1x01: Death at the Museum (2/3)
Title: Death at the Museum (2/3)
Author: shinyopals
Rating: PG
Pairing: Rose/Ten II
Summary: After nearly two years of living a (relatively) normal life, the TARDIS is ready to go. The Doctor and Rose quickly find out that no matter what universe they're travelling in, there's always danger to be found!
Author's notes: Thanks for the five zillion people who gave me help and advice but in particular to mrv3000 and ginamak for going through line by line and telling me off for repeated lemurs.
Episode 1 of a virtual series at the_altverse.
Virtual Series Masterlist
Part 1
To Rose's relief, the Doctor smiled.
"Who was that then?" she asked, gesturing down the corridor to where the strange aered had been.
"Her name's Jetra. She's - she was Elizabeth's student assistant," he replied. "I told her we were police, but she's gone to call the real cops as well. S'pose they might come in handy."
"What ID did you give her?" asked Rose. The Doctor grinned, pulling out the ID wallet and showing her the blank sheet of paper. "But you didn't have that in this universe?" she said, frowning.
"Nope, I didn't," he said, pocketing the ID again. "It's not actual psychic paper, in the strictest definition. Not quite as good as the real deal either, but it'll do in a pinch. You know how people ignore the TARDIS, right?"
"The chameleon circuit, yeah?" she said. "And, what was it? Perception filter, you mentioned."
"Yup, that's the one," he said. "I asked her nicely and did a bit of work on this-" he held the wallet open to reveal a small, flat circuit board, about the size of a credit card, "and this'll do the job of the psychic paper ooh... eighty percent of the time, perhaps. Call it seventy-five to be on the safe side."
At that point, Jetra returned with another aered in tow, this one in an official-looking uniform.
"DI Daven Ramasgildon, Aletheia Four police department," he said. (Rose was fairly certain he was a he, anyway, when she compared him to Jetra. She couldn't quite be certain though.)
"Hello, yes," said the Doctor. "I'm the Doctor and this is my partner, Rose Tyler. We're from the... EEBI."
"This isn't exactly in your jurisdiction," said the DI cautiously.
"Nope, 'fraid not," said the Doctor. He waved the psychic paper again. "We've got permission to operate on Aletheia because we're following up a lead. We're having a bit of downtime while waiting for some new info - you know how it is - and Agent Tyler here's a bit of a history buff so we decided to pop on over. Ended up coming back here to see Dr Schwartz's latest project and I smelled some durrigium in the air."
"But you both got out?"
"I was right by the door," put in Rose, feeling she could at least answer this one. "And the Doctor's not fully human, which is how he smelled it."
She didn't remember being at this much of a loss since travelling with the Doctor. It wasn't that Torchwood knew everything - far from it - she'd just not been in such a fish out of water situation for a long time. She was really going to have to find out what the 'EEBI' was.
"This is our jurisdiction," said the DI, the issue obviously still bothering him. She couldn't help but think of countless fights with the police over the same thing. This, at least, was a conversation she knew how to have. Maybe this wouldn't be too bad, after all.
"Of course it is," she said calmly before the Doctor could respond. "We just want to do an information share on the off chance this is connected with our work. The case is all yours, of course."
The DI seemed to grudgingly accept this.
"I've got a team coming up to deal with the body and the forensics," he said. "I suppose it's a good thing you were on the scene or we'd never even know it was murder."
"Are you... are you sure it's murder?" asked Jetra hesitantly and Rose felt a rush of sympathy. It seemed that Jetra and Elizabeth had been friends as well as professor and student.
"I think it had to be," she said softly, patting Jetra on the shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting way. "We were right there with her. She was happy and talking about her research and-" She broke off, remembering the computer trouble, not sure what she and the Doctor were telling the DI, let alone other people. "We're going to need to access her computer," she added, covering the gap in her speech. "We might find some clue of suicide on there, but it looks like murder."
"I'm not sure-" began Jetra, before breaking off and then trying again. "She always kept her things so secure."
"We'll have our own techs down soon," said the DI. "Don't worry about it."
"Come on, let's go and find somewhere we can sit down and talk," said Rose, steering her away from the body.
"There's a staff break room down the hall," said Jetra. Rose nodded, gesturing for them to go on before dropping back next to the Doctor.
"Here we go again, Agent Tyler," he murmured.
"Looks like it," she said. "What's the EEBI?"
"Earth Empire Bureau of Investigation," he replied. "No jurisdiction here, since Aletheia's not part of the empire, but generally respected. And if I'd said local PD, they'd have been able to check up in seconds. Look, I'm going back to check the computer, you all right following up this lead?"
She gave a mock salute. "On it."
"Be careful," he said a little anxiously, eyes straying back down the corridor to where they'd left the body.
Rose nodded, then hurried off after Jetra and the DI.
The staff break room was nothing particularly special. In fact, were it not for the holographic images on the walls and the fact that there didn't appear to be a kettle or a microwave, it could have almost been the break room of Henrik's. Jetra was messing around with taps and utensils that Rose didn't recognise, but the end result seemed to be something that was not quite like coffee for all three of them. She was shaking a little and moving nervously and she sat bolt upright on a cushion-seat-thing that appeared to be specially designed for her body shape.
"Where's your partner got to?" asked the DI impatiently.
"He got a call from our people," said Rose. "He might be a while, so we should just get on with it."
Rose let the DI conduct the interview, memorising what she could. Jetra did not seem to know anything. She'd grown up on Aletheia itself but attended the university here on the fourth moon and was in her second year of study under Dr Schwartz. She talked of Elizabeth as a friend who'd helped her out both with work and with obtaining grants to study. Dr Schwartz had apparently been very dedicated to her work and - although Jetra hesitated in mentioning it - this sometimes caused trouble at home. In fact, only earlier that day...
At that point she trailed off. The DI, picking up on some new fact of interest, leaned forward.
"Earlier today?" he prompted.
Rose watched Jetra carefully as she shifted uncomfortably before giving in. "Kaleen, Elizabeth's wife, came to the museum," said Jetra. "They'd arranged to have lunch, but Elizabeth had forgotten. Kaleen was talking to Rebson, the security guard, and I was passing with Dr Throdlish and Dr Maybrush. I was just about to hurry off and remind Elizabeth so she wasn't surprised in her office when Kaleen started feeling sick and had to sit down in the kitchen display. Dr Throdlish and I both went to look for Elizabeth but then we had work to do so we didn't go back."
"And then?" asked the DI.
"Well, I got this second-hand from Dr Maybrush," she said, "but apparently Elizabeth said she was busy and that Kaleen should go home and Kaleen got annoyed. They had a bit of a fight and then Elizabeth left."
"I think I was in the room then," put in Rose. "I didn't hear any raised voices, though."
"Elizabeth is- was quiet when she's angry," offered Jetra. "And Kaleen's a raalin and you know what they're like."
Rose didn't, but she didn't say anything.
"Now now, Ms Metrantolpheen," broke in the DI. "You can't say things like that on the moons."
"Yes, of course," said Jetra apologetically. "Things are different on the planet."
"I think that's all we need for now," he said. "Unless you have anything to add, Agent Tyler?"
"No, I don't think so," said Rose.
Jetra was shown out by a young and human-looking policewoman who'd appeared at the door without Rose noticing.
"Well, we'll definitely need to speak to Kaleen Schwartz," said the DI, scratching his long nose.
"And we should probably talk to that guard and Drs Throdlish and Maybrush as well," offered Rose. "Make sure we verify it all."
The DI nodded contemplatively. "She seems like a straight up young woman," he said. "And in her position she wouldn't have had access to durrigium. Still, those two might know more about the fight." He looked over at the younger constable, who'd returned to her post by the door. "Can you go and find this guard Rebson? We'll talk to him before Ms Schwartz. And probably Dr Maybrush, too."
~*~
The Doctor wasted no time in dashing back into Elizabeth's office and flopping down in the seat behind her desk. A quick sniff of the air told him the poison had dissipated, although he'd expected nothing else. Any more than a tiny, concentrated dose aimed directly at Elizabeth and Rose would- he didn't like to think about it.
He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and set about letting himself into the computer, pondering all the while. Who would have access to durrigium in this day and age? In an advanced enough laboratory it could be manufactured, but that would require an advanced knowledge of chemistry and a lot of expensive equipment. And it wasn't as though it could just be bought from anywhere. Almost all civilised planets classified it as a chemical weapon - Aletheia included - and acquiring even the smallest amount would be next to impossible. Obviously not completely impossible, though, he thought bitterly.
Two hours out of the TARDIS and on a new world and Rose had already nearly died. If he'd been just the tiniest bit more human he wouldn't have been able to warn her at all and she'd be lying on the floor right now. He almost didn't know why he'd expected anything else: why a little part of his brain wanted to avoid all danger and why he'd been halfway to convincing himself that everything had changed now he was half human. It wasn't as though they'd even been looking for trouble, he thought, kicking the desk drawers next to his leg in frustration.
Wait! Hang on a sec. The drawers!
