Raven was well ahead of me, I practically had to speed up just to maintain some sort of pace. She seemed anxious. I could see her turning her head in every direction when she came to a corridor junction and held on to her pad for dear life. When I finally did catch up, I held on to her arm to stop her for a second.

  “Whoa-whoa! Slow down! Geez, you know how lazy I am.”

  “We can’t be too careful…” She glared at me. “This could be something important enough to get us killed.”

  “It’s a vid, nothing is that important around here.”

  “Says the man prying into my affairs or packages, huh?”

  Okay, she got me with that one. I pursed my lips and reluctantly agreed.

  “Fine, but don’t be so paranoid. Nobody knows we were even there. Just Al, and he’s high as a helium balloon anyway. Nobody would even think of asking him anything.”

  Raven continued on and briskly headed for the main elevator at the end of the corridor.

  “I’ve got to find a safe place for this…” She stopped for a second, spun around and handed it to me. “You take it and put it somewhere nobody can find it.”

  I gawked at her questioningly. “Hide it? Where? Up my ass? Take a chill pill lady, it’s not like we’ve found a rare jewel or one of your tomato plants.”

  She forced it into my hand and glared at me.

  “This is important, just do it for me, will ya?”

  The long intense stare she gave was enough to make me see the seriousness in her conviction. She was truly frightened by what we found. So was I, not so much for the vid, but the fact that this was making her go all screwy on me. I took it hesitantly, placed it inside my vest pocket, and patted it lightly. She gave an exhale of relief, as well as a peck on the right cheek.

  “You can be a good guy, sometimes, you know that?” She grinned.

  I scowled at her remark. “What do you mean, sometimes? I’m a good guy.” She gave me a questioning glance. I thought about it for a second, and then relented. “Okay-okay, maybe not all the time, but enough where it matters, alright?”

  She laughed and patted my shoulder.

  “Come on Mr. Nice Guy, let’s head back and get some rest. We’re on duty in a few hours, I think we’ll need all the sleep we can get.”

  Now that, I could agree whole heartedly on. All this snooping around was enough for me. All I wanted to do was go home, crash into my bed, and watch virtual porn… uh… I mean, a relaxing vid to take my mind off of the day. Oh… alight, yes, it’s gonna be porn. Hey, I’m a guy, I like what I like, okay. Anyway, we proceeded to leave the section and return to the lift that would take us back to our level. But before I got on to that unclean looking elevator, I turned about and glared down the darkened hallway.

  I don’t know why, but I wasn’t feeling good about what we’d discovered. There was a nagging feeling at the base of my skull that made me wonder if this was something we’d regret prying into. I felt like, well, like someone was watching us. It was a strange feeling. I know for a fact that all of the security cameras in this area are faulty. Nothing gets monitored here anymore. It’s a shit place to even watch twenty four-seven, mainly because it’s nothing but lowlifes doing deals, hookers dishing out quick blow-jobs, and well, homeless jerks looking for a place to crash for a bit.

  I knew for a fact that none of those types were the ones watching us. They had their own problems. No, this felt more… ominous. If that’s even the right way to describe it. It could just be Al again, following us about. But, no… he’s probably passed out already by that office we left.

  “Well,” Raven smacked the back of my head. “Ya getting in here, or what?”

  That broke my trance, or whatever the hell was causing me to glare down that way. I nodded, stepped into the lift, and then gave her a return light smack to the head. I know hitting a woman isn’t right, but, come on, she started it. The doors closed and I instructed the shitty elevator AI to take us down.

  “I need a drink.” I muttered.

  “Don’t you always?” She glared me with smile.

  “Shut up…”

  “Fuck you…” She replied back.

  Yep, the best of friends we were, the best of friends.

  * * *

  Now, I’m not sure if four hours of sleep is enough for anyone to have, quite frankly. It certainly wasn’t enough for likes of me, anyway. I had a hard time falling to sleep after our little adventure, but, after a few stiff drinks, I finally conked out. When I awoke, after that four hours I mentioned, I was greeted by five officers standing over me with flashlights. At first, I thought I was still dreaming, like I actually hadn’t woken up all the way. But then, I heard their voices and felt a foot kick me on the leg.

  I tried to complain, but, again, I was too busy trying to regain consciousness. Once my eyes opened up more, and another foot kicked me for a second time, I soon realized they were from my division. I took note of their glowing badge numbers on their uniforms, while holding up a hand to block the damn lights flashing into my eyes. I tried to be polite and asked the obvious question.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “What the fuck do you assholes want? Get those fucking things out of my eyes, man!”

  “Get up you scum!” One shouted at me, giving another kick.

  “Easy-easy!” I said slapping his foot away. “Jesus, you guys really do have too much free time on your hands. What am I late for work, or something?”

  The five officers lowered their flashlights and I could finally see their faces. There was Tom Stratmore (a total dickhead), Helen Chen (A bit of bitch but has a nice ass), Dom Richiani and Bill Haitanz (two newbs that practically look like brothers). I greeted each one with a middle finger. The fifth person, coming from behind them, came up to me, squatted down, and met my gaze as I sat up in my bed. It was the chief.

  “Well-well-well, look at the sight of you, huh?” He snickered while tapping on my forehead.

  “What’s this all about, Chief?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought…” The chief stated, taking a whiff of me and grabbing the empty liquor bottle beside me. “Always the drink that does it. Still not a good alibi, that’s for sure.”

  This was really starting to piss me off. “What the fuck is this? What the hell is going on?”

  “What’s going on?” He snickered. “Why, it’s your arrest, fucko…”

  “What?” I glared at him. “Arrested? For what? For being drunk at home?”

