Editing The Sevant Murders (section)

===The Murderer Questioned===

(USS Nimitz - Security Office - TAC/ASC Lt. Stolev & SciO Ens. Richard Collins
- Day 7 - 2406.03.09.1757)

Mission: Burial Grounds, Day 7
Stardate 2406.03.09

Sasha looked up at the sound of the doors to the main office opening, and he walked out of his office to see two security officers escorting a bound science officer into the lobby.  He glanced down at the PADD he was holding which displayed Ensign Collins's Starfleet bio.

"Where do you want him, Lieutenant?" asked one of the officers.

Sasha jerked his head towards the conference room.  "In there."

Richard looked up at the speaker with sullen, hopeless eyes. ~Maybe, just maybe, he knows nothing and only suspects.~

Sasha watched as they maneuvered the prisoner into the conference room, then walked over there himself.  "You two wait outside.  No interruptions, got it?"

"Aye sir."

~Wonderful,~ thought Richard.

Sasha walked in, the door to the conference room closing behind him.  The young officer stood near the corner, sweat already beginning to bead up on his forehead.  The temperature setting was the only part of the interrogation program that was currently active, but the other components could be activated individually with a simple voice command or keystroke at the control console.

Sasha gestured towards Collins's bound hands.  "You won't be needing those any more."  He walked over and unlocked the manacles.  "Have a seat," he said, indicating the wooden chair near one of the other corners, far enough away from the table and walls so that Collins would have nothing to lean against to make himself more comfortable.  Every spot of Sasha's body language was carefully designed to clearly convey that he was in complete control of the situation and did not feel threatened in the least by being alone in the presence of a multiple homicide suspect.

Richard rubbed at his hands as they were released from the magnetic bonds, and took a moment to look around the room as he sat in the highly uncomfortable chair. Things were not looking hopeful; he had seen something like this not too long ago. 

"So, Ensign Collins," began Sasha.  "Richard, isn't it?  Do you know why you are here, Richard?"

Rich licked his lips, and shrugged his shoulders. "You know my name as well as I do, you can drop the pretence of trying to get to know me. And yes, I know perfectly well why I am here: two of your brutes managed to manhandle me up four decks in manacles. I wouldn't have chosen to come on my own, I assure you." He shifted in his seat, "And your chair is broken, though I trust that is on purpose."

A mischevious glint appeared in Sasha's eyes.  "No, the chair is not broken.  I designed it especially for... certain uses."  His eyes narrowed, the smile leaving them although it remained plastered artificially on his face.  "So, Richard.  Why did you run from the security officers?  You realize that it makes you look... well, a bit guilty, doesn't it?"

Richard grinned at the Security officer, although the grin was filled with false humor. "I started, um, 'running' before Security had even entered the room. I trust you can look at the sensor logs from the Science labs to see that. I'm afraid I had to use the restroom, ate some bad chili or something."
He wiggled his eyebrows. "Your security officers walked in just as I was walking out. I do hope I will have a chance to apologize to the one I barreled over. I didn't have an opportunity while running out into the hall, and they were most rude about chasing me down for the action."

He shifted in the chair again. "If this is how you interrogate officers under suspicion for assaulting two security guards, if you want to call it that as I had something of a small emergency to take care of, then I shudder to think what you would do for a suspect accused of Murder or Treason."
 
The grin faded from his face, to be replaced with the closest thing to an expressionless look that he could muster.

"Bad chili, huh?"  Sasha leaned back against the table.  "I suppose I could call up all the replicator logs and see whether or not you ordered chili in the past few hours, but that seems an awful waste of time to me."  He looked Richard up and down.  "You certainly seem to be feeling better now, and I can't imagine my officers let you go into a bathroom on the way here."

Richard cocked his head to the side. "Amazing the effect that being chased, cuffed and drug around the ship will do to one's priorities, isn't it? I suppose my bladder decided I had more important things to do."

Sasha chuckled, but decided that this particular tact was not one he wanted to pursue further.  "Well, anyway, that's not really relevant."  He picked up one of the PADDs he had brought in, the one that contained Richard's biographical information.  "So, Richard.  I see you've only been aboard for a few months.  I also see that your family seems to have disappeared and is being searched for by Earth Security."  He watched Richard closely for any reaction to this news. 
"Were you aware of this?"