Underneath the top of the desk, right along the edge and just under the nose of anyone sitting there was a row of drawers. There were others to the side as well (the ones he'd kicked) but they weren't so perfectly positioned. And the middle drawer was most certainly not locked or even pushed fully shut. He tugged it open and peered through it gingerly. For a moment there was a stronger smell of durrigium before it vanished. He was left with papers and reports and... a small pool of water in one corner. Well, it looked like water. He dipped a finger into it and licked it and nodded to himself. Definitely water.
The computer beeped angrily at him and he jumped to attention, remembering he might not have much time before the actual police arrived. A final few seconds with the sonic screwdriver unlocked Elizabeth's account and he peered through the open files. A specification of the Roomba, a report on where it had been found, and a few ebooks opened at pages that she must have hoped would share some light on her mystery. There was an open email program, but it was completely blank, right down to the address. The Doctor frowned. She'd had something very important to send, she'd said. Had that simply been a report about her work? A deadline of some sort, perhaps. That made sense.
A noise out in the corridor made him jump out of the seat. He re-locked the computer and hurried out of the door to see a team of forensics people. They did not look pleased to see him but he waved his ID and waffled about inter-agency cooperation as he sidled around them and went for a wander. Rose'd be all right by herself for a bit and he wanted to find out if anyone knew what Elizabeth had been so keen to send.
Now empty of the public, the museum seemed a little too quiet for his taste, but he kept quite close to the staff area. It didn't take him long to find a museum security guard and a police constable in conversation over a cup of giblad.
"Sorry, sir, the museum is closed," said the guard as the Doctor flashed the psychic paper again, saying a silent thank you to the TARDIS.
"EEBI," he said. "I'm helping DI Ramasgildon with this. Is Dr Schwartz's wife around?"
The two exchanged uncertain glances before gesturing down one of the corridors. "Turn left and the second door on your right."
Kaleen Schwartz had been put up in a slightly large office than Elizabeth's. She was quietly sitting and drinking, staring blankly at the wall. Raalin emotions were notoriously difficult to read, but from the greyish tone her skin was taking, she seemed distressed. Or possibly still ill. He couldn't really tell.
He extended a hand and they gently grasped wrists, the typical raalin greeting, before he sat himself down in the chair opposite her.
"I'm the Doctor," he said. "How are you feeling?"
"As well as can be expected," she said in a low, quiet voice. "Humans live and die so quickly, but I thought we would have longer."
The Doctor nodded, with a slightly awkward half smile. He knew well enough what that was like, after all. Kaleen had another hundred and fifty years to go, if he was any judge.
"I heard you were ill earlier," he enquired as delicately as possible.
"It passed quickly," she replied. "I felt entirely well again before the news."
"I'm sorry," he said. "Look, I don't know if the DI will ask you this - I'm not police, by the way, I'm just helping them - but right before she died Elizabeth was trying to send something to someone. It was something she thought was important. And, well, I'm inclined to find out what that was since from the point of view of anyone who didn't want it sent, today was rather convenient."
Kaleen was silent for a few seconds. "I thought it was about her work," she said eventually. "She did speak to me of it, said that was why she couldn't stay with me, and denied most emphatically it was related to her research."
"Do you believe that?"
"I didn't," she replied. "Elizabeth loved her work too much. Now you say this, though, I don't know. Her work is sometimes controversial and I will not say she doesn't have jealous rivals after any major publication, but that was always academic. I never saw or heard of any personal malice."
The Doctor scratched his head thoughtfully.
At that point, a young policewoman came to the door. She started at seeing the Doctor, but asked Kaleen to follow her. The Doctor tagged along and the corridor brought them to the staff room which brought him back to Rose. He grinned broadly and dropped down into the chair next to her.
"Got any hunches, Tyler?"
She snorted. "Shut up," she said. "I think the DI wants to start interviewing."
The Doctor saluted DI Ramasgildon and turned his attention back to Kaleen, who was still a slightly off grey. He smiled sympathetically at her.
Kaleen was a minor civil servant who worked in immigration. She and Dr Schwartz had, it turned out, been married for coming up on eleven years, something that was no doubt considered a fairly short relationship by raalin standards. Still, he and Rose had only been married for nearly a year, which should have been nothing to a Time Lord and yet felt like everything to him.
He shook himself a little as the DI questioned further, hunting for a potential motive. He barely knew Kaleen and she was hardly the only raalin married to someone far younger who would die far sooner. He needed to stop thinking of her relationship as his. Besides, he was half human now: the comparison was not even apt. She was a suspect in this, so he shouldn't think of her as being like him after only a few minutes, even if his instincts were normally good.
"Of course I'll inherit," she told the DI calmly. "We have a house and a summer house on Aletheia Three and reasonably substantial savings, but all of that was as much mine as hers anyway."
"But a divorce would have divided that between the two of you," the DI pointed out.
"That's true," she replied. "But divorce wasn't something we were considering so I hadn't thought about it."
"Despite your argument this morning?"
The Doctor thought he saw a flash of anger but it was repressed so quickly he couldn't be certain. "Every marriage has its bad days," she then said.
"Oh, of course they do," said the DI sympathetically. "After all, your wife practically ignores you when you're feeling so ill. How are you now, anyway?"
"Better," said Kaleen simply. She definitely did not seem happy with these questions, and the Doctor suspected that even Rose, with no knowledge of experience of reading raalin emotions, could see it.
"Very convenient, that, isn't it?" said the DI in what might have been a pleasant tone of voice.
"I'm not sure I understand you," said Kaleen, seeming a little more in control of herself now.
"Life insurance?" he demanded next. Out of the corner of the Doctor's eye, he saw Rose wince.
"A million credits," said Kaleen. "Taken out five years ago."
The DI made a note on his lopad, taking his time about it and letting silence reign. The Doctor and Rose exchanged glances. He could see that she, too, was sympathetic for Kaleen.
Finally, the DI spoke. "What about your movements this morning?" he asked.
"We had agreed to eat lunch together," said Kaleen. "I was a little early, so I talked to one of the security guards - a fredori - and I said hello to Emann - Dr Throdlish I mean - Dr Maybrush and Jetra. I think they were carrying some items. And all of a sudden I felt quite light headed and dizzy and had to sit down. I believe Jetra and Emann went to fetch Elizabeth and the others found me a seat."
"What about your hands?" interjected the Doctor, wondering if just maybe...
Rose and the DI stared at him and Kaleen looked a little surprised, before nodding. "They went oddly numb," she said. "How did you know?"
He waved his hand vaguely. That didn't exonerate her, of course, not if she knew more than she was telling. But it did open a few other possibilities...
~*~
Rose bit her tongue and resisted the temptation to demand the Doctor explain exactly what he knew there and then. She did not want to give him the satisfaction of being able to know everything.
"Look, Kaleen," she said, "I know you said you got here early, but the front desk has you swiping in half an hour before you were talking to Rebson and got ill. What were you doing?"
Kaleen turned dark blue eyes on her and paused for a second before answering. "I took a longer route and walked through some of the exhibits. I enjoy this museum, even if I am not a historian."
"Can anyone verify that?" Rose asked.
"I suspect I was seen by many of the patrons," she replied smoothly.
Rose had seen her protective wall crack a little earlier, but now Kaleen seemed to be cool and emotionless again. The Doctor had been watching her intently from the beginning. Maybe he'd have some clue at the end of it all because Rose couldn't guess what she was feeling. Her wife of eleven years had just died yet she seemed so detached. Was that normal? She couldn't guess.
"And you know damn well that's not an alibi," snapped the DI, Kaleen's detachment seeming to irritate him more and more. "There are always a few raalin in this museum. Of course people will have seen them."
"Since we quite clearly all look the same," replied Kaleen. Rose saw the Doctor's lip quirk.
"Don't start," said the DI. "To a lot of us, yes. The fact is that you had time in that half an hour to pop along to your wife's office and plant the poison."
Kaleen's eyes flickered. "Maybe so," she said. "But the fact remains that I didn't."
The DI let out a frustrated breath and gestured to the policewoman at the door to lead her away. "Keep her in custody," he instructed.
The Doctor stretched and leaned back in his chair as the door to the room swung shut. "Well then," he said. "You certainly seem to have picked your horse."
"It's always the partner," said the DI grimly. "I'm sure you see all sorts of fancy cases with the Bureau but most of our murders or attempts, of which we fortunately have rather few, are down to the spouse or partner."
"Well, we still haven't interviewed this Dr Throdlish," pointed out Rose, feeling a little defensive on behalf of her own marriage. "Dr Maybrush said they're both after the same funding."
"True, true," agreed the DI. "Mustn't burn any bridges yet. Any thoughts to add, Doctor?"
Rose turned back to the Doctor, who scratched his neck lazily. "Well..." he began, "I did have a bit of a nose while I was out of the room-"
The DI snorted. "So much for a call from your boss," he said. The Doctor frowned for a second and glanced at Rose. She winked at him.
