THREE
(12/09/319 0910 London, Blue Continent)
Even though most of it was electronic these days, it was still called paperwork and a quick check of the directory on the tablet showed Cooper that he still had a lot of it to do. He supposed it made sense. After all, he’d had to do a lot to check into his first unit and then a lot to check out, so doing more to check into Gloria’s unit was only logical, even if it was annoying. He idly wondered why they didn’t just transfer things around electronically and finally decided it probably had more to do with habit than anything else.
He looked up when Maggie, Neff’s Gun Bunny alpha, sat down next to Gloria, but quickly went back to his paperwork when it immediately became obvious that Maggie wanted to talk to the Enchantress and not him.
Maggie glanced at him and then turned to Gloria, keeping her voice deliberately low. “You have got to be the luckiest pokegirl to walk the planet. Nine tamers. How’d you catch this one?”
“It was an accident. I got tossed this case and after watching the autopsy I went down to the hospital so I could interview Cooper when he woke up. When I realized he didn’t have any other pokegirls, I decided that he needed around the clock protection.” She looked over at Cooper with a proprietary air. “It seemed only fair to keep him from getting mauled by the harem widows and I hoped he could be useful.”
Maggie fought not to laugh. “If that ever gets out we’ll have the widows haunting the morgues looking for fresh meat. What about the curse?”
“I am not cursed. I did a complete magical examination of myself. I’m not cursed, nothing I own is cursed and nothing I use is cursed. There is no fuck,” she blinked, “freaking curse.”
Maggie’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s that?”
“Coop doesn’t want me to curse. I think that bloody and an occasional hell is the limit to his profanity.”
This time Maggie didn’t try to hold back her laughter. At the noise, Cooper looked up at the pair of them, frowned and went back to his paperwork. “Well, curse or simple bad luck, Glory, this is the last one. The chief has let it be known that you’ve had too much luck and that you’ll be booted if you lose another tamer.” The Gun Bunny paused to scratch an ear vigorously. “You’re a good detective, but she issued this to all of the station commanders in an official memorandum so it’s not aimed specifically at you, but we both know it is since no other pokegirl has lost more than three tamers. There’s a new directive saying that police pokegirls can lose a max of five tamers. That makes it a rule so the Jenny-Growlie junta can use it to dismiss you from the force if he dies.”
Gloria suppressed the chill which rippled through her at the thought of people like Katrina finally having a legal way to get her. “He’s not going to die. I’ll make sure of that.”
“Please do. Did you learn anything from your interview with him?”
Gloria hesitated. “I haven’t done it yet,” she admitted. “I was giving him time to recover.”
Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “You haven’t interviewed him? Why the fuck not? You know that time is critical after someone is attacked. Waiting lets him forget things he thinks might be trivial but aren’t.”
“I’ll do it today after he’s done with the paperwork.”
The Gun Bunny got up. “You’d better. Speaking as your captain, I can’t let whatever feelings you have for him stand in the way of the investigation. Screw up again like this and I’ll put you and him on a different case. Don’t make me do that.” She left while Gloria was formulating her reply.
Cooper glanced up. “What was that about?”
“You couldn’t hear us, could you?” He shook his head. “I was having my ass chewed on a little.” She grimaced. “Sorry. My butt.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been neglecting part of the investigation into Rosalind’s death.”
“How so?”
“I haven’t interviewed the survivor of the attack yet and I should have.”
“Survivor of the attack?” His eyes widened. “Me. Sorry, I’m a little slow right now.”
“Our paperwork does that to people.” She nodded. “I have to question you today, but it’ll wait until you get done with your check in.”
He looked down at the tablet. “Great. I get tortured twice today.”
***
(12/09/319 (Friday) 1500 London, Blue Continent)
The room was almost completely sterile. Painted an eggshell white, three of the walls were completely undecorated except for a mirror on one wall that was about five feet off the floor. The last wall was behind where the subject would sit and had a simple clock and a nice watercolor of Victorian London on it. A table with a transparent surface sat in the room in front of the subject’s chair while two other chairs sat on the other side, one directly in front of the subject’s chair while the other was off to the right and out of the immediate view of anyone sitting in the subject’s chair. Cooper knew that cameras on the other side of the mirror recorded everything that transpired in the interrogation room unless a concealed switch was used to turn them off. Having never been in this room before, he had no idea where the switch was but with the transparent table he suspected it was something that the interrogator would carry on their person.
