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As the episode began, we found Erica and Edward "assisting police with their enquiries." They were interviewed by Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Martin, of the Homicide Squad.
Erica was given charges of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer, and released on bail; the media attention was enough to ensure no more rough treatment. She was released on bail, required to appear in court for a prelimenary hearing in February. Erica wished to sue for wrongful arrest, asserting improper police procedure in dealing with the group; her solicitor assured her that this suit had no chance of success, and would be summarily dismissed, but Erica insisted. her solicitor complied with her wishes, saying, "well, it's your money you're wasting, not mine."
Edward, calling on his parents who sent him an experienced solicitor, had no charges placed on him, but was cautioned to remain in the Territory, since the police would certainly wish to speak with him again as a witness in the case of the homicide of Lucinda James, and the grevious bodily harm of two police officers.
Both Edward and Erica exercised their right to remain silent, and did not give up Raimundo or Cadel's identities to the anxious police, though both had been advised to do so by their solicitors. It was clear to them that Raimundo was the police's only suspect in the murder of Lucinda James, and they were entirely focused on his apprehension. Martin gave them his business card, saying that if they were to remember anything or decide to become more helpful, they should call him at any time. "This is about a young woman's life. She had a family and friends who loved her, they deserve to know what happened."
Cadel spent a quiet week blending in among the students, while Raimundo after a quick visit to the doctor to bind u his broken ribs hid away in abandoned buildings, lying low. He was somewhat horrified at what he'd done, but felt entirely justified in principle. "Bastardo policia!"
They decided that the only way to clear Raimundo's name (not that he was named yet, but still) was to find the real killer. After a week the party got together again, and consulted on what to do. They considered searching Lucinda's dorm room, but on passing it saw that the door was blocked with blue and white "police line – do not cross" tape, and realised that anything of interest would have been removed from there already. Edward went back to the library lobby where they'd been arested, and retrived from under the vending machine the digital camera Erica had tossed there. Photos of the murder scene were on it, and later printed out at a photo vending machine in the department store.
Erica said she that in her class there was a girl called Jennifer who'd sat with Lucinda often, and they went and spoke to her. Jennifer told them that she didn't know Lucinda very well, only in class. "She was nice, but seemed kind of depressed and dark. Sometimes I saw red scars on her arms from that cutting, and I heard that she went through a couple of room-mates, they'd come home from the pub or the gym and she'd be there cutting herself, that freaked them out and they moved out. I think she didn't have any other room-mates after the first couple. Did she have friends? Just the Goth Club. Did she have a webpage? Yeah, I think she had a livejournal, called herself DarkMistress or something like that.
Erica's websearch found DarkMistress's LJ, which was full ofrather bad and depressing poetry about the pain of life, and many oblique references to self-harm of all kinds. More recent weeks saw the comments of Lord_DoomBlade among others; it was plain they soon became a couple, and probably had small cutting parties together.
The group went to the Clubs & Societies Office, and found that there was no official Goth Club, "They just moved into a spare room and did it up, down enxt to the Mature Age and Part-Time Student's Society." Edward, by this time effectively the group's leader, led them down to the Goth Club. The door was ajar and from within they could hear the strains of Marilyn Manson. They went in; inside were some old couches with springs coming out, black velvet curtains, and four goths. Raimundo stayed outside to watch for anyone nosey wandering by (say, Campus Security), and Edward closed the door behind him. He went to the curtains and flung them open, letting sunshine stream in, and gazed about the room. Apart from lots of dark posters on the walls, an old stereo system in one corner, a few candles and a coffee-table book on witchcraft, there were no objects of note. The goths were Alison, a brassy and large woman with an overly-tight corset giving her quadruple boobs; Igor, a nervous-looking, very tall and thin guy with a long black leather coat on; Anna, a small and mousy-looking girl reading Byron; and Kristin, a rather attractive woman looking at them haughtily.
They began questioning the goths about Lucinda. Alison said, "you're the people who are accused of killing her, you know better than us!"
