B10 Air Vent (Patreon)

Officer Sese comes with Tori to investigate a victim's apartment in this episode of Executioner's Gambit.

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Tori met with Sese for lunch before heading off to the sixth victim’s apartment. As they walked, the big officer rolled her screwdriver back and forth between her palms like she was trying to warm her paws. Tori glanced over at her and grinned. Officer Sese was clearly a fidgeter who needed to be playing with something whenever she was idle.

Tori found that trait charming. She could never understand those who were content doing nothing.

Checking her notes against the number on the door, she asked, “Stoli lived alone for the past ten years. Was this his apartment?”

Sese nodded, her expression uncharacteristically grim. She tapped an access code into the strand on her shoulder, then leaned back up against the door and fidgeted with the screwdriver some more. When Tori cast a confused look at her, Sese explained, “Waiting for Chief Tipohee to approve the lock’s override. Shouldn’t take long.”

Tori nodded and ten or fifteen seconds later, the lock clicked. Sese held the door open, and Tori trundled in. The apartment seemed pleasant enough—large, generally tidy but left as if the former occupant hadn’t been expecting company. A tablet computer rested on the couch and a small throw blanket laid nearby on the deck.

In front of the couch, sat a metal and glass coffee table with three framed photos arrayed in an arc: a geroo with his young cubs and two portraits of adults—one male and one female—who looked like grown-up versions of the cubs in the first picture.

“Ew!” groaned Sese, wrinkling her muzzle in disgust.

“What?” Tori asked, and the officer pointed toward a metal bowl on the kitchen table. Tori approached, but she couldn’t make much out. Whatever fruit Stoli had left sitting in the bowl had rotted away to a moldy mush since his death. For a moment, instinct tightened her stomach, her lunch threatening to return, but the sensation passed quickly enough.

Sese’s ears hung low, the skin inside of each faded pale. “Is it from dead bodies at crime scenes?” Watching autopsies? Is that how you’re so accustomed to foul smells?” she asked, holding her nose.

Tori shook her head. “The sulfur roasted my sinuses to a cinder. I can’t smell a thing.” She opened the refrigerator and was immediately thankful. More mold grew inside.

“Oh … yikes,” Sese whispered with a tragic set to her ears. “I’m … so sorry.” A sense of smell was such a fundamental component to geroo existence, most of the unfortunates who lost it committed suicide. They found that the other four senses were just not enough to make life still worth living.

“Yeah, I’m … looking into surgery that can fix it, to fix … a lot of things,” Tori said as she pushed the refrigerator’s moldy contents from side to side.

“Find anything?” asked Sese without coming closer.

“Yes, actually,” said Tori. “A witness said that the victim died after eating some leftover sooba soup. Though nasty now, there’s a second container ready to be taken to work, and…”—she looked from the refrigerator to the sink—“a similar reusable container and lid sitting on a towel to dry. I suspect that our victim liked making big meals that lasted him several days.”

Sese shrugged. “It’s a good way to save money over eating out,” she said, “provided you don’t mind the same dish several days in a row. Cooking for one is tricky.”

Tori raised an ear. “You don’t live with anyone?”

Sese shook her head. “I don’t really date,” she said, but the expression on her ears indicated that there was a lot more left unsaid.

Tori smiled. “Sese, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“No, I get that,” the big officer agreed in a quieter voice. She paused in her search and took a seat on the kitchen counter. “It’s just… I used to … spend some time with this older guy, but it was just for fun, never anything serious. Y’know? A drinking buddy who seemed like a safe friend … and we kinda…” She blew out a frustrated breath before giving up on how to express herself.

“Just kinda ended up in bed together,” suggested Tori.

Sese shrugged. “It was a storage room, actually.”

The rusty red geroo giggled and leaned against the counter. “Very romantic.”

“Yeah … definitely not that.” Sese laughed softly. “He came over a number of times—too many times, honestly. But it was a mistake. I should never have gotten involved.”

Tori nodded. “Not a healthy relationship?”

“It was never a relationship, Tori, that’s the thing,” the bigger gal explained. “I never wanted it to be, and it just kinda happened. Just a fun drinking buddy who turned out to be really good in bed.”

Tori’s eyes opened wide, at Sese’s frankness. She covered her surprise with a cough, saying, “Oh, don’t make me jealous.”

