Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded

After sitting on an empty seat in the bus that had already begun moving, detective Tilarna Exedilika embraced the baseball bat case that contained her beloved Krége with both hands, and sighed in relief.

「I got on. No weird incidents to be seen」

Then a small earphone-like wireless device received a signal, and she started pulling hastily from the creases of her uniform.

「That’s obvious, you’re just on your way to school. There’s no way any incidents will happen」

A man’s low voice responded. That was her partner, detective Kei Matoba. He was tracking the bus from a 100 meter distance in an old Volkswagen.

「Just in case, I’m abiding by the protocol」 「If you’re gonna say shit like “just in case”, then I’d at least like you to avoid pulling anything that stands out. You crashed into that kid and flashed your panties, what kind of bullshit is that?」

That was Matoba’s usual sarcasm. His disgusting words really got on her nerves. After something like that she would put an end to any incompetent man, but unfortunately, Matoba was extremely capable.

「… There was nothing I could do」 「That Semanian kid looked like he was from your same school. Poor thing. Isn’t he gonna be late after all that?」 「Not my problem」 「It was your idea to go there by bus. Since this is a rich kids’ school, you could’ve gotten in my car and I would’ve taken you there. To do this from North Zalze…」 「Shut up」

She whispered with a stifled, quiet voice.

「Well I’m sorry. Who would’ve thought that real newbie undercover cop Lady Tilarnia Exedilika would get nervous? Over」

And so the line cut.

Keh Imatuba. What a disgusting guy. He was always like that. Even though she was completely serious, he only fooled around. He was constantly saying things that rubbed her the wrong way.

Tilarna cowered in her seat on the bus, and as she started feeling nauseous, she received another call from him.

「What?!」

She raised her voice without minding the suspicious glances from the other passengers.

「There’s something I forgot to say」 「?」 「But well, whatever, I’m sure since it’s you, it’ll be fine…」 「Huh…」 「Don’t get too grumpy. Enjoy it, since you wanted to become a high schooler. Over」

The line was cut again from his side. Tilarna was left with her mouth open for a short time, and then looked down, feeling her face getting hot.

「There’s no doubt, I totally despise that guy.」

She said after the exchange that left her feeling disgusted.

Ever since Tilarna transferred to the San Teresia police department, there had been many first time experiences that had left her speechless.

「Even this time as an undercover cop makes me feel anxious, honestly. 」

He had guessed that, and had decided to follow her. However…

「That’s exactly the kind of thing that I can’t stand…!」

「That flashy display of “adult composure”. Do I have no will at all to win at the disgusting Dorini social ladder? Ugh, it pisses me off.」

Three days before Tilarna Exedilika was “transferred” to Sherwood High:

「Yesterday in the early morning, a woman’s body was found lying naked on the streets of Queens Ballet.」

Said director investigator Bill Zimmer, in a small meeting room for the Special Vice Squad, located in the city’s police department headquarters. Detective Kei Matoba stifled a yawn, as he leaned in to listen to Zimmer’s story. Tilarna was sitting quietly by his side, as several other detectives were all over the room looking intently at the screen.

「The first to find it were the local milk delivery workers. We received the report at 5:30. About five minutes later, a police car that was patrolling the area arrived at the scene. There seemed to be no suspicious vehicles or individuals in the vicinity. At around 5:45 the ambulance arrived. However, the victim had already suffered a cardiac arrest by then. She was carried to Patterson Commemoration Hospital’s emergency room, and was pronounced dead at 6:15.」

Back at the murder department, case briefings were carried out in a similar manner. They were always men that looked as if they were repressing all their anger and hatred towards the world. However, being in front of pictures of a dead body that looked like that, their faces looked as if they had forgotten all that energy somewhere else.

Zimmer touched the large LCD display that had gone dark with the tip of his finger, and a map, and a chronological recount of communications appeared on screen.

「The vice-director examiner of the autopsy department, that is, Cecil Epps, was in charge of the autopsy. The actual time of death was sometime between 3:00 and 3:30. The cause of death was severe overdose. There were no external wounds. There’s evidence to suggest that several hours before death, the deceased had engaged in intercourse with an unspecified number of men. Semen from several different blood types was found both within her stomach and vagina. However, it is believed that the chances of rape are low.」

Those were some crude picture, and some crude words.

Tilarna was the only one with a grim expression; the other detectives’ faces remained unchanged. Matoba was the same, his reaction was equivalent to the one he showed with the slight price changes in the stock exchange.

Tilarna whispered

「Everyone seems to be just fine…」 「There’s no way we’re fine. Officers who are fine would at least drop a juicy joke.」

Replied Matoba with a quiet, uninterested voice.

