Evidence to Light [Redgrim]

Lilly stood outside the police station. The police officer had told her to come here as soon as she could, and that was what she was doing. She had run though the events several times on her way down here from the school, making sure there were no gaps in her memory.

If she was making the case to stop an innocent guy being prosecuted, she sure wanted it to be thorough. She took a deep breath, and before she could stop herself, walked into the police station.

Lilly had no idea how this was meant to be run. She had never been in a police station before, at least, not to her recollection, which was probably a good thing. She headed over to a desk, where a police officer was sitting. She coughed, trying to get his attention, which was currently addressed to a telephone.

It took a few minutes before he looked up, although not very far up, and saw the small girl on the other side.

“Excuse me, I’m here to see Officer Demostrate about a case. About the death of a girl at the school. She told me to come to give evidence.”

Tem’s work station was fairly plain, she had to admit. Some of her coworkers posted pictures of their family or funny little comic strips, but hers was pretty bare. To be fair though, she was almost never behind her desk anyway. Only when things were slow she would be found behind her desk. She sat very pensively, though had very little on her mind. The times where she’d have nothing to do at work reminded her of when she was guarding her tomb, though she’d spend less than two thousand years waiting at her desk so that was a bonus. She occupied her time with forming her arm into a variety of structures, being quite content with sitting there for the next eternity. Her phone buzzed however and the incoming notification from the front desk got her moving once more.

As she made her way down to meet with the sole witness she found in that school, she returned her arm to a more human-like one. Despite her size Lilly was very easy to spot. The Amazonian of a woman approached the tiny student, her appearance shouldn’t be all that recognisable since she was in Miller’s skin the last time they met. She should probably make it known that she was the officer Lilly was looking for.

“Officer Tem Demostrate, let’s take a walk to my office” she spoke plainly before she turned away and began to walk off, expecting the girl to follow. It was about time skulking around the school paid off.

Lilly watched as the officer contacted her acquaintance. The officer sounded as bored as he looked. It didn't take long before there was action from nearby.

Lilly looked up as a large woman walked into the entrance area. She seemed enormous, which made Lilly feel even smaller than she did already.

She couldn't recognize this person by appearance, so she turned to her other senses. That didn't really help, as this woman, although discernible, at least as non-human, she was too unfamiliar with the scent to recognize her like that either.

However, the woman seemed to know her by sight. They must have met.

When she introduced herself, Lily frowned, unbelieving, for a second. In their prior encounter, Demostrate had manipulated her shape both frequently and impressively. Against having a hollow interior for storage, having a completely different form seemed very possible. Hadn't she mentioned the difficulty to copy Miller’s appearance?

Lilly nodded slowly. It was strange, but around here, shape shifting oreads who one minute appear as men and the next as women was comparatively mundane.

”Okay.” The officer turned almost as soon as she had introduced herself, and started walking off. Lilly got the hint, and headed after although her shorter legs meant she struggled to match pace. ”How does this start then? Is it just you asking questions about the case, or do I start recapping from the beginning?”

Tem had nearly forgotten how short Lilly was, but that could be because of the slight height difference between her and Miller. During the time he was 6’3 and Tem’s human form is about an inch taller but sometimes an inch made all the difference. Anyway, their walk was short lived since her office wasn’t too far from the entrance. The closet-like space that was her office was pretty easy to get an eyeful of since there was hardly anything to observe. A simple mahogany desk clear of clutter, a set of three chairs, and a filing cabinet in the back with fish tank atop of it, though there was a scorpion inside it instead of fish. She increased the length of her legs momentarily so that she could walk over her desk instead of going around it.

“We don’t exactly have a full description of how things played out. You provided a few points and key events, but some officials need the whole story or at least as much information as possible. Basically I just need you to go through everything that happened first and I’ll just ask questions later” she explained easily as she set herself into her chair. She pointed at the seat at the opposite end of the table for the girl to settle herself in.