Sese smiled. “Been a while?”

The investigator nodded. “Since the accident, I can’t. I just can’t. Touching hurts too much. And even before the accident… Well, Druka and I had been separated for some time.”

“Sorry.”

“And I’m sorry your guy was a mistake,” offered Tori.

Sese grinned. “Life lesson learned: never sleep with anyone who has a family.”

Tori winced. “Ooh, okay. I get it now.”

“No, it’s…” Sese bit her lip. “This is just really sensitive information. I’d appreciate if you could keep it to yourself.”

“Yeah, I get that. Of course, I will,” said Tori with a sympathetic smile. She was about to change the subject, but she picked up more discomfort from Sese’s body language than she’d expected. She whispered, “Because … I know him, right?”

Now, Sese winced, and this made Tori recoil. She covered her muzzle with both paws. “No,” she said a little louder now, “no, no, no, please tell me this wasn’t … the chief?”

Sese’s head hung low, and she refused to meet Tori’s eyes. “He’s a good guy, Tori. I mean, apart from cheating with me… The first time was just drunken fun, but after that… Well, he’s the chief of security. He just came over whenever he was lonely until I finally broke it off and told him to never key into my apartment again.” She put up her paws, pleading. “Just don’t say anything to anyone.”

“Of course, I won’t!” Tori returned to the fridge, but peeked back a couple of times. “He was … really that good?”

Sese slid from the counter, but glanced back at Tori long enough to nod and giggle.

Checking the freezer compartment, Tori said, “No frozen soup, so there’s every indication that it’d been cooked only a couple days before Stoli was killed. That narrows our time window considerably.”

“I understand how you’ve deduced that the soup must have been tampered with while it was sitting in Stoli’s refrigerator, but…”

“But?” asked Tori.

“I dunno,” Sese sighed. “I guess I’d just like something that verifies it.”

Tori turned once more and stared at the refrigerator’s contents for a little longer. “Okay, how about this…” she said. “If you make soup, load it in a plastic container, and set that in the fridge, would you leave it uncovered?”

Sese shook her head. “No, of course not,” she said. “That’d be begging for an accident—spilling it, dropping something in it… Why? Is the leftover soup uncovered?”

Tori nodded. She stepped to the side and held the door open so that Sese could see topless container full of moldy soup.

“Perhaps he was out of covers?” the officer suggested with little confidence in her voice.

Tori gestured to the lid on the drying towel. Then, she opened a couple cabinet doors until she located a few more identical sets of bowls and matching lids. “Seems unlikely.”

“So, what does that mean?” Sese asked. “How does it prove the killer tampered with it while it was in the fridge?”

“Because the killer is keeping trophies: the label from a brandy bottle, a cub’s art project, and now the lid to these leftovers. The killer was here,” said Tori with confidence. “I’m sure of it.”

Sese smiled. “Okay, I’m convinced. So, how did he get in, Detective?”

Tori closed the fridge and leaned her elbows on the counter while she thought. “The same way anyone gets in, I suppose, through the front door—unless this apartment has a concealed doorway like in those adventure games.”

Sese’s ears grinned wide, and she used the light on her strand to chase shadows away from the corners. “Perhaps, a kerrati hole in the baseboard that’s big enough for a geroo to squeeze through?”

“Oof. Let me know if you ever find one that big so I can move to the opposite side of the ship,” said Tori. “So, that leaves a break-in or someone he invited in.”

“Well, he didn’t report a break-in,” said Sese.

“And his call logs were included in the files you sent me,” Tori shared. “There’s no way to tell from them what he talked about, but I didn’t spot any pattern indicating that he was dating someone—calling or being called from the same number regularly. He also didn’t have any evening or early-morning calls in the week before his death. So, no indication that he knew someone was coming over.”

Sese sighed, “Unless they dropped by without calling first.”

“They could have,” admitted Tori, “but I’m leaning away from that explanation. Witness testimony said that he’d become paranoid of being targeted, so I doubt he’d let a stranger root around his fridge. That leaves either someone he trusted or someone sneaking in without getting caught.”

Sese pointed to the photos on the coffee table. “One of his cubs?”

