Tori (Patreon)

So, Tori has gotten dire threats from the deputy commissioner, scared the crap out of her mate, met the neighbors, intimidated the chief of security, and now is getting a good feel for just how unstable things are on this ship. At this point, I think she'll go and do some interviews. I've posted some of these earlier:

 https://www.patreon.com/posts/tori-1-37011595 

 https://www.patreon.com/posts/tori-37747289 

After those, she'll return home...

——— 

Tori turned the corner and was surprised to find two security officers standing outside the neighbor’s door. Security Chief Tipohee was speaking with Biiz while a muscular female stood nearby, looking intimidating.

Tori raised her voice, “Chief?”

Tipohee spun and his whole demeanor soured when he recognized the investigator. Then he took a moment to straighten up before addressing her. “This has nothing to do with your murder investigation. Go on about your business.”

“Oh, Tori!” shouted Biiz with clear relief in his voice. He tried rushing to meet her, but the female officer put a paw on his chest, blocking his escape. Biiz grunted in frustration, then explained, “They’re accusing Inea of making that subversive video!”

“What? That’s ridiculous,” said Tori as she hobbled closer. She didn’t feel like she knew Inea well since he was so reclusive, but he hadn’t struck her as particularly subversive—any more than other moody teens, at least. And a talented animator, too? When Tori was growing up, she had been absolutely obsessed with drawing lio manga. Anyone stepping paw into her home back then would have instantly known that someone living there wanted to be an artist. Her art and supplies absolutely littered her parents’ home. But when Tori thought back on her visit with the family the previous night, she couldn’t recall any similar signs that he had such a creative bent. “But seeing as the commissioner instructed me specifically that he expected both cases solved by the next inspection…”

Tipohee ground his teeth. “You have to be joking.”

“I wish. Like solving a single case in two weeks wasn’t an impossible enough challenge,” she sighed. “But why Inea? He seems like a good cub. You got any evidence on him?”

“We have an anonymous tip that he’s the one,” said the other officer. Tipohee seemed to bristle a bit when she shared it.

“A tip?” asked Tori. “From whom?”

The chief stared at Tori for the longest time. “It was anonymous, Investigator. That means we don’t know who.”

She held up her paws. “All right. All right. But I’m sure this anonymous tipster must have given you some convincing proof, a good reason to come down here and harass Biiz, right?”

“No,” he grumbled, “but Captain Gutassi has added this case to the ship’s list of mission priorities. That means I have to follow-up on all leads … personally.”

Tori nodded. “I see. Even though the alleged perpetrator is a juvenile?”

“Yes, even then,” he said, crossing his arms.

“Even though the suspect’s peers are all juveniles?” she asked.

Officer Tipohee scowled. “What does that have…? Y’know, I don’t think I want to know.”

“My point, sir,” she said with a smile, “is that you’ve gotta admit that an anonymous tip without any evidence is exactly the sort of crap one cub pulls on another, just to get back at them for … well, who knows what? If we were going to take bets on whether Inea is actually making a really clever, really well done video—subversive as it might be—or if he’s just been set up by a classmate as a prank, or bullying, or as revenge for some slight, you know the safe money would be on the latter, right?”

The chief sighed before finally nodded. “Yeah, I realized that, but like I said, I don’t have a choice.”

“Exactly! Exactly!” said Tori, relaxing a bit. “He’s almost certainly innocent, and you have to investigate … but since this is almost certainly not going to find the actual perp, can we at least agree to investigate without turning this family’s life tails over ears?”

“Tori!” whined Biiz, but she just shook her head.

“The captain is requiring them to investigate, Biiz. But can we just set some reasonable limits?”

“Depends,” grunted Tipohee, “what do you have in mind?”

“Just three things,” she said. “If you want to question Inea, you do it with the presumption that he’s been framed—so no threats, no roughing him up, no intimidation. Okay?”

“You will not beat up my cub!” interjected Biiz.

“Fine. I’ll just ask him some questions,” agreed the chief.

“Second, if you want to search, you limit it to his room.” Tori reminded him, “If he really was going to make a subversive video, he wouldn’t leave the evidence where his folks would stumble across it.”

Tipohee nodded. “Third request?”

“Don’t wreck his stuff,” said Tori. “You know he probably didn’t do anything, so we’d appreciate you not cutting open his mattress or smashing his possessions looking for something that’s almost certainly not there in the first place. Search if you must but do it respectfully.”

“All right,” agreed the security chief. “We’ll search respectfully.”

Tori turned to Biiz. “That’s the best deal I can work you. Can we come in?”

Her neighbor looked disappointed, but at last he nodded. “Okay, come on it, but I’m keeping an eye on you while you search his room.”

Inea was waiting inside, looking frightened. He was a handsome cub—a bit scrawny, but still in that awkward stage where all his growth had been up, not out. Tori waved at him. “Hi again, Inea. This is Security Chief Tipohee. How about the three of us sit at the table and talk for a bit?”

