murder in New Kowloon. a work in progress

6. SEVEN PATTERNS, NOW EIGHT

Murder scenes are lots of things: their circumstances sometimes obvious, other times mysterious or downright bizarre. Usually bloody. Always tragic.

See enough of them they become routine in a sad kind of way. Terrible to admit but there it is. It’s the job.   

They’d always struck me as intrusive too; as if the act itself wasn’t violation enough to then have a horde of technicians descend upon your body. Complete strangers in Tyvek one pieces, masks, and gloves mincing around your floodlit corpse, photographing it from every angle, sampling, poking, prodding, scraping away at the minutia of your final moments. A state of ultimate vulnerability clinically analyzed for every last awful secret.

All murder scenes are terrible in their own way. The howling made this one worse.

The victim had been found in a motorcycle repair shop, a single grungy bay tucked behind a D-Grade cloning bank for exotic pets. The scent of blood thick in the air, dozens of copies of copies of copies of puppies and parrots and miniature jungle cats were barking, whining, screeching, yowling as the soundtrack to some poor bastard’s end credits. 

I knew the officer at the holo-tape. Jen Cheung. Sergeant. Good head on her shoulders. Two cyber-arms. Helluva right hook.

“What? You’re not inside?” I asked as I approached. “Your delicate female sensitivities acting up?”

She deadpanned. “That sounded like a sexist remark, Detective. I see a Sensitivity refresher course in your future.”

“Long overdue,” I agreed, and stopped beside her. “How bad is it?” 

She spit, nodded. “Very.”

“Is it the same as the other seven?”

She squinted at me. “Sure looks like it, Zek. But what do I know? That’s your job isn’t it?”

I waved a hand at the surrounding buildings. “Anyone see anything?” Unlikely, but I had to ask.

Sergeant Cheung shook her head. “We got called for the noise. Wan found the body.” She jerked a thumb at a young constable seated in the back of a NKPD HiAce van. He looked lost, pale. I’d have sworn he was no more than twelve.

Shit, I sound like an old cop.  

I was an old cop and he was deep in conversation with a Forensics bot so I let him be.

“Garage owner been contacted?”

Cheung nodded. “Already at the station.”

“ID on the victim?”

Cheung blinked as she connected. “Henry Lau. Systems Manager for WayGo, the self-driving transport company. Address is 1397 Hab C3. Hung Hom. District One.”

I let out a low whistle. “District One.”

She nodded, spit again. “Yup. Now it’s a real crime; a rich person’s been killed.”

Funny/not funny. And true. Lau had been an Edger. Not Upper City, but as close as we got down here. Maybe added pressure would make Captain Lee devote more resources now. Other than ramp up his indignation and yell louder each time another body was found, like they were being dumped in his district for the sole purpose of making him look bad.  

Captain Lees were part of the job too.

Time to see the body. “You taking the test soon?” I asked as I passed through the tape.

“Why, you finally looking for a new partner?” she snorted.

I avoided that question. That memory. “LNK needs good detectives.”

“You can say that again, the bang up job you’re doing with this mess.” She grinned to take the edge off it. “And to answer your question: yes, next month.”

I smiled back at her. “Good luck, then. Let me know after and we’ll drink to celebrate.”

“Will do.”

I went toward the open bay door.

“Hey,” she called after.

I turned.

“Catch this guy already, will you? You’re the famous ‘Stonecutters Island Detective.’ You have a reputation to uphold.”

I gave her a look of mock indignation. “Guy? Now who’s being sexist? Never make detective like that, Sergeant. Clinging to preconceptions and stereotypes.”

“Just get whoever this is.”

I felt the weight of the faraday pouch in my jacket pocket. “Working on it.”  

Turning back to the garage, I made a mental note to mention Cheung’s name to a couple friends higher up the chain of command. I had no doubt she’d crush the exam, and Lower New Kowloon really was in desperate need of good police. Compared to Captain Lee, Sergeant Cheung was Joan of Arc.

The tiny repair bay was bright with dozens of LED strips that brought every dingy corner into stark relief. The regular oil and rust smells were overpowered by the reek of blood and offal, while the Forensics team had their formaldehyde undertone of sanitizer and sterile gear.  An old friend, Ed Cho, was kneeling by the body, pecking away with a bio-scanner.

“Tell me you have something,” I said. A desperate hope.

He looked up at me, shrugged once and went back to scanning.

I surveyed the body: naked, male. Mid-thirties. Looked ethnic Chinese.  Mr. Lau had been chopped into pieces, his blood congealing under jointed body parts that had been carefully arranged in a bizarre pattern – a different pattern each time.  

Seven patterns, now eight. 

“Time of death?”

Cho had a soft, raspy voice. How I’d expect a chain smoking toddler to sound. “Twelve hours. A hair less, maybe.”

“He drugged same as others?”

“Too early to tell. Hundred eYuan says the blood shows traces of chloral hydrate though.” 

I wasn’t going to take that bet. I nodded at the forensics kit on the floor by his boots. “You must have found a sliver of evidence this time. Give me something. Anything.”

“Blood samples say our victim had been drinking. Judging by the food particles on his lips and cheeks, he ate recently too. Anything more, you need to wait for the lab report. ”

“Other than him?”

Cho shook his head. “Older fingerprints, samples of biodiesel, poly lubes, cleansers. More food scraps, smears of chili paste and peanut oil from those takeout containers.” He jerked his head at an overflowing trash barrel next to an ancient 3D metal powder printer.  Soy Park stalls did serious business with the mechanics here.

Ed Cho then aimed his scanner at one of the white-suited techs on the perimeter of the scene. “I can tell you the door was forced recently. Julie found fresh hits on the jamb and threshold. Best guess is someone broke in, saw the body and bolted.” 

“How old? Any chance whoever that was saw the murder?”

“Very recent, a couple hours ago. So definitely post-mortem.” 

I remembered Fat Quan’s comment and considered chatting him up again. Show up as ‘Detective Pemburu’ for sure. Bring Sergeant Cheung and maybe borrow the Special Duties Unit from Captain Lee for something more resembling real police work.  

“Still, they might have seen something.” I blinked and linked to the NKPD Net. “The door sample have an ID match?”

Another shake of the head. “Unregistered. Homeless or a recent ‘fugee scrounging for something to pawn.”

I nodded at Cho’s DNA sniffer. “Anyone else?” 

“I’ve been over the whole place. Database matches the garage owner, two mechanics, and some unknowns who are probably clients. Except for the door knocker and Mr. Lau here, it’s all forty-eight hours old or more.” He shrugged. “Lab might have more later, but…”

“So we’ve got nothing really. Again.”

“Nothing again.”

Nothing.

Exactly what I didn’t want to hear. Exactly why I’d visited Loi. Exactly why I was carrying disgrace, summary dismissal, and a prison term in my jacket pocket.  

Henry Lau’s head lay at the bottom of his severed left leg like the period to an exclamation point. His right hand was cupped behind his left ear as if listening. His hair was slick and sticky, his face blood speckled, the eyes rolled back. A half-opened mouth revealed perfect teeth shining bright blue-white in the harsh light.

A weird little part of me imagined an augur in mid-vision ecstasy uttering mysteries. The rest of me saw the twisted handiwork of a serial killer.

Not half an hour past, I’d been willing to peer inside that head for clues. Listen to those revelations. Now, looking at what had become of Mr. Lau, I touched the lump of the faraday pouch through my jacket.

I didn’t know if I wanted to whip it out and use it right then, or if I was warding off evil spirits.