This was a crisis and I'm not talking about the dead body, well that's a problem too. We went back to the second floor to report what had happened but Engie had decided not to leave the body behind and carried it all the way back. Of course all the cultists than saw it and immediately freaked the hell out. Now we're trying to do our best to calm them down.

"W-what happened to Mary?" A cultist tried to get a look at the body but was pulled back by Miley. Catherine had put a garbage bag over it which might not have been the best choice.

"The veil between life and death is so easily pierced..." Sam commented, she didn't help with the situation.

Everyone was kicked into a frenzy wondering what happened and we really didn't have any good answers.

"Why'd you bring the body back?" I asked Engie.

"I thought that she... I don't know... everyone needed to know..." She replied while looking down.

"You could've just told them that she was dead, you didn't have to bring the fucking body up here!" Miley circled in her spot.

Something about this didn't sit right with me, everything about this was screaming MURDER but the problem is what reason would someone have to kill Mary? I think I've seen an anime about this exact situation. No wait I didn't, but I did watch some detective shows.

"Miley I have an idea." I managed to get her attention and pointed to myself. "Put me on this case."

"What? Why?" Miley glared at me.

"Because if I solve it everyone's attention will be on the killer and things will calm down."

"You sure about that?" She sighed. "Things can't get any worse so whatever, go ahead."

This was my time to shine! I've no passion for the battlefield, my true talents lie in finding the truth! Or at least I hope it is. I walked up to where Annie was holding back the crowd and announced my presence to them.

"Hello, have no fear for Detective Silver is on the hunt!"

The crowd looks at me with confusion, maybe they didn't get the reference... At least they settled down, I need to take this moment to explain what's happening before they start getting antsy again.

"Many of you are wondering about Mary's unfortunate demise but rest assured I will figure it out." I thrust my hand forward and stomped my foot at the crowd startling them. "There is a killer amongst you!"

They exploded with noise as they discussed what I just said, some even ran up to me and asked me to explain myself. I should've saved 'rest assured' for the end.

"How can you be so sure that it was a murder?" The small cultist casually pushed through the crowd. "Maybe it was suicide?"

"Oh yeah it's totally suicide that's the only explanation to the 10 stab wounds, 7 of which are in the back." Miley said.

"What's your name? I need to get a list of people." I pointed at the cultist.

With that list I will try to narrow it down by looking at each suspect's alibi, I feel like I'm forgetting something important but I'm sure I'll remember it when I get to it.

"Me? I'm Sav- annah. Savannah."

"Strange... to be named after an ecosystem."

"Look who's talking, metal girl."

Hurting my feelings won't make me think someone's more suspicious than others, I must try to take an unbiased stance in this matter. I started forming the list by memorizing everyone's names.

"Ms. Silver," Paul spoke up. "I don't mean to be rude but why do you think you're fit to lead this investigation? You are as much of a suspect as any of us."

"I don't think so. I spent the entire night in my room, I can also vouch for Sam cause she was with me. And this morning I've only been to the northern and western section of the base, the body was located at east side. I'm probably the least suspicious person here."

That's right! You also got me to back you up, I saw you spending all night watching garbage.

You! It's not your turn to be out yet so be a good roommate and stay in your room!

Hey I'm just trying to help, you always asked me for help when things get rough right?

Yeah when I needed brute force to solve something! You're not exactly the brightest AI in this head.

"Catherine's back." A slap to my shoulder brought me back to reality.

"Nothing." Catherine scratched her head in frustration. "Someone keeps messing with our surveillance stuff, I checked the monitoring room and someone's smashed it up."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"What? That's just great..." Haven sat down next to a wall.

We don't have the cameras anymore but this won't stop me, we need an ace detective more than ever now. The one bright side to this is that it reinforce the idea that there is a killer out there if someone went out of their way to destroy the monitoring room.

"Why should we believe that you didn't destroy it yourself? You were just down there." Paul said.

"Why would I do that? Do you think I'm the killer?" Catherine fought back against the allegation.

"Catherine and Miley had no previous interactions with the victim and they are soldiers. They have no actual motives for going after the human girl." They just didn't have time to get to know most of the cultists since they were screwing around and it's not because I know them but they're probably the least suspicious after me and Sam. "Engie and Annie are also off the list since they both spent the entire time in the medbay guarding the hostage."

Come on isn't it obvious? We have a US soldier here who broke out!

The voice rang in my head, even though she was obnoxious she was also correct.

Don't act like I can't hear your inner thoughts!

"The one thing that stands out to me is the hostage, Sweeper." I pointed her out of the crowd. "You were found in the eastern section of the base and would have plenty of reasons to kill her!"

"Me? I didn't hurt, much less kill anyone!" The suspect usually complains about getting picked out but it was up to me to decide whether the complaint was a cover-up or not.