Gloria nodded towards the table. “Have a seat, but don’t sit in the subject’s chair. Take the observer’s.”
“Is there a difference?”
“The subject’s chair is custom made. While it doesn’t look any different from ours, it’s designed to be uncomfortable to sit in. It helps to keep the suspect off balance during an interrogation.” She settled comfortably into the interrogator’s chair. “And this is an interview, not an interrogation. We are being recorded, but that’s so you and I can go over it later to see if anything that’s said could bring up something that you forgot to mention today.” She lifted the tablet in her lap slightly. “And I’m recording our conversation, which is simultaneously being transcribed so we can review it right away if we need to. It’s all pretty standard investigative procedure and your tablet can do everything mine can once you have the access codes and know the software.”
“I’ll be sure and read the instructions.”
Once Cooper was seated, Gloria began almost immediately. “This interview is between Detective Lieutenant Gloria Enchantress Cooper, interviewer and Detective Lance Corporal William Cooper of the Metropolitan Police Service.” She paused. “What’s your middle name, Coop?”
“Turlough.”
Gloria’s eyebrows went up. “What kind of name is that?”
He shrugged. “It’s Irish. My first name came from my great grandfather William Cooper. Toirdhealbhach Ua Conchobhair was the king of Connacht and the high king of Ireland in the twelfth century CE and we’re directly descended from him. If you anglicize Toirdhealbhach you get Turlough.”
“I love your accent.” She shifted the tablet slightly on her lap. “Well, we need to get back to business. For the record, I am part of Corporal Cooper’s harem although I was not during the time period in which the murder occurred. Corporal, please tell me what happened on November the 29th of 319 AS.”
Cooper took a deep breath to settle his nerves. “It was somewhere around 0300 and Rosalind and I were patrolling on Adler Street. We used bicycles on our patrol and we would periodically get off of them and walk a couple of blocks to avoid warning people of our presence with the sound of our bikes.” His voice caught for a second. “Rosalind thought it would be a good way to catch people breaking the law. We’d finished our sweep and had returned to our bikes.” The images were burned into his mind and in his memory he saw it happen all over again. “Rosie had given me my bike and I was getting on it when she was attacked and overcome. Then her attacker came for me and attacked me with an energy blade, wounding me severely. I managed to use my healing spell and then passed out. When I woke up I was in hospital.”
Gloria cocked her head. “It wasn’t an energy blade, Coop, it was a knife. A very sharp knife to be sure, but a knife nonetheless.”
“How can you tell?”
“A comprehensive set of X-rays were taken of your wounds before you were healed. The bones on your arm were scored by the knife. Energy blades disintegrate the material they touch and make a three molecule wide swath cease to exist instead of cutting it. If your attacker had used an energy blade those bones would have been severed and you’d have lost the arm completely.”
“That means it might not have been a pokegirl.”
“That’s right. It could have been anyone who could wield a knife.”
He frowned. “If it wasn’t a pokegirl then how did Rosalind go down so quickly?”
“Don’t talk like that. It gives you preconceptions and, since we’re not sure what her attacker was, preconceptions just help you make mistakes. She was immobilized because her attacker used paraspray on her.” Gloria glanced at her tablet. “Right now we don’t have any evidence either way that you were attacked by a pokegirl, so we are going to focus on the evidence we do have. I want you to think back and try to remember what the knife looked like.”
“It happened so fast. All I can remember was that the blade was about,” he held his hands apart, “that long.”
Gloria eyed the distance. “The subject is holding his hands between approximately seventeen and twenty centimeters apart. Could you see the handle?” He shook his head. “All right, what was the attacker wearing?”
“It was wearing a hooded cloak. I couldn’t tell what color it was, but it looked dark.”
“Ok, when the attacker reached you, was it taller than you or shorter than you?”
Cooper thought. “It was a little shorter than me, but the cloak could throw the height estimation off. I can’t tell you if it was fat or thin and the hand was dark in color, darker than the cloak. It might have been wearing gloves.”