"We didn't kill her, we only found her remains."
"Whatever, that's not what the tv says."
"You were the people who knew her best, perhaps it was you?"
Alison burst out, "Us? We would never have harmed her, we loved her! She was our friend."
Edward fixed on Alison as the strongest personality in the room and decided, "I must break her." He began berating her, saying that he and his friends were innocent, but that they needed to clear their names and find the real killer, and they as her friends should want that, too. With heavy words he beat her down and subdued her. Now the goths would answer their questions.
"Did she have a boyfriend?"
Alison glanced at Igor. "No."
Edward turned to Igor. "No? You weren't...?"
"No man, not since that other bastard... he... no man."
"What happened?"
Igor wouldn't speak more, and Cadel grew impatient, went over to him, and wrestled his coat off him to see his arm. An unpleasant stench went up from the unwashed goth and his jacket, and his wrinkled black short-sleeved shirt revealed arms with a very few narrow scars on them.
"You were both cutters?" Edward asked, while Cadel sneered in contempt, "what a fuck-up..."
"No man, she was way into that stuff, she wanted me to do it, said it would "bind us in blood and pain," I tried but I just couldn't really, it hurts, man, you don't know how much it can hurt. So she went with Edward instead, he's into that a lot."
"Edward? Does he cal himself Lord_DoomBlade online?"
"Yeah, I think so, but his real name's Edward Seaton. He looks kind of like me but not as good-looking. He lives down on Fenton St, number 23 I think. It's one of the uni flats, those ones they rent out room-by-room. I think he's not a student anymore, finished or got kicked out or something, probably should be out of there by now. She used to go there a lot, a couple of times I foll – saw her there."
The party left the goths and decided to pay a visit to Edward Seaton.
Edward and Cadel went to the front door of the two-storied terraced house, and knocked. Erica and Raimundo went around the side amongst the stinky rubbish, empty pizza boxes and beer bottles. In answer to their knocking, Edward and Cadel had the door opened by a young Chinese-looking woman.
"Good morning, we're from Student Accomodation, doing a check of the premises."
"Oh," the girl said, "Is it time for the rent again?" she reached into her pocket and pulled out a twisted-up bunch of banknotes.
"Er..." said Edward, tempted, "no. We're actually here to talk to Edward Seaton."
"Oh right. I don't know if he's in." She turned and walked down the corridor past one door, and paused at the second, tapping it and calling, "Edward! People here to see you!" She kept walking towards the back of the house, past a third door and some stairs up. Edward and Cadel looked at each-other and walked in. From the second door they could hear the muffled bass thump of music. They knocked, and got no response. They pushed open the door, and the light from the front of the house went into the darkened windowless room. They saw the red and green lights of a stereo system, a wire leading to a figure lying on the bed, wearing headphones, eyes closed.
Cadel stepped into the room and flicked off the stereo power. The guy on the bed sat up quickly, looking around, and when he saw Cadel and Edward, started in alarm. At this point, Erica and Raimundo walked into the room. "Nothing in the back," Erica said, "just washing, and someone in the kitchen doing dishes." Edward nodded, and gestured for Erica to close the door and flick on the light, which she did.
"You're Edward Seaton?"
"Yes, I am. Who are you guys?" Seaton looked about him, his eyes nervous and quick. His hair was dark and floppy, a dark cotton jacket's rumples did little to conceal a thin figure with numerous scars on the arms.
At this point the party realised they didn't know what to say to Seaton, or how to challenge him. They stood in silence staring. Seaton got more nervous, "I don't know who you guys are, but -" he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a mobile phone, pressing a speed-dial button, "- I'm going to call for help unless you explain yourselves."
"We're here about Lucinda."
"Oh shit, you're the guys on tv! You -"
"We think it might have been you who killed her."
"What?! You come into my room and 'cuse me -" he pressed the speed-dial button on his mobile and they heard the numbers beep through. Erica reached out to grab the phone from him, but he was quick, rolling away from her on his bed.
