Obsidian Detective

by Michael Anderle

  Chapter Twenty

  Erik looked at Jia. She might be naïve, but at least she’s not incompetent.

  Erik waited in the driver’s seat of his MX 60 as Jia examined the recent Windward shipping records. Small text windows floated in front of her, and she swiped and jabbed at them, her eyes darting back and forth as she reviewed the information.

  Every once in a while, she mumbled something under her breath, but nothing intelligible. After five minutes, she shook her head and furrowed her brow.

  “The account numbers all seem to match Smythe’s information,” Jia explained. “But there’s no clear record of what was being shipped, and something seems off. Pick-up and delivery were confirmed, but there’s not a lot in the way of tracking, otherwise. Arguably, this form isn’t compliant with relevant recordkeeping laws, but I’m not well versed with them, not enough to mount a useful threat if we were to go back in there.”

  Erik glanced her way. “Maybe they didn’t bother to fill in the information because they wanted to hide what was being shipped from casual review.”

  “I thought about that, but something doesn’t make sense about that as the explanation.” Jia frowned.

  “How do you figure?”

  She focused on him. “Why hand them over so easily? Even given your…implied actions, if they were doing something wrong, you would have figured they would have fought harder to avoid us getting this.” Jia tapped her bottom lip. “Unless they think we won’t understand or know what we’re looking for. If I’m reading this information correctly, the origination address is a park, and the delivery destination is a funeral home. That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Erik chuckled. “Maybe they decided to skip the middleman and transfer some stiff to the funeral home.”

  “Not without processing the body first.” Jia shook her head. “Maybe this is just some stupid prank after all. Some clever teen who decided to mess with a few insecure systems.” She stopped and tapped her lips. “That might explain the odd addresses.”

  Erik frowned at the implications. “Does it have a time of delivery? And does it say exactly where it was picked up from at the park?”

  Jia shook her head, focusing on the data. “No. This form is missing many details. It’s worthless even for internal recordkeeping. This is embarrassing for them, even if it’s not related to a crime.”

  “We can go through the cameras, but I doubt we’ll find much.” Erik smirked. “Hope you don’t mind funeral homes.”

  Jia glanced at him. “As long as they aren’t committing any crimes.”

  A moment later, as the flitter lifted, she added, “And walking dead people. Not really wild about them, either.”

  “So, no zombie pictures?”

  “Not a one.”

  Erik shifted to get comfortable as he settled beside Jia in his black chair.

  They were in a back office at the Forever Remembered Funeral Home. The building lay halfway across town from the delivery origination.

  They had called ahead to explain why they were coming, and the funeral home receptionist made it clear the head mortician was eager to meet with them as soon as possible.

  Cecily sat on the other side of a black glass desk. She was a tall, pale woman with long, dark hair that almost matched her black dress.

  Erik tried not to laugh at the whole Goddess of Death vibe she had surrounding her.

  At least she was smiling as she folded her hands in front of her. Real fresh flowers, irises mostly, sat in dark vases on the desk, adding a small splash of color to an otherwise dreary room.

  “Before I talk to you about my records, Detectives,” Cecily began, her formal voice putting Erik on edge, “I just wanted to point out that law enforcement personnel have a higher rate of sudden death via accidents than many other professions.”

  “I doubt that,” Erik replied, which had Jia turning to stare at him. “What?” he asked. “What danger has the team encountered while you have been working? I know I don’t have enough time.”

  “It’s not just detectives,” Cecily interrupted him. “But traffic cops as well, and of course, the worst of the worst.”

  “What, death by donuts?” Erik interjected.

  “Civil disturbances by married couples fighting,” Cecily spouted, not appreciating Erik’s humor or his interruption of her pitch. “While I’m sure your department has various funds set aside to ensure your loved ones are taken care of, have you put much thought into what you intend to do with yourself after you die?”

  He snickered. “I used to be a soldier. I doubt I’m going to get killed as a cop on Earth anytime soon, and I’m not sure I care much what happens after I die since I’m not going to be able to do anything about it.”

  Jia grimaced.

  Cecily nodded and gave him a concerned look. “It might seem obvious, but it bears repeating, Detective. It’s when we’re alive that we have the best opportunity to influence our afterlife. You could die after leaving this building.” She turned. “Or you.”

  Jia leaned forward, stage-whispering to the lady as she pointed to Erik with her head. “He’s driving.”

  Erik turned. “What about my driving?”

  Jia glanced over. “You avoid the automatic piloting like an unmarried man avoids a paternity test.”

  Erik’s hands opened wide. “And yet we are still here, and alive.”

  Cecily took back over. “Death can come when and how we least expect it, and even the best medical technology can’t bring you back to life, Detective Lin. You should really consider what those options are. This is a full-service facility. We offer a variety of burials in multiple cemetery zones, both local and outside the metroplex. For those who prefer more…classic burials, we even have surface-level plots. Standard cremation’s…”

  “My driving is not going to kill you,” Erik interrupted.

  Jia pointed to Cecily. “She says I need to be prepared.”

  “She says this stuff all day, every day,” Erik replied. “It’s called a sales pitch.”