"Why wouldn't you? You were ready to kill everyone during that basketball game." Doogledert pointed out.

"And if you were tryin' to escape and poor Mary found ya, well... we know how that would end up." Bill added.

"No, we don't know how that would ended up because I didn't do anything to her. I didn't even see her!"

"That just makes it sound fine and dandy for you, doesn't it?" Miley also joined in on the public shaming.

"It doesn't make sense for an android to kill a human with a knife, we- she could easily do it with her bare hands!" Savannah stepped up to bat for Sweeper. "And if they did need a knife, 10 stab wounds is some sloppy work Corpor- I mean just Sweeper."

Now that I think about it, there were other options that are faster and quieter than stabbing someone. If Sweeper really wanted to stay hidden she would've chosen another option to take out Mary.

Yes but what if it was her only option?

Savannah's right though, she could've crushed her neck instead of sloppily poking holes in her. Something doesn't feel right. Something was missing.

Urgh... just kill her. If anyone else gets killed then just say it was my bad.

I'm ignoring you.

"Detective, shouldn't you have reined in these people before they started their dogpile?" A calm voice came from the cultist standing next to Savannah. "We need more evidence before we can start punishing the suspect."

"Yeah! Listen to her! Why don't you check for the time of death and if it doesn't match the timeframe that I escaped than that would mean I'm innocent!" Sweeper insisted.

RIGHT! That was what I was missing. The time of death, that certainly is something important to know. She was still alive when Miley and the others got back, so she must have gotten killed between the time I've went to my room and when Sweeper escaped.

Do you have any idea on how to figure out the time of death? Touching her won't magically give you a number you know.

"Engie can you figure out when she died?" She was hiding behind Annie when I asked her.

"I'm... an engineer not a doctor... or anything remotely close to an expert on the human body." Engie explained.

"The body is currently going through rigor mortis. It takes a few hours for it to take effect once the person dies." The calm-voice cultist had flipped over the garbage bag, revealing the body.

The crowd started to get restless due to the presence of the body. There were a couple that were upset with the other cultist for messing around with the dead, I guess that's some sort of taboo in their religion. Though I guess messing with the dead is a big no-no with most human cultures.

"That means I'm innocent right? I escaped recently and she's been dead for a few hours, I couldn't have been the one to kill her!" Sweeper smiled as she excitedly proclaimed her innocence. It was probably not the right time to do that...

"I didn't catch your name earlier what was it?" I walked up to the person inspecting the body while Sweeper and the cultists were having some sort of screaming match.

"... I'm Rapunzel..." She said quietly, I tried to get a good look at her face but the hood covered it. "And I happen to be an expert on death related subjects, would you let me examine this body further? I would be able to estimate the time of death more exactly given more time with it."

I nodded and gave her the go ahead. Knowing when she died could be the lead that we need now that we lost one of our top suspects.

"She was... rigid when I carried her up..." Engie had a sorrowful look on her face as she stared at the body.

I needed more resolve in order to solve this. There was still a list of people that I'm suspicious of.

"Alright another person is off the list, Sweeper was under careful watch from Annie and Engie and when she did escape it was after the victim had died." I walked around the room as I gave my explanation of the situation.

"HEY!!!!! IS EVERYONE STILL THERE YOU'VE BEEN QUIET FOR A WHILE NOW!!!" Someone was shouting loudly from outside.

"Oh for the love of..." Miley ran up to the window. "We're busy at the moment, we'll get back to you!"

"I'm not sure thats how a hostage negotiation is suppose to work..." I heard Guard say. "Also I think Dealer fell asleep. She's in the jeep, do you wanna have me check in on her?"

"What am I your mom? I don't care if she's asleep or dead, we're currently doing something important so... fuck off for a bit." Miley closed the window before heading back to the group.

"I just finished inspecting the body." Rapunzel stood up after she covered the body with the garbage bag again.

"Woah that was fast." Catherine remarked.

"I'm a professional. I estimate that she's been dead since..." She looked at the clock hanging on the wall. "Around 9:00 pm yesterday."

She's been dead for that long? Wait... the surveillance system was working fine when the US soldiers arrived so when was the monitor room smashed up? I can worry about that later I need to check on what everyone was doing at 9:00 pm.

Maybe they thought about messing the room up but they didn't have the nerve to do it until those US idiots started a commotion.

That could be the case... wait... I was ignoring you.

"Alright everyone lineup!" I clapped to get the crowd's attention. "I'll do a detailed search of what you were doing last night and just because you have a good alibi doesn't mean your off the hook yet."

Things were winding up and any new info could cause a major shift but one thing is clear, there's a killer out here. Well... not a soldier type of killer but a people type of killer, a killer that kills citizens... we don't know if Mary was a legal citizen so maybe they killed her because of that?

She was K I L L E D. Please leave it at that... this is why we never get anything done...