“Very good, Coop. We suspect since there were no fingerprints on the body and it was extensively handled that forensic countermeasures were employed. Gloves are a basic method.”
Cooper stared at her as his stomach turned slightly. “What does extensively handled mean, Gloria?”
She suddenly looked uncomfortable. “William, right now let’s focus on what you remember. I don’t want to tell you more right now because it will distract you from what you remember happening to you and there might be something important in what you can recall. I promise you that as one of the investigators you will be able to see the crime scene and autopsy photos later on if you decide you want to. I will warn you that it isn’t pretty.”
Cooper took a deep breath and realized he was gripping his hands together so hard they were going numb. He deliberately unclasped them and put his palms flat on the tabletop. “Continue.”
“Can you tell me anything about the attack on Rosalind?”
“We’d stashed our bikes in a dark place to keep them from being messed with and I couldn’t see anything other than movement.” He blinked. “I could hear the paraspray dispenser go off. At the time I thought it was the pokegirl using a breath attack on Rosie. That’s why I tried to get off my bike so I could dodge if she tried to use it on me.”
“Did you smell anything unusual?”
It was a good question. A lot of pokegirl breeds had distinct odors. “No.”
“You said that the attacker took down Rosalind first and then came for you. How far apart were you and the officer?”
He thought. “About four meters.”
“Did it seem that the attacker moved faster than a human should be able to?”
Cooper closed his eyes and let the images flow. “It was fast, maybe faster than a human, but I can’t be sure.” Something nagged at him and he focused on the memory and found it. “There was no sound.”
Gloria leaned forward slightly. “What do you mean?”
“I heard the dispenser. I heard Rosalind fall. I didn’t hear footsteps as the attacker came towards me. Either it didn’t walk or it somehow muffled its footfalls.”
“Very good, William. We know it did walk because there were footprints in the blood around you and Rosalind both.”
He blinked. “Both? It wasn’t near me while I was bleeding. It must have come back to examine me after I passed out. Why didn’t it kill me?”
“We don’t know. For some reason it killed a pokegirl and left a human alive and we have no idea why. It could be that the fact that it didn’t kill you is significant, but we can’t tell why yet.” Gloria touched the screen of her tablet. “We’re done for now. Do you want a cup of tea or something?”
“No. I think I’d throw up if I tried.”
“Take it from me that reliving something like that is emotionally and physically draining.”
“You had to do it too?”
She nodded and got up. “There was a coroner’s inquest after the death of each of my tamers to determine what had happened and if any of the harem members had contributed to it.”
“You mean that some harems had more than you in them?”
“Seven of my tamers had harems with more than one pokegirl in them, Coop. That’s why I’ll seriously consider my interviews with suitable applicants for your harem. I don’t want to lose you so I’m willing to accept help keeping you alive.” She smirked. “I’ll just be picky about what help I’ll take.”
***
(12/10/319 0900 London, Blue Continent)
She looked like she was asleep, at least until one looked at the bloody line across her throat. Cooper swallowed hard and looked away from the tablet until he got his stomach under control.
The voice was soft. “You don’t have to do this.” Gloria was watching him with a neutral expression. “It’s different when it’s someone you know. It’s a lot harder to depersonalize a body who was someone to you.”
“I don’t want to depersonalize Rosalind, Gloria. She deserves that.”
“William, beating yourself up over the fact that you survived when she didn’t isn’t going to help.” Gloria took him by the hand and leaned forward to stare into his eyes. She didn’t want to give up this case. Therefore it was necessary to make sure he didn’t want to give up the case either. “And you need to ask yourself if Rosalind would want you to do less than your best in solving any murder, much less hers.” Cooper scowled and glared back at her. “You know I’m right.”
“You think I can’t do a good job if I think of Rosalind as a person?”
“I don’t think you can be objective about this investigation if you think about this as Rosalind’s murder and if you can’t be objective you will make mistakes.”
He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“I can ask for us to be taken off the case if you want, but it will look very bad for our careers after Maggie and I discussed this and I fought to keep it when you said you could do this, when you insisted that you be allowed to work this case.”
