Future Written In Blood (Death Note)

Episode 5--B

"Know what this is, know what this isn't," Sergeant Hill said, pacing in front of their desks. He towered, he loomed, his words boomed as if he were shouting them down from the heavens themselves.

"I know exactly what this is," Alex said, sitting ramrod in a chair, their features distant, watching from the ground at a thundering god. "I expected the lecture, sire."

"What he means to say, but respectfully of course," James said, leaning against the desk, "Is that we received the memo. Limited investigation, in and out, one month tops unless we find anything."

"Even then, for your little game, maybe I'll assign the cases...you know what, know, you know me too well. No, I won't do that. I can't even step you from digging into other nonsense, the Captain said you've got his balls in a vice. And you haven't even bought him a drink and make him feel like a lady."

Alex tried not to chuckle.

Hill's voice was cutting, "He won't forget it. But he can forgive it if--"

"If?" James asked, eager to oblige.

"If the media doesn't get wind of this, if you find something that makes it worthwhile, then maybe you get extra credit. But if they learn that you're looking into mysterious deaths that clearly aren't murders, let alone that, according to rumors, you think it somehow has to do with that Principal's death weeks again--and let me assure you, I don't forbid anyone from being a superstitious freak, hail mary full of grace and all that shit--but make sure it doesn't get out."

"What would they do?" James asked.

"Mock us. If it gets out, you'll reget it. Our repulation is on the line."

"Understood, sir,"

"Yeah," Alex echoed. Sergeant Hill was a very smart man, and dedicated and good at his job, but he sometimes saw his job in a different way. He saw the department, not the murders. He was so good at looking at the bigger picture that he missed the biggest picture. It made it frustrating to interact with him, to say the least.

"Yeah?"

"Yes, sir," Alex said.

The Sergeant nodded, and as soon as he left, Alex started grinning, brushing back the blonde wig they were wearing. "We won."

"It looks like it," James said, "So how are we going to do this?"

"Ignore the politicians for now. We have a month," Alex said, nodding and then standing up, ready to gesture in the air if need be. They'd been thinking about this for long enough that they'd put together a picture in their mind of where to go from here. It wasn't a perfect picture, but it was a direction, and their own tiring, stressful (if fun) work as Jack, working with Damien to spy on Mr. Sellers, had shown them the way.

"So you're going to rush it? What if we fail?" James said, frowning and walking over to where Alex was.

"How can we?" Alex said, "We're the best duo in the unit, and we already have narrowed our suspect's list down to thirty-one people."

"We have, when?"

"Since Mr. Sellers mentioned the former dictator's surgery."

"Oh, that," James said, "And you're sure that means that he's involved?"

"No. But I think it's decent enough evidence that right now we should assume that somewhere in his class roster...or at the top of it, where teacher name is listed, is the killer. And while normally he teaches a literature class as well, this semester he declined."

"So we just have to go through thirty-one suspects," James said, "Real easy."

"Sarcasm?" Alex asked, "Right now we have a few hints. We can eliminate at least some of them, given time, but most of the major suspects, including Wendell, are in that class."

"Really? Well damn. But they're not going to stop, right? They definitely will keep on killing. I'm going to try to pay attention to the news more, see if we find anything at all."

"If they stop now, then there's only so much we can do," Alex said with a shrug, "Yet...it'd be better if nobody else had to die."

Alex sighed, "But that's not an option, is it?"

"No, never," James said, "Let's just do our best."

*******

Mr. Sellers: "So, everyone doing DIs at the tournament this weekend, feel free to use the side-room, and if you want to show me any of it, I'll be available for critiques. Anyone doing LDs, feel free to come up."
*Rustling sounds as Damien,with phone hidden away, gets up. People are babbling, talking.*
Damien: "So, like, here you go. I have the basics set up for pro and con."

Alex's quick check shows that the topic for this month is "Should the Death Penalty be abolished?" They nod to themselves and start up the audio again.

Mr. Sellers: "Hrm, good, good, but I'd add two different arguments. For con, you should emphasize the efficiency argument a little more, or at least have it there in case your previous conclusions get knocked down. Five percent false convictions of death penalty inmates means that executing them kills more than a few innocents."
Damien: "Yeah, and that sucks."
Mr. Sellers: "Killing innocents certainly does suck. But there is a counter-argument for pro, if they bring it up. The question is about abolishing the death penalty, so you could point out that in the case of certain crimes, the chance of innocence doesn't exist, and then for those people, you should have the option to kill them, and then tie it together with your third and fifth point."
Damien: "What sorta people?"
Mr. Sellers: "Well, false convictions among people charged of multiple murders, serial-killer style, are pretty low."
Damien: "So they should be killed?"
Mr. Sellers: "This is a debate, Damien. You have to have arguments for each side, and then you think through why each point might or might not be right. If you have a moral dislike for state sponsored killings, then the crime of the person shouldn't matter, but many of the debaters are going to make it conditional--"
Damien: "Right, right."