  “He,” Jia pointed in Erik’s direction, “isn’t from around here. He was on the frontier for most of his life.”

  “Well,” Cecily sniffed, “while our funeral home doesn’t handle interstellar burials, we can, for a fee, put you in touch with companies that handle such matters. You’ll find the financing for such things surprisingly affordable.” She eyed Erik. “Provided you plan a few decades ahead.”

  The mortician tapped her PNIU, and several three-dimensional images of happy families appeared. One family stood around a grave on a massive platform filled with a verdant garden, several holographic grave markers floating over it.

  Erik glanced at the images

  Another image depicted caskets being loaded into a cargo container outside a mass of stacked cylinders and tubes marking a space station.

  He glanced at Jia, trying to understand if she was caught up in the pitch or pulling his leg.

  In a third image, a smiling child looked up a holographic depiction of his father floating in the sky. All the images had the same bright text at the bottom.

  HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEND ETERNITY? DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE TO DECIDE

  Smaller text continued the sales pitch right below it.

  Death is a stressful time of transition. Don’t make your loved ones have to deal with additional pain. A variety of options are available, and financing is available for people of varying backgrounds.

  Erik frowned. Money. It always comes down to money.

  Cecily looked at Jia and Erik with a plastic smile. “Interactive holograms are one of our most popular options, but most people don’t fully appreciate that the programs require decent input before the time of passing.” She placed her palms together in front of her.

  Jia cut in, “Thank you for meeting with us, Cecily, but this isn’t a meeting about our burial requirements. We need to know about that delivery information. It’s part of a formal fraud investigation, and I’d appreciate if we co
uld confine ourselves to that topic.”

  “Fraud?” Cecily leaned back and let out a long sigh. “It’s very unfortunate. When one stares at death all day, one learns that the petty concerns such as money aren’t worth such extraordinary efforts. It’s pathetic, really.”

  “What was delivered here?” Jia asked. “That’s all we need to know. To be clear, we’re not accusing you or your funeral home of anything. We appreciate your eager cooperation. You might in fact be the victim of a prank.”

  Cecily’s eyes darted back and forth for a moment as she perused records on her smart contacts. She pursed her lips and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Detective. I looked at the information you sent me, and it doesn’t match any deliveries we’ve received. We don’t even use this Windward company. You’re free to look around if you think it would help. The death of everyone currently being processed in our facility is a matter of public record.”

  Jia frowned. “You have no idea why your address would be on the shipping records?”

  “Not the faintest. I’m sorry. I wish I could help.” Cecily smiled. “Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions, and I’ll only quickly note that all government employees receive a ten percent discount off our services, excluding certain premium services, including, but not limited to solar cremation and lunar burial.” She looked at Erik. “Please note that veterans receive a ten percent discount as well.” She winked at him. “The discounts would stack in your favor.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind if I die anytime soon,” Erik offered. He stood. “Unfortunately, I think we’re done here for now.”

  She nodded to both of them. “It was lovely meeting you, Detectives. I do hope to see you again soon to discuss how you want to spend eternity.”

  Erik chuckled. “Yeah, uh, sure. I’ll think about that.” He stepped out and started for the front door.

  Jia stood as well, then reached out her hand to shake. “Thank you for your time.”

  Cecily reached out and grabbed Jia’s hand. “You tell him to work on his driving,” She spoke in a stage-whisper.

  “I heard that!” Erik called back down the hall.

  The ladies shared a chuckle.

  A few moments later, the detectives slid into Erik’s MX 60 and prepared to head back to the station.

  “You might want to set up your safety harness,” Erik pointed to an extra belt that wrapped across Jia’s chest.

  “Do what?” She turned and saw what he was pointing to.

  “You never know,” he told her as the vehicle lifted smoothly. “I might do something drastic, and then you would need her services while I’m flying.”

  Jia grabbed the extra belt and pulled it across her. “I’m going to regret those comments, aren’t I?”

  “Not on purpose,” he admitted, hitting the acceleration and pressing them both into the seat.

  “I don’t think she’s lying,” Jia commented a moment or two after he’d slowed a bit. “Or if she is, she’s very good at it, and the receptionist made it sound like she was eager to talk to us.”

  “I think she was eager to talk to us, but not for the right reasons.” Erik’s voice was neutral. “And I don’t think she was lying either. I think she just didn’t want to send us an immediate message back telling us she didn’t know anything because she wanted to try to con us into putting ten thousand credits down as a deposit for a lunar burial or buy a gold coffin.”

  “There are gold coffin options?”

  “Seriously?” Erik asked.

  “Hey!” She kept a straight face. “I don’t know, with your driving.”

  “I’m not going to kill you.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.” She looked at the data. “I wish I could follow up on the earlier Windward analysis I performed.” Jia frowned. “But the captain’s sent the case along already, and we’d have to convince him to back us if we wanted to go look into that information.” She glanced at a couple of buildings they passed, noting in one set of windows a woman in a white shirt yelling into her comm device. “It’s not just a matter of regulations. We won’t be able to easily access the information without him coding it that way in the system.”

