Case - 1 : Interview.

"Apologies for leaving my Strider on your side of the curb." I began the conversation, trying to make sure that Morrigan treated me with a little openness, a little cordially.

"Hm~m." Morrigan disagreed by shaking her head as she continued to explain after a short silence, "My son, Nova. He died there, at that spot."

A strange silence took over the space in between, which I tried to break by apologizing, but Morrigan beat me to it. "Don't worry about it. I can see that you didn't mean to do that on purpose."

We walked the hallway as I looked around the various shelves and cupboards that had been built into the walls, most of which were either filled to the brim with a variety of cutlery from different cultures or had gaps for framed pictures of family and friends.

Mórrígan appeared in some of those images, but most were of her son, Nova. The ones closer to the door depicted his pictures from when he was older, and the ones closer to the end showed off his childhood.

We reached the end of the hallway and came upon the only single room that connected to it, about thirty feet in all directions, a large house for someone to own in the 'rich' outskirts, ones that grew after the world first 'Micro' cities population grew over the centuries.

There had been talks about people being relocated to new micro cities like how a few others in the country did, but nothing had ever come of it. The land-mafia was good at hiking prices just enough to keep everyone happy, well everyone except the actual people of the city.

"Please sit there." Morrigan said, pointing at the two chairs that I assumed was where she and her guest, Revanche were just sitting, since one of the chairs could look out of the window in the room, the window that Morrigan had initially seen me parking at the curb from.

The room itself was a very traditional looking room with organic wooden designs that extended out from the floor and built the furniture into it, like the chairs that grew out of the floor, the same chairs I was moving towards.

I moved to the chair as Morrigan stepped across the room with her walking stick and arrived at the faucet to fill a new glass with water for me that I did not want to stop her from doing since I was positively parched.

"Please tell me, Mrs. Morrigan, again this is just a light internal examination so no need to worry about any of this, what do you think happened to your neighbor in this case?" I asked her as she approached closer and handed the glass with water to me.

"I don't really know what happened to him, Mr. Dave. None of your officers told me, and neither did anyone on the news. Not even independent media." she replied calmly while she sat herself down on the chair opposite to mine.

I watched her push herself into the arch of the chair to properly support her back, and continued questioning her and trying to get her guard down.

"What happened to your back, Mrs. Morrigan? I doubt it is anything that can't be fixed with the right prosthetics?"

"*sigh* I'd love to get them fixed, but Nova's funeral dug into his savings for my operation and I didn't want to sell away this last piece of memory I have of his just to fix my back so I'm stuck with it."

"Don't you qualify for the Elderly state insurance scheme?"

"I will next year."

"Oh…too bad, it seems things have taken a heavy toll on you recently, would you like to share something? I'm here to listen to you. Believe it or not, I'm a great listener."

"Haha, thank you for the kind offer, but Revanche has me covered on that front. He is a kind little young man who does everything to take care of me." She said with a soft smile that immediately looked like it turned her a little younger.

"It's nice to hear that there are still people like this around."

"Oh! Don't be so dramatic! I'm sure he's about as old as you are!"

"Haha! I will not deny a compliment." I laughed along with her for a few seconds and continued my questioning from earlier. "In your first call, mam, you said you saw two men leaving on their HoverSteeds?"

"Yes. Like your AeroStrider, I spotted them landing right at the same spot you did earlier, so I got up to tell them off, but before I could, I saw one of them jump off the steed and rush into the opposite house with a waver as the door automatically opened for him and then immediately rush out."

"Oh? You recognized my AeroStrider?" I asked, pretending to be a little stunned.

"I may be a little old, young man, but I haven't forgotten the masterpiece from my era!"

"Haha! That's nice to hear. Most people just ignore the ancient design on it and opt for something more angular and boxy nowadays." 

"You can't decide the whims and fancies of the younger ones, I remember we used to get flak for choosing the curved models over the boxy ones, similarly during our times."

"Ah! The great cycle of fooling the customers with the same designs just shifted a little to become revolutionary!"

"What can we do? It seems to always work somehow because of our busy little heads."

"Truer words have never been spoken, Mrs. Morrigan."

"Oh, please call me Vera." Vera told me while placing her hand on mine and giving it a soft squeeze. She then looked into my eyes and spoke in what was almost a whisper, "I can feel your pain. You've got someone like my son too don't you? Or something similar."

She'd left out the key word in describing what she was talking about, but we both knew she could be referring only to one thing and knowing that this was something I could use to form a deeper connection with her, I nodded.