"Oh, the boss said to keep our eyes on this one," he continued. "And me, I'm just incurably nosy. I'd say it's a bad habit but it serves me well in this job. Anyway, since I'd already been in Dr Schwartz's office I was hardly going to make life too hard for your forensics lot. Besides, I can tell you exactly how the murder happened, as well as shed some light on Kaleen's illness."
"Oh, get on with it," said Rose, eliciting a grin from him.
"Can't a bloke have any fun?"
She snorted. "Keep us in suspense any longer and you're in trouble."
He laughed and she rolled her eyes affectionately. "Anyway, our dear Dr Schwartz's desk had a partly open drawer right under her nose," he began.
"Logical," said the DI. "For Agent Tyler here to escape unharmed, it must have been localised and concentrated. I asked our team to check the desk and drawers specifically."
"Ahh, but I don't know if they'll find anything when they get around to it," said the Doctor. "I might have been a bit lucky with getting there quick enough, you know, because in the front of the drawer was a tiny little puddle of water. Just water," he added after the DI opened his mouth to object. "I tested it and everything."
"You licked it, didn't you?" said Rose, wrinkling her nose.
He grinned. The DI stared.
"He does that," added Rose to the DI. "He's usually right, as well."
"So what does the water have to do with it?" asked the DI, shaking his head a little.
"Ice! Perfect time delay capsule!" said the Doctor. "At first the durrigium is locked up nice and safe in the ice. It's a solid, so it's not going anywhere unless Dr Schwartz happened to open her drawer and decide to eat the ice cube, which'd be odd behaviour even for the most eccentric of historians. Then, as the ice melts, the gas is released and bam! Massive myocardial infarction! Fatal in seconds. Then the water evaporates or is put down to her spilling her drink, so even if anyone thinks to look there's no evidence of anything other than a heart attack."
"Would it be hard to make the ice and durrigium?" asked Rose. "Or could anyone just use a freezer?"
"Anyone with a freezer and some durrigium," replied the Doctor grimly. "The freezing's not the hard bit. It's making or finding the actual poison that's the problem. We've currently got a historian and a civil servant as our most reasonable seeming suspects. Unless you can dig up an expert chemist in Elizabeth Schwartz's past, you have to somehow connect them to the black market in chemical weapons."
"I know, I know," said the DI. "I've got people looking into chemists, as well as places that sell the equipment and the chemicals, and drawing up lists of the people in Elizabeth Schwartz's past. Your ice cube evidence means we have to place them at the museum, but for all I know at the moment, some angry ex-girlfriend was one of the patrons the security team so obligingly ushered out of the way."
"Are there some security cameras we can look at?" asked Rose, thinking of how many times cameras had helped her work for Torchwood.
"Not nearly enough," said the DI. "Not since the Citizens' Privacy Act. Only the expensive exhibits are covered. That piece of legislation has caused more trouble than anything else in my entire time on the force."
"I know!" said the Doctor. "Who are these citizens who have the cheek to want privacy? That's just plain rude of them!" He winked at Rose.
Rose turned her snort into a cough. The DI looked suspiciously at them. Rose forced herself to straighten her face and tried to look like the perfect image of a serious Bureau agent. She wasn't sure she was successful.
"Anyway," continued the Doctor. "Don't you want to know what I've got to say about Kaleen?"
"Go on..." said the DI guardedly.
"It's about the hand thing I asked," said the Doctor. "Raalin don't react quite the same to durrigium as humans do. In a high enough dose it's still fatal, but what Kaleen described are the exact symptoms of trace amounts of durrigium."
"Wait, she was poisoned?" demanded Rose, worried. "Is someone trying to kill her?" She didn't want to see another person die that day, no matter how cold and detached Kaleen had seemed.
"Not enough to kill," said the Doctor. "But enough to get Dr Schwartz running out of her office despite her important business, leaving someone time to plant the ice cube. Unless it was lot bigger or more complicated chemically than it looks, that was when the ice cube was planted. It doesn't prove she couldn't have done it, though. Anyone with the knowhow to make durrigium could have made a more sophisticated delivery system that took longer to melt. If she is our murderer, she could have faked the illness to throw suspicion off her. All the same, you'd think she'd have drawn attention to her hands if that were the case."
"But if she was poisoned, does that mean it was one of the people there? And why didn't they get ill?"
"Everyone present was either aered or fredoris," interrupted the DI. "They wouldn't get ill from that small an amount. And like you said, she could have been faking it to establish an alibi."
"Still," said the Doctor, "that limits our suspects a bit, doesn't it? Kaleen or one of the others there."
"Unless someone's part of a team ," said the DI. "Or hired someone to do the deed."
The Doctor scowled. "You don't half take the fun out of discovering things," he complained.
Rose laughed and nudged his knee with her own. He grinned at her.
She yawned and stretched out where she sat. Even if she hadn't done that much running about, sitting down to listen to the interviews was taking it out of her. A quick glance at her watch told her that it was nearly midnight Earth time. Dinner and some rest were long overdue. Hard to believe that earlier that day she'd been sitting in her office filling out paperwork, and that even earlier she'd been sneaking through tunnels. Already she was pushing that out of her mind to remember a life where time of day wasn't important.
Still, she couldn't help but need sleep. Eventually the Doctor would start to flag too, although she knew he'd never admit it. She stood up.
"I'm off to stretch my legs for a bit," she said. "Still jetlagged," she added to the DI, who'd frowned. "Reckon I can find some food?"
The Doctor fished in his pocket for the credit stick she'd earned earlier, which now read '15;40'. "Should be plenty for a sandwich if you can find somewhere," he said. "Bring me back something if you can."
She nodded and headed out the door and into the corridor.
~*~
"Well I want to keep going," said the DI after Rose left, "you can fill your partner in later, I'm sure?"
"Fine by me," said the Doctor, leaning back on the chair and resting his feet on the coffee table. "No point in wasting time, after all."
The DI signalled for their next target to be found and the Doctor suppressed a yawn. He wasn't that tired, after all. The amount of sleep he needed these days seemed rather absurd, but he should be all right for a while yet. His thoughts wandered to Rose. Despite his confidence that she was in no danger at the present, he couldn't stop himself feeling a trifle worried. Still, their arrival might have been the one thing that made this a murder investigation as opposed to an unfortunate accident but he didn't think revenge was likely. That would just draw attention where the murderer wouldn't want it to be drawn. It wasn't as though he could stop her from going anywhere. It wouldn't be fair. Or practical. They had the TARDIS and their old lives back (with a few rather pleasant changes, of which sharing a bed and getting to wake up next to her every morning was probably his favourite) and with that came the risks.
"Sorry?" he said, when he realised the DI had spoken. "Head in the clouds, me."
"I was just saying you and your partner seem to be good friends," said the DI, leaving the Doctor to interpret that as he wanted. He wondered if he was really all that obvious about things even when trying not to be. Not that he was trying to conceal anything from Rose these days, but when they were pretending to be the Mulder and Scully of the Earth Empire Bureau of Investigation, they probably weren't supposed to give the impression that they were a married couple. (Not that Mulder and Scully had done a good job at that, either.)
"Well, you know how it is," he said, waving his hand vaguely, "work with someone long enough, especially in a job like this one."
"How long have you worked together?"
"Since she joined the Bureau," he replied. "Although we did spend a few years working with other people in the middle, but we work better together."
He was spared further interrogation by the arrival of Dr Emann Throdlish, who turned out to be a particularly dark green fredori in a slightly scruffy suit that looked a little like something the Doctor would have worn. If he were a fredori, of course, which, fortunately, he wasn't. He rather liked his current shape.
Dr Throdlish was from the same university as Dr Schwartz and made no bones about the fact that he considered her a rival.
"Of course," he said, "she was a brilliant historian. Absolutely dedicated to her research. Some of her conclusions left a lot to be desired and sometimes Dr Maybrush and I were left feeling an article of hers had been published on the strength of her name and not the scholarship itself, but she was always prepared to listen to one's opinion. I suppose that must count for something."
"Apparently the two of you were battling it out for the same funds," said the Doctor casually. Dr Throdlish fidgeted.
"Well yes, that is true," he conceded. "The Zomigon Memorial Grant. I won't deny that being able to make that trip to Earth will be a marvellous opportunity, but-"
"And that you're now the only person in the running?" interrupted the DI.
Dr Throdlish looked at once uncomfortable and irritated. "I hope you're not implying what I think you are," he said. "I would rather receive the money on the strength of my application alone."
"Good for you!" said the Doctor cheerily. "That's the approach of a true academic. And, just out of interest, what did you do after you sent Dr Schwartz running to Kaleen?"
"I... well, I went back to my office," said Dr Throdlish. "I had work to do."
"Alone?" was the Doctor's mild reply..
"Well yes, I suppose I was, since Jetra's office is in the opposite direction. Surely you don't think-?"
"I'm not thinking anything," said the Doctor. "Too much thinking is bad for me, you know. Gives me a terrible headache."
Dr Throdlish stared at him and the Doctor smiled, leaning back in his chair.
"Thank you, Dr Throdlish," said the DI. "That's all for now. We might need to talk to you again, of course."