Tori took a seat on the couch, facing the photos. “That’s possible, but again, I doubt it. Stoli wouldn’t be the first parent murdered by his own cub, but patricide? That sounds so much more passionate to me, like a cub raised in an abusive household who finally snaps.”

“None of his coworkers like him,” reminded Sese. “They said he loved confrontation. His subordinates described a pathological joy—end quote—in making them cry over the tiniest mistake. But you’re certain his cubs loved him?”

“No, not at all,” said Tori. “They may well have hated his guts, but why all the other killings then? If one of his cubs snapped, killed him, and then went on a killing spree, then wouldn’t he be the first victim? Or if the cub was working up the courage to kill their own father and took five practice victims, then why keep killing after they finally managed their goal? The fact that he’s in the middle of the string makes me doubt it was a family member.”

“Or they were trying to conceal their relationship to the victim.”

“Perhaps, but my gut says a sneaky break-in is still more likely,” said Tori. “The pills disappeared from the pharmacy without a trace, and if anyone has witnessed the killer tampering with food or drink, it’s gone unreported. Everything about this case indicates that The Executioner is careful and slippery.”

“Access panel,” said Sese, shining her strand’s light in the kitchen’s corner.

She removed four screws holding it in place and peered inside.

“Well?” Tori asked.

“Nah,” said Sese, “just electrical connections in here. Besides, how could they have removed the screws from inside?”

She set it aside and continued her search. “Okay… Supposing someone snuck in through the front door—”

“It’s an electronic lock,” said Tori. “Perhaps it was like in the videos where the action hero unscrews the thing and touches the right wires together?”

“Or maybe something more mundane?” asked Sese. “My landlord keyed into my apartment while I was at work so he could fix the oven.”

“The recent access logs were in your files too,” said Tori. “He was the only one listed as keying in.”

“Could someone have borrowed his strand? Then it would have logged that he entered.”

Tori sighed. “Without him noticing? How’d they guess the code on his strand?”

“I don’t know,” muttered Sese. Then, in an accusatory tone, she added, “I get the feeling your engineer friend would gladly analyze the problem.”

Tori frowned. “Runo’oa? We could ask him.”

The room turned cold under the weight of Sese’s glare. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Just level with me, Tori, should I have arrested him?”

Tori hung her head, refusing to meet the officer’s eyes. “Honestly? In a fair galaxy, yes. And maybe we still need to do that—I didn’t promise him any sort of amnesty for his help—but I think there’s an … urgency to this investigation, and Runo’oa is the least of my concerns at the moment.”

Sese’s glare didn’t soften.

“Come on, Sese!” whined Tori. “Surely, you’ve had suspects you don’t arrest immediately.”

“Ask Tipohee how I get when that happens.”

Tori groaned. “He’s a source I might need, and a trial is a distraction that I simply don’t have time for right now. Can we please just focus on who broke into this apartment?”

“I guess,” said Sese, but her tone left a lot unsaid.

Tori sighed, finally looking up. “And now, you’re pissed at me.”

“A little, yeah.”

“Sorry,” said Tori as Sese’s investigation led her into the bedroom.

“Air vent,” called Sese, and Tori hobbled after her.

In the bedroom, she found the officer pulling a plastic grate away from a rectangular hole in the wall. “It’s just snapped in,” Sese explained. “No screws required to remove it.” The opening was short and even more narrow. With the light from her strand, she peered inside.

“Could someone have snuck through it?”

“I couldn’t have,” said Sese. “But someone small maybe. A cub, perhaps? It’s hard to predict without anyone trying it. Also, it might not be sturdy enough to support someone’s weight. It’s made to hold air, not geroo.”

Sese sighed and turned back to Tori. “So, who’s that leave as suspects? Just teens or action heroes that can pick an electronic lock?”

“The ship has lots of teens, definitely. I don’t know about action heroes,” said Tori. She straightened and headed toward the door. “I suppose I’ll go talk with Runo’oa about hacking a door lock.”

Sese said nothing.

“I guess he could kill me to cover up what I know.”

Sese still didn’t respond.

“I’d probably deserve it.”

Sese’s ear twitched.

Tori bit her lip. “If you weren’t overly pissed at me, you could come along.”

The bigger gal stood still a moment long before finally saying, “I could come.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mq57kc1RoDC3yCXIHotupORhNsReBt2fIM_stNeFM08/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?