Ch.178Cover the sky!
by fnovelpia
#178
Dexter nodded in agreement with Jesse’s suspicion.
“Jesse, you know roughly what Himena’s weekly schedule is like, right?”
“She arrives before 9:15 to prepare for work, starts precisely at 9, then around 11:50 she pre-orders a sandwich for lunch. She eats during lunch break, has a coffee while preparing for afternoon work… something like that?”
“Wow, Jesse, that’s creepy.”
“Himena, it’s because you move on such a rigid schedule. This is always your routine unless you have field work or business trips.”
Himena grumbled at Jesse’s words, having nothing to refute, but Dexter continued.
“See? Even Jesse, who hasn’t seen you for months, has your schedule memorized. That means you’re predictable. That’s why they didn’t need to follow you.”
“What if they’ve already finished tailing me to learn my schedule?”
“The interference with the Chief started when you and I were together. Do you really think I wouldn’t have noticed someone following us?”
When Dexter denied this possibility, Himena pushed out her lips and pointed at the monitor.
“So we need to watch the testimony video from beginning to end…”
“We need to catch every little clue, so yes.”
“I have to watch that again… I’ll go get the transcripts…”
A dejected Himena left the archives room.
Jesse and Dexter remained seated, continuing to watch the testimony video. Himena returned with three bundles of transcripts and handed them to the pair.
They were unexpectedly thick, prompting Dexter to ask Himena:
“Did they really talk that much?”
“More precisely, we asked them all sorts of questions.”
Dexter nodded as Himena explained that they had almost used hypnosis and complete brain scanning systems on the three mafia members.
“Brain scanning—is that like the device from A Clockwork Orange that forces your eyes open to read memories?”
“Exactly. But it’s been banned now.”
“Why? It’s effective.”
“Apparently it leaves you blind for about three months.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Dexter compared the transcripts with the testimony video, then casually said to Himena:
“What did that bastard say?”
“Hmm… things that made me pretty angry too. But next time, don’t run off like that. Even if you’ve known each other for a long time, that was a bit much.”
“What could I do when that bastard was acting so frustratingly?”
“He’s not a child, he’s thirty years old.”
“Mid-twenties or thirty, it’s all the same.”
“We can argue later. Anyway, there’s an important clue in what Eliya said, but it’s a bit strange, so I’ll organize it with Pilgrim and let you know.”
“An important clue, huh.”
Dexter sensed something significant in Himena’s voice as she continued focusing on the monitor and transcripts.
It seemed like quite an important clue, but for now, he decided to focus on the testimony video like Himena was doing.
[Do you have a dog?]
[Do I need to talk about keeping a dog?]
[No, I just asked because your phone wallpaper is a dog.]
“That’s a question to psychologically get closer to the interrogation subject.”
“What’s the benefit of getting closer?”
“They’re more likely to slip up, aren’t they?”
“One punch and they’d spill everything anyway.”
After Dexter’s bold claim about making people talk with his fists, Himena replied incredulously:
“Our methods are different from yours, you know?”
[I left it with someone else for a while.]
[Why?]
[It was a dog we kept at our hideout, but it would bark or sneeze whenever it saw that guy. It disliked him so much that I sent it away temporarily in case it would make a fuss if they met again.]
[That guy?]
[Yeah, the guy who hired us.]
[Hmm.]
Though it seemed like an insignificant conversation, Dexter paused the video.
“What? What is it?”
“He said the dog would bark or sneeze.”
“So? That’s in the transcript too.”
The client who hired the tail had done everything possible to hide his identity from the three mafia members.
All-black clothing, voice modulation, sunglasses, and even a mask—Dexter thought the reason why the dog barked or sneezed at the client might hold the answer.
‘Why would a dog bark or sneeze?’
Dexter pondered this, fixating on the word “sneeze.”
‘Sneezing happens when your nose is irritated.’
Ordinary people’s noses get irritated in dusty places or when they smell unusual scents.
‘Scent?’
Remembering the men’s cologne from the android, Dexter snapped his fingers and said:
“Is that android in the evidence room?”
“Yes, probably?”
“I need to go there.”
“Wait, Dexter! The drive inside the android had all its data wiped! There’s no evidence!”
But Dexter didn’t respond to Himena’s words and hurriedly left his seat, exiting the archives room.
With Himena looking dumbfounded, Jesse pointed at the door and said:
“Should we follow him?”
“Shouldn’t he at least explain properly before running off?”
“It’s not the first time he’s dashed off when something comes up. He’s quite impulsive.”
“Is he like this in prison too?”
“Things like this don’t happen in prison, do they?”
“I guess not…”
Jesse and Himena eventually followed Dexter to the evidence room.
“Agent Hughes, since you’re in an honorary position…”
“I caught the guy, so can’t I access the evidence as I please?”
“There are procedures… Oh, are you with Agent Libero?”
Dexter frowned when he saw the evidence manager perking up as Himena approached and shuffled through papers.
“This is a bit much.”
“I’m sorry, but procedures are procedures… You can go to section A113.”
Dexter snatched the papers the employee held out, striding ahead while Jesse and Himena followed, shaking their heads.
Soon the three arrived at Evidence Storage Area A, and they were slightly intimidated by the enormous room that seemed endless despite being underground.
A large room was one thing, but the metal shelves, much taller than Dexter, also stretched as far as the eye could see.