Cooper looked at his hands for a moment before reaching for the tablet. “This is our case. I owe it to Rosalind to find her killer.” Gritting his teeth, he opened the folder of pictures again. “I’ll need to see her body too.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Coop. Look and tell me what you see.”
He glanced up at her. “Don’t trust me?”
“I haven’t worked with you yet, so not in this.”
Cooper nodded absently. “You’re right. Ok, here goes.” He opened the first picture and then split the screen and opened the coroner’s report. “She died from exsanguination. According to the coroner, the cause of death was a single slice across the throat that cut her to the spine.” He closed his eyes for a second. “The cut was from right to left, suggesting that the wielder was left handed and the knife was very long and razor sharp.” He opened another window and typed a search command. “Eight to ten percent of humans are left handed and studies indicate that pokegirls share the same percentage.” He frowned and typed another search. “There’s no data on whether certain breeds are more prone to left handedness as a group. In any case it’s a good filter.”
“Only if its right, Coop. Handedness is not how we’re going to catch a killer and coroners have been wrong before, so don’t focus on that to the exclusion of more pertinent facts.”
He closed the search window and moved to the next picture and page at the same time. The files were linked so that opening a picture shifted the report to the applicable section and highlighted it. “The body was opened laterally across the torso. The directionality of the cut suggests a left to right slice this time.” He swallowed hard and his voice went up an octave. “The flaps of the cut were opened and the left kidney was removed while the ovaries were cut free but left in place.” His face turned pale and a sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead. Abruptly he turned the tablet over and began a deep breathing exercise. “The rest of the file is important data but incidental to the murder itself.”
Gloria shook her head. “There’s two more pieces of immediately relevant information, even if it’s useless to us. First, the cut across the torso shows hesitation marks while the killing stroke doesn’t. That suggests either two killers or that the killer has killed before but that the mutilation was something new.”
Cooper turned the tablet back and closed all the windows. “What’s the second piece?”
“It turns out that the chemical signature of the paraspray identified it as being from a lot manufactured in Wales a year ago. It was sold in London, small townships around London and across Wales.”
“How’s that useful?”
“If we find a suspect who has paraspray from that lot, it’s powerful circumstantial evidence against them.”
Cooper opened the next folder. It was full of interviews from the canvass of the neighborhood along with the raw video footage of the interviews. There were a lot of them. “I don’t suppose there’s a digest for this?”
Gloria smiled. “No, there isn’t. It’s your job to put one together.” Her smile widened. “You’re the new guy, remember? And it’s good experience.”
“I’ve heard that lie before.” He sighed and opened a blank file, split the screen again and opened the first video file.
***
(12/16/319 0215 London, Blue Continent)
Gloria’s com went off with a raucous buzz that shocked both her and Cooper awake. She grabbed it and put it to her ear. “What?” She jumped when his com went off too. “Coop, turn that damned thing off.”
“Darned,” he muttered as he grabbed his com and activated it. “Cooper.”
It was the voice of one of the pokegirls who worked dispatch. He hadn’t met them all yet and didn’t recognize it. “Corporal, there’s a body that someone wants you to look at. The coordinates have been downloaded to your com. Lieutenant Gloria has also been requested and will or has been contacted.”
“Who is this?”
Her voice became amused. “I’m Private Millicent Moonbunny, but you can call me Millie, corporal.”
“Well, Millie, thanks for informing me. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” Cooper tossed the com on the dresser as he rolled out of bed and reached for his clothes.
On the other side of their bed, Gloria turned on a light and quickly dressed. She was ready before him and grabbed them a couple of cans of tea as he finished. “Let me make sure you’ve got everything, Coop.” She winked. “I can’t have you forgetting something and making us look bad at your first murder scene.”
He shook his head and stood patiently as she checked his gear. “Why are they calling us? I thought if someone has a case they don’t get bothered as long as there are unassigned officers.”
“That’s true, Coop. So, if we’re being called one of three things has happened. First, all of the officers are assigned and we’re next in the rotation. I happen to know that’s not the case. Second, the major is pissed at us and we’re being given a pile of,” she hesitated, “dung as punishment. As far as I know that’s not going on. Finally, it could mean that a body has turned up that resembles our murder victim somehow. What does that mean to you?”
