Chapter 1917: A Curious Case
Larissa was in front of her murder board when Ning got to the department. She was mulling over the facts that were presented before her. Ning looked over the board and saw a few pictures of dead goblins, along with a bunch of question marks.
Considering how little there was on the board, the case was likely still in the early stages.
She looked toward him as he came in, a look of surprise on her face. "The great Blackfang has graced us with his presence today," she said in a teasing voice.
"Shut it. I’ve been busy."
Ning pulled over a chair and looked at the photographs.
Larissa sat down next to him. "Two goblins, husband and wife, found in their apartment in the lower east district. No signs of forced entry. No signs of struggle, either, and somehow they both died."
"Cause of death?" Ning asked.
"Still waiting on the full report, but preliminary says cardiac issues."
Ning frowned. "For both?" he asked.
"That’s what’s puzzling about this case. One was in the living room, one in the kitchen. And yet, both die of the same cause. No suicide notes left behind at all, and all those we talked to said they were a happy couple. The husband had just received a promotion at work, so I don’t see it being suicide."
Ning couldn’t help but grow curious.
"Who found them?"
"Landlord. They were two weeks late on rent." She picked up her coffee from the side table, sipped a little, and grimaced as it had already gotten cold, placing it back down. "The Goblin community in that district is tight, so the pressure is a little high."
Ning looked at the picture with a slight frown on his face. He asked the System for some help, to show him what Valen would’ve noticed with his detective mind in this situation.
The system answered, and Ning’s eyes widened slightly.
He stood suddenly, placing his finger on the photograph. "How long were they dead?"
"Half a day before we were notified," Larissa said. "Why?"
"But the landlord said they hadn’t paid rent in 2 weeks, didn’t he?" Ning asked.
"Yeah, but rigor mortis hadn’t properly set in when we found them, so they couldn’t have been dead for more than half a day," she explained.
"That’s the strange part, isn’t it?" he asked. "Had they been seen for the past 2 weeks?"
"No," Larissa said, slowly realizing what she had also missed. "Wait, so they were dead for a while before we found them? But their bodies..."
She stopped herself, her eyes narrowing. "Someone kept their corpses fresh. But how?"
"Actually, I don’t think it’s that," Ning said. "Where are their corpses right now?"
"In the morgue, preparing for autopsy," Larissa said.
"Shit!" Ning stood up. "We need to stop it now."
"What?" Larissa panicked, looking back at the pictures. What had she missed?
"Come on already," Ning said. "Make the call."
Larissa nodded. Even though she didn’t understand what was happening, she trusted Ning. She quickly made the call.
"They’ve stopped. They were just about to start."
"Thank god," Ning said with a sigh. "If I’m right, we just stopped something horrible. Let’s go."
Larissa followed Ning behind, heading over to the morgue. As they arrived, the mortician walked out of the room, confused by the order he had just been given.
"What’s going on? Why was I stopped?" he asked.
"Did you start the autopsy?" Ning asked.
"No, I was just about to," the man said.
"Good. We just need to check something. If we’re wrong, you can continue," he said, walking past him. He entered the morgue and found one of the corpses lying atop a cold table.
Ning walked up to the corpse and touched the flesh. He feared what he thought might just be true.
"The morgue has a suppression device, right? Go activate it."
"The suppression device?" the mortician asked. "I need my powers to do the autopsy."
"Please, just do it."
Larissa nodded and quickly gave the order. Someone quickly went away, and the three waited.
<Suppression field activated>
"Urgh!" the mortician grumbled as he felt his powers drain away. "You better have a good explanation on—"
"ARGH!"
The goblin on the table screamed as he suddenly came alive.
"What the—!"
"Holy crap!"
Both the mortician and Larissa were surprised by the sudden resurrection of the goblin.
A muffled scream came next from where the corpses were kept along the wall. Ning quickly ran toward it and pulled one out, revealing the panicking female goblin who was under a white sheet.
"What... what’s going on? How are they alive?" the mortician asked.
Ning sighed in relief. "They were never dead."
They helped the two goblins get clothed first and explained what had happened to them.
"We were dead?" the male goblin asked.
"Not exactly," Ning said. "I believe one of you has awakened a new power. The power to freeze time itself."
"Power... to freeze time?" Larissa asked, quite surprised by the suggestion. "How did you come to that conclusion?"
"The clock on their wall," Ning said. "There were multiple pictures taken of them, but the second hand hadn’t moved in any of them. I checked the rest of the images and the logic followed. It was like the world had been stopped in time, as if a snapshot had been taken and left unattended."
He turned toward Larissa. "That’s why I asked about the rigor mortis. You said it hadn’t properly set in, which makes sense since an object frozen in time would show similar behavior. That’s why I had to come and check."
"If either of them were under the effects of a power, the suppression field would have stopped it and awakened them, which it did."
Larissa stared with wide eyes. She hadn’t come close to figuring that out.
"You have time powers?" she asked both the goblins, neither of whom could answer with any semblance of confidence.
"They are powerless, most likely, or you would’ve known already. It’s more likely that one of them awakened their powers and used them accidentally, freezing themselves. That is what made them appear dead."
