Oncoming Storms - Prompt 175.4 - First Line Prompt
"I didn't do it!"
Two people in dark suits, one clearly older than the other, sat in stoney silence as they watched the latest 'interviews'. Before them were several monitors, half of which were filled with the animated and agitated motions of a man seemingly in his late thirties--they muted his audio for the time being--and in the other half were images of the ginger-haired woman--also seemingly in her late thirties--who had been found with him. Clearly, she had to be his accomplice as she knew his name, and neither put up a fuss, nor did they try to explain away the bits of broken glass that had been found on their clothing or the tiny cuts on their skin, how they even were in the H&M&M shop after hours to begin with, or why everything in the shop had been torn, destroyed or covered in a slimy substance that had made many of forensics team slip and nearly break something.
"Run that part back again," said Aludoe, the elder of the pair, breaking the electronic din of the small room they were cramped into.
With a frown crossing her expression, Yunnis, found the remote and turned the footage back thirty seconds. She wondered if they'd both seen the same thing a moment ago. The other screens continued to play in current time as they were being recorded, but the one their attention was focused on showed that of the woman's face, suspect name "Donna Noble".
"Please, you've got to believe me. I didn't do--!"
Aludoe let out a low, growly grunt as he sat up in his chair and leant forward, tapping the screen. "Freeze it," he said. The footage stopped just as Suspect Noble was about to say the word "it" again. Mentally, Yunnis patted herself on the back--and not just for her prompt reaction skills. "There's something in her eyes. Did you see it?"
She nodded. "It's almost like she's...pleading, but not for mercy, but because she's genuinely frightened."
"That's it exactly! That fear in her eyes..."
"What has she got to be afraid of?" Yunnis pondered out loud. "At most, she and her partner are looking to be charged with vandalism and a B&E, but..." She found herself frowning even more severely as she trailed offf. Her forehead was going to be heavily creased by the time she was thirty-five at the rate she was going. But she couldn't understand why the whole matter didn't settle well in her stomach. She pressed play again.
"--it! Do I even look like someone who'd want to break into thatstore?" One couldn't help noticing the note of disdain and insult in that statement. "There's something going on here that I can't explain that well; that dumbo never gave me all the details, but we figured it's got to be--"
"That's enough."
Yunnis pressed the mute button on the feedback video, respecting her colleague's need for quiet. Suspect Noble was a curious one, she thought, someone both intriguing and pitying. She wanted to believe her, but really, what was there to believe?
Her eyes glanced over to watch Aludoe's expression for a moment. The man had the best poker face she'd ever seen, but even with the meagre light deepening the shadows and lines etched on his face, there was a look of clear doubt there. Sure as hell surprised her.
"Look at the other one," he murmured finally, nodding towards the other half of the screens where the man was still talking and gesticulating. "Don't need the sound up to see how desperate he is. But why 'desperate' when they didn't try to escape before? The evidence alone is enough to convict them. There were no signs of this third party Suspect--what was his name again?"
"Dr John Smith, but he expressly wished for the arresting officer to use 'the Doctor' on his arrest forms." Obviously, that never happened, she noted under her breath. She only knew of it because she'd heard the very same arresting officer mocking that request as she was signing in.
"Yes, this third party Suspect Doctor claimed was present at the time." Aludoe reached for a thin folder nearby, flicking it open with his thumb. "Forensics found only two sets of recent footprints made after maintenance had cleaned the floors for the night--discluding the ones made by the cleaner himself, that is. He's already been ruled out as being involved in this whole affair. Suspect Doctor's original arrest report read-out, on the other hand, alleged that both he and Suspect Noble had caught a third party smashing the glass of the H&M&M front display case and both charged in to apprehend the culprit." He tossed the folder back down on the table he'd picked it up from, crossing his arms over his chest. "So that explains the damage to the ground floor, at least."
Again she nodded and pressed 'live' on the little remote to update the footage of Suspect Noble to synch back up with the ones in the others. Personally, she felt the other angles of the room were a waste, especially when they needed just the one on the suspect's face as evidence for the court proceedings, but what did she know? "Not the other two floors, though," she said, flipping through another folder filled with labeled pictures of the vast crime scene. The glass window that had allegedly been broken into looked more like it had been broken from the inside, judging from the distribution of glass shards on the ground outside the building. Granted, there were plenty of glass display cases destroyed as well, making up a good portion of the internal destruction of the shop. "Or that blue box forensics found in the employee lounge. Store manager said it wasn't part of an upcoming promo or advert. Wasn't even included in the latest catalogue shipment either." She passed Aludoe a picture of said blue box, the words "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX" and the top sets of windows illuminated from within.
