//------------------------------//
// Chapter 43 
// Story: Pandemic: Picking up the Pieces 
// by Halira 
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"What do you mean your hands are tied? There has been a murder!" Lavender yelled at her.

This wasn't how Melissa was expecting her first two hours on the job to go at all. She certainly didn't expect to be seeing Lavender in her office demanding she arrest Tonya.

"I can't arrest Tonya on brainswashing, there's no law for it. What I can do is bring Number Crunch in for questioning since she has just been implicated in murder," Melissa said calmly.

"But Tonya made her do it! It's Tonya you should be going after," Lavender said as she stomped her hooves. "Is this some weird human thing? I don't understand human things well, but if this is I don't like it."

Melissa ran her fingers through her hair and then set her hands back in the desk. "I will see what can be done about bringing Tonya to justice if it's true. First I have to establish the crime. Tattered stressed to me that I need to do everything as close to by the book as I can. I haven't had time to figure out what by the book entails, but I know I can't go arresting Tonya when there isn't a law to charge her with breaking and I don't even have a body for a murdered victim. I'll bring Number Crunch in for questioning and then move from there."

"This is ridiculous, I'm going to go get Tattered Wing," Lavender said as she turned and exited.

Would it be bad if she quit on her first day of the job? She was already having ponies, Equestrian ponies that she knew well, question her actions because she was human. And they were demanding she arrest for murder one of the first non-night ponies she had actually made friends with.

This sucked so much.

She didn't want to think that one of her first friends had done something like this either. It was hard to deny a full confession though. Her job came before her friendship and she needed to start investigating. 

She walked out of the office and up to the desk. She was a little suprised to find Megan watching the desk. The other woman was typing something up on the computer while simultaneously doing some other search on her phone. Megan didn't even notice her tell she was right up to the desk.

"Hi, Mel. How's your first day on the job? I know mine has gone pretty weird since Ms. Blessing went to the clinic."

Melissa shook her dead. "Two hours on the job and I have a murder case. Can you do me a favor and call Number Crunch over to my office? I don't have any contact numbers, Tattered doesn't have the ability to easily use a phone so she doesn't keep any contact phone numbers."

Megan started pulled out a manilla folder and started flipping through it. "I can give her a call for you, or you could just walk next door and get her. I'm pretty sure I saw her taking a smoke break outside. Didn't realize any pony actually smoked till I saw her doing it."

Having been a pony herself she was pretty sure smoking would be downright detestable to most ponies, far more than humans. The smell of it and the messing with air quality hit pony noses hard. Peer pressure might push a pony to smoke since they were very easily drawn into what others were doing, but there wasn't a large peer group for it that Melissa knew of. That Number Crunch was smoking might be a sign of extreme stress or nervousness, as Melissa couldn't see a pony picking the habit back up for the pleasure of it. Number Crunch did have a lot of responsibilities that could cause a lot of stress, but so did other ponies. Maybe she was feeling stress from her guilt?

"If she's just next door I'll go get her myself," she said as she made the decision to go. "Could you get me copies of the pertinent contact phone numbers around town still? Tattered might not be using the phone, but I need to be able to get in touch with people. I don't have wings anymore to go flying anywhere in town within a minute or two."

Megan raised an eyebrow at her, probably for the callback that she used to be a pony. "I'll get you the numbers. I'll probably have them to you by the end of the day, or sometime in the afternoon tomorrow. Right now I'm focused on my work for Ms. Blessing. I'll see if I can get some of your Enclave ponies over to your office. I'm sure that I heard mention they had a few that weren't night ponies "

She nodded her thanks as she stepped outside. She quickly went down the steps of town hall and was about to hurry inside the bank when she caught the familiar whiff of tobacco. She didn't need hightened pony senses to smell it. The air around here was clean enough that the smell could travel farther, and it was close enough she could catch it. If there were any ponies nearby it was probably annoying them.

The smell was coming from around back of the bank and she walked around the building and found Number Crunch, and to her mild surprise, Wild Growth, smoking  behind the bank. Well, she had said ponies would give in to peer pressure easily and Wild Growth was younger, so it wasn't that much of a surprise. 

When she stepped into view the young earth pony mare did a shocked gasp and proceeded to do the most slapstick hiding that she was smoking that Melissa had ever seen. First the young mare tried pulling the cigarette from her lips with her forehoof, which of course burned her forehoof because there was no way she was gripping a cigarette with a hoof and not touching the burning embers. She tossed it down in pain and then just as foolishly tried to stomp it out with her again very much exposed and not fireproofed hooves. This caused her to dance around in pain. 

Melissa and Number Crunch both just calmly watched this play out, and despite the fact she was here to take Number Crunch for questioning about murder she couldn't help suppressing laughter at Wild Growth's expense.

"Fire is hot and it burns," Melissa said as she walked up to them. "Take it from someone with a lot of experience getting burned. You don't want to touch it."

