Athena Rex had been passing police information on to Detective Fog regarding the murder of Mayor Banikas for three weeks when Detective Fog asked for a meeting at the Deli. The timing was intriguing to Athena because the police had arrested Basil Gravenites last night for the murder of Mayor Banikas, and Commissioner Eric Calazans promised her that the charges would stand. Gravenites would go to jail on a life sentence for the murder of John Banikas.

Detective Fog sat across from Athena and said, "Gravenites didn't murder John Banikas. He's a fall guy put forward by the Sigler mafia."

Athena slammed her coffee mug down on the table and said, "Damn. That's why the evidence is so airtight. The mafia planted it." She was glad she hadn't ordered pastrami herself because she wouldn't have been able to eat it now that she was frustrated like this. That didn't prove to be a problem for Detective Fog, who was devouring her deli sandwich now she had said what she came to say. Mustard smeared her cheeks.

"More than that," Detective Fog said through a mouthful of sandwich. "Evidence was planted, sure, but more importantly, evidence was destroyed."

"How do you know that?" Athena interrupted, surprised at how the detective could possibly know that.

"Well, I have a confession to make," said Detective Fog. With a very reluctant glance at her food, she put it down, swallowing what was in her mouth. "I saw the crime scene before the police arrived. I have photographs of the scene from before the police investigated. It wasn't until the arrest last night and the publication of the evidence that put Gravenites away that I realized what was missing from my pictures. Which led me to realize what was there in my pictures but not the police shots you provided to me. Are you ready for this?"

Athena was on the edge of her seat, and the look she gave Detective Fog was impatient and annoyed. "Get on with it," she said.

"The murder weapon they found, registered to Gravenites and placed under the floorboards. A crooked cop must have planted it. And the officer who placed the gun there wasn't very careful when he put the boards back and covered it back up with the area rug. Why would he be? As far as he knew, no one had seen the crime scene yet. It was one of those geometric pattern rugs that are trending right now. It's hard to see because the pattern is so busy, so many lines, shapes, and colors, but compare the two photos, and you'll see in my picture the rug was moved."

As Detective Fog reached into her briefcase to retrieve the photos, Athena prepared herself for skepticism, having been prepped to see a very unconvincing, minimal difference between the rug's placement in Detective Fog's pictures and the crime scene photos provided by Commissioner Calazans. She laughed out loud when she saw the shots. In one, the rug was about a foot to the left and down from where it had been before — and it had obviously been turned sideways, the whole pattern rotated ninety degrees. "My gut says a man did this."

Detective Fog shrugged. "I'm not kidding that I didn't notice it was flipped until I read the police report saying that a gun was placed underneath it."

"Not flipped," said Athena, "rotated. I would hope no one in our esteemed police department would be stupid enough to flip the rug. Basic geometry terminology."

"So," Detective Fog insisted, now getting to the incredulous part of her story, which would require some persuasion, based on her tone, "if a murder weapon was planted under a floorboard, who's to say one wasn't retrieved from there? The story goes that Gravenites was arrested on the day of the murder and released when the cops had nothing to hold him on — no murder weapon on his person. The murder weapon turns up yesterday, and it's registered to Gravenites, who supposedly hid it there in case he got arrested, which is actually what happened. Except that it's been three weeks, and the weapon, based on my pictures, was planted there three weeks ago. So why wait so long?"

Tapping her fingernails on the table, Athena thought about it for a minute, in the mood to play a guessing game and also to allow Detective Fog to eat more of her lunch, which she went to immediately. "The other evidence putting Gravenites away is the DNA found at the scene. If the DNA sample was switched as well as the murder weapon, maybe it took three weeks to pull that off. I'd like to know whose DNA was really at the crime scene. I don't suppose there's a chance in hell it hasn't been destroyed."

"The sample the labs have has certainly been destroyed. There wouldn't be any chain of custody on anything you picked up on the scene now. Sure, you and I could use a lead from that kind of evidence, but it won't put anybody away."

"Damnit," Athena swore again. "I want to know who killed John Banikas. When I know, then we'll deal with how to stick the asshole with a life sentence. Whoever it is, he or she's got to be a mafia killer, and he or she will kill again. It's a bloody business these days, apparently, and one that's starting to consume the lives of innocent bystanders and community heroes. But are we stuck waiting for the next murder before we can do anything?"

Detective Fog removed something else from her briefcase. It was a clear container holding mid-length reddish-black hairs. "I got there before the police, before any cop working for the mafia could obfuscate any evidence. With gloves on, I took this off the floor. I left a few pieces for the crime scene investigators, but it doesn't seem like they got 'em or were able to hold on to 'em. These hairs don't belong to Basil Gravenites, I don't think."

The hairs reminded Athena of a woman she had seen for the first time just days after Mayor Banikas was killed, but not since. Someone she had wanted to be able to lock in jail and throw away the key just for the way she had grinned her red-lipsticked lips at her.

"Okay," said Athena Rex. "I'll have that DNA run for you. Let's go over what we know and see if we can't identify the real murderer."

A/N: Thank you for reading Constellations. Why not check out another Constellations story? Have a look at my profile for more in the series: Stars Rise and Inyanga's Star and Other Constellations. The series can be read in any order, and it should be a good time to read them together. Your support means the world to me, not to mention each and every star you leave behind <3