Episode Transcript
Reyne: This is the log of Detective Derek Reyne, Homicide Department, 8th Precinct, Etherax. The date is September 14th, 2245. It has been two days since my last recording. Well William, I don’t think the Terik case is as singular as we thought. Another body has been found, killed in the exact same method. Her name was Debrah Jane, and she was found in an alley with her throat slit. However, it’s there that the similarities end. Debrah was not a corp stooge, but instead owned and operated a small bar at the crosspoint of Crimson and Gray Hand territory, frequented by gangsters and others of the underbelly. Aside from the usual connections with corps, given that they manufacture just about everything if you follow the chain back far enough, she was uninvolved in their world, instead working primarily for the lower levels of Etherax society.
Ordinarily, we likely wouldn’t investigate a case like this further. Actually, the chief hasn’t asked for any further formal investigation and seems completely uninterested in this, assuming the gangs will sort it out themselves. Luckily, when you’re a senior detective who everyone forgets about because they’re a…user of illicit substances on the regular, you don’t always have to wait for the chief's go-ahead. Given the similarity of the methods, I think it’s possible we have some sort of spree or serial killer on our hands here. Hard to tell as of yet, but this was in very quick succession. Of course, William, you’ll want the facts of the case as we know them.
Debrah Jane was 34 when she was murdered. The cause of death was once again exsanguination due to a laceration made on the neck. Whoever this is, assuming it's the same person, is quite good with a blade. Time of death was found to be 3 A.M., roughly 6 hours before the body was found. Location: An alleyway in Crimson territory. Assumedly she was on her way home from work, similar to Mr. Terik. Her body was undisturbed, no rifling or looting, and there were no obvious signs of a struggle.
She’s owned the bar, Gearheads, for about 7 years now, taking over when her mother, Delilah Jane, grew too old to continue working the bar at the age of 72. Delilah is still alive, and was being taken care of by Debrah and her brother, Dominic. Debrah herself had no formal significant other, though was reportedly close with several of her patrons. The exact manner of these relationships is as of yet undetermined, though with future investigation could be uncovered. Her early life seemed to have been spent in this area, and she appeared to have spent time at a Cydinar sponsored education facility, though she did not pursue work with the company. If you follow the chain of ownership long enough, Cydinar does technically have a stake in the bar, but honestly I doubt either side is truly aware of that connection.
So, there you have it. Another relatively unremarkable person, killed in a remarkably clean fashion for no clear reason. Uninvolved in the corp world, the only thing I can think of would be some kind of gang related cause, though by all recorded accounts, she has no formal relationship with any of the gangs. However, given her involvement in their territory and activity, it’s not impossible that she ran into some issues or got tied up in something that’s off our records. It doesn’t line up with the methodology in any way, but it's certainly a possibility. However, before I tease at that thread too much, I’m interested in these cases together.
So William. As I said before, the violence in this city is typically, through one chain or another, connected to the everlasting game between the corps and the gangs. They run the city and everything in it. Following that logic, it would seem that Terik’s case should be invariably tied up in the corporate world, and Jane’s case should be completely tied up in the gang world. Yet we saw with Terik that that isn’t quite the case. While I don’t want to say anything too certain about Ms. Jane, I won’t be shocked if it's a similar situation. I’m going to wait to dive too deeply into this for now, but as a preliminary, we know that they are both relatively unremarkable, both were likely killed on their way home, and both were killed in this area.
…That gives us almost nothing doesn’t it. Shit. Ok, new tack. From Terik’s files and from some conversations with a few other Raylir employees, we got the idea that Terik mostly stayed to himself and didn’t often go out partying or anything. He was a homebody, and there was rarely a reason to have an issue with him. I don’t know a great deal about Debrah personally yet, but I imagine I might be able to figure out a bit more about her, especially if she ran a gangster bar. Her mother said they were planning on holding a memorial party night type deal at the bar tonight so…well I might just pay them a visit and see what I can find. I’ll update you once I’m back William
Reyne: Jesus…Gangsters certainly know how to throw a party. My head is still spinning...But that’s not what's important here. It’s the day after my last recording, and I have some info from the memorial about Ms. Jane, unhelpful as it may be. I took a recording of the conversation so I’m just gonna splice that in here…
Risk: Hey I don’t fuckin know you. The fuck you doin here?
