The moment I finished The Final Farewell, I turned my attention to the next story for my patrons, a piece of science fiction. However, instead of delving into one of my standard sci-fi worlds, I turned to AI to get a prompt to work with. The resulting central idea dealt with a world where memories are a type of currency. With some thought, a handful of threads gave me an idea for weaving a mystery into this piece of sci-fi.
Memories have always been important. They are how people relive cherished moments, remember those they lost, revisit moments they regret, and hold onto lessons they cannot forget. In this world, their value has become more tangible. They can change hands, allowing others to experience a moment they never lived and turning pieces of someone’s past into something worth trading.
For Detective Nolan Mercer, that technology has become another part of his investigations. Witnesses can provide more than testimony, and investigators have tools capable of examining what they remember. Yet those advances haven’t eliminated crime. They’ve simply given criminals new opportunities and detectives different questions to ask when the evidence refuses to make sense.
One murder has left Nolan facing exactly that problem. The witnesses were there. They know where they stood and what happened around them, yet nobody can provide the most important detail. Somehow, a room full of witnesses has left Nolan investigating a murder that nobody can remember seeing.
Excerpt of Stolen Witness
Detective Nolan Mercer rubbed his forehead as he leaned over the table. He grabbed his steaming cup, took a sip, and set it down. His fingers remained around it as he tapped the polished surface. His gaze lingered on the witness sitting opposite him.
The man gripped his cup as his eyes darted about the room, refusing to settle on anything, let alone Detective Mercer. He inhaled the steam while his feet hammered out a frantic heartbeat.
The detective released his cup and retrieved his tablet. “Let me ask this again. What do you remember?”
The witness shook his head before taking a long sip of his drink. “Nothing about the crime.”
Nolan dropped his tablet beside his drink and rubbed his face. “You were standing ten feet from Councilor Hayes when it happened, weren’t you?”
“I was.”
Nolan’s finger struck the table like a jackhammer piercing concrete. “That means you watched someone kill him.”
The witness’s fingers tightened around his mug. A moment later his gaze dropped to the trembling coffee. “I must have.”
“How could you not remember a murder?”
“I can see Hayes greeting the crowd.” The witness placed his drink down and massaged his temples. “His speech sparked thunderous applause. The next thing I can picture is the crowd running.”
With a groan, Nolan pulled up crime scene photographs and slid his tablet across the table.
“I recognize Councilor Hayes and the location. I was there.” He winced as he thumbed through the images. A second later he swallowed a lump as he shoved the tablet back to Nolan. “The blood confirms that he died, but I’ve got nothing else.”
The detective reclaimed his drink and marched out of the interrogation room. Outside, Detective Vale studied the witness with a tablet tucked under an arm. “We have another blank?”
Nolan nodded as he closed the door. “Every witness remembers the events preceding and following the murder. But nobody remembers the actual crime.”
Vale slipped his tablet free and held it between them. “We checked every public memory exchange in the city. Nobody bought their memories.”
Nolan thumped the doorframe. “Which means someone stole our witnesses’ memories.”
“That’s not possible.” The forensic technician stepped between the detectives. She brandished a tablet and tapped at the display. “But their neural scans confirm the theft was precise. The same eighteen seconds, torn from every witness gathered at the scene.”
Vale gripped the tech’s shoulder. “Can you repair them?”
“No.”
Nolan stared at the fractured memory. “But—”
“The thief ripped their memories from them rather than destroying or deleting them.” The tech wrapped her arms around the tablet and looked away from the detectives. “Which means somewhere they still exist.”
“That means they’re evidence, and we need to find them.”
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