"That's Duna Brilois," a woman says. When Luis turns to look, he sees a woman in her 50s with graying hair and a orange Kansat sash over a deep blue wrap, a matching head scarf, and ocular mods. "Leader of the Diazdaha'i."
"They're a gang," Arketta whispers to Luis. "It's their tags in the apartment."
Luis nods to Arketta. "What I'm wondering is how they knew the councilor? If they were connected enough to take holos the councilor wanted to display in a private space, why'd one of them apparently decide to raid his house and kill him?"
"That is what we're here to find out, Rav-Samal," the woman says.
Arketta bows to her. "Rav-Kansatai Jonshai, this is my husband, Luis Stanhill. Rav-Kansat Jonshai is the lead investigator for major crimes on Atea."
Rav-Kansat Jonshai gives a politely small bow to Luis. "Nice to meet you, Rav-Samal. Just to get your statement -" she blinks twice and the inlaid circuitry on her golden eyes glows an icy blue, "- you were asked to investigate Counselor Kolon's residence after he failed to arrive at a ward counsel meeting on time?"
"That's correct," Luis says.
"And when you arrived at the hab unit..." she asks. She has the blank yet focused look Luis is familiar with when he's looking at something in his internal vox while trying to maintain eye contact.
"The door was already open, with the controls smashed and over-ridden," Luis says. "Kansat Quis, my wife, called it in and decided to enter to see if the Councilor was inside, and I backed her up."
"And you found the counselor..."
"As soon as Arketta opened the door to the bedroom," Luis says. "The blood trail on the floor led to the closed door there." After a moment, Luis continues. "He was lying on the bed, and clearly dead. Arketta called it in, and I quickly verified there wasn't anyone in the bathroom, then we left the hab and waited in the gallery."
"And you touched nothing in the hab?" Jonshai asks.
"I moved the shower curtain slightly to check it was empty," Luis says. 'I stepped in the bathroom to do that, but tried to stay clear of the water and blood."
She blinks her eyes twice again, and the blue traces turn off. "Well, we'll compare with your elimination prints and DNA on file just to be sure." She sighs. "It seems likely that this gang was involved. Counselor Kolon was known to be involved in outreach to troubled kids, and it might have just bitten him in the ass."
"It seems possible," Luis says. "It's the simplest answer." He frowns for a moment, then continues, "I wonder, though--tonight the ward council was supposed to be voting on some redevelopments here, it's what the meeting he was late for was about. It might be too many dramas, but it seems coincidental to have picked the time of the meeting to murder him."
Jonshai raises an eyebrow. "And you suspect?"
Luis shakes his head, "I don't have any particular evidence against anyone beyond one of his opponents wanting to start the meeting without him, but that redevelopment has been held up for months. It strikes me as possible someone connected could have hoped to remove him from opposition to advance the project and hoped a gang killing might be taken as an easy answer. But it's equally possible I just want to believe his outreach didn't get him killed."
"Or that it was a cover for something more," Jonshai says.
"Also possible, Rav-Kansat," Luis says.
"Just...let me do my job, Rav-Samal," Jonshai says. "Understood?"
"Understood," Luis says. "Do you need anything else? Did my wife already give you her statement?"
"She did," Jonshai says. "You are free to go, Rav-Samal. Thank you for your cooperation."
Luis bows. "Rav-Kansat," he says, and goes to find Arketta.
He finds her at the edge of the Kansat holographic barricades. "Well," Luis says. "What now? Home? You want to take a walk for a bit?"
Arketta has her hand over her mouth in thought. "It doesn't sound right, does it."
Luis shrugs and says, "It rings a little funny, like they wanted to be linked to it. Which a gang might, but if you're going to scrawl your calling cards everywhere, why clean up yourself and the weapon as much as you can?"
"And if he was helping them commit crimes...why advertise he was helping them?"
"It could have helped get them access to some kind of resource they needed," Luis said. "Maybe their agreement changed and killing him was a way to stop him from exposing something, or punish him for breaking it."
"Which was..." Arketta shakes her head. "It's both too convenient and doesn't answer enough questions."
"Yeah," Luis says. "It feels off."
"Well." Arketta holds her fingers over her mouth nervously. "Should we do something about it?"
"What would you suggest doing, dear?" Luis asks. "The Rav-Kansat asked us not to get in her way."
"...we don't need to be in her way, just...working alongside without her knowing," Arketta says.
"Well, Kansat," Luis says. "Where would you begin your inquiries in that case?"
Arketta nods. "They have a bar." She smirks. "Three guesses what it's called."
---
The imaginatively named Diazdaha Bar is deep in one of the older parts of the ward. This part of the ward is a key example of what Counselor Abeis is describing as "blight" - a large airdock just crammed floor to ceiling with old containers of various sizes stacked in rows, doors cut in the front and walkways spanning the aisles between containers. Some of them are housing, some of them are businesses or even light industrial, and some are shitty gang dive bars.
(Luis Notice 2d8 vs. 1d6 (I'm guessing his stats since the wiki is misbehaving): 7, 5 vs. 3)
Luis noticed a teenager with tattooed-on scales turn and say something into his vox as he and Arketta get off the transit in the nearest adit, and the whole way through the airdock towards the gang's bar, he's felt eyes on his back. Between his white skin and Arketta's orange Kansat sash, neither one of them blend in well here at all. As you both climb the steps to the second level, you can see a half-dozen Diazdaha'i hanging out outside the bar, ciders in hand and sitting at ersatz tables made of old crates and a mismatched set of (likely pilfered) old seats.
"Play it cool?" Arketta whispers as she walks next to Luis towards the bar.
punkey
