“You really are Sherlock incarnate aren’t you?” said Brown without even a hint of a smile.
“Sarcasm never did suit you, Doc,” replied a grinning Dupres.
Having wandered off, Arvin spoke “I wonder what he was working on?” He stood at the arch entrance of the late producer’s office looking it over from a distance.
“Fairbanks and Connors were in a bidding war to pre-sell the remake of King Kong,” explained Dupres.
“Of what?” asked Arvin.
“King Kong,” said Doc Brown. “Thanks for constantly reminding me how old I am.”
“Yeah, he hardly remembers the days before they pre-sold movie theatre tickets before they were even made,” said Dupres as he joined his young partner in staring into the producer’s office. Both men were looking for clues as to what might have happened.
“Guys, I’m not that young. But what is King Kong anyway?” asked Arvin as he poked at a thin old–fashioned, paper book with a single finger. Not wanting to contaminate potential evidence he read the title out loud. “Dark Tales for Dark Nights.”
Dupres was looking at an old stack of books on a shelf while he spoke. “The script was written by that has-been writer from Carlton, Pierre C Arseneault. He had a good career until he started hanging out with Charlie Sheen. It all went downhill from there.”
“Well good thing is we already have a suspect,” said Arvin pointing at a note scribble on a notepad. On it was a note written in black ink, most likely with the pen lying on top of the notepad.
“William P. Connors’ price for King Kong. $ 50,000,000.00 for an animated version.”
Nudging the pen aside Dupres said, “I heard Douglas’s price was double that and that he almost had it all in the bank already while Connors only has a quarter of his raised.”
“That’s motive for sure,” added Arvin. Doc Brown was still standing over the body when he signalled two paramedics over to help him bag the body. As they did this he spoke “It still doesn’t explain how he could be killed without his implant alerting 911.”
“Good point, Doc. Arvin; you call that kid Shawn at the precinct and have him look for Fairbanks’s implant. It’s gotta still be transmitting wherever it is; especially since it never alerted 911”.
“Does that make me Sherlock?” asked Doc Brown as he walked behind the paramedics wheeling the stretcher outside.
Arvin pulled out his iCom and made a quick call, blurting out instructions quickly. As he put his iCom back in its holster he nudged Dupres and asked “Which one did you pre-order from?”
“Fairbanks of course.”
“Me too,” replied Arvin as he poked at the old-fashioned keyboard that activated the hologram that was the monitor.
6
“Thanks for agreeing to meet us on a Sunday, Mr. Cooper,” said Dupres as he walked into the C.E.O.’s office. He was being followed by Arvin who was busy checking out Amanda. A slender, attractive brunette in a form-fitting business blazer and skirt who was not his type but she was certainly distracting him at the moment. As Cooper’s administrative assistant she had announced their arrival and let them in, closing the door behind them.
The slim, grey-haired man in the expensive retro silver suit walked out from behind his desk to great them. He spoke as he extended his hand, offering a hand shake even before reaching the men. “Under ordinary circumstances, I would insist that my staff take Sunday’s off. It’s a rule of mine. But these are not ordinary circumstances so I have had my best team come in to figure this thing out.” He walked over to a bar on the side of his office and stepped behind it. The office was quite modern and had little other than the tools necessary to do business. No art on the walls or even a picture of his family decorated the room.
“Can I offer you gentlemen any refreshments, coffee or tea? Water perhaps?” he asked, reaching for cups.
“No thanks. We’re fine,” answered Dupres before even glancing back at Arvin.
Cooper put the cup down and said “I know what you’re going to ask me and I don’t have an answer for you yet.” He walked around to his desk gesturing for them to sit in the chairs before it. Dupres began to sit and was startled when the chair’s sensors activated and it automatically adjusted itself to his height.
Arvin smiled and spoke. “He doesn’t get out much,” gesturing towards Dupres with a pointing thumb.
“That’s an old-fashioned expression,” replied Dupres glancing at Arvin.
“For an old-fashioned guy,” said a smiling Arvin as he turned his attention back to Mr Cooper.
“So, Mr. Cooper. Can you explain to me why we had to come down here instead of your office sending us the files we requested as usual?”
“Well, Detective Dupres, it’s not that simple this time. You see, we do have to make sure that what we share with you will not become public knowledge. If the media got a hold of this it would be utter chaos.”
Arvin spoke. “It should be as simple as you sending us the data we asked for.”
Cooper shifted uneasily in his seat, clearly not comfortable with what he had no choice but to share with the pair of detectives. After a brief pause he spoke. “Let’s go down to the lab shall we. There’s something you need to see for yourself to fully understand what I am going to tell you.” Cooper got up and walked to a blank wall. Upon approaching the wall, a panel split open in the middle revealing a private elevator behind it. Stepping in, Cooper spoke aloud saying the floor number he wanted.
Dupres shot a glance at Arvin as all three rode the elevator down quietly. The elevator came to a smooth stop and the doors opened to reveal a large room. As they walked off the elevator, Arvin looked around at the outer walls, which were a dark grey. The interior walls were mostly made of glass. Some clear, some frosted, and many had hologram monitors projected behind them. The room was filled with electronic equipment that even he, being a Tech junky, had never seen before.