  Erik’s shoulders twitched. “We can do that if you want, but are you sure we’ve exhausted all our leads with the information we have? Right now, he’s letting us run this all down, and that doesn’t require any extra codes, right?”

  Jia nodded. “We do have copies of the records from Windward. Maybe Digital Forensics can turn up something. I’ll have to get with them.”

  “It’s worth a shot. It’s been a busy day. I’ll drop you off and then go get some rest.” Erik grinned. “For all you know, we’ve stumbled upon insurrectionists, and you don’t want to be dragging your feet when they’re trying to run you over.

  Jia rolled her eyes. “I doubt that, but I know this is bigger than it seems.” A soft smile spread over her face.

  Erik couldn’t say he didn’t like it. “What is it?” he asked.

  “It…feels good.” Jia looked at him. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is my job, and thanks to you, I’m getting to do just that.” She turned back to her data. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Erik smiled as he watched the traffic.

  For the moment, he had every intention of doing the best job he could as a cop. In the end, that might be the only way he would get access to the tools he needed to investigate Mu Arae.

  * * *

  June 25, 2228, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Digital Forensics Division, Office of Malcolm Constantine

  Erik and Jia were crammed into a tiny office on a lower level of the police station. A man with dirty blond hair in a Hawaiian shirt sat behind his desk, a triumphant smile on his face.

  Jia gestured to her partner and then to the man. “Erik, this is Malcolm. He’s one of the best techs in Digital Forensics.”

  “Why is that?” Erik asked.

  “Because I said so.” Malcolm smirked. “If you can’t believe me based on my personal opinion, what does that say about your ability to believe me on my professional opinions?”

  “It’s because of this,” Jia pointed to the man, “that I call him the best in digital forensics.”

  Erik eyed him. “Because he wears Hawaiian shirts?” He scratched his chin. “I will admit, you don’t see those on the outer worlds.”

  “No.” She shook her head, annoyed. “Because of these self-promotion arguments. I figure he just wants to sit here and argue in circles. I’m more than willing to stroke his ego as long as he performs.” She waved her PNIU. “I sent him the information yesterday evening, and he already has something for us. Based on what he gave me a little earlier, I think some of our initial suspicions might be right.”

  Erik stepped up and shook the man’s hand. “Glad for the help.”

  “Of course.” Malcolm’s shake was fast but not firm. “And you gave me something interesting to do this week. They’ve had me double-checking traffic fines for most of the last couple of weeks.” He grimaced.

  “Sorry to make you do a lot of work over a hundred credits.” She had to agree with his distaste for the traffic fine effort. “But I think there’s something more. There were some earlier records I performed some correlation analysis on that might be interesting for you to go through, but right now, we need to keep our focus on the records I sent over.”

  Malcolm pulled up files, the slight glimmer in the air telling Erik he had added another set. “It wasn’t a big deal, and I think this is about a lot more than a hundred credits.” His eyes flicked from hologram window to hologram window. “Oh, by the way, I did a quick check of the cameras at the park you mentioned, since I had the time. There were no Windward pickups that day anywhere in the park or immediately around it that I could tell. I ran a bunch of auto-filters on it, too.”

  Erik’s brow lifted. “Wait on the park comment for a second. Why do you think this is about a lot more than a hundred credits?”
He watched the man carefully.

  “Because that file’s been obviously altered.” Malcolm shook his head, his face twisted in annoyance. “I can tell that just from the copies of the records. It’s like they didn’t even care to try to hide it. What’s the point of doing something like that if you’re not going to do a good job?” Malcolm’s eyes flicked to Erik. “It’s kind of an insult, you know? It’d be like some terrorist trying to bomb a building right in front of you guys. They might as well have just left a note saying, ‘This file altered. Sorry!’”

  “They’ve been altered?” Jia thought for a moment. “That’s not all that surprising when we consider both the park and funeral home. Know who altered them?”

  Malcolm shrugged. “You got me, Detective. If I had direct access to the Windward systems, maybe I could figure that out, but it’s clear to me that somebody changed the data. Among other things, several internal checksums are off.” Jia saw his screens change. “I can go through the gory details if you want, but the high-level summary is, those are real records where the underlying data have been altered. I won’t be able to recover it from the copy, but I might be able to recover it from the source if I had direct access.”

  Jia shook her head. “If we don’t know who, then we don’t know why. I doubt they were trying to frame the funeral home. It was probably just a convenient address.”

  “They probably thought no one would check that closely,” Erik suggested. “But if the people at Windward altered the records, it’s like you said. I’m surprised they gave them up so easily.”

  “I had some time to think about that,” Jia offered. “I assume it was easy because you threatened them. Erik, I think you underestimate how unused to casual threats of violence people on Earth are.”

  He shook his head, his hands up as if to fend off the accusation. “I never threatened them. I just pointed out certain possibilities. They obviously have something to hide, but not something so important that they didn’t stall longer. Unless they think we’ll never find it.”

  Malcolm looked at the two of them and laughed. “I don’t even think I want to know what happened. I’ll send this to your PNIUs. If you need anything else, just let me know. Remember,” he smiled at them both, a glint of mischievousness in his eyes, “if you can get me direct systems access, I can find out a lot more.”