"Dad? Four crazy people are here in my room, the ones from the tv, they're threatening me about Lucinda!" Erica managed to grab his phone this time, just in time to hear a deep voice speak out, "okay son, I'll send a car," before she ended the call.
Edward looked at the others, "Send a car? His father's a cop?"
"Yes he is! So you better fuck off now. Give me my phone back!"
Cadel rummaged around on Seaton's desk, and found there a large black leatherbound journal, and a pistol magazine. He held up the magazine to Edward, who smiled. "Missing a gun, Seaton?"
"What? Get out now!"
Raimundo said, "I'm not waiting here for the cops." Cadel said, "Me neither," and walked out, taking the journal and the magazine despite Seaton's loud protests. Edward and Erica quickly followed, leaving the mobile behind.
Heading across the road to the university parking building, they quickly disappeared among the many twists and turns and exits to various buildings. They peered across the road and saw a cop car roll up, a couple of cops get out, and look bored as they talked to an agitated Seaton. They got back in their car and drove off.
The party went off to read Edward Seaton's journal and see what they could find out about his family. A quick websearch revealed that there was a Detective Constable Barry Seaton in the Armed Offender's Squad in Bidawal. There appeared no accusations of bad behaviour on his part in the press.
Reading Seaton's journal, they discovered a deeply-disturbed young man.
His journal revealed that he had cut himself for years, but that one day he'd realised that it gave him power, true "magickal" power. He wanted more of this power, and wanted to share it. He found a likely young woman in the form of Lucinda James. It seemed that she did not share his delusions about "magickal" powers, but was willing to give herself to him in every way. He wrote of how he had tried harming others for power, and even tortured to death his flatmate's orange tabby, but it was to no avail. He believed that only in self-harm came this power, and bound Lucinda to him "magickally" by means of more ritual cutting, with some urination and other unpleasantness.
"What a sick fuck," Cadel said, "how could he hurt a cat?"
The journal's entries were undated, only numbered, but cross-referencing with Lucinda's LJ entries led them to believe that his last entry was a couple of weeks ago. He did not mention murdering her, but he did mention that he had recently acquired his father's pistol, he seemed fairly gloating about it. Another websearch confirmed that the pistol they'd found at the murder scene, a Glock, was of the same type as used by the police.
After much debate, the party resolved to reach out to Det Snr Sgt Martin, who they felt was genuine and not corrupt, though perhaps might be a typical cop and look after his own, if Edward Seaton's father in the Armed Offender's Squad turned out to have anything to say about it. They called him up, and Edward and Erica went to a meeting with him, while Raimundo and Cadel discreetly rested elsewhere.
They met at a coffee shop in the city. There Edward tried to probe Det Martin for information, but discovered to his chagrin that police detectives are more adept at getting information than giving it.
"Aside from... our friend, have you any other suspects?"
"We are pursuing other lines of enquiry, but I can confirm nothing at this time."
"No, then. Well, we can suggest a suspect."
"Yes? Who?"
"Edward Seaton, Lucinda's boyfriend."
"Interesting. What leads you to believe that Edward Seaton would kill his girlfriend?"
"They were both into self-harming, and we think he tortured a cat to death, so he's shown he can be violent. Also we think he had a pistol."
"Have you any proof of these allegations?"
"We... might have his journal."
"Show it to me, then."
"And ... if you happened to find a magazine from the pistol which killed Lucinda, could you match it to the bullets which struck her?"
"We could match the type of bullets, but to prove that the weapon was the one which murdered her, we'd need the weapon itself. Are you concealing evidence? I must advise you not to do so, concealing evidence is a crime."
"If we help you, we want our friend who is wanted for hurting those cops to get immunity from prosecution."
"I'm not able to make such a deal, only the Director of Public Prosecutions can do that."
"Well, talk to him and get back to us."
"I can tell you now that it'll be refused. Firstly, assaulting police officers is very serious, and right now he's our main person of interest in a murder. Secondly, those kinds of deals can't be done this way – the suspect himself, with legal advice available to him, has to talk to the DPP directly."
