[Citadel Noir, Tayseri Ward] Paradise

Taleeze immediately recognized Michelle.
“Hey, Michelle. Yes, we are loosely acquainted, officer. Of course I am available for questions. Although we were keeping lose contact.” But in truth, Taleeze wanted to know what had happened to her old pal in that alley!

She opened her omnitool and wrote a note to her boss:
“I’m held up, witness of a crime. Will be back in as soon as I am free.”
The reply was coing pretty quick.
“Ten minutes out the door and taken in by C-Sec? Nice performance!”
“It’s ‘Witness’, I am not arrested!”
“Screw C-Sec, just tell em you didn’t see shit or something and come back!”
“Someone I knew just got murdered.”
The next reply took a bit longer:
“Sorry. Come back when you’re ready.”

The dancer sighed and looked over to the Matriarch, who seemed really distressed. She noted how the asari officers where trying to work around the Lady.

"Uhhhhhh"

You know what? Screw it. Just...screw it. Now the second asari was going on about something or the other and how she totally saw something and Mr. Bigdick McBadass was swinging his piece all over the crime scene and just

just.

"That'd be me. I called it in."

He would have rubbed his talons over his face if he hadn't remembered that, you know, he still had some dried flecks of blood on his hands. He ended up settling for discretely brushing them off with what was perhaps a degree of excessive force. Kio wasn't mad exactly, I mean that'd be a pretty Goddammned (sorry) selfish thing to be but...you know. Everyone was all wrapped up in their dramas and he was just here wondering when he could go and actually talk to Jiang who was currently-

On an interception angle with the recently arrived homicide detective.

Oh dear.

You know, she really always wasn't like this. Most days she was pleasant if bl- "I'm going to need to borrow Mr. Requiatem here." Do you agree? Y/Y- unt. Mild mannered even because, really when you have to put up with the kind of things she does there's no point in working yourself to the bone or running ragged over the little stuff. Save it for the budget meetings. Save it for the one in the morning ops. Save it for your men and women, veteran paramilitary commandos one and all, who still cried and sobbed when they thought nobody was looking, and drank and ate and smoked and buried their pain in a thousand and one different ways when people were (the Sovereign and Saren Jamboree, Refugee-a-palooza, the Cerberus 2816 Citadel Tour, Return of the Reaper's Revengeance, funny, funny names batted around the office takes out the bite, takes out the sting).

Save it for when Kio Requiatem, the friendliest boogeyman you ever did meet, gives you a call and says he's got a body and if she could come on down to the Cross with the Cold Cases and some icecream he might be able to help.

A metal slagging glare. A tentative wave from behind the detective's shoulder.

The best kind of relationships are the complicated ones.

"I'll do so, thank you."

---

Celeste arrived at the crime scene, stepping out of the cab and paying by way of a disinterested wave of her omnitool. Mercy of mercies, she just managed to miss the utterly moronic civilian stealing C-Sec property in order to give orders to the crowd of onlookers like he was a cop himself. Celeste probably would've slapped him with impersonation of a police officer and obstruction of justice if this were her C-Sec days, but ah well.

She stood next to the holo-tape and gave it an experimental wave. It flashed blue as her hand broke the laser, signifying that she was still in the system. She stepped through.

"I'm here to see Officer Maiha," she said quietly to the nearest officer that didn't seem too busy. "Celeste d'Anais. I believe she's expecting me."

While the rest of Tayseri's visitors were aiding and/or hindering C-Sec, Joset Phraag and Farlon were following in the wake of the shambling figure. Armed with a turian's keen sense of smell and keener sense of civic duty, the latter was marching them through the tangled warrens of a run-down Lower Tayseri district. Joset tagged along behind, clutching his bag in front of him as though to ward off whatever further complications might spring from the shadows.

"I don't see them anywhere. If they were badly hurt, we'd have found them by now, right? I mean, they probably cut themselves and went home to clean up. It's probably best if we don't get involved".

Farlon stopped as he rounded the next corner. A hatch leading into the eerie mechanical underworld of the Citadel met their sight. Something that Keepers or Duct Rats might use. Joset's heart sank. Someone was in trouble, then. Maybe not from any injury, but clearly they weren't living the good life down here. He felt genuine sorrow for whatever lost soul they'd been tracking, but he also felt sorry for Farlon. So much for providing assistance. A good deed run straight up against the wall of harsh reality. Really, the turian should know better.

"Look, whoever it was, they're gone. There are charities and stuff, helping these people. I don't think there's anything we can do. I mean, you can't help every individual homeless person or lost refugee - you just can't".

"We should still report it. If someone's injured, they won't be getting much help in there".