"Bye, now!" added the Doctor, directing his gaze to the ceiling thoughtfully.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the DI make a bit of a show of going through the notes on his lotop (the palm sized computer he was using), presumably to gather his thoughts. Eventually he looked over to the Doctor again and spoke. "Well, barring accomplices and conspiracies, it looks to me like either one of them could have done it and might have wanted to. So could Jetra Metrantolpheen, same as Dr Throdlish, I suppose."
"Ah yes, the student assistant," said the Doctor. "What's her motive, then?"
"Not as strong as the other two," replied the DI. "Well, Dr Maybrush did allude to some idealistic differences. Despite Ms Metrantolpheen's interest in history, she was brought up on the planet, so some of her views aren't considered appropriate these days. And Dr Schwartz being married to a raalin, she wasn't always sympathetic to the odd... misspeak. It's all like that down on the planet, though, so she can hardly be blamed. She just had bad habits."
"No arguments over the work?"
"Not that Dr Maybrush can tell me. Maybe we should have asked Dr Throdlish."
"We can check later," said the Doctor. "But it doesn't seem likely that he'd know with their little rivalry."
"So it looks like we're back to Kaleen Schwartz or Dr Throdlish," said the DI. The Doctor wrinkled his nose, not much liking either.
"You checked up on the security guard and all that?" he asked. "You know, disaffected expert chemist makes a mistake, loses job and is forced to work a menial job at a museum, all the while his resentment of those more academically successful than himself grows until one day... SNAP! And he decides to make away with Dr Schwartz."
The DI gave this more consideration than the Doctor felt it was really due, seeing as how Rebson would have had no reason to poison Kaleen if he was deliberately targeting Elizabeth. He also couldn't help but think that a disillusioned employee would be far more likely to do something bigger than quietly attempt to make it look like an accidental death if he could mix up a chemical weapon like durrigium.
"I'm still thinking it's the wife," said the DI at last. "She's arrives early, plants your special ice cube and then poisons herself to make it look like she's just another victim, but knowing it won't keep Dr Schwartz long."
The Doctor grimaced and scratched his nose. "It's possible," he said. "Of course it is. But where's someone like Kaleen going to get durrigium?"
"She works for the central planetary government," replied the DI, as though anyone working for the government might well be paid in chemical weapons.
"As a minor civil servant," argued the Doctor.
"Why do you want her to be innocent?"
"Why don't you?"
"Well she's just so... so..." the DI trailed off awkwardly. "She didn't cry or act shocked or anything."
The truth comes out, the Doctor couldn't help but think. No matter what the political situation was like, the fact remained that very few of those among the three colonising species knew quite what to make of raalins. They weren't considered violent or unstable, just too difficult to understand. There were some, of course: Elizabeth had married Kaleen and she wouldn't be the only one. The majority, though, would be like the DI, and find raalin too different.
"She seemed very upset, if you know how to read these things," the Doctor informed him quietly. "And any murderer worth their salt can cry or act shocked or otherwise mimic grief. I'd have been more suspicious if a raalin had been overly emotional in a human- or aered-like way. They show their grief, but not in ways another species can easily understand."
"I suppose you're right," said the DI. "You don't half know a lot about this planet for someone who's only just arrived."
"I've met plenty of raalins before," said the Doctor with a shrug.
"So you're thinking Dr Throdlish?"
"Not a bit of it," he replied.
"Wh-"
"No reason," interrupted the Doctor. "He just seems like a nice bloke. No, I'm not picking a card at all just yet. Find out how either of those two or someone else in Elizabeth Schwartz's life could have got their hands on durrigium and you'll find who you want. And I'll eat my hat if it's Kaleen or Dr Throdlish."
"You don't have a hat."
Apparently the expression didn't translate as well as the Doctor might have hoped. "My tie, then" he said. "And I like this tie."
He smoothed his tie down, ignoring the bewildered expression of the DI. Hopefully he wouldn't be making a meal of it any time soon. Of course, there was always a chance one of the two were more deceptive than he realised. The colour change that was indicative of Kaleen's mood could, if she had been aware of his ability to read it better than most on her planet, have been brought on by another small amount durrigium. Dr Throdlish could have realised that straightforwardness was the safest option, playing the part of an honest and likeable coworker with a bit of purely academic jealousy.
At that moment there was a knock on the door, and both men sat up a little.
"C'mon in!" called the Doctor, at which point Kaleen re-entered the room. She was still looking a tiny bit grey, but she arranged herself calmly on her chosen seat before turning to them and addressing them.
"Having considered things properly, it appears as though the most sensible thing to do is to make clear what my actions were on arriving at the museum," she said.
The Doctor and the DI exchanged surprised glances. A definite alibi would make his tie look a bit safer, the Doctor felt, although it would transfer all suspicion to Dr Throdlish.
"This will, no doubt, cost my job, and result in time spent in prison," continued Kaleen, as though she were merely chatting about the weather. "However, that is certainly preferable to being imprisoned for murder. Especially the murder of Elizabeth. I would not like it to be believed that I would kill her." The Doctor felt a rush of sympathy. Her tone might not have wavered, but the slight flutter of colour to her neck revealed just how important this was. Whatever she had done, she would not have killed her wife.
At this point, Kaleen opened the large bag she was carrying and carefully removed four elaborately wrapped (in what looked like EM-deflecting fabric) packages, ranging in size from not much bigger than his thumb to half the size of a human head. Then, equally carefully, she unwrapped the fabric and opened the hard insta-plastic cases to reveal a matchbox, a cutlery set, a hand whisk and a bowl.
"You stole these?" demanded the Doctor, feeling a little less sympathetic now. The Charles and Camilla might be anything but accurate with some of its displays, but far better here for all to see than on the black market. "All the work your wife put into this place and you're going around stealing artefacts?"
"I believe," said Kaleen simply, "that she was somewhat aware."
The Doctor stared.
"Many of the artefacts in this establishment were stolen in the first place," said Kaleen quietly. "There are a group of people on Aletheia Two whose aim is to return as much as possible to families. Elizabeth was always sympathetic to their cause although she was obviously never involved. My connection to the museum made it easy to come and go freely. Elizabeth never asked questions about the time I spent here. These objects will prove that during that half an hour you asked me about I was occupied in an entirely different wing of the museum."
"What are the names of those in this group you work for?" asked the DI.
Kaleen shook her head. "They are only trying to help people regain what is rightfully theirs."
"Because clearly the needs of a species spread out across half of the galaxy are tremendously important," snapped the DI. "I'd like to see anyone make the same effort for aereds."
"In the same situation but with an aered history museum, I would have done the same," said Kaleen without a trace of emotion, which did not seem to improve the DI's mood.
"Anyway," said the Doctor, who had long ago decided that human empire (whichever human empire) political discussions should mostly be avoided unless someone outright needed his help. "I'm sure you can have a chat about this later, when we've got our murderer." This empire would fall, eventually, and be replaced by another. That was history. Of course, right here and now there would be no point in taking such a detached stance because no doubt the DI would not appreciate it and they were supposed to be working together.
The DI nodded gruffly and addressed the constable by the door. "Arrest her and get her taken to the station," he instructed. "And bring back Dr Throdlish. If he knew about this, that's a whole new motive."
Dr Throdlish was reluctant to be dragged back, that much the Doctor could see. His reaction to being told of the thefts seemed to be nothing short of pure fury.
"Stealing from the museum? Elizabeth?"
"Her wife," interrupted the Doctor.
"Well Kaleen couldn't tell a radio from a washing machine," snapped Dr Throdlish. "She must have had Elizabeth's help. We knew of the thefts, of course. We've filed plenty of police reports," he added with an accusing glance at the DI. "We were doing an internal investigation too. Elizabeth swore up and down she knew nothing and it turns out she was behind it all!"
"You do seem to feel strongly about this," said the DI, who seemed to be quite calm again and very definitely on the trail. The Doctor could see where this was going. He stroked his tie absent-mindedly, although he still wasn't sure...
"Of course I do!" came the reply. "This museum, the things we do- and Elizabeth going on about the importance of the work- how could she-?"
"She really didn't," said the Doctor, feeling a little defensive both on behalf of Elizabeth and Kaleen's intelligence.
"I think we might bring you down to the police station for some more questioning," said the DI.
Dr Throdlish started, seeming at once to remember the murder. "But I didn't know!" he insisted. "And I would hardly have killed her!"
"If you'll just stand up, sir," said the DI, unmoved, getting to his feet.
At that point, his and the silent constable's comms both burst into action.
"Get the Doctor!" came Rose's voice. "I've found some security footage. Check out camera three, time stamp 348692. It might be nothing, but I think it's-"
She broke off and the room fell into silence for a few seconds.
The Doctor grabbed the DI's wrist. "Rose? Are you there? Rose?"
No response.
Before the DI could say anything the Doctor jumped over the table and ran to the door. Camera footage - that meant she'd be in the security office, surely?
"I'm coming," he murmured as he sprinted down the corridor to where he'd seen the guard's room earlier.
