Chapter twelve: The knife

Trigger warnings for those who need them

Indirect police misconduct

With the murder weapon stashed at the police station, I know exactly who to call.
That is…if I had a phone.
So instead I just head to the police station and hope for the best.
I go up a pair of stairs that goes up the blue district.
Then up a ladder to the South plateau.
Where I find yet another staircase that goes round the whole block, which turns into a Tall square building with a spiral set of steps all the way round until I end up so high up that I can see the sea from here.
I can just imagine the police officer jumping down with canvas wings to go and save the day.
But I bet that’d only look majestic in my imagination.
The door is closed but the sign says they’re open.
Inside I find yet another front desk person who I’ve quickly characterized as my biggest enemy.
“I’m looking for Millard Menfrey.”
“Why?”
“I’m Alice Castella, looking for the murderer of Donna Gerris and Darren Johnasson and mister Menfrey has my murder weapon.”
The man looks me up and down as if looking for some badge or other proof. A badge might be a good idea…Although I have no idea what it should look like.
“Please wait.” He tells me, then picks up the phone “This is Sennan, is Menfrey in?” There’s a pause “A huh, okay, yeah no there’s this girl here, claims she’s a detective.” Another pause “I’ll let her know, thanks.” He hangs up “Menfrey isn’t in, he’s on rail duty in the midds. You’re free to go and look for him but I’m afraid I can’t help you beyond that.”
“Oh…well do you at least know the direction I should look in?”
“I’ll draw you a map-“
The door slams open with a woman dressed in black from head to toe comes striding in.
She passes me by as if I weren’t there and slams her gloved hands onto the table.
She starts talking to the policeman in a language I don’t think I’ve ever heard before. It’s has soft edges but a very sudden rhythm.
I wonder fit the woman is angry or just exited as a long crocheted veil hides away her face. I note the veil is kept in place with a long wooden needle surrounded by dried flowers.
A man, dressed in a similar manner, flowers and all, follows the woman, nodding apologetically.
The man at the other side of the desk sighs, responds in that same language, and then signals for me to get out.
I wonder what’s going on. Who these people are and what the fuss is about. The clerk signals to me again.
I frown.
Then relent, and turn away.
I’m afraid this isn’t a mystery that I get to solve.

I slide carefully down the slate roof tiles and hold onto the railing as I pass yet another bridge to the next building.
I’m glad they test these tracks, because I can just imagine this place falling apart otherwise and hurting a lot of people.
Although, I don’t know exactly why it’s the job of an officer, rather than an engineer or an inspector.
And isn’t mister Menfrey supposed to be busy with the murder case? I know I am.
Maybe the clerk at the front desk just wanted to get rid of me and this is a fool’s errant.
I sigh.
I look out over the city and feel like a termite overlooking a giant colony.
It does look pretty…The city is a mess but in that special way you just can’t look away from.
But it seems like he’s not on this roof either.
So on to the next one.

I manage to catch him at the shopping district in the middle layer…
Midds.
Oh.
Oh well.
I rush towards him “Inspector Menfrey!”
He looks up from a list “Ah, it’s you.” He doesn’t sound too excited to see me.
“I need to see the murder weapon but you took it.”
“Inspector Bailey took it, take it up with him.”
“So are you a real detective inspector or aren’t you?”
The man pulls up an eyebrow.
“I mean you try and push me out of a case and then I find you on ‘railing duty’ even though the murderer is still at large.”
“Look, unlike your deal, the police is a team, we delegate stuff and right now I’m just doing a task that needs doing.”
“So you’ve given up and leave it up to the others to solve this case? You know I expected you to be more ambitious seeing as you were all too eager passing off my ideas as your own.”
“I haven’t given up if that’s what you think. But unlike you, I need to function inside a system.”
I grunt, this is going nowhere “Fine, how many railings do you need to do still?”
“I have a list, about a dozen.”
“Excellent, give me the list, I’ll help. The sooner we finish the sooner I get to see that knife.”
“I didn’t say you could see the knife yet.”
“You were the one suggesting we work together. Besides I have all reason to believe you’ll try to steal the credit again when I find the murderer so in that case the more you help me the more you help yourself.”
Menfrey thinks for a moment, then rolls his eyes and hands me the map. “If you go check the resident wrap, I’ll finish off here”
“Aye aye captain.” I salute him, then jump on the task.

