"Take your pick" said the bored looking detective. "There's a huge backlog of cases on that pile there"
Action looked at various case files and picked one. "Robbery over at Windenburg...I'll take it" he said.
Action took what little information there was and put it on the crime notice board, laying out the photos, reports and connecting them to each other with coloured string.
Pondering the chart, he needed more clues to work with. Grabbing the keys to a squad car Action headed off to Windenburg and to the crime scene on his own.
Windenburg....9:52am
"I'm telling you, officer, I was alerted by the sight of the front door of the house hanging open. I went to investigate and that's when I was shoved and knocked down" said the witness.
"Did you see the perp?" asked Action.
"Only a little...short hair, wearing shorts...that's all I remember"
Action nodded and left the witness after taking some notes. A colleague stopped him in the hall of the house. "Hey Action; you got here before us! Regulations say you should not enter the premises on your own!" they barked at him.
"Yeah, well, if we waited for you lot to finish your coffee and donuts then we'd never make any progress!" Action replied, nonchalantly.
Action scanned the crime scene for clues. The perps had broken in and made off with an expensive Jade bust of the Chinese Emperor, Zaitian, so this wasn't a quick smash n' grab; they knew what they were looking for. He then made his way to the games room where there were another couple of witnesses. One of them he recognised: His neighbour, Travis Scott.
"Travis, you mixed up in all this?" he said.
"Action! No, I have a weekly chess game here with my old college buddy and...well, I don't know what happened. We were playing chess, got about 15 moves in and then we both passed out" replied Travis.
"Passed out?" enquired a sceptical Action.
"Yeah, it was freaky" said Travis' friend. "I'd just made coffee for us, we settled into playing our chess game and then all of a sudden we both felt woozy and...well, I don't remember much after that"
Action picked up a coffee mug that had been lying on the floor. "This one of the mugs you drank out of?" he asked. Travis nodded. Action took a sniff of it, ran his finger around the rim and rubbed the small amount of liquid between his thumb and forefinger. "Hmmm, Benzodiazepine" he said to himself.
"Do you know what's really strange, officer?" said Travis' friend.
"It's that the chess pieces have been moved after we fell unconscious" he continued.
"Explain" asked Action.
"Well, we were 15 moves into our match. We had both taken two pawns plus a bishop apiece. When we woke up, Black...that's Travis...had put White in check. Our game wasn't that advanced"
Action stroked his chin and pondered this new clue. "Thanks...stay cool" he said and headed back to the station.
Back at the station The Chief pulled Action to one side. "Listen, Action, I know you're a maverick that likes to play by his own rules but you're alienating the rest of the team"
"Maybe if the team didn't slack off so much!" replied Action.
"Look...just play things a little more to the senior sergeants' liking. That's an order"
Action touched the peak of his cap in acknowledgement but didn't stop to ponder the Chief's words...he had a hunch to follow. He looked through the files and found a rap sheet that looked promising. Not wanting to hang around the station for official clearance, he left on his own to track down the perp.
Pupperstone Park, 4:15pm
Action entered the park; there was only one person present, a woman with short hair, wearing black hot pants and sitting alone at a chess table pondering the pieces.
"Well, well, well if it isn't The Brain herself" said Action, silently moving up to her.
"What? I have no idea what you're talking about!" the woman replied.
"The Jade Emperor, I know you got it. How about I get a search warrant for your car trunk and we do some searching there?" he continued.
"I don't have it!" the woman protested. "You're guessing, officer. You don't have any evidence"
"I know you've got form for robbery, Brain" said Action. "I also know you're obsessed with chess. That's why you couldn't resist completing the game those men were playing. You drugged them and went about your work but you saw that board, saw the mistakes and poor moves both of them had made and you played the game out until "check". Realising that you were running out of time you ran out of the house, knocking that man over along the way."
"A nice theory, officer, but where's the proof?"
"A chess grandmaster's style is like a fingerprint...each is unique and identifiable."
"Wait? What?"
"I'm bringing you in and impounding your car. You have the right to remain silent..."
The Blue Velvet, 9:20pm
"Good work today, Action" said Officer Datta when the shift had ended and a group of them had headed off to the nightclub for some entertainment. "Next time, clue the rest of the shift on what you're up to"
"I work my side of the street, you work yours" replied Action.
