DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3)

by Niall Teasdale

  As Terri wrapped her presentation, Fox walked out to be joined by Jackson. Fox gave him a grin. ‘Now this is all great, but it’s not the only thing that Palladium has in its arsenal of crime-fighting cyberframes. I’ve seen a few of them, but I happen to know that you’ve been indulging yourself, Jackson. What have we got, and what do we have to look forward to?’

  ‘I’m glad you asked me that, Tara,’ Jackson replied, ‘because it’s in the script and I wouldn’t know what my next line was otherwise, but also because I have been busy with some new robotics designs, yes.’

  ‘My father is always happy to show off a new cyberframe,’ Terri said from the wings, and the audience indulged them with some laughter.

  Fox took a second to check on Marie, who seemed to be busy with a chemical analysis device and a wine glass. So far so good, it seemed. Marie was starting to look quite pleased with herself, which was either overconfidence or a sign that it was working. As Jackson took Fox through the array of enforcement, patrol, and forensic analysis frames he had put together over the last year or two, Marie’s confidence just got more obvious, and when the presentation was done, Fox turned to look and Marie was standing there with her arms folded, waiting.

  ‘And it looks like our detective is impatient to give us her findings,’ Fox said. ‘Let’s see how she’s done. Marie, what can you tell me?’

  ‘Well, I used a chemical spray to reveal the presence of fingerprints on the wine glasses and the knife,’ Marie said. ‘There are only two sets and one of those was easily matched to a Mister Manny Quinn.’

  ‘Our hapless victim.’

  ‘Yes. Time of death was determined via room and body temperatures to be two hours ago, during lunch, and it’s fairly obvious that Mister Quinn was stabbed in the back.’

  ‘That would seem to be the obvious conclusion,’ Fox agreed.

  ‘However, I wondered about the glasses and how he could have been stabbed like that. The crime scene reconstruction system suggests that the murderer was standing in front of the victim, which means the victim had to be bent over in his chair, just as you see him now. So why would Mister Quinn do that?’

  Fox grinned. ‘You tell me.’

  ‘Well, I analysed the remaining wine in both glasses. There wasn’t much left in the victim’s glass, but there was enough to detect a fast-acting sedative. The killer’s fingerprints are on the knife and both glasses, but Mister Quinn’s are only on his glass. So the killer poured the wine, added the drug to Mister Quinn’s glass, waited for him to pass out, and then stabbed him in the back.’

  ‘Very good, and do you have a name for our killer?’

  ‘The fingerprints match one Tara Meridian.’

  ‘Mea Culpa,’ Fox said, holding up her hands. ‘I confess, it was I who set up the entire scene and you get ten out of ten for the method.’ Fox turned back to the audience. ‘So, we have a system which can take a novice through evidence collection and crime scene analysis. This will, when fully ready, interface with the kind of forensic swarm hive units we showed you earlier, allowing for more comprehensive analysis. To be honest, Marie was handicapped a little by the time we had and the relatively simple equipment, but she still managed to gather everything she needed. On the job, with a trained security officer, this equipment can turn anyone into a detective. Any cop will tell you that getting to a scene when it’s fresh and uncontaminated is key, and now the first responders on a scene can begin the work of forensic analysis, completing it if a more experienced investigator is not needed or not available.’

  Fox gave them a big smile and wondered whether that counted as being political. ‘I’m not a tech guru like Jackson, but even I can see that this is taking the best of both human and artificial intelligence, and making the most of both. Marie will be on our stand in the exhibition hall with the harness should you want to know what her experience was like. I’ll be there on and off as well, and there’s always someone who can answer your questions. We can take a couple now…’ Her gaze flicked over raised hands and she pointed at a man in the second row she recognised from her old precinct.

  ‘How come we never saw you in a suit when you were with NAPA?’

  There was laughter, which Fox joined. ‘NAPA never paid me enough for a suit. You, ma’am, third row on the right?’