Roughly two hours later we’re climbing those cursed steps again.
“So whose idea was it to build the police station so far up?”
Menfrey scoffs “Don’t ask me I just work here.” He then opens the door and asks “Is inspector Bailey in?”
“Yeah, but he’s busy fighting with the Johnassons.”
“Excellent, gimme the key to the evidence locker.”
“You’ll give it back before three?”
“Yeah sure.”
The clerk pulls out a drawer filled with keys neatly laid out in a grid. “There you go.”
“Thanks friend.” He turns to me “Come on, we have about forty minutes before I have to return this.”
“Darren’s last name is Johnasson, is inspector Bailey fighting with his relatives?”
“That’s police business and doesn’t concern you.”
“But-“
“Trust me, what they’re talking about has nothing to do with the case and you don’t wanna know.” He signals me to follow him “Besides I’m already not supposed to be in the evidence locker without the inspector Bailey’s permission so you could stand to be more grateful and pry a little less.”
I roll my eyes “Ugh, fine. To the knife.”

The evidence locker is less of a locker and more of a storage room filled with cardboard boxes lining the walls from top to bottom.
Menfrey walks to a box with a long serial number on the front and pulls it back.
“Well here it is.” He says as he pulls the knife from the box and hands it to me.
It looks, well like a wooden knife, a pretty elaborate wooden knife, with half gems laid in the handle and painted in shimmering shades, but it’s still a wooden knife. “How does it manage to stab someone for real if the blade is dull and wooden?” I try to press on the blade to retreat it back into the handle-
“Stop! Give it here.”
“What? Why?!”
“Because I don’t want you to loose a finger.” He snatches the piece from my hand and then grabs the lid of the box. Judging from the other slits in the lid, has been used for demonstration purposes before.
He places it sideways onto the table. Then presses it down securely with one hand while pressing the prop knife against the lid with the other. The blade slides into the base like it should.
And then nothing happens.
“Okay so how-?”
The blade punches through the box, full force and I spot the glint of a metal blade. The movement is quick the blade vanishing again as quickly as it came.
“What? How?”
He pulls the prop away and points out a thin slit in the top of the wooden blade that looked like just a glue seam before.
“The current theory is that the metal blade works on a timer and only goes off after a couple seconds to make sure it doesn’t go off accidentally and give the game away.”
“Possibly yes, but that’s a lot of effort to go through for just one murder, did you take it apart already, worked out its insides?”
“We can’t, we need it in working order in order to show the court how the murder took place. If we wanna convict Jerebiah Nek.”
“You think he’s the murderer? Is he a good dancer then?”
“He’s complicit at least. And if we put some heat under his ass I bet he’ll give away who hired him.”
“He claims he didn’t make the knife.”
“Denying something he absolutely did? No criminal has ever done that before.”
“Then what’s his motive?”
“His workplace got stolen by miss and mister Gerris. He’s forced to work in a workshop the size of a postage stamp. He’s a bitter old man, angry at his employer. So when the murderer comes by and offers him a lot of money to help him kill one of the menaces who caused that there’s no way he’d say no.”
“The man did claim he wasn’t getting paid enough doing his work. But he also seemed very passionate about the things he does. I’m not sure if he’d risk his position like that. He must have known it leads right back to him right?”
“You’re giving these people too much credit, most criminals don’t look further than their immediate reward and then they’re very surprised when we come by and pick them up.”
“I’m not sure if that’s universally true. But suppose mister Nek did provide the knife, then we still need to work out who’s in the suit.”
“That’s what the cross examination is for.”
“Yet, you were checking railings instead of talking to him?”
Menfrey hisses painfully “That Barnaby fellow is a tough one. He says we need something more concrete in order to take his workers away.”
“But you’re the police?”
“He pays a lot of taxes.”
“I-what?”
“Look just give me your notes, I’m sure that together we can find something we can use to bring him in.”
“I focused on the one in the suit since I didn’t have a murder weapon to check out.”
“So what did you find?”
“Well, I started with making a profile. Then I spoke to the theater staff and visited the factory where the costumes are being made-”
“Do you have any suspects.”
“No one concrete.” I pull out my notebook and go down my list of people. “I’ve been wanting to talk to Tashi Sashou but I can’t get a hold of him.”
“My colleagues did but he’s of no help, he’s mostly just talking in circles a lot.”
“Do you have notes?”
“I have a recording.”
“Can I see?”
“Do you have transcripts of your interviews?”
“Not as such but I could give you a copy of my notes.”
“Who did you talk to?”
“Melanie Piklee, Tonya Sillast, George Gerry, Otto Zelias, Harald Kiepel, Mister Nek, you said his first name was Jeremiah I think?”
“Jerebiah, with a b.”
“Thanks.” I pull out my notebook and write it down.
He narrows his eyes at me “Didn’t you say you didn’t have very much?”
“Oh I have-“ I look flip back and count the pages “Roughly twenty pages of notes, I just don’t jump to conclusions as quickly as you guys.”
“I’ll have all of them.”
“Sure.”
He gets up and walks to a drawer rifling through rows and rows flat round tins. He pulls one out and sets it down in front of me. “There you go.”
I open it, finding a black roll of tape inside.
“What is this?”
“Tape, you don’t have a player?”
“No.”
“What kind of a detective are you without a tape player?” he rolls his eyes. Pulls out this massive bakelite machine and locks the roll of tape into place. He then cranks the handle for a moment and just like that the gears start to move and lot of crackling noise emerges from the machine that turns into a voice if you squint your ears to it.