Richard's face did melt into completely expressionless guise this time, so long had he worked at blocking that memory. Several seconds passed, then he chewed on his lip and looked down. "Yes, I'm more than aware my wife and child are missing. I've a request in my quarters that I've been fighting not to turn in, for a leave of absence so I can go search for them, as if there was anything I could do."

He looked back up, "And just what does my missing family have to do with running two security guards over, or do you simply enjoy reminding me of things I can't change?" His voice fell half an octave, only just loud enough to hear.
"The thought already gives me enough pain, your efforts are unnecessary."  His voice quivered with visible pain, and his form slumped into the chair as much as was possible.

Sasha was reaching for the other PADD on the table when he felt a slight jolt through the deck plates.  He frowned slightly, but then picked up the PADD.  He was opening his mouth to ask his next question when the door chime interrupted.

Sasha let an exasperated sigh and walked to the door and opened it to admit a worried looking officer.  "I said NO interruptions!  This had better be damned important."

The officer leaned in and spoke quietly into Sasha's right ear so that his lips were shielded from Collins.  "The ship's been attacked.  A Romulan warbird decloaked, fired a low-power disruptor beam at the secondary subspace transmitter array, then recloaked immediately.  No other damage, but the array was destroyed."

Sasha stared at him as the information sunk in.  "Ok... make sure someone good is manning the tactical station on the bridge.  I'll be there as soon as I can to relieve him, but I've got to finish here first."

The other officer nodded and stepped back so the doors could shut.  Sasha looked blankly at them before turning back to his prey.  "Well, Richard. 
Something's come up, so I'm afraid we'll have to cut to the chase."  He tossed the PADD to Richard and sat on the edge of the table closest to him, leaning forward.  "You're a science officer.  Do you recognize the report on this PADD?"

Rich looked closely at Sasha for several moments, then bent forward to pick up the PADD. He scanned it for a few seconds, then tossed it back onto the table. 
"I'm not a medical officer, but that looks a lot like a DNA workup, and I would assume it's mine from the name on the report." He looked back up with a raised eyebrow, "And...what about it?"

"You'll never guess where this DNA came from.  But we'll get back to that." 
Sasha stood up and slowly walked away from Richard before suddenly turning around.  "Do you know a woman named Vicki Sevant?"

Rich went cold, but showed nothing. "I love a mystery..." he said, followed with, "I know the name, First Officer's wife and Assistant Ops Officer." 

He kept his answers short, simple, lest the tremble he felt inside betray him. 

Sasha smiled.  "I love a mystery too, Richard.  Especially when the pieces are falling into place."  He walked forward and leaned down so that his face was only a foot away from Richard's.  "Tell me, did you know that Vicki Sevant and her two children were murdered this afternoon?"

Rich pulled his head back by instinct. "I would appreciate you keeping a distance, if you don't mind," he said with displeasure as he quickly gathered his wild thoughts back under his control. He decided to change tactics. "I'm going to assume from your line of questioning that you believe I commited these, uh, murders." He once again cocked his head to the side. "Since I just found out about these murders not more then twenty seconds ago, I do hope my assumption is wrong."

Sasha raised his eyebrows and leaned back.  "Really?  That's amazing, considering..."  As he spoke, he moved over to the table and tapped a key at a console there.  The lights dimmed, except for a very bright spotlight which shone on Richard's chair.  "Your DNA was found on Vicki Sevant's cheek.  A teardrop.  One that, according to forensic evidence, was deposited there around the time of her death."  He walked quickly over until he was standing directly in front of Richard, to discourage any notion of running that his captive might have.  "Care to explain that?"

Rich pushed his hands together and weaved his fingers together in a very careful move that bought him a few seconds to think. He was being trapped, very well in fact. D*mn that tear he had shed, it could cost him and his family everything!

