B14 Brainstorming (Patreon)

These scenes for Executioner's Gambit are getting pretty tough. Hope they're enjoyable.

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With another long day of investigating, Tori had nothing to show for it. So, she sat in the market and brooded. She hadn’t always been a brooder, but this case was certainly giving her some practice. What had she missed? What angle hadn’t she considered?

“What’s wrong, Tori?” asked Sese, the big officer taking a seat across the plastic table.

Thankful for the company, Tori gave her a smile, but it was short-lived. “Just frustrated, I guess.” She leaned back and stared at the rafters overhead. “The commissioner’s coming tomorrow, and I’ve got nothing to show for myself.”

“Not nothing!” Sese insisted. “You’ve advanced this investigation way beyond where it was when you arrived.”

Tori shrugged. “I suppose, but I still don’t know who the killer is. I don’t know who hired him.”

Sese rested her chin on her palm and waved Tori’s grumblings away with her free paw. “So? History’s greatest detectives wouldn’t expect to find a serial killer in a week. Why should you?”

“Because the commissioner’s not going to be impressed by me just ‘advancing the investigation’. He’s going to want results.”

“So what? Your job is to catch the killer, not to impress the commissioner.” She reached across the table with palms extended, inviting Tori to touch her paws. “Why should you care?”

But she didn’t. Instead, Tori hid her face in her paws and curled in on herself slightly, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

“Tori? Tori? What’s wrong?” asked Sese.

It took a long time for Tori to overcome her tears, and Sese had already scooted her chair around the table to be closer by the time the smaller geroo was wiping her eyes. She whispered, “There’s this surgery, Sese—surgery that might just help me.” Beneath the table, she set her paw atop Sese’s and gave it a squeeze. “The problem is that Doctor Amhela will only do it if I get the commissioner’s permission. And the commissioner visits only once every forty-seven years, so tomorrow is the only chance I’ll ever get to talk him into it.”

The tan geroo’s eyes went wide, her ears up in alarm. Though she tried to speak, at first, no words would come out. Eventually, she managed, “Oh, yikes. I’m so sorry Tori.”

But eventually, she managed a smile. “Hey, I’ve got some time. I can sit with you and brainstorm a bit,” she offered, “but I really hope you’re not expecting to crack the case today. You need to be realistic.”

“Yeah, I know,” whispered Tori, her chin lowered until she almost touched Sese with her forehead.

Sese asked, “Okay, where are we on the financier?”

Tori dabbed at her eyes and sat up straighter. “My prime suspect is Kuda,” she said. “He lives up on one and said that the ship needed The Executioner.”

“But proof—?”

Tori shook her head. “Short of tying him down and beating a confession out of him—” Her eyes opened wider, and she shook her paws in front of her face. “And no, I’m not suggesting that—I’ve got nothing.”

The red geroo sighed. “Everybody on the upper decks knows Kuda, and no one I interviewed would give up any evidence I could use against him. Holly used his access to dig into their finances, but he’s new at tracking money, and that couple…” She shook her head. “They sling credits around like a short order cook making breakfast cakes. Besides, we recovered a bone shard at the Kimoa crime scene, so it’s possible that The Executioner has been paid in a currency we can’t even track.”

“Not great,” agreed Sese. “What about the killer?”

“Well, if the killer is sneaking in through the air vents”—Tori clucked her tongue defeatedly—“then that narrows it down to like a thousand cubs and scrawny teens.”

“Oof.” Sese perked an ear. “And if he’s going through locked doors somehow?”

Tori shrugged. “That narrows it down to just a few suspects, but none of them are particularly promising.”

“Okay, we’ll go through them one at a time,” said Sese with a nod, “brainstorm reasons for and against, both why they could be the killer and why they couldn’t.”

Tori brooded a while longer before finally agreeing. “Sure.” Drawing a deep breath, she said, “Suspect number one: Captain Gutassi. He has root access and can walk through any door without leaving a computer trace.”

“Against is pretty easy,” offered Sese. “He wouldn’t poison people because he doesn’t have to. He’s everyone’s boss. If he wants to make changes, he can.”

Tori pondered that a moment. “What if he can’t make changes?”

“Why couldn’t he?”

“Dunno,” admitted Tori. “You said to brainstorm it.”

“Okay, what if he can’t get rid of them because someone’s blackmailing him?” Sese asked. “Someone knows he did something awful, and they’re gonna make it public if he demoted any of the victims?”

“That’s … not impossible,” Tori had to concede. “It’s something worth researching, at least. If they’re blackmailing him, he’d probably be spending credits faster than normal.”

Sese grinned. “See? What else could keep him from demoting people?”

Tori fidgeted, taking a moment to pick at her nail beds. “Uh, he might realize that demoting these troublemakers doesn’t fix anything.”

