Blink and You Might Miss It

Summer 2021, Week 4, Tuesday early morning

The Port, Port Victoria

Storyteller

A large section of the street was blocked off in a usually busy part of town, to keep the eyes of the public from the crime scene. Already there was a group of anti-evo protestors forming at the blockade because one of them caught sight of the body and who it was. The officers at the blockade let John through once they see his identification.
In the center of the street was a body positioned as if laying in a coffin, with two people standing about three feet away from the corpse on either side. One of them is holding a piece of paper with a gloved hand, seemingly reading the contents. Both of them turn to look as the newcomer approaches.
"You again?" one of them says in an irritated tone the moment they set their eyes on them. "Jesus Christ, this case is complicated enough without the chief getting others involved. Next thing ya know the feds will be sticking their nose in this, or worse: the EHEA.." He sighs, turning his gaze back to the paper.
"Are you at least getting paid this time?" the other one asks.

Blink

”I don’t require compensation.” Blink responded with a very matter-of-fact tone, more focused on the curious scene laid out before them than small talk with the two officers. They kneeled down and inspected the body for any signs for the cause of death. Burn marks, stab or bullet wounds, marks on the neck or an irregularly colored tongue from strangulation, any little detail to help discover the killer and bring justice to the lost life. “Does that piece of parchment provide any clues to this case?”

Storyteller

The body has several stab wounds but seemingly nothing else. The body is almost perfectly laid out and very little blood can be seen on the ground beneath it.
" 'Those who needlessly flaunt or abuse their power do not deserve to keep it, nor their life.' " the officer holding the paper reads the contents aloud. "It was placed into the victim's hand after the body was brought here. At least we believe the body was moved here and that the murder took place in another location."
The other officer quickly chimes in, giving the newcomer what little information they had so far. "Victim is Jeffery Markus Fletcher, age 29. Was a dock worker here in the port with only minor offenses on his record. He was reported this morning as an evo using his powers to attack a group of people, but rigor mortis suggests he was already dead before the report. My guess is it was a vengeance killing directly following the attack but there's very little to go on so far."

Blink

”Was the report anonymous, and did the reporter know the body was here?” Blink asked, curious about who would call in a crime after the perpetrator is already dead.
The lack of blood drew their attention. They pondered how long the body would had to have been deceased before being moved to have no blood lying around, and checked to see around the time the individual died.

Storyteller

"The report was made by a Travis Blackwell, but it was done over the phone and we didn't get much more out of him. We're still trying to track them down for further questioning. And this is where they said the attack took place, late yesterday afternoon. Apparently our victim could conjure flames and severely burned two people.. We've yet to get anyone else to corroborate that story, though we are looking for anyone admitted to the hospital with severe burns in the hopes we can get another witness."
"All of this is assuming this Travis was telling the truth and isn't our perp trying to throw us off the trail.." the one with the note added as he placed the paper into an evidence bag.
After having taken a closer look at the body it becomes apparent that rigor mortis has been advancing at a rapid pace. Already it seems like the body has been dead for two days at minimum, potentially longer, and yet there are other signs that suggest the death occurred relatively recently. It also seems that one of the stab wounds was larger than the rest, as if the knife was plunged deeper into the body than the others. The wound in question was directly over the heart and likely the cause of death, and yet there is not much blood stained around the wound as one would expect from being stabbed in the heart.

Blink

”Do you have access to a dock schedule detailing who would have been present yesterday? I would like to speak with potential eye witnesses if that would not be too much trouble.”
Blink’s mind roamed about what questions to ask the witnesses. Surely they would need confirmation that it all happened here, and if it did they would need details on exactly how everything went down. Even if it didn’t all happen here, maybe someone saw the culprit dump the body and flee.

Storyteller

"Look it up. I'm sure if the Chief brought you in on this he probably gave you access to our files back at the station. But hundreds of people work in this region of the port alone, good luck figuring out who was here off that alone. Conveniently, for the perp at least, this area has no cameras that could have gotten us photographic evidence to work off of, either. Forensics is on the way but something tells me we won't be lifting any prints from this scene, I get the feeling whoever did this knows how to cover their tracks."

Blink

Blink ponders about any other potential clues as to how they could discover the culprit, but nothing seems as reliable as finding an eye witness, so they exchange closing formalities with the two officers and head over to the station. Their eyes dart around the scene on the way out with the anticipation of potentially solving such a difficult case and finding out what exactly occurred here.

Storyteller

As they leave, the anti-evo protesters are at their loudest and angriest and are just barely held back by the police barricade. It seems at some point the idea that the victim was a violent evo was spread through the public as the protesters yell out claims such as 'he deserved it', with some even calling for an end to the investigation as 'there's nothing to investigate' or asking the police to 'investigate human deaths'.

Blink

Blink takes in as many faces as they can before leaving, not one to pass up an opportunity to see these peoples’ true character.

Police Headquarters, City Centre

Storyteller

The headquarters was buzzing with activity. Detectives and officers were coming and going as well as moving from place to place within, with very few people actually sitting at their desks. Towards the middle of the room was a completely unused desk and computer which was assigned to Blink by the chief for the duration of this case. One of the few people at their desk, a young man typing away at high speeds, occasionally glances at Blink.

John "Blink" Doe

They glance back at the man once but pay little mind as they make for the desk. Quickly, they boot up the computer and login using the set of credentials that they had always used for NVPD computers that were on loan to them like this. Once logged in, it was a simple matter to bring up the worker schedule for the docks within the information already collected for the case. Roughly 30,000. If I filter it to those who work near the crime scene I get 4127 results.. What if I narrow it down further by those scheduled to work on the day the crime was committed? 583 results. Perhaps filtering out those who worked the night shift might help, as this supposed argument happened in the afternoon. 311 results. Getting there.
Blink went on like that for some time, filtering the pool of potential witnesses based on various factors and even checking the list and their known addresses to rule out those who were simply unlikely to be in the area after their shift as the story suggests happened, based on their likely path back home and any potential detours to stores or bars and the like. They ultimately arrive at a list of 17 individuals after several hours, which compared to the thousands they started with is an impressive difference.
As Blink prints the list and begins heading over to the printer to pick it up, they notice the young man from before who is now staring at them. In that moment a flash of memory comes back to Blink, an image of this same young man in a lab coat. With this image comes a terrible feeling, a despair that only seemed to grow the longer they held eye contact. Eventually Blink continues to the printer, breaking eye contact. Quickly they grab the list and make their way to the door, turning off the computer on the way. As they do this Blink starts focusing on the man staring at them, and suddenly the man is unsure if this is the first time he's seen Blink. Then, after he thinks about it for a bit and reassures himself a headache forms and he loses focus, shifting his gaze for a moment as he puts a hand on his forehead. By the time he goes back to look for Blink again they are no where to be seen, as he only catches a glimpse of them but is quickly made to forget that tiny segment of time. To him it would be as if Blink vanished amid the sudden mental strain that overcame him.

[Pather: x1 Basic, x1 Minor, x1 Normal, -4 EP (21/25)]

Type

Record, Historical

Medium

Digital Recording, Text

Authoring Date

July 13, 2021

Authors

• John "Blink" Doe