The Sensation

by Amanda Bridgeman

  “Thank you, Riverton. End request.”

  Riverton disappeared, and her lenses cleared again. She looked back down at the man with the smashed in skull, then at the aluminum bar, and narrowed her eyes. “Shit… It’s the leg of a camera tripod. He was beaten to death with his own tripod.”

  “They had one hell of a party, that’s for sure,” Beggs said, then glanced up at the curious neighbors gathered on the next balcony over. He angled his holo-badge toward them. “We’re coming over for a chat,” he called. “Meet us at your front door, please.”

  Beggs headed for the apartment’s front door, motioning Salvi to join him. She took one last look at the ‘Sation’s pulsing lights, at the dead man laying on the balcony, then at the sexy images of Myki Natashi on the walls. Then she moved to the door where the officer, Vincent, stood, discarded her gloves, containment suit, and sole plates into a CSI bag, labelled it, and followed Beggs out the door.

  Salvi and Beggs split the residents of the vic’s immediate neighboring apartment, who’d reported the body on the balcony to police. The witnesses, like Myki and the vic, were late 20s or early 30s, buff and beautiful, and their home was similarly adorned with sleek aesthetics and the best house AI money could buy. While Beggs took the woman into the kitchen area, Salvi questioned the man, Rusty Connor, by the doors of their balcony.

  “And what time was this?” Salvi asked Connor, who stood around 6ft and weighed a good 200lbs. – most of it muscle. Turned out he owned one of the Gym-Fit outlets, where members stood in special machines that stimulated muscle growth. It was the perfectly lazy way to get buff and an incredibly popular way to ‘exercise’.

  “It was, like, after midnight,” Connor said, scratching his fingers through his brown bed hair.

  “And you didn’t see anyone?” she asked.

  Connor shook his head. “No. By the time I got out of bed and went out there, I just saw their leg as they moved back inside.”

  “What were they wearing?”

  “I didn’t catch what exactly. I just saw a black leg.”

  “Black pants?”

  He nodded. “Pants and shoes. It was all black.”

  “Do you know what type of black material it was? If they were black jeans or sweats or something else?”

  “I didn’t get a look. I just saw black.”

  “Did you hear any voices?” she asked. “Did it sound like more than one person?”

  He shook his head. “No, and I didn’t stick around to find out. I saw the guy with his head smashed in and ran back inside to contact you guys, and they told me a unit was already on the way.”

  Salvi nodded. “Did they party much?”

  “Them?” he hiked his thumb to Myki’s apartment. “No, they were pretty quiet. I think they did their partying elsewhere. I never saw them much.”

  “What about arguments or any other disturbances?”

  Connor shook his head. “No. They were quiet.”

  “Okay. Did you see anyone else on the other balconies who might’ve seen something?”

  Connor thought for a moment. “I didn’t notice any the first time, but when I came out again after calling you, yeah, there were some overhead and across the way.” He pointed across the street to another tower of apartments. Salvi studied them and saw the blinds in one window move. Someone was watching them. It was bound to happen with all the commotion, but the question was, did someone witness the crime or the perpetrators, or were they just rubbernecking now?

  Her eyes darted to the drone that slowly moved across the apartments filming the surrounding balconies, before she looked back to Connor.

  “Alright,” she said. “If you think of anything else, you contact me at hub 9. Got it?”

  Connor nodded. “Sure.”

  Salvi looked to Beggs, who was finishing up interviewing Connor’s partner. He caught her eye, thanked the woman, then began heading for the door. Salvi followed him outside into the plush carpeted corridor, where Beggs sighed and turned to her.

  “It’s gonna take us hours to interview all the surrounding neighbors here and across the way, even using some of the uniforms.”

  Salvi nodded. “Yeah.”

  Beggs grinned. “You sure picked a real good night to start back, Brentt.”

  “Tell me about it,” she said.

  “I’ll take evens, you take odds,” he said, then moved off to another apartment.

