“Well, I was getting ready to close up and go home for the night, about two hours ago, when there was a knock at the door,” Jedira said. “We were closed, but I went to see who it was anyway. It was a pilot with a burn on her arm. It was pretty bad, but I cleaned it up as best I could, and then we got to talking for a little while. Eventually she left and I was getting ready to lock up when I heard a noise in the basement. I went down to see what it was and I found a room.” She stopped abruptly and swallowed, her eyes darting off to the side.
“It was open?” Kella asked. Of course it wasn’t. “What was in the room?”
“The door was locked, but I have the master key for the building so I was able to open it…”
Kella’s pencil froze. Oh crap.
“…and that’s when I saw the cages. Dozens of cages. There were dogs, birds, monkeys, a giant turtle thing, a snake, a cat.” Jedira gestured in a circular motion as though there were more to her list but she couldn’t quite remember what. “Anyway, I tried to open the cages, but they had a different type of lock on them. That’s when I saw the machines.”
Kella rubbed her forehead. “Let’s just back up for a minute. You saw some animals in cages. How does that constitute a medical crime?”
“I’m just getting to that part,” Jedira said. “The machines. They were in the animals. I mean, there were other machines in the room, on the floor, but these machines were different. They were in the animals, detective. They were inside the animals.”
Kella looked in the woman’s wide, pleading eyes and nodded slowly. Okay, you can defuse this. She’s a medic. Break it down for her logically. Take the emotion out of the equation. “Miss, you said you’re a medical technician. I assume your office treats all sorts of patients with all sorts of medical tools.”
“No, no! These weren’t tools. They were, were, I don’t know what they were, but they weren’t the tools or prosthetics we use on people. These were different. Sunken. Into the skin. Somehow.” The young woman swallowed rapidly and rubbed her forehead.
“Okay, so you saw some medical tools or devices that you weren’t familiar with. Who do you work for exactly?”
“No, you don’t underst-Doctor Elena Medina.”
“Ah.” Kella smiled and nodded slightly. “The Espani who does all the free work for injured laborers. I’ve heard of her. All right. I think I’m beginning to get the picture. You were in the office after hours, unsupervised. You entered a room you had never entered before. You found animals being treated with foreign medical instruments, most likely by your foreign supervisor. And now you are concerned about the animals’ well-being. Is that correct?”
“Well, I, I mean, yes, but, but it’s not that simple.” Jedira frowned, still looking slightly green and extremely exhausted. “These weren’t mechanical legs or skin shields. They weren’t on the outside, they were inside, sunken into the skin, with clockworks, moving parts, moving inside them. Hurting them.” Bright tears shone in the corners of her eyes but she knocked them away with a clenched fist. “It didn’t make any sense. That’s not what we do. There’s no good reason for that. Why would she do that to them?”
Kella sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re the medical technician. You should be telling me. But I appreciate your bringing this to my attention. I’ll be sure to follow up with Doctor Medina to make sure nothing unethical is going on. All right?” She offered Jedira her standard professional smile, serious but not unfriendly.
Jedira shook her head. “No, I’m telling you, something was very wrong down there. You didn’t see the machines. I could hear them clicking inside the dog’s belly, and he was whining and scratching at it. The whole place smelled like an outhouse, and it was full of these machines I’ve never even seen before, and I’ve seen a lot of strange machines.” Jedira clawed her hands back through her hair. “Doesn’t that concern you? At all?”
“Miss, you just described every hospital I’ve ever been in. It sounds to me like this Doctor Medina is developing some new medical devices or techniques for injured workers and she’s using some new machines that you are not familiar with. Which is not a crime. Tell me, Miss Amadi, are you a doctor?”
Jedira blinked and the look in her eyes hardened. “No. I’m a technician. I make prosthetic arms and legs, and hands and feet, too.”
Kella pretended to scribble on her pad. I’m sorry I have to do this to you. You don’t deserve it, but when does that mean anything anymore? “So you admit you’re not qualified to diagnose a patient, particularly one with unusual or exotic symptoms, and certainly not an animal. And your expertise does not extend beyond arms and legs, does it? But more importantly, you didn’t see any people being treated strangely, did you? Only these caged animals?”
Jedira lips wavered for a moment before any words could come out. “No, I didn’t. But if you would just come with me back to the workshop, I could you show you. Right now. Please, it’s only a few blocks.”
“Why? If you couldn’t assess these animals or identify these medical devices in their bodies, then I doubt I would be able to, and I’ve seen quite a bit.” Kella sighed. “Look, miss, I can tell that whatever you saw was very upsetting, but you need to realize that these things happen. Medical experimentation is often unsettling, but it is rarely inhumane and it is for the betterment of our people, in the long run. Believe me, I see it all the time. I investigate industrial accidents every day.”
“But aren’t you a specialist in medical crimes? That’s what the desk sergeant said.”
“Medical crimes?” Kella tried to smile politely. “I’m not sure there’s any such thing. I spend most of my time trying to determine whether accidents were really accidents, and whether a worker or a factory-owner is to blame. There is a fair amount of medical analysis involved, though.”
“Fine, then come to my office and tell me what happened to the animals in the basement,” Jedira said. “Just come and look. It will take two minutes. Please. Just look at them.”
Kella cleared her throat and stopped trying to look friendly. “Look, if I have some time tomorrow, maybe I’ll come by, but I can’t make any promises. We’re very busy with our current case load. I’m sure you’ve noticed all the fights, the vandalism, the injuries. It’s been a rough month for everyone.”
Jedira closed her mouth and nodded, her eyes downcast and long thin fingers curling back around her shoulder bag. “There’s something else. Nitroh. I smelled nitroh down there. Sometimes I smell it on the miners I tend to, so I recognized it. Detective, nitroh is an explosive, not a medicine.”
“I see. As I said, I’ll look into it. If I have time.” Kella led the woman back to the front desk and saw her out. The detective cleared her throat. “In the mean time, I suggest you refrain from exploring your employer’s private rooms, and from making serious allegations against one of the few pillars of our struggling community without any evidence. Good night, Miss Amadi.”
The young woman looked up at her from the bottom of the steps, a horrible mask of defeat and loneliness etched around her eyes and mouth. She nodded once and left.
Kella waited until Jedira turned the corner and passed out of view, and then the detective jogged down the steps and headed off in the opposite direction. Screw this. I’m never doing that again. Lady Sade can find someone else to cover up her shit.
Detective Massi strode through the quiet city streets with her fists clenched in her jacket pockets. She wound her way around slower pedestrians, silently cursing them for existing. Their only purpose in life was clearly to not reach their destinations and thus take up space on the street, just to be in her way. She took alleys and little lanes where grass struggled to grow between the cobblestones, darting through the light of the gas lamps and the shadows. Her steps quickened.
The neighborhoods changed radically, almost from one block to another. Houses alternated between one, two, and three stories, breaking occasionally for the open expanse of a park or square, and contracting into sheer canyons walled in by warehouses and factories. Voices echoed from every direction, along with the clinking of plates and the slamming of doors. People, everywhere. People going home, eating supper.