The drive back to the Official Quarter led Laith back through the pleasant landscapes and vistas that Heliopolis had to offer, but he could hardly enjoy them. He was too busy swinging through theories in his mind.

If I assume that Lockwood killed his wife and ran off, it may explain his Slate being in the Ruins and his disappearance so close to the time of Cassia Grove’s murder. Laith could imagine Lockwood returning home, getting into some kind of heated argument with his wife, grabbing a knife from the kitchen and stabbing her in the back. He wouldn’t even need to use her Slate to get out of the house; he would simply use his own. He would need to check the logs on the door to see whose Slate had been used to open the front door at the time of the murder – something he was now downloading from PATET – and see if his theory held any water.

The matter of the fingerprints kept nagging at him, however. Whose fingerprints were they? Could they have been false prints – fakes, like the kind the [Robber Name] used when trying to steal various luxury vehicles? But why go through all that trouble if you’re going to make a run for it and escape the city limits, anyway? It didn’t make much sense.

Laith rubbed his eyes tiredly and checked the logs, the download now complete. He opened them, focusing on the entries starting from when Cassia Grove returned to her home in the Hills that day and beyond.

16:24 – Slate: Cassia Grove – E – U/L

16:37 – Slate: Cassia Grove – I – U/L

16:47 – Slate: Aster Lockwood – I – U

The records showed that Cassia Grove had unlocked the door externally – from the outside – and closed it shut behind her, setting off the automatic locking mechanism. About 13 minutes later, she unlocked the door from the inside – presumably to answer it and see who was outside, Laith supposed. It had to have been Aster Lockwood, because ten minutes later, his Slate was used to unlock the door from inside, and from there it was left open, which corroborated the fact that the emergency medical response team had not needed to break down the door or force unlock in order to enter the house and attempt to assist the victim.

Laith was beginning to think that Aster Lockwood had indeed killed his wife and managed to disappear before anyone could find him, leaving behind the fake fingerprints in order to throw the police off long enough for him to escape Heliopolis. He could be anywhere in the Ruins now.

Laith hated to think that the man had gotten away with murder. As his car rolled to a smooth stop at the front of the Heliopolis Police HQ, Laith checked to see if the Rinvestigator Captain Fox had requested for him had arrived yet.

R-Investigator 24955: Access granted. Awaiting instruction.

Thank God. At the very least, I can try to locate him before the day is through, Laith thought grimly as he made his way into the building.

It was time to go hunting in the Ruins.