《Killer Bay》Spineless
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"Heya Adalet, are you ready to get monumentally drunk?" Frank asks as he walked in wearing a large, bright green and white striped top hat.
"FRANK!" Andrea yelled, for him suggesting drinking on the job.
"Chief, it's Saint Patrick's day: the one day in the year where you have to drink," he tries to argue.
"The last time you celebrated Saint Patrick's, you locked yourself up in the station's detention cell!" the chief reminds, "besides, Saint Patrick's isn't only about drinking... There's the fantastic parade and..."
"Exactly!" Roxie chimes in, "I'll show Adalet the parade while Frank sits drinking beer in a corner."
"Fine. But please keep an eye out for Frank, Adalet," Andrea says.
"Don't worry, I'm the best sober friend you can have!" Adalet promises.
At the Saint Patrick's Day Parade...
"Ah, I'm almost moved to tears Adalet: all these people united together..." Frank faked whipping away a tear, "by drink."
Adalet watched as Ahmet's eyes followed all of the floats, "other people would want it to come from things like love, peace, hope... But no, you want it through beer and booze."
"You've always been too sentimental, Frank. Look at all the costumes, Adalet. Isn't it just wild?" Roxie asks as she slipped on a shamrock headband.
"Watch out for Roxie, Adalet: you'll end up in a rave before you know it," Frank whispers.
"Hello, Capt. Adalet!" Mark McKenzie appeared from out of the crowd, "it's nice to meet you outside of a murder investigation! So, what do you think of the parade floats?"
"I don't know about my partner, but I care more about my beer than the parade and..." Frank trails of as he sees a frown grown on both Adalet and Ahmet's faces, "what is it, Adalet? Something's wrong with that parade float?"
"Yup!" Adalet says going to climb over the guard rails.
"Oh no," he grabs her arm, "don't even think about it, Adalet: this is Saint Patrick's and there will be zero investigations today!"
"Wow," Roxie said as she noticed what Adalet had spotted, "normally I'm stuck in my morgue... So this is the first time I get to see Adalet at work. Go get them, tiger!"
Adalet hopped over the guardrail and flashed her badge at the driver of the car. The man screeched to a stop forcing everyone behind him to follow suit. Frank joined her and barked at the guards to clear the people from the street while Adalet approached the thing that had gotten her attention. A red-haired man was floating from a bundle of balloons about six feet off the ground, but his eyes showed that he was dead. She also noticed a notebook discarded on the ground just before the wheel of the car.
"Everybody make way," Mark orders shoving through the people, "I'm a doctor!"
"Er, doc, maybe it's the booze messing with your judgment, but this guy's clearly as dead as they get," Frank says as he helped Adalet lower the body to the ground.
"Argh, that face!" he cries as it came into full view, "I know him: it's Angus O'Brian, the local Irish priest!"
"You knew him? Stick around doc, because Capt. Adalet is gonna have to question you," he orders as Roxie joined them.
Adalet picked up the notebook she'd see on the ground, "well what do we have here?"
"You're interested in this notebook, Adalet? Think about it first, you can either recover the writing... or go for a beer," Frank says.
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"I think the fact that it's filled with drawings of Molotov cocktails fulfills the drinking part," she responded looking for her powder kit.
"Well Adalet, it looks like this is going to be one long sober-filled case. Huh, time to take off the hat," he said plucking it off his head.
Adalet chuckled at her partner's disappointment as she began dusting the notebook. Whoever owned this notebook sure had a strong opinion about something, there were skulls, nooses, bombs, a sword and a Molotov cocktail. Along with a "nice" message in the center.
"Okay Adalet, you managed to recover the text on that notebook. It reads: "Hang them! Burn them! From their ashes, we will rise!" Okay then..." Frank, he says cupping his jaw.
"We can't take any chances," Adalet replied, "so let's send it to Russell!"
Handing the notebook off to Roxie to take to the lab, Adalet and Frank headed into the crowd to talk to Mark about the victim.
"There's always something that comes and ruins the fun in Inner City. We can't celebrate for more than 5 minutes without a murder on our streets," Mark complained.
"I hear ya, Doc," Frank agrees, "but Adalet has caught more killers than I care to count, and you can bet that they'll catch this one!"