Nothing was going to happen to her. He couldn't let it.
Part 3
Author: shinyopals
Rating: PG
Pairing: Rose/Ten II
Summary: After nearly two years of living a (relatively) normal life, the TARDIS is ready to go. The Doctor and Rose quickly find out that no matter what universe they're travelling in, there's always danger to be found!
Author's notes: Thanks for the five zillion people who gave me help and advice but in particular to mrv3000 and ginamak for going through line by line and telling me off for repeated lemurs.
Episode 1 of a virtual series at the_altverse.
Virtual Series Masterlist
Part 1
To Rose's relief, the Doctor smiled.
"Who was that then?" she asked, gesturing down the corridor to where the strange aered had been.
"Her name's Jetra. She's - she was Elizabeth's student assistant," he replied. "I told her we were police, but she's gone to call the real cops as well. S'pose they might come in handy."
"What ID did you give her?" asked Rose. The Doctor grinned, pulling out the ID wallet and showing her the blank sheet of paper. "But you didn't have that in this universe?" she said, frowning.
"Nope, I didn't," he said, pocketing the ID again. "It's not actual psychic paper, in the strictest definition. Not quite as good as the real deal either, but it'll do in a pinch. You know how people ignore the TARDIS, right?"
"The chameleon circuit, yeah?" she said. "And, what was it? Perception filter, you mentioned."
"Yup, that's the one," he said. "I asked her nicely and did a bit of work on this-" he held the wallet open to reveal a small, flat circuit board, about the size of a credit card, "and this'll do the job of the psychic paper ooh... eighty percent of the time, perhaps. Call it seventy-five to be on the safe side."
At that point, Jetra returned with another aered in tow, this one in an official-looking uniform.
"DI Daven Ramasgildon, Aletheia Four police department," he said. (Rose was fairly certain he was a he, anyway, when she compared him to Jetra. She couldn't quite be certain though.)
"Hello, yes," said the Doctor. "I'm the Doctor and this is my partner, Rose Tyler. We're from the... EEBI."
"This isn't exactly in your jurisdiction," said the DI cautiously.
"Nope, 'fraid not," said the Doctor. He waved the psychic paper again. "We've got permission to operate on Aletheia because we're following up a lead. We're having a bit of downtime while waiting for some new info - you know how it is - and Agent Tyler here's a bit of a history buff so we decided to pop on over. Ended up coming back here to see Dr Schwartz's latest project and I smelled some durrigium in the air."
"But you both got out?"
"I was right by the door," put in Rose, feeling she could at least answer this one. "And the Doctor's not fully human, which is how he smelled it."
She didn't remember being at this much of a loss since travelling with the Doctor. It wasn't that Torchwood knew everything - far from it - she'd just not been in such a fish out of water situation for a long time. She was really going to have to find out what the 'EEBI' was.
"This is our jurisdiction," said the DI, the issue obviously still bothering him. She couldn't help but think of countless fights with the police over the same thing. This, at least, was a conversation she knew how to have. Maybe this wouldn't be too bad, after all.
"Of course it is," she said calmly before the Doctor could respond. "We just want to do an information share on the off chance this is connected with our work. The case is all yours, of course."
The DI seemed to grudgingly accept this.
"I've got a team coming up to deal with the body and the forensics," he said. "I suppose it's a good thing you were on the scene or we'd never even know it was murder."
"Are you... are you sure it's murder?" asked Jetra hesitantly and Rose felt a rush of sympathy. It seemed that Jetra and Elizabeth had been friends as well as professor and student.
"I think it had to be," she said softly, patting Jetra on the shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting way. "We were right there with her. She was happy and talking about her research and-" She broke off, remembering the computer trouble, not sure what she and the Doctor were telling the DI, let alone other people. "We're going to need to access her computer," she added, covering the gap in her speech. "We might find some clue of suicide on there, but it looks like murder."
"I'm not sure-" began Jetra, before breaking off and then trying again. "She always kept her things so secure."
"We'll have our own techs down soon," said the DI. "Don't worry about it."
"Come on, let's go and find somewhere we can sit down and talk," said Rose, steering her away from the body.
"There's a staff break room down the hall," said Jetra. Rose nodded, gesturing for them to go on before dropping back next to the Doctor.
"Here we go again, Agent Tyler," he murmured.
"Looks like it," she said. "What's the EEBI?"
"Earth Empire Bureau of Investigation," he replied. "No jurisdiction here, since Aletheia's not part of the empire, but generally respected. And if I'd said local PD, they'd have been able to check up in seconds. Look, I'm going back to check the computer, you all right following up this lead?"
She gave a mock salute. "On it."
"Be careful," he said a little anxiously, eyes straying back down the corridor to where they'd left the body.
Rose nodded, then hurried off after Jetra and the DI.
The staff break room was nothing particularly special. In fact, were it not for the holographic images on the walls and the fact that there didn't appear to be a kettle or a microwave, it could have almost been the break room of Henrik's. Jetra was messing around with taps and utensils that Rose didn't recognise, but the end result seemed to be something that was not quite like coffee for all three of them. She was shaking a little and moving nervously and she sat bolt upright on a cushion-seat-thing that appeared to be specially designed for her body shape.
"Where's your partner got to?" asked the DI impatiently.
"He got a call from our people," said Rose. "He might be a while, so we should just get on with it."
Rose let the DI conduct the interview, memorising what she could. Jetra did not seem to know anything. She'd grown up on Aletheia itself but attended the university here on the fourth moon and was in her second year of study under Dr Schwartz. She talked of Elizabeth as a friend who'd helped her out both with work and with obtaining grants to study. Dr Schwartz had apparently been very dedicated to her work and - although Jetra hesitated in mentioning it - this sometimes caused trouble at home. In fact, only earlier that day...
At that point she trailed off. The DI, picking up on some new fact of interest, leaned forward.
"Earlier today?" he prompted.
Rose watched Jetra carefully as she shifted uncomfortably before giving in. "Kaleen, Elizabeth's wife, came to the museum," said Jetra. "They'd arranged to have lunch, but Elizabeth had forgotten. Kaleen was talking to Rebson, the security guard, and I was passing with Dr Throdlish and Dr Maybrush. I was just about to hurry off and remind Elizabeth so she wasn't surprised in her office when Kaleen started feeling sick and had to sit down in the kitchen display. Dr Throdlish and I both went to look for Elizabeth but then we had work to do so we didn't go back."
"And then?" asked the DI.
"Well, I got this second-hand from Dr Maybrush," she said, "but apparently Elizabeth said she was busy and that Kaleen should go home and Kaleen got annoyed. They had a bit of a fight and then Elizabeth left."
"I think I was in the room then," put in Rose. "I didn't hear any raised voices, though."
"Elizabeth is- was quiet when she's angry," offered Jetra. "And Kaleen's a raalin and you know what they're like."
Rose didn't, but she didn't say anything.
"Now now, Ms Metrantolpheen," broke in the DI. "You can't say things like that on the moons."
"Yes, of course," said Jetra apologetically. "Things are different on the planet."
"I think that's all we need for now," he said. "Unless you have anything to add, Agent Tyler?"
"No, I don't think so," said Rose.
Jetra was shown out by a young and human-looking policewoman who'd appeared at the door without Rose noticing.
"Well, we'll definitely need to speak to Kaleen Schwartz," said the DI, scratching his long nose.
"And we should probably talk to that guard and Drs Throdlish and Maybrush as well," offered Rose. "Make sure we verify it all."
The DI nodded contemplatively. "She seems like a straight up young woman," he said. "And in her position she wouldn't have had access to durrigium. Still, those two might know more about the fight." He looked over at the younger constable, who'd returned to her post by the door. "Can you go and find this guard Rebson? We'll talk to him before Ms Schwartz. And probably Dr Maybrush, too."
~*~
The Doctor wasted no time in dashing back into Elizabeth's office and flopping down in the seat behind her desk. A quick sniff of the air told him the poison had dissipated, although he'd expected nothing else. Any more than a tiny, concentrated dose aimed directly at Elizabeth and Rose would- he didn't like to think about it.
He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and set about letting himself into the computer, pondering all the while. Who would have access to durrigium in this day and age? In an advanced enough laboratory it could be manufactured, but that would require an advanced knowledge of chemistry and a lot of expensive equipment. And it wasn't as though it could just be bought from anywhere. Almost all civilised planets classified it as a chemical weapon - Aletheia included - and acquiring even the smallest amount would be next to impossible. Obviously not completely impossible, though, he thought bitterly.
Two hours out of the TARDIS and on a new world and Rose had already nearly died. If he'd been just the tiniest bit more human he wouldn't have been able to warn her at all and she'd be lying on the floor right now. He almost didn't know why he'd expected anything else: why a little part of his brain wanted to avoid all danger and why he'd been halfway to convincing himself that everything had changed now he was half human. It wasn't as though they'd even been looking for trouble, he thought, kicking the desk drawers next to his leg in frustration.
Wait! Hang on a sec. The drawers!
