Hope Seeker: Thunder Struck

The apartment building on 28th and Neighfare was designed as a gated community that required either owning a key or having someone on the inside let you in. Iron gated widows and door gave a false sense of security to the inhabitants that lived within. In this day anyone with the appropriate skills could have gotten inside without detection, but it did discourage the common thug that might have wanted to stir up trouble.

Seeker waved at the paramedic crew on his way into the building. They waived back from the dry interior of their ambulance, waiting for clearance to move the body. He tried to shake off as much of the residual water that clung to his clothes before approaching the officers guarding the door. Luckily he recognized one of them, a heavy set desk jockey that followed Lighting’s lead.

“They let you out of your cage, Last Watch?” Seeker jested over the sound of the continuing downpour.

“On occasion.” The officer said with a broad smile. Watch’s dark grey body made his white teeth stand out vividly in the following flash of lighting. “I see they haven’t pinned you up in one yet.”

“If this is regarding that fire again, it still wasn’t me.” Seeker said as he smiled back. Last watch gave out a solid laugh as he raised the police tape blocking the entryway.

“Alright Seeker, Lieutenant Shield is waiting for you on the fifth floor. Better get a move on before she tans your hide. The crew is already biting at the bit to get her remains out of here.” Watch said.

Seeker didn’t have to be told twice. He walked in out of the rain and thunder outside, trying not to make a mess with the water that still managed to drip down his hoofs. Maybe a canvas coat was not the best thing to wear out in the rain. The squeaking of his hoofs echoed in the silence of the corridor as he made his way past the elevator to the stairs. He preferred the open air of the stairwell compared to the confined box. The sudden lurching as it got up to speed and slowed to a stop felt too close to the sensation of falling for Seeker to trust them.

Opening the door to the fifth floor landing, Seeker stumbled out into the hallway, panting heavily, to see Lightning Shield leaning against the door frame of one of the apartments. She fluttered her orange wings as she straitened her stance. Her curly red hair pulled back into a ponytail to maintain a professional appearance.

“Still afraid of getting in the elevator, I see.” Lightning asked as Seeker approached. He paused for a moment to catch his breath from climbing the stairwell. He was a Unicorn, not an athlete.

“It’s not the getting in part that bothers me; it’s the possible drop that can happen when something goes wrong.” Seeker panted as he continued to steady his breath.

“Whatever you say Hope. Let’s get this over with so I can let the boys outside take over.” Lightning said. She used every chance she could get to call him by his first name. Seeker assumed that she only did it to get a rise out of him.

Lightning pulled the police tape clear of the doorway and strode in with Seeker on her heels. The room was small as far as apartments go, but Seeker felt it dwarfed the dwelling he was fortunate to still have. The furniture that littered the thick brown carpet was of an exceptional quality, and every piece matched with the others in the set. The walls were decorated with paintings and other decorations, but the absence of photos gave the room a hollow felling, as if the room was merely on display rather than a home.

“No family from the look of things. Everything appears almost spotless.” Seeker muttered to himself loud enough to let Lightning hear what was on his mind.
The only thing in the apartment that seemed out of place was the body of a white Unicorn lying as if she had simply fallen from the couch. If Seeker had not been told she had met her demise earlier that day, he would have expected her to stand to her feet, no worse for wear. The only item of clothing she wore were a pair of simple stud earrings and a pendant that hung from her neck, rendering of the sun and moon in silver. As the detective describe to him of the phone earlier, there were no marks on her body from any sort of trauma.

“What do we know about her?” Seeker asked while he rifled a hoof through his pockets.

“Not too much I’m afraid. Speaking with the landlord, who found her like this, we were able to determine she was single; living alone like you already deduced. She works at Maretropolis Community College.” Lightning read from a small notebook she had tucked away in her coat pocket.