  Salvi pressed the buzzer on the door, then showed her face to the security camera. The door opened and Mitch stood there. He was shirtless, his hair ruffled, eyes squinting in the light. He’d buzzed her up from the street, of course, so her appearance at his front door wasn’t a surprise.

  “Sorry to wake you,” she said, then hesitated when she saw him rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “This was a bad idea… I shouldn’t have come.”

  “I’m awake now,” he said, then opened his door further and walked back inside his molecular apartment. Salvi followed, watching as the pink and red lights of the club in the alleyway behind flashed through the porthole window beside his bed, blending with the apartment’s green Bio-Lume light on the ceiling.

  “You caught a late one?” he said, yawning, and sitting down at his two-chair table in the tiny studio-like layout. His whole apartment was actually smaller than the living area of hers.

  She nodded, taking the other seat. “Pretty brutal murder in the Sensation.”

  “Yeah?” he said, motioning to the healing patch over her scratched neck. “That’s new. You caught ‘em?”

  “No. The vic’s girlfriend did this.”

  “She the one?”

  “Not sure yet… but my gut says no. I don’t think she’d have the strength to do what was done to the vic. Besides, we sent her off the hospital, she’s possibly a victim of a 261.”

  He nodded and the silence sat.

  “Sounds like you had an interesting first day back,” he eventually said.

  “Yeah,” she nodded, and they stared at each other across the table, before he took her right forearm and studied it.

  “It’s nice to finally have that cast removed,” she said, twisting her arm about, “and to be off desk duty.”

  “How’d it go with Beggs today?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “Alright. How you doing with Caine?”

  “Alright.” Mitch studied her again, trying to read something on her face. “Why are you here, Salvi?”

  She thought it over. “Guess I missed talking over a case with my old partner.”

  He nodded. “You woke me up at 3.37am to talk about your case?”

  She stared at him. Mitch had been patient these past several weeks. She’d needed space after the Bountiful case and he’d given it to her. They’d been cordial, seeing each other only when Mitch and Caine came into the station hub, when Ford delivered team updates. They’d intentionally kept their distance, aware they’d drawn curiosity from their colleagues as to why they’d suddenly changed partners. Ford had made a decent excuse about training Salvi up with different partners, but whether people bought it… Once upon a time it would’ve bothered her to know people were possibly speculating about her life, private as she was, but now… she wasn’t sure she cared any more. Maybe the last case had affected her more than she’d cared to admit.

  Maybe life was too short not to acknowledge the things you cared about; the people you cared about. Maybe she was done with her self-imposed penitence, denying herself happiness and pleasure.

  “I guess I wanted to see you,” she admitted. Despite needing that space after the Bountiful case, Mitch had never been far from her mind. That’s why she’d kept that disc. That’s why she’d watched it too. More than once.

  He nodded, then stood from his chair. “It’s late, Salvi.”

  She felt her stomach sink a little; regretted having come here like this. “I know…” She nodded and stood. “I’m sorry.” She moved to the door and he followed her.

  “You don’t have to go. That’s not what I
’m saying.”

  She turned around to face him.

  “I told you I’d be here when you were ready to see where this goes,” he said. “I just didn’t expect it to be at nearly four o’clock in the morning.”

  She smiled softly. “You should know by now that nothing is straightforward with me.”

  He said nothing. She stared deep into his eyes.

  “I guess I just wanted you to know that I’m… back.”

  He nodded and raised his hand to study the healing patch on the side of her neck. She felt his warm fingers brush her skin, then he locked his gaze with hers again. “Does that mean you want to stay?”

  Her eyes poured warmth into his.

  “Yeah. I do.”

  Salvi stood dressed, staring out the circular window of Mitch’s apartment. In the corner of her eye she saw him blink awake and stretch out. He saw her by the window, grabbed his iPort off the bedside table and tilted it to view the time.

  “Doing another runner on me?” he asked, studying her.

  She looked at him and smiled. “If I was doing a runner I’d be gone by now.”

  “And yet you’re not laying here beside me in bed.”

  “I did last night. Isn’t that enough for now?”