"But what can you tell us about the victim? You said you knew him, right?" Adalet questioned.
"Angus was a priest at Saint Mary's Church. We used to work together in the rougher parts of Inner City: I would heal their bones, and he would heal their souls," Mark explained, "he was a good man and a pillar of the Irish community. He fought for good in Inner City, but it looks like evil won."
"Thank you for that, Mark," she says sincerely.
"Mark mentioned the victim worked at Saint Mary's Church, so we better go check it out..." Frank states as they walked away, "just don't ask me to go to confession, ha-ha!"
After getting the address for the victim's church, Adalet and Frank drove out to the small building to search for clues. They examined the grounds for anything of interest and picked up a sleeping bag off the ground and found a pile of leaves near the front of the church.
"Well, Adalet, how did the search go in the garden of the victim's church? Did you find religion?" Frank asked.
"Try a pile of leave and a sleeping bag!" Adalet answered.
"Ha-ha, sorry, bad joke. So you found a pile of leaves and a sleeping bag..." he saw her finds, "hm, this sleeping bag proves somebody slept out in the church garden. Do you think you could recover the owner's name, Adalet?"
"Sure," she assured, "want to help me look through the leaves?"
"Sorry," he didn't sound sorry, "but I ain't going to help you search through that pile of leaves: I already get mistaken for a bum, so I don't wanna make matters worse."
Adalet dug through the pile of leaves first to see what it could be hiding under all of the vegetation. She found a collar of black fabric with a white plastic-like piece in the center.
"I don't know about that collar you found searching through that soggy pile of leaves, Adalet, but I can tell you one thing you lost: your dignity. Ha-ha!" Frank laughed at the horrible joke.
Adalet just rolls her eyes, "that white strip in the middle means it's a clerical collar, Frank. So it had to belong to our victim! And it's covered in blood!"
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She got out a cotton swab from her case and ran it along the bloodstain on the collar. The cotton soaked up a sample of the blood and Adalet placed it into a vial to transport safely.
"Nicely done Adalet," Frank praised, "let's send this blood sample you collected from the victim's clerical collar over to the lab!"
Passing the blood sample off to him Adalet then took a look at the tag on the sleeping bag. She dusted the paper stitched onto the bag and recovered the name that had been written on it in permanent marker.
"Well done, Adalet: you managed to recover the name on that sleeping bag you found in the church garden," Frank says taking a look, "O'Brian"..."
"The same surname as our victim's! But why would this Colin sleep out in the church garden if his relative lives here?" Adalet wondered.
"Oi, what are you doing stealing my stuff?!" a red-haired man stumbled over drunkenly.
"Easy there, Ginger. Capt. Adalet needs to talk to you about the murder of Angus O'Brian," Frank informed him.
"My brother's been murdered?! Ha, best news ever!" Collin cheered, "so you're saying my brother's dead! Good: he had it coming!"
"How long have you been sleeping in the Church garden for?" Adalet inquired.
"Just recently, I get here in Inner City, and I needed a place to stay so I ask my brother... And he says the only place he'll let me sleep is outside!" he answered, "can you imagine? So much for a charitable priest!"
"And so you killed him because of his lack of charity?!" Frank asked.
"I couldn't kill my own flesh and blood. That ain't the Irish way," Collin slurred, "but I would buy his killer a drink or two!"
Back at the station . . .
"I apologize Adalet, I'm still a bit drunk. Sigh, I was out having fun until this corpse arrived... Ha-ha, I was talking about the victim, not you Frank," Roxie assured the detective.
Frank just grunted.
"Still, I can tell you that your killer first tried to strangle your victim: as evidenced by the rope fibres I found around the victim's neck. I analyzed these rope fibres and I can confirm the killer used a jump rope," she reported, "now, before you say anything, Frank, jump ropes are widely used by adults and killers alike: it's a great way to stay fit! But the jump rope is not your murder weapon. It's something way cooler: turns out your victim was killed by being forced to ingest helium!"
"Roxie, we know you're still drunk but c'mon, helium?! It just makes your voice sound funny," he rolled his eyes.
"Helium can be a lethal weapon, Frank!" she countered, "a large dose will make your insides explode. BOOM!"
"A rope, helium... Was our killer trying to turn the victim into a balloon or something?!" he wondered.
