The Case of the Bloody Rug

Posted on 11 Feb 2015 @ 4:19am by Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Chief Petty Officer Pax Inyo
Edited on on 12 Feb 2015 @ 6:11am

2,121 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 3, Section Four
Timeline: MD42: 2005 hrs

[ ON ]

Olsam had given up trying to carry the rug. His arms were like rubber already from the strain of having that...woman...to Sickbay, so he'd just taken to pulling it down the corridor. It was easiest to walk (or waddle) backwards with it, though he'd nearly run into a crewman or two that way. Telling them he was on official Sickbay business seemed good enough to avoid any questions, or perhaps they just didn't want to be too worried about the business of a lieutenant and junior officer.

One watched the strangest things occur on the surveillance systems. For Gyce, she was watched ever now and then, simply because she had contacts galore she had to talk to, in regards to the ship's Romulan scientist.

It was by chance that one of those glances caught her eye on a messy rug, and a pudgy Bolian male trying to carry it. Gyce was very quick to track his badge, link it to her tricorder and head to his location.

By the time she arrived, she actually decided to cut corners and waited for Mott to push the rug past her, from a corridor she was sheltered by. And she had her phaser holstered but her cane caught the rug and unfolded it in the floor.

And all she did after that was fold her arms in front of her and watch his reaction to her sudden appearance.

Olsam cried out in alarm as the rug was yanked from his hands and stumbled backward from the momentum he'd built up. His eyes darted from the shadowed Gyce to the giant blood stain on the rug and back again. It was obvious to anyone with even basic forensic training, given the pattern and amount, that the stain was from a head wound. What was she even doing lurking around here, anyway? Is this what Security personnel did, hide in corridors and wait to jump out accusing people of heinous crimes?

"Oh, hi, Gyce," Olsam said, giving an exaggerated smile. Maybe he could throw her off with friendliness. "I haven't seen you in awhile, how have you been? Did you enjoy your shoreleave on the starbase? I did. Sorta. My family was here visiting."

"Hello Doctor Mott," Gyce smiled back. Pleasantly, for she knew Mott was no threat to her. But he was most assuredly hiding something. She would wait to get to that though. The nervous one usually did tell all, given enough time.

"I was mostly testing the ship for security flaws, be it in the systems or human error," Gyce noted simply, "So I have seen a bit of your family coming and going. And the ship scuttlebut is that you got married to two women, yes?"

"Oh, that, right," Olsam said, looking from side to side. It was hard to lie to your friends, much less a security officer friend. Why was she even asking? Did she think he'd killed one, and now he was trying to dispose of the evidence? Was that why she'd been hiding in the corridor? Had she been following him this whole time, just waiting for him to murder someone? "Yes, uh... Lieutenant Commander Stace and Dr. Voutilainen. Er, I mean, Norvi and Tuula. I hope my family didn't break any laws. Or...any serious ones. They usually break a few minor ones."

Gyce made a mental note behind her smile, that neither woman had an emotional connection for such a bond like that. Too formal for such a serious commitment. That meant Mott used them for a ruse. But Gyce doubted Mott was a killer. Not a cold-blooded one. He was weird, yes. Adorably so. But not a psychotic.

"Well that's not Bolian blood," Gyce surmised as she bent down to look at the rug. "And that's a lot of blood loss, but since you removed the rug from a crime scene, I cannot ascertain if the amount of blood loss is fatal. This rug came from your quarters?"

Gyce tilted her head left and right, then pulled out her tricorder to get some readings while she asked. Her tone was not forceful. But rather respectful to the Bolian.

"Uhhh, n-no. It's human blood, non-fatal wound, just a superficial laceration near the coronal suture," Olsam offered, trying to save her the trouble of running scans on the carpet. "And it didn't come from my quarters. It's so tacky, I'd never have anything like this in my living area. Can you imagine? 'Hello, welcome to my quarters, look at this hideous arrangement of geometric patterns and primitive depictions of everyday life.'" He gave a nervous laugh that was a little shrill and high-pitched.

"Relax," Gyce spoke with a calm voice and made herself as harmless in demeanor to him as possible. "I don't just haul people to the brig and end their careers because of someone moving a bloody rug. But I do have to ask how it happened, and I do have to question the person who's blood this is. So if you're innocent, you've nothing to worry about."

"Innocent? I'm always innocent," Olsam huffed, as if the mere thought of his guilt in anything was highly offensive. "But, I'm afraid I can't really tell you anything. It would be an ethical violation, and I already have enough of those on my record. Well, supposed violations. Not actual violations, because I'm really quite ethical. It's just I don't always see eye-to-eye with the ethics board, you see. What were we talking about?"

"Tampering with a Crime Scene," Gyce began to read off calmly from the palm of her hand. "That is the first crime I am obligated to charge you with, from not helping me. And you can either tell me who's blood it is, or I call my Master-at-Arms down here to picked the rug up and take it into evidence. There, we can find out who's it is. And at that point, the second charge comes in with you Hindering an Investigation."

