Solving a Murder (part 2)

Posted on Sun Mar 26th, 2017 @ 11:16am by Lieutenant Mira Jayna & Commander Hans Munich & Lieutenant T'Pral & Lieutenant Illise Hale

954 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Shadow Dance

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

T'Pral blinked at the illogically flowing conversation. The points were valid and interesting, but she would have gotten right to business instead of visiting violence around the proverbial shrubbery. "Lieutenant Hale and I have confirmed that the security cameras have indeed been tampered with. Mister Rroden confirmed that the biometric traces found upon the camera in question belonged to individuals who are authorized to access them." Her hands folded neatly upon the table as she glanced to the scientist, "I believe she performed a DNA comparison with samples taken from the garden to help identify our culprit."

[NEW]

Illise nodded and stepped closer to the engineer. "Of the DNA samples provided, there where four which matched those found on the cameras. However, when I cross-referenced those matches with the DNA I found on the damaged plants in the garden, I got only one."

"I have some additional information about that as well...." Johnson came out from behind his microscope. "This is definitely Tate's Fingerprint... mostly..." He added as he pressed his PADD. "There are some ridges that are on the edge..." AN image of a fingerprint was displayed that showed the slender finger of a female print; the rare arc shape and some micro ridges on the outer edge that clearly did not fit. "This Fingerprint is an arch; rare as only ten percent of the humans have these types of patterns in their fingerprint on one finger, then approximately ten percent of that have it on two then ten percent of those dwindling down the numbers of fingerprints recorded with that pattern. "He explained. "Tate has three so the odds of someone else having these are minute at best but..." The imaged enlarged around the edges. "These little bits on the edge are reminiscent of what is a loop; a sixty percentile of the population." He smiled. "You see we now why Tate is innocent?"

"Yes, but I doubt the Jenefrans will accept your logic," Jayna said from her computer console.

"Come on... really?" He felt deflated. "No humanoid has two types of a fingerprint..." He brought up the Jenefran that was common that the ladies had discussed, over lay the Tate print until the edges met up perfectly outside Tate's print. "And no one has the print of two individuals on the same finger."

Jayde walked over to see what he was referring to. It was more out of curiosity than doubt. "Can you pull anything off the secondary print?"

"The point is that someone wore a 'stick on fingerprint of Tate." Johnson pointed out. "The edge is where the person added too much pressure and the finger impression was larger than the stick on print so we have 2 prints, Tate's fake print covered most of the real fingerprint and that is the problem with it. Had the suspect used a fraction less pressure it would have 'Only' been Tate's print and more condeming."

"So, we have enough to show that Tate's fingerprint was faked, but not enough of the second print to identify who did it?" Jayde asked.

"Okay Sppoky you can find the ghost." Johnson said as he sat back. "I got the print but you got the better datbase I am betting."

Jayna raised an eyebrow at being called Spooky, but said nothing about it as she took Johnson's place looking at the fingerprint. "I have access to the Federation database, but Lieutenants Hale and T'Pral have the Jenefran prints." She looked carefully at the partial print. She didn't think she'd find a match, but sent it to Horus for analysis anyway. "I don't think it's humanoid," she said. "It's most likely Jenefran, but we'd need a near-perfect print to know whose it is."

She turned to Hale and T'Pral. "Do either of you want to check it against your Jenefran prints?"

"Yes, thank you." Illise took the data from her and copied it to her PADD. It only took a moment for the comparison. "We have a match." She told them, "But all that tells us is that the owner of this print was in the garden."

Johnson lay the Tate print over the Jenerfran print to show how it fit in a visual manner.

"Got you." He mused. "I suppose Tate will be happy to be out of the slammer."

"Me thinks this is getting complicated." Johnson remarked. "So we know the print is not enough for a match the assassin other than it not being Tate." He thought aloud. "At least we have enough to show Tate can be released from her incarceration?"

"I'd rather find the person responsible," Jayde said. "It's one thing to be able to prove it wasn't her, and then there's proving who really did it."

Helga bustled into the room, balancing several glass slides in one hand. "You'll never believe what just happened. The body of a Jenefran appeared on a biobed. He looked like he was mauled by a big cat." She shuddered. "It was quite gruesome." She handed the slides to Jayna. "Here. See if they match what you are looking for. There must be a reason he showed up the way he did." She turned and hurried back out to go back to sickbay.

Jayna inserted the slides into her console and compared them with the DNA and fingerprints they'd been looking at. They were a perfect match. "Well, it looks like we have our murderer. We can now prove Commander Tate is innocent. Too bad we can't find out why this particular Jenefran killed the King."

____
OFF

Lieutenant T'Pral
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Illise Hale
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Johnson
Crime Scene Investigator

Lieutenant JG Mira Jayna
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer

 

RSS Feed