Investigation

"You called for me?" Bohdan asked as he entered the security office.

"We need your help with a bit of a sensitive matter," Derek began. "So, we need you to keep this to yourself for the time being."

"Sure, I will try to help. Please, explain." Bohdan agreed.

"A body turned up in the trash going to the incinerator, and we need some help with the investigative process," Tom explained.

"I'm not detective, but I will try. What do you need me to do?" Bohdan asked in his thick Ukrainian accent.

"Do you have any spells that might help with communicating with the dead? We've seen it done in games, but not sure it correlates to this world. Or anything that might help us see what happened?" Derek asked.

"I think there is a spell for that. I do not currently have it, but I can check vending machine to see if it is available. Other option would be detect magic to see if that was cause of death too, or was involved. This spell I have. Very handy for magic traps." Bohdan explained.

"Great! Please go see if you can acquire that spell. We will start our investigation as well. Brian, where is the scavenger team that Jared was a part of?" Tom continued.

"They're out in the field right now. They should return in the next couple of hours. We can talk to them when they return." Brian informed the people present.

"Okay, for now, show me where the body was found. Maybe there are some clues. We didn't incinerate everything else, did we?" Tom asked.

"No, we shut it down until we could figure out what to do," Brian replied.

"Perfect, lead the way,"

Heading first out of the security office, Brian led the group, minus Bohdan who split off to check the vending machine for spells, out the front door of the building. Walking around the side of the building to the area behind the Trammel Crow Center, they came upon a mountain of trash that was sitting in a pile next to a structure that looked like a giant pizza oven. A single guard was standing watch over the garbage to ensure that it was not interfered with.

"This is the pile it was found in. We have a mage who specializes in fire magic and helps with the disposal of the waste to keep sanitation standards in the guild. Ash is far easier to get rid of than this junk, and since we don't have a dump to send it to, this was the simplest solution." Brian explained as he stepped aside to let the others look around.

"What about things that won't melt?" Tom asked.

"With the fire used, there isn't much of that. Most of it would be metal, and we don't consider that waste. It's recycled by Roland for use in building things for the guild." Brian replied.

"You all think of everything," Tom said in amazement.

"No, I hear about everything and then have to figure out how to fix it. This was just one of those decisions that didn't require your input. The solution was simple, so we implemented it." Brian said though he bowed his head at the praise.

Tom looked around at the garbage piled up, and a feeling of dread came over him, "This is going to take forever. I guess we should get started."

"I have to get back to patients. Let me know if you find anything, and I'll look at the evidence." Rebecca said, smiling as she turned to return to the building.

"Well, that's convenient," James grumbled as he watched her leave.

"If you had skills that valuable, we'd let you go too. Now, shut the hell up and get to digging." Jay said to James.

As the team began to sift through the garbage, Brian left the group for a bit and returned a short time later with gloves for everyone, "These should make digging through this more palatable."

Eagerly accepting the work gloves, the team went back to searching with less of the gross factor. They spent hours looking through everything to see if there were any clues. When the evening was nearing and the sun was beginning to set, the team finally finished going through everything and sorted the refuse into two piles: one holding garbage to be burned and the other holding items that might have been related to the murder.

"This is terrible. There's so much in here that had DNA on it that we can't figure out what to use." Tom said as he stared at their much smaller pile of items that could be helpful.

"Not to mention DNA testing won't do us any good even if we could do it because we don't have anything to compare it to except the dead guy," Brian commented.

"All of my Law and Order powers are being wasted here because we don't have the right equipment and testing," James commented.

"There are other ways of doing detective work, you know," Jay replied to James.

"What? How? That sounds stupid." James said.

"Clues can be specific to one person or something that leads to an answer without needing to be tested. Now, let's see. We have some cans that shouldn't be here. One has blood on it, so it may have been mixed with the body. The parts were wrapped in this blanket. But they aren't the normal blankets we use here in the guild for bedding. That means it had to come from outside the guild. Which makes sense for a scavenger. Maybe one of his buddies had a disagreement with him?" Tom said as he mused over the items they had found.

"That seems like a possibility. The papers that were with it don't actually seem to be important. They just have the victim's blood on them. But we should keep them and read over the contents to be sure." Derek added.

"What about this?" TJ asked, holding up a single flower.

"It's a flower," James said dismissively.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"But it's the only one. There aren't any flowers anywhere else here." TJ argued.

"You think someone left it for the deceased?" Tom asked.

"No idea, but it's not something that grows around here," TJ replied.

"How do you know that?" Derek asked.

"It was my mom's favorite flower, Delphinium. They look a little like Blue Bonnets, but they grow best in cooler climates. Texas is too hot. Whoever left this likely thought it was a blue bonnet and didn't think about it." TJ replied, holding the flower out to Derek to inspect.

"Maybe they felt remorse for what they did. Where would they get it?" Tom asked.

