2097: A Detective Story I : The Bird's Box

The Box of Birds

      A pitch black car was moving slowly down Midland Street in the city of Altra, a city near the seaside, which hadn't been hit by technology as hard as megalopolises like Sonet or Zanchester. The car had the specific registration number of detective cars, but you wouldn't think of it as one. Even the people on the other side of the road could hear the obnoxious music coming from the speakers of the car. Inside, there were a father and a daughter, the father being the detective which owned the car, and the daughter being the reason of the loud music.

      'If you insist on listening to such awful music, could you at least let me turn it down a notch Jess?' said the father in a rather annoyed tone.

      'Oh, come on, dad! You turn the volume way higher when you listen to your classical bullshit!'

      'You can't say you don't like "Castle on the Hill"! Ed Sheeran was a mastermind!'

      'I don't even know that song! See, if he had been a mastermind indeed, I would have at least remembered the melody!'

      'It's the one that goes like: "I'm on my way/ Driving at ninety down those..."'

      'Daaad, that song was made forty years before you were even born!'

      The man's left glove gave a faint glow as it automatically answered the call from its incorporated walkie talkie, a woman's voice covering their raging fight over such important matters.

      'Detective Jade, this is Lead Detective Hawk, coming in with a potential homicide. The victim is former Detective Johnny Blue, formerly assigned to Case 19508, nicknamed "The Box of Birds". The body was found at the address you have just received through your glove, near Park Boulevard.'

      'Really, Alice? Are formalities necessary at this point?'

      'Did somebody die? Does that mean that I get to go on another case?!' shouted Jess from the backseat.

      'Was that Jessica?! Do you seriously bring our daughter to cases?!'

      'No... Do you?' said Thomas in a slightly sarcastic voice.

      'That's why I didn't marry you...'

      'Btw, it's Jess, mom! Geez...'

      'Thomas, bring Jessica at the office this instant!' 

      'But the crime scene is really close. I'll just take a look and then bring her at the office, ok? Thanks, bye!'

      'Thomas, don't you...' started Alice angrily, before she was cut off by Thomas ending the call.

      After the call had ended, realization flooded Thomas, while the panic stroke in.

      'Well, since mom is already mad, I do get to be part of this case, right?' asked Jess cautiously.

      'We'll see about that.'

      The car accelerated, splashing the pedestrians, which must have made their night even worse. With a few turns, they arrived on Park Boulevard, and even though Thomas hadn't checked the exact location, the bright red and blue barriers set by the police gave the crime scene away. Thomas quickly got out of the car, and before even having time to speak up, Jess had already run towards the scene. 

      Thomas was about to initiate a life-form scan with his left glove, in order to ensure Jess's safety, but was promptly interrupted by a police officer, asking for his identity. Thomas gave an irritated moan, while reaching into the inside pocket of his thick, dark brown coat. He barely even showed his virtual badge to the officer, before going back to his scan. The officer seemed to have recognized him as Detective Jade, because he issued a quick apology and left Thomas to do his work.

      The scan detected about half a dozen little life-forms that wouldn't pose any threat, bunched up together, coming from the far end of the building, where the corpse was. When Thomas arrived, Jess was already inspecting the body, totally ignoring the royal purple box at the man's head.

      'So, it is obvious that he was stabbed in the head, piercing the frontal lobe...' started Jess professionally, but stopped abruptly as she realized that her father wasn't listening to her. 'Dad! Are you even paying attention? I've gotten better at this!'

      'You sure have, but you are completely missing the point. In this type of cases how the murder is committed is not of importance.' Thomas said picking up the box. 'What matters is what they leave behind.'

      Thomas opened the box, letting six pigeons come out. After all the pigeons have left, Thomas put the box back down and started the autopsy of the body. As Jess had already said, the murder had been done by a stab to the head. Other wounds consisted of the one to the left eye, which had robotic enhancements.

      'Do the birds even have a meaning?' asked Jess curiously, but Thomas could see that she was preparing to start one of her over-the-top theories. 'Is this a conspiracy? Maybe the murderer is a bird-human hybrid, leaving his bird offspring  behind in colourful boxes, and they soon are going to transform into bird-human hybrids as well and wreck havoc in the city. We can't let them escape! Quick, see if there is an option on your glove to catch them!'

       'As a matter of fact, there is, in my right glove. But I don't think a bird-human hybrid would just leave their offspring at the crime scene like that. I mean,  wouldn't their bird side feel just a little compassion for their babies? But you're right, there must be a deeper meaning behind them. I'm sure Johnny was storing some evidence at the office.'

      With this, Thomas headed for the car, with Jess in tow. He passed all the policemen, totally ignoring them, and then got behind the wheel, waiting only long enough for Jess to get in the back seat before taking off. It came as a surprise to Thomas that Jess had been silent throughout the whole ride, but it was a pleasant one, nonetheless.

      It wasn't long before they arrived at the M.I. station, and Thomas quickly shoved Jess into Alice's office and informed the latter that he would be taking over the "The Box of Birds" case, before locking himself in the archives to search for Johnny's notes on the case. Thomas found it hard to concentrate on the case, though, because he could clearly hear Alice having a loud argument with Jess.

      Johnny's notes were very vague (Thomas suspected that he had been keeping all of his reports at his house, so he made a note to check there later), but they showed there was a box with birds at every murder scene. The boxes always had different colours or patterns, with different birds in different numbers. At the end of Johnny's notes there was a crumbled paper that simply read 'there are more people involved'.

      Thomas didn't have time to think about the note, because he noticed the odd silence coming from Alice's office. He was preparing to leave the archive in order to see what was going on, when the alarm went off. Thomas quickly ran towards the main office, his metallic feet stomping on the wooden floors loudly. When he arrived, he quickly opened the door, only to see a concerned Alice giving orders through her glove.

      'Mom says there's been another murder.' said Jess with a worried look on her face. 'And that there is a box.'