Titan's Plague: The Trial by Tom Briggs (story reading .txt) 📕

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Pati sat on the couch in the McLear House great room. She waited while the emergency services rolled Richard’s body out the door. They had to bag his body in front of her and couldn’t wait for the hospital to do it. Why couldn’t they have just put him on the stretcher and covered his face respectfully?

She stood to follow them out. When she got to the door, a man and a lady were waiting to enter. They both looked at Pati and waited for Richard’s body to go by them. The male stepped in front of Pati.

“Ms. McLear, I’m Detective Germain Bennett and this is Detective Esra Haldi. We’d like to speak with you.” The man was of African descent, at least that’s what Pati thought, and the lady of maybe Semitic origins. They both were taller than her, a situation she came to expect on Titan, and neither looked overweight in their brown, but not uniform suits.

“My husband. I need to go with him.”

“There’s nothing you can do for him now, Ms. McLear, and we need to find out what happened as soon as possible.”

Pati wasn’t in a fighting mood. She stepped back and let them enter. They stopped in the center of the room.

“Can I see where your husband was when you struck him?” Detective Bennett asked.

Pati hadn’t expected the question. She had to think for a moment and realized what she’d told the emergency technicians must have been communicated to this detective. “He was standing right there,” she said. She pointed to a spot equidistant from the front door to the rear of the room. Where Richard stood was slightly more than two meters from the pillar he’d struck. So, he didn’t fly as far as she remembered, he just fell over.

The detective stood in the same spot. “Right here?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s where my husband was standing.”

He removed a handheld communicator from his coat pocket, a model Pati had never seen before. He ran a red laser along the floor and to the pillar. The pillar still had a bloodstain where Richard had hit it, and the detective focused on that point for a moment.

“Did you do anything to Mr. McLear after he hit this pillar?” he asked.

“No, I called for the medical robot. I never touched him after that.”

The detective nodded and studied his handheld. The other detective moved closer to Pati, and stood within arm’s distance.

“Do I need legal assistance?” Pati asked.

“Not at this time,” Detective Bennett said. “However, we appreciate you giving us permission to evaluate the scene. Everything you told the medical technicians about the conflict was documented, although that is not considered evidence at this time. As long as the physical evidence matches up with your story, we will not be questioning you here today.”

Pati stepped toward Detective Bennett, and Detective Haldi followed, staying within arm's reach. “I thought you said you just needed to talk with me,” Pati said.

“Well, yes, in a manner of speaking, that is what we meant. However, in this situation, it’s important for us to have access to the crime scene, and we needed you to allow that.” He shook his head and walked past her.

What did he mean by crime scene? Pati thought. What happened to Richard was an accident. Would she be better off asking them to leave? Because she got the feeling their interests did not necessarily agree with hers.

Detective Bennett manipulated his handheld, staring down at the device. Pati waited for at least five minutes before he returned his attention to her. “This is where you live? Correct?”

“When we’re not traveling or staying on Picus.”

He nodded and returned his attention to the handheld communicator. Pati waited, and then walked over to a couch and sat. Detective Haldi moved as well, except this time, she took a place between Pati and the front door.

It was another few minutes when he looked up. “Detective Haldi, please remove the sample on the post.” He glanced at Pati, “With your permission.”

Pati exhaled in frustration. “Sure, go ahead. What else do you want?”

“We’re almost finished, Ms. McLear,” he said.

Detective Haldi pulled a wipe from a packet she carried around her shoulder. She stepped to the pillar where Richard had struck his head, and removed the bloodstain left on it, leaving a brighter surface. She returned to her position between Pati and the door.

“Detectives, I’m really tired right now, you can imagine my day has been difficult, and there’s no end of people I need to talk to at this moment. So, if you don’t mind, please finish what you came to do.”

Detective Bennett looked up from his handheld, and then at Detective Haldi. She nodded, and stepped toward Pati. “Okay, maybe it’s time we get to it. Ms. McLear, we’ll need you to come with us,” he said.

“Wait, you said before—”

“We’re trying to do our job here and you want to interfere. Since it seems you wish to deny our entry, then we’ll need to take you into custody and wait until the proper paperwork is filed so we can come back and finish our job.”

“I never—”

“I didn’t want to do it this way, but you’ve forced our hand. Detective Haldi.”

She held a tranquilizer gun in her hand. Pati had not experienced being shot by one before, and she’d rarely seen the weapon, except when Richard had security personnel around. The weapon meant that she was in their power, right now, and cooperation would be in her best interest.

“Ms. McLear,” Detective Haldi said. She had a higher voice than her size suggested. “I’m not an Earth-born like yourself, so I’m not confident I can overcome you physically. That said, I’m going to keep this weapon trained on you until you’re in the back of our groundcar. If you move in any way that suggests violence or flight, I’ll disable you with this weapon. Do you understand?”

Pati nodded.

“Okay, please lead us out of the door.”

Pati obeyed, stepping out of the great room onto the street. The two detectives followed, and then Detective Bennett turned to shut the door. He tapped a button on his handheld. “I’m securing this door, and you’ll be able to enter when you return. No one else will be able to, so your possessions will be safe.”

Detective Bennett took the lead and marched to the groundcar parked in the cul-de-sac. Pati could see busy traffic at the intersection with the main road. Nobody on the street was staring, at least not yet.

“You can enter the car,” Detective Haldi said. The right-rear door opened up, and Pati climbed in. The door shut behind her. She didn’t bother seeing if she could open it from her side.

The pair slid into the front seats with Detective Bennett on the left. He tapped buttons on the dash, and the car turned and rolled toward Main Street.

Pati recalled her question about needing legal representation, to which Detective Bennett replied in the negative. She would not trust him or the other detectives again.