Cooper had been chugging down his drink. He choked, managing not to spray tea everywhere. “It could be that it is another Officerjenny or that the victim was killed in a similar manner.”
She smiled warmly. “I am so glad you’re smart. Let’s go.”
Twenty minutes later they pulled their bicycles up and surveyed the area. A police cordon had been put into place and uniformed officers were keeping an eye on the small crowd that had assembled outside the barricades. Gloria flashed her badge and they were allowed to wheel their bikes inside and stash them against the wall of a shop. A very near human pokegirl was waiting for them. “Hello, Glory. Is this your new man?”
Gloria nodded. “Laney, this is Cooper. Coop, this is Sergeant Laney Poindexter. She’s a pathologist who works the area for the MPS. We share her with a couple of the other boroughs.” She looked around. “So, Laney, where’s the body and why were we called out for it?”
Laney pointed with her chin towards the alley. “The victim is a Peekabu of indeterminate age, although I can tell she’s a pokegirl. She had a pokeball and one of the techs is scanning it against the London database. Hopefully it’ll tell us who she is and if she belongs to someone.” Her lips pursed and Cooper heard a whistling noise. It puzzled him for a second before she opened her mouth slightly and rolled some kind of lozenge on her tongue. “I followed protocol and called you because the pokegirl was dosed with paraspray and then her throat was cut.” She handed them both pairs of blue latex rubber gloves and booties. “Don’t forget your protection,” she teased.
Cooper swallowed hard and double checked that the camera in his lapel was connected to the recorder in his belt and was recording properly. He slipped on his boot covers and then the gloves. “How did you know paraspray was used?”
“It has a complex chemical signature and the manufacturer makes a quick chemical test for paraspray’s presence. We keep a couple of the test kits in my van. They’ve been in there for ages, but when I saw how her throat had been slashed I took a chance and tested for it.”
He nodded. “Thanks. Gloria, we’ll need to sweep the crime scene. Want me to work on that?”
Gloria grabbed his arm. “The uniforms will do that for us while we look at the body. Come on.” She glanced around her and dropped her voice. “Keep it under control if you can. There’s some serious money riding on how you deal with the corpse.”
He stared at her for a second. “Where’s your money at?”
“I bet a month’s pay that you don’t puke at all. You get half.”
“All right, then, let’s do this.” He looked the body over from a distance. The Peekabu had been one of the more human looking ones with a human face and fairly human body broken up by yellow ears and the trademark tail that all Peekabu had. He frowned, looking at the pool of blood around the victim. “There’s something odd here.”
Gloria was watching him instead of the corpse. “What is it?”
“The blood pool is wrong. I think she was sprayed, rolled over onto her side and her throat was slit. After the initial surge of blood stopped she was then rolled flat on her back. It would explain why the pool has two source points.”
“Very good, Coop. That makes sense. What else do you see?”
“Her clothes were cut off and she was sliced horizontally across the abdomen, with the flaps of skin pulled open.” He looked around. “Laney?”
She was standing with some uniformed officers and quietly talking with them while watching him. A quick glance around showed that just about every person around was openly observing him just like she was. “Yes, corporal?”
“Could you see if any organs were disturbed?”
“We usually don’t find that sort of thing out until the autopsy.” She winked at one of the uniforms. “Care to take a look yourself?”
“Is that ok?”
She blinked and then grinned hugely. “Boys, I just think I lost some money. That’ll teach me to bet against Glory. Yes, corporal, as long as you don’t stir her with a stick I’ll allow it this time.”
Cooper found a dry spot next to the corpse and knelt. Taking a torch from his belt he shined it into the opening in the body cavity. “The organs seem intact, but I’m not going to lift any of them to see if there’s anything missing behind the intestines. If there’s evidence in there I don’t want to compromise it.”
Laney squatted on the other side of the body. “What are you looking for?”
“The first victim had a kidney removed and her ovaries were severed and left in place. You can’t see them from the front but the intestines might have been put back into place afterwards.”
