by Jolie Mason
"We've located his residence. Who is in charge of that lab right now?"
"That would be Dr. Kerry, but I understand he's out until next month."
"That is interesting. I have a federal warrant granting me access to all information regarding a corporation called Kinder Tech and the research springing from that entity. Maybe we should get someone with a higher security clearance out here."
The woman's mouth formed a pert O. "Yes, Detective, right away."
"No need, Veronica. I'm here." A man in a very fine suit strode confidently through the lobby. "I overheard. I was just on my way out." The man stuck his hand out in a friendly manner.
She smiled at him, but it wasn't her friendly smile. "Let me guess, sabbatical? You guys seem to take a lot of those."
He laughed. "I'm not that lucky. No, I'm afraid I'm headed to a very dull conference in Washington."
He studied her in a very friendly way for a moment, and then stuck out a hand. "I'm Dr. Gray Kerry. What do you need to know, Detective?"
"You and Macy are close, yes?"
"As close as two scientist egos can be," Kerry laughed. "I consider him a friend, if that's what you mean, and I've been unable to reach him for more than a couple weeks. It's concerning."
"Do you know where he was headed when he left?"
"He claimed to be headed to a research facility north of here, but it isn't like him to be that vague. Said something about, correcting his past mistakes."
Hayden had to look up at the man. He was taller than most with quite a broad build. He was also handsome, handsome in the way of business tycoons and men in power. Impeccably groomed with not a hair our of place, he made her nervous. He was the kind of handsome she had a tendency to mistrust.
"You didn't question him closer? That seems odd... for friends, that is."
"He and I were working on research related to the Kinder Tech cloning, but that's all I'm at liberty to say. The classification of our project is current and active, and it supersedes a court order. Sometimes, when Mace and I were cagey with one another, it was about need to know more than anything else, or we were working an angle and didn't want to look stupid if it didn't turn out. Scientists are arrogant like that. Until very recently, I worked for him, not the other way around."
He wrapped all of that up with a self-deprecating smile. Hayden couldn't tell if it was real or not.
"How did you find out you no longer worked for him?" she asked, feeling that little niggle at the base of her spine that told her to pay attention.
"The same way I find everything out, Detective. The main office commed to inform me I would be taking over our project. That Dr. Macy had an unexpected matter that required his attention. No," he interrupted her. "I do not know what that matter was, or where he went, though I would like to know very much."
"I don't suppose I can get a tour of his workplace?"
"I'm afraid that would exceed the limits of your warrant, Detective... Thursday, was it?"
She answered that it was, and handed him her card. "If you remember anything that may help our investigation, please contact me."
She started to walk away.
"Detective, this says you're with Homicide."
She looked back over her shoulder. "I am, Doctor. Your friend needs to be found soon."
The art of saying just enough was the detective's stock in trade. As she left the building, she thought that perhaps Dr. Kerry had more to say on this subject than he'd been willing to say in the office. Perhaps, she'd see him again soon.
*
The transport time back to the office was spent mulling over what little she knew now. Other than being kinder, these two victims had nothing in common.
Her instincts told her that had to be the connection, but how? Kinder were a frowned upon technology, but there weren't really enough of them to cause a huge societal upheaval, right?
But, a hate crime wasn't out of the question. There were enough calls for removal of tech from society to make her look at groups with that agenda.
Truth be told, the crimes were too meticulous. Forensic science these days could find microscopic traces of evidence. The likelihood of a clean crime scene was just too low. There was something else going on here. She'd find it in time.
Thursday took a detour past Risen's morgue. It was more out of a curiosity natural to all detectives she told herself, but she knew it was more than that. She had a feeling, a niggling feeling at the base of her spine telling her there was a bigger picture than she was seeing.
Risen was at his desk, and the lab tables were refreshingly empty. The small, balding man appeared to be working hard, slaving over his computer with an intense expression, but as she got closer she realized he was playing "Planet Wars".
"Hey, Risen," she laughed. He jumped like he'd been burned.
"Thursday," he sputtered as he closed the console quickly. "I didn't see you there."
"I know," she said. "You totally laid down there and let that Marauder roll right over you. Next time, go for a burn around the local star. That ship can never pull out."
Risen's eyes got wider. "You play PW?"
She laughed. "I got in on beta, Spacevixon999."
Risen was speechless. Well, that was a first.
"So, I wanted to ask you if you could show me something with your AI? I'm working on a theory of the crime."
He pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Okay, let's go see Bess."
"I'm wanting to get a sense of the big picture around Kinders," she told him.
"Yes, I see. How many are living openly? What they do for a living? That kind of thing?"
"Basically."
"Well, as I'm sure you're aware," he said as he fired up the lab with the flip of a switch. It cost a fortune in power to leave it running. "Kinder were required to be registered at the time of the Trust takeover. So, any information on the big picture that you want should be here to find."
The AI core lit up in a metallic glow. It looked like she'd always imagined a blue star must look. "Hello, Detective, it is good to have you here."
