Case - 3 : Scut Work.

"How would it be possible to fire a needle from the grandfather clock!?" Lester asked, grasping at straws but I retaliated like the flip of a switch.

"Oh? Wanna know how you did it? Simple. Why don't I show you."

I turned to Anirudh and asked, "What's the connection ID of that holographic display over there?" pointing at the display on the central table in the small restaurant.

"Oh, I can share it with you."

"Please do." I nodded and received the number '3 15 14 14 5 3 20' on my AR glasses.

Connecting to the display under the stunned gaze of Lester, I showed everyone the media Mom sent me after I asked her to check for evidence.

The media showed the inside of the grandfather clock after opening the little window for the bird inside to peep out.

There, a rubberband remained extended onto the ends of the hinges of the small door but at its center was a sticky tape that no doubt held it on the mechanism of the cuckoo bird so that when it was pushed out, the rubberbands would snap back with a *twick* and send the needle flying at whatever was its intended target, in this case, the back of Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto's neck.

"Coupled with that and the fact that you could've easily picked a spot for Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto to sit on, makes you the number one suspect for the murder." I ended my deduction.

Tears streamed down Lester's eyes as Anirudh and the remaining chefs around him looked on with equal amounts of shock, anger, and sadness.

"So? Why did you do it?" I asked so that I could get a confession on record.

"Why did it have to be this way?" Lester started.

*sniffle*

"All I wanted was to avenge my brother." Lester finally confessed.

"You have a brother?" Anirudh was the first to say but it looked like everyone else, including the servers, was equally shocked.

"It was my brother's name that was Lester. I am his identical twin. My name is Chester."

*gasp*

Shocking gasps traveled around the staff as Chester revealed his identity.

"What happened to Lester!?" Anirudh asked for everyone.

"Lester died three months ago. Nakamoto-san killed him."

"Killed him?" I asked in confusion since if he was dead how did Nakamoto not get shocked when he found him alive once again?

But Chester only reaffirmed with a strict still teary gaze.

"Nakamoto-san had only recently bought the place from the previous owner. But he did it under the guise of running the restaurant after he bought it. That was a lie and Lester figured it out when one evening he returned to pick up his coat that he had left in the restaurant and saw Nakamoto-san speaking to a new contractor."

*GASP*

Another charge of gasps ran through the crowd that had grown increasingly interested in learning about this story.

"He blackmailed my brother and when my brother didn't listen, he threatened to fire him! But as most of my coworkers know by now, we're drowning in debt due to our father who gambled away our money."

*sniffle*

"And because Lester got late on one payment he was killed by the thugs that came over to collect the money."

"I took over Lester's job in his stead to initially only pay the bills, but once I saw Nakamoto smiling as he talked to me about my brother, I grew furious. I knew I had to take him to hell with me."

With the confession recorded I released a soft sigh.

"Why do that though? Couldn't you just have ruined him by speaking to the previous owner and telling him that Nakamoto-san was going to resell his restaurant?"

"I did try to contact him, as did my brother, but we only later learned that he had died. We guessed he was killed by Nakamoto-san too."

"I see." I nodded with a soft condolence as I looked at Chester.

'It seems like I need to dust a few old case files again.'

'Huh? What do you mean?' little Dave asked slipping into my view again.

But I tried to ignore him, even as he hovered right around my eyes and kept screaming, 'What do you mean!!?' in my face.

Chester collapsed on the floor with no one to help him up, and I finally asked Althea to help clean up.

"Althea, could you call Lieutenant Gracewell? Tell her she has an arrest to make."

"On it."

Soon however I received a call back from Gracewell.

"Hello?"

"How am I supposed to arrest two people at once?"

"Two people?"

"Yes! You left me in charge of the murder at the Marble Eye didn't you?"

"Ah, yes, I'd forgotten, worry not, I will handle this arrest myeslf."

"How did you even get into another murder so soon?"

"I dunno, I guess the reaper's been following me around ever since I escaped near death a few days ago in that PTV crash."

"..."

"I will be seeing you at the office today Lieutenant."

Cutting the call, I looked back at Mom and apologized wordlessly as she waved her hands indicating it was alright.

"Chester, you're under arrest for the murder of one Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you."

"..." Chester simply shrugged his hands and continued sniffling.

It felt like he was more heartbroken about the fact that he was caught rather than the fact that he'd murdered someone.

Holding Chester by the shoulder I guided him outside after sending Raivesh a message.

"I need you."

Raivesh arrived at the landing deck as Mom in her biker outfit and Dad in his normal one followed.

"No food sir?"

"No, the owner suddenly died."

"...my cousin!!" Raivesh looked panic but I set him calm with my next words.

"I don't think your cousin owns the restaurant anymore. It is currently owned by Satoshi Nakamoto."

But then I remembered something else.

"But, the previous owner mysteriously vanished too. I think your cousin died either way."

