Retiree by John Douglas Powers

Author:John Douglas Powers [Powers, John Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pangenre
Published: 2013-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

When Brett returned to his office after bidding Wen Jing what was, from his perspective, a very good evening, he was quite surprised to find Alana sitting behind her desk. “Oh! Inspector. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Alana did not seem to even look at him, “Good evening, Detective Crabtree. How are you this evening?”

“I’m... well.” Brett beamed, “I’m very well.”

“Your shirt tail is hanging out.”

“Oh,” Brett awkwardly shoved the unprofessional elements of his wardrobe back to where protocol and his boss demanded. “I expected you to call around dinner time. Did everything go all right up there?”

“Up where, Detective?”

“Camarillo, I think you said it was?”

“Nothing went awry.”

“Did you find that Stone fellow?”

Alana hesitated. She had spent the last hour reviewing all of the case notes her clone had left behind, trying to understand what was going on in her absence. Of chief concern to her was learning enough so as not to give away that she had replaced herself, “No. He wasn’t there when I arrived.”

“So no good news about that, then?”

“No news at all.”

Brett sat down on his desktop, facing Alana, “Well, guess what?”

“Just tell me, Detective. I’m not inclined to introduce more mysteries into my life than I already encounter in my career.”

Brett hesitated, being taken aback by Alana’s apparent change in tone from when he had last seen her. He immediately suspected that something had happened to Alana while she was out, and that it had upset her, perhaps even angered her. Perhaps it was just frustration from having made a long round-trip with nothing to show.

Alana continued, “Are you going to tell me or not?”

“I’m sorry, Inspector. But we think we found enough evidence to clear Rhys of the charges against him.”

Alana froze. She had to tread carefully here, “Tell me everything.”

“Wen Jing and I spent some time reviewing the evidence tonight, and we found enough to conclude that it was faked.”

“What was faked?”

“The entire video. Let me explain...”

And explain he did, and Alana stared at him the entire time, hanging on every word. She knew that it had to have been faked. Never for even a moment had she accepted the Security Division report. Now, they had enough to challenge its assertions, exonerate Rhys, get him out of Limbo, and allow him to be resurrected. It was on March 10 that she had instructed Rhys to follow Councilwoman Chambers, and on March 11, he was killed. It was now April 28. It had taken almost fifty days to clear him.

Alana leaned back in her chair, “So, we now know for certain that Security Division framed Rhys, but we don’t know why?”

Brett disagreed, “I wouldn’t go that far. It could have been Zumpco, or both them and SD in collusion. Regardless, it should be enough evidence to appeal his case.”

“I’ll take it straight to Bennett first thing tomorrow morning. Did this Wen Jing you worked with say anything to anyone else, or file any reports.”

“It’s Wendy, from forensics, Inspector. You’ve met her.”

Alana gave herself her first fright, “Of course.

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