Darien smiled. "Of course." He spotted it instantly, a blank metal plate the same size and shape as a credit card. Mace hadn't gotten his computer "camouflaged" in the future and the facilities to make CINDI look like a Visa or MasterCard didn't exist here.
He ignored the computer for the time being, not wanting to draw attention to her. Instead he picked up a yellow matchbook with one word and a picture emblazoned across it in black. "What's Raven?" he asked.
"It's a nightclub. My partner Nick knows some people there." He paused. "You know, the Raven's not too far from the scene of the crime. You think it's a clue?"
"Possibly, possibly..." Darien mused. "If there's one person who would be able to tell us what happened last night, it would be CINDI."
"Who's she? Warfield's girl?"
"Something like that. And I bet her best friend SELMA is just the person to get her to talk," he added for the benefit of his own computer. She didn't always pick up on his hints right away.
"Enough with the name dropping. Are you done with this stuff? Good. Let me get this put away and I'll drive you where you have to go."
"I just need to make a phone call and I'll be ready."
Darien quickly located the nearest public phone and put on his best "I'm having a perfectly innocent conversation" expression. "SELMA, was CINDI of any help?"
"She was singularly uninformative, Captain, which should come as no surprise. Best friend, indeed."
He laughed at her indignation. She thought CINDI gave computers a bad name. "What did she tell you?"
"Apparently Officer Warfield had put her on battery charge mode for privacy. When she finished charging, she had already been stolen. A man then grabbed the pickpocket from behind, dragged him into an alley, and stabbed him repeatedly."
"So the murderer was a man?"
"A girl entered the alley and struggled with the assailant, who was frightened away when he heard the sirens of approaching police cars."
"The police have the wrong person!"
"Yes, but an investigation should easily reveal her innocence. CINDI indicated that the murderer took his knife with him, so the blood on the one Dr. Lambert is examining will not match that of the pickpocket."
"Then what was the motive for the murder?"
"Unknown, Captain. Evidence suggests that it was premeditated, that the killer was waiting in the alley for the pickpocket to walk by."
"Why would anyone want to kill a petty thief? Have him arrested, sure, but stab him to death?"
"If I may venture a hypothesis?"
"Be my guest."
"Officer Warfield could not have been too far behind the pickpocket. From his position in the alley, the murderer may not have been able to see their interaction. Thus, when the pickpocket came into view--"
"He was mistaken for Mace! Good thinking. Perhaps a fugitive whose trail Mace had discovered." Darien spotted Schanke returning. "Thanks, SELMA." He hung up the phone.
"You ready to check out the Raven?" the detective asked. He took a bite out of the sandwich he had left on his desk earlier.
"Let's go."