“Why is the evidence room so huge?”
“Any evidence big enough to fit through the entrance is probably here.”
“If this is section A001, and that block is A002… is ‘block’ even the right term for an evidence room?”
“It’s so vast, I think it works.”
While Dexter and Himena were talking, Jesse shielded her eyes with her hand and looked into the distance.
“We’ll need a vehicle to get around here.”
“There are electric carts for that.”
Himena pointed to an evidence transport electric cart in the corner.
From section A001 where they stood to A113 was dozens of blocks away.
The area was measured in miles, and while Dexter might have been fine, the other two lacked the stamina. So the three rode the electric cart to section A113.
Upon seeing an unusually large, elongated evidence bag on the metal shelf, Jesse commented uneasily:
“Ugh, I didn’t expect an android to be stored like this. It looks like a corpse wrapped in an evidence bag.”
“It’s not a corpse since it has no self-awareness—it’s just a machine.”
Dexter approached the android wrapped in the evidence bag, carefully opened it, and wafted the air inside with his palm to smell it.
The android’s clothes still retained a faint trace of men’s cologne.
Himena and Jesse also wafted the air to smell it, then tilted their heads in confusion.
“Why would an android wear cologne? It’s just a robot after all.”
“It’s not cologne that was directly applied. If it had been, it wouldn’t remain this faintly.”
Jesse and Himena could only sense what seemed like ordinary cologne.
Dexter, with his much keener senses, opened the bag more and began smelling.
However, since it looked like Dexter was pressing his nose against the body of a young man with closed eyes, both women simultaneously covered their mouths.
“The optics are a bit…”
“Pfft.”
“…Don’t laugh. You think I’m enjoying this?”
As Dexter changed positions to smell different areas, the two women were about to burst into laughter, while Dexter closed his eyes to focus solely on his sense of smell.
‘Where is the scent strongest?’
After continuously sniffing, Dexter’s eyes suddenly opened wide.
“Here it is.”
“The tie?”
“It looks like an ordinary tie…”
Dexter untied it and held it up to the ceiling light, but there was nothing special about it.
The material looked somewhat high-quality, but it was a slightly worn, common black tie that could be seen anywhere.
“The scent is strongest here, and it seems familiar somehow.”
“We should have the forensic scientist re-examine the tie.”
Himena took out an evidence bag from her jacket and received the tie from Dexter.
“You carry evidence bags in your jacket?”
“Yes. It’s standard, isn’t it?”
“Isn’t that a bit unusual, Himena?”
“What? No, it’s normal for an investigative agent, right?”
“Do you also have latex gloves and fingerprint collection tools?”
“Those tools are in my handbag…”
“That’s unusual.”
“It is unusual.”
“Huh? Am I the weird one? Really? But this is how I was trained!”
After their bickering, the three left the evidence room and handed the tie to a forensic scientist in the Science and Technology Department.
Soon after the results came in, the three were looking at the monitor in front of the forensic scientist.
The screen displayed what appeared to be a 3D model of the magnified tie, and the forensic scientist rotated the 3D tie while speaking to Himena.
“It looks like an ordinary tie, right?”
“Yes, just a somewhat worn and dirty tie.”
“But if we zoom in on this frayed area.”
Following the forensic scientist’s hand movements, the 3D tie on the screen was instantly magnified dozens of times, focusing specifically on the back end of the wider part of the tie where the fraying was particularly severe.
There, the cross-sections of fibers appeared to have been cut by something sharp.
“…The fiber cross-sections are clean.”
“It doesn’t seem to be just wear and tear from long use. It appears to have been deliberately cut with a sharp tool.”
Jesse squinted at the monitor, trying to deduce something, but couldn’t reach a clear answer.
“The tie itself looks fine. Why would anyone need to use a knife on it?”
“There must have been a reason to use something like a knife.”
“A reason?”
“Even though it’s a well-worn tie, there’s only one reason to use a sharp object on a tie.”
“There’s definitely a reason to use a knife on a tie?”
Dexter nodded at Jesse’s words and pointed to the forensic scientist’s tie.
“It’s not handmade, is it?”
“Just a cheap tie I got when I bought a dress shirt…”
“What if the tie was custom-made?”
“If it was custom-made, even if it got frayed and worn, they would have kept it…?”
At the forensic scientist’s words, Dexter grinned and said:
“And maybe had a name or initials embroidered.”
“What? What do you… Oh!”
The forensic scientist clapped his hands after hearing Dexter’s words.
“So that’s why these traces are here!”
The forensic scientist magnified the area with the sharp cross-sections even more.
Besides the cut fiber traces, tiny holes in the fabric were revealed.
The forensic scientist pointed directly at the holes and explained:
“Some people write their initials or names at the end of their ties. With a sewing machine. Usually for gifts or custom-made items.”
“So those traces indicate initials or a name?”
“That’s right. If we connect these with lines…”
The forensic scientist connected the tiny holes with a brush tool built into the program, and finally, two capital letters in cursive writing emerged.
“R, F.”
“Can we identify the spy with just these two letters?”
“We were able to narrow down which department had the leak with the Stephans before.”
“So if we search within that range…”
“We can catch the bastard who’s the Chief’s spy and hired someone to follow me.”
Finally, they could catch him.
At that thought, Dexter grinned.
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