Chapter 4

Sloom slept. When he awoke, he created the ground and filled it with an infinite variety of rock and mineral. Sloom created the Sree to tend the rocks and shape the minerals. One Sree believed her designs best, others came to agree with her and there was dissension among the Sree. Sloom was dismayed to see the dissention, he decided to give the Sree their own space to shape the minerals and rocks so he separated the ground with a flash of light and flung them far from each other. The Sree were grateful to Sloom. Sloom saw the works of the Sree and decided to create the Brrlk to live within the ground and see the designs of stone and mineral. And Sloom knew them as his children.

- Teachings of Krkl, First in the Light

Asuun was starting his day looking over the site of the last murder scene. He had an escort droid with him in case he decided he wanted to question some possible witnesses. The droid had an investigation module loaded, but he had insisted it include a security module in it’s hierarchy as a backup. The droid’s AI had been updated with the specifics of the investigation and had made the recommendation for the security module.

He was behind the sense club Suuthilaro. The owner using a clever play on words to name his club, and describe the effect certain frequencies have on the texture of scales. A popular enough type of club recently, which means that on the night of the murder, there were hundreds and hundreds of individuals in the area.

Asuun had the droid create a 3d image of the area from the victim’s perspective. When it was finished, he had it run tests to identify any points where someone, or something, could have seen that point. The droid was going to identify who could have been at any location with a view.

There are no security feeds in the alley, and only traffic feeds on the nearby streets. Asuun had already gone over that footage, and it showed many Sel who could be suspects. The system had managed to identify all the faces that had been caught on the monitors. So far none of the individuals have any connection to the victim or to the previous killer.

Asuun stood where the victim had fallen. There had not been any sign of a struggle, but the analysis of the victim had shown that there were high levels of various mind affecting elements in his body at the time of death. It is officially noted that it is unlikely the victim actually knew they were attacked. The effect of the club’s ambiance will reduce the sensitivity of the nerves just below the surface quite significantly. Add in the effects of the drugs, and it is unlikely the victim would have noticed if he had been on fire.

The victim had been sitting on the ground, leaning back against the wall. The description of the scene included a note about the wall behind the victim showing some marks. He crouched down to examine them directly and was able to make out the small markings. They were just a random series of dots, 9...no, 13 of them. Like something dimpled the wall, but there is no pattern.

Asuun brought up the images taken from that night and, he superimposed the victim over the marks. That placed the marks about the upper chest of the victim. The rest of the wall was featureless and smooth. On a whim he added the stab wounds in the victim. Almost immediately his AI picked out a pattern from the stabs that accounted for all the marks. It shocked Asuun when he saw it. He removed the image of the victim and took a close look at the marks again and after a few seconds he could see the slight differences a shifting weapon tip would make.

His AI automatically updated the associated files with the additional information regarding the marks. That kind of force in an attack is usually only seen with a surge of emotion, but there are no other signs of rage or…anything. Nothing on the body was touched, no marks anywhere else, it was like the killer was just focused on stabbing the weapon as hard as they could.

Asuun walked in through the rear portal of the club, the portal recognizing his security id and allowing him entry. He was in a rear area of the club, looked to be an office hallway, there was an elevating tube to his right and the hall proceeded to a door that looked like it opened into the body of the club. He noticed the signs for the personal rooms, for private parties.

He stepped into the elevating tube, the tube recognized his security ID, and moved him to the 2nd floor. He looked around the hallway, and found what he took to be the main office. There were a few other doors, most likely to be storage.

Asuun’s AI had informed him that the owner of the club should be in, so he moved to the office door and had his AI request access. It only took a couple seconds before the door slid to the side, revealing the office.

The owner was sitting behind a stylish interface console. He was looking toward the door. Asuun stepped into the office, and took a seat in front of the console. Asuun’s AI identified the owner, as Tylfis

“Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, I know this is short notice. I will keep this as short as possible. I am looking into the attack that took place behind your club. I know that you have a statement on file. I have reviewed that, and just wanted to ask a few questions that were not covered that night.”

Tylfis showed signs of discomfort at being reminded of that night. He shuffled in his chair slightly. The scales around his nostrils and eyes reflected his discomfort.

“I can’t imagine what else you could want to know. I was closing the club when I…found him. I had never seen a dead body before, I didn’t really understand what I was seeing then. I immediately called for a security unit once I realized what I was looking at.”

Asuun’s AI confirmed that these were the essentials of his original statement. Asuun has a very good memory and could remember the initial interview with Tylfis, he had shown all the signs of someone in shock. The same look as the rest of the staff that had seen the body as well. He had initially identified Tylfis as an unlikely suspect.

“Studies have found that with the passage of time, sometimes other memories, not initially recalled, may surface that could be relevant to the investigation, so this is a followup, I just want to talk, see if anything else may have occurred to you about that night, or the victim. Anything that you may not have considered mentioning the first time, or may have slipped your mind in the confusion?”

