Murder to a Tea

            "Great, another murder," Rem muttered under her breath. It had been a busy week for the department, and this was the second murder this week she'd been assigned to. She had just finished testifying at the aforementioned case's trial, and had only managed to get a few hours of sleep.

I should consider myself lucky to even get a few hours, she thought tiredly. She walked up to the detective in charge of the scene.

"Would you mind filling me in on the case?" she asked. The detective just stared at her.

"And you would be...?" he asked.

"Surely homicide told you I'd be coming," replied Rem, a little annoyed. "I'm Rem Kome, the department's forensic scientist."

"Ah. Well, I'm sorry to say we won't be needing your help here, Ms. Kome," said the detective.

Rem sighed. She was used to detectives not wanting to hand over even the smallest parts of their cases.

"Honestly, you don't have much of a choice- now, we can go talk to the chief and delay this entire process, or we can simply cooperate," Rem informed the detective dryly.

The detective blinked, seemingly ticked off at Rem's statement.

"Fine. Have it your way. I might as well introduce myself, then- I am Gehei Minis."

"Now that we've gotten all the formalities out of the way, how about informing me about the case?"

"The victim is Mr. Murt Aerd. As you've probably already noticed, we're right outside the victim's home. Cause of death is currently unknown, so it'll have to wait until an autopsy is complete."

Gehei's cellphone rang, and he quickly plucked it out of his pocket and flipped it open, holding it up to his ear.

"Yes? Oh, good. Thanks," he said into the receiver, hanging up. "That's the medical examiner. He said that he's pretty sure the victim was poisoned with strychnine- he's running the test right now."

"Why is he so sure it's strychnine?" Rem asked.

Surely there are easier poisons to pick if you want to kill someone, she thought.

"Well, he said that the victim's back was arched- evidently, that's a good indicator of strychnine poisoning. The victim asphyxiated due multiple respiratory muscle spasms, also pointing to strychnine."

"Hm. Well, I've done enough talking for now. You will keep me informed, won't you?" Rem asked. It wasn't really a queston, per se, but more of a command.

Gehei nodded.

"Good. Then I'm off to process the scene," Rem said.

With that, she entered the home.

            "The victim wasn't that tidy, was he...?" she wondered aloud. The room had pieces of trash and newspapers discarded about at random.

"Oh, good," Rem muttered, taking note of the many edible items in the room that could have been poisoned.

"Well, this should be fun," she noted sarcastically, all the while picking up greasy bags of Doritos and other food-related detritus.

"Hm?" She'd just found a tea cup sitting solemnly on a lone table, looking quite out of place in the midst of the messy chaos.

He doesn't seem the type to drink tea, but... I guess everyone's odd in their own way, she thought, taking a sample of the remaining, now-stagnant liquid inside the cup. After spending at least an hour collecting trash, she'd pretty much cleaned the house of everything that could possibly be considered consumable.

Time to head back to the lab.

            When she arrived at the lab, a fair amount of people were in the building, but the lab itself was pretty much deserted, most likely due to the late hour. Rem began to methodically take out every single piece of trash she'd collected and lay it out on the table next to a large metal test tube holder.

"Okay, now, testing for strychnine..." she said, picking up the first in a line of trash. After many unsuccessful tests, it was now the tea's turn to be tested. She swabbed the contents of the bag and, by dissolving it in sulphuric acid and adding potassium dichromate, watched as the light green tea turned to a vivid blue.

"Well, that's strychnine, correct?" asked a voice from behind Rem. She whipped around, and caught sight of the detective, Gehei Minis.

"Yes, that would be strychnine. Why the hell are you here, anyway?" Rem asked. Normally even she wasn't this rude, but lack of sleep has many effects on people.

Gehei seemed taken aback for a moment, but recovered quickly.

"What, a detective can't check up on his case? Besides, you really shouldn't speak to people like that."

Rem glared at him.

"How about you find out where the tea came from?" Gehei offered, breaking the silence.

"Fine, fine. I'll be heading back to the crime scene."

            Really, all I need to find is the box that contained the tea bag... she thought, walking into the kitchen.

"Well, what do you know," Rem commented, pulling a box of green tea from the now-open cupboard and bagging it.

Geez, that lazy detective could have just collected this himself. Now I've got to head all the way back to the lab again.

            "Back so soon?" Gehei asked. It seemed as if he'd stayed at the lab the entire time.

"I wouldn't have needed to leave in the first place if you had just grabbed the tea box to begin with."

"Oh well. So, how do you plan to find who sold this tea?"

"I'll just run the bar code. It should come up with the store that sold it," replied Rem, scanning the bar code on the bottom of the box. She searched the database, and a shop name came up.

"Oolong's Ocha Ochaya? I think I may have heard of that tea shop," Rem said, being an avid tea-drinker herself.