"Um, thank you, Bess. Can you answer a few questions for me?"
"Certainly, Detective. I am at your service." The core lit up with each word from the disembodied voice of the AI.
"How many kinder are registered in the database?"
"One thousand four hundred and sixty two."
"So many?" she asked in surprise.
"It is thought that there are up to three hundred undocumented kinder in the metro area."
She whistled. "All right, of those registered kinder, how many have jobs in government or connected to government?"
Bess paused. "Seventy six percent of the kinder in the registry work in civil service jobs, both elected and appointed."
She paced a little. "That seems like a lot. Is that a lot, Bess?"
"It is statistically higher than most ethnic groups in the city, however it should be noted that kinder are designed for proficiency in certain skill sets. It is possible that they excel at jobs that put them in the public spotlight by virtue of the research being done at the time. If you define success in monetary terms, as households above a median income of 200,000 global dollars or above, then Kinder would appear high above that median. Yet, it is important to note that they all came from wealthy families in the first place. The Kinder project was costly and exclusive."
"What are the next two statistically significant jobs held by Kinder?"
"Thirteen percent are in the military and law enforcement. The rest are in high finance and other careers."
She sighed, and Risen said, "Maybe if we knew what you were looking for?"
She smiled casually. "I'm looking for motive. I don't know. That feels like motive to me, but I can't see how. Not yet."
*
Thursday had been having lunch at her desk when Ace barreled in. She looked at his face, then at the delicious sandwich in her hand, poised to be eaten. She frowned at him. He shrugged.
&n
bsp; Her lunch was over. She sighed.
He grabbed his jacket off his desk chair. "We have another one; happened before six this morning," he said. "And you will not believe where."
She looked at the clock. "At this hour, how are we just catching it?"
"Because there was the assumption it was a work related accident, until Risen got the call. It was at the NT lab you visited yesterday."
She dropped her sandwich and reached for her own coat. "That is no accident."
Her lunch was completely forgotten as they rushed out to their third murder in a week. Excitement roiled in her stomach. Maybe this one would have enough evidence to point her at a killer.
As they pulled up to the lab, fat snowflakes drifted down over the ground, and the weather was predicted to leave around four inches on the ground this evening.
Pulling on gloves, Thursday approached the primary in charge of securing the scene. "What's our situation right now?"
"All the staff in the lab are in conference room C. Carter is taking a statement from the maintenance bot that found the Vic who by the way, no longer works here."
Thursday sighed loudly, "Let me guess, Dr. Allen Macy?"
The uniformed officer smiled at her. "Detective, are you psychic? It is, indeed, one Allen Macy, 445 Rand lane quarter in Britannia Borough, Former department head of the National Trust Genetics Safety Program. Recently unemployed from same. He liked engineering and long walks into the stasis chamber."
"Yeah," she growled. "Right after I was just here looking for him. Where do we have a Dr. Gray Kerry in all this mess?"
The officer executed a search on his wrist tran. "Not here. Employee logs put him signing in at start of business and out again by lunch."
"All right. He's a POI. Send some uniforms to his residence. Where's the body?"
"The forensic team is with it now. I warn you, detective. It is bizarre in there."
"Whatever do you mean, officer? This case has been bizarre all over? Show me."
Thursday took in the scene from the lab's wide open doorway first. Counter tops and desks stretched along two rows leading toward a containment chamber with auto-trans walls which were set on full transparency at the moment to record events. She could see Risen making notes on the body's position and placement.
A few pieces of equipment had been knocked down here and there, suggesting a possible struggle with his attacker. That was new. Had the doctor been attacked here, not brought here? She wondered. If so, why had he come back?
Dr. Macy had been a distinguished gentleman of older years, was dressed in a rather dapper business suit, and he was certainly no longer missing. He hung suspended upside down in stasis, spread eagle and glassy eyed.
She let Risen finish the task he'd been working on before she interrupted. He turned and smiled at her in his usual Risen way, just a little on the creepy side of friendly.
"Detective, we have an aberration."
Risen sounded almost excited. Perhaps, that's what she found creepy about him. She loved a good mystery, but Risen seemed to revel in the macabre side of things a bit too much for her taste, regardless of the human cost of the crimes.
"How so?"
"This one was not left to suffer." Risen gestured to a head wound on the victim. "Preliminary COD was a blow to the head. I'll require proper tests to tell you that for sure. However, I can tell you that his time of death was actually prior to being sealed into this stasis chamber."
"You just gave me a cause of death? What...?"
Risen held up a finger to shush her. She really hated that. "I have already got the information you seek. Due to the holiday, the last staff use of this chamber occurred prior to the four day holiday, however, records indicate this chamber was opened and sealed just hours ago. No vitals were monitored at any time. He was alive to enter the facility, but dead when the stasis monitoring took over."
"Great. Who opened and sealed it?"
Risen gave her a grim look. "Our aberration."
"Stop being cryptic."
He made a gesture for her to follow and led her farther into the lab where a pool of blood was clearly visible behind a desk. It spread like a crimson lake across the tile.
