After a few cups of coffee, and some breakfast which my grandfather had ordered Charles to prepare for me so I’d remember to eat, I had settled down in front of my computer and begun to work. I cracked my knuckles after working for a good 15 minutes or so before I continued searching databases for any relative information.
When I had first started working as a vigilante I had to hack into the police system to get any information on open cases or possible suspects. Nowadays however I was able to log into the system using my grandfather's ID. Though he had been officially retired, the sergeant at his police station never deactivated his access to their networks, though I could never figure out why.
“Already hard at work I see.”
As if on cue my grandfather walked in wearing his old detective uniform, which consisted of a trench coat, a fedora and his old police badge, another object from his past working on the force that should have been taken back when he left.
“I could say the same for you.” I remarked as I swivelled in my chair to face him completely.
He chuckled as he shoved his hands in his pockets.
“It turns out the force is more than happy to welcome me back, if only temporarily.” He replied, as he cleared his throat. “Apparently this whole situation with you has got them in quite a tizzy.”
“They're not the only ones.” I grumbled as I took a sip of coffee.
“I’m assuming you already have a hunch to who’s behind this?” He inquired, glancing at the board I already began filling with information, theories and red string which looked like the beginning of a spider web.
“Of course.” I nodded, as I thought to the events of last night. “The appearance of the SB Mk12, as well as me being frame could only point to him.”
“Or it could just be a coincidence.” Keith interjected. “I wouldn’t recommend jumping to a conclusion so quickly. It’ll do you no good.”
“Yes, well until I find any evidence that says otherwise, I’m sticking to my instincts.” I frowned and turned back around to face my computer. “Is there anything I can help you with before I get back to work?”
“Not for me, no.” He answered. “However you can help yourself to lunch at 12:00. I should be home then briefly, but if not I’ve given the chefs instructions to leave some sandwiches in the office.”
I grunted in response, though I knew I would most likely find myself grabbing the sandwiches.
“Oh and Brian?”
I paused from scrolling through the case, and glanced at my grandfather.
“Please call your brother.” He urged. “Charles gave me a postcard from him earlier, so I know he must be somewhere near civilization.”
“I’ll give him a call later.” I sighed, as I turned away from my grandfather. “I’m sure he’s currently hungover and wouldn’t be very appreciative of anything I have to say.”
“I have no doubt, though I’m sure within the hour he’ll be back to his business.” He mused, before clearing his throat “When you do call, please urge him to stay away, if only until this whole matter is settled. I’d hate to get him involved.”
“Of course.” I replied, knowing full well Leo would more than likely find some way to put himself in harm's way if he came home now.
I heard the swish of my grandfather's coat as he turned away from me, and left me alone with my thoughts. I bit my lip as I sat, mulling over everything he had said for a moment, before I got back to work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even after hours of research, and several databases, I wasn’t anywhere closer to figuring out anything about the case. The databases even stated that the stolen Id I’d seen was erased days after the proper officer's death. I didn’t really see any point in continuing at the moment, other than it would allow me with an excuse to not call Leo yet. Frustrated, I sighed and grabbed my phone, hesitating a few times before finally hitting call. Surprisingly he answered almost immediately.
“H-Hey, Brian. Uh, funny story, I was just about to call you.”
“Why, you need to borrow some more money for your trip?”
“Hah, no i’m good, i’ve been able to get discounts at the last few hotels in return for a five star review. Though I probably bought more souvenirs than I should have.” Through the phone came the sound of metal hitting the ground.
“What was that?”
“Hmm? Oh, I’m at a cafe right now, I think one of the waiters dropped the serving pan thingy.”
“Alright. I was wondering about the key you sent me.”
“The key? Oh, right right right, the key, yeah, uh, so I found one of dad’s, ‘friends’, or rather than found me. Turns out we look just like him.”
“The point?”
“Sorry, uh, so he thought I was dad, so I explained that I was his son and that’s when he gave me the key. He said that last time he’d seen dad was a couple years after we were born when dad had given him the key.”
I scrunched my eyebrows,”Oh?”
“Yeah, dad apparently gave the key to him, saying to keep it safe for a while then he’d come back to get it but he never did.”
“And because of that you figured to send it to me because?”
“Well, you’ve always been better at solving puzzles than me, plus Keith was a detective so I figure you two would be able to figure out what the key unlocked. I’ve, always had a hard time solving even obvious puzzles. It's a lot easier for me to make the puzzles.”
While it was true that Keith and I were great at solving puzzles, Leo could just as easily stump us with his unique way of creating them.
“Leo, do you think you’d be able to help us with something?”
“Uh, sure, what is it?”
“Well Keith’s rejoined the police force and I was working with him to try and solve this one case.”
“Ok, and you think I could come up with something that would fit with the case.”
“Exactly, so what do you think.”
“I can try, what’s the case about?”
“We think someone’s framed Box-Man.”
I could tell that he was deep at thought, but he was silent for so long that for a moment I thought he hung up.
“Well if you were to frame him, you’d want the information to lie with a source that's unreliable in the first place, like a criminal.”
“That’s exactly what happened, someone got evidence that he was working with the Johnson’s.”
“Right, so that you wouldn’t be able to trust anything that they said, because even if they were telling the truth that they weren’t working with him everyone would think that they were just protecting whatever project they were working on. Then the police would have to try and hunt down Box-Man, letting them do the work and however was framing him could even put their own goons or henchmen into the police force.”
“Did you hear the announcement that Darwin Devices made?”
“You mean about the SB Mk12, yeah, the whole world was freaking out about it, I heard most of the governments in the world were already trying to buy out Darwin Devices so they’d have control over the robots.”
“We think that Darwin Devices is either working with or run by the Automaton.”
“Then he’d be able to control the robot’s and probably most of the investigation, but that seems to obvious, because Box-Man would probably be able to figure that out, and if the Automaton knew that, which he probably does, then he’d use that to try and divert Box-Man away from his real base of operations. He would probably use actual officers to control the investigation, with a fake database, so that no one would be able to find anything wrong.”
A fake database, that was it, if an officer's id was copied into a fake database the original could be deleted while the fake would still say that it was part of the original database, but the original database would say that it was terminated. I finally got the missing piece, and the rest started to fall into place.
“Leo, thank you, I think I know how to solve this case now.”
“No probably, but if you need more help just let me know, I can even be home in a couple days if you need.”
“No that's fine, just try and stick to places with cell service ok.”
“Ok, good luck, I’ll talk to you later than.”
“Bye.”
-----
After I hung up on my brother, I pushed my chair away from the desk and stood, stretching out my arms and back, which ached from leaning forward over the keyboard. Leo’s theory had been more than helpful, and had given me a piece of this puzzle that would hopefully start to shape the rest of the case.
I glanced at the clock on the wall, and realised it was nearly lunch. I sighed as hunger gripped me, before I ventured out of the room toward the study. When I arrived sandwiches were laid out as promised, though my grandfather was nowhere to be found.
I decided to wait a bit to see if he would be joining me, or staying at work for lunch. When he didn’t show up I sighed and finished my sandwich before I got up and headed to the garage to get my car.
I ran into Charles on the way who asked me if I was going out.
“Yeah, though I should be back in time for dinner.” I replied as I pulled on my coat.
“Would you like me to alert your grandfather?” He questioned, as he handed me my hat
“No, that won’t be necessary.” I answered, as I stuck my hands in my pockets. “I’ll be visiting him.”
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