17 December 2022, 5AM

May 31, 2005

“What do you think? Is he the one? Did he kill her and took away or hid her Chip?”
“I don’t know what to think. I’m… puzzled. You saw the readings too. His surprise at the sight of the picture was genuine. He couldn’t have faked it; the Chip is a too good lie detector.”

“Well… maybe he could… How else do you explain his lack of reactions?”
“He was under a severe dosage of synthomorphin. He is either an addict, or under serious pain. If it had interfered with the readings, it should have diminished his shock reaction as well. Which isn’t what the record shows.”

“Still… there is too much evidence against him. You saw his file… his family… Besides, his rendez-vous with the victim in this same night(which he somehow failed to mention), his fingerprints in her apartment, his semen inside her… He definitely was at her place.”
“Circumstantial evidence; all of it is circumstantial. He could have had sex with her at some other place. You saw the GPS records. Maybe at the restaurant, when they were for 20 minutes all alone in the back. And his fingerprints… they may have been there since two days ago, when the records show him entering her flat. Plus… the ultimate counter-evidence of the defense…”

“Yep… damn it… I can’t really get it… How could he have managed that? The GPS records show he didn’t leave his own apartment for the six hours between 9PM and our call. Quite a defense, if the doctor is right and the murder took place at around midnight… Fuck! Maybe he is indeed innocent. But how else could we explain the missing Chip?”
“Unless… hmm… he can’t have been serious…”

“What?”
“Even if it were true… He can’t have been that stupid and tell it to us… Unless he is a much too masochistic weirdo.”

“Hey! What’s going on? What are you talking about?”
“When he left, he said something about his Chip malfunctioning. Wait a sec; it must have been recorded by some of the sensors. Here it is…”

“Oh, my god… It can’t possibly be true. No one has ever heard of malfunctioning Chips. Not once in the 10 years since they came!”
“But if it were true… it means he is most probably the one. With a bit of luck, we have quite enough evidence to nail the bastard.”

“I’ll get started on the procedure for the arrest warrant. It’ll take a few hours. Too bad we don’t have any Chip evidence… we could have had him behind the bars in a matter of minutes. I just hope he won’t do any more damage till morning. And, God, I pray we find that Chip. It should hold enough evidence to send the bastard straight to lobotomy.”