  Mitch rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Guess it’s going to have to be.”

  Salvi walked to the door, pausing when she reached it. “Intimacy isn’t my strong suit, Mitch.” She opened the door and looked back at him. “But… maybe one day it will be.”

  Salvi read through the Medical Examiner’s report on their photographer vic, Devon Barker. Dr Kim Weston had estimated the time of death to be around 12.30am. Cause of death was no surprise; traumatic brain injury. The apartment was clean of fingerprints, but Salvi noted that Weston had managed to collect some fibers from the vic which she was taking a closer look at.

  Hernandez and Bronte entered the bullpen just as she peeled the healing patch off her neck. The abrasions had already sealed over and were well on their way to disappearing altogether. The healing patches really were a marvel of modern medicine.

  “Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Hernandez joked, eyeing her neck.

  “First day back and you got into it again, Salv?” Bronte’s deep voice was amused.

  “She’s a scrapper this one,” Hernandez grinned.

  She smiled at them. “Would you like me to give you matching ones?”

  “Meow!” Hernandez laughed, walking over to his desk. Bronte grinned and followed, as Beggs entered sipping a coffee.

  “Hey,” Salvi greeted him. “Any word on when we can see Myki Natashi?”

  “Not yet, but let’s head down to the hospital now, huh?”

  Salvi nodded and moved to collect her coat. “You see Weston’s report?”

  “Yeah. Nothing we didn’t expect. How’s Riverton going with the warrant for the house AI?”

  “Still working on it,” Salvi said, moving for the door.

  “Wait,” Ford called as she emerged from her office. “I’ve got an update from Narcotics. Where’re Grenville and Caine?”

  “Right here,” Mitch said as he entered the bullpen alone. Salvi locked eyes with his briefly, before turning back to Ford.

  “And Caine?” Ford asked Mitch.

  “He’s checking on something. I’ll update him.”

  “Alright,” Ford said, “then gather round.”

  Hernandez and Bronte moved to join them, as Salvi, Beggs and Mitch clustered near Ford.

  “Narcotics have released a warning on a new nasty that’s about to hit the streets,” Ford told them. “Well, they think it’s already on the streets, but that it’s only a matter of time before it hits in a big way. Word is, it’s like meth times a thousand. They’re trying to find out where it’s coming from but want us to keep our ears to the ground. If anyone’s going to hear about this drug, it’s us, because it sounds like we’ll be the ones wiping the bodies off the sidewalks. Got it?”

  The team nodded, as Hernandez posed a question.

  “This drug got a street name yet?”

  “Yeah,” Ford said, “they’re calling it Fyte. That’s F-Y-T-E.”

  “Well, that sound ominous,” Bronte said.

  “Great,” Beggs said with a sarcastic tone. “So it’s called Fyte and it’s a souped-up version of meth. That should make our jobs easier then.”

  “Hey, criminals keep evolving, so we gotta evolve with ‘em, Beggs,” Ford said.

  “I’m getting too old for this shit,” he muttered.

  “Just keep your eyes and ears out, right?” Ford said. “We’re looking for particularly violent crimes that may have involved drug use.”

  Salvi’s mind turned over the footage from Kelto’s Diner of Tynan Williams pacing around as the blood poured from his bullet wounds. She looked back at Ford. “Like, maybe the Kelto’s Diner shoot-out?” she asked, curious. “Witnesses said Williams appeared to be on something that made him agitated and aggressive, and he was active a lot longer than he should’ve been with that blood loss. Do we need to get a toxicology report on this guy?”

  Ford sighed. “Let’s not reopen a case unless we have to.”

  “Our photographer last night had his head smashed in good,” Beggs added, looking at Salvi with raised eyebrows, “and his girlfriend was pretty out of it too.”

  “Doped up, though,” Salvi said. “Not aggressive.”

  “Your scratched neck says otherwise.”

  Salvi shrugged. “It was a normal reaction to strangers wanting to touch her. She was probably in shock from the trauma of what happened.”

  “Or coming down from a night on Fyte.”