Asuun did not think it likely, but he felt that with the new perspective on the case, he could not take anything for granted. Knowing that another murder will happen, and soon, had left him with a sense of responsibility.

Asuun spent another hour talking with Tylfis, but he did not provide anything new. Before leaving, Asuun reassured Tylfis that there was no risk to his staff and customers that Asuun was aware of and to just go about his business as usual. Of course Asuun did ask for Tylfis to contact the nearest security center should he see anything unusual, or suspect.

Asuun was able to mat-transfer to within a half kilometer of the residential complex where the second victim was killed. His name was Tikis. This victim had been a landscapist, in business for 4 cycles, with 7 others working under him. All of his employees were accounted for at the projected time of the murder.

That night, the victim had called for assistance with a noisy neighbour. The official report records the security official as showing up a couple hours before the estimated time of death. The security agent took a statement from the victim, visited the offending neighbour and talked with them. The neighbour is reported as being accommodating and apologetic for the inconvenience.

Then the call came in from the victim’s family that he was found dead in his arboretum. Apparently he had been working on developing a creeping vine that would bloom flowers of alternating colours, yellow and blue. A check of his business AI revealed that this had been something the victim had been working on independently, so there had not been a request made of him to do it.

This time the initial stab wounds had been in the back. It was clear that the victim had taken 2 before he had been able to turn, but this had not stopped the attacks. There were marks on his forearms indicating he did try to block, at least one of the attacks. One of initial attacks from the front must have been the one to hit the primary nerve cluster in the middle of his chest. Severing that had rendered the victim unable to further defend himself, and the rest of the attacks had been made with no interference by the victim.

Asuun’s AI informed him that the members of the victim’s family were still living in the temporary accommodations nearby, leaving the home undisturbed. The AI also let him know that 5 of the family members had submitted requests for an estimate on how much longer they would need to stay away.

The victim had been living with 9 members of his family, official records had placed the remaining 90 around the city. They had 3 other residences, 22 in one, 37 in another, and 31 at the third. While families don’t normally disperse that much, it was not too uncommon. They had all been notified as a matter of procedure. All of them could account for their locations at the estimated time of attack.

Only 3 others had been home the night of the attack. Each had been questioned on where they had been, and their locations had been verified. No one that had been in the residence had reported hearing anything.

So far, no one had questioned the extended time, certainly larger than the estimate they had initially been provided with. Asuun was not sure what to do about that. He decided it was not a critical issue as he approached the residence.

The front door opened immediately, recognizing his security credentials from the AI. Asuun walked slowly through the house, toward the back and the connecting walkway to the arboretum. It was clear, just stepping out the back door, that a lot of attention had been spent on laying out the grounds. His AI was able to provide records showing that the victim had shown an interest in landscaping for many cycles and several of the family members had confirmed that he regularly worked on the residence grounds.

Based on what he could see now, Asuun would have to say that the victim was obviously pretty good at what he did. The shaping of the bushes and boulders, served to give a sense of movement even when there was no wind. The arboretum was tucked into the right back corner of the space and Asuun was able to find the path to get to the main entrance without trying, the terrain just directed him that way.

Under closer examination, Asuun could see how the path had been reinforced with clays and some artificial components. But it blended seamlessly into the ground. His AI was able to confirm that the path he was on was indeed set to provide a water barrier should it suddenly rain.

The arboretum was surrounded with a privacy wall, about 3m high. Where the house had shown no signs of anything unusual, once he entered the arboretum, it was clear that something violent had happened there.

There was a rack on the left side that had something green…the climbing vine that the victim had been working on, according to his AI. It was splashed with something dark now, the blood having dried many days ago. His AI indicated where the vine showed signs of having been compressed from where the victim had been pressed up against the rack as his murderer repeatedly stabbed him.

Standing in the entrance and just looking around, Asuun could see how any sounds from here would be severely muted, likely not to be heard even if someone was in the backyard. The area was full of shrubs in different stages of growth, potted plants, hanging vines and creepers. This plus the filter screen over the top of the space, would all serve to create a fairly effective sound absorbent environment.

The rack was made of a resilient plastic, meant to support a lot of mass, so there was no sign of damage to it. The floor had been cleaned of blood, but his AI was able to provide an overlay so he could see how it looked at the time.

There were clear indications that the killer’s boots had been splashed with at least some with the victim’s blood. They had not picked up any evidence that could not be accounted for in the environment. Nothing else had been damaged in the arboretum, nothing taken.

The family could not provide any reason for the attack. The victim’s business had been doing well, his competitors had all checked out for accounting for their whereabouts. When they had been interviewed, there had been respect and some envy for the victim, but no indications any of them had any dislike of him.

The victim had not taken any new jobs in the last week. The analysis by Asuun’s AI, indicated the plant was not a radical breakthrough, with a significant value attached. As it was, the victim had filed a genetic record for the plant anyway which had been approved quickly.

