Searching the Gardens (part 3)

Posted on Fri Dec 16th, 2016 @ 10:45am by Lieutenant Mira Jayna & Lieutenant Illise Hale & Keelan

1,177 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Shadow Dance
Location: Palace on Jenefra
Timeline: Day 2, afternoon

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

"This is looking more and more suspicious." Illise said. "The apparent struggle has obviously been faked, but by whom and to what end? If she was running from someone, it is unlikely that the Princess would have had time to plant evidence. However if she was followed later, whoever it was could have tried to make it look like an abduction..." Illise thought for a moment. "It is possible that the Princess is not as happy with her upcoming wedding as we have been led to believe."

[NEW]

Jayna nodded slowly. "It does, doesn't it? That's not something I want to report back to the council. If she isn't happy, they're covering it up and I for one don't want them to know that we've figured it out."

Jayna noticed that one of the gardeners seemed to be moving closer to where they were talking. She decided it was a good time to change the subject. "Spock," she said, calling the monkey over to her. "There's a way out of this garden. Go find it, and tell Logan."

Spock let out a squeak before leaping off Jayna's shoulder and scurrying off.

Logan watched Spock run off before looking over to Jayna, he noticed her eye contact shift towards one of the gardeners. The large Caitian looked over to the approaching Jenefran and let out a soft growl before clearing his throat to cover it up.

"You're better at the tracking, I'll go have a chat with our gardener friend."

She walked over to the gardener. "How often do you trim the bushes?" she asked.

"Once a week without fail." The Gardener told. "It has been seven days we will get to it on the tomorrow as scheduled." He said honestly. "Sometimes in a good rain season we go six days because of grown pattern."

"What pattern do you use to care for the garden?"{ she asked.

"The flowers are the watering on a daily basis and weeded as required and the larger shrubs trimmed for aesthetics and then the trimming of the climbing vines." The gardener replied.

Spock chittered for attention, then did a back flip. He was standing on the wall in the back corner of the garden. "Oh, dear, I think he got stuck," Jayna said to the gardener.

Jayna knew that Logan was prowling around the bushes somewhere, so she didn't want to draw attention to him. The gardener was suspicious enough already. "I don't know if you have any pets like him, but he tends to wander around, then needs to be rescued. Give me a minute and I'll go get him."

The easiest way to Spock was the direct route. So she climbed the nearest sturdy tree and walked along the wall, carefully navigating over or under several large trees. Their foliage was too dense to permit someone to hide in them, which would help with the investigation. While she was up there, she had a good look at the fields beyond. They were a good 10 meters lower than the garden, making it almost impossible to get in by climbing the walls from the outside.

When she reached Spock she picked him up and put him on her shoulder, then looked down and noticed a small opening in the wall where a tree root had made a small hole. It was large enough for a small Jenefran to get out, and could be the way Kali went.

She made a mental note and went back the way she'd come. When she got close enough Spock jumped off her shoulder and climbed down the wall. He did a series of happy summersaults and clapped his hands.

"He got caught in a tree when he was tiny," Jayna explained. "Sometimes he forgets he can climb." She hugged Spock, who wasn't very pleased by the action. "If you will excuse me, I'll go see how my friend is doing."

She walked over to Illise before putting Spock down. "Good boy," she said quietly. "I owe you one when we get back to the ship."

"There's a gap in the wall back there. I think that's where the Princess got out. What have you found?"

Illise carefully placed a few pieces of the damaged plants into a sealed container. "I will need to get these samples back to the Calypso for analysis." She told Jayna, making a casual glance towards the gardener. She did not like his presence in the garden during an active investigation, even though he was presumably going about his regular duties. He should have been kept out with the rest of the staff.

"Do you work in the gardens at night?" Illise asked him.

"No we are given time to rest at night." The Gardener replied. "Sun up we work and after sun fall we are to eat and rest."

That was an excellent question. The answer was expected, but Jayna wondered if he ever went out at night to check on his garden. She bent to dust off her pant legs and glanced at the gardener's shoes, just to see what he wore.

The gardener had on what could be called a Hiking/ Work boots that had been well worn and seemed to be molded to his feet and could be at the garden or used in the field hiking. The black boots were a bit damp from watering and some signs of mud that had dried and rewet with what he is doing.

Jayna straightened. "Thank you. I think we've taken up enough of your time."

She turned to Illise. "Do you have anything else you'd like to do here?"

"I just have one more question." Illise told her, then still facing the gardener she said, "You know these grounds better than anyone else, are there any other ways out other than the obvious one?" She gestured back towards the only entrance to the garden. Illise was curious as to what he would say. The princess had most certainly left via an alternate exit within the garden, one that was well hidden. However, the Jenefrans had seemed at a loss as to how she had 'disappeared'.

The Gardener hesitated; he gave a tilt of the head as though he were contemplating the question before answering. "I am unaware of other exits from the garden." It was an answer he had on as a programmed response. "Such things would be known only to the Monarchs of course."

Jayna nodded, pleased with the answer. "Thank you again. We'll leave you to get back to your work." They now knew how the Princess got out of the gardens, and that someone went to great effort to make it look like there had been a struggle. That same person -- or persons -- had either followed or chased Kali. It was a very interesting turn of events.

____
OFF

Lieutenant Illise Hale
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

Old Gardener
NPCd by Samantha York

Other Gardener
NPCd by Keelan

Spock the Monkey
Intelligence Officer

 

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