Reyne: Bringing my condolences to the family of Ms. Jane. Didn’t know her too well, but its sad to see her go all the same.
Risk: True, that’s true. Y’know we’re not supposed to fight at funerals anyway but, you want to start anything and I’ll make an exception, you understand?
Reyne: Completely understood. Actually, before you go, I was hoping I could ask you a few things. Like I said, I didn’t know the departed too well and I was hoping I could…learn a little bit more about her as it were.
Risk: I mean, I don’t see why you’re asking me that. Her mother and brother are right over there.
Reyne: I didn’t want to bother them while they’re so fresh in the grieving process. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?
Risk: You’re starting to sound a little official to me friend. Who sent you? Cydinar? BlueJacket?
Reyne: I can assure you I’m not with any of the corps.
Risk: What, you with the cops then?
Reyne: The police have nothing to do with this, trust me. I’m just an…interested individual. Ms. Jane isn’t the only person who’s caught the wrong end of a knife recently.
Risk: It’s Etherax, people die all the fuckin time. Unless you’re saying that there’s something else going on here?
Reyne: That’s what I want to find out. I have an interest in finding out just who took out Ms. Jane, and why. Not for the corps, not for the cops…just a professional curiosity.
Risk: Professional curiosity eh? How do I know you’re not full of shit? Friend of Deb’s or not, wouldn’t be the first time some too-smart cop tried to wander in here and start some shit he wasn’t ready for
Reyne: Well it’s simple, you don’t. But don’t you think if I was actually planning on spying on you all I would’ve come up with a better cover than “I’m just some rando who wants to know who killed her?”
Risk: Fair enough. Like I said, Deb was a friend, a good friend, good to all of us. You say you’re trying to help…Maybe I got something for you, maybe I don’t. Depends on what you wanna know. You got five of my fuckin minutes starting now.
Reyne: Everything I know about this place says it was a neutral ground between the gangs, despite being on Gray Hand and Crimson territory. That true?
Risk: Pretty much. Gearheads has been neutral ever since Delilah was running it. One of our old cell leaders got into a fight here with a Crimson once, and she blasted them both with a double barrel. Hasn’t been a problem since…long as I’ve been coming here.
Reyne: And all the gangs were fine with that? There wasn’t any animosity?
Risk: Eh, a couple of them took some time to warm up to it, but eventually we all settled down for it. Helped to have a good negotiating spot, plus a place to grab a drink where no one was gonna shank you while you ordered. Delilah was good to us, and so was Deb. Lot of people are broken up about her being gone.
Reyne: So no one would have had a reason to kill her?
Risk: Thinkin it was one of us? Guess that’s only fair. I mean, I guess someone might have been mad at her for one slight or another, but nothing to bring someone to this. This place is protected. Everyone knows you don’t fuck with the Janes.
Reyne: I see. How well did you know her?
Risk: She was a friend. A good friend. Usually brought new guys here so they could see how it all worked and not do something stupid.
Reyne: You were close with the whole family then?
Risk: Delilah’s known me since I joined the Hands. Was as close to Deb as anyone else here outside her family I imagine. She kept her distance from our world. Shitload of good it did in the end I guess.
Reyne: I guess so. Well, thanks. I don’t want to take up too much more of your time, so I should probably be going
Risk: Hey, why the rush? If you’re gonna try to figure out who whacked her, you might as well stay and have a drink or two…what should I call you by the way?
Reyne: You can call me Cloud. And you?
Risk: Risk. Also, take this. It’s off network. Let me know if you find anything about who whacked Deb. Consider me an…interested party as well. Oh and don’t bother trying to get an IP off it or anything cuz, I’m not fucking stupid.
Reyne: Wouldn’t dream of it. And well…I guess one drink couldn’t hurt…
Reyne: It was more than one drink. And I did not learn anything else new. Do have that communicator though, so that could prove useful. Not that I want the Grey Hands, or any of them, tied to me too much, but this’ll do for now. Just gotta remember I’m Cloud to them. Heh. Reyne cloud. It’s the little things in life.
