Without A Trace
Posted on Wed Mar 1st, 2023 @ 6:20am by Commander Mashiro Munetani "Shiro" & Lieutenant Luna Eclipse of the House of Martok
Mission:
When on Risa...
Location: Pau'Aulani Resort- Main Lobby
Timeline: Approximately 5 minutes after "He's Dead, Jim"
There was already a feeling of dread lingering in the air as Hiromi and Luna made their way down to the front desk. Given the circumstances, the resort staff was doing the best they could to assuage guest concerns and maintain some form of order around here, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that something was up. It was practically a matter of time before the guests were going to start pressing staff members for questions, so if Hiromi and Luna had any chance of gathering some information, they were going to have to act quickly.
Luna's gut tightened at the heightened fear in the hotel. "The fear in here is going to make our job that much harder you know," Luna spoke softly so as not to catch anyone's attention.
They found the manager pacing just outside the fitness center, practically chewing his nails to the quick as he anxiously awaited any further developments.
"Um, excuse me...?" Hiromi began, trying to get the manager's attention.
The manager turned with a start- clearly, he was so riled up about this whole situation that any sudden interruption to his train of thought was enough to startle him.
"W-What can I get you two ladies?" he began, adjusting his tie and attempting to look composed.
"Actually, the two of us are with Starfleet," Hiromi proceeded to inform him. "We're working with Miss Misaki in regards to Lieutenant Kennedy's murder, and we were wondering if we could speak with the security guards who were on duty earlier this morning?"
The manager's eyes darted around nervously as he checked to make sure that no one was listening in.
"They're all gathered in the break room at the moment," he motioned. "Follow me."
Luna quietly followed the other two, keeping her eyes and ears open for anything that was out of place...and hoping she was wrong when the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up.
"You nervous?" Hiromi whispered, sounding a little uneasy herself.
"Yeah...something doesn't feel right, but I can't put my finger on what," Luna whispered back, trying not to swivel her head but also see everywhere at once.
The Manager proceeded to usher them into the break room, where the security guards and cleaning staff were huddled nervously around one big table in the center.
"I'm telling you," one of them could be heard whispering. "When I made my rounds at three, there was nothing; you could've heard a pin drop on the carpet, it was that quiet."
"Gentlemen," the manager interjected. "These two ladies here are from Starfleet, and they'd like to ask a few questions regarding what you were doing in the hours leading up to our guest's... demise. We're not saying that anyone here has done anything wrong, but anything you might have seen or heard that morning will go a long way into
helping them resolve this matter."
"Any volunteers?" Hiromi added.
A redheaded, freckle-faced kid blanched at the mention of what the two women were. Luna caught the color change and nudged Hiromi.
"Anything you wanna say, Braxton?" Luna asked as she walked over to then behind the youth.
"Nnothing Ma'am, except to confirm what Tom, er, Lt. Martines, said about it being WAY to quiet," Braxton was shivering slightly.
"You'd better spill the beans, bucko, or it's curtains for your career!" Luna grabbed Braxton's shoulder's and yanked him back against the chair, exacting a frightened gasp from the women at the table.
"Back off, blondie!" Another man stood up, his black eyes flashing.
Luna whirled on the Betazoid, matching his fire with her own.
"You call me 'blondie' one more time, Bubbah, and I'll knock your teeth in," Luna squared off with the Security Officer, hands on her hips and ready to cut the imp down to size.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Down, girl!" Hiromi shouted. "Let's just calm down for a second and go about this rationally: these guys are likely anxious that a guest died on their watch, and are probably scared shitless that they might lose their job because of all this; we just gotta be the voice of reason and assure them that we're only doing what we can to help."
Luna turned away from the Betazoid, exhaling a frustrated breath as she took a seat away from the still fuming Betazoid and terrified Braxton.
"Right," Hiromi sighed, before turning to Braxton and smiling. "Braxton, I believe she said your name was? What's say we have a seat? I promise to keep my accomplice's temper in check."
Braxton resettled in his chair, shivering as he kept glancing at Luna. The Betazoid lowered himself into a chair in the corner, giving Luna the stink eye, which she returned in kind.
"So," Hiromi began, taking a seat herself. "I take it you're a security guard working the early-morning shift? Can you tell me what part of the resort you were patrolling this particular morning?"
"Well, I started in the West Wing, then made my way over to the Central common area...then wandered around for the last fifteen of my shift. There's been a few times we've been short staffed, so every once in awhile we walk outside of our zone for the last little bit of our shift to make sure everyone's ok," Braxton had calmed somewhat, but still looked ready to bolt at any second.
"Did you observe anything particularly out of the ordinary?" Hiromi remarked. "Anyone you may have encountered, any strange noises you might have heard?"
"Um, there was a couple going to the beach...not weird except that neither were dressed for the beach. I heard something like...static? I don't know...I heard it right after I lost sight of the couple," Braxton picked up a cup and took a sip of water, which Luna noted was shaking dispite Braxton being calm otherwise.
"Okay, that's something, Hiromi replied, pulling out her PADD to jot down some notes. "Was there anything that leapt out to you about this couple? Any distinctive facial features or jewelry that they appeared to be wearing?"
"Well...the man was wearing a grey suite, almost like 20th century Earth gangsters and the woman was wearing a red...I think they called it a flapper dress? Something like that," Braxton's answer almost seemed rehearsed to Luna...but she could have been seeing/hearing things.
"Mhmm... I see," Hiromi nodded, quickly jotting the description down before swiveling around to face the manager.
"Would you mind one too terribly if I had a look at the CCTV footage?" she inquired. "I'd like to see if I can identify this couple at approximately the time at which Braxton encountered them."
