Short Story Fiction: Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000 #22 Garbled

Episode # 22 Garbled.  It takes a special kind of man to confound a roomful of trained investigators!
INSPECTOR PASCAL MYSTERIES 1000 ©2016
A classic-style mystery-adventure detective is solving crimes in only 1000 words!

INSPECTOR PASCAL MYSTERIES 1000
 # 22 Garbled by T.K. Naliaka ©2016
 
    He hesitated when he saw him become very still, staring at the folder in his hand, then he began quickly leafing through the documents.  He looked up at him, alarmed. “Sergeant Braque, did you know who’s conducting this briefing?”
    Braque shook his head, “No?”
    “It’s…”
    “Why hullo there, Inspector Pascal! How good to see you again!”
    Pascal turned. “Ah! Inspector Durant*… yes! How are you?”   He hadn’t finished shaking Durant's hand when a second detective arrived.
    “Pascal! I didn’t know you’d be here today!  Come on in, we’re starting!”
    Braque’s eyes went wide with alarm when Pascal looked back at him like a caged animal as he was steered into the conference room in the firm yet genial grips of the other two investigators. Braque spread out his hands helplessly and mouthed silently. “What should I do?”
    The doors closed.
    Fifteen minutes later, standing at the podium in front of a huge illuminated screen, Inspector Garland* paused to look over the group of blank faces staring at him.  He changed the slide displayed behind him and read. “The treatment of the bulwark of the perspective is foundation to be inexhaustive.”
    There was silence. From the middle of the room a hand went up.
    Garland peered across the room, “Yes… Inspector Drew?”
    “Draw… Inspector Draw... can you clarify that?”
    “What’s not clear?”
    Draw cleared her throat, “All of it.”
    Garland leaned back to look at the slide.  He was silent for several long moments, then he clicked to the next and read. “The aspect of the angled of incidentally…”  He raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at Draw.
    She grimaced back at him.
    Pascal had his right arm on the table with his pen poised for notes as he gazed at a point in space somewhat in the neighborhood of the slide.  He eased out his phone under the desk.
    “Perhaps Inspector Pascal would like to reply to that!”
    Pascal froze.
    Garland growled. “All phones are off, Inspector!  You are being called upon to answer!”
    He took a deep breath, then let it out.  Pascal smoothly pocketed his phone, stood up and looked over at Garland. “What was the question?”
    Garland regarded everyone to pointedly display his annoyance. “Inspector Drew had a question about the slide.  Perhaps you could explain it?”
    She countered.  “Draw… my name is Draw.”
    Garland nodded as if Pascal had made the error, not him. “As I said, why don’t you explain it to… Inspector… the Inspector in the fourth row?”
    “Yes, sir,” Pascal looked at all the investigators looking back at him.  He turned his head and considered the slide displayed on the screen. After a long moment, he turned back to address Draw and announced. “The critical aspect was that the angle of incidence was 36 degrees.  Therefore, the defendant’s statement that he’d fired accidentally from the position he’d claimed was false.  It was impossible for him to not have seen the victim as he declared in his sworn statement when the shot was fired.  The forensic evidence conclusively established that it could not have been accidental.”
    There was dead silence, quite awkward in a homicide briefing.  Draw spoke up. “That’s not what the slide says.”
    Pascal glanced aside, then at Garland, then back at Draw.  He looked at the slide.  Pascal cleared his throat and had to admit. “No, it doesn’t.”
    Annoyed, Garland gestured to him with his handful of notes, “If you don’t mind Inspector Pascal!  This is a serious discussion!”
    “Yes, it is sir.”
    The others looked at each other.  Draw persisted, pointing with her pen. “How do you get that out of what’s up on the slide?”
    Pascal suppressed a resigned sigh. “You can’t.”
    Draw shook her head. “So, which one is it?”
    “What I’ve told you is correct.”
    Garland snorted. “You weren’t even paying attention!”
    Pascal reluctantly turned to him. “I… happen to know this case study by heart.”
    Garland was disbelieving, “How!?  It was in a foreign language!”
    Pascal finally told them. “I helped translate the document four years ago.”
    Garland’s scowl shifted to a frozen mask, then he picked up the document and quickly paged through it.  The other inspectors saw him and began flipping through their copies.  Draw held hers up and read loudly. “Translation from the original provided by Valère and... Pascal. That's you?”
    He nodded.  A trio of inspectors in the back row leaned together to huddle and began smothered laughing.
    Garland turned red.  He blurted. “Then there is no need for you to attend this briefing is there?”
    Pascal shook his head, “No sir.”
    “You are dismissed!”
    “Yes sir!”
    Pascal picked up the document, tucked it under his arm, turned and worked his way past the chairs of the other inspectors and exited out the door.
    Braque, with his phone to his ear, turned around quickly.  He was apologetic.  “I was calling Inspector Fortuna* to get you pulled out.”
    Pascal shook his head ruefully, “Never mind. Garland banished me.”
    “Garland!?!”
    Before Pascal could explain, the doors opened and out filed twenty investigators. Two of them went straight to Pascal and to Braque’s surprise, hooked their arms in his and steered him down the hallway.  Six other investigators followed, forming a human screen, glancing behind them as they gathered around.
    Practically captive, Pascal sputtered. “What’s going on?”
    Draw shook her head. “How about you tell us?”
    He glanced at them all, then he answered. “It was part of a team assignment which required a translation of that case study.  From the looks of it, Garland took our translation and ran it through the auto-translator to translate it back.”
    Durant exclaimed. “It’s a garbled mess!”
    Pascal grimaced. “I didn’t recognize it myself until ten minutes into his presentation.”
    Draw laughed. “You’ve saved us all! Garland bailed and cancelled the rest of it.  We’re free for the rest of the morning; the next briefing isn’t until 2 p.m.”
    Durant patted Pascal jovially on the back, “Come on, Inspector!  You’ve just earned yourself a free lunch… on us!”
*Inspector Durant:  Harmless, Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000 #12
*Inspector Garland: The Greenhouse Case, Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000 #7
*Inspector Fortuna:  Best Suited, Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000 #19
                                                                                        by T.K. Naliaka ©2016 all rights reserved