The Rholtaii Heritage - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Secret Searching

    Renjin was breathing heavily, anxious that the Judge would be gone too, as he sprinted past seemingly endless corridors. Thankfully, he met Risedo halfway down the staircase, and conversation resumed as if it had never ended.

‘‘I hate it when you do this, RJ.’’

‘‘I didn’t do anything!’’ - Renjin laughed, as he followed the judge down.

‘‘That game of yours, to see how far you can push another ‘man of the state’. I hate it.’’

Renjin replied with a boyish smile, skipping forward. Something was on his mind, and Judge Risedo knew exactly what it was, having known him for so long.

‘‘Renjin, he is one of the best ones out there.’’ - he muttered.

‘‘Oh come on, we’ve cracked dozens of cases before the detectives had.’’

‘‘Why do you have to be this childish? We’re talking of a case unlike any other, ever! If we want to find the killer...’’ - the judge said the next part of the sentence very clearly - ‘‘which is our top priority... we need Daniel’s help.’’

Renjin shrugged, and glanced at his watch. The judge, having noticed that his words made little impact on RJ, continued, turning to face him:

‘‘Do not let the game be ahead of our goal.’’

Renjin’s smile was gone in an instant. He lowered his head, and replied quietly, almost sorrowfully.

‘‘Risedo, I know. I’m still not over the fact I found a slain woman in a fountain yesterday. Don’t tell me how important this is, I know full well.’’

He slowed his pace, glancing out of the window. He could see the fountain in the distance, sparkling clean and vibrant as always. Just before he reached the exit, he managed to succumb to the judge’s wish:

‘‘If working with...Danny is what it will take to solve this, then I’m willing to do it.’’

‘‘Thank you.’’

‘‘Welcome. Oh, I need some material to work with.’’

The judge paused.

‘‘Well... The autopsy should be over in a couple of hours. For the rest, I think you should ask Daniel.’’

‘‘But you have the information, too. Please?’’

Renjin reached out his hand in a demanding gesture. The judge was at first reluctant, but was forced to give in - arguing with the man was useless. His hand slipped into the deep pocket of his cape, he pulled out a small diamond-shaped metallic object and threw it gently into the air towards Renjin. He caught it swiftly, his face once again lighting up in an excited and slightly menacing smile.

    By the time the sun had set over the horizon, Daniel Logan Edwin knew Renjin better than he knew himself. He knew the age, name and qualifications of the doctor that was present at his birth, his browser history, his grades from high school and the amount of money he had spent on alcohol the previous night. The detective was quite proud of himself: creating such a detailed profile on someone was his speciality, yet each time he would put on a somewhat arrogant smile. He took off his brown glasses, carefully folded them over and placed them next to his computer. The sunset illumenated the wooden floor, the antique paintings and handcrafted furniture. The detective always thought himself as a man of style, of exquisite taste. It stirred pride within him to be different from others. His ego fueled on his love for himself, and the failure of others - and the second factor was his speciality. He felt confident; he had been on the case before anyone at the Hall could suspect, and knew he had information that could be used against anyone he met at the Anthill that day. He joyfully swept a flat, silver device and flipped it in his hand. The screen readily lit up as it recognised the touch of its owner. Daniel pressed a button on the device, and placed it back on the table. Immediately, a voice poured out:

‘‘Edwin?’’

‘‘Sir. Please, could you clarify what Seroquel gets prescribed for?’’

‘‘It’s anti-psychotic medicine. Used for multiple disorders, such as anger management, schizophrenia.’’ - the voice replied quickly and in a matter-of-fact tone.

‘‘Thank you, sir. Goodnight.’’

The screen of the device faded into black, and Daniel stroked his chin in thought, gazing out of the window. He thought back to the information gathered, his brain slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together, collecting information into one coherent whole. He wondered; he speculated; he thought of possibilities. He took off his silver ring and let it fall and roll along his palm. He then skillfully caught it in between his fingers, and thumbed it thoughtfully. Multiple ideas had come across him, and many involved workers of the Anthill to be suspects. As he thought, he grew more immersed, more interested to be involved in a case so grand for both his career and personal interest. He started to pace around his apartment, talking out loud to himself:

‘‘Why would a Judge need so much anti-psychotic medicine? All permanent workers get checked for diseases before they begin. Risedo is clean...’’

Outside grew darker; it always did in the colder months. Wind scratched against the window, the cold taking a firm hold of everything exposed to the air, but the detective felt nothing of it in his warm safehouse.

    Renjin looked at the same darkening horizon from the place he thought safe, thinking hard about what has happened in the last few days. He knew for sure that another man in a green suit had already searched him, and would love to ask of his secrets. But, Renjin felt prepared as well. He knew Daniel’s life story, work history, whatever he could find. The crystallic object Risedo had given him - the ‘infogems’, as they were called - were a means of storing information, but not many had access to a machine that could read them. It was a metal box, no bigger than a car engine, with a slot that the gem had to be inserted into. Each gem was unique and thus could not be altered or faked, since each could have millions of combinations of size, colour, edge sharpness and the such. The box recognized the gem and could then decode the message, projecting the information stored onto the table or wall, ready to use. Renjin scrolled through thousands of pages of research into the Rholtaii history and murders, the detectives on the cases, (not many, surprisingly), the ritual behind each. He, too, could now see why the most recent death raised too many questions than there were answers, even from the years of research. Apparently, the recent death was a Rholtaii murder, except the Rholtaii never... never ever, killed their own. The autopsy revealed that she was killed exactly like the rest, even the trademark ruby that the Rholtaii left beside each body. Renjin sunk into a black leather armchair, spun around to gaze around his room. He thought of nothing but the slain leader in the fountain, struggling to find an answer to how or why the Rholtaii would kill their own. Unfortunately, a call from Risedo was there to remind him that there were dangers apart from the ones he had considered up until then.

‘‘You’re calling early.’’ - Renjin spoke, leaning back into his armchair, letting the voice pour out of the loudspeaker on his desk.

‘‘Renjin, where are you?’’

‘‘At home, why?’’

‘‘Where were you this afternoon?’’ - the Judge asked, the agitated notes in his voice echoing around the room.

‘‘I was out to dinner with Anna, and went home to go through the stuff you gave me! Tell me what’s going on, will you?’’

‘‘You’ll need a pretty solid alibi... The journalist is dead.’’

A painfully long minute of silence ensued. Renjin shivered, the lump in his throat blocking his breaths.

‘‘Who now?’’ - Renjin asked, even know he knew exactly who Risedo meant.

‘‘You were the last person she talked to. She’s dead, RJ.’’

‘‘Shit... shit!’’

Renjin slammed his fists on the glass window, taking long breaths in a futile attempt to calm himself. His voice shook as it escaped his dry throat, asking the question he’d rather really not know the answer to:

‘‘Does Edwin know?’’

‘‘He will, eventually. Renjin, focus. Daniel will not arrest you if you have an alibi. You are not going back to jail, I’ll make sure of that.’’

‘‘I’m not going to jail, because I have nothing to do with all of this!’’ - RJ exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air, turning himself towards the loudspeaker, as if Risedo were standing there.

Risedo sighed, and made an attempt to say everything will be alright. Of course, it wouldn’t.

‘‘Why would he arrest me? Is it because he now knows...?’’

‘‘I hope not, Renjin. But we have to assume for it, just to be sure.’’

Risedo concluded his conversation with a warning to stay safe, and to be prepared for anything that happens tomorrow. That night, RJ barely got any sleep.