"Okay, I'll head on over there now. Would you like to come along?"

"Of course."

            "I'm pretty sure this is the place..." remarked Gehei, noting the large, green sign right outside the door emblazoned with the words "Oolong's Ocha Ochaya".

"Really? You don't say." Gehei, ignoring this comment, walked up to the door and opened it, with Rem walking not far behind. A bell chimed as the door opened. As the pair entered the room, they heard a commotion in the back, followed by the appearance of a young man with dark green hair.

"Oh, hello! Welcome to my shop. Is there any kind of tea you're specifically looking for?"

"We're not here to buy anything," said Gehei. "We're from the police department, and we're here to ask you about some tea that was sold here."

"Oh," said the green-haired man, his bright mood slightly dampened. "Well, ask away. My name's Oolong Orihime, by the way."

"Do you remember a man named Mr. Murt Aerd?"

"Mr. Aerd? Yes, he was a regular customer. My shop's on the small side, so I remember pretty much everyone who buys tea here, especially regulars. I seem to recall he bought mostly green tea."

"Did you know him personally?" Rem asked, cutting right to the chase. Gehei looked annoyedly at Rem before turning back to face Oolong.

"No, not really. I chatted with him a little while he was in here, but that's about it."

"I'm afraid we'll still have to take you down to the police department. Please, Mr. Orihime, come with me," Gehei said to Oolong, escorting him out of the shop.

Well, I suppose that's my cue to start searching for strychnine...

Rem began looking for anything related to strychnine, such as the actual plant or seedpod from which it's extracted.

"Here are some seeds..." she noted, dropping them in a bag. She had recently taken a look at pictures of the Strychnine tree, and was sure that she could recognize the leaves- being in a tea shop, there were many, many kinds of leaves floating around, making the search more

difficult. After spending more than an hour rummaging through leaves, she'd gone through all of them, not finding anything that resembled the leaves she was looking for.

"The seeds need to be tested now, I suppose."

            Arriving at the lab once again, Rem, cutting open one of the small seeds, swabbed the inside of the tiny pod. She performed the test for strychnine and, yet again, watched as the swab turned a bright blue.

"Ah, so they were strychnine, were they?" asked Gehei, appearing at the doorway.

"... Seriously. You need to stop randomly showing up."

Ignoring Rem, Gehei asked, "So, it looks as if the shop owner, Oolong Orihime, was the culpirt after all."

"I don't know. Something doesn't seem quite right. The seeds were too obvious, in my opinion."

"Are you disappointed at lack of motive? The prosecution doesn't need a motive, you know."

"Yes, yes, I know. I just think the case should be investigated further."

"For now, Orihime will be arrested. I can let you ask him a few questions and possibly follow them up on your own, but that's about it."

"I suppose that's the best I'll get."

            Now in interrogation, Rem began asking Oolong questions pertaining to the murder.

"So, Mr. Orihime, you claim to be innocent?"

"Yes. I'm telling you, I would never do such a thing!"

"Is there anyone you think may have been able to murder Mr. Aerd?"

"Well..." said Oolong, thinking. "One time, when Mr. Aerd walked into my shop, he was arguing with someone. I think his name was Luther Lyons."

"Luther Lyons? Okay, I'll look into him."

            "It seems as if he's a botanist..." Rem said, talking to herself. "He works for Brimstone Botanical Gardens."

What an ominous name...

            "Hello, is there a Luther Lyons here?" Rem asked the first man she came to upon entering the gardens.

"Yes, that would be I," said the man. He had white hair, and was wearing a lab coat.

"I'd like to talk to you regarding the murder of Mr. Murt Aerd."

Once Rem uttered these words, Lyons' face grew rigid.

"A M-mr. M-murt Aerd...?" he stuttered. "Er, no, I'm afraid I don't know a person by that name."

"Judging from your stuttering and expression, I'd say that you do. If you speak now, you might be able to get a reduced sentence."

"I didn't do it! I didn't poison his tea!"

Rem grinned, and a look of horror dawned upon Lyons' face.

"I didn't tell you how he was murdered, Mr. Lyons."

"Fine!" he yelled. "So I did it! I murdered that stupid, imbecilic man- what of it!?"

"What of it? Well, you'll be coming down to the department, for starters," Rem said, already dialing the detective, Gehei Minis.

"Hello, detective? Luther Lyons has just confessed, and I'd love it if you'd come to arrest him."

Gehei said something into the phone.

"Yes, I was right, wasn't I? Well, I always am."

            The detective had arrived, and Luther Lyons had been taken into custody. As Rem was leaving the gardens, she saw something that caught her eye.

"Is that...? Of course!" she said aloud. In front of her was a tree, the leaves quite familiar.

"The Strychnine tree, Nux vomica. Yes, he would have had access to it here. I suppose this does explain how he got ahold of it."

She left the gardens, now satisfied.