StarFall Comics
Presents:
Trespass
#4: Trouble in Oasis
From the rooftop, Trespass looked down at the suicide scene. She was to far away to hear the cop's actual conservation, but they were well inside her telepathic range and with a little concentration, she knew what they did about the apparent suicide.
Mary Coogan, owner and operator of Coogan Videos, jumped from the observation deck of Maxwell Tower. She has two kids, both in college and her husband died from cancer last year.
Trespass had all the information she needed for the moment. The corner's report wouldn't be ready for a few hours.
She turned away from the scene and disappeared into the night. She knew Coogan Videos. Good prices, good service, and from all indications a very successful business.
Trespass made the trip in just under half an hour by foot. Coogan Videos looked and felt like Blockbuster's little brother. She had no trouble disabling the security system and picking the lock for the service entrance.
Once inside, she headed directly to the office. She searched it from top to bottom, starting with the computer. The computer wasn't password protected like it should have been, but it didn't yield anything clues as to why Mary went sidewalk diving off of Maxwell Tower.
Trespass went through the desk drawers. Nothing.
"There has to be a reason." Trespass said to the empty office.
She turned in a circle, scanning with her senses. Again nothing came to her.
She didn't believe for an instant that Mary Coogan committed suicide. There was no reason. Her business was doing great. Her children were almost finished with college. Her son, Danny, was rumored to be signing with the Texas Rangers. Her daughter, Amy, was in grad school.
Trespass didn't leave any trance of her search when she left.
The answer had to be at Mary's home.
The phone book had only one Coogan listed. The home was an up scale two story in east Oasis. Trespass scanned the house with her telepathy. She didn't register any humans, but there were thought pattern's in the back yard and two smaller ones inside the house.
A dog and two cats, Trespass thought.
She scanned the neighbors houses. The one on the right was silent, but the one on the left was full of thought traffic, music, laughter, and lights.
A party, Trespass mused, just perfect.
Normally in cases like these, Trespass could suppress any curious thoughts about her, but there was too many people at the party.
Trespass eased from the shadows, running half crouched. Ten feet from the house, she jumped and landed silently on the roof. She flattened herself and stretched out with her telepathy again.
No one at the party noticed. The dog in the backyard was fast asleep.
Trespass crawled over the hip in the roof, to the backside of the house, and leaned over the edge. She looked through the window into a home office.
A telekinetic nudge unlocked the window, then eased it open. Getting through was a matter of her uncanny agility and balance.
Trespass didn't dare risk a light until she closed the window and pulled the shades. The small office was a converted bedroom. Trespass looked at the oak roll-top desk, the filing cabinets and the other odds and ends.
She expected a computer, but there wasn't one present. The filing cabinets had locks on them. Trespass passed pressed a finger against the lock and inserted a tendril of flesh. The tendril was the same as her claws, only small and more delicate.
After a second, the tendril tripped all the tumblers and the filing cabinet was unlocked. Trespass flipped through the files, finding nothing to advance her investigation. Silently, she re-locked the cabinet.
Next she went to the desk and picked the lock the same manner as the filing cabinet.
As she rolled the top back, she saw a laptop computer. This one had multiple security measures. Trespass took almost twenty minutes getting in and searching the hard drive. The only thing of interest was a note on her calendar about a lunch with Mister Maxwell the previous Monday.
Trespass looked at the screen, piecing the puzzle together.
Mary Coogan had a lunch appointment with Trevor Maxwell and the next day she jumped from his building
Even a novice detective could follow a trail this obvious.
She covered her tracks in the computer, then with the roll-top desk. She slipped out the window and re-locked it with her telekinesis. No one at the party noticed a living shadow leaving the house.