The conversation with Lucy Finch had Detective Morse and Emelia agreeing on having the letter revalidated for authenticity first before going to see the Cannon Fodder headquarters.

Obviously, something wasn’t adding up with 669’s implication to Fairy Blossom’s death.

If Lucy was a close confidante to the women, the likely case that at some point 669 would have been mentioned in past conversations would be high. As the letter had indicated that 669 and Fairy Blossom had been at odds on occasion, which followed with his revelation involving Marcus’s death.

Yet, Lucy had been clear that she had never heard of him before. Even 669 himself had implied that he barely knew the woman, other than knowing of her. This made the fact of 669’s innocence on the matter more so. So it begged the question, who actually wrote the letter and for what reason.

“I think we should re-examine this letter at one of the Forensic Labs.” Emelia suggested.

“Agree. I have some suspicions that it was filed before it was tested.” Detective Morse rubbed his chin.

It was a grave matter to suggest his captain was up to something untoward. He personally knew that the man had an anti-henchman bias when it came to certain privileges they had once they could walk around with a mask off. But if his captain was attempting to use the letter as a form of proof to his bias or, Zallayl forbid, political agenda: it went against an honest justice system.

So they made their way back to one of the forensic blocks on the Royal Guard’s office complex. The block was an unmarked slab of a white building that ran seven floors high with no windows. All manner of magical and physical based testing was performed on evidence items to confirm authenticity.

Entering the lab was like stepping into a white room floor, where objects were stored in glass containers neatly stacked on metal shelves around the floor. Working on rows of sterile benches at the floor’s center were white robed men, women and trydolen dogsbodies. Most were heads-down focused on writing reports on their magic notebooks, stocking and categorizing test subjects or analyzing samples under prism lens on tripods. The trydolens were constantly sweeping and cleaning the area to keep it free from contamination.

“Senior Officer Boris.” Detective Morse formally approached a wiry, elderly, man in a full body white robe.

The elderly Officer Boris had been examining a weapon object and taking notes of it at one of the benches when Detective Morse went to approach him.

“Gloves and booties on before you step further.” Officer Boris pointed to the side of the entrance where rows of disposable hand and shoe gloves were stocked on a shelf.

Emelia and Morse nodded and placed a pair over their hands and feet, then approached the man. The Trydolens were busy cleaning up their tracks they had walked previous to their gloves being on.

“How can I help you?” Officer Boris said once they had followed the formality. He sat back from his work to give them his attention.

“I would like to open another authenticity report for this evidence item, which was filed late yesterday by my department.”

“Oh?” Officer Boris frowned as he received the evidence pouch Detective Morse handed him. “Hm, this evidence didn’t pass through my desk. Let me take a look.”

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Detective Morse and Emelia shared a glance with surprise upon hearing it. For they at least trusted their captain to have gone through the due diligence with the evidence.

They watched patiently when the elderly forensic officer placed the letter evidence underneath a prism lens to examine it. After some silent observation of the letter beneath the lens, Officer Boris sat back from the device and evidence to speak his conclusion.

“There is clear evidence that this letter has been doctored.”

He pointed out the telltale watermark signs that gave the inked words a near transparent outline, which showed magical application. Under the physical and even non-trained magical eye, it wouldn’t be evident. But beneath the prism lens, the evidence was clearly drawn out.

“The strongest level of doctoring is seen on the word 669.”

“What else does this letter show?”

“Also the handwriting suggests that the person who wrote this was indeed a male, due to the more blunt edges to the letter tails and inclination to be more slopped and loosely joined. On average women tend to write more neatly and with slight embellishes to font tails.” He held up the letter and further explained, “Although, whoever tampered with the letter was doing their best to mimic a different style of writing. The deeper ink color to the tails’ strokes suggested it was an afterthought awareness.”

Emelia had a thought and pulled out the pay order that 669 had handed her. “Can you tell me the type of person who would’ve written this pay order?”

The elderly forensic soberly accepted the slip and examined it underneath the lens. After some observation he concluded that the likely person would have been a male with aristocratic background but had spent some time in a harsh environment. Possibly in one of the more arid regions of the Dessert Barren Lands.

“And this note from the recently deceased victim, which indicated suicide.”

Senior Officer Boris examined Fairy Blossom’s suicide note. “Hmm, this too is doctored. Although the note was written by a woman, the words killed, regret and the name show impression marks that they were written over something else. However, that something else needs to be examined further. Some magic was at work to cover it up.”

“Let me ask you. Has your department filed these evidence yet?” The elderly officer sat back with a firm frown to his question.

“The suicide note and letter yes. But we re-obtained them to help us validate some recent leads and clues. We assumed due process had been followed.”

The elderly officer showed no reservation at the anger he felt for his department being sideline with this evidence

“Well, I can clearly tell you that due process hasn’t been followed. I will have a word with my department’s management and yours.”

“Thank you.”

“I will need to catalog this slip if this is evidence to your case. And also for these two exhibits that shouldn’t have been filed without our report. They will need to undergo proper evaluation summaries and go through the proper process for evidence filing.” Officer Boris austerely advised them.

“Of course, I’ll leave these exhibits in your care. Thank you, Senior Office Boris.” Detective Morse bowed before the man.

They left the forensic lab with a clear next step. This Simon Miller was starting to prove more involved in the case than they had thought. For starters, it was clear now that he had lied to them about just arriving to the area on the night of his brother’s murder. And there was something odd going on with their department. But for now, they had one action to focus on.

“Now let’s see what this mousy Miller man has to say,” Emelia said, feeling her energies fired up with an urge to grill the man for the truth.