Mistakes can often be attributed a kneejerk response to an influx of new information. Control the flow of knowledge to produce desired results. –Management Code 129
A cold sweat dripped down Cole's back. Both he and Alyx had received the same message at the same time, and they were trying to process the information.
Cole could not wrap his mind around the meaning of the message. How could Sara be dead? He had just seen her a few days ago. It was different from the corpse of Mr. Jenkins, which occupied Cole's thoughts, because he actually knew Sara Chekov. Through the investigation, Cole felt like he knew a lot about Mr. Jenkins, but it was not the same as actually talking to Sara.
"Don't lose yourself in your thoughts, let's go to the company and figure out things from there." Alyx's face had lost magic that had made her glow during their date, and she callously called for a driver.
Cole tried to follow her instructions, but he could not brush away a fountain of guilt welling up inside him. He had known that Sara was in a bad situation and had done nothing. He hadn't even attempted to protect her, and now she was dead. Cole wasn't sure what he should have done, yet that did not assuage his guilt.
As they sped back to company, Alyx did not speak, she was busy scrolling through information, leaving Cole to anxiously twist his finger. All he could hope was that the message was incorrect. A joke, or maybe Sara had already recovered from whatever had happened to her.
Once the vehicle dropped them off at the company, Cole felt a heavy weight settle on his shoulders as he looked at the building. It was as plain as ever. There were no signs that something had gone wrong. No worried masses, no law enforcement vehicles, no panicked shouts, only a cold and unfeeling structure.
Two doors slid open in the side of the building as they approached. Cole frowned once he realized that one of them was a familiar entrance. Alyx headed towards the other door, so Cole followed after her.
Cole barely took in the new lobby, it was similar to what he was used to, and he had more important things to worry about. The pair ignored the pink haired receptionist, instead they rushed towards the elevator.
It did not take them long to reach Resource Management's floor, and they were greeted by Mirai's exposed back, as she spoke to someone.
"You two can head into the office. I need to iron out a few details." Mirai spoke briefly when she noticed them, her voice warped by her mask. Cole glanced at her conversation partner, the man was unfamiliar.
Once they walked past Mirai, they saw that the rest of the hallway was empty, and the door to Sara's office was open. Even as Alyx's strides remained firm and deliberate, Cole felt himself falter. He could not prepare himself for what was to come.
Alyx held the door fully open, allowing Cole to enter the cramped office. Cole felt numb as his eyes desperately tried to find somewhere to look, besides behind the desk. He tried to find the dent in her wall that he had noticed when he had last talked with her, but he couldn't find it.
His eyes kept drifting back to the remains of Sara Chekov. There was no mistaking it, the corpse he was staring at had once been the bubbly Sara. She almost looked alive, sitting calmly behind her desk, with no visible wounds. Her eyes broke the illusion, frozen and glassy, almost as if they were fake; there were no traces of life in them.
Cole looked away again. Where was that damn dent? Cole could not find it, and as his eyes were drawn back to Sara's haunting expression, he wondered where it had gone. Even though he knew it didn't matter, and had probably been recently patched on Sara's behest, he wanted to think about something besides the reminder of death dominating the office.
As soon as he had stepped through the office door, Cole had received a ping that he had ignored. Once he could not ignore Sara's corpse any longer, Cole opened the file he had been sent. It contained the initial report on Sara's death.
Cole scanned through the document, it was precise and detailed. The first line explained that Sinje had found the corpse after Sara did not show up to talk after work. Sinje had returned to the company to check on her friend at 9:21 pm.
Cole quickly glanced at Sara's door logs, which were included in the report. There were only three times: 6:04 am, 9:32 pm, and 9:37 pm. Cole instantly knew why the times were so strange when he looked at the objects cataloged in the room.
On the list was a small doorstop, Cole had no doubt that it had held the door open, the entire day, making her logs worthless. He had tested the fact that the logs only showed when a door was opened, and it appeared that someone had placed the doorstop as soon as Sara arrived.
That could mean that the murder took place at the beginning of the day, or the killer had returned to Sara's office to finish the job. Either way, it had been a carefully planned killing. Cole looked over the autopsy, in the report. It was surprisingly unhelpful.
He had expected it to have exact time of death, but it detailed that Sara had been killed with a poison that had been laced with a decomposer that sped up the process of internal deterioration. The autopsy marked that every check that had been done on the corpse made it seem like Sara had been dead for multiple days, an impossibility from confirmed meetings with Sara the previous day.
It meant that there was no way to clear any Resource Management employees with their logs. They had all left their offices at some point between 6:00 am and 9:30 pm. It seemed that none of them had noticed that Sara's door was slightly ajar, or they had been distracted from that fact by the killer. Of course, Cole knew that the logs could be altered, but even if they were not, they were worthless.
Cole looked over the condition of Sara's body. It was very different from Mr. Jenkins, whose skull had been opened for the world to see. Sara, on the other hand, showed no signs of a physical struggle and the only injuries on her body was the bruise on her cheek, and a small injection site on her forearm.
One name kept floating through Cole's mind, Sally Hopkins. The woman had shown her violent tendencies on Sara. She could have killed Sara out of spite, because Sara had put a mark on her perfect record. However, the fact that there were no visible injuries complicated the situation.
Cole imagined that Ms. Hopkins would have been fueled with rage, causing her to strike Sara as she had before. The lack of physical injuries did not completely clear Ms. Hopkins, in Cole's mind. It was possible that Ms. Hopkins had wanted to get rid of Sara, and she had planned to kill in a manner that would not make her a suspect.
'I really need to find out what idea Sara presented to Ms. Hopkins.' Cole wanted to know if the idea, that had caused Ms. Hopkins to strike Sara, was important enough to make her kill. Cole vowed to himself that he would find the answer, uncaring if he would violate company policy. He needed to get justice for Sara at once.
At that moment, the man that Mirai had been talking to, walked into the room. He did not react in the slightest to the corpse, casually pulling a body bag out of the case in his hand.
"Excuse me folks, I am just going to get this out of your way." He spoke like he was picking up a package full of shoelaces.
Cole felt anger drip down his body, the man spoke too carelessly about a dead body, Sara's dead body. He closed his eyes, the man was just doing his job. When Cole opened his eyes, Sara was in the bag, which was across the man's shoulders.
"Give it a few seconds, and the projector will synchronize with the imprint of the corpse." The man left the room, carrying Sara's body, as if it weighed nothing.
Cole stood silently, and sure enough, a few seconds later, a projection of Sara's body appeared in her chair. Cole felt empty, there was no way of denying what he had witnessed, Sara was truly dead.
"You two can go home now, but I want you back tomorrow. I am sure you understand why." Mirai stood in the doorway of the office, hand on her mask, as if considering if she wanted to take it off. Alyx sighed noisily, but did not voice a complaint.
"We believed that Mr. Jenkins' murder would be a singular event, and since we were wrong, there will be increased security tomorrow. In order to confirm your identities, you will be required to offer biometric proof. Additionally, I authorized both of you to carry weapons." Mirai turned and left, after she spoke.
Cole silently followed Alyx out of the office, their kiss felt as if it had occurred years ago, a sweet memory of bygone times.
Alyx looked at Cole and said nothing. The weariness in his body was apparent. Instead she reached into her bag, pulling out a holster. Wordlessly she handed it to Cole, he knew what it meant.
She wanted him to wear the gun he had gotten from their assailants, at all times. He had only worn it when they had gone out a few times, but that was about to change.