"So that's the mystery box, huh? Heh, these were obsolete in my granddaddy's time," he said, a vaguely amused tone in his voice. "So that's what's been giving forensics such a hard time. Wouldn't think such an old relic would be that hard to crack op--"
"What the hell?!" she suddenly cried, cutting him off. Her hand scrambled for the remote she'd dropped in her surprise, turning the volume back on for both rooms. Suspect Noble had suddenly jumped back in her seat, knocking the chair to the floor, but her hands had been chained and handcuffed to the stationary stable, and she was shouting as loud as her voice would allow her. Yunnis noticed that the woman's earlier fear had been tossed aside for an almost admirable determination despite her attempts to flee.
"Ohhhh, no, don't you even dare! Let me go! You don't understand what's going on. We can help you if you let us!" she cried frantically, tugging on her chains. "There's still time before you're taken over!"
And oddly, at the same time Suspect Noble began to shout, Suspect Doctor had fallen silent for a moment, listening--but Yunnis knew that couldn't be right. The rooms had been sound-proofed months ago, so how...?
"Please!" Suspect Doctor exclaimed vehemently, pressing his hands on the table in front of him. Suspect Noble continued to plead in the other room, but Yunnis couldn't help being drawn into what the man was saying. "Everything that I had been telling you is the absolute truth. If you don't let me out right now, then those parasites will not only spread to everyone in that room. Oh no, it won't stop there; it won't stop at just the people in this building. In twenty-four hour's time, they'll have replicated enough offspring to take over the whole continent and soon, the entire planet!
"If you don't let me out," he repeated in a suddenly calm and quiet voice while his expression darkened grimly, "then my friend will be harmed, and so help me if she is in any single way..."
An involuntary shudder ran down Yunnis' spine while listening to him speak, and for once, she didn't mentally chastise herself for being wrong-footed like that. "Wh-what--?" she started to ask, but noticed Aludoe had already gotten to his feet and smashed the button of the intercom to the two interrogation rooms.
"Let them go!" he shouted before dashing out of the room, but she doubted how well he had been heard.
She quickly ran after him, pausing in the hallway as she tried to figure out which way to run and noticed Aludoe slam the door to Suspect Doctor's room behind him. There was so much noise coming from the screens behind her now, she could barely make any of it out and wasn't sure what to do. But after a wasted second, she bolted in the opposite direction towards Suspect Noble's room, cursing under her breath. She shouldn't have hesitated.
"Hey!" she shouted as an officer appeared at the end of the hall. The harried look on his face said that he'd just heard the shouting and had come to investigate. "Hurry, unlock the door!" she commanded, jerking on the door handle. She didn't have time to explain what was going on; hell, she didn't know what was going on herself, but she had to try to stop it!
The young officer shook his head, staying right where he was. "I don't have the key! Just--Just stay there! I'll get it!" And off he disappeared back around the corner he'd come from.
Suspect Noble's shouts had increased all of sudden, she realised as her stomach fell in to the pit of her stomach. The image of Suspect Doctor's face swam into view and she shuddered again. "Open up in there!" she yelled, pounding on the door. "I order you to let the suspect go!" She didn't exactly have that sort of authority, but damned if it wasn't worth a shot.
However, the shouts continued without interruption, and a moment later, she reached out and grabbed the nearest thing at hand--a metal chair--and began to smash the door with every ounce of strength she had. Yunnis wasn't sure when she had started to shout. The reverberation of the chair meeting the door drowned everything else out in her ears, and every impact jarred her arms a little more, making them ache. But oh, she didn't stop. She only knew that door wasn't opening and she had to open it no matter what the cost.
"Watch it!" Suddenly, a tall, thin man appeared at her shoulder, surprising her, and she hesistated long enough for someone else to grab hold of the chair, staying her hand. The man she now recognised as Suspect Doctor slipped in front of her and wielded a curious silver instrument in his hand. A strange whirring, warbling sound emitted from the blue glowing tip for all of a second before sparks flew out of the lock and the door burst inwards. The man dashed in and over to Suspect Noble, blocking her from view.
It struck her right then how awfully quiet it had become in that room. "Oh no," she panted quietly, realising the only screams she heard in the past minute had been her own. "I was too late."
"No, it's all right, Yunnis," said Aludoe from behind her. She glanced back at him, noticing he'd been the one to stop her swing. "The Doctor can handle everything from here."
"How is it all right?!" she asked, hot tears threatening to spill out onto her cheeks.
Aludoe's stern face softened. "Call it a hunch. Go on, let me take care of this. Check on Miss Noble for yourself."
Reluctantly, she relaxed her grip and allowed Aludoe to take the chair from her. She'd never tell him, but it was that rare smile of his that convinced her to not bring her makeshift batteringram along. Lord, it hurt to flex her reddened, stiff fingers, though. Gently, she tried rubbing them while she stepped into the doorway. The Doctor still had his back to her, and she could barely make out words being said above the noise of that silver instrument, but the moment she saw an arm wrap itself around his neck, she felt a mix of confusion and relief wash over her. Donna Noble was breathing and resting her head on the table.
