Crowe pointed to the damaged gate.

"Have them pull a paint sample and place an alert for any local trucking companies that have that color for an insurance or theft claim."

"Also, have them check any other cameras out on the street as well. Maybe someplace else picked something up."

Crowe looked around the scene one more time.

"Let's see what else we got hidding in plain sight."

I managed to post, but I won't be able to post again until probably Monday.

Elly stopped when Crowe spoke. For half a second she looked at the chipped concrete before lifting her KIA and tagging the impact point with a clean white flash. "Marked."

"Dispatch, Detective LE1-1.3," she said, opening the scene channel again. "Add one probable bullet impact to the freight access scene. Concrete wall. Marked in KIA. Have Evidence Collection prioritize trajectory work and retrieval if possible."

She lowered the device and looked toward Crowe at last. "Good catch." It came out flat, almost procedural, but she meant it.

Then she turned and followed the blood toward the loading dock. The smell found her first: fuel, burned plastic, old soot, and blood... Human, replicant—unclear without testing. It was still fresh enough to matter. Elly crouched near the edge of the concrete, careful not to disturb the droplets leading down into the crushed garbage. Her KIA flashed again, trying the capture the essential details of the scene: Blood, footwear impressions, impacted debris, damaged gate, marks the vehicle left behind.

"They left fast," she said, standing again and looking at the bent security gate. "Medium truck... the driver accelerated before they had clearance... like they were carrying something they believed mattered more than the vehicle."

Her eyes moved upward to the blinking red light in the corner. "Camera." She raised her KIA again. "Dispatch, Detective LE1-1.3. Confirm whether this dock camera was online during the break-in. If it was not, I want the failure time, last successful upload, and whether the outage matches the ESPER disruption."

She looked back at Crowe while continuing with Dispatch, "Let Evidence Collection know we're going to keep them busy today. Send a couple uniforms to hold this dock until they can process the scene. If exterior drone coverage is available, I want a vehicle egress sweep from this bay outward." She paused to see if her partner had more to add, or if he was satisfied and ready to follow the other trail.

Crowe could find the loading dock blindfolded just by following the smell: a base note of ancient hydrocarbons and soot, heavy and scratchy in the back of the nose; mid note of burned garbage, oily-sweet with the remains of plastic gone to the fire; over it all, a faint coppery hint of spilled blood.  Not as strong as back where the fight happened, but definitely there for those brave enough to sniff it out.  Whoever came through here, they were having a bad day. 

The dock itself tells an interesting story, if a short one.  Bloody droplets and footprints leading to the edge of the concrete and down into a pile of crushed garbage.  Tyre skids just visible on the floor where someone put the hammer down in the getaway vehicle.  The security gate bent and broken where it wasn't quite high enough not to catch the top of a medium-sized truck.  Panic.  Confusion.  In a darkened corner above, the blinking red light of a camera positioned to catch the whole show, assuming it was online at the time.


And we're underway again!

[Takes massive, desperate gasp of fresh air] Im finally free of all my application paperwork and looking forward to posting tomorrow.

I may be delayed on posting over the next week. I hope to be able to get at least one in.

I'm dealing with our insurance (which has been pleasant enough, just time consuming). We had three deaths this past week in the small community I pastor, including one for our church, so 2 funerals next week, 1 the week after. And our church is hosting a conference next weekend.

Anyway, feel free to NPC if you need to move the story forward.

I see we made some wallpaper changes to the thread as well.

Sorry everyone - I'm tied up with lawyer-application paperwork today.  I'll post when I can, which shouldn't be very long.  Sometime over the weekend, most likely.

  I am the GMs good servant, proceed sir.

Crowe leaves his KIA in the car. Senior privilege.