"Okay, we'll consider it."
"If you are in contact with your friend, I must warn you that you may be considered accessories to a suspect in a criminal investigation. It's in your interests, and his, that he should turn himself in to police and deal directly with us. Do you know where he is?"
"Me?" said Edward, "No. I was just speaking, you know, in hypotheticals -"
"He's just some crazy Brazilian," blurted out Erica, "We don't know where he'd go." Edward let out a small cry, and kicked her under the table.
Detective Senior Sergeant Martin smiled, "Brazilian, is he? Thankyou, that will greatly assist us in apprehending him."
"Um," said Edward, "about Seaton -"
"I can do nothing unless presented with real evidence."
"This much we'll give you. Do you know a Detective Seaton?"
"There's a Detective Constable Seaton in the Armed Offender's Squad."
"Edward Seaton is his son. We believe Seaton got the murder weapon from his father. Ask Detective Seaton if he's missing his pistol, then get back to us."
They parted, and a few hours later in the early evening, Martin rang them up. "That first information you gave us checks out. What else do you have?"
"Check your mail," said Edward, and hung up. The group took the journal, the bloody Glock and its magazine, as well as the matching magazine found in Seaton's room, cleaned them down with Windex and sent them with a bicycle courier to Martin at his office.
The next morning everyone at the university dorms were woken early by the screech and sirens of several police cars rolling up outside, with a blue Special Operations Group van close behind. Edward and Erica went outside to have a look, joining a growing crowd of students. Cadel suddenly recalled an urgent appointment elsewhere, slipped on jeans, runners, shirt and backpack, and disappeared. Raimundo of course was hiding out in the car park building opposite Edward Seaton's home, where he had not seen him come or go since the police sedan visit the day before.
The Special Operations Group team leader was seen talking to Detective Martin, and then they went inside. Shouts and cries were heard, and a few minutes later the team came back, its leader shaking his head. Edward approached Martin. "No luck?"
"Thank your friend Erica for her tip-off. There were only six Brazilians at the university, and four of those were women. Showing the injured officers the pictures of the two men, they both identified your friend Raimundo."
"Hmmm? I don't know the guy...."
Martin smiled. "Of course not. As for your delivery in the mail, we shall pursue that line of enquiry. Someone had cleaned the items with Windex, which will remove prints, but not destroy DNA, luckily."
"So Detective Seaton did lose his Glock?"
"I'm not at liberty to say. Please understand that sharing information with a potential homicide trial witness could prejudice that trial."
"Hmmm."
"Don't worry, we'll find your friend Raimundo, and investigate any other suspects, and the truth will all come out in the end. Most homicide investigations find the killer within the first 24 hours, but it can take some weeks or months before enough evidence is available to bring it to trial. We're on the right track, though."
"There's no other evidence you need?"
"Evidence is always good, but I must warn you that breaking and entering, assault and so on, remain crimes, whoever you're doing them to. I advise you to do nothing more, and simply wait for the wheels of justice to turn."
Unsatisfied with the idea of waiting weeks, the party decided to pay Edward Seaton another visit. As they walked down the street they saw Raimundo about to turn a corner away from them, and called to him. He beckoned them over and pointed down the road, down the row of shops. "There's this guy... he came out of Seaton's house. He's dressed like him, walks like him, is built like him, but... his face is different. I don't get it."
They looked over and saw that a goth of that description was walking out of a bakery with a large loaf of freshly-baked bread in his hands. Smiling, he sat down on a bench a couple of doors down and began hoeing into the bread with little grunts.
Approaching closer, they saw that he did indeed bear a strong resemblance to Seaton, but was not him – more likea brother close in age. They couldn't recall any mention of brothers in Seaton's journal, but the only individuals mentioned there were Seaton himself, Lucinda, Seaton's father (and that only in reference to the pistol), and the flatmate whose cat he'd tortured to death, and also more mentions of Seaton himself. So Seaton was obviously pretty self-absorbed and might not mention anyone else in his journal.