“Can you explain to us what happened?” the first voice asks.
“I don’t know.”
“But, you were on stage when the murder happened right?”
“Yes.”
“Well what was going on on there? The way I heard it. You were holding the victim as she got stabbed.”
There’s a pause, electric static and nothing else, until the voice surfaces, broken and filled with tears “Yes.”
“So then tell us what happened.”
“I don’t know!”
“Bullshit!”
“Now now that’s maybe a bit much don’t you think?” a third voice enters the conversation “I understand you’re upset, we’d all be in this situation. But you have to understand that we’re trying to do is get the bastard who did this. Don’t you want us to find the man who did this?”
Another silence. “I do.”
“Then work with us, your testimony can be the thing that gets us to get him. We need your help.”
Another silence “I just, I thought she looked scared but I didn’t know he would stab her. it doesn’t make sense.”
“You chased the man off stage didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And then he got away?”
“Yes!”
“Do you know who he is?”
There’s a pause “No.”
“What happened, how did he leave?”
“I ran after him, we fought, he kicked me in the stomach and then he ran out.”
“He kicked you in the stomach?”
“What, like martial arts style?”
“Actually, he just kneed me, we were already struggling on the floor by that point.”
“So you managed to tackle him?”
“I guess.”
“And you didn’t think to take his mask off?”
“I”
“This investigation would have gone a whole lot faster if you did, you know.”
“I guess.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know!? The man just stabbed someone maybe I didn’t want to risk getting killed for knowing his identity?”
“But you were brave enough to tackle him and throw him to the ground?”
“I didn’t throw him, we…” there’s a pause.
“I see.” I can only assume a hand gesture took the place of the silence as the conversation continues “Mister Sashou, I have a hard time deciding whether to compliment you on trying to stop him or smack you round the ear for not even attempting to get the mask off.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You weren’t even curious?”
Silence.
“Fine, after he…wriggled away, how did he leave?”
“He ran through the artist entrance.”
“So our perp runs off the stage with you hot on his heels. You tackle him, in the middle of the path I assume? He knees you in the stomach and then runs away through the artist entrance?”
“Uhu.”
“Uhu is not an answer.”
“Yes.”
“I think you’re lying. I think you know who’s beneath that mask and are hiding it from us.”
“You know what I think?” The other voice muses. “I think it’s time for our break.” “Yeah, I could do with some coffee.”
The screech of chairs being pushed back tears through the tape. “We’ll be right back.”
“What about me?”
“Oh I’m afraid we’re not allowed to offer hot beverages to interviewees. Just a safety precaution I’m sure you understand.”
“But can I go?”
“No, but we’ll be right back.”
“Just think of it as extra time to…remember your story better.”
“But!-“
It cuts out there.
I look at the jumble of notes I scrawled down while listening. Things went too fast but I’m certain of two things.
Firstly, Hamala was right and Tashi is Jigani, the accent is unmistakable.
Secondly, with the artist entrance locked at all times, either the murderer had a key and is very fast at opening locks, or Tashi is lying.
“I suppose there isn’t a second tape?”
“Of mister Sashou? No.”
“I see, well thank you for the information. I learnt a lot.”
“Good, now your notes?”
“Oh right.” I flick back a couple pages and then chuckle to myself “Do you happen to know Jigani?”
“Why would I know Jigani?”
“About half of these are in Cygnian and half of these are in Jigani…How about I translate them first and have them sent to your office?”
The man grunts but doesn’t fight “Don’t take too long.”
“I’ll get started as soon as I get back to my ship.”
He hums.
I smile politely, take a final glance at the knife and decide this is probably gonna be another long night.

