re: INITIATIVE [Detective Fiction]

[#17] My Chemical Thief

AXEL WORE a stiff demeanor.

"What if the suspect wasn't one of the scientists in the research division?" He asked, taking a look at the screen.

"The research division is somewhat isolated from the other divisions, there's a keycard boundary between this division and the others. Aside from the employee needing to be explicitly missing from their division, there'd have to be a record in the keycard log that someone from another division was in this one."

"I suppose employees from other divisions would witness that no one from their division went missing when the crime happened? Aside from the proof of the keycard log of course, I'm sure you've already checked." Yana asked.

"Yes. So it has to be one of them. The stolen chemicals case was reported immediately while we were investigating the CEO, primarily because it was one of the major establishments near Starling river. The witness reported that the CEO was the second person to know about the crime," the detective spoke as Axel played one video. Two scientists were interrogated, one of which had a taller sitting height than the other. The taller guy had jetblack hair and eyes, and his facial expression was somewhat lackluster. In his labcoat was the nameplate "Eutropia Caparoso", a microbiologist. The other guy had light brown hair and eyes, and was tense in front of the camera. In his nameplate was "Jeramie Galicia", a physicist.

"I was in the incubation booths trying to observe and re-streak the cultures that I incubated the day before," said Eutropia. "I barely went out for food because the bacteria colonized at extremely exponential rates, and taking a break a second too long would ruin the extraction process." He continued.

"I-I was doing calcuations along with professor Morales on constructing a much more effecient hoverboard," said Jeramie, "we've been working on this prototype for months! We've almost reached phase two, so no way I could've been focused on another errand like stealing some chemicals."

In another video, two female scientists sat on stools beside each other. The one with the long black hair had the nameplate "Vanissa Morales", a nanotech professor. She had a somewhat commanding aura, and her facial expressions were screaming she didn't have time for the interrogation.

The one with the short blond hair had the nameplate "Lolita Lopez", the biologist. She was much more agitated, and was probably thinking that the interrogation was a waste of time.

"Were you aware that chemicals from the storage room are reported to be stolen?" A voice from behind the camera spoke, presumably inspector Valdez.

"No, I am not aware. I was busy with professor Galicia designing a prototype, so I couldn't have been busy with other things." Said Vanissa.

"I am not aware either. I was busy taking care of the plants that housed the colonies professor Caparoso needed." Lolita said.

Without turning his head, Axel's eyes threw a glance at Yana, who in turn, returned a serious look right back at him. Them making an eye contact could've meant something was in mind.

In another video, another couple of scientists were interrogated. The guy was named Alex Enriquez, the gal was a Liza Gonzales, both chemists.

"I was trying to get a precise mixture of two very reactive substances," said Alex Enriquez. "I've been attempting to do so all day long."

"I was trying to make a more effective cleaning agent," said Liza Gonzales, "though I wasn't very successful because I think we ran out of hydrofluoric acid."

"Were you both aware that some chemicals were stolen?" The detective spoke.

"Come to think of it," replied Alex, "I wanted to clean some glassware from professor Eutropia because I wanted to use it. I thought we just ran out of hydrofluoric acid, I didn't know it was actually stolen."