Case Files of Detective Kenneth Cohl

Case File Fourteen: Behavior Prevention

A few weeks had passed since Kenneth's last case; the city had just been way too quiet. He was just going back to his normal routine at work, but would stare out in space now and then wondering what Alister was plotting next. Which is exactly what he was doing as his boss came up to him and snapped her fingers in front of his face to wake him up and remind him of a meeting they had to attend.

"Do I really have to go?" Kenneth asked his boss as they prepared for a meeting

"Yes, it is important that you attend this meeting so you can see signs of a potential threat.'' She replied.

"I'm a detective, I've solved murder cases, I know what to look for."

"You know what to look for after the event has occurred, but you don't know what to look for to prevent something."

Grumbling he made his way downstairs with his boss into the auditorium. An overhead projector was hanging down from the ceiling playing a PowerPoint slide onto the screen in front. The room itself was freezing, to the point you could see your breath. They had coffee and cups located on a table to the right of the room with paper handouts. The chairs were quickly filling up as it got closer to start time, Kenneth grabbed one of the far back seats and noticed a man setting up a mini camera in the center aiming it at the front, He was grey-haired and balding, dressed well in a black suit and tie, wore glasses, his name was Fernando Udell, he was the tech person of the two-man team. His partner was at the front, he looked a lot like Fernando, just still had some color in his hair, no signs of balding, and a full beard and mustache, his name was William Wagner and he was the head of B.P.S (Behavior Prevention System). They had come to the campus to discuss safety for both the student and the faculty and to help give an idea of behaviors to look for in others that could potentially become dangerous.

William had been sipping on a cup of coffee since they walked in, constantly removing the lid and adding packs of sugar and stirring it with a straw before putting the lid back on; he walked over to the table and grabbed a second cup then went to hand it over to his partner. The lights went off as he started walking back up to the front, took one last sip of his coffee before throwing out the cup and began his lecture. They went through the discussion of Prevention versus Reaction, Cognitive Aggression compared to Primal Aggression, How profiling was not an effective way to look for a problem, Kenneth did find it fairly interesting, especially when it got to examples to see if the person was a threat or not, and how much of a threat. Two hours went by and the presentation was over, everyone applauded, and when the lights came back on, Fernando was on the floor, not moving. Kenneth ran over to check, but was unable to find a pulse and his lips had also turned slightly purple. Kenneth could smell almonds coming from Fernando's mouth and the coffee cup. It didn't take long for the police to arrive on the scene, and Inspector Salvo was there to oversee everything.

"Hey Inspector, long time no see." Kenneth said approaching him.

"Oh Kenneth, good to see you boy, how have you been?"

"Not bad, it was pretty quiet for a while, until today anyway."

"So what do we have?"

"The victim is a male, age 55, name Fernando Udell. The cause of death is cyanide poisoning from the coffee."

"Any suspects?"

"Not for certain right now, the coffee was handed to him straight from the table to his hand."

"Who took him the coffee?"

"His partner William Wagner, they work together for B.P.S, the Behavior Prevention System, they were here giving us a lecture of what to look for to prevent stuff, such as this from happening."

"You think it could be suicide?"

"I thought about that, but he has nothing on him that he could have used to contain the cyanide."

"Who brought in the coffee, maybe it was a random death not planned for anyone person."

"That's possible, but very unlikely, I think I know who did it, but I just need to find the evidence."

Inspector Salvo began to question the other employees that had been sitting in on the presentation as Kenneth began walking around the room. He came up to the trashcan and looked inside and saw something that began to piece everything together, he called one of the officers over to get some gloves and a plastic bag, he then walked over to Salvo and let him know what he had found. The Inspector thanked everyone for their time and told them they were all welcome to leave, expect for Mr. Wagner who they needed to get a statement from. Once the doors were closed, the inspector began to question Mr. Wagner.

"You're talking to me as if I am a suspect in this case, Inspector."

"Well that's mainly because you are a suspect, the prime suspect in fact."

"If that's the case, then please show me some proof in regards to me having done this act."

"You were the one that just so happened to hand him a cup of coffee tainted with cyanide."

"How do you explain that I grabbed a cup of coffee from the table and put cyanide in it while I was walking to him?"

"It's simple; I was watching you from when I first walked into this room." Kenneth jumped in.

"Just what does that prove?"

"The cup you handed over to Mr. Udell wasn't the one your hand grabbed from the table, it was the cup you had at the very start."

William sat in silence staring in Kenneth's direction.

"Let me explain further, you were walking back and forth, you constantly removed the lid of your cup, added a bit of sugar, stirred it, put the lid back on, and sipped through the straw. As you went to the table, you did the exact same actions, except you didn't put the straw back in the cup, and you didn't sip it. You then grabbed a second cup, walked over to Fernando and handed him one, the one you had poisoned just before grabbing a second cup."

"What you are saying is completely absurd, you have no proof that this ridiculous idea could even be factual."

"Actually I do, its' right here." Kenneth said as he held up a plastic bag with a stirring straw in it "One side of this straw will have your DNA on it, the straw itself will have your fingerprints, and the other side will have traces on cyanide since you used this to stir it into the coffee."

"You can either admit to it now, or we do the test and prove it later." Salvo interjected.

"Fine, fine I did it, I killed him."

"Why did you do it?" Kenneth asked.

"He was blackmailing me for money, I was having an affair, it didn't last long but he found out about it, he had pictures and was threatening to go to my wife."

"So you went and murdered him?" Salvo said.

"At first I just gave him the money, but he wanted more and more, I just didn't have it, and I couldn't let him go to my wife, she was all I had left."

"Cuff him and take him away." Salvo ordered.

"Young man, you said you were watching me since you first walked in, why, I was showing no signs of strange behavior." William asked as he was being walked passed Kenneth.

"The way you look, I had you profiled as a typical looking bad guy."

"Further proof the profiling doesn't help to prevent."

"Maybe but it helped to see that truth prevailed, and you'll be having time behind bars."

He walked with Salvo outside and they watched as the Officers loaded William into the back of the police car and began to pull out of the parking area when suddenly the car blew up. The explosion sent them flying backwards and onto the ground. A cloud of black smoke filled the area and the car was engulfed in flames. Kenneth made it to his feet, blood coming down from his forehead where he hit the cement. A note burning on one side fell in front of his feet. The side facing up was blank; he stepped on it to put the fire out then picked it up and flipped it over to read:

I'm Back, See You Soon.
~Alister Crowley