First Reply The Bluebell Murder

[Linny Rennis]

C O R U S C A N T
EVERGAIN APARTMENTS, FLOOR 12, GALACTIC CITY

OOC: Come and help solve a mystery... or be part of it! Whatever you wanna write!

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The spires of Galactic City twinkled in the twilight as the call went out. Just another body, on a world with an endless supply of them. A pretty unusual set of circumstances though, more than just falling down a few levels or a bad collision in the skylanes. An apartment block, home to an endless supply of government clerks and mid-level retail managers, where nothing bad ever seemed to happen.

Until that day, of course.

By the time Linny Rennis, Jedi investigator, had arrived, they'd already cleared some of the floor out and cordoned off the place. It looked like any standard apartment block on the planet to Linny, who'd grown up in one very similar. As the security droid lead her towards the elevator, she noticed the hive of activity around there. The doors'd been left open, letting her look right into the small chamber. Slumped down on the floor was a lifeless body. A Twi'lek male with a glassy look in his dead eyes and a nasty wound on his chest. His shirt was torn, ragged and soaked round the opening. The weirdest part, though? Light twinkled from the wound, bathing the blood and damaged flesh in blues and whites and yellows. A hologram hovered a little ways above the corpse.

A wilted bluebell, swaying slightly as it turned.

Around the body, crime scene specialists gathered whatever they could, taking scans and pictures of the scene. Instantly, Linny's mind was running hot with ideas.

Elevator so could've been on any floor, how many are there in this building? Little blood for a big wound. Holoprojector?

"I'm going to need that projector that's inside the... the... ah... the wound," she said to the officer attending, "I need to touch it." There was a pause, as the officer gave her a slightly disgusted look. "Jedi stuff. Not for fun."

 

[Elias Vati]

How long had it been since Elias was a detective? Well it was back in Corellia, a young snappy detective with a sparkle in his eye looking to make a name for himself in CorSec. Times changed him into a space cowboy who was taking names and catching terrorists like it was no ones business. But he was still a detective at heart and INTERSEC knew he was the guy for this particular case. Why they needed him for this case was on a need-to-know basis. Besides, the rangers didn't have an op for Elias at this time so they decided to send him to this case to see where it was gonna go.

As he approached the apartment building, security droids and Coruscant investigators were already on the scene. Droids were watching the entrance ID-ing people as they walked in. Elias showed the droids his INTERSEC ID. "I'm the special detective sent by the Ministry." Why they sent a ranger and not a marshal was not for them to question but they were told in advance the MOJ was sending someone and after a few seconds of verifying, Elias was let into the building.

Taking the elevator up to the crime scene, Elias saw the investigators exhibiting proactive crime scene investigation. He turned to the room with the body where a young woman was over the body. Clearly she had something to do with solving this case so he walked up to her. "What's all this then?"

 

[Linny Rennis]

Linny observed as one disgusted crime-scene tech went to extract the projector, after making damn well sure they'd got enough scans and images of the undisturbed scene. She didn't make many moves to help out, though, that's not why she was there. Interfere as little as possible and provide your input and advice. That's what they told her. Honestly, though, she was glad for the excuse. Being this close to the actual body was making her stomach twist in knots.

Someone was approaching. A man. Not so much an older one, but older than her for sure. "I think they call it a corpse. I've heard we all turn into one eventually," Linny replied to the rather obvious question, before flashing him a nervous smile. "Padawan Rennis, I'm from the NJO." She held out her hand to shake briefly, before...

"Here's the projector," the scene-tech grunted, placing it in front of her. Linny nodded, kneeling down. The vast amount of the plasteel casing was coated with the victim's blood, but there was just enough for her to touch without smearing it everywhere. She looked up at the man.

"Might be something in the pockets, or coat? I'm going to uh... ask this some questions." Without further explanation, she stripped the glove from her right hand and gently placed a finger on the cleanest part she could find. The second her skin touched the holoprojector and she focused, her eyes were wrenched shut and her jaw set hard.

Shoves, messy shoves and laughs. Lots of fun for whoever. Not here... somewhere close but not here. A bang and a scream and a curl of smoke, so acrid. Joy and elation and sick humour, delighting in the scene they created. A triumphant flash of vengeance as pale fingers shoved the projector deep...

"Bluebell," Linny whispered, the word feeling strange and resonant in the eddies of the Force.

Elias Vati

 

[Elias Vati]

Great. Elias sighed to himself at the girl's quick remark about the corpse. He was stuck with another wisecrack. It was mostly due to his stoic character that he developed throughout most of his career that made him annoyed at her character. But he had to learn to accept this dynamic if the two were going to get to the bottom of this murder case. "Lieutenant Vati. Sector Ranger." The two wouldn't shake hands however as the scene tech provided her with a projector of sorts. After she spent time to examine the hardware, she looked up at him.

"Might be something in the pockets, or coat? I'm going to uh... ask this some questions." Without further explanation, she stripped the glove from her right hand and gently placed a finger on the cleanest part she could find. The second her skin touched the holoprojector and she focused, her eyes were wrenched shut and her jaw set hard.

