Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded

「You say you saw Nyath, but we have no way to undeniably confirm that. There’s no way there are any security cameras or anything in an apartment complex as trashy as this, and neither me nor O’Neill or Kenny have ever seen Nyath’s face. I don’t mean to say that you imagined it, but…」 「No way. But I was completely sure that…」

Tilarna cut her words short, and lowered her gaze. Perhaps she was starting to doubt her own memories.

「I don’t even know what’s going on anymore」

Zimmer sighed

「In any case, if Nyath is alive, we need to profile him as soon as possible. To hell with discretion. We need to investigate the current situation thoroughly」

Tilarna was taken aback and she raised her head

「Boss, that’s just…」 「What? You yourself said that you saw him. I won’t go as far as to call him a suspect, but there’s no doubt he’s an important participant… Matoba, can you look up Nyath’s particular traits?」 「Yes. I’ll get that ready right away」

Matoba called the headquarters with his mobile phone, and shortly after asking about Nyath’s particular physical traits, he received the physical profiling. Race, age, height and weight. The clothes he was last seen wearing.

「What about the Sherwood High undercover mission?」

Said Tilarna. Zimmer looked at Matoba as if wanting an explanation for it, so while he was still talking on the phone, he simply mouthed “let her do it”. Zimmer looked troubled, but ultimately he hesitantly nodded several times and said

「Keep it up. This is clearly connected to Norune, and everything. However, don’t go around spying and pushing yourself too hard with all sorts of stuff. If any kind of trouble pops up at any point, we’ll abort it.」 「… Understood」 「Don’t expect to come up with any results」

With that line, one of the forensic investigators said

「We found an incendiary timed device」

It was blackened and charred, but with a cooking timer, a 9 volt battery, and parts of a lighter, it was a device that even a high school student could make. Matoba finished giving instructions through the phone to the headquarters, and hung up.

「The preparations are done. I had Cami and Jamie head over to Nyath’s house」 「Well that’s good, isn’t it?」 「Eh, they’ll find out right away that he’s just a regular high school student. There’s no way he’s this murder mastermind」

~o~O~o~

Contrary to Matoba’s expectations, Nyath Maybell was not home. Cami and Jamie, full names detective Cameron Estefan, and detective Jamie Austin, drove over to the Maybell household in North Zalze near New Compton on a red BMW M3.

「Hey, aren’t we sticking out a lot?」

Jamie muttered as the car was slowing down.

「I just can’t feel at ease with outfits as colorful as these in this traditional, conservative neighborhood.」

Both of them were heading back home from “work”, so they were wearing prostitute outfits. Highly revealing tight miniskirts and short pants. With a high emphasis on their breasts and their cleavages. Cami’s dark skin and Jamie’s light skin were both glistening below the street lamps.

「We should’ve definitely changed clothes before coming here…」 「What are you talking about? It would’ve been more than an hour going all the way back to the office from Metsera. We had no choice」 「But you know what, Cami? A friend from high school lives in the area. If she for some reason saw me wearing an outfit like this, it would turn into a pretty bad rumour」

Jamie took her Gucci handbag, and started frantically trying to cover her butt and upper thighs with it. Even when working undercover for the Special Vice Squad, Jamie would stand on a street corner acting embarrassed, but it seemed like that was actually even more popular with men. Her conviction rate was even larger than the more serious and traditionally sexy Cami, just standing around bashfully.

She wasn’t particularly jealous or anything, but she did find the direction in which the modern day male tastes were heading, somewhat maniacal. That’s what Cami thought.

「Forget that, let’s get going… Ah, how annoying. That Kei, he’s always pushing these lame situations onto us」

Cami complained as they kept heading towards the Maybell household entrance.

「It’s not Kei’s fault. Besides, I feel like he’s always looking after us and all」

Jamie defended him

「You totally have a sweet spot for him though. If you asked me, though, Kei Matoba is the embodiment of male chauvinism itself. He’s always behaving like your typical tough guy. A guy with a mountain full of stupidity. He’s absolutely the type that would say “ah, let’s have the women do that bullshit job, since it’s safe”」 「I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t say something like that, Cami. The guy has been facing dangerous situations nonstop, and he’s also looking after Tilarna, isn’t he?」 「Which would be fine if he wasn’t a fucking pedo」 「Cami!」 「Ah, yeah yeah, I’m sorry. It was a joke. Tilarna is a good girl, and I think I would be doing the same thing in his position」 「Having her wear some underwear you bought at a sex shop?」 「No, that was us that did that」 「But that was cute, wasn’t it? She has a smooth skin and a great butt, so it looked really good on her」 「Yeah you’re right. But I feel like she could use with a little more volume on her, and then she would look great but… wait, we weren’t talking about this in the first place, right?」

Cami sighed. Jamie was an excellent detective, and a good friend, but the only thing that worried her was how fond she had gotten of that Kei Matoba guy. She wouldn’t go as far as calling him a good-for-nothing, but he was no doubt the kind of guy you didn’t want to date. He was trouble. Cami’s father was the same kind of person. He was stubborn, a typical macho, sarcastic… far from being simply a considerate and kind guy towards women. In any case he was a man that reeked of olden times.