  ‘On the resolution they’re discussing here, what’s your opinion?’

  ‘Ah… I didn’t really want to get into politics in this presentation. To be honest, I don’t like politics much anyway.’ Fox glanced at Jackson, noted the quick nod of his head and the lifting of his eyes to tell her to say what she thought. ‘However, since you ask, I’d rather see additional resource put into NAPA to increase coverage in the protectorates and the Belt. I am a little ambivalent about it. I can see how it might improve things for a few people, but for the majority it’s going to be a backward step.’

  There was no response, just a nod, and Fox checked the time. ‘And that’s all we have time for. I’ll see you on the stand, I hope. Ladies and gentlemen, Jackson and Teresa Martins, and a warm hand please for our new detective, Marie Shaftsbury.’

  There was applause and people started filing out. Dillan bounced up and walked up to the stage. ‘So I start on the nineteenth and then I can play with all your new toys.’

  ‘It’s in my calendar,’ Fox replied. Behind her, crew from the venue were clearing Manny Quinn and his death scene out and Jackson was helping Marie to get out of the harness. ‘I promise I won’t forget you’re coming.’

  ‘You’ve a few days off between leaving NAPA and joining Palladium, right?’ Terri asked.

  ‘Yeah. My last official day is the fourteenth. I get a couple of days and the weekend free before I dive into a new company.’

  ‘And we’re moving you into one of the towers, aren’t we?’

  ‘Uh-huh. That’s all been arranged too.’

  Terri smiled. It was a predatory sort of smile. ‘Good. I could use a break and you don’t want to be hanging around while they move your belongings.’

  ‘Well, no but–’

  ‘I was thinking about a couple of days at the Tranquillity Spa.’

  ‘Uhh…’

  ‘Do not say no,’ Fox suggested. ‘Aside from anything else, getting Terri away from work for four days would classify as doing MarTech a corporate favour.’

  ‘Well, if you put it like that…’