Gyce sighed with much disappointment. "You're a good man, Doctor Mott. And criminal charges do not bode well for medical professionals, and nor do I wish to pursue that end, unneedlessly."

Olsam's mouth fell open. He'd been charged with plenty of crimes before, of course, but the audacity of standing there accusing him of tampering with a crime scene and hindering an investigation was almost too much to bear. What crime? What investigation? "It's a violation of doctor-patient confidentiality if I just go around telling everybody who stops me in the corridor why I had a patient bleeding on a rug, now isn't it? That's a crime, too, you know. And you can't have it, anyway. It's a biohazard, and I need to dispose of it properly in the industrial replicator. Somebody hit their head, do you really need to know more than that?"

The Bolian's grip on the end of the carpet tightened, and he pulled it slightly closer to himself as if to challenge her to take it from him.

"Who's rug is it?" Gyce began to press a little harder. "Because this much blood on a carpet has to be investigated. So tell me who's rug it is. Because at least by doing that, you are still maintaining your confidentiality.

"Well if I told you who owned the rug then I'd be telling you who the patient is and if I revealed who the patient is then I'd be breaching confidentiality and if I breached confidentiality then I'd be getting in trouble with more than just the security department," Olsam rambled on. "But I can tell you the patient is a member of the command department, and there was an... Uh, well, an incident between myself and the patient in the patient's quarters that resulted in a superficial head wound and a concussion. But the treatment is ongoing, so I don't think I should really say more than that, should I? I don't want to press charges, so there shouldn't an investigation, right?"

"So this person you were in the incident with got injured, but you are not telling me who they are because they did something to you. And yet you treated said person, despite said incident set upon you..." Gyce shook her head and tapped her combadge. "Lieutenant Benice to Chief Inyo? I need you in section four, deck 3. I want a security detail to lock down the area until we swept the deck for evidence of blood trails, as well as an escort to take Doctor Mott to the security office for further questioning."

The comm chirped back. "On my way, Lieutenant."

"You have a conflict of interest, Doctor Mott. One that is very confusing. So my team is going to figure out what happened and once we figure out the ins and outs, I'll come back down to the security office and we'll try this again," Gyce spoke with pursed lips.

Olsam looked from the carpet to Gyce then around the corridor, as if some means of escape was going to readily present itself. He wasn't sure what to do. There was always tell the truth, but that seemed... Difficult. Especially when a lie seemed like it would do better, but he couldn't think of any really good lies. She was still looking at him. How much time had gone by? He couldn't keep thinking for much longer. Best to just get out with it.

"Okay, so, I met this patient in the ship's lounge, and we had a drink together. And then an appetizer. I've never seen the patient before, very friendly person, it seemed. Then we went back to the patient's quarters because I thought there was going to be fruit served. Then the patient came out of the bedroom with... Well, I guess you could call those pajamas. They weren't very practical though, all silk and lace and straps. Anyway, then the patient plopped down in my lap and started licking me and biting my lip. I panicked. You can't just do that to a person, right? I stood up, the patient fell out of my lap and that's when the injury occurred. Given the patient's state of undress, I chose to wrap the body in the carpet before heading to Sickbay." He glanced down at the carpet one more time and mumbled to himself, "I told her not to touch my no-no zone..."

This was not the place to have the discussion Gyce wanted with him. But she gently stood up and limped over to him. Gently, she wrapped her arm around his shoulders. No intruding, but comforting.

"We do need to talk about that," Gyce spoke softly, her eyes tried to look into his. "I'll get you some sandwiches, and we'll talk about the no-no zone bad-thing that happened to you. In my office. In one hour."

Pax showed up at that moment and saw the bloodied rug and the Bolian Doctor. She looked at Lieutenant Benice. Gyce seemed the over reative type to her and she wasn't sure if that was the case here or not. Doctors often dealt with blood and Mott was hardly a criminal mastermind.

"May I just take him to the office and talk to him, Lieutenant?" Pax asked.

"I actually need the rug sent to Security, to store in evidence while I follow the blood trail, Chief." Gyce sat back on her haunches and gave Pax a respectful nod. "I'll want to talk to him after you are finished, so keep him comfortable while he waits for me in the office. But I will also need a blood analysis on the rug. That will confirm to us who hir perpetrator is."

"Yes Ma'am." She turned to Dr. Mott and looked very grave. "If you would please come with me Doctor."

"You're not under arrest, Doctor Mott," Gyce assured him. "We're just asking questions. And Chief Pax and I will not keep you too long, I promise."

Olsam looked from Gyce to Pax. For a minute it looked like he was going to run, for all the good that was going to do him. He had the top speed of a really fat old Zakdorn, so he probably wouldn't get very far. "Okay. Are there going to be snacks? I get hungry under questioning..."

"Chief Pax will feed you as many sandwiches as you like," Gyce promised, and winked over to Pax.

[ OFF ]

Lieutenant Olsam Mott, M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant J.G. Benice Gyce
Security Investigations Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Pax-Inyo
Master-at-Arms
USS Galileo

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