“It’s paint, man,” Calder reminded.
“We’re supposed to treat this like a real crime scene.” There was a chance their superiors had used specific kinds of paint just to see if they would bother checking. “No half measures.”
“Whatever, over-achiever.”
“He doesn’t need to be now that he’s engaged to the Imperial Prince,” Brennon stated.
“What?” Arlet’s head whipped up. “You’re engaged to Kelevra?”
“You haven’t heard?” Calder was the one to ask. “It’s been all over the news all morning.”
“I’ve been here setting this up with—” She clamped her mouth shut.
Rin and Brennon shared a look.
“Was the cadet who’s playing the murderer here with you?” Rin took a closer look at the scene. If that were the case, he may have left clues behind, either purposefully or accidentally. It wouldn’t matter which it was, their assignment was simply to solve the crime and catch the killer.
She stared at him for a moment before pointedly resting her head back, body going limp a second later.
“She’s dead, man,” Calder bumped his arm. “The dead can’t talk.”
“The dead talk all the time,” Brennon corrected, pointing to her left arm. “See?”
It was sprawled out on the pavement, but stretched a little away from her body, almost like she’d been trying to reach for something when she’d “died”.
Rin walked over to the dumpster and peered behind it. “Help me move this.”
Calder and he slid it to the side so there was enough room for Rin to reach behind it. He pulled out a multi-slate, standard issue, black. The screen was cracked and when he tried to power it on, it flickered and then shut off.
“Just to be sure,” Calder turned to Arlet, “that’s not yours, right? It’s part of the mock case? I just don’t want us to take it if it is. Don’t say anything if it’s not.”
They stared at her for a bit, but she was silent.
“Cool.” He turned back to Rin. “It’s broken?”
“We’ll have to get it fixed,” Rin said, pulling a plastic bag from his front pocket to slip the device inside.
Calder quirked a brow.
“What? They told us what to expect.” Of course he’d come prepared.
“Promise you won’t apologize to the killer when we catch them,” Calder joked, rolling his eyes. “You’re too nice and an overachiever. How are you not top of the class?”
“Because he’s constantly being weighed down by you,” Brennon joked, laughing when Calder scowled. “We’ve got to take these ‘blood’ samples in too. Let’s head back to the Academy before—”
Footsteps came at the end of the alley and a second later Ives and his mentor entered.
Rin casually slipped the multi-slate they’d found into his front pocket, keeping his hands there to help make it seem like he wasn’t hiding anything.
“How did you get here already?” Ives glanced between them and briefly down at Arlet. “Geez, they’re making students actually play the bodies too?”
“Right?” Brennon made to leave. “It’s all yours.”
“What’d you find?”
“No cheating,” Calder said, winking as they passed.
“Hey,” Ives stopped Rin. “Come on. Did you find anything?”