"--one," she heard the woman say, her voice a bit muffled and hoarse. "Did you really have to cut it so close?"
The Doctor threw her lowered head a look Yunnis couldn't quite discern before returning his attentions to the two officers passed out in a heap on the floor. "Well--"
"How were they stopped?" Yunnis found herself blurting out, interrupting whatever retort the Doctor was about to utter.
He glanced at up her over the rims of a pair of spectacles he now wore on his face. Those and that peculiar instrument of his must have been in one of the evidence bags in his interrogation room. "You did, actually!" he said in a much brighter tone than she had heard the entire time she had watched his footage. "Very interesting--brilliant, really--and very, very surprising. I'd run into something like this in the past, many, many years ago, but I never thought a middle G sharp would do the trick! Good thinking with that chair, by the way, even if it was completely useless to break down that door."
She blinked at him in response, and couldn't help feeling very wary by the quick switch in his demeanour. Nothing about that made any sense, not to her, but her instincts were telling her that if she kept asking questions of this man, she'd only just end up more overwhelmed and confused than she already was, so she ought to just try accepting what had happened.
Besides, he seemed to have lost interest in her and was muttering to himself as he scanned the bodies he stood over. A peculiar ooze dripped out of their ears and she recognised it as being exactly like the substance found at the H&M&M crime scene.
"Oi," Miss Noble's quiet voice said, drawing her attention. Yunnis saw her smiling faintly, wearily, at her. "Thank you."
She opened her mouth to say that she was just doing her job and that there was no need to thank her, but she knew that wasn't the reason why she had done what she did. She couldn't bring herself to lie. Instead, she nodded awkwardly and tried to ask, "Are they..." but couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence. Miss Noble's smile faded, though, and she returned her gaze to her bruised and scraped bleeding wrists.
This time, the Doctor didn't even bother to look at her as he shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but they're gone. Once the--"
But she found that she couldn't stand to be in there any longer, and quickly backed out of the room, not listening to a single word more of what the Doctor was saying. She couldn't accept that her actions had led to the death of two officers. Even the thought that she'd saved someone didn't help.
She brushed past Aludoe as he tried to ask what was wrong, and kept on walking, weaving around the other officers and personnel in the station that had gathered in the hallway. On and on she walked until she burst into a run and found herself outside. The moment the cool night air hit her, her stomach clenched and she launched herself at the railing, clinging to it as she doubled over and threw up what was left of her late dinner into the nearby bushes. Her dinner hadn't tasted all that well to begin with, anyway.
Behind her, the doors burst open and she heard Aludoe's familiar footsteps approaching her, along with the faint sound of sirens growing ever louder. "Yunnis, what happened wasn't your fault."
Good old Aludoe, she thought as she wiped her mouth on her suit sleeve. "Don't you get it?" she asked, not bearing to look at her colleague just yet. "Someone was going to die no matter what I did."
"You can't be so sure of that!"
She turned around a little too fast for comfort and felt her head lawl to the side, her vision swimming for a second before it focused again. "Oh, yes I can be sure of that," she said, keeping one hand on the rail behind her to keep herself anchored. "Think back to what he said in the interrogation room! Didn't you see that fear, that anger in his eyes the moment he heard her scream? He knew Baime and Grend were dead before even seeing them!"
"I was watching him examine those bodies as well, Yunnis," said Aludoe in what he probably thought was a calm, soothing tone, but she wasn't in the mood to be soothed.
"Yeah, but did you see him once check for a pulse? He didn't! I'm willing to bet that's why they allowed themselves to be caught," she carried on, pressing a hand to her temple. Lord, her head hurt. "Somehow, whatever it was in that shop had found its way into those officers, and when I used that chair, the resonance of the middle G sharp had been enough to kill them. If that had gotten into his friend, I would have killed her too!"
"Again," he said, sighing exasperatedly, "You can't be certain."
Tears finally started to fall, trailing slowly along the side of her nose. "But I am!" She blinked furiously, wiping at her face. "Watch the video again, and you'll see what I saw. Ask Nenkin and Henner what he told them during the time we had his audio muted, but I'm telling you right now that man is dangerous. If something had happened to Miss Noble..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "How far would he have gone? How many dead bodies would lie in his wake? All because he had lost one woman..."
She had no idea what the Doctor would do, but she definitely believed he would have done something and that had frightened her more than she could ever fathom.
From the look on Aludoe's face, she thought that he was starting to wonder the same thing. "Well," he said after a moment's silence, clearing his throat. "Then we should be doubly glad we'll never have to find out the answer to those questions, huh?"
"Yeah," she replied softly, letting him slip an arm around her shoulder. The thought didn't placate her, though. Eventually, all questions had a way of being answered, and she feared for the person who had to learn them.
Muse: Donna Noble
Word count: 3143