3 First case: Robbery of the magical aphotecary part 2

Sarwan took me to my new desk. It was nice and clean with nothing on it, only the computer. It needed some personal touch but I will leave the decorating for later. Everyone was already busy with their own stuff. Sarwan said that because it was Spring it was rather calm boot looking around I must say that the police station Solomon had much more work than the 11th Dike. We needed to hurry I still had to pick up my equipment. So I just put the case file of my parents into the desk drawer and locked it.

"I must say sorry for my little prank. We always do something like that when a new guy joins us."

Sarwan was looking at me apologetically.

"You really got me there I must say."

"I know! You should seen your face! It was hilarious! Hoot hoot hoot!"

For me his laugh was hilarious.

We made our way down to the basement where the armory is stationed. I really had some difficulty to keep up because of the stairs. Sarwan was already used to it. Really soon we were in the basement and at the entrance was a cage that closed the whole room. There was just a small opening where another police officer was standing.

"Hey! Manny! I got a newbie! We need his stuff!"

The police officer was a small Kobold. He was reading a book with great interest before Sarwan interrupted him. He looked lazily up. Small alligator like head with big nostrils, green skin, big ears and a small stature are the main characteristics of a Kobold.

"Papers....."

His voice was high and bland. He looked at me really uninterested. I passed him my papers an he read it reeeealy slowly. I could see Sarwan already loosing his patience. He was just about to say something when:

"Everything seems in order... I will get your equipment..."

He disappeared in a instant. Kobolds are famous for their speed. Behind the desk I could see the room. There was all kinds of stuff around. Here and there I would see the shadow of Manny stopping taking something and disappearing again and in no time he was already in front of us and on the desk, like magic, was my gear.

"Here it is: One "MG700 pistol" with 4 mag's. One magazine with silver bullets, one mithril bullets, one with mana bullets and the last one is filled with enhanced bullets. "LS protective west" it will keep you safe from most low caliber bullets is stab proof and has antimagic enchantment up to Lv.3. and of course here are your new badge and security card. Do NOT loose any of the items provided!"

All the gear looked good there were no problems. The gun and mag's were placed in the holsters and i can put them on my normal belt without adjustments. I did not need to wear the west right now only when there is a need or when you know there is danger. The new shining badge looked nice. It was golden with the wonder city in the background and with big blue letters "WCPD" infront. Below the letters were 3 stars that indicaed that i was a 1.st class detective. I put the gun and the badge on my belt and checked if anything was loose.

"Ho ho ho 1.st class! i must say that is impresive! Im only 3.rd. !"

Sarwan was looking at the badge with jearning.

"Well one day ill get there. Ho Ho Ho! Hey Manny! Wee need a car. Chief's orders."

He streched out his hand toward him with great anticipaton.

"Yes....Yes.... Here you go the keys to the Ford-258-85."

"WHY? WHY the Ford? It does not even have a air conditoner! Its a piece of crap! Give me something else."

Sarwan was genuenly depressed he looked at Manny like a puppy wit his big eyes but the Kobold only had the look of anoyance on his face.

"Last time you crashed the police car while chasing a prepetrator and the other time when you skratched it while parking and another time when....."

"OKAY! Okay! I get it! Ill take the damn Ford!"

He took the keys with great protest. Manny just went back back to reading his book. We went to the back entrance where the parking lot was located and there was our car. The ugliest piece of junk I have ever seen. The Ford Crown Victoria. A standard Interceptor police car variant to law-enforcement agencies...form The last century. It was brown and had no police decals it looked like a civilian car. When looking at the other cars in the lot this one was in a bad shape.

"Yea I know what you are thinking. But don't worry its only temporary."

It did not matter what kind of car I was driving. It was the inside what counts. And as soon we got in it was not that bad. Sarwan was driving. I had a higher rank but there was a unwritten rule that the new guy would never drive on his first day. Sarwan turned on the radio and picked up the microphone.

"Here is Det. Sarwan and Det.Theopha....."

"Just say Theo."

"Det.Theo with the "258-85" leaving "Castle" do you read me?"

It was standard procedure every time someone leaves the headquarters to let them know what vehicle you are using so when someone needs you they will call the code over the radio. Soon there was a women's voice coming from the radio.

"Loud and clear 258! Good luck!"

Sarwan started the car and we were on our way to the crime scene.

"Gosh! I still can't believe he gave me this piece of junk."

He was still evidently in a bad mood because of the car.

" Oh its not that bad!"

"Not that bad? Its still in the morning so the temperature is OK but wait till noon it gets really hot and this piece of junk does not have air conditioning. These leather seats get so hot that I start to smell like roasted chicken!"

He had a point. It was still early in the summer but temperatures during the day can get quite high. Even looking at the busy street you could see allot of people and mythicals wearing summer clothes so maybe taking my leather jacket was not such a good idea. It was rush hour so the street were crowded.