"You sure? Maybe some of the Duct Dwellers have, like, unofficial medical stations or something? Stolen equipment. Bandages and disinfectant at least. Maybe he was part of a gang or something, and they'll look after him". He hoped his eagerness to leave wasn't too obvious. Let's go, this is making me uncomfortable.

Farlon was resolute. "I'm reporting this".

"Yes of course I realize that officer", said Michelle while casually crossing the orange holo-line, "but here's the thing. The murder I told you about? The local kids fled because they were sure it was not just some random happenstance, and that it would not be the last. More importantly, the tunnels where it happened? It was THOSE tunnels", she said while dramatically pointing her finger at the entrance.
"I'm telling you, there is a very real possibility that information about the killer can be found in there. Perhaps event the killer himself. And I can get us where he killed that poor guy."

Maiha was feeling something close to useless now the detectives had showed up and everything was going along a bit more smoothly, with the witnesses answering for her and the grumpy Special Response lieutenant glaring daggers at one of said witnesses. She could just fade into the background until someone needed her again.

Unfortunately, she chose then to check her messages. Her eyes widened slightly.

Well, that was somewhat of a duty change. T'Julani would be jealous and maybe she ought to go rescue her partner, for that matter, but...

This was because she was from Thessia, wasn't it?

...

T'Julani nodded sympathetically to Taleeze, "We'll need to take your name, address and ID, in case we have further questions after today. Do you know of anyone who might have meant your friend harm?"

That was when Michelle stepped across the tape. The holo flashed a disapproving red and in a flash of movement, T'Julani had interposed herself between the human woman and further into the crime scene. "Please step behind the tape, ma'am. I understand your...concerns, but this is a crime scene. Officer Denarius and I will inspect the tunnels but not right at this minute. There is, at this point in time, no evidence that these two murders are connected and even if there was, I can't just abandon my post."

...

"Right this way, ma'am," A turian officer said, waving Celeste forward, "Officer Denarius is over by the body. She was the first called in."

...

As for Farlon and Joset, CSec was just a call away.

Or even closer, since they could now hear the sirens of further officers and forensics moving into the scene.

Celeste picked her way through the crime scene with practiced ease. She'd walked through so many in her life that it was as simple as breathing now, the telltale flash of yellow from an evidence marker guiding her feet as if on autopilot. Another asari beside the body, clearly the mysterious officer Denarius. Celeste crouched down beside her, deciding that action would be more appreciated than pleasantries.

"The body's been moved," she said flatly, pointing to the wall behind the dead maiden. "See the marks? Blood clots. Victim was sitting up against the wall for so long that her own blood glued her to it. Multiple cuts and stab wounds across back and stomach..." A brief pause as Celeste straightened, then crouched again.

"Severe strangulation marks, not the cause of death. Stab wound to stomach severe, but not instantly lethal." Another pause. "An amateur. He was careless. Sloppy. Let passion get the best of him. After everything he did to her and all the time he took, she still got away. Blood loss had to do his job for him."

Celeste stood up. "I'd check for self-defence wounds, blood or skin under the fingernails. Widen the search, too. She got away, and the killer was too lazy to even clean up after himself. She'll have left blood, and the sooner we find the trail the sooner we can get some real work done."

She turned to face Maiha properly this time. "Apologies. I'm sure you don't appreciate me swanning in and telling you how to do your job. Celeste d'Anais. Officer Denarius? I'm told you're to be my chaperone."

Taleeze noted the increasing police force, now the detectives came in. Something about that newly arrived detective…. Was she a Matriarch in C-Sec? That was unsusual to say the least. Taleeze had the impression she had seen this face before but for the moment couldn’t pinpoint it.

“Yes, Taleeze Driana, I am no permanent resident on the Citadel, I stay at Tybis apartments 221.” She flashed her ID and work permit on her omnitool for the officer to read it out.

“I work at the club down the alley, Blue Line.” She looked at her dead friend again, now set up like a doll in the middle of crime scene markers and touched by officers with gloved hands.

“I have no idea. I only recently arrived on the Citadel, we wanted to go for a drink some time to have a longer chat, catch up on each other, you know. I only know she had been working for some….” She looked at Mirala, suddenly realizing who she was. “… matriarch. She wasn’t concerned when we last spoke…”

Terena had never been the adventurous type like Taleeze, she’d been calmer and more restrained, more oriented towards Matriarchs so no wonder she ended up working for one while Taleeze was living her own ways. Maybe that was why they had clicked so well at the uni. Taleeze remembered a drinking game after a particularly horrible exam… now it seemd as if the liquer was oozing from Terena’s various new openings… Liquer. Partyhats.