He sighed theatrically, and put up a hand to block the light. "I've had my time in the sun, thank you," he commented. "I can imagine someone would enjoy framing someone else for a murder, that's a common theme." He looked directly at Sasha. "Of course, tampering with evidence or improper retrieval procedures could also be an issue here. Just how careful were you with that 'tear' in your haste to find a culprit? It would be fairly easy to either contaminate the evidence... Or plant it." He attempted a small knowing smile, though he couldn't be sure if he pulled it off, so he quickly wiped it from his face.

Quick as a cat, Sasha grabbed Richard's arms and pulled them behind the chair, sticking the manacles back on his wrists, winding them through the supports of the chair back so that he was quite attached.  "This'll be much easier for both of us if you just cooperate, eh?" he muttered as Richard struggled against his unexpected bonds.  Sasha grabbed one of Richard's legs and yanked his boot off.
A quick pass with a tricorder confirmed it; there were traces of blood in the soles, blood whose DNA matched all three of the murder victims.

Sasha leaned back in and showed the results of the scan to Richard.  "My my, Richard, you were rather sloppy.  Didn't realize all that blood would make such a mess, did you?  I bet in your hurry to get out of the room, you didn't notice that you had stepped in it, did you?"

Richard ignored the security officer as he stopped his worthless effort and closed his eyes. Very gently, very methodically, he began testing every conceivable position that he could manage in trying to get out. It was menial, it was hopeless, but it managed to keep most of the images out of his mind of his recent excursions at the behest of the nameless lady that had his family in her clutches.

Sasha pulled back the tricorder.  "Now, Richard.  Let's be reasonable.  You and I both know you did this.  There's no sense denying it anymore.  And while this is a horrible thing, I realize that there are other forces at work here.  Now I highly doubt that you have the expertise or the knowledge of how to bypass the security mechanisms, the transporter locks, and the internal sensors.  So you must be working for someone."

Sasha leaned back against the edge of the table.  "You know, if you cooperate with us now, it will certainly reflect favorably on you at your court-martial. 
And if whoever you're working for is coercing you... maybe they have something to do with your missing family?  Those could also be extenuating circumstances.
So what do you say, Richard?  You help me, and I'll help you."  He leaned forward, a menacing look on his face.  "Of course, if you don't help me, I can also make things very difficult for you."

Richard paused in his activities, and looked up at Sasha with a face of disdain. "Let me speak plainly. You think you have pieced together this whole puzzle, but your last statement made it clear to me that you are mostly guessing at whatever motivations you think I might have had if I did indeed do this act. So I will ask you this counter-question; if I'm being coerced because of my missing family and possibly what could happen to them if I failed, then just what the hell do you think you could possibly do to me to make things even more difficult then they already are?"

Sasha regarded him for a moment.  "Funny you should ask that."  He wandered over to the arms locker in the room, opened it, and pulled out a phaser.  He casually played with the controls while he regarded Richard.  "Have you ever had a phaser set to light stun discharged at the base of your skull?  It's not enough to knock you unconscious, but I understand it is excruciatingly painful."

He walked around Richard's chair, casually resting the phaser against the back of the other man's neck.  "Now, this is what I suggest, Richard.  You help me by telling me everything you know.  I help you by sending you on your way.  I let it slip to a number of people that you had a plausible explanation and that you've been cleared of suspicion.  You can rejoin your accomplice and continue to work towards accomplishing whatever is on his or her agenda.  We'll of course be monitoring you, every step of the way.  We'll eventually catch the bigger fish, the one for whom you're working, and perhaps work out a similar arrangement, until we get all the way to the top.  How does that sound?"

Richard pushed against the phaser slightly, thinking as straight as he could as guilt and fear ran through his veins. He rapidly ran through his options:
either being stunned or following through with the suggestion. He could always get turned loose and point out Sasha to be killed next, but he rapidly threw that thought away; he would probably be the one chosen for that and he wasn't sure he could stay sane if he pulled off another murder. 

He licked dry lips, and said quietly, "You realize if that story doesn't sit right and I am not believed, that I will be the next found in a passageway, and my family will soon be found Earth-side with holes in their heads."