So, Risk doesn’t believe any typical gang member would have messed with Ms. Jane. Given previous interactions with the results of gang murders, I’m inclined to agree with him on that. If this was someone with a specific problem with her, they would have done more than just slit her throat. It would have been brutal. A follow-up assumption would be that she just saw something she wasn’t supposed to and was killed for that reason. Not entirely out of the question, yet there are no bodies or crimes reported in the area surrounding her, at least according to department records which were…obtained through completely legal and normal means.
So that’s it William. Another mystery death with no motive to be established. The few things we do know are that
1. The killer, and I’m assuming it’s the same killer, is skilled enough with SecuriTech to disable their identification from being registered in the cities tracking systems, or they just don’t have one to begin with.
2. The killer has a good degree of skill with a knife, being able to cut deeply and cleanly so as to get the wounds that we have seen. Possible connection to Butchery training? Perhaps, could also just realize that the deeper you cut the better odds you’ll have of actually killing the person
3. So far, the Killer has remained within the area governed by the 8th precinct, which would indicate to me that they are likely based somewhere in this area. Unfortunately, that still leaves us with at least a few hundred thousand people to look through, not even counting those who regularly travel through here even without living here.
So we have a local hacker who can use a knife and lives in the area. Which is probably somewhere around half the population or more. It just…it doesn’t make sense. Why do I care so much? I didn’t know these people. People die all the time, why does it matter that they did in a way that is slightly out of the ordinary? I mean, yes it is my job, but, let’s be honest William, no one expects the police to ever do anything here. We help maintain “order” in theory, and show up to beat up some street criminals or rogue corp goons, but we’re not actually trying to stop anything.
Did you know I actually believed that I would be helpful to society when I joined up? Thought I’d separate myself from all the corporation and gang business, enter in the world of law and start actually trying to change things. Yeah, that didn’t last very fuckin long. First case I ever reported to, I was just a beat cop, and some people were whaling on some stuffed suit trying to get to his car. I barge in, all white knight like, “Stop! Stop! You’re under arrest!” 5 seconds later I was flat on my back after they whacked me in the stomach with a crowbar. Could just barely hear one of them say “Cut the guy some slack, he’s new. He’ll get it eventually. Call up Rooker so they can get him out of here.” Rooker was one of my superiors.
Would you believe I got scolded for that? Apparently those Grey Hands were “friends of the department” and we weren’t to interfere in their activities. Seems every time I looked that list of friends just kept getting longer. Find out Raylir shot 5 of their employees in a warehouse? Simply how the firing process goes. The Crimsons dismember three people and display their bodies in broad daylight, with witnesses? Too much of a hassle to track them down and deal with all the red tape? Cydinar “accidentally” poisons a whole apartment building with a new toxin they just happened to need some tests for? We can’t interfere with scientific progress.
If we were called in, it was merely as a more official clean-up crew. Take down statements, believe whatever they said is the truth, and officially declare it so in any records that can be accessed by the public. Mind you, I don’t know who’s looking at governmental records here anyway. Being a government official is nearly as useless as being a cop. At least they buy them off with fancy dinners and nice houses. We just get to avoid getting killed.
Yet here I am, attached to a case with no money behind it and no one telling me how it’s supposed to go down. Actually trying to uncover the truth instead of just writing it off as another casualty in a city full of them. You’d think I was an idealistic rookie again. It’s not like the department cares about this. Like I said, they didn’t even know I kept investigating Jane beyond the initial report. They’d probably be mad that I was, claim I was going to stir up trouble where there didn’t need to be any. Heh. Maybe I needed a little bit of trouble.
Of course, idealistic as I get, there’s not much I can do with no evidence. I wonder if there’s anything they missed at the scene of either crime…even a scrap of clothing would be a godsend at this point, help me nail down something. Just based on what we have now, I’m assuming this isn’t some higher-up conspiracy level shit, but it’s hard to pin anything down with just these two deaths. I hate to admit it, but I might not be able to really do anything unless the killer strikes again. I know they’re skilled or lucky enough to jump these people without too much struggle, and strong enough to cut deep into their necks. I know they can avoid standard security measures, and that they’re somewhere around here. I just…I need to know more. And I don’t know where I’m going to find it.
