Chapter 4 - Gustafson

General Wolf Gustafson was a famous war hero.  He was a lifer and loathed being transferred to what he considered a position beneath his status as chief of the prison systems, but he did so with no complaint and with utmost precision and efficiency.  That was how he approached everything, even things he absolutely detested.

The prison system was the crown jewel of the new law and order mandates championed by the city leaders and they indeed worked as prescribed to help calm and make everyone feel safe again.  Many credited Gustafson for achieving this feat and he was offered a post back in the Army, but surprisingly refused and remained in his post as commisar until his retirement.  A stubborn example of the old breed.

His only soft spot was in his three children, two sons Stephan, Sigmund and and his dearest one of all the eldest, his daughter Sophie.  Stephan was the youngest and in turn Sophie's favorite and the three often quarreled as siblings often do.

The tragedy of Stephan's death hurt Sophie the most and she never married and remained locked away on the Gustafson estate ever since.  She utterly despised Karl and blamed him for young Stephan's death and implored her father to have him punished severely.  She never quite understood, nor forgave him completely for allowing Karl to live for so long and to be treated so nicely.

It was with great regret that Gustafson had Sophie investigated shortly after the night Karl was shot and killed.  The agents were very thorough and noticed she had been in contact with the prison chief Schols and had called several times on the night Karl was killed both before and after.  It was much too suspicious and Sophie was questioned and interrogated over the course of several months, but the agents found nothing.

While the motive was there, she was still a Gustafson.  She confirmed she had called Schols and did so when she learned Karl was killed and asked for the details.  She was happy with his death and her mood markedly brightened afterwards as well as her relationship with her father, although nowhere near her original self when Stephan was still alive.

The prison logs also showed she had visited Karl several times, including twice in the week before he died.  They met in a the standard conference room and the conversations were monitored by several guards.  She blamed him for Stephan's death and hoped he would suffer.  It wasn't clear as to why Karl would agree to meet with her, but he felt it his duty to meet Sophie even with each vicious tirade.

The agents concluded as I also did that this was red herring and Sophie had no involvement in Karl's death and everything they could gather he died by his own volition.