Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Chapter 26

"Okay," Leon and several officers were having a meeting, as their various cases appeared to tie in, "I think we have three seperate perps on our four investigations."

"Oh?" Daley offered.

"I think Quincy's murder and the attacks on Sylia Stingray were one perp. They use Boomers and booby traps," Leon said.

"We don't KNOW, explicitly, if the booby traps all tie in," Naoko Asami, an attractive female officer with five years experience in homicide, pointed out. "Could be someone just wants to blow Stingray up."

"Point, but I still think it's a fair assumption," Leon countered. "There's the Brian Mason case, where we all feel certain it was Quincy's people who did it."

Daley added, "Not that we can prove that."

"And James Yamako was, we think, killed by his contacts with Gulf and Bradly after getting demoted at Genom," Leon finished.

"Which we also can't prove," Henry Horiuchi cautioned, "and don't mention that theory in public, or we'd get sued."

"They're that lawsuit happy?" Naoko asked curiously.

"They are very interested in protecting their reputation," Henry shrugged as he answered diplomatically. Clearly he'd already heard from their lawyers...

Naoko, who was now the lead officer on the Mason case, observed, "Interestingly, the pressure to just call Mason's death a drug killing has stopped. Think Quincy was behind that?"

"He probably wasn't directly behind it," Daley noted. "A lot of politicians wanted to keep Genom happy, which for them meant burying the case."

"Sylia, on the other hand, appears to want it fully investigated, hence the reversal," Leon added with a shrug.

"I hate politics and murder cases," Naoko sighed.

"Agreed," the other three chorused.

"So, Nene Romanova sent some information over from Genom on James Yamako," Henry hesitated before he asked, "Would you consider her a trustworthy source?"

Leon nodded firmly as he told him, "Oh, absolutely. Worked with her off and on for years, she's always been reliable."

Henry groaned quietly. "If she's right, Yamako was doing industrial espionage for years. It makes it almost certain it was Gulf & Bradley," he said.

"But we can't prove it," Daley offered sympathetically.

"Unless we get incredibly lucky," Henry agreed as he ticked off the facts, "they used a professional hitter, the weapon is generic and pretty much untracable, and there was almost no evidence left at the scene."

"Can you trace back the espionage?" Naoko asked.

"His last trip to Texas was early last year," Henry shook his head as he explained, "and there's no way I could get a search warrant on Gulf and Bradly from a US judge." He continued grimly, "Obviously I'll keep digging but..."

"We'll do what we can to help," Leon offered.

"I might have something for you, eventually," Naoko added. As everyone looked at her she continued, "I finally got a Judge's warrant to go into Brian Mason's home computers. Of course, there are some issues."

"What?" Daley wondered.

"Well, for one a LOT of the files appear to be encrypted," Naoko sighed, "so we'll have to break that first. Second, someone else cracked the computers first."

"What!" Leon yelped.

"Our experts thing someone raided the system not long after Mason got killed," Naoko added, "and did a complete copy of the system. Might be a master hacker."

In another part of town, Nene Romanova sneezed suddenly.

"What?" Sylia asked, the two women in bed together in their new apartment.

"Nothing," Nene smirked, "let's get back to it..."

Back at the police station, Henry frowned. "Doesn't that mean any evidence we do find in Mason's files is tainted?"

"We couldn't take it to court," Naoko agreed, "any good defence attorney would argue the information could have been edited by the hacker."

"Well, hopefully once it's decrypted we'll get a motive," Leon sighed.

"Does anyone not think it was ordered by Quincy himself, cleaning up a loose end?" Naoko asked everyone wryly.

No one argued that point.

"Well, since he's already dead," Leon said, referring to Quincy, "our job is just trying to find out who the hitman was."

"Or men. Could be a team," Daley teased.

"I suppose what bugs me is how the drugs angle fits in," Naoko admitted. "Not only did someone kill him, but they staged a realistic drug habit for him, basically throwing away thousands of dollars of product."

"That's not a cheap hit," Leon agreed.

"Well, if it really was Quincy behind it, he wouldn't care how much it cost," Henry pointed out to them reasonably.

"The other thing that bothers me is, Mason had the best home security money could buy. But somehow someone got in to plant the fake evidence," Daley observed, "so how? Who had the access codes? Did someone at the security company itself assist?"

"Also probably in the encrypted mess of files," Naoko sighed.

"If you do crack it, I'd be curious to know if the encryption was in place before or after he died," Leon mused aloud. "If it was before, it's security. If it was after... was someone hiding evidence, maybe?" he wondered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Later that week, the sun was shining down on the venue chosen for the service for Quincy Rosenkroitz.

The funeral for Quincy was well attended, though admittedly it was mostly the rich and well known rather than his relatives and friends. A priest gave a generic service, several people spoke who had recieved charitable help via his donations, and Sylia gave a short speech.

"I'm surprised they roped you into that," Reika Chang noted after the ceremony. She and Sylia were there along with other department heads from Genom.

"Well, he was a friend of my father," Sylia sighed.

"Closed casket funeral, too," Priss noted as she kept a wary eye out, "was he that messed up from the attack?"

Nene shook her head, "They removed his cybernetics in the autopsy process. Putting the remains back together enough for a viewing was impossible."

"He was that cyborged up?" Reika looked surprised.

"Nearly a third of his body was, yes," Sylia answered calmly.

Linna asked, "Are we going to the burial too?"

"No, I'm not going that far...," Sylia admitted. Also, the graveyard was out in the open and a perfect target for snipers and such.

"Incoming," Priss warned as a familiar figure walked up to the group.

Saeko Busujima looked dangerously sexy even dressed in funeral black. The dress was modest, but it clearly couldn't manage to dampen down her figure. She reached the small group, nodding to Sylia respectfully.

"Miss Busujima," Sylia nodded.

"Miss Stingray," Saeko smiled sadly, "I'm terribly sorry for your loss."

Sylia nodded, "Thank you for your sympathies."

"It was a lovely service. Your speech was especially well done," Saeko added politely, clearly aware that Genom probably organized the service.

Priss had to fight an obvious eye roll. GOD Saeko clearly had it for Sylia bad. Or just wanted her money, probably...

"I also wish to apologize, again, for how poorly the fundraiser you attended went," Saeko added somewhat wryly. An employee of hers had a long standing grudge against Priss Asagiri, and attempted to avenge himself there. Thankfully, he only landed one punch.

"It's not your fault," Sylia waved that off.

"This is probably not the time to bring this up," Saeko admitted, "but we are holding another event in a few weeks..."

Sylia just gave her a look.

"The invitation is likely at your office," Saeko managed to continue, "excuse me."

After she left Nene gave a pained sigh. "That woman is just shameless...," she muttered. She looked up at Sylia, "Is she after your ass or your money?"

Sylia nearly choked as Linna, Reika and Priss chuckled.

"I suspect both," Reika said. "Someone needs to tell her about Nene," she teased.

"Heh," Priss snickered as Sylia blushed.

To be continued...

Notes: Naoko is actually just a side character and co-worker of Nene's in canon. Henry Horiuchi is a BGC voice actor who's name I swiped. There's just too few named cops in the series!