  “Yeah, look,” Ford said, “as much as we’d like to listen to you two argue all day, let’s not. All of you just take note of any homicide that looks to have drugs involved, and when you come to a decision amongst yourselves,” she shot Salvi and Beggs a look, “then report it to me, alright? If we think this Fyte drug might be connected then we’ll need to share details with Narcotics.”

  The team nodded and Ford moved back to her office.

  “Let’s hit that hospital,” Beggs said walking out the door. Salvi locked eyes with Mitch one last time, then followed.

  Salvi and Beggs walked along the corridors of the hospital with Doctor Goldfarb, who’d been attending to Myki Natashi. Goldfarb, with bright orange hair and a pierced nose, walked quickly, studying a data pane before her as she spoke.

  “Her injuries could either be rape or very enthusiastic sex, it’s hard to say, and so far she’s denying the rape,” the doctor told them. “We’ve flushed her system of the drugs and are awaiting toxicology to confirm what she was on exactly, but if I had to hazard a guess, it was something along the lines of ecstasy or some derivative of that. She’s claiming no memory of the night, or of her partner’s death.” They arrived outside Myki’s room. “So good luck with that.” The doctor waved them forward, then continued down the corridor.

  Salvi and Beggs entered the room. Myki lay back on a bed of pillows. Her face looked a little pale, but she seemed more alert than the previous evening. Beggs gave Salvi a nod to lead, as they engaged their holo-badges.

  “Myki, hi,” Salvi said gently, noticing the indents on the sides of her face had filled out again, leaving no trace of their prior existence. “I’m not sure whether you remember us from last night, but I’m Detective Brentt and this is Senior Detective Beggs.”

  Myki studied their holo-badges, her mind clearly trawling its memory, but the blank look indicated it had come up short. She didn’t remember them.

  “How are you feeling today?” Salvi asked.

  “A-alright,” Myki eventually said, eyes still darting between their holo-badges.

  “We’d like to ask you some questions, okay?”

  Myki nodded, bringing her hands together in her lap and fidgeting with her fingers.

  “We’re very sorry for what happened, Myki,” Salvi said gently. “Devon Barker, he was your boyfriend
?”

  Myki nodded, lowering her face a little, eyebrows knitting in torment.

  “Did he hurt you, Myki?”

  The model’s brows smoothed out and she looked up at her. “No.”

  “Do you know who killed him?”

  Myki lowered her eyes again, shook her head.

  “You don’t remember anything about what happened?”

  “No,” she said softly, gaze still fixed on the bed in front of her.

  “What’s the last thing you do remember?”

  Myki’s mind turned over for a moment. “Dinner. We had dinner.”

  “Where?”

  “Lantasia’s. In the Sensation.”

  “What time was this?”

  “Er… early. Around 6.30pm.”

  “Do you remember what you ate?”

  Myki looked up at her, confused.

  “It was just you and Devon? What did you eat?”

  “Lobster. Crème brûlée.”

  “You have much to drink?”

  Myki shrugged. “A little. A bottle or so of champagne.”

  “A bottle on your own or with Devon?”

  “Together.”

  “Were you celebrating something?” Beggs spoke up.

  Myki looked at him and shook her head.

  “And you can’t remember what happened after that?” Salvi asked.

  Myki’s eyes searched the room as she trawled for a memory. “I think we had more drinks.”

  “You went out somewhere or at home?”

  “I…” She trawled her memory some more, before she looked away to the window. “I don’t remember.”

  Salvi and Beggs exchanged a look.

  “Alright,” Salvi said. “Myki, how would you describe your relationship with Devon?”

  “Fine… We talked of marriage.”

  “How long had you been dating?”

  She shrugged. “About… three months.”

  “And you were talking about marriage after three months?”

  Myki looked at her. “We were in love. He was a romantic. He treated me well.”

  “Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt him?”

  Myki shook her head.

  “Did he have any business troubles?” Beggs asked. “Owe any money? Anything like that?”

  “No. Not that I know of.”