CRACKING THE CASE IN SHADOWS OF DOUBT

Hunting down a killer in Cole Powered's procedural detective sim.

- Rick Lane

PART 1

I'm in the bedroom of a dame named Alba Lopez when the call comes in. A stiff's been found in Colombo Heights, another concrete anthill on the west side of the city of Lost Angles. It's just after eleven o'clock at night, and I've spent the last half hour rummaging through Lopez's drawers.

Lopez is 41, blonde, with a face like an unsolved Rubik's Cube. An accountant at Tangerine Networks, she lives in a swanky apartment in Adam's Terrace. We're not going together. She isn't even home, though that could change at any moment. I need to find what I came for, and fast.

Phil Noir's the name, and I find things for a living. What I'm after right now is the sealed red envelope, inside Lopez's safe. I don't know what the envelope contains, and beyond being paid 850 credits to get it, I don't much care.

Shockingly, the safe is locked. But searching Lopez's bedside table turns up a slip of paper. It reads "Alba, remember your passcode this time!" followed by four beautiful numbers - 7971.

I punch the code into the safe door's keypad. The safe doesn't like it. For an accountant, Lopez ain't great with numbers. I try the far side of the room, revealing another note with another code - 9342. I thumb this code in, and this time the lock clicks. I swing open the safe door, only to discover that it's emptier than my bank account.

I consider throwing something out the window. Malouf said the envelope would be here. I look around the room again. Then I consider throwing myself out the window. The envelope's on the sideboard, next to Lopez's bed. Top work, Noir, with peepers like that you couldn't solve a crossword.