“Is this where they design the implants?” asked Arvin.
“Yes, this is one of our labs where we do research, product testing, and development. The implants used to be made in China until three years ago when the labour unions started forming. Now they’re made in Canada and the U.S. only but designs are made right here in this very room,” said Cooper as he directed them towards the back of the lab.
“Shouldn’t we go through some sort of thing to remove static before coming in here?” asked Dupres.
Cooper chuckled a little. “Not necessary. We had to make them safe before implanting them. We couldn’t have simple static, or better yet a mild shock injure the subject the implant was in now could we.”
“Subject?” replied Arvin inquisitively.
“The person in question, you know what I mean,” replied a slightly annoyed Cooper. “Here they are. Let me introduce you to our trouble shooters.”
Walking into a separate room in the back they saw three people working. Both the detectives half expected to see them in white lab coats, but each of them was in normal street clothes. All three stopped what they were doing to turn to great the guests. They knew it would have to be important for Mr Cooper to interrupt them after all that has happened.
“This young man is the head of our R&D department, Grady Baxter and our lead programmer, Alli Lebel. I believe you already know our newest addition, who is now heading up our new software security department, Derek White.”
“We’ve met,” said Derek as he looked up at Dupres.
“Are you serious?” asked Dupres looking at Cooper sternly.
“Yes I am, very serious. Derek here helped identify flaws in our firmware databanks that we were not aware of. Also, I made him an offer her couldn’t refuse. Right kid?” He slapped Derek on the back hard enough to make the young man wince as the sound echoed in the room. “Are we getting anywhere?” he asked looking his team over briefly.
Alli spoke up. “
Let me show you what we have so far,” as she flicked away at a modern sensor keyboard which popped up a large holographic screen a few feet in front of her. She added “This is the activity grid for Mr. Fairbanks via his implant’s recorded data, which is stored in Facebook’s databank.” The screen showed a 3D graphic of the room that just looked like a series of lines. There were blue and red lines that went in all directions forming a layout of the house. A few key strokes later she zoomed into the kitchen area.
“If you have the data, why didn’t you just send it to us like usual?” asked Arvin.
“It’s not that simple,” replied Cooper.
Alli continued. “That morning, Mr Fairbanks got up at 8:46 AM. Shower, coffee and breakfast and then he went to his office. At this time his wife was already gone to the spa and that’s correct as per the chip data. The only time this shows him getting up is when he went to the bathroom at 9:46 AM. Then he went back to his computer where he remained until 10:24 AM. But now the system also shows him arriving at 10.22 AM.”
“Wait a sec, how can there be two?” said Dupres pointing at the holographic screen that showed two locator chips signals.
She zoomed out to show the entire area. “That’s what we don’t understand. We scanned the area for other signals and found nothing. Nobody else was there but then out of nowhere, Fairbanks appears at his own door and comes in.”
Derek piped in excitedly. “It’s a clone implant, has to be. Some of the hackers out there have been trying to make this happen for a while but nobody has been able to yet.”
Shooting him a glance Dupres said “Well someone did it, one of your friends maybe?” This made Derek’s smug smile disappear.
“The new signal is showing up as Fairbanks and the recordings are somehow overlapping. At least it does up until about 10:23. That’s when the new Fairbanks draws a gun. It’s a legal gun, but no registration shows up for it and the chip activating it shows up as Fairbanks’s.” Alli shifts the scan and shows the chip locators coming towards each other. “The scan shows the two signals coming closer and then the original signal weakens and disappears, thus causing the dropped call that the real Douglas was in the process of making. When it did the legal handgun registered as being fired a total of three times. Following this the new signal is shown going to the kitchen. We assume he got a knife from the kitchen. It then returns to the body where it hovers a bit and then leaves the building and vanishes once outside.”
Cooper turned to Dupres with a very serious look. “You have to understand that we can’t give you this data. Nobody can know this is even possible.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that a murder was committed here,” added Dupres.
“It would have to be someone who knows this type of technology. Someone who works for Cooper Technologies, or has in the past,” said Derek.
“That’s what we thought until you hacked in the databank and stole information from us,” Alli added as she picked up a small spherical object off her desk that was a quarter of an inch in diameter. “Most people don’t even feel it in them. Forget they have it,” she added. “Were not sure how yet but it’s as if the chip’s signal was not only duplicated but also interrupted or hacked. I’m not sure how it could be done without that split second making it think something was wrong and alerting 911.”
“It almost has to be a firmware glitch, that’s the only thing I can see,” added Baxter.
“A heck of a coincidence that it would act up only at this moment, wouldn’t you say?” asked Arvin.
An angry Alli added “There is no glitch in my firmware, thank you very much”
“I mean no offence but I still say it’s a firmware glitch of some sort. I’m going to run some scenarios to see what I can come up with,” added Baxter.
While no one was watching him, Arvin looked the short and curvy Alli up and down. “We’re compiling a list of suspects and as soon as we have a warrant we will need you to check the locations of them all.”