"Well, his spine was missing too... That's what made the body so shapeless, so maybe," she shrugged.
"Wait, the spine's missing?!" Adalet exclaimed, "since we've been in Inner City, a heart went missing, then some lungs... And now a spine?!"
"Two can be passed off as being a coincidence," Frank mused, "but three is too important to ignore... Let's hope this case offers up some answers, Adalet."
Adalet and Frank made a note of these new facts on their way to Yann's lab. When they entered they found Yann was watching Ahmet for Adalet and the two were seated at his work table. The scientist looked to be explaining something to the kid but paused as he noticed the cops.
"I analyzed that blood sample you collected from the victim's clerical collar, Adalet... and I can confirm the blood matches your victim's," Yann says, "but the interesting thing is there were also beer molecules mixed in with the blood... You didn't contaminate the evidence, did you, Frank?"
"Ha, there's no chance of that!" Frank laughed, "Adalet did all the work... as always."
"How can you tell that the beer wasn't in the victim's bloodstream?" Adalet asks.
"I know the beer wasn't in the blood because only the ethanol molecules from the alcohol enter the bloodstream, and not the alcohol molecules themselves," Yann explained, "this proves the beer was deposited on the collar after the murder... by your killer!"
"So our killer drinks beer? Huh, I was set out to hate them, but this complicates the matter," Frank snickered.
They left the forensics lab and headed down the hallway to Russell's office/library to see what he had discovered from the notebook.
"Ah Adalet," Russell says as he turned around in his chair, "that notebook you found on the crime scene is a diary: it's filled with the typical anarchist talk about wanting to destroy our society."
"So an anarchist wrote this?" Adalet guessed.
"Yes. Remember Adalet, there's a large group of anarchists here in Inner City who calls themselves the Inner Chaos," he reminded.
"Chief Marquez mentioned that group... And she warned us to stay well away from them!" she recalled.
"Given the writing on this diary, this anarchist is clearly self-obsessed and dangerous. They believe they're practically the Chosen One," he lectured, "this profile matches a certain Fredo Mancini, the leader of Inner Chaos!"
"It looks like we're finally gonna get to meet this psycho anarchist leader," she says.
"Huh, what a treat," Frank says with a roll of his eyes.
Russell informed the pair of the place where Fredo had been recently known to hang out to spread his anarchist news to the people of Inner City. Adalet and Frank drove out to the street and found the man standing on a crate with a megaphone to his mouth, obviously getting ready to make an announcement.
"What are you doing here?! I ain't talking to no pigs!" Fredo spat.
"Your diary has done all the talking we need. You shouldn't pour your heart out so easily about wanting to burn down Inner City," Adalet glared.
"Mock me all you want: but I will liberate this city by restoring chaos on its streets!" he vowed.
"Starting with the death of a priest?!" Frank growled.
"Ha-ha," Fredo cackled, "I saw that dead priest floating along with the parade. But even if we're anarchists, it doesn't mean we killed him!"
Later at the station...
"Well Adalet, because of the killer, I've so far spent Saint Patrick's sober, so this case has just gotten personal! What do you have so far?" Frank asks, "the victim was floating in the Saint Patrick's day parade... And his spine was missing! Is that some kind of message?"
"And we spoke to the surgeon who was not only on the scene of the crime, but he also knew the victim since they worked together," Adalet continued, "more puzzling still, there's the victim's brother who was forced to sleep in the church garden rather than at the victim's. What was that all about?"
"And then there's the anarchist leader: I can't say I liked him much and he obviously has a taste for trouble," he said.
"Adalet, I'm sorry it took me a while to sober up after all my partying - you owe me drinks by the way - but I found this torn flyer in the victim's pocket," Roxie says holding out the pieces she'd found.
"Well Adalet, looks like we haven't hit a dead end after all. You ready to piece this together?" Frank asked.
Adalet took the pieces of the flyer from Roxie and laid them out on her desk. Ripping off strips of tape from her dispenser, she placed the pieces to hold them together. The flyer was advertising a fighting tournament and the poster boy looked like their victim in boxing gear.
"Not bad, Adalet! So that torn flyer in the victim's pocket was for some kind of fight tournament. Okay, so far so good..." Frank says, "but what was this flyer doing in the victim's pocket? It's not like a priest would be interested in watching people fight, right?"
