B3.1-2 Administrative Duties (Patreon)

Thanks for bearing with me while I ride out this Tori streak!

Having bullied Runo'oa into helping, Tori still has some crime scenes to check out. Let's see what she'll find!

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“Do you remember what he was drinking?” asked Tori.

The blonde geroo scratched at her ruff for a moment before her eyes lit. “Water. It was water. He didn’t like tea, and he felt that the fruit juices and soda were making him fat, so he’d switched to water a few days before.”

“Bottles of water? A mug?” asked the rusty red geroo. “Do you remember what he drank out of?”

Oorpu gestured to the water fountain in the corner of the office, and Administrator Holly walked to it. “Disposable cups,” he said, touching the dispenser with a pad. “Did he use one of these?”

The blonde nodded. “Yeah, everybody does. Since The Viper started his rampage, everyone’s become real careful about not letting their drinks out of their control. Stoli would pour himself a cup, drink the whole thing, and toss it. He never let a drink sit out.”

Tori nodded and scrolled through the report on her strand. “He died during lunch. Do you recall what he was eating?”

Oorpu nodded. “I think it was sooba soup.”

“From the market here on six?” asked Holly.

“Nah,” said Oorpu. “I’m pretty sure it was leftovers from home. It was in a heavier, reusable container, not one of those single-use bowls they give you in the market.”

“Someone could have tampered with it before lunch,” Holly suggested, “while it was in the fridge.”

But Oorpu shrugged. “We do have a fridge in the kitchen area, but it’s gone basically unused since the killer’s second victim. Most of us have started taking lunch in the market every day. The rest of us go back home for lunch.”

“But Stoli was eating at his desk,” said Tori.

“I remember him leaving and coming back with the container,” she said, idly fussing with the blonde fur on her cheeks. “I’d never seen anyone get murdered before. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the day. I suppose he went home to pick it up and then heated it up in the kitchen.”

Holly looked over at Tori. “Doesn’t sound like the sort who’d leave it unattended in the microwave. So, if it was from his refrigerator at home, someone must have tampered with it there.”

Tori nodded and poked at the report some more. “Says he lived alone. I’m guessing he didn’t mention a recent break-in.”

Oorpu shook her head.

“Did Stoli have any enemies?” asked Tori.

The pained expression on Oorpu’s ears spoke volumes. “I…” she said before lapsing back into silence once more. “I never imagined that someone would actually murder him.”

# # #

Tori walked slowly down the corridor in silence, mulling the case in her mind.

“Some must have broken into Stoli’s home to poison his leftovers,” said Holly. “Unless he had them in as company, I guess.”

“Would he have taken visitors if he were worried about being a target? It had to be a break-in. But without tipping him off somehow that they’d been there…” she mumbled. “Bypassed the lock, climbed in through an air vent, unbolted a wall panel…”

“Or maybe they just have access,” said Holly. “My landlord keyed into my apartment once while I was at work when the stove went on the fritz.”

“If so, that would be logged.” Tori pulled up the security records for Stoli’s apartment and scrolled back from the present. “Security keyed into his apartment after his death, but before that, I only see his own personal strand unlocking the door. For a month … two months… If someone poisoned his soup more than a couple months ago, it had to have been sitting in his freezer for ages. That’s unlikely.”

“Could someone have borrowed his strand?”

“They would have had to borrow it without him noticing and know his access code to get into his apartment.” Tori shook her head.

“Maybe they erased the records? Who’d have access?”

“Nija in DevOps, certainly,” said Tori. “We can ask, but hopefully no one else. Security logs aren’t particularly valuable if lots of people can modify them.”

They walked in silence. “Then again,” Tori added, “some geroo have enough authority that they can open all the doors without even leaving a log entry.”

Holly’s ears shot up. “Really? Who?”

“Captain Gutassi and Chief Tipohee,” she said. “The central computer won’t restrict their movement.”

“Ooh,” whispered Holly in a spooky voice as he wiggled his fingers. “What if the captain was the killer all along?”

Tori chuckled. “Seven victims so far. That’s an awful lot of grudges. I can’t imagine him hating that many of his own officers, administrators, and supervisors. Can you?”

“Well, maybe he just wanted to remove them from power?” suggested Holly. “It’s not exactly a secret that the victims were … unpopular.”

“Well, yeah, but he’s the captain!” yarped Tori. “If he thought they were doing a bad job, could have just fired them, demoted them, or not let them be promoted into positions of power in the first place. Killing them seems kinda unnecessary.”

Holly tilted an ear. “Well, that still leaves Tipohee. Remember how angry he was that you wanted computer access when you first got here. He seems like the sort who gets angry a lot.”

“True, and I suspect he’d be all the more combative if I try to interview him.”

“Do you suppose he knew all of the victims?” the administrator asked.