"Be my guest," the manager replied, gesturing to a door off in the corner. "The office is right through that door over there."
"Thanks," Hiromi replied, before shifting her attention over to Luna. "I'm going to go peruse the the CCTV footage. Can I trust you to continue interrogating these guys without killing anyone?"
Luna grinned wickedly as she caught sight of the staff member's faces palling. "I think I can manage that, Ma'am," Luna kept her voice even and low, not letting those around her know how much she wanted to laugh at how scared they were cause they thought she was a crazy loose cannon that would attack them the minute Hiromi left.
"So, who wants to talk first?" Luna asked, folding her hands on the table in front of her.
"Why should we talk to some nobody kid like you?" It was the Betazoid again...
"Because if you don't, I'll colecock you and hand your unconscious butt over to the authorities myself," Luna answered softly as she slowly stood and made her way over to him. When she was within arm's reach, she stopped for a split second, then, like lightning, had the Betazoid on the floor with her D'tahg to his throat.
"I told my superior that I wouldn't kill anyone...but roughing you up isn't out of the picture. Now, do you have anything to add?" Luna hiss as she stood up and looked down at him.
"There was a group of teenagers that I caught trying to skinny dip," The Betazoid's face went bright red.
Luna took a breath to hide the inappropriately timed snicker she wanted so badly to have.
"Ahem, so, you caught some skinny dippers...what did you do to them?" Luna asked.
"I hide my eyes and told them to go back to their rooms and get dressed before someone higher up in the food-chain caught them. I...I don't know what happened to them after that," The Betazoid, Kinet, scrunched down in his chair, finally at least a little scared of Luna and taking the situation seriously.
"Hm...anyone else see them?" Luna asked. Several heads nodded.
"I, um... I think I might have," one of the guards spoke up. "I distinctly remember spotting them out in the hallway, flagged them down, and asked what they were doing wandering the halls naked as a jaybird at three in the morning; told me that Kinet had sent them back to their rooms to get changed, so I tried contacting Kinet to get him to back up their story. It was around this time I heard... static, I think? it didn't sound like it was coming from his communicator or anything like that, more like it was a floor or two above me..."
Luna hummed softly...wondering what had caused the static sounds several people had mentioned.
"You know what... I think I heard static as well," another guard added, tugging at his collar nervously. "I must've been patrolling on floor three when I heard it. It was kinda muffled, like someone was running a holo-feed in one of the rooms, but... it kinda sounded like someone was speaking? I don't remember who it was or what they were talking about, but I do distinctly remember it sounded like a woman speaking in Bajoran."
"Bajoran you say? You wouldn't have happened to hear any words? Anything will be helpful," Luna had softened her voice a little...mainly because the women were shaking like leaves and she wanted to calm them. "You don't have to be scared of me...I'm actually quite nice when I'm not chasing son's of flat foreheaded Mothers," Luna hissed this last part...unable to keep her anger completely under control.
"Says the crazy Klingon lady who just threatened to rough me up..." Kinet mumbled under his breath.
"I didn't get a good listen," the other guard quickly spoke up, hoping Luna's attention would be redirected towards him and not towards lobbing Kinet across the break room. "Based on her tonal inflections, she sounded like she was giving some sort of religious speech, kind of like in one of those holovangelism programs I've heard are becoming popular, but I can't say for certain."
Luna silently nodded to the other guard, grateful he had noticed her growing anger toward Kinet.
"What of these 'holovangelism' programs? Do you think he might have been killed for religious purposes?" Luna asked, wondering how she could get ahold of one of those programs for further study.
"...I can't say," the guard admitted. "I mean, the only thing I've heard was that a guest was murdered in Room 63; it's usually not our business to be poking about our guests' personal lives."
The door to office opened and Hiromi emerged, evidently none the wiser about Luna's more... aggressive means of interrogation.
"I spotted the couple that Braxton was referring to, but the CCTV system went down for maitenance before I could get a good look at their faces," she sighed. "Also noticed some... naked people wandering around; any correlation you could find between them and Lieutenant Kennedy?"
Kinet snorted.
Luna forced down a snicker of her own.
"The naked group could have been a distraction...a very GOOD distraction at that. Also, several staff said that they heard static...could be when/why the cameras went off," Luna looked over the staff, wondering if one of them was the killer.
Hiromi nodded before shifting her attention to the manager. "Would it be alright with you if we were to take a copy of the CCTV footage with us for safe-keeping?"
"By all means," the manager insisted. "This entire resort's an active crime scene; just take whatever you feel is most prevalent to your investigation."
"Thanks," Hiromi smiled, before turning back to Luna. "Unless you'd like to follow a few more leads, Lieutenant, I think we've got plenty of evidence for Forensics to sift through once they get here."
"Sounds good to me, Hiromi...although...I kinda wish I could have five minutes alone with the louse after they catch them," Luna let out a soft snarl, causing several employees to shiver.
"Now, now," Hiromi muttered nervously. "there's a time and place for vigilantism; we just gotta make sure this investigation is followed through in accordance with our legal system...
Posting By (In Order Of Appearance):
Lieutenant Hiromi Kuroki
Assistant Chief Engineer, Starbase 12
Lieutenant Luna Eclipse, Daughter of Keth, Of The House Martok
Flight Control Officer, USS Wayfarer (NCC-72113)
Unnamed General Manager
Pau'Aulani Resort
Thomas Martines
Security Guard, Pau'Aulani Resort
Braxton
Security Guard, Pau'Aulani Resort
Kinet
Security Guard/Jackass, Pau'Aulani Resort
Unnamed Security Guard
Pau'Aulani Resort
