Collinsport. Lieutenant Mills, who has discovered promotion papers signed by the wounded Chief Jamison St. Clair has received information now concerning the attempted assassination of the Chief of Police of Collinsport. Although the shooting took place in Arkham, Massachusetts, the newly appointed Lieutenant cannot help the desire to formulate her own investigation. To that end, she has decided she will retain a questionable asset that the Chief may have recently hired.
Lt. Mills, with a black dry erase marker in hand, stands in contemplation of the large mobile white board upon which she had placed a photo of Chief St. Clair; several photos of the crime scene (which details a severe loss of blood); a diagram of the Miskatonic University librarys main floor; a much smaller diagram of the reading room. On the diagrams she had marked a X in red to indicate where the Chief had fallen after being shot. She had used a blue marker to place dashes to indicate the probable ingress and egress of the assassin.
She had used yellow to indicate position of those in the room the witnesses, which worried her tremendously, as they were all unreliable, in her opinion. The best of the lot, being Dr. Artemis but she felt a good defense attorney would quickly find something just as unusual about him as the rest.
All of the information she had placed on the board had derived from attachments in an email from Nicholas Collins, David Collins son, who was a homicide detective with Arkham Police and Chief St. Clairs former partner in the Homicide Division.
David Silva strode up to her and stood looking at the board. He reaches over and takes a dry erase marker and writes Mimecom. I see you are setting up your own investigation.
Chief St. Clair is one of our own. Lt. Mills says evenly as she turned and reached over to the edge of the Chiefs desk and picked up her cup of coffee, Now, why are you so quick to blame the Mimecom Corporation?
“I have been analyzing their commercials and videos, Lieutenant. They are using subliminal advertising. But that’s not all. The format is like nothing I’ve seen before.” Silva tells her and stands looking at the board with his arms crossed.
Mills was still trying to get used to being called Lieutenant. Silva had informed her that there were promotion papers in the Chiefs desk St. Clair had told him while she was lying on the floor, possibly bleeding to death. He indicated that it has very important to her that he let Mills know. They were where he said they would be she did feel a bit awkward opening the Chiefs drawer, but, if she were to take command then the other officers needed to know of the promotion based on ranks.
Many companies use subliminal messaging. That does not mean they are murderers, Mr. Silva.
“And you know that a television screen is basically a beta-ray emitter. Have you heard the theories on psychological induction?”
She shakes her head, Enlighten me.
David Silva smiles, “Your brain produces a bioelectric field that changes according to your thoughts, emotions, and behavior. An electric field is a configuration of electrons and electrostatic charges. We know that electromagnetic phenomena are inductive, like a radio wave induces a current in an antenna. . . ”
She takes a sip of coffee and looks at him, You do speak English yes?
He grins, “It follows then that by imposing the right bioelectric pattern on the human brain, one could ‘induce’ certain desires, certain behaviors, even thoughts, into them. It’s not that difficult to understand. Really. I mean, Artemis understood me perfectly and had enlightening comments on the subject.”
Yes well that is Dr. Artemis and the whole lot from Arkham worries me. She steps over and writes, Gypsy. Central Europe, under his Mimecom. You mentioned that St. Clair hired you. Yes?
“I’ll give you a simple example. What if you had epilepsy? By merely putting the right program on that computer, I could send you into a seizure. Perhaps a fatal one.” He adds, and then nods, “Yes, she has in the past.”
Please answer my questions in a timely manner, Mr. Silva. She says, She was going to hire you again yes?
“I do believe so, yes.”
And as such, you would be considered my coworker, or rather, in this case, subordinate. Would this be a correct assumption? She places the dry erase maker in the aluminum tray.
“If she had had the time to actually hire me, before those bastards shot her!” He says, his voice tight with anger.
What precisely was she going to hire you to do, exactly?
“To investigate Mimecom and their operations.”
Okay temporary detective Silva. Lets get one thing out of the way.
“I suspect they might be . . . He stopped and looked at her, Yes, maam?”
I don’t have time for crackpot, bulls**t theories on mass hypnosis. If Mimecom is guilty of any crimes, they most likely fall under the fraud category. If you continue to spout off nonsense about television mind control, like some Internet conspiracy blog, I will have to rethink St. Clair’s employment of you. Is that clear?
He looks very flustered, angry, as if he is about to blast her with a very long and narrow piece of his mind, before he regains control. “Yes Maam.” he forces at least she is going to keep him around, let him look into Mimecom. You are right, we have to operate logically, within known facts.” That last part comes out bitterly, despite his efforts. “But . . . what if I told you I also suspected they might be producing drugs?”
Now that is at least within the realm of possibility. I strongly suspect that Miss Pickman is using some type of hallucinogens. Sohop to it temporary detective. See Officer O’Reilly about your pay, badge, and a mailbox.
“Thank you, Officer Mills. You won’t regret this. Or should I say Chief Mills. I’ll get busy at once. And I hope St. Clair is recovering well.”
Acting Chief. St. Clair will return. She is a very strong person. I want a report by the second week of next month. She said sipping her coffee and looking at the womans photo on the board. St. Clair had trusted her given her command, and she was not about to let her down. She was giving Silva a longer leash on Mimecom owing to past federal investigations into various suspicions concerning the late Senator Kreutzer, who had founded the organization.
“You will have it.” Silva said, his hands deep in his Miskatonic U lab coat.
“I may need to ask the judge for a warrant to inspect Mimecorp’s operations. Especially if they don’t have a license to produce drugs. This gets into a gray area. . . ”
Do what you must Silva but, just run it by me.
“Is it illegal to produce a [i]drug[/] that is connected with an audio-visual entertainment experience? It should be. Especially One whose effects are branded as unreal by the majority of the medical community?”
“It is illegal to produce pharmaceuticals with out a license to do so. However. Seeing as it is a pharmaceutical company, you would have to do an intensive study of the products to determine definitive health risks and violations of the FDA regulations. If they are dispensing it illegally without approval. She cuts her eyes to look at him, and she cant help saying something she has heard St. Clair say more than once, ButWhy am I telling you how to do your job. Go on. Have at it.
I have some business I need to attend to. She looks back the board. Shes going to go back through the last few cases St. Clair had been working on she also wants to check a name she found written on her desk calendar Frank Black. A quick check indicates, if it is the same Frank Black, that he was a former FBI Special Agent.
“Yes Maam. I will find some way to show these chemicals are psychologically harmful, as I am sure they are Thank you again.” He nods and walks off. He smiles to himself he has been given the opportunity to prove his theories are correct. Of course, he was aware it was going to much harder to than if he were working for St. Clair who knows about the supernatural, and about mind control.
Lt. Mills turns on her iPod to listen to the overture of the Danish play, Elverhøj and sighs. Well Mills, looks like you’re calling the shots now.
Cue Music End of Episode