"So Theo what brings you to 1.st?"

"Well the 22.nd was great but there was some thing that i need to do here."

"Something personal?"

"You could say that."

I didn't plan to hide what my real objective is but for now its better to keep it to myself. Maybe it was a good idea to get help from other detectives but first I needed to see what I'm dealing with.

"Well I won't pressure you into talking but if you need any help I'm here. We are partners after all... Well its only the firs time that we are working together but still.... I mean we are colleagues.....Well You know what I mean."

Sarwan was looking at me with sincere eyes. It warmed my heart. He is a good guy. We were talking about a lot of stuff while driving to the crime scene. Mostly personal things, since we are going to work together. And I hope that we will be partners for a long time. Sarwan was the only child in his family. His parents had a small shop in Wonder City. It was not big but enough to have a normal life. He seemed eager to share his life with me. Some would say that he is quite chatty. I didn't mind. He was a fun guy.

It has taken some time but after going through the hellish traffic we finally arrived at our destination. The Dryad Dixie Apothecary was right at the main Latiner street. There was blue Police tape in front of the Apothecary, on the sidewalk, and police officers were stationed to preserve the crime scene. Some people stopped and tried to peek inside but soon lost interest after getting nothing. Sarwan parked the car carefully on the sidewalk so that he would not obstruct the traffic and the people.

"Ready?"

When Sarwan asked me I checked if everything was in place. My gun, badge and ID were all on my belt.

"Lets go!"

We got out of the car and approached the police tape. The police officer in front were mythical's. Two beast men. One Avian and one Dog person. As soon we approached they glanced at our badges and lifted the tape for us to enter.

"Thank you boys."

They just nodded at Sarwan.

Inside the apothecary was a mess. Actually that was a understatement. It looked like giants were playing rugby in the store. Apothecary's in WC are all stocked with various ingredients of magical nature. Sure there are pills and medication but they also have different magical items used by magicians and different types of alchemists. All kinds of stuff was just lying on the floor. The shelves were overturned and scattered around. The police technicians "Brownie's" ( British folklore) were skillfully running around the place. They were insanely careful not to disturb or contaminate any evidence. The Brownie unit will take pictures and draw sketches of the scene. After a thorough documentation has been conducted, the unit will carefully collect all items that could be considered evidence. These items are tagged, logged, and packaged to ensure nothing is damaged or lost. All evidence from the scene is sent to the forensic laboratory for analysis. And the Brownie's are really god at what they do. Later the forensic laboratory would processes all pieces of evidence from the scene. Once the results are in they go to the lead detective on the case: Me and Sarwan. But it seemed like they did not manage to finish all in time.

"Man this will be a pain in the ass. I hope the nerds will find something useful in this mess."

"I heard that Sarwan!"

"Crap...."

Sarwan cursed and scratched his head nervously. A Brownie was slowly walking towards us in his white working one piece suit. He easily avoided all things lying around without even looking at the floor. On his chest was a official ID badge: CSI: Tick Lars.

"Do not call us nerds!"

"Ah Lars! You are the leading the CSI today? You know I was jus joking! It was a joke."

"Humph! Yea right! Keep up your jokes and maybe ill start documenting thigs EXTRA detailed."

Sarwan started to sweat and I immediately knew why. Its not a problem if Lars sends

processed evidence from the scene the problem is the amount. If he documents each and every

little thing, its easy to get "lost" in the evidence. Imagine 100 of irrelevant clues and you need to find the one that matters. It would be a nightmare.

"I said I was joking! I learned my lesson with the Lepricorn gold case....."

Lars just angrily angry harrumphed. His eyes fell on me then slowly at my badge and his eyes widened a bit.

"And this is?"

"Ah yes! This is Det. Theo. He is my partner on this case. Came in today fresh form Dike!"

Lars again looked at me from head to toe.

"And I was hoping he was your supervisor to keep you in check!"

"Nice to meet you. Im looking forward to work with you."

I offered him a handshake. Sarwan just kept smiling. He seemed really irritated by Lars.

"Im sorry I can't shake hands with you as you can see im working and have my gloves on. Im afraid to contaminate any evidence after. Being a 1.st class detective you should know that."

He looked at me like I was some kind of idiot. Now I was irritated by him. The only thing on that comes to my mind to describe this Brownie is "Douchebag".

"Since you are here. Go do whatever you "Cool guys" do and do not disturb my men or touch any of my evidence! The supervisor of the shop is in the the back. Her name is Lilly. Tell her she can clean this mess up and open up when I say so!"

He just turned around left.

"Douchebag....."

We both sighed at the same time.

"Man I hate that guy."

"Does he have anything against you?"