Edward went and sat down next to him. "Good morning."
Seaton turned in alarm, and his eyes widened, "You! What are you doi – I mean, who are you?"
"You know who I am. Just a guy sitting down next to a guy having breakfast."
"I don't know who you are, man, but -" at this point the rest of the party walked up, and Seaton stood and backed away, looking around wildly for someone to call for help. Sadly for Seaton, it was 8am and there were few people around, almost no shops open. He began running away.
Erica and Cadel pursued him, Erica's long athletic legs easily outpacing his, and she stopped in front of him. He turned to look back, and saw Cadel behind him. Both were crouched low, arms wide, blocking his way. To one side was a shop window, to the other the open road, he fled for the road where a car beeped its horn as he almost jumped in front of it, but Erica grabbed him by the back of his pants, and he fell to the ground, the half-eaten loaf of bread rolling into the gutter. Erica sat on him, and rifled through his pockets, finding his wallet, a small packet of wacky weed, and his mobile phone. These she passed on as she tried to silence the strugging and screaming Seaton.
A look at the wallet found a student card for Edward Seaton. This was held by his face for comparison, and he was again found to be very similar, but not the same, "Don't know us, eh? Some kind of disguise -"
"Help! Help! I'm being attacked!" Seaton cried, and Erica and Cadel dragged him off into a nearby alleyway, through the wet rubbish and behind the skip bin. There they confronted him, Erica holding him agaisnt the wall with Raimundo, while Edward and Cadel looked through his mobile phone. His last received calls were from Lucinda a few days ago, and his father last night. His last calls out were to his father, and some other unknown numbers. It was also a camera-phone, and scrolling through the timestamped pictures, they found recent ones of a smiling Lucinda, and also of a tortured bloody carcass of an orange tabby.
Cadel flew off the handle, "fuckin' cruel to animals, I fuckin' hate that!" He went up to the goth held against the wall, and pounded into him, slamming him against the hard bricks, shouting abuse as bones crunched. Erica dragged him off the goth, and the goth began crawling away through the mud and rubbish of the alleyway, coughing and moaning. Cadel went off to the road, muttering to himself and saying he'd keep lookout. Now the goth was dragged back behind the large blue metal skip bin, and Edward confronted him, poking and pulling at his face. "Who are you? You're Edward Seaton, aren't you?"
More denials came, so Edward kicked him more, hearing a satisfying crunch of rib under his sneaker-toes. Photos of murdered Lucinda were tossed onto the ground before the goth, who began crying, and through his tears confessed that he was Edward Seaton. He said, "I just wanted the power, I just wanted to be strong for once... Lucinda loved me, I didn't want to hurt her... it wasn't meant to happen.... we just got carried away, I didn't know what to do... I loved her..."
Edward started to wonder if Seaton wasn't the actual killer, feeling that he was too weak-minded to kill anyone, and perhaps was acting at another's behest. When asked, Seaton seeemed unable to say who had killed her. He kept crying and coughing, and was obviously in a great deal of pain. At this point Cadel hissed, "psst! We've got company!" and ran off to the right, everyone hid behind the skip bin silencing Seaton, and Cadel walked past happily chatting to two young women, waitresses on their way to work in a restaurant. After they'd passed, the party decided they'd spent long enough here, as people were now coming to work. Cadel returned. "What are we doing with him?"
"Well, we can't take him with us..." said Edward.
"Let's put him in the dumpster," said Erica.
Cadel agreed, "that's the place for this cat-torturing bastard, in the fuckin' bin."
He lifted the lid and saw the stinky rubbish inside, maggots and flies crawling about, and as Erica lifted Seaton up and over the edge, said, "Shit... I.... can't." He walked away, as Erica with a mighty heave tossed Seaton in.
As they walked away, Raimundo leaned in tossing Seaton's walet in, but keeping the weed and the mobile phone. "Hey! The way you changed your face. Could you do that for me?" Seaton's glazed eyes rolled towards Raimundo's, "maybe later, need.... all my power to... fix myself."
