Mechanical Mantis

No concern of yours

The General stood, stiff as a board (as per usual), waiting for word from the detectives working their newest case. She stood motionless, almost unblinking as they worked inside the apartment. The town never really had much of a police presence so the military took over most of the work they would be doing. Detective Blake stepped out to give her their report ( he had lost the bet for who had to tell her).

He gulped as he began to speak, " R-robert Shirley, he was stabbed in this- his apartment late last night, we believe somewhere around 3:30 am. He was an avid collector of expensive watches although none of them seem to be missing. We believe he may have replaced them with fakes. This note was found in his shirt pocket, apparently put in there by the killer." He handed the note to the general, who always wears gloves anyway, she reads the words as follows silently. "What do you think, Mantis?" Mantis, the word rang in her head as her breath caught for a moment.

"Ma'am? Do you know something helpful?" He asked timidly, knowing he may not like the response.

"No concern of yours." She said, quietly at first. He looked surprised at the almost scared expression plastered on her already pale face. Noticing this, she quickly straightened up and cleared her throat. "Dismissed." She said in her usual stern voice. Many thoughts were flying through her mind. But, primarily "Who?" She quickly pushed the thoughts away and thought of what she needed to do to solve the case. She remembered what the detective had stated about the watches being fake. She decided she would have to visit the clockmaker's. A building she did not visit often for two reasons. One being she did not break her watch and two, the owner. That clockmaker was too much. They had only met once before, they had passed on the street where she had told the general to "lighten up!", She was the only person to speak to the general so fleetingly, openly and frankly disrespectfully in a very long time. It scared the general, not because she wanted the power but because it made her feel things she did not understand. No one ever spoke to her like that and it was honestly very refreshing. The general even blushed slightly before sternly telling her who she was, and scaring quite a few people in the process. She knew she needed to do it, as she values work above all other aspects of her life, (there weren't many), she still dreaded doing it right up until the day. She went alone as this was mainly her case. She woke up the day of, and got ready as per usual, still dreading the day's activity.