Thanks to Lifetime Clinic’s time capsule serum, anyone can now live forever—for the low, low price of two million dollars annually.
A trio of enterprising thieves attempt to steal one of the capsules… And the sound tech responsible for processing the evidence makes a discovery that calls everyone’s motives into question. Even Lifetime’s.
Because this information? Literally life-changing. Or ending. For everyone. Especially the sound tech, if they let it fall into the wrong hands…
A twisty sci-fi heist that will keep you guessing until the very end, don’t miss Caught In The Act from Aurealis-winning author Amy Laurens.
Caught in the Act
* * BEGIN RECORDING, SOUND BOOTH 108 061248 154801 * *
[A male voice, energetic and full of verve, begins.]
Okay. Here we go. Boy are you gonna love the evidence I have to show you. Just letting you know, I’ll need to translate the resonance recordings for you live, I haven’t done a formal translation of them yet.
I’ll try to keep my asides brief.
So, to give you some context before we begin, the parties:
In the following tapes, we will encounter Kate, mastermind and notably good citizen, who’d never committed anything more outrageous than parking for three hours in a two-hour parking zone before this and insists on wearing vanilla perfume everywhere. At five four with an average build, olive skin and brown hair, there’s nothing terribly remarkable about her appearance—apart from that look of fierce determination in her eyes, and a resemblance to someone we’ll meet later on.
Then there’s Phil, dry-witted and unflinching gaze, who never actually committed crimes himself, because that would be both foolhardy and against his personal moral code—but who’s served as a distraction more times than he cared to admit to his wife—or his interviewer. (Cops found the records though, of course.) Phil’s five eleven, average build, fair skin, red hair cropped in a neat, professional contour.
And there’s Gus, six two, broad build, dark olive skin, black hair, who lived out ninety percent of his life as a gentle giant, a popular Santa Claus impersonator, a favourite of everyone everywhere in his life—and whose secret, lifelong passion for weaponry made him easily the most dangerous person in any room.
Really, with his job, someone should’ve seen that one coming at least.
Okay. First piece of evidence. It’s a resonance recording. You mind if I put my earbuds in for this one? You wouldn’t understand it if you could hear it anyway, and I get a lot more detail with the sound up close.
Thanks.
Right.
Item 1: State Resonance Recording 163-501B 26/19
The room is hot. Sweat keeps dripping down the back of Kate’s neck until, fed up, she bundles her dark hair up into the hair band she’s had on her wrist.
See visual footage from building’s reception security camera, 21:56 on the night in question to confirm.
Sitting opposite her at the cheap wooden table is Gus. He’s also dealing with dripping sweat. It isn’t any place as kosher as his neck.
Only Phil, sardonic smile on his lips as though in his head he’s mocking Kate (yes, alright, I can’t read that in the resonances, but honestly, it’s just his natural expression, it’s hardly a far-fetched guess—okay fine, yes, sorry, I’ll stick to what I can pull from the resonance recording)—only Phil seems immune from the heat.
(And I can tell that from the resonances, thanks, because he isn’t shifting around, swiping and itching at himself.)
(Look, I’ll strike these asides from the official transcript later, okay? Make it all pretty for your bosses. Do you want me to translate the resonance recording for you or not?)
Ahem.
One wonders why they don’t turn the air-conditioning on.