it’s late fall. The temperature just goes from balmy to mild. It’d be killer in the summer.
There’s a lot of trace still left at the scene in the alley. It’s why cleaners come in to clean it up completely. After Civil collects all the evidence they need for a case, they don’t want anyone else to scan for crime scene data. There’s a number of sickos out there that get off on knowing what happened in a crime. So cleaners get to everything, wipe it away like it never happened. As long as they have their evidence, they can make their case. The scrubbing is just to preserve the memory of the victim.
The sensors in the area are calibrated to pick up scanners, so units can be dispatched to catch voyeurs. It’s all to avoid a fiasco like what happened in Crown South two years ago, with the Robertson slaying. A sicko broke into the scene and scanned the data. Next thing the world saw was a computer generated representation of the killing that was too close for comfort of what actually happened during the murder. In that case, Robertson was stabbed more than thirty time by his killer and he bled quite profusely. That made having to see the video everywhere all that much harder to watch. It’s also why a scene gets a quick clean after an investigation is done with it. Less data to collect means more privacy for victims and their families. And when it’s necessary to keep a scene, units are posted around the clock.
And although most of the scene is cleared, I can get enough from the trace that’s left to put together a general picture of what happened in this alley last night. My eyes aren’t the kind of scanner that the sensors in the area are calibrated to pick up. I can see faint impressions, a few foot prints, from the transfer of particles, but it’s not much since it was still raining when they were here. The more vivid impressions are from where all the blood was cleaned up, some of which were made by foot prints in the blood of the victims.
There were only two of them. Assailants. Mr. Payne and Mr. Burges were obviously present, as well. It looks as though Mr. Payne was lured into the alley by one of the assailants. Both assailants were men, judging by the size of the shoe impressions. It’s a long alley and has a cross section running parallel to the street in between the buildings on either side of the block, where the crimes took place. The alley is just a few paces from where Mr. Burges was sitting last night. It’s unlikely that he merely stumbled into the alley, immediately after them. Mr. Burges likely saw Mr. Payne follow the man into the alley and shadowed them.
The spots from where the blood was cleaned are in two major areas. One’s a localized area, consistent with multiple gun shots. It’s where Mr. Payne died. He didn’t completely bleed out. The weapon used was more than likely military grade. Most of Civil only uses concussive rounds to subdue perps, if necessary. Electromagnetically charged bursts of concentrated air. Only special teams regularly carry lethal weapons, and nothing lethal like the weapon used in this alley would ever be legal for the public. These weapons are extremely efficient, making them extremely deadly. Since ammo isn’t used, the gun is fairly silent as well. But there is still a sound, however faint but very distinct. The sensors in the alley and surrounding streets would have picked it up, had they not been compromised last night. Thankfully, Mr. Payne died relatively quickly. The report said it was a shot to the heart. He didn’t have a moment to even consider suffering. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Mr. Burges.
The trail of his death is long. It begins with a pool of blood, that even he walked in before falling to the ground, trying to get away. He wasn’t just stabbed. His throat was slit, feet way from where Mr. Payne lay dead. He was stabbed more than once before he fell. Each wound left a larger impression. And as he tried to crawl for help, since he couldn’t scream, he was stabbed again and again and again. He bled out in a massive pool. Obviously.
From what I get, only one of the assailants was responsible for the actual killing. The other only lured Mr. Payne into the alley and stood by while his colleague carried out the dirty work.
Outside of the cleaned up blood, there’s very little to go on. The particle transfer from the foot prints is too faint to try and trace and I can only make it out because it matches up with the foot prints made in the victims’ blood.
There’s nothing very helpful to get from the scene. It doesn’t tell me where the two men came from. The sensors went down for a five block radius. That’s a lot of ground to cover.
While trying to decide whether to start in the middle or around the perimeter for my search, the comm device in my pocket sounds off. I pull out and flip open the clear crystal comm device. Everything is built into it at the sub-microscopic level. The built-in lite-screen projection capability really makes it worth having. Still not a BlackGlass comm unit, but it works fine. And you won’t see me getting any more weird stuff done to me, like inSight or Nero-net.
I had enough of that when I was a child.
It’s CIBL on the other end. “St.Claire, I have finished the earlier task given to me. I have traced the device held by Caterine Payne last night.”
“Where’s the location?” Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I can find Caterine.
“You already have the location, St.Claire. It was supplied to you earlier by Maggie.”
Hmmm. Makes sense, I suppose. I avoided checking it out first because I didn’t know if the secondary site would have actually linked with this case. Now that I know it does, it’s where I’ll begin my search. I tap on my comm device and bring up a map of the area. The secondary site is seven blocks from my current location, and a few outside of the radius of the blackout on the sensors, which is why the activity was picked up by Civil. However, I’m certain that they don’t know what they have as of yet. So, they likely won’t still be in the area.
“Alright. I’m on my way there now,” I tell CIBL. “Where is your progress on the other task that I assigned?”
“It remains on standby, St.Claire. NMCPF detective Franko Sillas has not yet returned to Civil HQ. I will continue to monitor Civil and await his arrival.”
“Ok. Contact me when you have the results.”
I’m about to turn off the comm device when CIBL says, “There’s more St.Claire.”
“What is it CIBL?”
“The device carried by Caterine Payne was only a transmitter of sorts. That is why the power signature differs from that of actual platforms. There is a secondary device. A receiver. That is why there is a secondary site. It is where Caterine teleported to when she left your office last night.”
“Do you know where she went from there?” Seems like she really can go anywhere.
Damn. Maybe I won’t find her after all.
“I do not. However, I can say that she teleported from that site immediately after arriving.” Of course she did. Caterine just can’t make trying to save her easy, can she? “I can also say that she did not teleport to another receiver, but to another platform. Unfortunately, with privacy protocols in place, the platform cannot be traced.”
“Fine. Maybe Maggie will have some luck on her end.”
“That is not all, St.Claire,” CIBL continues. “Although the transmitter teleported, the receiver did not.”
Of course! It’s only seven blocks away. Her husband was in this area last night. And Caterine pretty much had a death wish, when she left my office last night. Maybe a small part of her believed that her husband might still be alive. It's more likely that she gave up and turned herself over to them. Damn! If that’s the case, she could already be dead.
“CIBL! How can you tell that the receiver didn’t teleport with the transmitter?”
“It has a similar signature to the transmitter, but it is distinct in its own way. Having already traced the transmitter successfully, it took no time at all to trace where the receiver went. A map is uploading to your comm, now.”
The map reloads with a trail starting at the secondary site, where Caterine teleported to from my office. It leads, in a bee-line, all the way here.
Caterine was in this alley last night. I doubt that she saw her husband, since his body was likely already placed in their home. But she must have seen Mr. Burges. And the other blood spill. The one from her husband. I can’t really imagine what must have gone through her head at that moment. I just hope that I’ll be able to find her alive.
The trail continues, in a more direct manner, but stops suddenly a few blocks from this location. The trail ends near the epicenter of the black out on the sensors.
With no time to lose, I run.
+ + + + + +
There’s a maze of tunnels under New Manhattan. When the city was rebuilt after the Great Wars, the tunnels were necessary to lay conduits and pipes and to redo the entire infrastructure. Not to mention that in a city like New Manhattan, the tethers between teleportation platforms keep growing in number and complexity as new nodes get installed. Then there’s the massive underground transit system. It’s almost like a whole other city.
The signal disappeared above ground because it went underground. This maze has a completely different array of sensors. But, CIBL was still able to track the power signature of the device, after a bit of jailbreaking of Civil’s underground systems.
Again, the path was pretty direct. It’s looking more and more like someone was