“The first being Connors,” Dupres added as he looked at Derek. “Who did you pre-order from?”
“Fairbanks,” said Derek.
“Fairbanks,” said Alli. “But Baxter ordered from Connors because he likes animated actors.”
“Well they might as well be since everything else will be animated. Unless Fairbanks had a hundred foot ape actor that we don’t know about,” a grinning Baxter said in his defence.
“Well, keep digging and let us know what you find out,” said Dupres as he turned to leave.
“Will do,” replied Baxter.
“It was nice meeting you all,” said Arvin as he shot a glance at Alli as she got up from her chair. He looked her up and down again and she didn’t seem to mind this from the handsome young detective. Not until she caught a clearly jealous Derek watching.
“I’ll send you our list of current suspects in the morning,” added Arvin.
“Let me walk you out,” said Cooper.
7
“How can you eat that slop?” asked Arvin as they exited the last old-style dinner on the edge of the city.
As Dupres walked through the doorway, a mechanical voice spoke. “Payment received, Mr Dupres, thank you and please come again”
“No offence but who still eats old-fashioned eggs, bacon and toast anymore? You should try the new Hostess Complete Cereal.”
“I won’t put that manufactured crap in me,” said Dupres before getting down to business. “Did you send the list to Cooper?”
“Actually no, I wanted to talk to you first. The list we have is very short at the moment.”
Both men got into the squad car. No sooner than Arvin had shut his door than Dupres said “Station,” at the cars navigation system and the car engaged, strapped the men in and drove off. While looking straight ahead and in deep thought Dupres began listing off the names of the suspects whom he wanted to get their chip data.
“The first name on the list is William P. Connors. He would benefit the most from the death of Fairbanks.”
“Agreed,” said Arvin as he punched the name into his onboard computer.
“Second name is that has-been Pierre C. Arseneault. Rumor has it that he wanted Fairbanks to make the movie but I think he may have been paid to say otherwise. He never publicly stated it but I’m sure he never liked animated actors. Besides, he knew them both and might have inside information.”
“True,” replied Arvin as he tapped away on his keyboard while looking at his hologram monitor. The car was still cruising along to its destination as both men worked inside it, completely ignoring the world outside. The car slowed down in traffic while the traffic flow changed in their favor.
“Rebecca Fairbanks, let’s make sure she was where she said she was. She stands to inherited a lot of credits,”
Arvin looked at Dupres. “Agreed. You really want to add Derek White to the list don’t you?”
Dupres added “I don’t trust that kid. To quote that has-been Arseneault, once a crook, always a crook,”
Arvin smirked. “I think he was quoting someone else when he said that. Anyways, I’ve already contacted the three major motion picture companies about getting access to the list of people who pre-ordered the movies,”
“That’s going to be quite the list,” said Dupres as he scratched his scalp through his salt and pepper hair.
The younger detective shut down his computer as they pulled into the station parking lot and the car slid into its assigned parking space. “Well I figured we would look for patterns. People who repeatedly pre-ordered from either producer regularly. I mean our list of suspects is quite short otherwise.”
“To quote Arseneault again, we only really need one suspect, the guilty one.”
“Good point,” added Arvin as he started to get out of the car. At that moment a blue light began blinking on the dashboard as it made an electronic “bloop”
sound.
“Hello,” spoke Arvin activating the on board iCom system.
“Detective Dupres, Arvin,” the female voice said as a rectangular flat and semitransparent holographic image popped up. Captain Silverson was sitting in her office with her awards covering the wall behind her.
“Captain,” said Arvin.
“So, who are we arresting?” spoke the Captain.
“Nobody just yet,” said Dupres.
“What? With today’s chip technologies you’re telling me you don’t know who killed Fairbanks yet?”
“No, Captain. As a matter of fact we don’t. The chip data was hacked and the people at Cooper Tec haven’t figured out how or by whom yet,” replied Dupres.
“So we have an old-fashioned murder case,” said Silverson as she leaned back into her chair.
“Not quite,” said Arvin. “Everybody around him is still chipped and so we can narrow it down by process of elimination. We’re compiling a list of suspects as we speak and should know more soon.”
“Good then, keep me posted,” said Silverson.
“Of course, Captain,” said Arvin as the com shut down and the call ended.
“Let’s go grab some coffee and make some calls,” said Dupres as he got out of the car.
8
Moments after getting coffee before heading to the station both men were now in the car when a sudden “bloop” sound was heard coming from the onboard iCom system. A blue light began blinking on the dashboard as it made another electronic “bloop” sound.
“Arvin here, can I help you?” he spoke at the device. The holographic screen materialized quickly to show a slim, grey-haired man in a dark grey suit jacket.
“Cooper, what have you got for us?” asked Dupres.
Cooper leaned towards the camera and spoke in a less than enthusiastic tone. “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you. It looks like some data has been tampered with. And not just now either. It goes back awhile. Connors is one of them and so is Fairbanks.”
“Really? How can that be?” asked Arvin.
“We don’t know yet. Alli just told me this minutes ago. I just wanted to let you guys know for now but we should know more later today. All I ask is that you tell no one about this.”
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