Underneath the top of the desk, right along the edge and just under the nose of anyone sitting there was a row of drawers. There were others to the side as well (the ones he'd kicked) but they weren't so perfectly positioned. And the middle drawer was most certainly not locked or even pushed fully shut. He tugged it open and peered through it gingerly. For a moment there was a stronger smell of durrigium before it vanished. He was left with papers and reports and... a small pool of water in one corner. Well, it looked like water. He dipped a finger into it and licked it and nodded to himself. Definitely water.
The computer beeped angrily at him and he jumped to attention, remembering he might not have much time before the actual police arrived. A final few seconds with the sonic screwdriver unlocked Elizabeth's account and he peered through the open files. A specification of the Roomba, a report on where it had been found, and a few ebooks opened at pages that she must have hoped would share some light on her mystery. There was an open email program, but it was completely blank, right down to the address. The Doctor frowned. She'd had something very important to send, she'd said. Had that simply been a report about her work? A deadline of some sort, perhaps. That made sense.
A noise out in the corridor made him jump out of the seat. He re-locked the computer and hurried out of the door to see a team of forensics people. They did not look pleased to see him but he waved his ID and waffled about inter-agency cooperation as he sidled around them and went for a wander. Rose'd be all right by herself for a bit and he wanted to find out if anyone knew what Elizabeth had been so keen to send.
Now empty of the public, the museum seemed a little too quiet for his taste, but he kept quite close to the staff area. It didn't take him long to find a museum security guard and a police constable in conversation over a cup of giblad.
"Sorry, sir, the museum is closed," said the guard as the Doctor flashed the psychic paper again, saying a silent thank you to the TARDIS.
"EEBI," he said. "I'm helping DI Ramasgildon with this. Is Dr Schwartz's wife around?"
The two exchanged uncertain glances before gesturing down one of the corridors. "Turn left and the second door on your right."
Kaleen Schwartz had been put up in a slightly large office than Elizabeth's. She was quietly sitting and drinking, staring blankly at the wall. Raalin emotions were notoriously difficult to read, but from the greyish tone her skin was taking, she seemed distressed. Or possibly still ill. He couldn't really tell.
He extended a hand and they gently grasped wrists, the typical raalin greeting, before he sat himself down in the chair opposite her.
"I'm the Doctor," he said. "How are you feeling?"
"As well as can be expected," she said in a low, quiet voice. "Humans live and die so quickly, but I thought we would have longer."
The Doctor nodded, with a slightly awkward half smile. He knew well enough what that was like, after all. Kaleen had another hundred and fifty years to go, if he was any judge.
"I heard you were ill earlier," he enquired as delicately as possible.
"It passed quickly," she replied. "I felt entirely well again before the news."
"I'm sorry," he said. "Look, I don't know if the DI will ask you this - I'm not police, by the way, I'm just helping them - but right before she died Elizabeth was trying to send something to someone. It was something she thought was important. And, well, I'm inclined to find out what that was since from the point of view of anyone who didn't want it sent, today was rather convenient."
Kaleen was silent for a few seconds. "I thought it was about her work," she said eventually. "She did speak to me of it, said that was why she couldn't stay with me, and denied most emphatically it was related to her research."
"Do you believe that?"
"I didn't," she replied. "Elizabeth loved her work too much. Now you say this, though, I don't know. Her work is sometimes controversial and I will not say she doesn't have jealous rivals after any major publication, but that was always academic. I never saw or heard of any personal malice."
The Doctor scratched his head thoughtfully.
At that point, a young policewoman came to the door. She started at seeing the Doctor, but asked Kaleen to follow her. The Doctor tagged along and the corridor brought them to the staff room which brought him back to Rose. He grinned broadly and dropped down into the chair next to her.
"Got any hunches, Tyler?"
She snorted. "Shut up," she said. "I think the DI wants to start interviewing."
The Doctor saluted DI Ramasgildon and turned his attention back to Kaleen, who was still a slightly off grey. He smiled sympathetically at her.
Kaleen was a minor civil servant who worked in immigration. She and Dr Schwartz had, it turned out, been married for coming up on eleven years, something that was no doubt considered a fairly short relationship by raalin standards. Still, he and Rose had only been married for nearly a year, which should have been nothing to a Time Lord and yet felt like everything to him.
He shook himself a little as the DI questioned further, hunting for a potential motive. He barely knew Kaleen and she was hardly the only raalin married to someone far younger who would die far sooner. He needed to stop thinking of her relationship as his. Besides, he was half human now: the comparison was not even apt. She was a suspect in this, so he shouldn't think of her as being like him after only a few minutes, even if his instincts were normally good.
"Of course I'll inherit," she told the DI calmly. "We have a house and a summer house on Aletheia Three and reasonably substantial savings, but all of that was as much mine as hers anyway."
"But a divorce would have divided that between the two of you," the DI pointed out.
"That's true," she replied. "But divorce wasn't something we were considering so I hadn't thought about it."
"Despite your argument this morning?"
The Doctor thought he saw a flash of anger but it was repressed so quickly he couldn't be certain. "Every marriage has its bad days," she then said.
"Oh, of course they do," said the DI sympathetically. "After all, your wife practically ignores you when you're feeling so ill. How are you now, anyway?"
"Better," said Kaleen simply. She definitely did not seem happy with these questions, and the Doctor suspected that even Rose, with no knowledge of experience of reading raalin emotions, could see it.
"Very convenient, that, isn't it?" said the DI in what might have been a pleasant tone of voice.
"I'm not sure I understand you," said Kaleen, seeming a little more in control of herself now.
"Life insurance?" he demanded next. Out of the corner of the Doctor's eye, he saw Rose wince.
"A million credits," said Kaleen. "Taken out five years ago."
The DI made a note on his lopad, taking his time about it and letting silence reign. The Doctor and Rose exchanged glances. He could see that she, too, was sympathetic for Kaleen.
Finally, the DI spoke. "What about your movements this morning?" he asked.
"We had agreed to eat lunch together," said Kaleen. "I was a little early, so I talked to one of the security guards - a fredori - and I said hello to Emann - Dr Throdlish I mean - Dr Maybrush and Jetra. I think they were carrying some items. And all of a sudden I felt quite light headed and dizzy and had to sit down. I believe Jetra and Emann went to fetch Elizabeth and the others found me a seat."
"What about your hands?" interjected the Doctor, wondering if just maybe...
Rose and the DI stared at him and Kaleen looked a little surprised, before nodding. "They went oddly numb," she said. "How did you know?"
He waved his hand vaguely. That didn't exonerate her, of course, not if she knew more than she was telling. But it did open a few other possibilities...
~*~
Rose bit her tongue and resisted the temptation to demand the Doctor explain exactly what he knew there and then. She did not want to give him the satisfaction of being able to know everything.
"Look, Kaleen," she said, "I know you said you got here early, but the front desk has you swiping in half an hour before you were talking to Rebson and got ill. What were you doing?"
Kaleen turned dark blue eyes on her and paused for a second before answering. "I took a longer route and walked through some of the exhibits. I enjoy this museum, even if I am not a historian."
"Can anyone verify that?" Rose asked.
"I suspect I was seen by many of the patrons," she replied smoothly.
Rose had seen her protective wall crack a little earlier, but now Kaleen seemed to be cool and emotionless again. The Doctor had been watching her intently from the beginning. Maybe he'd have some clue at the end of it all because Rose couldn't guess what she was feeling. Her wife of eleven years had just died yet she seemed so detached. Was that normal? She couldn't guess.
"And you know damn well that's not an alibi," snapped the DI, Kaleen's detachment seeming to irritate him more and more. "There are always a few raalin in this museum. Of course people will have seen them."
"Since we quite clearly all look the same," replied Kaleen. Rose saw the Doctor's lip quirk.
"Don't start," said the DI. "To a lot of us, yes. The fact is that you had time in that half an hour to pop along to your wife's office and plant the poison."
Kaleen's eyes flickered. "Maybe so," she said. "But the fact remains that I didn't."
The DI let out a frustrated breath and gestured to the policewoman at the door to lead her away. "Keep her in custody," he instructed.
The Doctor stretched and leaned back in his chair as the door to the room swung shut. "Well then," he said. "You certainly seem to have picked your horse."
"It's always the partner," said the DI grimly. "I'm sure you see all sorts of fancy cases with the Bureau but most of our murders or attempts, of which we fortunately have rather few, are down to the spouse or partner."
"Well, we still haven't interviewed this Dr Throdlish," pointed out Rose, feeling a little defensive on behalf of her own marriage. "Dr Maybrush said they're both after the same funding."
"True, true," agreed the DI. "Mustn't burn any bridges yet. Any thoughts to add, Doctor?"
Rose turned back to the Doctor, who scratched his neck lazily. "Well..." he began, "I did have a bit of a nose while I was out of the room-"
The DI snorted. "So much for a call from your boss," he said. The Doctor frowned for a second and glanced at Rose. She winked at him.
