Daylight Case File – Part 1
#2 of Case Files
A new week and an update on time! I've had a side idea that will take me a while to write up, so it will not impact with this or Time For a Change, but it might be of interest to you all. I'm going to write an old-school chose your own adventure where every post is a separate part that links to the relevant posts to continue. I'm currently debating themes, and it'll be a long while coming, but if the idea interests you, let me know!
I click on the link for the spree-serial. Best to nip an issue like this in the bud before it gets too bad.
The killings all took place last night and early this morning on the border with my jurisdiction and the Surgical District. My district is the Potter's Wheel. This is actually an anachronistic term for the district, as it has not been focused on pottery or clay utensils for centuries. We, or more accurately the workers, make ceramics for things like heat shielding on experimental low-orbit aircraft, as well as for some of the faster skimmer tech. Ablative armour plating on muscle-frames, frictionless bearings and other newtech are the order of the day here. Vases and other china is purely a luxury product compared to that bread-and-butter work.
By contrast, the Surgical District is all about luxury as a revenue stream. About eighty percent of their clients are cosmetic or fashionable augmetic cases. The rest are factory workers who've lost a hand and are needed back on the line asap, or repair cases on enforcers from downtown. If you're higher up in the city then you have your own private doctors and hospitals to visit, and don't need what they have to offer.
Either way, it is rare to get a serial up here. Repeat or pattern killers are usually found in the lower city. Even rarer are spree-killers. I ruefully notice that the file is flagged with the press-attention notice. With the case being so rare it's no wonder that the news outlets will want to either reassure people they are not about to be knifed to death or hype the crime for some political agenda. I consider if I can palm off the duty of the press statements on someone else.
But first I need to find out what's happened. I highlight the case and check for a pattern to the killings while sipping my 'caff. Three victims. One; a hospital orderly on a smoke break. Lapine, female, 42. Two; a maintenance worker on the inter-district transport network. Canine, male, 33. Three; a ceramic design technician walking home late from work. Lapine, male, 39.
All three had been killed with a combination of blunt force and sharp-edge trauma. Preliminary scene and body examination suggested that all three were caught off-guard. They were disabled with blunt blows to the head and arms before repeated, systematic stabbing wounds were applied to the limbs, torso and face. After that...things got messier. To the degree that the rest of the details were being processed through the morgue as opposed to included on the file. Since the last victim was in our district, it was clear the killer was heading our way, so we got the case.
I down the last of the 'caff and sniff. I guess I could go to the morgue to get the details as they come. I'd also like to check the scenes before the clean-up crews get there. Sure, we'll have pics, but that's not the same as seeing things up close. And if I do go to the scenes, which one first? It'll take time to get access to the Surgical District after all.