Asuun had the AI connect to the residence system, and ran his search algorithms on it. It did not take long for his AI to respond with the results. There was no history of odd activity, no warnings of violent activity. The neighbourhood was quiet, no commercial buildings within a kilometer. No big change in residents over the last couple of cycles.

The residence entry records don’t show any tampering and don’t show any unaccounted entries. Though it would have been more than possible to access the arboretum from the back, without having to go through the residence.

Asuun had his AI check on the neighbour that had the noise complaint. A few seconds later, his AI had the information. The neighbour works at a mid-sized import corporation, account manager. The night of the complaint, he had been celebrating a successful business deal. He had a few friends from the company over as well.

The reporting security technician had noted that the neighbour, whose name was Bishal, did appear to be under the influence of some drug, but there was no record of it being an illegal substance. The security technician’s report indicates he was there for about 20 minutes, but only gave the neighbour the notification of a complaint.

The victim’s company was currently contracted to do maintenance work on the grounds of one of the government complexes in the city. They had been given the contract for the last 2 cycles, the victim’s company had been getting good reviews from the manager of the complex.

Asuun spent an hour going over the scene again, but even with the new perspective about the killer, he did not find anything to add to the report from this scene. In many ways the lack of evidence was becoming a part of the crime description.

That thought had just finished popping into his head, when it occurred to him it might actually be a consistent element of the killers. Asuun had his AI run a search against all previous cases, from the beginning, searching the records for descriptions of how much evidence each scene contained. The AI questioned him a little to better narrow down his search.

The AI responded immediately with the answer he expected to get. All previous crime scenes had the same description...almost completely devoid of evidence, aside from the body of the victim. Nothing was ever taken from the location or the victim, as far as any previous security technician was aware.

Asuun locked the residence as he left it. He had his AI allow admittance by the family members, but they would need to get it cleared with the nearest security office first. His AI confirmed for him that the family members had been notified of the change in access restrictions.

Asuun used the mat-trans to relocate to the scene of the fourth murder, the park outside of the city. Asuun was not much of a nature fan, so he had not been to this park before, aside from his first visit to the crime scene. The mat-trans had dropped him in a different location than the first time he had come but, his AI was able to point him in the right direction.

It was only a few minutes until he was on the path leading to the scene. The markers around the scene updated his AI to let him know no one had tried accessing the scene. Asuun did not need to pass through the marker field for what he wanted this time.

The first time he had been here, he had been able to identify the spot that the killer had stood as the victim approached. The prints on the ground showed no shuffling, no signs of impatience or indecision. It looked like someone calmly waiting for someone or something.

On the surface, it looked like someone was waiting for the victim to come along. The park records showed that the victim was one of the few visitors in the whole park at that time of night. Initially, Asuun had thought this would allow a much faster identification of the killer. He had been surprised when his AI had informed him that all the identified visitors to the park had been confirmed to be no where near the scene at the time of the killing.

Just to verify, a search of their backgrounds did not bring up any links to the victim. Maybe one of them might have met him in passing, no way to eliminate random chance. But definitely no professional or personal connections to anyone else that had been in the park.

Asuun had requested the monitoring system for the park be put through a complete diagnostics. The report from that had indicated nothing wrong, at the date of the attack the park sensors had been operating normally.

So, the killer waited for...someone to come along, completely patiently apparently. When someone did come along, the killer struck them at the instant they rounded the corner, walked over to them, knelt down beside the victim and proceeded to stab him multiple times, never shifting his position. Then he got up and calmly walked away.

The closest mat-trans was over 100m away. Asuun had already requested the log of it’s use, but it had shown nothing. Even the follow-up request for the logs of all the mat-trans in the park, did not show anything conclusive. The problem is that there were others in the park and some left by means other than the mat-trans and others arrived. Outside of one, maybe two, hours after the attack, the ability to identify which one the killer may have used, effectively disappears.

Asuun had pretty much decided that it was likely the latest body had actually been killed prior to the murder in the park. But the body had gotten into the waste processing system and had taken longer than usual to be found. That meant that there would be nothing new to be found at the waste processing site. He had already requested the shift schedule for the last night the victim, Borsa, had been working.

The shift recordings do not have any indicators of issues. Waste processing sites are usually secure facilities, so an unauthorized presence should stand out, but there is no record of anyone who should not have been there. All of the other workers that had been on duty that night had been interviewed.

So far, none had been implicated, but the problem was that they had such a huge window for when the attack may have taken place. They could not accurately place Borsa’s time of death, the process in the waste processing having affected the body’s decomposition rate. All they had was that Borsa had logged into the monitoring terminal within minutes of the beginning of his shift, and he did not log out of it.

Asuun was sure there was something more to learn from the sites, something that would point him toward the killer. He had been an investigator for a number of years, and there was always something left behind. He just had to keep looking.

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