"Her name was Nicolette Sprocket. She was a lab tech and medical student. She was here doing after hours work on her graduate research project."
Thursday leaned over the desk to see a lovely young girl, no more than a twenty something, lying in a crumpled heap with a once pristine lab coat now splashed with red.
"Christ on a cracker, she's a kid."
Disgust at the absolute waste of it all crept into her soul. The only motive for killing this kid was to use her ID and shut her up. "Wrong place, wrong fucking time."
Hayden hated waste. She could sort of understand the logic of some of her criminals. Mostly, they were crimes done in a heat of passion. Someone gets pushed to that outer limit of their morals and Boom! There they are headed to prison. Every now and again, there is a motive that almost made sense like money or power or jealousy. Even though Hayden had never wanted money so bad she'd kill for it, she could see how a person could get there. But, killings done in the realm of "just because" made her blood boil and her chest hurt.
They also resulted in the worst notifications. You had nothing to offer the family as a reason for their suffering. There wasn't one, not really, other than the one you lost got in someone's way.
It also said plenty about her killer. He killed coldly, so this was likely his job. Hayden would have suspected an assassin, except for the public and brutal nature of the killings. No one wants their hit in the news. The entire point of an assassin was to stay out of the public eye. Not this guy.
Serializing these murders meant this guy was screaming for attention.
"I want evidence off this girl. She's gonna be the one to nail this bastard."
"You'll get it, Detective. The stasis destroys trace evidence for the most part thanks to time variances, but the girl was killed and left outside the chamber. Sloppy all around on the part of this killer."
"That's what I was thinking, too," she said to him looking around the lab. "He's been so damn careful up to now. Why the sudden stupidity?"
"By the way," she told Risen. "You're going to find that the doctor was an 'early release' kinder, one of the very first made."
"Interesting, and the girl?" he asked.
"I think she could have been anyone."
Her mood was most foul as she settled up with each official at the crime scene. The more she'd learned about the second victim, the angrier she'd gotten. The girl had been nothing but untapped potential. Training and working hard, she'd excelled at her studies, and she'd been snuffed out like a candle.
Writing that preliminary report with a professional tone had been a challenge. She'd wanted to rail and issue vows that she would personally catch the bastard, but she'd distractedly worked her way through it, until Ace had finally gone home to his wife and cat.
She wasn't sure how Ace was managing to keep wife number three who was far too good for him, but they really seemed to work. It worked for Hayden, as well. It had added a strange dynamic to the partner relationship because Mary was so motherly, tough but nurturing. While she and Ace hadn't really changed a bit, there was a parental element to the family dynamic now that he'd added Mary.
Hayden couldn't complain a bit. It was kind of nice being fussed over, and she got fed nicely, as well. Mary could make a mean meatloaf. In fact, she looked at the time. She'd been invited for meatloaf. Maybe, just maybe, she had the time to meander by the Ace's walk up and see what was on the menu.
Hayden's stomach growled loudly. She'd better hurry.
*
Detective Randall Ace and his wife lived above a Chinese Grocery. Though in the past years, the global politics and state of the nations had morphed and changed, culture had remained intact for a few localized individuals who clung to the past and the ways of their people with tenacity. Britannia Metro had a large popu
lation of Chinese among its citizenry who had done just that to a superficial extent.
She doubted they could name off the great dynasties or had a great understanding of the old language, but they kept their symbols and stuck together as a group, though Hayden couldn't help but take a dim view of the sexism inherent in the culture. They'd treated Mary like property
In the last decade, touristy shops and groceries popped up all over the metro area, and it was good business for the borough. They even had an old retro theater down the street that ran old martial arts films with subtitles. It was all very trendy to the homogeneous masses who were each one very much like the next. It tapped into the need for variety that all the citizens of the metro seemed to share.
She took the stairs two at a time and knocked on their simple door in her usual quick tap, tap, tap. They said they always knew it was her by her knock, so she liked to mix it up. They still always seemed to be expecting her when she arrived.
Mary opened the door smiling. Her family had been some of the local Chinese descendants, evidenced by her exotic features, and had built the grocery downstairs that Mary owned these days. They'd also been a smuggling powerhouse and the predominant local crime lords.
"Good, you're here," Mary scolded. "Your food was getting cold."
"Ho!" said Randall from his place in front of the holo.
"No," Hayden answered. "Don't get up. I insist."
He frowned over his shoulder. "Why on Earth would I do that?"
Mary laughed indulgently at both of them. "Come. The monster there has already eaten, but I'll get you a plate and we can gossip about my husband."
Hayden raised her voice so Ace could hear. "I warn you Mary. This week could change the very way you see him."
"Save it," he said around his beer. "She already knows I'm incorrigible."
The kitchen was clearly Mary's domain and smelled of heavenly, savory spices and ginger. Hayden's stomach growled in anticipation of being very full in a bit. Mary dished out a plate as she peppered Hayden with questions like, "How was your day? Were you careful?"