She shrugged. “It’s possible, but the victims were from all over the ship. So far, I haven’t been able to find anyone who overlapped with all of them.” Tori turned to Holly. “How many of them did you know?”

“Personally?” he asked, sounding slightly shocked. “None of them, but I had heard of a couple of them.”

“Yeah, I suspect that lots of people knew them by reputation alone. But even having heard of all seven seems like it would be unusual. Like maybe they researched this to find their targets rather than dealing with anyone who they personally hated.” Tori sighed. “Personally, I think that our killer wanted to see his victims fired, but he felt powerless to do so. Poison just enabled him to do something he lacked the authority to do otherwise.”

“So,” Holly sighed, sounding slightly sad, “what next?”

“I think I need to search Stoli’s apartment.”

That brought a bounce back into Holly’s step. “Great! What was his address?”

Tori grinned at him, watching from the corner of her eyes as she leaned on her cane. “I think your part of the Stoli investigation ends here. It was great having your help at his office, but for a crime scene like that, I think I should bring someone from security.”

“Aw,” he groaned. “I was having fun.”

“Well, perhaps you can come with me on other interviews,” she suggested. “You asked some good questions.”

“Yeah, okay Tori. Just give me a call,” he said, brightening back up.

Tori stopped. She leaned back against a wall and cleared her throat. “Say, Holly… Back when I had my accident and was stuck in sick bay…” He turned to look at her, but she continued staring straight ahead. “That put our administrators on the spot. They had to decide if it was a better use of the ship’s resources to treat me … or just let me go.”

Holly’s ears slicked back. He stood in silence awhile before finally saying, “I’m glad they decided to treat you, Tori.”

“They probably shouldn’t have,” she admitted. “Even now, I can’t do my original job. If it weren’t for this investigation, I don’t feel like any ship would really need me. I think that most administrators wouldn’t have let the doctors operate.”

“Well, someone thought it was a good idea.”

Tori nodded. “Administrator O’lia. He was a friend of mine.”

Holly smiled. “You’re good at making friends. Far better at it than I am, it seems.”

“I guess, but I was wondering … have you had to make that decision yet, now that you’re an administrator?”

“A few times, yeah.” Tori’s eyes opened wide in surprise, but he explained, “So far, it’s just been a formality. I suppose med bay is required to run it by us—well, me, for the moment—whenever someone is too sick or injured enough to miss work. But there’s no way I’m going to recycle someone because they’ve got the flu or a sprained wrist.”

“I’d hope not,” she chuckled, “but obviously, my case is a lot more extreme.”

“I’m really not looking forward to the day when I have to make that call,” he admitted.

“And if it had been up to you when I got hurt…?”

Holly’s ears had fallen farther back as the conversation progressed, but that question pressed them flat against his head. “Please don’t make me answer that.”

She leaned forward on her cane and touched his arm with her free paw. “But … I’d really like to know.”

He stared directly at her without blinking, and she wondered if that was the first time he’d managed it. “You promise not to hold it against me, Tori?”

“I promise.”

“Honestly, I don’t think your friend did you a favor,” he said. “I don’t care how many resources med bay had to expend to save your life or that you couldn’t work while you were laid up, but if this is the most you’re going to recover, well … it’s not how I’d want to live. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I understand,” she said. “But that decision could still be ahead of you, y’know? What if I were back in med bay tomorrow, and you could approve more down time and the use of more ship resources to give me a normal life, or you could leave me as I am now. What would you do then?”

“I’d want you to live a normal life, of course,” said Holly. He perked up. “Why? Is that a possibility?”

“It might be,” she said, turning and walking on. “Dr. Amhela thinks he could do it, but not without breaking a lot of rules. It would take a lot of hiding and sneaking around. I’d probably need a bunch of geroo in positions of authority to help out, or it’ll be impossible.”

“Positions of authority,” he repeated, “you mean like the administrators.”

Tori nodded. “I hate having to use people, Holly. And I totally understand if you want nothing to do with this. But if there’s any chance I could have a normal life again, I’m going to try it—regardless of how many rules I have to break.”

“I don’t think you can catch a killer if you’re laid up in bed, Tori.”

“Oh, I know that,” she said, her heart lifting slightly. “I mean after the case is closed.”

Holly paused, letting her words hang there in the air between them. “You know I’ve only had this job a short while? I’m trying to do a good job, and now you’re asking me to break rules.”

Tori hung her head. She had been so certain he would have said yes—

“Then again,” he said, “you showed me how to use my job to help people. Orkloo would hate me now—his family would hate me forever—but you showed me how to bring them together with Foja and Lu’e. You helped me do some good.”

“I’m really sorry about putting you on the spot—”

“And I was never really a fan of rules, anyhow,” he said with a grin. “I’ll speak with Amhela and see how I can help.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s7jIAz0ehAuwN8QEaiszluouQTTOir9dnnuTWLgR9aI/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?