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It took much to faze Charlie Crews: a dead man pinned to a chair by a Japanese sword thrust through his chest was far from enough.
Fazed he was, though. "Those are really expensive chairs. What's with the big goggles? It's some sort of video game?"
Reese nodded. "Yes it is."
Captain Tidwell rose from the conference room table and gestured to the evidence board. "No, no. They are cyberspace... somethings. You sit on one, put the... goggles I guess, and you're in virtual reality."
"All reality is virtual," said Charlie. Reese paused for half a second and moved on to question Tidwell.
"I didn't know you were into nerd stuff."
"I like to keep up to date, you know. I'm not just a pretty face and a big" — another pause, this time just on the brink of A Problem — "dedication to the Law."
Reese paused for what felt longer than half a second and turned back to Charlie. She pointed at the crime scene photos. "Four chairs, right? People sit on them facing each other, put those goggles on and then see a computer cartoon of themselves and everybody else."
"Avatars," chimed Tidewell. Charlie's eyebrows rose in pleased interest.
"Whatever," said Reese. "They are in space or a castle or wherever they choose and they use the joysticks in the armrests to control them."
"So it's a videogame," said Charlie.
"Yes," said Reese.
Tidwell protested knowing it was in vain. "It's more than a videogame."
"It's a videogame," repeated Reese. She pointed at the first of four photos on the board: "Dead guy is Robert Roberts, yes, I know. Tech CEO, moderately rich. Apparently rich nerds like these four like to go into" — the air quotes were implied and dripping with sarcasm — "cyberspace and then kill each other with fantasy swords."
"It's also for sex," said Tidwell louder than he had intended. "I saw that in a documentary."
Charlie pointed at the sword in the photo. "That sword is real." He paused for a beat to think. "Or an illusion. Sharp, anyway. Looks real. Expensive."
Reese picked up a file from the conference table. "It was Roberts'. He kept the sword on the wall of his videogames room."
"I wish people would stop leaving weapons around for killers to use. It makes police work harder." Tidwell sighed. "Three suspects. Which one do we like best?"
Charlie pointed at the first photo. "Bald guy: James Montiel, former business partner of the victim. We asked around and people say Montiel is a better engineer, just not as good at business."
"Probably played him dirty. Motive there." He nodded at the second photo. "What about the chick?"
Reese looked at the file. "Ariadne Chu. Chief accountant and second in command at Roberts' company. Used to date in college, might have still been dating, nobody is sure. Currently acting CEO but has already asked the board to name a replacement so she can go back to her previous job."
"That's refreshing. And Glasses?"
Reese's voice took the slow undertones that meant she had a favorite suspect. "Peter Roberts, the victim's brother. Also a better programmer. He inherits the victim's shares, making him the majority owner of the company. Which he doesn't really need, he has money of his own, but you know how rich people are."
Tidwell nodded. "That I do. Now, who stopped playing long enough to skewer the host? Do we have some sort of computer record?"
"That's the clincher. There were about a hundred other players online at the same time, although nobody with the same sort of equipment. The virtual video, and the I guess "witness statements," show all four of them playing all the way until the game ended. And then they took off their goggles and one of them was dead. Had been dead for a few minutes at least, to judge from the blood already on the floor."
"The dead guy wasn't playing," said Tidwell. This was, Reese thought, mostly a statement but it had a tiny bit of annoyingly endearing plea in it.
"Our nerds say there was some sort of code in the system that allowed avatars to move on their own as if they were being controlled. It mostly deleted itself, but they are pretty sure it was controlling Robert's — she pointed at the dead man's photo, and then at the one with glasses — and Peter's.
"Works for me. Bring him in."
Charlie spoke. "How would you kill a man, Reese?" A beat later: "Hypothetically."
Reese shrugged. "People overcomplicate those things. I'd get a gun that couldn't be traced to me and then I'll shoot them and grab their wallet."
Charlie nodded. "If you were a professional sniper, would you shoot them from a safe distance?"
"Fuck no. Might as well confess. Still a mugging. Maybe a knife." Reese turned to look at Tidwell, who was making a gesture of professional approval.
"Yeah. This case. Everything is about virtual reality. Everybody in this photo is obsessed with illusions. But they think they come from computers. And they don't. Reese, you know where illusions really come from?"
Reese sighed. "No I do not. Where do illusions come from?"
"Not letting things go."
There was an edge to his words between sad and self-mocking.
# # #
The playroom had been cleaned days before but except for the missing sword and the lack of a corpse it looked very much like it had in the photos. The three suspects were sitting on the chairs where they had been the day of the murder.