Alex notes that his voice is loud enough to have carried to a decent portion of the classroom, and that it's also probably an opinion he's expressed before. Still, it's interesting. Alex is building up a profile of sorts of the possible viewpoints of Mr. Sellers. He seems to be in favor of violence, or at least willing to accept it, in cases of fighting a greater evil, and at times he's expressed a willingness to talk about death as a solution to the problems of the world.

On the other hand, he's argued against excessive punishment at times. He was, in other words, an intelligent man, who could argue both sides: which fit with the fact that he was the Debate coach. But could also fit all sorts of other things.

The pieces were coming together.

******

People lie, all too often, but there are also other times when they tell the truth, and that's often when they don't know they had a reason to lie. Ask the right people, and they point out that Slick Willy left the bar about an hour and a half before the murder--not that they phrase it that way--and got into J's car. J Man, a minor player, had a car with a description that exactly matched the one at the scene.

Alex listened to their stories, and began to put things together. Three people went there, and there was testimony that linked Willy to the car, and the car to the scene of the murder. That linked his limping to the murder as well.

If this was so, then two out of the three names were gotten now: J-Man and Slick Willy. That left just one more person. Smack, Tyson, Hot Mike, Dyvon. One of them was with them. But the problem now was that the evidence? This was all circumstances. They needed a confession, or something to tie them physically to the scene.

...and they knew there had to be something of that kind. It wasn't their specialty, but...it could be important for this case.

Still, even with just those two people, with--

The car. That was a loose end. If there was any hint of evidence in the car, then it'd create some continuity between the crime scene and the car.

Either way, arresting either of the two known elements was premature, but if one of them turned or flipped--unlikely as it was--then both of them would.

Alex rubbed their eyes, sighing a little, and they almost didn't notice James coming in.

"Hey, I think there's something. Or maybe there isn't," James said.

It was Thursday, and they'd spent three or four days just setting things up. Just putting down what they knew and studying the tapes and information.

"Oh?"

"Over the past few days, two serial killers have died. One of suicide, and one in an accident," James said, "It could be nothing, but I was listening to the audio, and that could mean something, right?"

"It...doesn't fit what they were doing before, which killers?"

"One in the Ukraine, who had been imprisoned for decades. He was a communist official who hid his crimes using his authority and was only caught once the end came. No serial killers in Communist Paradise," James said, "And the other is Isiah 'Teacher' Smith. He went around kidnapping women he thought were too uppity and then tortured and raped them. He was finally caught, two dozen women in, when it kidnapped a Vice-President of a corporation and she fought back and managed to call the police…"

Alex blinked, "Huh. Oh. I remember that one."

The woman had actually been killed and he'd gotten away, but he'd left behind so much physical evidence that he'd been caught after that. "Yep," Jame said, "Another inmate bumped him or something and he tripped and fell down the stairs, hit his head the wrong way, and that's the way it all goes. I think he's in a coma, but…"

"Unlikely that he'll ever wake up." People who fell into comas mostly just died, no matter what movies said.

"So, there we go. Do you think it's them?"

"So, first death on…"

"Monday," James said, "Same day as the recording of him talking about serial killers. Second early this morning, so that's a three day gap. Maybe planning? Not sure."

"Planning's possible," Alex said, "Everything's possible."

And there was the problem. At least they had leads, though.


Alex (Choose 2)

[] [Alex] Investigate Mr. Sellers, as covertly as possible. Police record, people he knew, that sort of thing.
[] [Alex] Covertly investigate Rachel.
[] [Alex] Talk to Wendell: he's in the class, and whether or not he's really a suspect, he might have important knowledge.
[] [Alex] Set up a meeting/go undercover to see if there's anyone who is more or less likely to have been there, of the four possible lead killers in the murder of Rick.
[] [Alex] Look into the Guiltmonger website. Use fake personas to see just what might be known, see if Mr. Sellers is involved...and try to find potential future murders on it.
[] [Alex] Follow news stories.
[] [Alex] Try to build up a profile of the kinds of deaths the killer is likely to engage in.
[] Write-in.

James (Choose 1)

[] [James] Talk to Wendell. Might be better to have someone not seen as involved talking to them.
[] [James] Talk to Rachel, have his own crack at her.
[] [James] Follow the News.
[] [James] Look into the physical evidence of Rick's murder again. Something is nagging at the back of James' mind, some detail.
[] [James] Consult sources/ask questions about GuiltMonger.
[] Write-in.

Investigative Actions (Choose One): These are actions that both take together, as part of any of their Investigations.

[] [Invest] Ask for help from Narcotics on the Rick case, they might have something, or might not.
[] [Invest] Begin to narrow down the list of thirty-one suspects by checking people individually for political views. Anyone (any of the few people) who has pro-Mayor points of view can be eliminated, as can anyone who doesn't have access to certain bits of information. Then look at who is left.
[] [Invest] Begin building up predictions of future murders, perhaps as a way to 'prove' that something is happening.
[] [Invest] Look into the serial killings? Is it possible there's a pattern there?
[] [Invest] The mayor's death is suspicious, as are the deaths around it. Who leaked all of that information? Was it one of the dead men? If so, then how did the killer choose it?
[] Write-in.

*****

A/N: And here we go! It starts to get complicated...but Alex starts to move in.