it was an easy feature to pick out. Trash littered the alley, mostly paper and some empty bottles. One glance up at the laundry overhead made him wonder if questioning the neighbors would yield anything. He quickly concluded that there was little reason to think any neighbor had seen the shooter. People were good about reporting crime if the Watch was crawling about the area, and he expected that someone might have reported witnessing a shooter fleeing the area while hanging out their underwear.

About halfway to the next street, the alley formed a T-intersection with another alley of identical composition. If the shooter had an escape route, it would take time to search both directions.

But then, maybe he would not have to. On the wall at the head of the intersection, where two buildings divided between brick and stone walls, was something that easily caught Link's eye. He stepped closer to the brick wall and looked up just a little over his head. The wall had been scratched with something; Link ran his fingertips over the brick surface to be certain. It was authentic, as opposed to similar emblems he had seen on the streets made with chalk or paint. The emblem itself was a crescent moon or eclipse (he could never decide which) opened to the left and a rhombus with two diagonal, intersecting lines.

"Constable Fieldview?" Link glanced back toward the side of the alley he had entered to see Navi approaching him. "The body has been identified," she told him. "Her name is Yoanna Merrill. She's the daughter of Lord Marcus Merrill, head of House Merrill."

Link clicked his tongue. "Daughter of nobility," he said as his eyes wandered back to the symbol on the wall. "That's too bad."

"A custodian for the house just identified her," Navi continued. "The wagon is on the way."

"And, let me guess, House Merrill wants us to join them for afternoon tea while we try to explain to them we don't know who killed the lord's daughter."

Navi shrugged. "It's part of our routine. Ask the standard battery of questions, give them whatever reassurances we can, then put the case in the dark when our leads disappear."

"It's a garbage routine."

Navi crossed her arms. "I thought this would be an experience for you. After all, you made it clear you agree with Reba about not treating the nobility special."

"Oh, I'm all for telling them it was a random shooting," Link replied. Then he turned to Navi. "But I'm not sure it was."

"You don't, huh?"

Link pointed past her. "You see those crates at the end of the alley there? There's fresh gunpowder on them. Most of it was wiped off, but our gunman missed some in the cracks."

Navi glanced backward in spite of knowing what he was referring to. "So you found where she was shot from," she concluded.

"And I don't think it was simply a shooting. If the guy had the mind to wipe up the evidence, I'm inclined to say it was deliberate."

"Speculation at this point, Constable."

"Maybe, but there's a couple other things. The victim was shot while she was standin' still in the crosswalk."

"You can tell?"

Link nodded. "When people are moving when they're shot, they tend to fall face down in the direction they're goin'. If they're standing still, they fall almost straight down. I've seen enough shootings, and the witness said she changed her position while she was tryin' to help."

Navi's hair shifted to green for a short moment, almost the blink of an eye. "It isn't a bad set of observations, but it doesn't quite name a suspect," she told him.

"Maybe not, but there's one more thing." Link rapped a knuckle on the wall under the symbol, a barely audible sound considering it was just bone against brick. "You seen this symbol before?"

Navi tilted her head to see from a better angle. "I'm sure I have; they seem to be all over the city."

"Do you know what it is?"

Navi shook her head. "No, but I bet you can't wait to tell me."

Link nodded. "The Thieves' Guild."

"The… Thieves' Guild?" Navi repeated, her hair turning purple. "Who are they?"

Link shrugged and said, "More or less as their name implies. Bunch of thieves who mostly target the nobility."

"You think one of them may have done this?"

Link paused as he considered his words. "I'm not really inclined to say so. They mostly exist to make the nobles' lives miserable. Y'know, pickpocketing or stealing horses or goods, things like that. They aren't supposed to be in the business of killing because it would make them a threat instead of a nuisance. They have a network all over this city. This alley is one of their escape routes."

"What do you propose, then? That we arrest one of them on suspicion of murder?"

Link shook his head. "I have a contact we can talk to. She should be available if we catch her."

Navi considered his proposition for a moment. "Okay, we can delay meeting with House Merrill for now," she said. "I'll let you lead the way."

Link grinned. "This is gonna be fun, then."