"Oh, the boss said to keep our eyes on this one," he continued. "And me, I'm just incurably nosy. I'd say it's a bad habit but it serves me well in this job. Anyway, since I'd already been in Dr Schwartz's office I was hardly going to make life too hard for your forensics lot. Besides, I can tell you exactly how the murder happened, as well as shed some light on Kaleen's illness."
"Oh, get on with it," said Rose, eliciting a grin from him.
"Can't a bloke have any fun?"
She snorted. "Keep us in suspense any longer and you're in trouble."
He laughed and she rolled her eyes affectionately. "Anyway, our dear Dr Schwartz's desk had a partly open drawer right under her nose," he began.
"Logical," said the DI. "For Agent Tyler here to escape unharmed, it must have been localised and concentrated. I asked our team to check the desk and drawers specifically."
"Ahh, but I don't know if they'll find anything when they get around to it," said the Doctor. "I might have been a bit lucky with getting there quick enough, you know, because in the front of the drawer was a tiny little puddle of water. Just water," he added after the DI opened his mouth to object. "I tested it and everything."
"You licked it, didn't you?" said Rose, wrinkling her nose.
He grinned. The DI stared.
"He does that," added Rose to the DI. "He's usually right, as well."
"So what does the water have to do with it?" asked the DI, shaking his head a little.
"Ice! Perfect time delay capsule!" said the Doctor. "At first the durrigium is locked up nice and safe in the ice. It's a solid, so it's not going anywhere unless Dr Schwartz happened to open her drawer and decide to eat the ice cube, which'd be odd behaviour even for the most eccentric of historians. Then, as the ice melts, the gas is released and bam! Massive myocardial infarction! Fatal in seconds. Then the water evaporates or is put down to her spilling her drink, so even if anyone thinks to look there's no evidence of anything other than a heart attack."
"Would it be hard to make the ice and durrigium?" asked Rose. "Or could anyone just use a freezer?"
"Anyone with a freezer and some durrigium," replied the Doctor grimly. "The freezing's not the hard bit. It's making or finding the actual poison that's the problem. We've currently got a historian and a civil servant as our most reasonable seeming suspects. Unless you can dig up an expert chemist in Elizabeth Schwartz's past, you have to somehow connect them to the black market in chemical weapons."
"I know, I know," said the DI. "I've got people looking into chemists, as well as places that sell the equipment and the chemicals, and drawing up lists of the people in Elizabeth Schwartz's past. Your ice cube evidence means we have to place them at the museum, but for all I know at the moment, some angry ex-girlfriend was one of the patrons the security team so obligingly ushered out of the way."
"Are there some security cameras we can look at?" asked Rose, thinking of how many times cameras had helped her work for Torchwood.
"Not nearly enough," said the DI. "Not since the Citizens' Privacy Act. Only the expensive exhibits are covered. That piece of legislation has caused more trouble than anything else in my entire time on the force."
"I know!" said the Doctor. "Who are these citizens who have the cheek to want privacy? That's just plain rude of them!" He winked at Rose.
Rose turned her snort into a cough. The DI looked suspiciously at them. Rose forced herself to straighten her face and tried to look like the perfect image of a serious Bureau agent. She wasn't sure she was successful.
"Anyway," continued the Doctor. "Don't you want to know what I've got to say about Kaleen?"
"Go on..." said the DI guardedly.
"It's about the hand thing I asked," said the Doctor. "Raalin don't react quite the same to durrigium as humans do. In a high enough dose it's still fatal, but what Kaleen described are the exact symptoms of trace amounts of durrigium."
"Wait, she was poisoned?" demanded Rose, worried. "Is someone trying to kill her?" She didn't want to see another person die that day, no matter how cold and detached Kaleen had seemed.
"Not enough to kill," said the Doctor. "But enough to get Dr Schwartz running out of her office despite her important business, leaving someone time to plant the ice cube. Unless it was lot bigger or more complicated chemically than it looks, that was when the ice cube was planted. It doesn't prove she couldn't have done it, though. Anyone with the knowhow to make durrigium could have made a more sophisticated delivery system that took longer to melt. If she is our murderer, she could have faked the illness to throw suspicion off her. All the same, you'd think she'd have drawn attention to her hands if that were the case."
"But if she was poisoned, does that mean it was one of the people there? And why didn't they get ill?"
"Everyone present was either aered or fredoris," interrupted the DI. "They wouldn't get ill from that small an amount. And like you said, she could have been faking it to establish an alibi."
"Still," said the Doctor, "that limits our suspects a bit, doesn't it? Kaleen or one of the others there."
"Unless someone's part of a team ," said the DI. "Or hired someone to do the deed."
The Doctor scowled. "You don't half take the fun out of discovering things," he complained.
Rose laughed and nudged his knee with her own. He grinned at her.
She yawned and stretched out where she sat. Even if she hadn't done that much running about, sitting down to listen to the interviews was taking it out of her. A quick glance at her watch told her that it was nearly midnight Earth time. Dinner and some rest were long overdue. Hard to believe that earlier that day she'd been sitting in her office filling out paperwork, and that even earlier she'd been sneaking through tunnels. Already she was pushing that out of her mind to remember a life where time of day wasn't important.
Still, she couldn't help but need sleep. Eventually the Doctor would start to flag too, although she knew he'd never admit it. She stood up.
"I'm off to stretch my legs for a bit," she said. "Still jetlagged," she added to the DI, who'd frowned. "Reckon I can find some food?"
The Doctor fished in his pocket for the credit stick she'd earned earlier, which now read '15;40'. "Should be plenty for a sandwich if you can find somewhere," he said. "Bring me back something if you can."
She nodded and headed out the door and into the corridor.
~*~
"Well I want to keep going," said the DI after Rose left, "you can fill your partner in later, I'm sure?"
"Fine by me," said the Doctor, leaning back on the chair and resting his feet on the coffee table. "No point in wasting time, after all."
The DI signalled for their next target to be found and the Doctor suppressed a yawn. He wasn't that tired, after all. The amount of sleep he needed these days seemed rather absurd, but he should be all right for a while yet. His thoughts wandered to Rose. Despite his confidence that she was in no danger at the present, he couldn't stop himself feeling a trifle worried. Still, their arrival might have been the one thing that made this a murder investigation as opposed to an unfortunate accident but he didn't think revenge was likely. That would just draw attention where the murderer wouldn't want it to be drawn. It wasn't as though he could stop her from going anywhere. It wouldn't be fair. Or practical. They had the TARDIS and their old lives back (with a few rather pleasant changes, of which sharing a bed and getting to wake up next to her every morning was probably his favourite) and with that came the risks.
"Sorry?" he said, when he realised the DI had spoken. "Head in the clouds, me."
"I was just saying you and your partner seem to be good friends," said the DI, leaving the Doctor to interpret that as he wanted. He wondered if he was really all that obvious about things even when trying not to be. Not that he was trying to conceal anything from Rose these days, but when they were pretending to be the Mulder and Scully of the Earth Empire Bureau of Investigation, they probably weren't supposed to give the impression that they were a married couple. (Not that Mulder and Scully had done a good job at that, either.)
"Well, you know how it is," he said, waving his hand vaguely, "work with someone long enough, especially in a job like this one."
"How long have you worked together?"
"Since she joined the Bureau," he replied. "Although we did spend a few years working with other people in the middle, but we work better together."
He was spared further interrogation by the arrival of Dr Emann Throdlish, who turned out to be a particularly dark green fredori in a slightly scruffy suit that looked a little like something the Doctor would have worn. If he were a fredori, of course, which, fortunately, he wasn't. He rather liked his current shape.
Dr Throdlish was from the same university as Dr Schwartz and made no bones about the fact that he considered her a rival.
"Of course," he said, "she was a brilliant historian. Absolutely dedicated to her research. Some of her conclusions left a lot to be desired and sometimes Dr Maybrush and I were left feeling an article of hers had been published on the strength of her name and not the scholarship itself, but she was always prepared to listen to one's opinion. I suppose that must count for something."
"Apparently the two of you were battling it out for the same funds," said the Doctor casually. Dr Throdlish fidgeted.
"Well yes, that is true," he conceded. "The Zomigon Memorial Grant. I won't deny that being able to make that trip to Earth will be a marvellous opportunity, but-"
"And that you're now the only person in the running?" interrupted the DI.
Dr Throdlish looked at once uncomfortable and irritated. "I hope you're not implying what I think you are," he said. "I would rather receive the money on the strength of my application alone."
"Good for you!" said the Doctor cheerily. "That's the approach of a true academic. And, just out of interest, what did you do after you sent Dr Schwartz running to Kaleen?"
"I... well, I went back to my office," said Dr Throdlish. "I had work to do."
"Alone?" was the Doctor's mild reply..
"Well yes, I suppose I was, since Jetra's office is in the opposite direction. Surely you don't think-?"
"I'm not thinking anything," said the Doctor. "Too much thinking is bad for me, you know. Gives me a terrible headache."
Dr Throdlish stared at him and the Doctor smiled, leaning back in his chair.
"Thank you, Dr Throdlish," said the DI. "That's all for now. We might need to talk to you again, of course."
