Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 409

Most of the fang stopped at the door while the rest of us slipped into the room. My eyes immediately snapped to the corpse laying on the floor. He was down next to a table a bit off to the side of the area like he’d been having dinner when he was killed.The stench filling the room was a whole other matter entirely, though. Death was never pretty. When it was quick, and I could leave before everything had a chance to settle, I didn’t usually notice just how awful it smelled. The corpse had been settling here for hours already though. His voided bowels alone were enough to make my nose scrunch up and wish I had my mask.

”Whewie.” Seth grabbed at his nose, and coughed lightly. “You guys should burn some candles or something. This place reeks.”

”Death has a way of doing that.” Shinobu didn’t look like he cared much for the guy. Couldn’t blame him, to be honest.

”Look at that.” Detective Bradton pointed toward the table. It was set up for two. Wine glasses and plates still sat on the table. “He was eating with someone. Do we know who?”

”Elder Toro had dinner with Mama Akane Misurido. She was the last to see him alive.” Shinobu glanced at me, and rubbed at the back of his head. “The, uh, water trade is quite prevalent right around here.”

”Just call them whore-houses. We all know what you mean.” Seth King crossed his arms and nodded to the glasses of wine. “She’s the number one suspect, then?”

”No. She was with Doctor Fugen, the medek of Kake Street, at the time of the shooting.” Shinobue pointed up toward a recording device built into the main desk of the room. “Elder Toro recorded almost everything in his final years. It was thirty-one minutes after Mama Musrido left that the shooting happened.”

”Still.” Detective Bradton frowned, and shook his head. “She’s being held?”

”Everyone that had access to this room is being held as a suspect. This is— the elder’s private office. Not just anyone was allowed back here.” Shinobu walked around the edge of the room, and pointed out an opened safe set into the floor just behind the desk. “Someone broke into the elder’s safe.”

”It was likely after killing him,” I whispered to Mira through the Packheart Ring. “He was shot while still sitting down. That would imply he knew the killer. If it was a stranger or a thief breaking in, he wouldn’t have been so passive.”

”Check out his expression, too.” Mira pointed out. Elder Toro died entirely calm, without a hint of surprise on his features. “Looks like he didn’t even realize he was shot before he died. Must’ve been quick.”

“Do we know what was stolen?” Seth asked. “It might give us a lead on who the killer is.”

”Hmm… Hanzo Nanashi might know. He’s the Kake Street operations chief.” Shinobu frowned. “He’s down with the others.”

”How many are being held?” Mira asked. 

“Aside from Mama Misurido and Hanzo, there’s Hiiro Nishin—the chief of security—and Otori Shimata—Elder Toro’s grandson.” The enforcer sighed. “All of them might have their reasons to commit such a heinous crime.”

“So that’s four?” Detective Bradton rubbed at his white beard. “I bet it was someone outside of them. The obvious suspect is never the correct one.”

“You're on.” Seth said. ”It was probably Mama Misurido. She had him alone, and could’ve shot him at any time. It’d be easy to fool an audio recording.”

“I’ll give you some time to investigate the scene. When you’re ready, I’ll take you down to see the suspects. If you need anything, talk to Shiro here.” The enforcer motioned to me.

I shot a glare at Shinobu, though he just smiled at me. He could totally see what I was trying to do, and instead of calling me out for it directly, he was putting me on the spot. I took a breath, and put on my best icy gang voice. “I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.”

”Let’s go.” Shinobu backed away toward the door, and took most of the fang along with him. 

The door closed quietly behind him, leaving the two other investigators, Mira, and I. I stood off to the side, though I did continue to speak to Mira telepathically. “Put Luna on her search pattern? She might turn something up.”

If she could narrow down who all had been in this room as of late, then that’d be even better. 

”Luna? Heh—really Shiro?” Mira’s lips twitched as she picked up Vox. “Our runner’s being replaced already. She’d be so sad to hear that.”

“Whatever.” I shook my head, and looked away from my smiling mikata. I had a lot on my mind, so it was an honest mistake. 

Vox hit the floor, and immediately started to move around the place and gather scent profiles. The little robot’s movements didn’t go unnoticed by the other two. Seth, in particular, seemed interested. “What’s that?”

”An next-generation autonomous chemical and scent analyzer.” Mira whistled sharply to Vox, and the fox’s ears twitched. She sassily huffed and shuffled off to analyze the corpse itself. 

Seth watched the fox work instead of doing his own investigative stuff like Detective Bradton was doing off by the safe. “Is it for sale?”

”Not at the moment. She's one of a kind.” A hint of pride filled Mira’s voice like she was the one that made Vox. “A friend custom made her for me.”

”Nova, nova… this friend have a number?” He asked.

”Not a public one.” Mira shut down his attempt to contact me. Maybe I should set up another identity? Something like… the Artisan. Or Wright? I could totally custom make gear for people for a nice premium. Hmmm… I’d have to think about it later. 

While Vox did her thing, I discretely edged around the room and did my own. First off, there wasn’t anything of the Aether involved in this as far as I could tell. There were a few things that gave off pings for Aetherial Perception, but they looked like minor enchantments. There didn’t seem to be any spell residue. That was only natural since he was shot, but it didn’t hurt to cross my t’s and dot my i’s.

There was something weird about the scene, though. It took me a few minutes to zero in on what was throwing me off so much. “Hey, check this out. You see the bullet wounds?”

”Yeah?” Mira shuffled over to the corpse and crouched down alongside him. “Oh… there’s no blood.”

”Tch.” I clicked my tongue, and sighed slightly. “Stealing my thunder.”