The G-Point gestured with a finger, but carefully didn’t break the plane of the body. “See this? Her intestines were moved, so something did happen here. I’ll be sure and review the first autopsy after I finish this poor girl’s.”
“Thanks.” Cooper pushed to his feet. “Gloria, I’ll start with the detailed video recording, if you don’t mind.”
She chuckled. “I don’t mind at all. I find stuff like that to be mind numbingly boring. I’ll check and see if there’s anyone to interview.”
***
(12/17/319 1220 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper shook his head at the display. “Whoever or whatever the killer is, it’s using more than just gloves as a countermeasure unless the Peekabu’s killer was one of her littermates. The only DNA at the scene was hers. According to Laney, the kidneys were left in place but the ovaries were removed and are missing.”
Gloria nodded. “Well, I have a bit of good news. We’ve identified her. Her name is Diana and she’s owned by one Jeff Ferguson, a nineteen year old tamer. His family lives here in London and he’s back home right now. Needless to say, he’s next on our list to interview. We’ll go see him after we grab a bite to eat.”
***
(12/17/319 1430 London, Blue Continent)
Gloria knocked firmly on the door. She waited a moment and knocked again. The sound of locks being unlatched came through it and a stout woman with short brown hair opened it. Her gaze slid past Gloria to focus on Cooper. “Can I help you?”
Gloria flashed her badge. “We’re with the MPS and we need to speak with Jeff Ferguson.”
The woman glanced at her and back to Cooper. “Show me your identification.”
He gave her a professional smile and showed her his badge. “I’m Corporal Cooper. Lieutenant Gloria is correct and we need to speak with Jeff. If he’s not home, we’d appreciate it if you could tell us where he is.”
The woman didn’t look closely. “Jeff is inside. You’ll need to put her up. You never know what they’ll do.”
Gloria’s face went completely blank but even with the short time they’d been together he could tell, looking at her from behind, that her body was stiff with anger. Cooper touched her arm and her head whipped around to glare at him. His voice was polite but firm. “Ma’am, the lieutenant is my boss and she is not going in a pokeball. If you’re willing to let us speak with Jeff right now then please do so, but if not we will leave. We will return, though, and at that point the situation will be such that you will be unable to stop us from entering and speaking with Jeff. It will be that way because we will have a warrant and you will be under arrest for interfering with an investigation. We could arrest you now, but my lieutenant will insist that we return with a full squad and a pokegirl strong enough to smash in your door so we can gain entry without having to bother asking you for it.” The woman’s cheeks flushed red and then white. “What I suggest is that you stop pretending she’s a piece of furniture and you let us speak with Jeff immediately.”
“He didn’t do anything wrong,” the woman’s voice was sullen.
“We know that,” Gloria said waspishly. “We want to talk to him about Diana, his Peekabu.”
The woman, presumably Mrs. Ferguson, blinked and shrugged. “I think you can keep her for whatever she did, but she’s Jeff’s property so you’ll have to talk to him.” She stepped out of the doorway and hesitated long enough to look Gloria over carefully. Then she motioned towards an overstuffed couch. “Have a seat and I’ll go get him.”
The Enchantress hissed quietly after the woman had left. “Did you see her check me out to make sure I hadn’t shat in my pants?” She blinked. “In your opinion, is that a curse word?”
He took her hand and squeezed it hard. “In this case you could say far worse before I’d notice. I’m furious at that woman too.”
She cocked her head curiously. “Why?”
“Nobody deserves to be treated like she just treated you.”
“I’m a pokegirl,” she said as if it explained everything.
“Ok, so you’re not a pure blood human. Nobody is. Still it doesn’t mean you’re something I stepped in at the park and would want to scrape off of my boots.” He put a finger on her lips when she started to speak. “If nothing else, remember that you worked hard to become a lieutenant in the best military in the world and a detective in the best police force on the planet and she’s just a blowsy woman with a bad attitude.”
Startled eyes stared at him over his hand and then she kissed his finger gently. “Thank you.”
They stood in a comfortable silence until Mrs. Ferguson returned. “Jeff will be here in a minute. If you need me I’ll be in the kitchen.” She disappeared through a door.
