The case is getting more and more complex, Who knows what’s next and another dead cat

Detective Wheele sat down again behind his desk and filed all of his paperwork, he started that morning, on the floor. Instead of them, he spread on the table his notes to the case. He got so immersed in his work he almost forgot to go home albeit the very late hour. If Mrs Hargate didn't poke her head through the door, he would keep working through the night.

`Hello, love,` she said. `What are you still doing here? The shift ended hours ago.`

`Thanks, Mrs Hargate,` smiled the detective as he raised his head. `Got a little carried away.`

`Up you get, then and run home,` smiling she pointed with her thumb out of the door. `You’ll need the strength for tomorrow.` And as she was leaving she added: `If you go now, I’ll make you some scrambled eggs and crispy bacon for breakfast tomorrow so you’ll have some extra energy,` she winked at him.

As Cog Wheele knew, no one could do eggs and bacon better than Isabella Hargate and that was enough for him to get up, turn off a desk lamp and left the office. He stopped in the middle of a corridor, turned around, returned to his office and grabbed his hat from a hanger next to his door, switched off the lights, closed the door and offered Mrs Hargate his arm.

`You won me over with those eggs` he said and together they left the building through the guarded gate to the darkness of SC6 district.

When the detective woke up the next morning, he had still his head full of a dream filled with dead cats and people in dark cloaks. He got up, splashed some water on his face, dressed in his suit, took his hat and went to the police station. When he got there, he waved at the guards, went to his office and sat behind his desk. Mrs Hargate hat to have some confidential informants somewhere, because she entered the office within a minute holding a plate filled with hot golden scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and couple of slices of fresh homemade rye sourdough bread.

`As promised,` she winked at him.

`You’re a national treasure, Mrs Hargate,` he said happily and attacked the food in front of him. When he finished, he wiped his mouth in a handkerchief and pushed the plate away. Almost instantly Mrs Hargate materialised in front of the desk and with a smile took it away.

The detective didn’t have much choice but to get back to the case. He buried himself in

his notes, kept cross referencing statements, added few more lines on the blackboard, checked the case files on CIS, but didn’t manage to figure out anything new. Around noon he was interrupted by a knock on his door.

`Enter,` he said and dr. Gloria White entered the room.

`Hi, Cog,` she warbled.

`Ah, hello Glory,` said the detective radiating his frustration. `What dragged you out of your lab?`

`Just a trifle,` she smiled. `I’ve found a new clue. Only a small one, but it could help.`

`Gimme,` said detective, gesturing towards a chair in front of his table.

`No!` she said ignoring the chair.

`What do you mean, no?` he said with more anger in his voice then he wanted to.

`I’ll tell you,` she said folding her hands, `Only if you buy me lunch.`

`Did you run out of money, again?` asked Cog laughing and winked at Gloria. `Well, of course, I'll buy you a lunch when you’re blackmailing me so nicely,` he added, grabbed his hat, offered Gloria his arm and both of them left the station heading to the near tavern in SC6.

The tavern was only about two blocks away. They walked casually chatting interrupted only by noises from surrounding houses and shouting of a mob of spectators watching a football match between SC6 and SA6 that was going on a block away in the SC5 common. Sports events were along with the city’s annual Lottery one of the few ways how to move out of the SA district. If someone was really good a team from another district would pick him up and make him a citizen of its district. And if the person was smart enough he could live there for the rest of his life (but more often they would get too cocky and spend their new money too fast so when they got too old for the sport they couldn’t support themselves any more and ended back in an SA district).

The pair's target was a small pub in SC6 because it was the closest one to the police station and thus figured as an unofficial police beer hole. SA districts didn’t have any pubs of their own as people living there seldom had enough resources to frequent such establishments making them extremely unprofitable. And because police staff was placed one district class lower then they lived.* All SA6 police personnel had access to SC districts.

When they entered the tavern, few off duty policemen waved at them. They returned the greeting and sat into a box. After a while, the publican came to the table and handed them a menu. They ordered drinks and silently started going through the dishes on the paper.

When the publican returned with their drinks both of them have already chosen.