Tem was never the best officer for the job when it came to questioning, but given that this girl wasn’t a criminal and had no reason to hide evidence it wouldn’t be too difficult on her. Difficulty wasn’t really the issue though, she was more of the punchy type when it came to questioning which was probably why she was left out of such things. Besides, it didn’t exactly win her any points around the station but that was beside the point.

“It won’t take up too much of your time, anything we’ve recorded before won’t be asked again.” Taking up Lilly’s time wasn’t exactly an aspect that Tem truly cared about, but she had to play nice cop for the time being.

[OOC: You don't have to do a recap of the events, we could easily just time skip that part and move on to the questioning]

Lilly followed Officer Demostrate into the office. The room was small, and Lilly’s eyes quickly took it all in, and then landed on the tank with its scorpion. Somehow that made her uneasy. She knew the woman in front of her wasn’t exactly human, yet appeared to be, and it felt odd that what would normally appear to be for fish actually contained something else. It was like some twisted reflection of herself.

Lilly’s jaw dropped as the officer strode over the desk. She made the effort to hide her surprise before it could be observed.

Lilly had only really given tiny pieces of information before, so it made sense they wanted a full account, but it was still annoying that the police force seemed to find it so hard to accept that Miller didn’t willingly kill the girl. It sounded like more people were going to be brought in afterwards for the questioning.

Lilly nodded slightly after the Officer’s statement.

“It started when I went to the library for new books. My English teacher had been telling me to read, so it was only natural. I was looking for some when I heard voices”. She continued her account from when she had found Miller and the girl in as much detail as she could remember. She spared the exact details when it came to the wounds, as she knew that the officer already knew them and she didn't want to recall the memories of them if she could help it.

She couldn’t remember everything perfectly, but she did her best to recount all the details.

”Is that okay?” Lilly asked, more stating that was all she had to say than that she wanted an answer.

Tem pulled out a tape recorder from her desk drawer and placed it on its top right in between the two of them. It’d be far easier and less grueling on herself to jot down her every word like the last time they had to do this. Besides there was more legitimacy when the words came directly from the witness. In addition, it gave her more time to think about questions to ask and pick out anything from her end of the story that may seem out of place. A case may seem somewhat one-sided when there was only one witness, but there was no other way to know what had happened since there was little to no information on any of the people involved in the conflict. Especially when Francis Miller was so opposed to speaking about either one of them.

She nodded as Lilly awaited for her approval. The key components of their last conversation matched up fairly nicely, so it was more than likely that the woman was speaking the truth. Not that Tem had any concerns about that, she seemed as though she was trustworthy. “The damages seem to be accurate, fallen bookcases, broken shelves, the grooves in the floor. That’s good for now at least” she spoke easily as she leaned back into the conversation now that she could interject her own questions.

“So you didn’t know either of them before then, if I recall correctly. Did you manage to catch anything they said before you arrived to the scene? Miller’s past records have shown that he had been involved with destruction of school property in the past, though usually it involved another two students. Did he seem like he was rage filled at any moment in time? Did he ever lash out when he wasn’t being controlled by Margaret?”

Lilly didn't like seeing the tape recorder there. She knew its purpose but something about it made her nervous. It was probably that everything could be recorded- even if she made a mistake or accidentally said something wrong. Lilly did her best to hide this.

”I think it would be hard to come up with much else that fit the damage. I think that’s enough proof that I’m trying to be helpful” The officer’s first comment reassured Lilly. However the words “For now” reversed this straight away.

”No.” She still hadn't met many people, so she certainly would have remembered seeing such distinctive individuals before. ”They seemed to be arguing. I can’t remember exactly what they said, but it was definitely arguing. To be honest, I didn't really understand what they meant. It was hardly surprising that Miller had been involved in other damages. Having blades for arms may lead to quite a lot of damage to school property over time. ”Most of the time, I think. Or maybe that was just my anger reflected? I don’t know. But he didn't seem that angry at her given the circumstances.”

