Day 18: 36,274 words and IT Brandon finally shows up

An AI generated image of an IT guy named Brandon

“After the first fire, they were taking things seriously. They were interviewing witnesses. They were collecting evidence, and sending it to the lab. I’m just the IT guy, and clearly, my role here is not considered to be a big one,” IT Brandon gestured around his pitiful office. “But even I picked up on the sudden shift. It would have been hard not to notice when the mini militia showed up and started following the chief of police around.”

“Are you under the impression that the chief of police is acting out of coercion?” Scottie asked.

IT Brandon sighed even more deeply. 

“I will only tell you this off the record,” he said.

Scottie considered for a moment. Getting important information is never ideal off the record. But, neither is never getting the important information at all. IT Brandon was the first person to talk, and she didn’t want to lose him as a source.

“Okay. We can talk off the record,” she agreed, and she turned off her audiorecording. 

“Chief Pettipiece is dirty,” IT Brandon spat. “Always has been. Things often aren’t investigated around here, if it suits him. And it often does. But this time was weird. He did open an investigation, and the London Police Service was taking it seriously. Until they weren’t. I noticed things changing pretty quickly after the first fire. When the second happened, they barely lifted a finger. By the third, it seemed like they were actively working against anyone trying to investigate.”

“Like sending the mini militia out to follow Dale Caruthers around,” Scottie said.

IT Brandon nodded. 

“What do you think changed between the first and the second fire?” Scottie asked. Jake was watching silently, enraptured. “What made Chief Pettipiece decide that he wasn’t going to investigate anymore? That he was going to stop everyone else from doing it, too?”

“I’m not sure. I’m not that connected,” IT Brandon said, resigned. “I think that something happened. Someone told him that it would be in his interest to not solve the case, and he agreed.”

Scottie’s eyebrows rose at this new information.

“Have you noticed any Australian men talking to the police chief?” Scottie questioned. 

“Have you noticed how far away my office is from everything? I could barely tell you what the police chief looks like, most of the time,” IT Brandon said bitterly.

“Fair enough,” Scottie conceded.

“Sorry about your office, by the way,” Jake interjected. “It’s very disrespectful of them to put you in the basement. IT is important.” Scottie looked over at Jake, grateful that he knew when to say something sympathetic and when to let her do the work herself. 

“Thanks,” IT Brandon muttered.

“I wanted to ask again about that slide show during the press conference. It’s what brought me here today. I know that you put on the slide show. I don’t know if you put it together, or why all of the pictures were in the slide show. But I would love to know what you can share,” Scottie said as gently as she could. 

“I guess you know that there was something off about the slide show,” IT Brandon finally said.

 

“I noticed right away,” Scottie replied.

“No one else did. At least, not that I know of. No one said anything to me about the slide show afterwards,” IT Brandon explained. “I changed the slide show, which I think you already know.”

“What was it that you changed? And why?” Scottie pressed. 

“I added in a dolphin shaped kazoo as the last item in the slide show. There was no photo of a dolphin shaped kazoo on the camera memory stick,” IT Brandon admitted.

Scottie nodded. It was exactly as she had come to suspect.

“Was this a real dolphin shaped kazoo? Where did you find it?” she asked him.

“It was AI generated,” he said coolly. 

“Why?” she countered.

“Because I couldn’t find a picture of the real thing anywhere,” he explained. 

Scottie was shocked by how correct her guesses had been.

“Okay. That makes sense,” she said, thinking at the same time that absolutely none of this made any sense whatsoever.

“Why a kazoo? And why was it dolphin shaped?” she questioned. 

“Don’t you know?” Brandon said. “It was supposed to be out of place in the Foucauldian Discourse Analysis Aid Kit.”

All of their heads whipped around as they heard a commotion down the hall. Someone was coming. And they weren’t being quiet about it.

“We’re on borrowed time,” Scottie hissed. “What was the message that you wanted to send by doing something so confusing and obscure?”

“I don’t know why the dolphin shaped kazoo was chosen,” IT Brandon said quickly. “It wasn’t me who chose it. I don’t know anything about Foucauldian Discourse Analysis Aid Kits.”

“Then who did?” Scottie wanted to scream. “What was the message?”

But before she got the chance to scream, the door to the IT “office” burst open. Jake moved his arm in front of her quickly, trying to block her from whatever and whoever had opened the door so violently. 

Scottie couldn’t stop the gasp from escaping her lips. For the first time in this entire investigation, she felt very genuinely afraid.

“Chief Pettipiece,” IT Brandon said, standing up hurriedly. He looked extremely guilty.

“You two shouldn’t be here,” Police Chief Parm Pettipiece scolded. “And you shouldn’t be talking to them, Brandon. I’m very disappointed in all of you.”

But he didn’t look disappointed. He looked like he was having fun. 

He turned around and smirked. At that moment, Scottie realized that Parm Pettipiece wasn’t alone. 

I thought that this post needed a picture of Matthew Knies