Coded ambition

Fragment 10: Intricacies, Part 3

Once again, Ryker Dubs needed to be in an interrogation room regarding Natalie Arsted's murder case. Unfortunately, the investigations were not solely about her anymore. With Dean Arsted's passing, the situation had taken a turn for the worse.

Sighing, the inspector shut off his computer. The forensic report of Dean's body was clear: he was killed by the Silent Hunter poison like his wife. He was found dead on Monday at 9 a.m. in his office by his colleague, Jonathan Anderson, but must have died between two and three hours earlier. Hence, one could assume that the act of poisoning took place late in the evening, about 10 p.m.

As things stood as of now, there were several theories: suicide or murder by one of the three other people present yesterday in his home: Lysander Tutson, L-35, or Mark Arsted.

Beatrice Tutson was meeting a friend until late at night in a local restaurant and could secure a more reliable alibi for herself. With the way things had progressed in the past, Ryker Dubs did not believe that she was the actual murderer of her sister and husband anymore.

According to Jade, the probability of Mark killing off both of his parents and still successfully hiding the poison had shrunk to basically non-existent, even with the predominant pessimistic bias in her calculations. No matter how vulnerable, a child under six should not be able to pull this off. Especially as he was not abused or tormented by his parents in any way. The other options were much more likely.

Suicide seemed like a valid option for someone who had only recently lost his wife and path in life. Dragging himself to work, even though poisoned, looked like something a father who wanted to die but not in front of his child could potentially do. Dean had refused psychological support to deal with the situation; thus, nobody was able to really tell what occupied his mind in the aftermath. He might have been ready to die all along, but he felt obligated to Mark. Something significant must have changed if he was ready to leave his son alone. The strange thing was that Dean must have disposed of the poison before going to work, which seemed a strange action to do right before dying voluntarily.

The alternatives were that either Lysander or L-35 had removed Dean from the scene. Either to display his passing as a suicide or to eliminate an imminent danger coming from him. The point in time seemed too random at first. Investigations had been ongoing for a while, and if someone wanted to silence another, it probably should have happened much earlier. Now, a lot of details have already been spilled to the police. It did not make much sense in Ryker's head.

Due to the fact that Mark was a minor and L-35 was an android without the proper rights and obligations defined by the law, Dubs' investigation team was forced to arrest Lysander Tutson. The police are currently holding him in pretrial detention to assess the details of Dean Arsted's death. Lysander was the most obvious suspect because of his status as a civilian of Cading and his relationships, which were not all logically explained to some of the suspects in Natalie Arsted's murder case.

For the first time in a long time, the inspector arrived first in the room and took his seat. It did not take long for Jade to join him. Christopher Ferrow, who had arrested Lysander Tutson, was also the one who brought the man to the interrogation room now. But he left directly to take care of other duties.

Lysander did not look very good—much worse than Ryker Dubs had thought. He had been informed that Mr. Tutson was hurt the day before yesterday and was brought to the hospital. However, he was even more full of bruises than the inspector had imagined. Some wounds in his face needed dressing, including his nose.

Jade shortly informed the man in question about his rights and that the conversation was being recorded, an annoying formality that she had cut to the minimum in the most optimal way. Her clarification was only three sentences long.