Well, when talking about people’s tastes, to each their own, and besides she wasn’t just going to start meddling in other people’s affairs about things like that.

They got to the Maybell’s front door, and Jamie said

「What time is it right now?」 「00:22」 「Hey Cami. Can we pass as policemen knocking at a time like this?」 「We are policemen! Pull yourself together」 「… You’re right, yeah. But I’m sure they’ll think we’re some kind of sketchy delivery massage service or something. Pizza places are already closed and everything」 「Shut up」

Cami knocked, and after waiting for about 30 seconds, the door opened, and Mr. Maybell appeared. He looked at the two beautiful women, raised his eyebrows and said

「Ah… I’m sorry, but I think you knocked at the wrong house. We haven’t ordered any massage services or anything like that, really…」

See? I told you

Jamie said with her eyes. Cami ignored that, and she pulled out her badge from her handbag and showed it to him.

「Mister Maybell? Excuse us for knocking this late at night. I’m officer Estefan from the San Teresa Police Department. And this right here is officer Austin. There’s something we want to ask you about the explosion incident in Corin」 「We- we may look like this but we’re real police officers! Look, we have to do a lot of undercover missions and well」

Jamie interrupted from the side

「You shut up」 「But Cami!」 「Just leave it! … Ah, forgive me. The one we want to question is your son, actually」

Mr. Maybell heard what they had to say, and got really worried

「Nyath?」 「Yes. Is he at home?」 「Of course. I saw that incident on the news earlier today but… Nyath has been at home all along. He even had dinner with us. Are you sure you’re not mistaken?」 「We can’t say anything yet. Please tell him to come」 「But-」 「Please. This is something extremely important for our investigation」

She was asking him in an extremely serious manner, but he still couldn’t hide his distrust for the two women

「Forgive me, but can you show me your badge and ID again please? I’ve heard I have a right to do that」 「Of course. Here you go」

So it would come to that after all… Cami presented both her badge and ID to him, after pulling them out of the tiny notebook she kept them in. She wasn’t very comfortable with it, since her ID picture was extremely unflattering, so she would avoid showing it to other people. On top of the thick glasses, there were the crooked teeth, the unkempt hair, and a terrible uniform.

「That doesn’t look like you」 「Yeah I get that a lot. However, as I’ve kept fulfilling my duties, I’ve found the need to look like this…」

Right then, Jamie interrupted

「Mr. Maybell, it’s okay. Officer Estefan used to be a literary club introvert type of girl. She used to write Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock romantic fanfiction, and-」

This time, she really thought she was going to beat her partner to death.

「Please shut your mouth」 「But Cami-」 「Leave it. We’ll talk about this very thoroughly later」

After replying with a murderous tone, she directed herself toward Mr. Maybell once again.

「Excuse us, Mr. Maybell. Would you like to check Officer Austin’s ID as well?」 「No, that’s okay. Your badge looks real」

Mr. Maybell returned Cami’s wallet.

「Thank you very much. Well then, would you please call Nyath?」 「But as I told you earlier, my son had nothing to do with that incident. Besides, he has to go to school tomorrow, so I would like to know what to do after you have had your time to talk to him…」

So that was why he was opposed to it. A serious parent would of course try to protect his own son. He wouldn’t just go all “ah yeah, certainly” about the situation.

「If you still insist on not calling Nyath, we will have to end up using legal means to get his side of the story. This kind of conversation will also be recorded, and it may end up affecting his criminal record in the long run. At this stage, he’s only one of many names that have come up during the investigation, but if you keep insisting like this, his file will have a “refused to cooperate with investigation” annotation. And we do not want that either, to be honest」

Although she was speaking gently and politely, her words were a clear threat. Cami knew very well that this sort of procedure was necessary sometimes. Surely Matoba did it as well. Basically, she knew that if it were Matoba who was trying to get information from Nyath’s parents, he would do it that way as well, which is why he sent Jamie and her. Instead of going over there with his tough looking face, he would have those two gals go so everything would transpire much more smoothly.

Which is why she hated him…

Mr. Maybell’s pupils changed in fear, fortunately he seemed like a reasonable man. Without further complaining, he turned to his wife who was observing everything from behind, and told her to “call Nyath”. The woman hesitated for a second and then nodded, and went quickly to the second floor.

「But Miss detective. My son was home the whole time. He’s a child completely clean of any crimes. On what basis did his name come up?」 「Someone claims to have seen your son at the scene」 「Who? Give me a break…」 「I cannot tell you the details. We don’t really believe that your son is the culprit either. I understand how you feel, but please coopera-」 「Stan」

Ms. Maybell called out to him after rushing down from the second floor. Her voice was restless, and her eyes were full of fear.

「What happened? Where’s Nyath?」 「He’s not here. Seems like he went out the window at some point… ah… darling, what are we going to do? He is not here. I looked everywhere!」

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