She had seen that matriarchal officer at a bar. At the Apricity and only recently, how surprising.

Michelle realized she had overplayed her hand, and was this close to become an hindrance to the police officers like Megaphone Guy.
She stepped back in the crowd. "Yes of course, I'm sorry", she said sheepishly, "I'll... just stay here for a while, in case you want to pursue this."
Feeling silly and useless, Michelle stayed behind the line, trying to gather whatever scrap of information she could.

"Officer Tujali?" The Batarian asked, looking up from his omnitool. "I'm going to need you to search for clues immediately around the ducts and within ten yards of them. We need to see if someone tried to flee into them, search for any bloody smears of footprints handprints, any signs of distressed movement." He paced his way down to the body.

Wescott blinked himself awake and removed his hands from his pocket. He approached Kio Requiatem, making a straight bee-line through the plaza. This is the Turian that made the call, and he looked like he had an ego. Great. He drew up a datapad from his jacket and leveled a flat, professional gaze on the man. "Mr. Requiatem, I'm Detective Judah Wescott. I'm to believe that you're the one that called in the crime? I'd like to ask you a few questions."

He rolled his shoulders and hit a recording slide on the datapad. "Sir, you called in the crime. Did you see anything out of the ordinary apart from the body? Any suspicious individual? Did you touch or disturb anything? Anything and everything can help the investigation and the pursuit of justice."

The answers came one after another in a half distracted tumble of information. Reflexive. Fidgets of facts. An instinctual offering up of data why yes officer I am more than happy to co-operate. "Sure, of course yeah." "No I did not." "Nop-" "oh uh yeah, I did, pulled her away from the wall and...shook her a bit, thought she might have been unconscious from blood loss you know? Something I could have done. But then I heard the cracking and.....and..."

And trail off into a long, lingering, awkward pause as the turian's eyes caught on the new arrival and were drawn over. Dragged in her wake. Piqued curiosity yeah? Oh but of course. A scarred Matriarch, not C-sec, but with an officer's gaze and a soldiers walk? Who wouldn't be curious? Nevermind the slight drumming of the talons on his thigh, the slit pupils or jangling nerves.

Simple curiosity.

Dammit Kio. Dammit dammit dammit. Suddenly home, safe, familiar, and full of his own little creature comforts was so very, very far away. Blankets sounded nice right now. Blankets and some HV and

shit McBadass Part II still needed an answer. Eyes flicked back the detectives way, well past him to be more specific.

"and um...I think she wanted to talk to you." And cue a very helpful point over Wescott's shoulder at the Special Response Lieutenant who was, currently, standing a little behind him, right where he'd passed her by in fact. A bemused, mildly incredulous expression scrunching its way across her face. Lips parted where the last syllables of "-here" had died. An eyelid half raised. A brow furrowed. All in all a look that oh so politely inquired-

"...Are you fucking serious?"

Up for being dicked around by Investigation? Y/N. Oh look you shot the question in the forehead.

Twice.

Well I guess that answers that.

Taleeze was also standing behind the barrier, close to where Michelle had just been shooed to.
“Hey Michelle, how’s it going? What are you doing in all this, did some of your fosterlings find … Terena ? “ She made that small pause, forcing herself that the body over there still was the person she had known and chatted with a few days ago.

“I was just about to get some lunch when I stumbled into this. I guess I will remain on a diet today.”

He had just wanted to socialize a little. Make a bit of an effort. It had been going so well. But the Citadel wasn't the place it had been. Things were just too complicated now.

The sound of sirens and commotion was close.

Joset raised a hand and turned to Farlon.

"No, don't say it. They might have been a witness or something".

Farlon gave a turian shrug. "I'm thinking they were caught up in an accident, but didn't want to hang around for treatment".

"Didn't want to be identified". Illegal, or just wishing to keep off the grid. Those refugees and duct dwellers, they didn't always - or indeed, often - trust the authorities. It would start with "can I ask you a question, sir" or "let us look at that arm, madam" and it would all too easily end, he imagined, in "say, weren't you that pick-pocket we were hunting in Fendus District last week?"

At least Farlon hadn't wanted them to actually enter the maintenance hatch or something. Even turians weren't that single-minded.

"No I didn't know her, and I'm very sorry for your loss by the way, but get this. In those very tunnels, a hobo was murdered last night, and the kids there are terrified. They are sure that whoever did this would kill again! The cops are treating this as a coincidence, but I mean it's crazy to me!"

Michelle realized that she had raised her voice and toned down. She turned to Taleeze.

"But... I'm sorry. How are you doing?"