Sasha nodded, feeling the first actual twinge of sympathy for the man before him, as he lowered the phaser and walked back around in front of Richard.  "I understand.  That's why, after you tell me everything you know, you and I will work out a story that will sit right with everyone, so that there will be no discrepancies."  He sat on the edge of the table and set the phaser down.  "So, do we have a deal?"

Richard closed his eyes, and his whole frame crumpled slightly. He rubbed his cheek against his shoulder, and said just above a whisper, "I've never seen the face of my... boss. The voice is female, the frame small, and she is always cloaked. She always manages to get into my quarters and leave a small yellow rose on the table when she wants to meet." He suddenly chuckled, a sound just a step over a sob. "A reminder you see, I wrapped my wife's wedding ring around a yellow rose. These people know me, they know my past, they know as much or more about my life as I do. I digress however, once I have that sign I always go walking the corridors, she finds me." 

He looked up. "She gave me a PADD with command codes, and executable programs, to get into Sevant's quarters and to remotely operate the transporters. The PADD was erased at use and I long since disposed of it." He face was drawn and his jaw working as he lapsed into silence. "You had better d*mned well be good at what you do, Lieutenant. I've lived very carefully for a year, requested transfer here at the appropriate time, I've lived in fear of failing or offending whatever contact I happen to have. If you kill my wife and child..."
He broke off, unable to finish the sentence, not even really knowing what he wanted to say. 

Sasha nodded in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.  "Don't worry.  I am very good at what I do."  He reached around behind the chair and unfastened the restraints.  "We'll monitor your quarters for a yellow rose appearing.  We'll of course see if we can determine who it was that left the rose, but we'll also monitor you once you retrieve it and begin your walk through the ship, in hopes that your boss will slip up and reveal herself to us whenever she makes contact with you."

He sat in one of the more comfortable chairs at the table and tapped the buttons to return the lighting and temperature of the room to normal.  "You may have a seat here if you like," he said, indicating one of the padded conference chairs.  "I'm sure it's more comfortable.  Now, here's our story.  We brought you in here not because of a DNA test, whose results will shortly find themselves deleted from the computer, but because internal sensors recorded you in that corridor near the times of the murders.  We wanted to ask you if you had seen anything.  You hadn't.  Having no other evidence to link you to the crime, we had to let you go."

Sasha leaned back.  "If you have any suggestions that would make the story more believable to your boss, feel free to make them.  This room is soundproof and immune to all forms of eavesdropping."

Richard once again closed his eyes and forced himself to think straight. "You should keep your pet security officers very quiet about me running from them, and that lab assistant as well." He leaned his head back and took a deep breath. Slowly he let it out, ragged as it was. "And be very discreet with your following of me; these people are good, whoever they are."

Sasha nodded.  "Our following of you will be mostly electronic, using nothing more than the normal operations of the ship's internal sensors; we'll just be paying more attention to the ones monitoring your location.  There will of course be security officers posted throughout the ship, but that's a normal response to a murder on board, so it shouldn't cause any suspicion.  And don't worry, my officers are very discreet.  They'll understand what's at stake, if not for you personally than at least for the investigation as a whole."

The Science officer nodded a couple times, dumbly. "Then I had better get out of here quick; if it takes too long then that will also make the wrong people wonder." He opened his eyes and looked at the Security officer, his face a mask. 

Sasha nodded and stood up.  "Good luck, Richard."  He led the way over to the door.  "You wait here.  I'll talk to the officers."  The door opened and Sasha had a quick word with both officers in hushed tones, then came back in. 
"Everything's all set here.  You are dismissed, Ensign."

Richard didn't answer right away as he stepped out of the room. He looked around, squeezed his eyes tight shut and opened them again. "Well, thank you officer," he said out loud, just in case. "I do hope you find that killer, the b*stard deserves death for three murders, more if you include the unborn kids."
He gave a glance at Sasha, then broke eye contact. 

Sasha nodded in reply.  "We will do our best.  And if you'll excuse me, I am due on the bridge."  Sasha ducked into his office, reassembled his uniform, and headed for the doorway.  To the bridge, naturally, but with a quick detour to the science lab where, according to the computer, Louise Palmer was still doing her research.

(posted by Trout & Aaron Scifres)