「Juicy jokes?」 「Macho jokes. For example “she probably just had too much of a cocktail or something. You gotta be moderate even when you’re getting fucking wasted” or something like that. No, that’s not my joke right there. There was just this guy that once said something with a similar case a while ago, andー」 「Matoba…」

Zimmer, who was explaining the findings of the autopsy, called him out in disgust.

「What do you think about this? Tell us」 「Ah… sorry. Just by listening to the situation, it seems like just a hooker that did the wrong amount and died, and a client that panicked and simply threw out the body.」 「Don’t say it so casually. So if she’s a prostitute, it’s okay for her to die like this?」 「It’s not like I’m saying that…」 Matoba thought that the sudden roughness was odd, but he understood the reason immediately afterwards. Zimmer projected the girl’s data on the screen.

「This morning, the subject was identified. The name of the deceased was Norune Norbam. She was not a prostitute. She was a second year student at Sherwood High. Only sixteen years old.」 「…」

Matoba took a deep sigh.

So she was probably a complete angel up until a few years ago, she started getting into drugs, getting promiscuous, and ended up kicking the bucket carelessly and being thrown out on the streets. It wasn’t as if this kind of case was unusual for this department, but that didn’t make it any less revolting.

Tilarna was looking down, and muttering something. He didn’t understand it, but it was probably some kind of curse word in Farbanian.

「Sherwood High, huh? I remember hearing that somewhere. Isn’t that a pretty good school?」 「Yeah. There are a lot of wealthy students from Queens Ballet going back and forth between their estates. It’s not a boarding school, but there are some students that do move on to Yale or Harvard afterwards」

Within all the schools with shallow history in San Teresia, it seemed this Sherwood High was an especially highly ranked private school. Maybe even competing for spot number one or two.

「Her mom is influential in her own field, and this Norune Norbam’s father was the same. Have you ever heard that Norbam last name?」 「No…」

Right by the frowning Matoba’s side, Tilarnia opened her mouth.

「She’s a Semanian, right? I’m certain Norbam was a family name common among priests.」 「That’s right. Norune’s father, Mister Moda Norbam is the board director of the “New Gravani Church” and he has an active participation in the rise in social standing of Semanian refugees. He also appears frequently on debate shows, right? Since he’s handsome, his popularity with the old ladies is quite high.」 「I don’t watch debate shows or anything like that. They’re annoying」 「My God is my fans, huh… no, nevermind. Anyways, this Norbam didn’t come out and spill out everything about his daughter’s death, but instead he has been puttin pressure all over the place.」 「So that means he’s a big shot?」 「That means he’s not just some teatime idol. Norbam’s church has power within the city government. He also has a big crowd wedged into congress. With only his call, he could get demonstrators to start an uproar. He’s also been involved with stuff like police scandals regarding Semanians, or making donations to organizations related to the commissioner…」

「It’s slowly coming back to me. Yeah, there was a guy like that.」

Matoba started remembering the face of a commentator he had seen on TV while zapping.

A debate show. Semanian. Handsome.

He was talking with a distinguished tone. He was eloquent. He could finally match the name to the face.

「Yes. That Norbam. That’s because his daughter’s “tragic” death hasn’t been extensively reported.」

Tilarna was outraged.

「Why? His daughter was killed in such an awful manner, right? He doesn’t want to track down the truth?」 「It’s because there’s a rumor that he’s targeting the mayor. His daughter died from an overdose, so it’s not something he’d like to make public anyways.」 「Ugh…」

Recently, Tilarna has been having fewer of these “I just can’t accept it” moments whenever she hears stories like this. And at these situations that are hard to accept, now she just looks down and gets lost in thought.

「Matoba. You infiltrated that neighborhood as a broker about a year ago, right?」 「Yeah. Though it wasn’t that big of a case.」

He was able to arrest a small group of delinquents that had been selling cocaine to rich housewives in the Queens Ballet Brownthold area. It was before he was partnered with Tilarna.

It wasn’t something he had told Zimmer, but he probably had read it in his past report data or something.

「So you know anything?」 「…Now that you mention it, as I was undercover, that group of dealers did say something. “We’ll start getting better customers now. These high school students are rich” or something along those lines. The next day was the big roundup so I didn’t think there could be any relationship.」 「To be honest, recently there have been similar rumors from department seven and other branches.」 「That a new dealer has been carrying out his business with a high school partner?」 「Even better then. There’s a possibility that a high school student has been handling the drugs.」 「In that case, he must get his stock from somewhere. I don’t think a student is just quietly growing marijuana.」 「I don’t know about that. The boss didn’t want us doing that investigation. However, a prestigious school being infested with drugs is something we can’t ignore. It’s our turn now.」 「So we’re saving the boss’s ass again, huh?」

And so the general panorama was clear. Matoba and the Vice Squad’s task was investigating the sale of drugs and weapons, prostitution rings, and so on. And to carry out undercover/decoy investigations relating to that on a daily basis. It was good to have a small team that could do it stealthily.