  Grinning, Fox raised her eyes to scan the room. Her mother’s distinctive hair was nowhere to be seen and Kit confirmed it. ‘They left already, Fox.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Well, they know where to find me if they want to come looking.’

  ~~~

  There had been no sign of Fox’s parents all afternoon and, with the conference wrapped for the day, Fox went home on time with some relief. Stripping out of her suit and putting on a light wrap felt great and she put together a meal, retired to her rooms, and sat down to eat it feeling wonderful. Occasionally, when you had to spend your entire day around crowds, being alone was the best thing in the world.

  With the food consumed, she curled up on the sofa with a glass of wine and sank herself into the murder room to catch up on anything Kit might have learned. Kit had certainly learned, but how much use it was going to be was open to question.

  ‘Mrs Coolidge fits the general pattern,’ Kit said as Fox looked over the web of Lauren Coolidge’s life. ‘However, the pattern has a rather broad weave. She is between twenty and thirty-five, attractive, and fit. Indeed, she takes good care of her body with a regular exercise regimen, as do all the others. She went missing while out running. NAPA have found no evidence of her abduction along her route and there have been no demands. She has been missing for three days now and no one has given any indication of knowing what happened to her.’

  Fox nodded. ‘And we don’t know for sure it’s our killer.’

  ‘We will not until her body is found.’

  Another nod. ‘You said her route was known and that you knew she kept good care of herself
. How do you know?’

  ‘LifeFit. That is another factor in common, but again it fits huge numbers of people. All the victims have been LifeFit users, and most have been extensive users of LifeWeb, though not all. All did at least have basic data filled in on LifeWeb, enough to make effective use of LifeFit.’

  ‘I don’t know that much about LifeFit.’

  ‘It is a LifeWeb plug-in app which provides advice on healthy living and exercise goals. It features a navigation system which allows the user to keep track of runs, swims, or bicycle rides, logging the route so that it can be repeated. Users can utilise it with the telepresence system in LifeWeb to exercise in virtual gyms, have virtual running companions, etc. Some runners find this useful since they can get encouragement from other members, even when running alone.’

  ‘And these routes, they just put them up on LifeWeb for anyone to see?’

  ‘Yes, Fox. Generally with comments, pictures of interesting points along the route, best times.’

  Fox shook her head. ‘People are nuts. It’s like “here I am, come and mug me.” Well, nothing much to be done about it. I guess we just wait.’ She dropped out of the virtual room, picked up her glass, and took a swig of wine, and then she turned her head as she caught something in the corner of her eye. ‘Oh… Um, what can I do for you, officer?’

  Marie was standing there in something which might have been taken for a police uniform, if one had a broad imagination. There was a white blouse, low cut and cropped under her breasts, and a short, straight, blue skirt. The shoes were white, high-heeled, with a platform. Slung around her hips was a belt from which were hung a pair of handcuffs and some sort of baton in a leather holster. Marie was trying to look serious and not entirely succeeding. ‘Some very serious charges have been made against you, Miss Meridian.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yes. Homicide. The murder of poor Manny Quinn. What do you have to say for yourself?’

  ‘I didn’t do it. I think it was this guy with one arm.’

  Marie narrowed her eyes. ‘On your feet.’ Putting the glass down, Fox did as requested and Marie turned her around, pulling her arms back. A second later, there was the rapid clatter of the ratchets as the cuffs were closed on Fox’s wrists. ‘I’ve been given considerable latitude in getting a confession out of you.’

  Fox feigned a hint of fear as she tugged on the cuffs. The things felt real and it had been a while since she had been in restraints. ‘W-what kind of latitude?’

  Marie stalked around her captive, reached out, and pulled the belt of Fox’s robe free. It took nothing more than a light push to have the silky material sliding down Fox’s arms to hang over the cuffs at her wrists. Marie licked her lips and wrapped her hand around the handle of the baton at her hip. ‘Are you going to talk?’

  ‘N-never, napper.’

  Marie pulled her ‘baton’ free and Fox found herself looking at a long, thick, black dildo with a handle attached to it. ‘Spread ’em, sister,’ Marie hissed. ‘I’m going to do things to you that’ll make you scream your confession.’

  Looking into the redhead’s eyes, Fox got the impression that she was not kidding around.

  23rd June.

  Fox’s eyes opened as Kit pinged an alarm through her head. She blinked. ‘Kit, it’s barely seven and I didn’t get to sleep until two.’

  ‘I know, Fox,’ Kit replied. ‘I rather enjoyed the display. It was very educational and I would like to discuss it later. However, you are needed at the conference centre.’

  ‘At seven in the morning?’

  ‘Yes. They have found a body.’

  ‘Shit.’

  Marie stirred as Fox rolled out of bed. ‘Is it time to get up already?’ The voice was slurred with sleep and Fox grinned down at her, lying there sprawled across the bed with her blue skirt still bunched up around her waist.

  ‘I have to go in, you stay in bed.’

  ‘’Kay.’

  ‘You look… incredible.’

  There was no reply; Marie had drifted back to sleep.

  ~~~

  Sending orders ahead had Pythia’s forensic swarms crawling all over the body by the time Fox got to it. Fox stood at a distance, watching through the eyes of a six-legged cyberframe which was also part of Pythia’s retinue. Through the false colour of multispectral sensors, the bruising, burns, and wounds were more obvious. The basic analysis the swarm and the scans had already produced showed tissue damage almost everywhere.

  ‘And then you get dumped outside an emergency exit like trash.’ Even this early in the morning, the sun was beating down and the air temperature was over twenty Celsius. The scent of blood and decay was hitting Fox’s stomach even at this distance. Getting the body out of the baking heat was going to be a priority.

  ‘That looks bad.’ Fox looked around to see Jarvis standing beside her.

  ‘It is. When did they find the body?’

  ‘Seven-oh-two. Routine sweep around the building every hour by cambots.’