"However true that might be-"

"What would you do, if you saw the one that did it to your loved one. Saw that person making a mockery of your emotions by making a mockery of the loss of your loved one." Vera interrupted.

My words got caught up in my mouth as I thought about the question I often did at regular intervals, 'What would I do if I ever found the bastard who did this?'

"I would do whatever was necessary, but I wouldn't jump away from the consequences, Vera. The consequences are not for me or you, but for the rest of the people who might think it was possible to do all of this and leave scott free."

"HA!" Vera scoffed and pulled back into her chair as she looked out of the window across from the street at the banker's house and spoke in a pointed tone, "The law only works when we little people are involved. I wonder how many of those 'consequences' are applicable to the people that are involved with Suimanto."

"You mustn't give up hope. People always do, and if they don't you must make them face those 'consequences'." I replied.

"And who would help me? I remember two years ago when my son was killed, I remember watching the Sergeant promise me every single day that he'd get whichever bastard was behind this. I watched it every single day. I hoped and hoped and hoped some more until I turned hollow. Hollow like wood that was ripe to set ablaze." Vera spoke with anger and fury.

"And did something set you ablaze?" I asked, putting aside her sudden revelation about my involvement in a case I remember nothing about.

Vera looked away from me and broke eye contact when I asked her that question, her eyes swam about in a random pattern and after taking a few deep breaths she spoke in her calm voice again, "No. Revanche helped me out. He filled me with happiness and joy once again. Even though I can no longer get my son back, I am always reminded that I'll have him visit me once every few days. Something I can hold myself up with, like this crutch." She said, rocking her walking stick a little.

"I see."

*Knock* *Knock*

Two sharp knocks broke both our attention and the atmosphere in between us, as I wondered how anyone had gotten to the door without my notice, since I was sitting right by the window that looked into the street, even though the wall blocked me from directly looking at the street, I should've at least heard someone walk over.

'Hmm….'

'Am I growing deaf?'

"Let me get that for you, Vera, I'm sure you can rest a little and no one would complain." I said, pushing her down onto the chair, which she comfortably accepted and nodded as thank you.

I walked back to the hallway and then close to the entrance, where I stopped and looked through the peephole to confirm there was no danger on the other side.

What came into view was more shocking than anything else.

I opened the door and spoke in a hushed tone, "Larkin?"

"Serg-" I blocked his mouth from finishing his sentence and mouthed him to use my name instead and pulled away my hand.

"Detective Dave, you need to leave, now." Larkin spoke in a hurry.

I nodded and closed the door behind me as I walked toward the side of the house to the window, with Larkin following behind me, and reached Vera, who was still sitting on her chair.

"Vera, unfortunately something has come up, and I'll be needing to leave." I said in an apologetic tone.

"Oh." Vera said a single word, but it carried a lot of sadness behind it, so I improvised.

"Don't worry though, Larkin here, my junior will keep you company. You can ask him about anything that does not pertain to the case directly. Make sure to keep them simple though, he's a simpleton, gets nervous easily and all that." I spoke in a slightly uplifting tone.

"Thank you, detective Dave." Vera professed with a kind smile.

I nodded similarly and made my leave to the other side of the street as Larkin stood there on the window a little confused but then jumped in when he heard Vera say, "Oh well…I wouldn't mind if you just jumped in, young man, these old bones have moved enough for the day."

I slipped onto my AeroStrider and began joining the oncoming traffic up in the air to make a quick escape as I glanced back only to find that goddamn woman once again, this time landing in front of Vera's house.

'I hope Larkin is able to keep her away from Vera.'

'He probably will. He seemed to hate her for some reason.'

'Hmm…I wonder what happened in the office in the last two years I spent drinking around.'

'And what was that about me having promised Vera about getting her justice? Did I really do that?'

'Maybe it happened the same day?'

'....I don't want to look into it just yet if that's the case.'

'I can find out who Revanche is instead.'

'Hmm…I still haven't received an email that says I was fired….I should just turn off any incoming emails then….nothing illegal if I wasn't formally informed about it.'

'I wonder who pulled the strings regarding that. It couldn't just have been that woman alone. Quark? Maybe, but he'd need some serious backup if he wanted to do it himself.'

'What exactly happened in these two years?'

'Was I only left in place because they found me useful, or was it because I couldn't be touched?'

'It might be time to call in a few favors later, I think.'

I shifted my AeroStrider to the automatic mode and began replaying my interview with Vera.

'It's all shrouded in this layer of mystery, isn't it? Her son's death, the death of the banker, all of it happening two years ago….confusing.'