Lilly considered for a few seconds. She fiddled with a small strand of hair before tucking it back behind her ear, trying to cover her thinking. ”I don’t think so. I don’t know when she took control so I can’t be certain, but I was sure that he wasn't controlling it when he actually hurt Margaret and myself.” She tried to pinpoint what had convinced her. ”I doubt a killer would have looked the same as that. Emotions wise.”

The questions that Tem had been putting out were not quite the kind that she was particularly curious about, but they were necessary ground work that needed to be recorded. Covering all bases would be preferable in this case and it’d be better to have such statements on record than to not have them at all. There were a couple things that Miller’s attorney needed to have in order to serve as a backbone to their side of the case.

“Given what we know about Margaret so far, it wouldn’t seem out of place that she would commit suicide. She basically secluded herself from the world for about three years and she probably had raging headaches given the state we found her head in. Framing Miller and killing herself might have been a win-win situation under the circumstances, although her final statement somewhat conflicts with that. Either way, Miller was probably not the one that was in control during the time of death.”

“And you’ve never seen Miller since then, correct? You wouldn’t necessarily know anything about him on a personal level would you? The same for Margaret as well?” she questioned as neatened her seating slightly. Margaret at least had her mother that could vouch for her whereas Miller didn’t have too many people who could speak on his behalf. There were plenty of people around the school who could say they saw him before, but there weren’t many who could say they knew anything about him. Naturally given his appearance most were afraid of him and didn’t feel comfortable around him, so it didn’t help that he was accused of murder. “You still haven’t seen him around have you?”

This officer seemed to be extremely logical. She didn’t seem emotionally invested at all, but then again, she wasn’t really human so that made sense. Lilly wondered if this case really meant that much to her. Officer Demostrate seemed ancient. To her would the students be like insects, tiny and temporary? Lilly shook her head slightly. It didn’t matter, although somehow Lilly felt she’d had that feeling.

”I think none of what she was saying really made sense.” She’d been talking like killing could be justified, which Lilly would certainly struggle to do.

”You should have seen how shook up he was after. I do not believe he could have done that intentionally.” He’d been shaking like some small animal. For a guy with a blade attached to his arm, he was ironically squeamish.

”Well, I don’t think so. I mean, the only time I remember was actually you.” She thought she’d seen a guy of about the same stature a few times but her other senses had never agreed with that. ”No. Only that he was created not born, and that’s not very helpful. And I know she was a messed up piece of work but…nothing else.” Lilly felt she was being unhelpful to the investigation now. These were pretty important questions which she had no idea the answer to. What a witness she made.

”I don’t think so. He’s probably staying on the down-low.” She had been trying to do that too, although more unsuccessfully- she had been found after all.

With each step forward they took there was eventually another wall in their way. Tem didn’t exactly enjoy that prospect, but being that the case had very little to work off of it was inevitable to happen. The girl didn’t know much, she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and that’s all it boiled down to, so any questions regarding anything outside of the occurrence itself would be absolutely worthless.

“Well, true enough. No one really does make sense when in a state of hysteria, the pain she was feeling probably didn’t help her think rationally either.” Knowledge she took from personal experience no doubt. “That does fit though, most people that have seen Miller say he usually has a frightened expression of some kind, that and he’s highly curious of most things, but beside the point.”

“Born and not created, that leads us straight back to his possible creator, Margaret’s father. During the progression of the fight, did Margaret ever mention who created him for certain or has it only been suggested. It’s hardly a coincidence that the only name he goes by is both the last name of Margaret and her father, but it is a common surname. I just want a concrete answer because we can’t go barking up his door without good reason. Even then it’s hard to say if we’ll get any clearance.” The golem really didn’t like that the father was being so uncooperative, everything led back to him and without his participation they’d have to play this case the hard way. It was within his rights to not say anything, which only cemented Tem’s hatred for some of the laws put in place by the humans. She couldn’t just ransack the guy’s place herself either since it was so far away and so difficult to get to.