Quick to catch his mistake, Wescott leveled an apologetic glance to the Special Response Lt. "I'm sorry, ma'am, It's been hectic. What's the situation? My name is Judah Wescott, I'm a Lieutenant for Homicide." He flashed her his badge. "Is this the man that called this in? What has he told you?" He activated his omnitool and honed in his artificial eye, the lense flashed golden for a moment before dulling back to the normal coloration.

“I am okay, Michelle. It will be okay. I mean… you can never be prepared fir something like this, right? We chatted a couple of days ago.” Now that coffe would never be made.

“But what do you mean another murder? Is that what’s the Citadel is like these days? I mean, people talk about Illium being dangerous but we didn’t see anything like a series of dead bodies since… that weird spree last year.” A shudder ran down her spine as she recalled the ritual killing that had been all over the news.

“Or is it this neighborhood? The people at the club told me it’s a safer area actually, that’s why they set up their shop here… But how are you doing, are you dealing with such horrible problems often?”

Mirala barely registered the activity around poor Terena, lost in thought, steadfastly refusing to allow tears passage from her eyes. Even the appearance of a fellow matriarch did little to catch her attention, despite their present rarity outside of asari space.

Hopefully, she would be allowed to break the news to Kyne herself. The maiden likely wouldn't respond well to receiving the news from a stranger, no matter how gently it was broken.
A shame that there was little she could do to help catch this murderer beyond providing a statement.

There was a moment of silence. Brothers and sisters let us gather together to mourn the death of this most beloved scrap of Lieutenant Jiang's sanity. A terrible business. Absolutely terrible. A murder-suicide if you can believe the story, took the last shred of her patience down with it.

"Well Lieutenant," her voice was calm. Even. Polite. It might have even been conversation, amiable, if it weren't for the fact that everyone within earshot was in serious danger of contact frostbite. "As the gentleman said in the course of his statement, which he gave while I stood here, he is. In fact. The one who placed the call. He is also a material asset in an ongoing Special..."

What

"...Response..."

Oh my shit uh. Uh. Okay. Look, Jiang, just roll with it. You've put up with worse. With a lot worse. He's just being the obligatory Investigations toolbox. It's fine.

"Operation."

Okay look maybe that was a slight exaggeration, maybe it's not fine, but seriously just keep your cool and-

"I'm sorry," Xiaofan said pleasantly. "Are you running interrogation protocols on me?"

-well that wasn't so bad. You did okay. You did alright, just need to-

"You mindless shitlord." She added in exactly the same tone.

...Ow.

"Or the murderer could be reckless or overconfident," Maiha replied, following Celeste's eyes to the body, tilting her head as she did so. Her facial expression was somewhere between thoughtful and apprehensive. "Yes, I'm Officer Denarius. It's an honour." An honour she would be happy to go without, but part of her did mean it.

And then-

Oh goddess, the lieutenants were just going to go for each other, weren't they? She wanted to be very far from here. On another Ward maybe. T'Jurali, if you rescue me, I will never complain about you again.

Forensics and the medical examiner had arrived, pushing through the crowd and into the crime scene. T'Jurali quickly rattled off those who'd touched the body and both Kio and Mirala found themselves approached by techs asking to take samples with a little bit of aggrieved resignation, though the salarian who approached Kio was a bit more hesistant to do so. Possibly because of the SR lieutenant near him.

"Yessir," T'Jurali said, stepping away from the holotape with one last look at both Taleeze and Michelle. a look that said stay right there. It didn't take long for the Maiden to discover one of the grates covering an entry to the maintenance tunnels had been bent open and left to hang there, darkness beyond it. T'Jurali pursed her lips at that and finally fulfilled her partner's mental pleading, "Hey Denarius, I think I've found something. We should search it, maybe bring in that human lady-" She saw Celeste, "Uh, hello Lady Matriarch."

+++

Elsewhere, Farlon and Joset found themselves approached by a tall turian in CSec colours, a very serious expression on his face.

"Sirs, I apologise for interrupting your day, but I need to ask you a few questions. Have you seen anything unusual or out of place in this area recently?"

"Well, Lower Tayseri in general has one of the worst criminality rate of the Citadel. Possibly the worst if we don't take the foundations into account. But this very neighborhood, the Cross, isn't so bad, as far as I know... The local gangs are the quiet kind I guess.
But I didn't mean another murder in the sense that bodies are usually piling up. Actual murders are pretty rare here. It's usually more violence, mugging, intimidation... This is different, and new. Like a new predator is setting up shop..."

Michelle saw the sign T'Jurali made, and her looking around for maintenance shaft.

"And you know what? We may have the disputable luck of finding more about him soon."