The Griffin greets me with silent corridors and a parlour that has only a single Dana in it. She’s sitting on the sofa making sketches again.
“Hey.” I let out careful not to startle her.
“How did it go?”
I shrug, lay down my notebook and flip through the dozen or so pages I’ve scribbled up and down with notes. “Every time I talk to someone I get about twenty new ideas on what could have happened yet nothing to really rule out. And it’s already been six days I think I might be going about this all the wrong way.”
“How do you normally solve a mystery then?”
“Simple, all the names go in the front of the notebook and everything I learn about then I put after that. Then I ask questions and try to formulate answers based on the input I’ve gotten from the witnesses. And then I can start taking people off the list based on that. But my list isn’t complete and I don’t know who I’m missing and what their stories are yet. Meanwhile Menfrey just wants to get things done the fastest way possible regardless of accuracy and I wonder if the wrong people might get in trouble if I’m not fast enough.”
“Who’s Menfrey?”
“Oh, he’s the cop who showed me the knife.”
“I see, well, even police officers need evidence before they can arrest someone right?”
“Thankfully yes but…I don’t know I’m just frustrated I’m not faster at this.”
“Well, you haven’t exactly given yourself an easy task, this case isn’t like your storybooks, real people have lost other real people and trying to give the closure is a big responsibility.”
“Yeah…”
“I also wanted to remind you we need to go to the mainland to certify you in four days.”
“Really?” I grunt “Can’t we do the next one? I’m very busy right now.”
She raises an eyebrow “You’re suggesting waiting a year for the next one?”
“No!? Yes? I don’t know. I just don’t have time to travel if I want to focus on this case.”
“If your sleuthing is going to be a regular thing chances are you’ll be in the middle of a case next year as well.”
“I guess, but it wouldn’t be very manta of me now would it?”
“What do you mean?”
“leaving the case to pursue my own goals doesn’t really fit with the whole ‘help everyone’ philosophy.”
She smiles “Being manta is about bringing good where we can. It doesn’t restrict us in our own agency. Besides by passing your exams you’ll be helping me a lot and Xuiyo and Himowa as well.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well they’re on the run right? Should anything happen then we’ll need to be able to take off again. Right now that’s not an option.”
“But we flew all the way here.”
“And I told you that was a one-time exception.”
“Fine, but how would it help you?”
“I’d be done teaching you. Not that I mind but it’s still nice to know I’ve taught you well and that you’ll be ready to take on the world alone.”
“Will you leave after?”
She shrugs “I think that depends on whether you still need me.”
“I’ll always need you.”
She laughs amusedly at this. I don’t want her to laugh I want her to kiss me. She then pats my head and says “That’s really sweet of you to say.”
But it’s true! It’s- I want to tell her everything. How I feel, what she means to me.
I would not have made it this far without her.
She’s she reason I’m free.
The one who taught me how to fly.
The one who taught me women can be strong and kind and beautiful at the same time.
She taught me how to be a better me.
And I don’t want to lose that.
Ever.
But I can’t tell her yet, not while this whole teacher-student relationship is going on. Not until after the exams.
So I guess that means I have to.
Even if it slows down the investigation I don’t want to keep her here wondering whether she might prefer to be elsewhere and I don’t want to wait to tell her what she really means to me.
“All right, I guess we can do the exams this year.”
“Good.”
“Now scoot I have about thirty pages of notes to copy in trade for the Tashi-tape and I could use the company.”