“You wanted to talk to me about Diana?” Jeff Ferguson was a skinny teenager with a huge Adams apple and what looked like a bad case of acne that was in the clearing stages. “When can I get her back?”
Gloria flashed her badge. “Are you Jeff Ferguson?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m Jeff.”
“Mr. Ferguson, I’m Detective Gloria and this is Detective Cooper. I have a few questions for you. What was Diana doing out alone on the night of the 16th of December?” Cooper knew she was speaking for the microphones on their uniforms.
Jeff shrugged. “Diana was out running. An hour of running every other night is part of her training regimen.”
“Does she run the same route every night?”
“I don’t know. She’s gone about the same amount of time every night she runs so I guess so. You’d have to ask Phyllis.”
Cooper and Gloria had read Jeff’s file and he knew that Phyllis was his alpha and a Frostdrake. Gloria nodded. “Where is she?”
“She’s in her ball where she belongs.” Jeff ran fingers through his hair. “You want me to go get her?”
“Yes.” Gloria rolled her eyes after Jeff had left the room. “Hopefully she’ll know more than he does.”
“She can hardly know less,” Cooper muttered. “It’s hard to believe he’s got six badges.”
Gloria snickered softly. “Maybe they were having a slow day.”
Jeff came back with a pokeball. “We’ll have to go outside. Mother has a fit whenever pokegirls are in the house.”
Cooper jerked his head towards the door. “Lead the way, Mr. Ferguson.”
Phyllis was over two meters feet tall and her folded up wings added at least another half a meter to her height. As soon as she saw Gloria’s badge she seemed to fold up into herself and hissed unhappily. “Something happened to Diana, didn’t it?”
Gloria’s expression didn’t give anything away. “What makes you think that?”
“Officer, Diana had a lot of behavior issues but she always came home. I knew something was wrong when she didn’t return from her lap. What happened to her?”
“Its detective,” Gloria corrected her gently. “I’m afraid I have to tell you that Diana was killed on December 16th.”
“Shit,” Jeff grumbled. “There goes the team.” Phyllis glanced at him and didn’t speak, although Cooper noticed that her lips whitened where she was obviously restraining herself from saying something. Obvious, that was, if you were paying attention.
Jeff missed it entirely.
Gloria apparently decided to ignore Jeff if she could and spoke to the Frostdrake. “Did she run the same route every time she exercised?”
Phyllis nodded. “Yes she did. We were recording her times so she had to run the same route so we could see any changes in her speed. The one time she cheated I beat her into unconsciousness and she has never done it again.”
Cooper frowned. “Would she stop to talk to someone?”
The Frostdrake sighed. “Yes, she would. She loved chatting and meeting people and if someone said hello to her, she’d stop to talk to them. That behavior I couldn’t condition out of her, so I had no choice but to tolerate it.”
“It looks like she may have stopped to talk to someone and was murdered for it.” Gloria looked from human to pokegirl, but before she could say anything else, Jeff interrupted her.
“So where do I file the paperwork?”
The Enchantress frowned. “What paperwork?”
“Diana was murdered. I need to replace her. So where do I file the paperwork for the league to issue me another Peekabu or other strong electric type?” Phyllis’ eyes bulged for an instant before she got her expression under control. After that she looked resigned and more than a little sad.
Gloria looked surprised for a heartbeat and then shrugged. “Mr. Ferguson, the league issues you a starter pokegirl when you become a tamer. After that, you are responsible for all acquisitions and losses. You can and probably should go to a pokegirl center and see if there’s an electric type who is available for adoption or purchase, but the league is not going to issue you a replacement for a member of your harem you lost, even if she was murdered.” She looked at Cooper. “We’re done here. From what Mr. Ferguson has to tell us, it was probably a random attack. Even if it was premeditated, these people won’t know anything about it.”
***
William Cooper
Gloria - Enchantress
***
A note about names in this story. The BLSF makes all pokegirls use last names and that rule is carried over to the police forces across the league. If a pokegirl has a tamer, her last name becomes his last name and her breed is used as a middle name if she wants to have one or if her breed isn’t immediately identifiable. Most military and police pokegirls have middle names. If a pokegirl does not have a tamer, her last name is her breed.