Zy's Novel Post 11 - Day 15

Day 15 of NaNo. Total words = 7403

After vidrecorder had pulled back, Zy bent down. The long tunic he wore was the same style as the Ecanians in the bar had worn, but his had braided trim along the edges. Gold, silver, blue, and green cords wrapped in an intric pattern. She could see the colors best in the trim on the hem. The material around his shoulders and chest had soaked up blood. The leg tentacle was stiff to the touch, the muscles hardened. “Note: rigor mortis has already set in.” The side of the tenatacle on the floor had a dark purple, nearly black tint to the skin. “Note: postmortem lividity shows that the body has not moved from this position.”

“All this gibberish means something?” Xeryl’s voice was behind her. Turning, she saw he was standing where she had stood far enough back not to bump her, and had a handkerchief out.

“It means the body hasn’t been moved since postmortem lividity and rigor mortis started. See the stuff that looks like a huge bruise on his leg?” Xeryl stepped closer and leaned over her to see. His breath was hot against her ear. “That’s actually the blood collecting in the lowest parts of the body.”

“And what is rigor mortis?” He said into her cheek before stepping back.

Zy swallowed hard. “How the body gets stiff after death. I’d need a pathologist specializing in Ecanian biology to tell me how long it’s been on going.”

“So you’re going to want an autopsy?”

“That’s a given. Have to rule out poisons and explosives.” She eased her way up to the left arm tentacle. “Note: finger tentacles splayed out as if going to strike. No defense wounds. The rigidity of the arm is most probably indicitive of cadaveric spasm. The victim was in the midst of gesturing to someone when death occurred.”

“Gesturing at his killer?” Xeryl offered.

“Must have been unless D’pa is sitting on a witness he hasn’t told us about.” She stood up. “It is possible that this murder was triggered by some kind of remote mechanism, but that’s not what we saw at Possatact’s crime scene.” She stood as close to the front of Fudlack’s chair as she could without stepping on the body, and scanned the wall with the door. “There.”

“There what?” Xeryl turned round, but didn’t leave his spot on the floor.

Zy eased her way to a section of stone wall to the right of the door. “Command: close up of this section, starting two meters above the floor. Note: the blood splatters don’t match the rest of the wall in this area.” While the vidrecorder was still taking the pics, she poked her head out the doorway. “Chalk or marking tape?”

“What are you seeing?” Xeryl frowned as she took the chalk and started drawing on the wall. “Fire and ice,” he muttered, as the humanoid shape was outlined, the chalk marking where the blood had not been.

“Note: X stood here to watch, same as with Possatact. And then some how escaped without being seen. Command: pics of the chalk outline.”

“I have never seen such depravity.” Xeryl covered his mouth briefly with the handkerchief.

“I have.” Zy closed her eyes. She could see the golden-yellow living room splattered in red. She opened her eyes to the current crime scene.

“What kind of monster could do this?”

“A serial killer.”

“By your tone of voice, I take it that the term serial killer means more than just killing in a series.”

“They have a compulsion to kill. They take pleasure in the killing. And they don’t stop until they’re stopped.”

“You’ve dealt with one before.”

“My first case, what made me decide to become an Agent. Not that any of that has any bearing on this.” She took a deep breath. “Course it could be a racketeer rubout trying to lok like a serial killer.”

“Rubout?”

“Another racketeer killing the boss to take over the organization.”

Xeryl shook his head. “Within an organization, yes that can happen. But trying to capture two or more system-wide organizations? You’d be as big as IGA and employing that many beings, and where’s the profit in that?”

She sighed, “I know, I was hoping for something normal. This was Fudlack’s office? He didn’t believe in paperwork?”

“Fudlack did his interviews and discussions in here. Record keeping was somewhere else.”

“Tell D’pa they can remove the body and I need an autopsy done.”

“You don’t want to give the orders?” Xeryl’s eyebrows quirked.

“I need to collect the blood evidence, and you can explain it to him in a way he’ll accept..”

Xeryl smiled. “I’ll do my diplomatic best.”

A through working of the scene is what she concentrated on. She collected samples from the blood under the body, nearest where X had stood, on the far wall, other spots on the floor. The vidrecorder took pics of all of them, triangulating their positions as well. She looked for fingerprints on the wall, but none were there. Course, the murderer could be from a species that didn’t leave fingerprints. She had them get a evidence vacuum in the hope of hair or fiber left behind, but she didn’t see any with the naked eye. All the while explaining to her notes and to Xeryl, who watched silently after the body was removed.