Night Shift

Volume 3, Episode 5

Therius voices the suspicion he's had for a while, that the current murders are the work of The Caligulator; the name D.T. Valeriano is too close to "Deodatus Titus Valerius" to be a coincidence, and the calling card is definitely in his style.  Records indicate that the D.T. Valeriano P.O. box has not been checked for a few days.  Everything gets bagged as evidence and taken to the lab. 

While his team enjoys their weekend, Therius puts in some overtime, obsessed with tracking The Caligulator.

Monday, November 22nd, 1999.  The results of several analyses are finally available.  Post office records indicate that the Valeriano P.O. was rented for six months, paid in cash.  Approximately five months remain on the rental; the physical address given on the rental form is listed in databases but does not physically exist.

When they can finally open the two envelopes, the team finds that the letter from Rachel containing her resume and a photo of her with a heart-breakingly sunny smile; in the cover letter, she refers to an ad in the Neopolis Beacon.  The envelope addressed to Lt. Therius contains photos of a young Centaur female body, unmistakably dead and cut in the same way Rachel was.  The face is not visible in any of the photos. 

But Grand Central has retruned the request for the Valerianus file, bounced back on a technicality. 

An emergency breaks out when the animal rights activists — PETA, Earth Fist!, etc. — are reported to have broken into A.S.T.R.O. Labs offices and start contacting the media and making demands.  The Voice and Eulalia are dispatched to handle the situation.

Meanwhile, Lt. Therius decides to go re-file his request for the Caligulator file in person, after obtaining permission from Captain Traynor.  Accompanied by Mortis and Nitro, he heads for TransWorld station (and has a brief and wistful encounter with Leandra, who wonders why he's giving her the cold shoulder).

Lt. Therius's return to Nova Roma is less than friendly; the Praetorians are decidedly hostile.  His counterpart there, Lt. Centurion Nicolaius Furius, is somewhat more helpful though clearly dealing with a lot of bureaucracy.  He says he will send Therius's request for the Caligulator file.  As for the dead female Centaur, none has been reported but there are some reports of missing persons; the SOB team is welcome to read the files.  "Coincidentally", the Caligulator file is slipped in-between the missing person reports, so they make a full copy.

After thanking Lt. Furius for his help, the team heads back for the local TransWorld station.  On the way there, they're ambushed by a group of what looks like off-duty Praetorians.  It's late at night, so the area is otherwise deserted.  After some roughing up, the thugs leave in a hurry, but a couple of dark silhouettes in a luxury air car throw a net to bag the three cops from precinct 10!

The SOB team fought back and brought the aircar crashing onto the Temple of Venus; fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.  Lt. Therius managed to grab the image of the boss, a stately older woman, from the henchman's mind, but no name.  However, they soon recognized Julia Lucrezia Valeriana, Senator Valerianus's own mother.  Centurion Furius later confirmed that this was the owner of the aircar, which had just been reported as stolen.

Examining the Valerianus file, they found that for a while the senator's lawyers had been petitioning for him to be transferred to a medical facility on Parallel 9, Decepticonvalescent Hospital.  There is no indication that the motion was ever granted.

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