Wild Growth finally stopped her hopping about and gingerly took a few steps about with a blush on her face. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Aren't you only seventeen? You shouldn't be allowed to be doing that anyway," Melissa said. She really didn't care to tell the truth, but she was the law enforcement, and it was a law.

Number Crunch calmly floated her own cigarette out of her lips, breathed out a final plume of smoke, and snuffed out the cigarette. "We will pay whatever fine you give us, Ms. Rivers. Is there something you needed, or were you just stomping out juvenile delinquency?"

That killed the moment of mirth. "I need to bring you over to the office for questioning, Number Crunch. You aren't be charged with anything, but I need to have you answer a few questions about a potential crime."

Number frowned. "Is that so? And which potential crime are we discussing?"

Melissa glanced briefly at Wild Growth. She didn't want to blurt it out and have pony tongues waggling. Then again, Number Crunch might go to Wild Growth with that information right away anyway. Melissa was just not trained for this, and it was showing. They needed an experienced police officer out here, not her. An experienced, or at least trained, officer would know exactly how to handle this situation cleanly with no fuss. 

"It's a potential murder, of Swift Strike," Melissa said finally, not knowing what else to do.

Wild gasped and Number held a hoof out at her, still looking at Melissa. "I'm not being charged with any crime you said?"

"No one is being charged with anything. We haven't even confirmed there was a crime yet. I just want to ask you some questions since your name came up," Melissa said calmly.

Number nodded. "I can go to your office and answer a few questions then. We certainly want to clarify things quickly with this, and I can help out however I can," Number said as she turned and smiled, giving a small bow of her head as she did. The unicorn then looked back at Wild. "Why don't you go check on Sunset Blessing for me while I'm gone. We want to be sure she's alright after that crystal pony bucked her. Amber gave me an update earlier, but I've heard nothing since then. I'm pretty sure your sister, Phobia, and Tonya are with her. Be sure to let them know where I am if they need me."

Wild gave her a curious look. "Tonya, why would you want Tonya to know...never mind, I'll just go."

Okay, if it weren't for Wild so obviously drawing attention to it Melissa might have missed it. Number had a huge falling out with Tonya recently, she was close by when the unicorn all but exploded on her calling her a traitor. Tonya was the one who implicated them in this, was Number aware Tonya was going to do that and that was what the flare of anger was about?

Maybe she should speed up getting someone to bring Tonya in to discuss her claim. How was she supposed to handle this? Maybe she should have started by bringing Tonya in first to question. The reality of her ineptitude for her position was undeniable. She needed proper training in a police academy. She'd speak to Tattered tonight about how she was going to get that training.

Wild trotted off towards the clinic and Number looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "We were going to your office as I recall?"

That snapped Melissa out of her thoughts and she did a hasty nod before turning. "Yes, follow me."

"Of course, Ms. Rivers," Number replied. As they started walking Number continued speaking. "This must be very trying for you, dealing with such a such an extreme crime just the day second day after being back on your...feet. If I recall from your file you have no background in police work either."

Melissa stopped walking. "My file?"

Number stopped and answered. "Every pony in town has a file. If they were on a list the file is more extensive. You're one of the Broken Ones, you're on a list. The government provided copies to Sunset Blessing and Sunset Blessing gave me copies of files of ponies that were worth knowing about immediately, you Broken Ones are among those."

Melissa's eyes narrowed. "That's a pretty big invasion of privacy."

Number shrugged. "The government wasn't really concerned about ponies rights to privacy. Pony rights in general are still kind of a grey area."

"There should be no grey area, ponies are still American citizens. Regardless of that, I'm back to being human," Melissa countered.

"What are the rights of non-human citizens?" Number asked. "I'm sure they'll figure it out soon enough, but those have yet to be canonized. Tennessee and North Carolina at least seem to have very different ideas than the feds. They say we're citizens right now, but will they change their mind? As a human your rights are clear, though I believe you have specific rights as a rehumanized human that have been spelled out, for now."

"Is there a point to bringing this up?" Melissa asked.

"Just getting a feel of what you think pony rights are," Number answered. "I'm not a fool. I know how the Enclave you helped form worked in Charleston. This is only the second time it has had to do any action since coming here and I'm sure Tattered Wing is still angry about how the first limited action went when restraint was used."

Melissa wasn't sure what Number was implying, but she got a vague feeling that Number was worried they'd do something to her. They weren't going to do that though; they were going to be a legitimate law enforcement group.

"You will have the same rights as if you were a human dealing with humans. Don't worry," Melissa said after considering her answer.

"Thank you," Number said with a smile. "In that case the walk back to your office won't be needed. I wish to confess Swift Strike attacked me and in self defense I killed him. Any questions you may have you can wait until my lawyer arrives before I answer them. I will not resist arrest."