Sese cocked her head in surprise. “How so?”

“Well, I never met any of the victims when they were still alive,” said Tori, “but let’s take Nija as an example. She’s horrible. If The Executioner is killing off the worst of the worst and he didn’t target her, then those victims must have been even worse, real monsters.”

Tori met Sese’s eyes. “Shuffling them around to different jobs just changes who they’re making miserable.”

“They wouldn’t have to be anyone’s boss if they got demoted.”

“True, but some of the victims weren’t even anyone’s boss,” said Tori, recalling that the killer had murdered all the company administrators. “It hardly matters though. Even an awful coworker can make your life miserable.”

“So, the captain is frustrated that the crew hates various geroo in power—”

“He may worry for himself as well,” Tori offered. “That Boots video got everyone stoked to fight back against bad bosses. If the crew turns against those in power, he’s vulnerable. He could be doing this as a form of self-preservation.”

Sese frowned. “How does Kuda or whoever hired the killer work into this?”

Tori shrugged. “Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. The captain could be corrupt already and sitting on a mountain of credits. Maybe he is the sort to walk around with a shard in his holster.”

Tori thought back on the different sorts of killers that Daskatoma had studied in his psychology classes. “Or maybe the bribes get Captain Gutassi excited to try. He thinks, ‘I’m the captain. I can get away with anything. Why shouldn’t I do this myself and walk off with a ton of money in the process? Win-win.’”

“That’s really not a bad theory. I don’t know why you’re so down on yourself,” Sese said with a smile. “So, who else could be the killer?”

“Nija,” said the investigator. “She’s got the access to erase entry logs, and though she didn’t admit it, I’ll bet she could give herself root access to open doors if she wanted to.”

“She doesn’t seem the sort who would hate the victims—I mean any more than she seems to hate everyone else.”

Tori smirked. “No, but what if someone paid her to kill? She’s already got power, but what if money is a big motivator for her?”

“Maybe?” admitted Sese. “If that’s the case, then she should be spending more since the killings began.”

“We can’t trace bone shards.”

“That’s true, but despite shards being a private way to store money, they’re not very spendable. Most vendors wouldn’t take a shard in payment—or even know what one is,” Sese explained. “You’d have to know someone who wants them and then trade one for credits before you can spend it.”

Sese tapped the plastic tabletop with a fingertip. “If someone is money-motivated and they receive large quantities of it suddenly, they’re probably not going to just sit on it. They’re going to go out and buy some of the things they’ve been coveting.”

“Okay, but what if she isn’t the killer,” asked Tori. “What if she’s just using her access to cover up the killer’s trail?”

“Uck.” That wiped the smile from Sese’s black ears. “That makes things more complicated. We’d have three collaborators: the killer, someone paying for the hits, and someone hiding the evidence.”

“More complicated but still possible.”

“I suppose so,” she said. “Why would Nija help someone? Money again?”

“Maybe. Or maybe the killer is blackmailing her.” Tori’s eyes opened wider. “Or the killer could be someone she wants to protect! She’s fiercely protective of her son, for example. If she found out that he was up to no good, I doubt she’d turn him in. She might help destroy the evidence.”

Sese’s ears drooped. “That’s plausible.” Her eyes dropped to her lap for a moment while she considered. Then, she asked, “Who else is on your list?”

“Just one more name,” said Tori. “Security Chief Tipohee. He’s got root access as well.”

Sese shook her head. Defiantly, she said, “The chief didn’t do it.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I know him, Tori.” Sese chewed her lower lip for a moment. “I know him a lot better than you do. He’s honorable.”

“Honorable?” Tori studied her friend a moment. “He cheated on his mate.”

Sese closed her eyes and grunted at the near-accusation. “I mean that he cares about justice.”

“Yeah, but that could work for or against him,” said Tori. “Don’t you see?”

The bigger gal stared at her a long moment. “How so?”

“Well, suppose you passionately care about the guilty being punished.”

“I do!” said Sese, as if Tori had been casting doubt on her instead of her former lover.

Tori scowled. Eventually, she said, “…And there’s someone who deserves to be punished, but you can’t touch them. You can’t prove they’ve committed a crime or maybe the horrible things they do aren’t even against the law.” She cocked her head. “Wouldn’t you feel frustrated and powerless? Wouldn’t you wish there was a way you could do something about it?”

“Maybe?” Sese squeaked. She lowered her eyes. “Great. Now, I’m depressed.”

Tori glanced over at the time. “Hey. Sese. I gotta run to a meeting.”

“Okay, take care,” said Sese, brightening somewhat. “And don’t worry about the commissioner. He’ll be impressed with you! I just know it.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1REluiynB3YrroYRG_jhzd_SiuQKXWZqJjsHbQ7qadTc/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?