  ‘So he dumped her between six and seven. Knows the patrol cycle. Yeah, that sounds like the guy.’

  Jarvis frowned. ‘You know who it is?’

  ‘I’ve been studying his work. Kit’s been working a profile on him and when Lauren Mary Coolidge there went missing on Saturday, Kit flagged her as a possible victim. She fitted his rather broad range of victim profiles. But his last kill was in Berlin.’

  ‘He gets around.’

  ‘Oh yeah, six more in New York, two in Cape Town, three in Berlin. This makes an even dozen. But now he’s dumped his cast-off right on my doorstep.’

  ‘Right outside a conference on the future of policing. I may not be the investigator you are, but that sounds like a challenge.’

  ‘I think you’re a better detective than you think you are, Ryan.’

  ‘If that was the case, I’d have your job too. And just to be quite clear, if I have to spend my time looking at things like that to do your job, you can keep it.’

  ‘Thanks. Kit, call NAPA, have them put you through to Cant. Tell him to get down here to look at this. Tell him his serial is back.’

  Kit appeared beside them, her eyes on the body. She was looking disquieted, but she said, ‘Yes, Fox,’ and Fox decided to question her AI’s mental state later.

  ‘You’re calling in NAPA on this?’ Jarvis asked.

  ‘According to the law, I have to and we might as well get it over with. I’ll have the forensics on the body anyway and Cant will end up with the paperwork.’

  ‘That’s kind of mean.’

  ‘What can I say, I hate paperwork.’

  ~~~

  Fox spotted Cant walking across the exhibition floor from quite a distance. He was a big man and made an impression. She had heard a number of rumours to the effect that he used all that mass to very good effect when ‘questioning’ suspects outside HQ, but no one had ever come forward to complain. He was not a good cop, but there was a look on his face as he approached the stand, the kind of look a good cop got when he really wanted to nail a criminal. She nodded toward the back of the stand and then went that way herself to where there was a small, closed-off space they used for breaks.

  ‘You think it’s him?’ Cant said as soon as the door was closed behind him.

  ‘It fits the pattern.’ Fox handed him a mug of coffee, possibly the only nice thing she had ever done for the man that she could remember.

  ‘Yeah, it does. You’ve had all your fancy forensics stuff run on her?’

  ‘Pythia’s still processing the swarm results. You’ll have it inside of the hour. You’ll need to clear it with Canard–’

  ‘It’s cleared. I’m on the case.’

  Fox nodded. ‘I’d like to continue working it, but if I find him, you get the collar.’

  Cant’s brow creased and he sank half the contents of his mug. ‘I’d like to say I don’t care who gets him, but I can’t quite say it and mean it. It’d be a good mark on my record. And aside from that, I want this freak. What he
does to people, men and women, it’s sick. It’s… not human.’

  She smiled. ‘Self-knowledge is always valuable, plus I never knew you had that kind of dedication. But he made this personal. Or he made it a challenge anyway, dropping the body right outside the conference building.’

  This time he sipped, thinking. ‘You think he’s challenging us, you, to catch him?’

  This time it was Fox who frowned. ‘It reads like that, but I’m not sure. He’s cocky, sure of himself, meticulous, and clever. He knew the schedule on the security sweeps here and dumped the body to be found quickly. I think he wanted us to know he’s back. He must know someone’s tied his kills together. I think he wants people watching, knowing he’s out there, and worrying who’ll be next.’

  ‘I don’t suppose you have any ideas on that?’

  ‘Huh. He picks his targets out by looking for people who go running. I think he tracks them using that LifeFit app and there are thousands in New York alone who do it. You could narrow it down by age and he seems to like them fit–’

  ‘He likes people he can torture for a long time. Fitter they are, the longer they’ll last while he breaks them.’ Fox just nodded in response. ‘And we can’t tell everyone to quit using LifeFit. LifeWeb would scream at us for starters. They’ve got political clout.’