the mock investigation

[airlockedmods]

[The week at the space station has trickled by slowly. Friday morning after CECE awakens everyone with her usual cheery announcement over their PIPs it's dead quiet, the oppressive threat to their homes still lingering in the air. There's still hours to go before the deadline but will someone really have the guts to go through with it in such small quarters?

Or is the better question has someone already gone through with it?]

Comments

[stitch_in_time]

Good thinkin', but the case file says the time of death was about 11pm. Awful long time for blood to stay wet like that, spread over fur.

[She's considering things though, that's good.]

[misinforms]

Ah. Yes, that's a good thought. Then it must have been produced from his wounds more recently. I wonder if it had been in the air from the time of the incident or if it was dripping from the wound more recently. It would be nice to know if there was a struggle. Normally there wouldn't be a lot of blood loss with the weapon still stuck in him like that...

[Does blood dry in no gravity air??? She knows horror well and even she doesn't know the answer to that one.]

[stitch_in_time]

[It probably should've dried, but blah blah blah technobabble blah blah blame the Overseers and Kamukura's wormhole machine probably.]

MODS

[semperperatus]

...Could be from other impacts made to the wound or body. Zero gravity with a body that has no control over its own force and momentum? Its possible.

[So are there skid marks of blood anywhere on the walls and stuff?]

[airlockedmods]

[There are. Near one of the ladders, to be specific.]

[semperperatus]

[Not the ladder that two certain young ladies are trying to climb, by any chance?]

[airlockedmods]

[Nah, it's near the other ladder.]

[semperperatus]

[WELL THEN.

He will go over there and check that out. Is it up near the top, or bottom of the ladder?]

[airlockedmods]

[Up near the top.]

[semperperatus]

[That is interesting. Shepard closes his eyes, doing his best to memorize it - he's going to scribble this all down in a few minutes (semper peratus, semper peratus) Are there any other significant skid marks?]

[airlockedmods]

[You gonna get up close enough to the ladder to see?]

[semperperatus]

[He is, for sure]

[airlockedmods]

[A couple of the rungs also have a little bit of blood smeared on them.]

[semperperatus]

[That's--

Shepard's eyes autofocus on those rungs and he brings his face nice and close. Any fingerprints? Hair? Boot marks?]

[airlockedmods]

[Nope! We learned our lesson about g-d-mned fingerprints back in drrp It's hard to tell, but the smears are a little high up to be from boots.]

[semperperatus]

[Semperrr peratuuuuuus

He frowns, thinking for a moment. Ok, these smears...they can't be boots unless the person jumped up real high, right?
...

Ok, hang on, he has to...um, hm...ah! Are there paper towels anywhere? Wait--toilet paper!

He is going somewhere with this. Is there toilet paper or anything on a long roll on the spaceship?]

[airlockedmods]

[whhhhhy......]

[semperperatus]

[Because Shepard is going to do what he does best: kill sharks.

.....no wait that's not it, he's going to do the thing he does second best: improvise with shit. In this case his plan is to grab scissors from his first aid kit and a crap ton of toilet paper and measure out the distance between the floor and the first rung that blood appears on, using the scissors to cut the height of the rung. He's got a stupid theory and he's going to try and run with it.

Shall he?]

[airlockedmods]

[sure buddy you do you]

[semperperatus]

[/csi miami

So he does come back with a nice long trail of toilet paper. Which probably looks ridiculous to everyone watching, but he dun curr. Time to roughly measure out the length between the first rung with blood and the floor.]

[misinforms]

[..........okay no really, what????]

What... are you doing?

[semperperatus]

Measuring.

[I mean. Obviously]

[misinforms]

I mean what are you trying to measure? What are you trying to accomplish?

[She can forgive the toilet paper. Although she will judge a little. But first thing is first, she's trying to figure out what he's thinking.]

[semperperatus]

Look at these rungs. They have blood smeared on them. Considering the murder weapon that went through him is on the other side of the room, and most of the blood seems to pretty much be where that pipe is, I'm assuming that he died over there and whoever climbed this ladder was the murderer. And depending on their height...however the murder happened, this first rung where blood is on the bottom is where the murderer last could have had their hands on the ladder comfortably because their feet were able to hit the floor when they climbed down.

[Hang on, he's marking where rungs are on the toilet paper. Circling the one where the last rung with blood is, and so on. Very, very carefully.]

If we can compare the height people would rest their hands on the ladder while their feet were on the ground, that could help to narrow who could have done this.

[misinforms]

Oh!

[That's really smart.]

I see. Yes... yes. That makes perfect sense. I hadn't considered looking at it that way. Good thinking.

[Now she's quite curious about his investigation. This is absolutely a good guy to have around.]