”Really, Shiro? You have to have thunder to begin with.” Mira leaned closer to his chest, and inspected the bullet wounds. There was a bit of blood ‘course, but nowhere near the amount that there should be after being shot in the chest three times. “Subdermal?”

”He wouldn’t have died then.” ‘Sides, even with subdermal armor, a person would still bleed after a fatal injury that punched through the armor. “Maybe some kind of auto-clot chrome to prevent blood loss?”

”Maybe… how’d he die, then? The shock of being shot?” Mira pointed out the wounds. They were gut shots, so it wasn’t even like his heart exploded after being hit with a bullet. 

“He might’ve been shot after he died,” I muttered. It was a simple solution, though a bit of a weird one. Who would shoot him after his death? What would the purpose even be?

”Hey, Vox could totally scent gunpowder residue, right?” Mira asked. “We can have her scent the suspects. Might be able to find out shooter that way.”

”Good idea.” But if he wasn’t shot to death like I was beginning to suspect, then how’d he die? Old age? “We should run a toxicology test.”

”Can Vox do that too?” Mira glanced back at me.

”Well…” She might be able to, but I didn’t risk contaminating the corpse more than we needed to. It was better off if a professional did it. ‘Sides, the chemical analyzer might not even pick up anything in his blood stream. “We’ll ask Shinobu to run one.”

”How peculiar.” Detective Bradton moved up beside Mira to check the corpse. He whipped out a handkerchief and covered his nose with it. 

“You see it too?” Mira asked.

“Indeed.” He pulled on a pair of gloves, and gently rolled up Elder Toro’s shirt. He’d already been sitting for hours, so most of his flesh on the top half of his body was leached and pale. The bottom half was an ugly purple bruised color. “Livor Mortis has already set in. That fits our timeline. Why—?”

”What is it?” Mira asked when the detective looked up and around the room.

”I’m checking for bullet holes. Do you see any?” He motioned to the corpse. “If he was standing when he was shot, they should’ve exited his back”

“Based on the trajectory of the wounds…” Mira’s halo pulsed vibrantly, and she pointed out three spots around the office. “Should be there, there, and there.”

Detective Bradton nodded several times. “Right, there’s nothing. Did they not go through?”

“It’s not that bizarre.” Seth moved next to the two and likewise crouched down. He didn’t bother with gloves and directly poked at the corpse. “So what? Was probably a small caliber.”

“Maybe.” Mira leaned down further to check the bullet wounds. Her nose scrunched up sharply from the stench wafting off the dead man, though she didn’t pull away. “Looks like… maybe a revolver of some kind? Too big to be a small arms, and too small to be a rifle.”

”You can tell that much from just a bullet wound?” I asked in surprise. Mira was better at this then I thought she’d be. To be fair, she was running her own Troubleshooter agency, so she had to have some skill when it came to checking things out.

”If I had the audio, I could probably tell you the type of gun, too.” Mira said nonchalantly. “I’ve spent too much time in practice ranges.”

“No shit.” Though it was paying off. Not in a way that I would’ve expected, though.

Seth coughed lightly. “They could’ve caught on his chrome. Did ya’ think of that one wise guy? Either of you want to dig the bullets out to check the caliber?”

“Not particularly.” Detective Bradton stood up and moved away from the dead elder. “We should run a toxicology test just in case. I know a guy—“

“The Fang wants to keep this in house.” I spoke up directly to the group for the first time instead of using Mira as my proxy. Shinobu already told me they wanted this discreet. It was nice to see that I was thinking along the same lines as an ex-inquisitor, though. It seemed he also suspected the mode of death was different.

Bradton glanced at me, and nodded his head. “Right, right… Do you have someone that can run a toxicology test quickly?”

I shrugged. They probably had someone. The gang had people all over and in all sorts of occupations. ”Maybe. We can ask Enforcer Shinobu downstairs.”

“Can we move the body?” Seth asked. 

“Um…” I quickly sent a text to Shinobu to ask. His reply came back almost instantaneously. “No. Cleaners are on their way here as we speak to take care of it.”

”That might be an issue,” Bradton said. “If they the body, it’ll ruin a tox report.” 

“I know.” I wasn’t an idiot. It’d be hard to take a toxicology test on a corpse if there was no longer a corpse in the first place. “If there’s nothing else, shall we go down so you can express your concerns?”

”Fine.” Bradton shuffled toward the door. “I’m done here anyway. Either of you still need a look.”

”I’ve been done.” Seth rocked back onto his heels and sighed. “Been waiting on you two. The suspect is pretty obvious, anyway.”

Mira stood up, and moved over to where Vox was sniffing around the safe. She whispered to me, “Shiro, how do I check the readouts?”

”Jack into the access panel on her back.” I walked her through how to get access to Vox’s internals, and then directed her through the process.

Once Mira had everything, she spoke up so the other two investigators could hear her too. “Vox here’s found that only eight people have been in this room over the past couple days. Chances are high it's one of them.”

”How does it know?” Detective Bradton asked. He stared at Vox with a wary and untrusting look in his eyes.

Mira shrugged and picked the metal fox back up. “There’s only eight scent trails. Unless someone somehow managed to totally destroy their scent, which should be impossible, only eight people have been in here.” 

“Yip!” Vox barked lightly as if to back up what Mira said, and then bounded up onto her shoulder. The metal fox stared longingly at me like she missed me, though made no move to get closer.

“I’m good.” Mira nodded to me. “Lead the way, Fang.”

”Really, Mira?” I asked in a whisper, though turned back to the door of the office. I did this to myself by wanting to hide and pretend I was part of the Fang instead of the third investigator. Mira was being quite gracious by taking on my role. “Follow me. They should be waiting just down below.”