"No idea, but it feels like something else that might point to a scavenger being out and about," TJ said.

"That isn't necessarily the case. Plenty of people have to leave the compound to get supplies or go on runs. That doesn't exactly narrow it down too much." Brian added.

"But it's still alive, so we can narrow down the time they left to pretty recently. Otherwise, it would show signs of drying out," TJ said.

"I think it's time we went to talk with the scavenging team," Tom decided as he turned to head back to the building. "Bag up all the things we found and take them to Rebecca. Maybe she can tie some of it to the body. Brian, you come with me to meet the scavengers. The rest of you, go interview people you think might know more about these items and we can meet up to compare notes."

A short time later, Tom was at the garage where the Scavengers parked their vehicles. The team was busy unloading the valuable items and setting them on carts to be pushed inside.

"Phil? This is Tom, you may have met him before, but we have some questions to ask you." Brian said as they approached one of the men unloading items.

"Yeah, Tom, I know you. Well, mostly by reputation, but I'm grateful for what you're doing here. Before this, I was just some shmuck out intimidating people. I think you met my former employer in Albuquerque." Phil said as he reached a hand out to shake Tom's.

"Oh, yeah. You were a part of the cult?" Tom asked.

"Sure was. Unfortunate, really. I hated that job, but with the apocalypse, the job market is kinda shit." Phil chuckled.

"I'm glad you found something better to do. But I'm here about Jared." Tom said, finally just coming out with it.

"Ah. Yeah, that was terrible to hear about. Poor bastard didn't deserve that. He was a good guy. Sure, he had some troubles, but nothing the rest of us haven't seen or done. You know what happened yet?" Phil asked.

"Not yet, but that's why we're here. Did Jared have anyone he didn't get along with? Enemies, maybe?" Tom asked.

"Not that I'm aware of. He was a bit of a meathead, you know? Sometimes argued with people, but not anything that stuck out." Phil replied.

"Was he seeing anyone? Maybe a girlfriend?" Tom pressed.

"Not that I know of, but he didn't talk much to me. Maybe Anabelle will know more. She talks to everyone." Phil said as he continued to unload some large pieces of copper from the bed of a truck.

"Okay, thanks, Phil. We'll let you know if we have any more questions." Tom said as he patted the man on the shoulder and moved to the next truck int he garage.

This one was being unloaded by a woman. She was well-muscled, so she clearly put some points into Strength. She was unloading pipes from the back of her truck and placing them on the same kind of cart Phil had been.

"Are you Annabelle?" Tom asked as they approached.

"Yeah. Who are you?" Anabelle asked.

"I'm Tom, the guild leader. I'm here about what happened to Jared." Tom said to her.

"You don't think I had anything to do with that, do you?" Anabelle said slamming a pipe down on the cart as she looked at Tom with frustration.

"I don't know, did you?" Tom asked.

"Hell, no. Jared was a good guy. Always helped me out when I needed him when we were out scavenging. He wouldn't hurt a fly." Anabelle replied.

"Funny thing to say in a world where we are constantly under attack from monsters and have to defend ourselves," Brian added from behind Tom.

"Yeah? Well, we didn't do that kind of fighting. Left that to the idiots who go charging into battle. I'm not about to get myself killed for some of the shit we find out there." Anabelle replied, clear that her annoyance was rising.

"Jared have any enemies you knew about? Maybe a girlfriend?" Tom asked.

"He wasn't fond of Phil. They were always arguing about who found what. I told 'em it wasn't worth it as there's plenty of trash for all of us, but Phil always has to have the best stuff." Anabelle replied, reaching into the truck bed for another pipe.

"Phil? He said they didn't talk much." Tom replied, now confused.

"He say that? I guess they didn't talk much. It was mostly arguing. That prick can shove it. I stay out of the way because I don't really care that much. I got three hots and a cot for bringing this stuff back, and I'm not about to ruin that in this world." Anabelle said.

"So, you just mind your own business out there all the time? Stay away from everyone and do your own thing?" Tom asked.

"Look, I talked to Jared. He was a good guy. He didn't deserve to get killed. I kinda liked him. But he said he was seeing someone else. Can't blame the girl for going after him." Anabelle replied.

"You know who the girl was?" Tom asked.

"Don't know her name. Didn't want to know it. All he said was he was starting to see someone and really liked her. I was just hoping it didn't work out."

"Anything else you can think of? Something odd that happened right before the murder?" Tom asked.

"Nothing comes to mind right away. If I think of anything, I can let you know, though." Anabell said, finally stopping and putting her hands on her hips.

"Thanks, Anabelle," Tom said to her, giving her a smile as they turned to leave.

"So, Phil had more interactions with Jared than he let on. I can see why he'd want to keep that hidden. And a possible girlfriend?" Tom said to Brian.

"There are some others we can interview as well. Let's see what they have to say about what happened to Jared. And maybe the others will have more luck with the people they are interviewing."