She could tell right away that talking to the officer was the last thing he wanted, but there was no way he’d refuse. After taking a seat at the table, Tori’s head swiveled this way and that. “Where’s your mom?”

“Shopping,” said Inea, clearly trying to keep the fear from his voice.

“You don’t get in trouble much, do you?” she asked. He shook his head and after a moment of hesitation, pulled out a chair of his own. Tipohee was quick to join them.

“Are you making the video?” asked the security chief.

Inea refused to meet his eyes, but the teen most emphatically shook his head “no”.

Tori frowned. The cub would have been more convincing had he actually made eye contact, but Tori suspected that if he was hiding something—and what teen didn’t have their share of secrets?—it probably wasn’t that he was the video’s elusive creator.

“Someone thinks you did,” said the chief.

“Well, I didn’t.”

“Why do you suppose someone said that?” asked Tori. “Would any of your classmates enjoy watching you get hassled by security?”

Inea shrugged, if anything this time, a little more earnest. Tori found that a little surprising. Cubs always knew who had it in for them or what they’d done to earn some retaliation. And if he had told his friends that he’d been making a video, this would be no surprise either.

“Kinda strange the captain made this investigation a priority,” said Tori. “Isn’t it chief?”

“Not to me,” he said. “I thought it was strange that he ignored it when the first few episodes got released and didn’t realize it was problematic until the graffiti started showing up.”

Tori’s stomach clenched. She didn’t know if the video had inspired the crew or just given them something to rally around. She tried trivializing it, “Yeah, and now someone’s gotta go wash all of that off—”

“Cleaning up graffiti is the least of the problems,” Tipohee grumbled. “Do you think the commissioner hasn’t noticed? Unlikely. They’re observant. Daskatoma told you it was a priority too, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he did,” she sighed, leaving it at that.

The chief turned back to Inea, ready to continue questioning him, but that was when Biiz returned with the other officer.

“Find any illicit material in Inea’s room?” asked Tori.

“Tablet,” said the officer, handing the computer over to the chief.

“So?” asked Tori. “Everyone’s got a tablet. How would he do his schoolwork without one? Did you find any evidence that he’s been filming a video? Sets? Models? Script? Storyboarding? Camera? Microphone?”

The officer’s stony silence verified Tori’s suspicions.

Chief Tipohee ran his paws over the tablet’s surface. “Really nice tablet,” he said as he turned it on. “Really expensive. And look at all this high-end 3D modeling software you’ve got loaded on it! You could render quite a video with that.”

“Any tablet can render a video, right Chief?” said Tori before anyone else could speak. “Computing is computing. A nice tablet would simply do it faster.”

The chief shrugged and took a moment to look around the modest apartment. “How did you afford such an expensive toy?”

“It was a gift,” explained Biiz, “from a friend of the family.”

Tipohee pulled a small memory stick from the holster on his shoulder and prepared to stick it in one of the tablet’s ports. Tori put her paw over the chief’s. “What’s that?”

“Just scanner software,” he said. “We agreed to search his bedroom, and the tablet was in his bedroom.”

“You have a program that searches for just evidence of illicit-video-making?” asked Tori. “Convenient.”

He snorted. “No, it’s continuously updated with the list of everything the company considers contraband. Do you mind?”

Tori took back her paw. The chief finished inserting the stick and watched in silence as the scanner searched and generated a report. Tori watched Inea’s ears. The cub looked terrified.

After a minute that seemed to last all day, the scanner finished with a beep. “So,” asked Tori, “any evidence he produced it?”

“Found a copy of the video?” said Tipohee.

“So, what?” asked Tori, blowing it off as minor. “I bet every teen on this ship has a copy. I downloaded one myself on my first day here just to see what the fuss was about.”

He glared at her. “A couple references to ‘discard your boots’ showed up in his e-mails too.”

Tori snorted. “I think you’re stuck there. That phrase is probably part of youth culture now. Was there any real evidence?”

Security Chief Tipohee didn’t say anything. He just removed the scanner stick and put it back in his shoulder holster before switching the tablet back off.

Tori pushed the computer across the table, in front of the cub. “Well, now that one of your friends has slapped a target on your back,” she told him, “you’d be smart to keep your paws clean—at least until the actual perpetrator is caught, understood?”

Inea nodded and grabbed the computer, clutching it to his chest.

“Delete those e-mails, delete the video, and don’t download a new copy, okay?”

“Thanks Tori,” he said before dashing back to the sanctity of his room.

“Cubs,” Tori told the security officers with a sigh. “Sorry to have wasted your time.”

———

Reviewer's link:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zG664_-iIPEpLpzVVoKOs9Tiya-CnUd_A0QTlhCwKn8/edit 

Thoughts?