Investigations at CID Team B Office - Part (1/2)

3:05 AM. No time to sleep.

Sergeant Leo could be found standing in the office of C.I.D. Team B, downing his third can of coffee. He couldn’t help but stare at the wallscreen for hours, arms folded and brow pinched. He had every file open – from discovering the corpse, locating the thumb, lists of potential suspects, to even reports from searching Frank Tucker’s apartment. All notes large and small were displayed and digitally labelled on every document and photo.

Leo checked at the corner of the wall screen, eyeing the live team notifications. Last read message was from Constable McLamb. 2:10 AM. The sergeant groaned, wiping a hand over his face. He left his nose in his palm as he continued to ponder on multiple lines of thought.

Then the door to the office opened.

“What do you have McLa—Oh, sorry Jenny.” Leo took a moment to rub his eyes. He opened them to readjust to the bright light.

Constable Jenny closed the door behind her. She carried her jean jacket in one arm and her police tablet under the other. Her hair was sticking to her face and forehead as she grabbed some Kleenex to dab the sweat off. “Sorry it took so long. There was an emergency at the hospital, a whole bus full of hockey players that had a sudden case of food poisoning.”

“That’s fine.” The sergeant took a break from the wall screen and filled up a cup of water from the office cooler for Jenny. As the constable nodded a thanks and drank at least half a cup, Leo spoke up. “Anything on Dr. Malcolm?”

“Dr. Malcom was already out of town for a medical conference, five days before Sarah’s time of death.” Jenny gulped more water before she continued. “Even when he got back after we found her body, he had to attend to an emergency surgery. Hip fracture from a senior home.”

Leo pinched at his chin. “He’s clean?”

Jenny shrugged, “Unless he found some way to freeze the body to delay the corpse decomposition AND had a plan of discarding most of the body while he was still at the conference – most likely he isn’t involved.”

The sergeant tapped a fist to his forehead. “One way or another, at least he is one problem out of the way. You must be hungry, I already got Jackson to get us some food when he comes back. Get some rest.”

Jenny nodded and stumbled to her desk. She dropped her police tablet onto the table, sagged into her seat, and couldn’t resist taking off her shoe to let her feet rest.

“Heyoooo!” Constable Jackson strode into the office, carrying several bags of take out in plastic and paper bags. “Daddy’s home!”

Leo rolled his eyes and marched over, giving the constable a light jab with a back hand in the open stomach. “What took you?”

“Yeah, not gonna say traffic was murder. Puns like that are so last generation.” Jackson coughed to hide his cheeky smile and he passed the bags of food over to Leo. “I had to stop by a few places to, uuh, call in some favors let's just say.”

“Anything on Felicia?”

“Everything from her business life, social life, and private life.” Jackson snagged a large cup of soda from the take out bags and made a loud slurping sound. “Felicia Harvey, workaholic. Even on her off days she is always taking calls and hunting for big money clients. It’s to the point where no one can tell if she is just aggressive or addicted to her work.” Another sip and Jackson adjusted his fedora. “Roughly around the time Sarah would have been murdered, Felicia was either at her office or meeting another client somewhere in town. That or skinning her secretary alive on FaceTime – quote me on that.”

Leo frowned. “Nothing involving with murder?”

“Nothing involving with murder.” Jackson mirrored. “Buuuuut. On the way over, I did come across something very interested. Have you seen the latest viral video?”

“Look, Jackson. I appreciate you trying to cheer me up with cute animal videos but--” Before Leo could finish his sentence Jackson dragged the sergeant over to the wall screen. After pressing some buttons on his phone to send the link to the on-the-wall computer, the clip was being show. The sergeant stared for a moment. “...Wait, isn’t that Felicia?”

Jenny bolted sitting up when she heard the name. Not bothering to put her shoes back on she dashed over to the wall to join them, peeking over their shoulders.

A YouTube short played across the wall screen. Felicia Harvey was walking through the street, head held up high with a peaceful smirk. A call came. She answered. The smile shattered, into a face of confusion. Anger boiled in her eyes. She started to talk back, her voice rising into yells. People around her all stared, she turned her backs on them. Finally, she could be seen making a ‘hello?’ ‘hello?’. Finally with a violent scream she tossed her phone away – only for it smash into a nearby light post and shrapnel bounced back into her face! She grabbed her cheeks with a shriek and tripped backwards. The video would then rewinded as she was in mid-fall and looped her accident from the phone exploding and her keeling over like some kind of beatbox animation.

The title of the video was [MID-LIFE CRISIS MUCH?]
3.5 Million Views, 6120 Likes, 2 Dislikes.

“Jackson, where’s the audio?” Leo replayed the full clip and raised the volume. The music was so obnoxious even Jenny had to cover her ears with her jean jacket. Several officers out in the hall would peer through the office window, confused as to why there was loud booming music. No matter how hard Leo tried to listen for any ambience, all he could hear was the music thumping against the walls.

“Leo. Leo! LEO! IT’S NO USE MAN!” Jackson hollered over the noise before he slapped a palm to stop the clip to stop the sound. He started to smack a fist on the volume down button. “Video editing man. Most shorts like these people mute the original track and put in music to add their own spin on the video. Now, in saying that – this is where I was calling in some favors.” Making sure the volume was low enough, the constable pinched the tip of his fedora with a smug chuckle. “I went on this guy’s YouTube channel and contacted him via Twitter messages. Lucky for us he is willing to help and give us a copy of the raw footage – buuuut we gotta wait until after his graveyard shift as the clip is on his memory drive back home. Sooo about what five or six hours give or take, provided his boss doesn’t give him overtime.”

“I guess that’s one saving grace.” The sergeant replayed the video and paused it just as Felicia picked up the phone. Fortunately, there was a public clock nearby and it showed the time. Leo tapped at it across the screen. “Did you check the phone company?”

“You wouldn’t believe who called her around that time.”

“Who?”

“Frank – Tucker.”