`What would you like to eat?` he asked.

Cog gestured towards Gloria thus giving her the opportunity to go first.

`I’ll have the chicken fillet with a herb sauce and a salad on the side, please,` she said. The publican wrote it down and turned to Cog.

`And you, detective?`

`I’ll have a pepper steak with roasted potatoes.` The publican wrote that one as well and left.

`And now,` said the detective, `tell me what did you found.`

`It’s nothing major,` said Gloria. `But it could help you,` she added and looked at Cog Wheele with her big blue eyes. `The dirt we found at that fragment of the cloth is specific only to IN4 district and the easter end of SA6 And it's covered with the stuff, so it's not just cross-contamination brought by someone just dragging the dirt on their shoes. So you can expect that the perp either works in one of the IN4’s factories…`

`Or he frequently visits the end of Factory Street I or Factory Street II,` finished the detective. `That is not an insignificant find.` He tried to visualise the neighbourhood. `Because the crossing between SA6 and the rest of the city is strictly monitored, it was probably someone who lives in SA6. What kind of spread are we talking about in SA6?` he asked.

`Because of the wall, it's not very large. About two to four blocks from the district border,` she said and flickered her eyelashes at him.

At that time the publican came back with plates and put the food on their table. They both ate in silence. Cog Wheele was fully buried in his thoughts and his steak but Gloria sheepishly glanced at him from time to time. When they finished they pushed their plates on a side of the table and just looked at each other silently for a while. Cog tried to stretch his legs and accidentally brushed them against Gloria’s ankles. He quickly shuffled his feet under his chair and mumbled an apology. A slight shade of pink appeared in her face for a second and she, with a smile somewhere between sheepish and foxy, lowered her eyes for a second. Cog smiled a little as well, opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment someone coughed behind him and when he turned he saw a young constable with a helmet stuck under his arm.

`Constable?` he said.

`Sorry to bother you, detective,` he said standing in attention. `But we found another cat.`

`Dead?` asked Gloria.

`Yes,` answered the constable. `But that’s not all. An old vagrant named Higgins was sleeping nearby, he stopped one of our guys and showed the cat to him.`

Being a vagrant in one of the SA districts was quite unusual. In a place where houses owned by the city are not maintained and people don't pay any rent for them, it takes a special kind of bad luck to stay on a street. SA district was a place for people who couldn't afford even a fourpenny coffin in an IN district, which was considered very bad luck in parts of the city outside of SA districts, so not being able to find an empty cot or at least a chair in one of the houses didn’t happen that often.

Detective straighten up and gestured to the constable to continue.

`Sir, Higgins says he saw a silhouette of a person in a hooded cloak who caught the cat with one hand and with the other slit its throat in one slice. Higgins coughed at that moment which scared the perp, who dropped the dead cat buggered off.`

`Where did it happened?`

`Just off the Factory Street I in another alley between numbers 85 and 87.`

`Thanks, constable,` the detective said. `Were the lab and the autopsy informed?`

`Yes, sir. The doctor is there and so are boys from the crime scene unit.`

`And I am nothing?` asked Gloria with a smirk and constable dropped his helmet. His ears glowing red he picked it up and mumbled an apology.

`Where did you put Higgins?`

`In an interview room at the station.`

`Perfect,` said the detective and waved him away. The constable saluted and left.

Wheel raised his hand and lightly hammered on a wooden post next to the box to call the publican who appeared almost instantly.

`Is there anything else I can get you?` he asked.

`No, thank you,` said Wheele.

`Do you wish to pay now?`

`Can you put it on my tab?`

`No problem,` said the publican. `You can cover it after payday, as always.`

`Naturally,` said Wheele and stood up taking his hat, helped Gloria on her feet and both of them left the pub.

`Do you want me to come as well?` asked Gloria.

`Why not,` answered the detective. `It’s always good to have an extra pair of eyes.`

And with that, they huddled closer to each other, passed through the guarded door at the police station to the SA6 district and went straight to the eastern end of Factory Street I.

Footnotes:

*Except the top tier that was manned only by the top police brass and the safety on its streets was enforced by a government-appointed guard