"Bye, now!" added the Doctor, directing his gaze to the ceiling thoughtfully.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the DI make a bit of a show of going through the notes on his lotop (the palm sized computer he was using), presumably to gather his thoughts. Eventually he looked over to the Doctor again and spoke. "Well, barring accomplices and conspiracies, it looks to me like either one of them could have done it and might have wanted to. So could Jetra Metrantolpheen, same as Dr Throdlish, I suppose."
"Ah yes, the student assistant," said the Doctor. "What's her motive, then?"
"Not as strong as the other two," replied the DI. "Well, Dr Maybrush did allude to some idealistic differences. Despite Ms Metrantolpheen's interest in history, she was brought up on the planet, so some of her views aren't considered appropriate these days. And Dr Schwartz being married to a raalin, she wasn't always sympathetic to the odd... misspeak. It's all like that down on the planet, though, so she can hardly be blamed. She just had bad habits."
"No arguments over the work?"
"Not that Dr Maybrush can tell me. Maybe we should have asked Dr Throdlish."
"We can check later," said the Doctor. "But it doesn't seem likely that he'd know with their little rivalry."
"So it looks like we're back to Kaleen Schwartz or Dr Throdlish," said the DI. The Doctor wrinkled his nose, not much liking either.
"You checked up on the security guard and all that?" he asked. "You know, disaffected expert chemist makes a mistake, loses job and is forced to work a menial job at a museum, all the while his resentment of those more academically successful than himself grows until one day... SNAP! And he decides to make away with Dr Schwartz."
The DI gave this more consideration than the Doctor felt it was really due, seeing as how Rebson would have had no reason to poison Kaleen if he was deliberately targeting Elizabeth. He also couldn't help but think that a disillusioned employee would be far more likely to do something bigger than quietly attempt to make it look like an accidental death if he could mix up a chemical weapon like durrigium.
"I'm still thinking it's the wife," said the DI at last. "She's arrives early, plants your special ice cube and then poisons herself to make it look like she's just another victim, but knowing it won't keep Dr Schwartz long."
The Doctor grimaced and scratched his nose. "It's possible," he said. "Of course it is. But where's someone like Kaleen going to get durrigium?"
"She works for the central planetary government," replied the DI, as though anyone working for the government might well be paid in chemical weapons.
"As a minor civil servant," argued the Doctor.
"Why do you want her to be innocent?"
"Why don't you?"
"Well she's just so... so..." the DI trailed off awkwardly. "She didn't cry or act shocked or anything."
The truth comes out, the Doctor couldn't help but think. No matter what the political situation was like, the fact remained that very few of those among the three colonising species knew quite what to make of raalins. They weren't considered violent or unstable, just too difficult to understand. There were some, of course: Elizabeth had married Kaleen and she wouldn't be the only one. The majority, though, would be like the DI, and find raalin too different.
"She seemed very upset, if you know how to read these things," the Doctor informed him quietly. "And any murderer worth their salt can cry or act shocked or otherwise mimic grief. I'd have been more suspicious if a raalin had been overly emotional in a human- or aered-like way. They show their grief, but not in ways another species can easily understand."
"I suppose you're right," said the DI. "You don't half know a lot about this planet for someone who's only just arrived."
"I've met plenty of raalins before," said the Doctor with a shrug.
"So you're thinking Dr Throdlish?"
"Not a bit of it," he replied.
"Wh-"
"No reason," interrupted the Doctor. "He just seems like a nice bloke. No, I'm not picking a card at all just yet. Find out how either of those two or someone else in Elizabeth Schwartz's life could have got their hands on durrigium and you'll find who you want. And I'll eat my hat if it's Kaleen or Dr Throdlish."
"You don't have a hat."
Apparently the expression didn't translate as well as the Doctor might have hoped. "My tie, then" he said. "And I like this tie."
He smoothed his tie down, ignoring the bewildered expression of the DI. Hopefully he wouldn't be making a meal of it any time soon. Of course, there was always a chance one of the two were more deceptive than he realised. The colour change that was indicative of Kaleen's mood could, if she had been aware of his ability to read it better than most on her planet, have been brought on by another small amount durrigium. Dr Throdlish could have realised that straightforwardness was the safest option, playing the part of an honest and likeable coworker with a bit of purely academic jealousy.
At that moment there was a knock on the door, and both men sat up a little.
"C'mon in!" called the Doctor, at which point Kaleen re-entered the room. She was still looking a tiny bit grey, but she arranged herself calmly on her chosen seat before turning to them and addressing them.
"Having considered things properly, it appears as though the most sensible thing to do is to make clear what my actions were on arriving at the museum," she said.
The Doctor and the DI exchanged surprised glances. A definite alibi would make his tie look a bit safer, the Doctor felt, although it would transfer all suspicion to Dr Throdlish.
"This will, no doubt, cost my job, and result in time spent in prison," continued Kaleen, as though she were merely chatting about the weather. "However, that is certainly preferable to being imprisoned for murder. Especially the murder of Elizabeth. I would not like it to be believed that I would kill her." The Doctor felt a rush of sympathy. Her tone might not have wavered, but the slight flutter of colour to her neck revealed just how important this was. Whatever she had done, she would not have killed her wife.
At this point, Kaleen opened the large bag she was carrying and carefully removed four elaborately wrapped (in what looked like EM-deflecting fabric) packages, ranging in size from not much bigger than his thumb to half the size of a human head. Then, equally carefully, she unwrapped the fabric and opened the hard insta-plastic cases to reveal a matchbox, a cutlery set, a hand whisk and a bowl.
"You stole these?" demanded the Doctor, feeling a little less sympathetic now. The Charles and Camilla might be anything but accurate with some of its displays, but far better here for all to see than on the black market. "All the work your wife put into this place and you're going around stealing artefacts?"
"I believe," said Kaleen simply, "that she was somewhat aware."
The Doctor stared.
"Many of the artefacts in this establishment were stolen in the first place," said Kaleen quietly. "There are a group of people on Aletheia Two whose aim is to return as much as possible to families. Elizabeth was always sympathetic to their cause although she was obviously never involved. My connection to the museum made it easy to come and go freely. Elizabeth never asked questions about the time I spent here. These objects will prove that during that half an hour you asked me about I was occupied in an entirely different wing of the museum."
"What are the names of those in this group you work for?" asked the DI.
Kaleen shook her head. "They are only trying to help people regain what is rightfully theirs."
"Because clearly the needs of a species spread out across half of the galaxy are tremendously important," snapped the DI. "I'd like to see anyone make the same effort for aereds."
"In the same situation but with an aered history museum, I would have done the same," said Kaleen without a trace of emotion, which did not seem to improve the DI's mood.
"Anyway," said the Doctor, who had long ago decided that human empire (whichever human empire) political discussions should mostly be avoided unless someone outright needed his help. "I'm sure you can have a chat about this later, when we've got our murderer." This empire would fall, eventually, and be replaced by another. That was history. Of course, right here and now there would be no point in taking such a detached stance because no doubt the DI would not appreciate it and they were supposed to be working together.
The DI nodded gruffly and addressed the constable by the door. "Arrest her and get her taken to the station," he instructed. "And bring back Dr Throdlish. If he knew about this, that's a whole new motive."
Dr Throdlish was reluctant to be dragged back, that much the Doctor could see. His reaction to being told of the thefts seemed to be nothing short of pure fury.
"Stealing from the museum? Elizabeth?"
"Her wife," interrupted the Doctor.
"Well Kaleen couldn't tell a radio from a washing machine," snapped Dr Throdlish. "She must have had Elizabeth's help. We knew of the thefts, of course. We've filed plenty of police reports," he added with an accusing glance at the DI. "We were doing an internal investigation too. Elizabeth swore up and down she knew nothing and it turns out she was behind it all!"
"You do seem to feel strongly about this," said the DI, who seemed to be quite calm again and very definitely on the trail. The Doctor could see where this was going. He stroked his tie absent-mindedly, although he still wasn't sure...
"Of course I do!" came the reply. "This museum, the things we do- and Elizabeth going on about the importance of the work- how could she-?"
"She really didn't," said the Doctor, feeling a little defensive both on behalf of Elizabeth and Kaleen's intelligence.
"I think we might bring you down to the police station for some more questioning," said the DI.
Dr Throdlish started, seeming at once to remember the murder. "But I didn't know!" he insisted. "And I would hardly have killed her!"
"If you'll just stand up, sir," said the DI, unmoved, getting to his feet.
At that point, his and the silent constable's comms both burst into action.
"Get the Doctor!" came Rose's voice. "I've found some security footage. Check out camera three, time stamp 348692. It might be nothing, but I think it's-"
She broke off and the room fell into silence for a few seconds.
The Doctor grabbed the DI's wrist. "Rose? Are you there? Rose?"
No response.
Before the DI could say anything the Doctor jumped over the table and ran to the door. Camera footage - that meant she'd be in the security office, surely?
"I'm coming," he murmured as he sprinted down the corridor to where he'd seen the guard's room earlier.
Nothing was going to happen to her. He couldn't let it.
Part 3