This was getting a bit too much for Elias to handle. Looking around the room he saw a couple of Coruscanti detectives in the corner going over a data pad. Looking to get a little insight into this case, Elias approached the two. "Lieutenant Elias Vati, Sector Ranger was hoping to get some info on our victim." The detectives weren't as forthcoming to Elias as they stared at each other before staring back at him. "Whadaya need to know?" Said the one who towered 2 inches over Elias. "Would like to know the name of the victim and what he did. Job, hobbies, that kind of thing."

"Ad'fortta. He worked at the district administration building. Some of his neighbors are his co-workers."

"He have good relations with them?"

"Testimonies say yeah. They saw each other everyday. They all seemed perplexed when they heard he was dead."

"When was he murdered?"

"Still haven't figured that out yet. No one even knew he was dead. A bit too bizarre but considering how he died, guess all we can accept is bizarre."

"Mhm sure. Think I have enough. As you both were." Elias turned back and walked to the padawan to see what she was up to you. Cause it was some force ritual she was performing. He didn't know he didn't spend much time around Jedi.

Shoves, messy shoves and laughs. Lots of fun for whoever. Not here... somewhere close but not here. A bang and a scream and a curl of smoke, so acrid. Joy and elation and sick humour, delighting in the scene they created. A triumphant flash of vengeance as pale fingers shoved the projector deep...

"Bluebell," Linny whispered, the word feeling strange and resonant in the eddies of the Force.

Elias Vati

He looked at the padawan as if she had just come to a realization. "Did you see something?" He asked, interested piqued.

 

[Linny Rennis]

Linny stood up and brushed her fingers against her front, feeling strange and unclean. Poking around in people's residual emotions and leavings in the Force made her feel dirty sometimes, particularly when it involved touching things that'd been... inserted into gaping wounds.

"Not seen, felt," she explained quickly, fingers flexing, knuckles turning white for a second as she tensed them up. "Psychometry. Picking up residual emotions left behind in the Force. Whoever did this enjoyed it a whole lot." Linny's lips pursed together as she remembered that feeling washing through her. "They knew the victim and they wanted them dead. I... I think they were killed in the building, definitely somewhere close. And the bluebell..."

There'd been something about the word 'bluebell' that'd been weaved into everything. Coiled around every moment and feeling and recollection; a soft whisper on the edge of everything else. "I'm not sure. It's something that was very important to the killer." Her eyes flicked over to where the projector had been, hovering the bluebell image over the corpse. "I mean, if that wasn't obvious already."

Already, ideas were formulating in her head. Was the bluebell a message from a group? Say, organised crime? Seemed a little too 'soft' for something like that, but she was a Jedi so what would she know? Was it a statement? A religious thing? The calling card of a new serial killer?

Or have I just been reading too many trashy noir books?

"They said he lived here, right? We could get access to his apartment, couldn't we? Might be something bluebell-y there. Maybe it's where he was murdered," Linny suggested, "you can get access to his records through the Ranger servers, right? Might have something in his history?" The Jedi networks wouldn't let her access much confidential information. Just one more reason to prove herself and get actual CorSec access.

Elias Vati

 

[Elias Vati]

Bluebell?

The word rang in his head for a few seconds and he sounded out the word in his head until he can trigger some sort of memory and after a few dozen repetitions he did remember back in the days of the High Republic when the Sector Rangers were reinstated. But that seemed more of dead end case after Unity Day when the Sector Rangers went over a complete overhaul. "I do remember something about bluebell being referenced in an old Sector Ranger case file a few years ago. I have someone let me call you." Walking off to the side, Elias went on his wrist comm. "Cerana? I need you to do some digging. See if you can find any files on Bluebell."

"Uhh I guess? I'll let you know if I find something."

"Thanks. Elias out." He returned to the padawan, "I have someone at Ranger HQ looking into it. Though given what you said about one of these apartments having something to do with 'bluebell.' We might not need much." Elias walked over to the inspector who was overlooking the crime scene, giving instructions to security droids before directing his attention to the lieutenant. "Can I help you?" He asked snobbishly.

"We have records on all the residents living in this complex right?"

"Yes? Why do you ask?"

"Are any of the apartments empty?"

"Just one on the 15th floor. Property manager's been trying to sell it for a few months now."

"Are there any details on the previous owner of that apartment?"

"Not really. Property manager said they never really interacted with anyone in the building. Then one day they upped and sold the apartment. DIdn't even ask for movers or anything. Just vanished."

"Was there anyone who knew him while he was living here? A resident who's still here?"

"There's one woman who lived here for a year or two. Lived across from the previous resident."

"We need to talk to her. And afterwards we're going to need access to the apartment."

The inspector felt as though Elias was making him do work than he needed. But he was a Fed, Elias easily trumped him even though they were relatively the same rank. He sighed. "I'll let him know you're gonna do a search. If he says no, no promises I can convince him."

"We'll figure it out." Elias then walked over to the padawan, let her know that they had something to go off. "We have a potential lead. Might have something to do with our bluebell murderer. Could use your jedi intuition for some questioning."

Linny Rennis