“Let me guess, Librarian?” Seeker smirked.
“Yeah, how did you figure that one out?” Lightning wore a suspicious look on her face as she returned the notebook to her pocket, presumably out of new information to give him.
“Look at how clean and orderly this place is. No college professor would keep things this orderly.” Seeker said. He pulled what appeared to be a jewelers lens from his pocket, similar to those used to inspect gemstones, and pushed it up to his eye. With a little effort from his horn, a blue haze ignited the runes carved into its surface. The room around him shifted into a darker spectrum, his eye staring intently into the eyepiece. White streams of light sat in the air around the body, mostly collecting at her chest.

“Magic was definitely a factor here. Something powerful must have happened here to leave such large traces behind.” Seeker continued to observe the body through the lens. He leaned closer to the body, doing his best not to touch anything. The light seemed to originate from her chest and strike out violently in every direction. “I can’t be for sure, but it looks like whatever caused her death came attacked her from the inside.”

The expression that Seeker watched crawl onto Lightning face when he pulled the eyepiece away was much graver than he had anticipated. Even as a detective she did not react well to the thoughts of anyone killing somepony else.
“I see.” Lightning frowned down at the body lying at her hooves. “I should let the coroner know what you found when I give him my report. What will you do in the meantime?”

“Somepony has been murdered by magic in my city. I’m going home to catch some shuteye.” The stare Seeker got from his apathetic comment would have burned him on the spot if looks could kill. “What? I can’t go to her work if it’s already closed for the night. Unless you want to condone breaking it in, if so I’ll head over there now.”

“No!” Lightning snapped. “I mean, no. You can wait till tomorrow to investigate around the school. I’ll keep in touch if we find anything more out of the ordinary.” Lightning almost blushed from her outburst, but kept her posture of professionalism as best as possible.
"Get some sleep, it does wonders. I'll be in touch." Seeker said as he left the room. Climbing the staircase back down proved much easier than the trip up had been. He gave Last Watch a small wave before heading back out into the raging storm. At least the walk home would be shorter that the walk was to get here from his office.
The building Seeker called home had an exterior door at the ground level that lead directly into his makeshift kitchen. The room used to be used for storage before he had moved in. Many of the walls that separated his living quarters into separate rooms were constructed with the intention of being temporary, but Seeker managed to keep them maintained well enough that they were still standing strong.

The appliances and fixtures were dated and were inefficient with the amounts of energy the required to run properly, but Seeker made his own modifications to help them out as best he could. Out if force of habit he opened the door of the icebox to reveal the chill within was beginning to falter, same as it normally did at this time of night. He noted the contents within were rather sparse as he pulled a cube of glass from the boxes interior. With a small force of will the cube illuminated with the runic symbols that had been gently decorating its surface. He quickly placed the glass back into the icebox as the extreme chill it gave off began to numb his hoof. With any luck it would last more than a day, but it had been getting harder to maintain with the summer heat of the afternoon.

He sat down on the couch in front of his stone fireplace. Lacking any sort of chimney access, the fireplace was built into an old exhaust system that was used for some type of machinery. Being summer Seeker did not have any wood to burn. He decided to save money rather than try to keep some on hand; a decision that he currently regretted. The storm outside carried a chill with it that didn’t cut to the bone like winter would have, but was uncomfortable just the same.

Seeker stared into the empty fireplace as his mind tried to make sense of the information he had collected so far. A Unicorn was murdered in her home and magic was the weapon of choice. She was a librarian at a small local college. There were no known family members that could have been involved.

The more Seeker thought about this case, more questions came to mind rather than answers. Tomorrow would come quickly enough; then he would be able to enter the library in search for answers to this crime. He hung up his coat and hat to dry by the front door and leaned his staff against the wall as he failed to stifle a yawn. The darkness of his bedroom was more than inviting as he dragged his hooves to his bed. The blanket warmed around him, blocking out the residual cold that floated in the air. The moment his head found a comfortable spot on the pillow he drifted off to sleep. No amount of coffee could measure up to a good night’s sleep.