"Our victim has a boxer's nose..." Adalet muses as she examined the victim's picture, "on top of that, the tournament prize was for a lot of money..."
"Wow, I think you're onto something here: it looks like our priest was a fighter and stepped back into the ring for one last fight!" he theorized, "a priest fighting dirty? Now you're talking! Bare-knuckle fighting isn't illegal... But it does attract a lot of illegal operations. It's a dangerous crowd, that's for sure!"
"According to this flyer, the tournament took place at the Inner City gym," she says seeing the address.
"Okay Adalet, are you ready to step into the ring?"
"Let the fight begin!"
At the Fight Club...
"Huh, this place stinks of sweat, blood, and stale booze. It reminds me of my first apartment, haha!" Frank laughs, "so you want to piece back together this broken object, Adalet? Well, I ain't gonna stop you."
"This fight bib is for Colin O'Brien... So he was also a fighter!" Adalet remarked, "there seems to be something faded on it."
"Can you make out what it says, Adalet?" he asked, "And what about this coat of arms?"
"I think I can find out the name of the family by running it through the database," she replied.
"Okay, now you're just showing off."
Adalet laughed as she picked up the broken pieces of the board. She used so duct tape to the wood and blackboard until she had made a finished product.
"Ah, you and puzzles, hey?" Frank smirked, "I might need you to help me piece back together my latest bank statement I tore up in a rage, haha."
"It looks like a betting board used for the tournament," Adalet says as she skimmed the words, "The Sinner vs Miss Piggy" in the final match..."
"Yup, the fighters obviously used nicknames," he confirmed, "well, how about we send it to Hannah? She could take a look at it if she's not too busy messaging her girlfriend."
Placing the board off to the side Adalet picked up the fighter's bib. She dusted the top right-hand corner of the paper where a faded stamp looked to be. It turned out that someone had stamped a large disqualified stamp on it in all caps and with a square framing it.
"Okay Adalet, so you managed to recover the stamp on Colin's fight big: it says here he was disqualified from the tournament!" Frank gasped.
"We already knew his brother was a fighter in the tournament... but I wonder why Colin was disqualified," Adalet pondered, "we should go ask him directly!"
The last thing that needed to be done before Adalet and Frank could leave the gym was to examine the coat of arms. Adalet pulled up the database and typed in specific characteristics of the design into the search engine to find out who it belonged to. It didn't take the system any longer than ten seconds to come back with the name of a Russian family for them.
"Smooth going Adalet, so this coat of arms you found in the fight club belongs to a Russian family! That of a certain Nikolai Kamarov..." Frank reads, "wait a minute, I've heard of this Nikolai... He's like the leader of the Russian community!"
Adalet raised an eyebrow, "and you know this how?"
"How do I know of this Nikolai? Ha-ha," he scratched the back of his head, "it's a long story... One I'd rather not remember."
"Yeah..." she drew out the word, "we should go talk to him!"
After Adalet and Frank had sent the betting board over to the station for Hannah, they returned to the church to find Collin. The Irishman was sitting on a bench near the fountain when they arrived, a large mug of beer at his side and his rosy cheeks showed that it wasn't his first of the day.
"Colin," Frank got the Irish man's attention, "Adalet discovered that you were meant to fight in the same tournament as your brother..."
"When I came here to see my brother, he treated me like dirt! But when I showed him the flyer for the tournament, he started acting all friendly!" Collin hiccuped as he reached for his beer, "heck, he even helped me with my jump rope exercises and kept giving me drink after drink... But it was all just to trick me! He got me so drunk that I didn't wake up in time for the tournament!"
"Which was why you were disqualified," Adalet deduced.
"Angus wanted all that prize money for himself, and he knew the only way to beat me was if I was drunk!" he yelled.
"Couldn't you just have refused the drinks?" she questions.
"Don't be daft, you can't turn down a drink!" he laughed, "but my brother's always been a cheater and a liar. I thought he had changed when he became a priest, but he's still as spineless as ever!"
Adalet and Frank quickly left the church and drove out to the Russian bar to talk to Nikolai about his coat of arms being on one of their crime scenes. The cops entered the dimly lit bar and found the man they were looking for relaxing in a luxury booth towards the back of the room.
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