Charlie had sat on the victim's chair cheerfully ignoring everybody's grimaces. Even Reese, walking slowly around the circle of chairs, made a face.
"Thanks for coming," she said. "We'll be brief."
Montiel turned around to face her. "I want to help of course but still don't know why I'm here."
"We're doing a virtual reality reconstruction," said Charlie.
"But the system is down during the investigation, isn't it?" Montiel looked at Chu, who nodded.
"No that one, this one." Everybody frowned. Charlie continued. "You look at Roberts' company: a successful business, makes money, looks great. But then something glitches and it turns out all this wealth is an illusion. Which, by the way, all material things are." Reese gestured to him to keep going. "But it's not easy to let go of attachments no matter how unhappy they make us."
Chu frowned. "I'm performing a new audit as part of the transition period, Detective, but we passed every past one without a single issue."
Reese talked as she passed behind her. "Yes, that's true. They were perfect."
Charlie tilted his head. "And perfect is strange, isn't it? So we reached out to an specialized consultant" — Reese rolled her eyes where none of the suspects could see her — who digged deeper and found a lot of fraud and some very questionable IOUs to companies owned by companies owned by et cetera all the way to guys with Russian names and lots of tattoos."
"That's preposterous," said Chu. "I will need to see this consultant's report."
"You will," said Reese.
Peter seemed almost impressed. "I can't believe Bobbie would get involved with criminals rather than ask me for help. If the company was going through a bad patch I would have been happy to buy some equity."
"The company was doing well," said Reese.
"Except for the money somebody was stealing from it," added Charlie.
"Except for that, yes."
"I don't understand," said Montiel. "Robert was stealing from the company and getting loans from criminals to cover it? Isn't that like robbing them?"
"Funny you should say that. Roberts was not, in fact, stealing from the company. He was getting the loans to try to keep the company afloat while he found out who was doing it. Which was hard, because the audits were flawless."
"If you're accusing me of anything," said Chu, moving as if about to stand, "I would really like to see the proof from your so-called consultant."
"Oh, Ted didn't find that."
"Ted?"
"Our consultant," noted Reese.
"I see. I thought you had found something in the system logs. Catch the killer instead of whatever it is you're doing."
"About that," said Charlie. "I don't really understand that part. Our computer people say that it looks like Peter here could have hacked the system to get cover while he killed his brother" — Peter flipped him silently — "but also that somebody like James could have done it and then made it look like it had been Peter. Or anybody else."
"Still sounds like you're trying to pin it on me, Detective."
"Somebody stole that money, Ms. Chu." Reese had stopped moving right behind her chair.
Chu scoffed. "And yet no proof."
"Enough to open an investigation."
"Be my guest. After you find nothing, maybe I'll sue the Department."
"Sure, if you're alive."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, as James said, from the Russians' point of view your boss was stealing from them and you killed him, so you're on the hook now. They do not let things go. They have that in common with you and Roberts and sometimes most of us to be honest."
Chu went pallid. "That's absurd. If Robert entered into a debt to save the company, then it's Peter who..."
"Will do nothing," said Peter cheerfully.
"It was a good plan," said Reese. "You knew Roberts was going to find you sooner or later so you staged a weird cyberspace death where you would be the only person who wasn't a programmer, so you would be the least suspicious."
"Did you get James to write the program or did you pay somebody?" asked Charlie. "Never mind, we'll get to that later. Sorry, Reese."
"As I was saying. James is a programmer and has reason to be angry with Robert, Peter is also a programmer and would inherit his shares. Two suspects, and the accountant of a spotless company who is so selfless that she doesn't even want the CEO job. It almost worked."
"It did work," said Charlie. "We have no proof. We can open a case against you but then we'll have to close it very quickly."
"Because you'll find nothing," said Chu.
"Oh, it'll be faster than that," said Reese. "Once the Russians learn why we are investigating you, they will go after you for the money they gave your boss. I hope you stole enough to pay them with enough interest to keep them from killing you."
"You can't do that!"
"We can't do anything," acknowledged Charlie. "We can't send you to prison somewhere far from here unless you confess. We can't convince the Russians to back off unless the company gets back its money and pays them — and Peter, I strongly suggest you do that. All we can do is file the paperwork to begin the investigation." He stood up and smiled at Reese. "Do you ever find paperwork relaxing? Sometimes it feels meditative. You just write words and words and words until you see they have no meaning at all. It's... words."
Reese put a hand on the back of Chu's chair, who didn't look like she wanted to leave or stay or talk or be silent. "Make up your mind fast, Ms. Chu." There was an or else in there, but also a please only Charlie, perhaps, heard.