"No he is like that to everyone. He just is a giant pain in the ass and a douchebag. But he is good at what he does so atleast that will make our work easier. Well let's go to the back and talk to the supervisor and hear the story. Just be careful not to touch anything or Lars will make our lives a living hell."

We went to the back carefully not to disturb any Brownie's or the evidence. Right beside the counter was a door that leads directly to the storage. I didn't forget to observe the room. The first thing I noticed that the cash register is not taken or broken. Even the safe that was built in the floor behind the desk was not touched.

"See the register and the safe? They are not damaged so money was not the motive for breaking in. Since this is the apothecary I assume it must me something else that the apothecary had. Like pills or ingredients."

Sarwan looked around and nodded. We went into the storage space and there were fever Brownie's but also fever things broken. There were some crates here and there but it was mostly empty. It seems that the main objective of the robber's was this storage. In the middle of the room was a Dryad arguing with someone on the phone while 3 Pixies holding notepads were flying around her trying to calm her down.

"They have taken almost all of it! Your magic formation didn't do ANYTHING! Didn't you say that it is a newly developed Lvl.7 magic alarm and protection formation?! That it is unbreakable?! How the hell did they walk in here like they were in a supermarket?! I DON'T CARE! Send your representative to the shop RIGHT NOW!!!"

She angrily hung up and was trembling in anger. Looking at the phone I could see cracks forming because of her strong grip. But she was really beautiful. Dryads, like all nymphs, were supernaturally long-lived so it is hard to guess her age. Her hair were red leaves that overlapped. Literally. If you describe Dryads crudely they are living walking plants. There are also different types of Dryads and can be distinguished by their skin color. This one had brown skin so she was form the family of Hamadryad. Her skin was shiny and smooth with beautiful patterns etched into it looking like tree bark. Each family of Dryads has something that makes them unique.

"Cough! Excuse me. You are the manager of this place? Miss Lilly?"

Sarwan approached her when she stopped stomping her feet on the ground. She looked angrily at us but as soon as she saw our badge's she calmed down but the frown on her face remained. The pixies that were flying around haved a sigh of relief. Lilly just waved her hand and the three of them flew away.

"Yes that is me. But we will see if after I will stay the manager of this place."

"Ho Ho! Don't be so negative. We will do all that we can to catch the criminals."

"I hope so. They have taken so much stuff that ill need a week before I find out what exactly is missing."

"So miss Lilly can you tell me anything about this robbery and please start from the night when you closed the shop."

"Well yesterday we closed the shop around 20,00h. It was a busy day we had a lot of work but nothing special. Me and two other employees were the last who stayed behind and closed the register and the safe. After the two of them finished changing their uniforms I went to the storage and activated the magic formation..."

"Are you sure you activated it correctly?" I interjected

She took a small amber stone with inscriptions out of her pocket.

"This is a activation rune. You just need to touch the control magic circle and it would be activated and when you enter you just touch it again to deactivate it its really simple. There is no mana needed. It's the latest model of magic formations witch costs a fortune. But it seems that it is USELESS!"

She hurled the stone in anger across the room almost hitting a Brownie. If this magic formation did not need mana to activate then it really did cost a fortune. Not to mention that it was a Lvl.7 protection formation. Even if a tank fires at the doors of this storage it would not even leave a mark.

"Calm down Miss Lilly. Tell me does anyone of the employees have a activation rune?"

Sarwan was asking a good question. Runes can't be forged like documents and money. Lilly looked at Sarwan with some confusion in her eyes.

"Yes there are 3 runes in total for this formation. One is mine the second has my supervisor and the third is the backup which is locked in a small safe in my office. I know what you are thinking but all our employees are all good people."

"Ho Ho. Im just checking all the facts. If you would be so kind can you show me the backup rune in your office?"

"Sarwan you go ahead with her I want to check the outside to see if there is anything interesting."

Sarwan nodded in approval and Lilly lead him to his office. I observed the whole storage room but should not find anything that caught my eye so I went to the storage doors where they unload the goods. It was big enough to fit a truck. Outside was the back alley. There were no cars allowed to go through because it was used to station trash dumpsters. Right beside the door were 4 medium dumpsters. They are there probably for the apothecary. It seemed like the trash collectors have yet emptied them. I looked around the alley hoping to find some skid marks left by the tires of the vehicle. Taking so much they must have used a smaller truck or something else. I suddenly noticed that there was a small hole in the corner of one of the dumpsters and green liquid was dripping out of it. I looked carefully and touched with my fingertips. It was a little sticky. As soon as I smelled it I knew what it was.

"Fuck! It smells like tree sap..... Hey! Sarwan!"

It didn't take long and Sarwan was already beside me. He was quiet like the wind but I was prepared for it.

"What's wrong partner?"

"I think this just changed form normal to a high priority case."

"Why do you think that?"

I just lifted the lid on the dumpster. There were allot of trash bags but also a dead Ent.

"Goddamnit...."