Lilly had answers to so little of what was being asked it almost scared her. Was she meant to know this? Was she just that bad a witness?

It surprised Lilly a little that Miller would mostly seem frightened. What did he have to fear, anyway? From what Lilly had seen he seemed to have some form of protection around his body as well as the blade. That just seemed weird.

”She must have been in a lot of pain though, to be like that. She was a long way beyond rational.” Lilly knew the officer had described something that sounded incurable by painkillers, but surely anyone would turn to a medic before a murder. She suspected Margaret had never been completely there to start with.

“Born and not created.” Lilly remembered that being said. As if that was justification for what Margaret had wanted to do.

”I don’t recall her specifying, but she hinted very heavily she knew who it was. I think the chances of having that knowledge outweigh the chances of having a name, don’t you?”Lilly considered for a second before she spoke. ”Surely you could get a search permit? I know the law is dumb, but this is about a death, surely there’s a way to search it.” Lilly was talking to an officer though- she probably knew about it and had tried already. ”There’s enough evidence to put him in jail for breaking human rights, isn’t there? I mean, you can’t just create humans, particularly humans with giant blades for arms. I know it’s out of the law but if needs must I don’t see why that couldn’t be used to your advantage.” She smiled slightly, a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. ”That’d open him up.”

Tem nodded along with Lilly’s statements, most weren’t exactly regarding the questions she proposed, but the officer lacked many to keep her occupied with. There wasn’t much left for her to elaborate on anyway, she gave the entire events of the crime and since she wasn’t involved with any of the suspects before or after the case there wasn’t much else to go off of. As much as the golem would like to squeeze out as much information out of their sole witness, there was little to absorb.

“True enough, but lack of clarity is exactly what the prosecutors will dig at, come court time. Some law enforcers will go to great lengths to make us seem wrong or misinformed. Given that there isn’t much information already, they have a huge advantage as it is” she spoke, her tone seeming somewhat annoyed. “The problem isn’t making me believe, its making the skeptics believe.”

“As for the search warrant, on most cases it wouldn’t be so difficult to get for the sake of its urgency. The biggest problem, however, is the fact that his company resides in Brazil. That makes it an international issue, which only piles onto the mess that this case already is. It doesn’t help that Brazil likes to take its sweet ass time in regard to legal procedures. And on top of that, the country’s government doesn’t want us to mess around with it due to classified information. Yeah, sure we have evidence to expose them of highly unethical and illegal practices, but releasing said information or even threatening to, is extremely dangerous and delicate. It has to be dealt with carefully.”

“Ah, the space on this memory card is running low, one moment” Tem fibbed, though very convincingly as she paused the device recording them. She looked back at Lilly. “I’d have no issue cracking that place open myself, but I can’t use information that’s been apprehended through illegal means. Believe me, I’d love nothing more than to expose that asshole for the shit he put me through in this case, but at that point it’d be personal business.”

The irritation in the officer’s voice was obvious, at least to Lilly. Really, Lilly was annoyed too- but more at her own lack of information than anything else. ”I’m sorry. I really wish I knew the answers, but I haven’t had any real contact with them outside of that. You said he’d been in contact with other people- couldn’t you question them on some of this?” If the officer just wanted to know about their personalities and backgrounds, wouldn’t someone they frequently met know more? ”Surely someone in one of their dorms would know something helpful?”

Lilly sighed a little. She loved the idea of using that, and didn’t really understand the issue. Some things shouldn’t be hushed up, and human testing was one of them. That man clearly deserved to be brought to justice, one way or another. However, she felt the officer knew what she was talking about.

Though Lilly could normally have sensed a lie, the lack of a heart beat and normal human glands cut that off from her. She couldn’t help wondering where the replacement card was for a second before she figured out what was going on. Lilly grinned. Demostrate seemed just to get better as she went on. ”It’s hardly illegal to have evidence of a guy with a bloody sword for an arm existing, surely.” Lilly was tempted to add that she’d be willing to help if Tem did that, but figured that would be counter-productive.