"Oh no!!!!" Raivesh cried out loud as he opened the door for Chester to get into the back seat.

"Mom, Dad, why don't you guys have food, I'll be back later." I asked.

"No, it's alright, there's no point in eating out if we aren't eating together."

"Well, then you could at least get food packed for home so that you don't have to cook anymore since it's late."

"Yeah, we'll do that." Mom nodded.

In the meantime, I dialed a number I should've called earlier.

"Hello, One Zero Zero, what's your emergency?" I heard the first responder pick up.

"I'm Sergeant Dave speaking. Badge number 41225."

"Yes, Sergeant Dave!" I heard the responder speak in a quick fashion barely hiding the excitement in those words.

"Could you inform Nightangle that I need him at my location for a murder that has occurred?"

"Yes Sergeant Dave!"

*click*

I cut the call since my job was done and all I had to do was wait, which was a little awkward with Raivesh trying to get in touch with his cousin and Chester sniffling in the back of Raivesh's PTV.

"Mom, Dad shall I book a PTV for the two of you?"

"No, don't worry about us, we already booked one."

"Are you sure?" I asked since Mom and Dad were currently being hunted by the members of BloodSHA.

"Yes, don't worry, we're dressed differently enough that we don't have to worry about being discovered." Mom explained as she took out sunglasses from Gracewell's old handbag and completed her full gangster look as Dad just shook his head.

I was slightly shocked, 'Did Mom plan to look like a member of a biker gang?'

'No, she probably picked out something she never wore but was 'looking good.'' Little Dave whispered with air quotes as if Mom could hear him.

'Probably.' I nodded back.

The blazing of a siren was heard coming closer in short increments, causing Raivesh to drive the PTV a little to the side so that the emergency vehicle would have full access to the landing deck.

And I stood a little to the side with Mom and Dad waiting for ReNight to exit the emergency vehicle that was approaching a soft stop on the landing deck.

Opening the door, ReNight stood out and looked around until he spotted, me.

"Dave! What happened?"

"That kid killed his boss for killing his twin brother." I summarized the case in a few words.

"The dead body?"

"Inside, people are sitting around it."

"Alright. Evidence?"

"On the plat on the conveyor belt. It's a needle. And on the Grandfather clock's cuckoo mechanism."

"Any finger prints."

"All over them."

"I see. I will make sure to take a note of everything we find."

"Sure. I've had 'nough of this place for today. I'm leaving, will contact you later." I nodded.

"Fine. But don't forget to sign the documents for taking a suspect off the scene."

"That was one time!" I shouted.

"That's what you get for being irresponsible," ReNight spoke in a condemning tone and walked into the restaurant.

*Sigh*

Heaving a sigh I turned to Raivesh.

"Raivesh, let's go."

"Aren't you going to handcuff him, sir?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Thank you for reminding me."

"Hey, you!" I called out to a nervous emergency responder cadet who was in uniform.

"Me sir!?" The cadet asked with apparent fear.

"Yes, you! Got any handcuffs in there?" I asked pointing at the large blue box he was carrying, potentially filled with crime scene evidence-detecting tools.

"Yes sir!"

The Cadet placed his blue box down and opened it as he scrambled through the tools present to pull out a pair of handcuffs that were shinning like they'd never been used before.

"Great.", I said and took the handcuffs he handed over.

Pulling Chester's hands behind his back, I placed the handcuffs on him and locked them so that he couldn't move much.

"Now we can go ahead." I nodded and Raivesh used the joystick to control the PTV to move up into the rungs of traffic flying by.

We arrived at the station not long after in a slightly tired fashion since Chester had attempted to cry louder during our trip, which I successfully calmed down by talking to him about Lester and about the things he did in his free time.

Chester was a very depressing person to talk to.

I would be too if I was getting arrested, but Chester was an outlier.

There wasn't a single thing I said that improved his mood even a little.

He was even grumpier than the grumpiest of criminals I'd met and even more mixed up in his emotions than an actor in a play.

For example, when I asked him what his favorite thing to do was, he responded, "My favorite thing to do was to talk to my brother before he died."

And when I asked what he did as a hobby, he said, "I read my brother's diaries as a hobby."

Overall he was depressing.

I had no doubt he also watched a lot of depressing media, but I didn't want to dissect exactly what had turned the innocent-looking young man into a hardened criminal who worked for quite some time to kill the person he hated.

'Probably some random show that depicted it was alright to kill as long as you didn't get caught for it.'

Ducking Chester's head so that he wouldn't bang it on the roof of the PTV I helped him out and nodded a goodbye to Raivesh as I walked along with Chester to the holding cell.

"You'll be waiting here alone until your lawyer arrives. Do you have someone you want to contact?"

"No." Chester mumbled.

"Any specific lawyer in mind?"

"No."

"Fine then, wait here until the state-provided lawyer arrives."

"...alright.."

"Great." I nodded and took my leave to inform one of the cadets to handle the scut work from here.