  “No, for murder, ya shit.” He stated, forcibly holding my face and staring at me directly. “You are under arrest for murder.”

  “Murder?” I gawked in confusion. “You’re accusing me of murder? Of who? Where? Look, I would never murder anyone, chief…”

  “Save it, Mike.” He pushed my face away. “There’s nothing you say to change the fact.”

  “What’s going on here?” Is this a joke? Are you guys fuckin’ with me? It’s not very damn funny.”

  “Shit, can you believe this guy?” Tom Stratmore mocked. “Just fess up to it already, stop embarrassing yourself.”

  “To what?” I stressed, waving my hands about. “I was here the whole time, man!”

  “Oh, so you’re claiming innocence, huh?” The chief chuckled. “Fine-fine… let’s take you the scene and then you can try that shit with me again.”

  He roughly picked me up out of the bed, and tossed me to the other officers. The looks of disgust and anger told me this was something serious. The chief motioned his finger for me to follow him, and the group of officers assisted me out the door as we all headed out. The chief glanced back at me as I was dragged along.

  “Let’s see if maybe this will refresh your memory, huh, asshole?”

  * * *

  Minutes later, we arrived at the crime scene. I had woken up enough to take note of my attire. I was still wearing my clothes from last night, thank god, nothing like being dragged through the place with little more than a pair of underwear. But, as we came closer to the section, that’s when it finally hit me. Time felt like it was slowing down, I could see where we were heading for, it was a familiar apartment, one I’ve been to many times, both as a partner and as an ex-lover.

  “Oh god, it’s Raven…” I gasped.

  As we entered, the room was aflood with station cops. There were scanner droids hovering about, taking detailed images of the place, and analyzing the DNA on various objects. On the floor, laying in a pool of blood, was poor, half-naked Raven. She was face down, with a massive hole of where her spine should be. The blood spatter was everywhere. She must have been getting undressed, preparing to go to bed, and had her back turned to the attacker.

  Shit man, I was in total shock. I wanted to vomit. Tears formed in my eyes as I gazed upon her corpse. I couldn’t believe she was dead. We’d just seen each other only hours ago, how or why this happened in such a short of time was beyond me. The officers dragged me into the room further, and the chief stood over Raven, pointing at her.

  “So, where were you when this happened, Mike?”

  I could tell he was being sarcastic. The mocking grin kind of cemented that fact as well.

  “I-I-I… I was at home.” I stammered, the shock still hitting my mind. “I fell asleep drunk…’

  “Bullshit!” He bitterly replied. “You were here, weren’t you? You and she were together, maybe you wanted more, and she tried to stop you.”

  “What? Never! Fuck no! I swear to you, chief!” I shouted back. “I wasn’t here! I went home and so did she. The last time I saw her, she was walking back to her apartment!”

  “We’re digging up the security footage as we speak, Mike…” The chief glared back. “You two went out to a bar last night, lots of people saw you and her leave together, where did you go after that?”

  I wasn’t sure what to say in that moment. Do I tell him we were doing our detective work after hours? That we entered a restricted area without permission? No, best not to give him that information, it would probably incriminate me even more. I tried to think of something else on the spot.

  “We got bored of the place, we headed out, just for a stroll. We wanted to talk about our promotions, the one you assigned to us, remember? The investigation? She wanted to talk about what we would do the next day and where to start. That’s it I swear to you!”

  The chief waved a hand at me, dismissing my comment, and turned away. He was frustrated. Everyone in there was. Raven was a well-liked by all of them, she was a respected station officer, not like me. I would even suspect me in something like this, but, since I know what I did and didn’t do, I wasn’t going to go down in this way.

  “Chief!” I stated, struggling out of the hold the others had on me. “I know I’m a bit of a scum wad, lord knows Raven did too. But, I can tell you with all my heart, I did not kill her. She was my partner, she would have kicked my ass if I tried anything. Hell, I don’t even have the stomach to kill someone, I’m too much of a coward to even attempt it.”

  The chief gave an exhausted sigh and rubbed his chin in thought. I wondered if he was mulling over my little speech I just gave, or if he was thinking about lunch. He’s a man of priorities, ya know.

  “You are a coward.” He nodded while still rubbing his unshaven chin. “That much is true. You ran away from a riot crowd on your first day here. They found you huddled behind a bar in full gear using your shield as a cover.”

  The other officers all chuckled at that memory. Yeah, not one of my proudest moments, I was pretty green back then. I still might do the same thing today, although, I might be found drinking at the bar instead of hiding underneath it. A droid came over and scanned my body. I could see the mechanized robot analyzing the data behind those bright blue eyes and waited for the results. It hovered there for a second, before turning to the chief and giving its report.

  “DNA scan complete.” It stated. “There is no match found to the murder weapon and this individual.”

  “Are you sure?” Chief Harland glared at it.

  “Ninety-nine point one accuracy.” It replied. “There are traces of Officer Mike’s DNA, but a negligible percentage to link him to the crime.”

  Harland nodded and motioned for the robot to carry on elsewhere. I gave a sigh or relief, and wanted to kiss that droid something awful. The chief motioned to the other officers to stand down, and they let me go.

  “So, now that I’m no longer under arrest…” I brushed my arms lightly, those guys really had me in a tight hold.

  “I didn’t say that.” The chief folded his arms glaring at me. “There’s still the matter of your weapon.”

  “What about it?”

  He pointed to the other droid, holding my gun in a plastic bag.

  “That’s the murder weapon…”

  “Oh… shit…”

  That’s all I could say. How or why it got to be there, well, that’s a good question. But more importantly, who the hell used it to kill poor sweet Raven here? That’s what I needed to find out. God damnit, girl… what hell did you get us into.