”Is there really any way I can be helpful now, because it feels like I’m being a shitload of help.” She certainly had reached the ends of what she was sure about regarding the case. She had suspicions, but nothing major and no real evidence to back it up. She really couldn’t see any way she could be much more use, but the officer would probably have more ideas than her.

Lilly expressed nothing more than wanting to help out this case as much as she could and Tem was fine with that. The only problem was she was hardly anything outside of an eyewitness. Sure, she cleared up everything regarding the steps that had taken place during the scene of the crime, but outside of that she knew nothing. In hind sight the golem was probably putting too much pressure on the girl in regards to more evidence and profiles for the two involved, but she had to get a bit assertive to squeeze all she could. Her talk with Lilly so far had probably been one of her tamer interrogations.

“The problem is students come and go out of that school all the time. If he had friends at one point, they might be long gone by this point. We tried to contact as many of the old Emerald students as possible, but getting them here might take some time. His journal mentioned one name, only the first name though and her name is a fairly common one so it might take some time before we reach her. As I said before people have seen him before, but next to nobody knows him. They were able to give descriptions and brief snippets of his personality and not much more than that” the officer shook her head and briefly broke her unblinking gaze at the young appearing woman.

The girl definitely seemed far more rebellious than Tem, which was surprising herself to be quite honest. Not so much by the way she acted, but the way she thought and expressed herself. While Tem would love to work outside the law and go on some sort of ass-kicking journey with this small woman, this wasn’t the case that was going to turn her. She had to abide by the law if she was going to live in this future world that would be more than happy to play the blame game on her and just call her a rampaging monster. To be fair though, it wasn’t like she hadn’t displayed such characteristics in the past.

Tem was blanking out in terms of Lilly’s next question. How else could she possibly be of help? She provided all the possible information that she could and sending a student to raid a high-risk laboratory in another country was a horrible idea all around especially since Tem didn’t even know the girl’s power. “I suppose you could keep looking out for Miller other than that unless you can speak to the dead… Wait, do you know anyone who could do that?” the officer began leaning in once again, her interest being peaked.

Lilly really was trying to be helpful, and if she knew anything else she would have said it.

The way the officer said that sounded like he had been abandoned; as if his friends had found out about what had gone on and were trying to protect themselves over him. Lilly felt sorry for him, even if only briefly. She partly felt it was inevitable to feel sorry for him but some instinct in her said that he was fully capable of looking after himself and sympathy alone would achieve nothing useful now.

”How does a guy that size with a blade for an arm even go undercover? It’s not like he could have left the island without someone noticing. Besides this island is fairly small, it must be easier than anywhere else. I doubt there are many people with any given name here.” Lilly was fully aware that she was probably stating the obvious. Tem definitely knew more about this than her but she was trying to be helpful.

Lilly’s eyes flicked between the officer’s quickly, trying to read what was going on. Was that remorse?

”I wish I could.” Somehow she doubted Margaret would be willing to be particularly helpful regarding the case; she did a pretty good job of stitching Miller up and it seemed unlikely she would now help to stitch her dad up. It had seemed like she had tried to defend her dad even though she almost certainly knew the true and probably horrendous scale of his work. It was unlikely that she would be any help even if they found a necromancer. ”No…At least not that I’m aware of. There are enough students here, there must be someone. I know that’s not helpful.” She hesitated for a second. ”I could ask someone for any necro-type powers; they’ll be far less suspicious if I ask than if you do.”

Lilly stood up slowly, unsure of what she was meant to do now. She didn’t appear much taller than she did sittingShe certainly had answered everything she knew and sitting in a room where she could achieve nothing would not help anyone. ”So can I go now? I’ll come back here if I get any new information, or if you need me.” She toyed with a small strand of hair for a second, before holding out her hand as if to shake, although she was unsure of what the normal protocol would be now.


(OoC: Are you ready to wrap up now?)