The Hussar spiralled through the smog, blue and red lights barely visible from below.
Stirling had had to make the descent on instruments, and found it right unpleasant. It wasn't that she was scared of the dark, rather of the ground. It was just as likely that the local government had thrown up a new defence tower without informing air traffic control. There was a reason she'd left the place originally. It might not have been the pollution, but she'd be damned if it wasn't the weather. On a bad day on Leeds, there was barely enough light to see by, prompting pilots to leave lights on 24/7, lest they locate another ship in a more violent manner then is usually accepted.
She breathed a sigh of relief when her Hussar touched down outside the Leeds Police Department, more or less intact, heat from the engines prompting steam from the frozen pavers. Save for a transport that had lost the ability to turn right, due to thruster failure, the trip from New London had been relatively uneventful. Stirling started pulling on her environment suit, a comparatively new model the designers advertised as 'Skin Thin.' Seal skin, perhaps. While she wasn't tall by any measure, manoeuvring in the Hussar was awkward at best. Besides, her baton seemed to have taken a fiendish joy in digging into hip every time she moved. Still, it was that or -30 degree temperatures. Leeds was not a pleasant place at night.
By the time the Junior Constable extracted herself from the patrol ship's cockpit, she was grateful of the sooty air. It might've been dirty and it might have been cold, but it beat breathing recycled stuff again, even if it was better for your health. Elizabeth reached back into her ship, rummaging around for a few moments before emerging with a pure white case. Well, white for the first few seconds anyway. The case contained some relatively basic medical supplies, substantially less then what could have been found on the planet's hospital. Still; Stirling needed to perform her tests, and she didn't trust public equipment as far as she could throw it. Once she reached the sliding door of the Planeside Police Department, the case was at least two shades closer to black.
The Bretonian Officer gave a curt nod as she entered the tiny foyer, lowering herself onto one of the few seats to await the rest of the task force, and Inspector Coulton. At least the room was lit, sparsely as the case may have been, but lit.
Stirling idly wondered where they could possibly fit four dozen bodies in here.
Mr. Coulton rubbed his eyes. He'd spent too many nights over such a case, and it was beginning to take its toll, even through the wave of caffeine he'd regularly subjected himself to. He walked through one of the empty corridors, too many officers had left this branch of the department recently, to more space-related issues. People simply didn't stay planetside anymore.
He opened the door with a soft click, walking over and sitting down opposite Officer Stirling. His uniform still contained its stark colors, a testament to how little he would've been called in for field work- more of a pen-pusher than anything else. However, he'd been assigned to this one, making it the most urgent in this district for a while.
He gave a small nod in greetings to the Officer, letting out a small sigh. He seemed drawn, as if only partially alive, as he spoke. "Its good to see you, Officer...I've been up to my limits with the slackers in this bloody department. It seems they give us all the new brass, the recruits who don't even know how to hold their bloody baton straight. But uh...that isn't why you're here. Shall I show you to the morgue, or will we wait for the others?"
A million dollars isn't cool. You know what is cool? A basilisk.
Opening the door to the foyer, Reena turned around to blow a kiss to the blushing transport pilot at the end of the corridor. Her trip to Leeds had been fairly enjoyable, taking advangtage of the brief lull in space born patrols, she'd given her Hussar over for a checkup and caught one of the Police transports heading to Leeds. No doubt there'd be new regulations soon about offering the spare seat in the cockpit to passangers.
Hauling her duffel bag over her shoulder she walked across to foyer to Liz smiling slightly as she noticed Liz's nearly white case of medical equipment, her own bag contained items more suited to her years of being influenced by Security guard training and the inevitable mercenaries that came with it, managing to stuff her bag with portable scanners and tracking equipment as well as her TA-23- armor piecing, 5 ammo clip, scoped Crossbow, a weapon for any occasion.
Liz was talking to a member of the local force, who she guessed to be Coulton. He looked like he hadn't slept for a while. Grining slightly as Liz gave a small sigh at the sight of Reena's approach, she walked up and gave Liz a quick hug with her free hand, involking a surprised grunt behind her from Coulton. Ignoring Liz's glare she turned around to introduce herself.
Coulton nodded to Reena, seeming slightly surprised and a little curious. But he'd seen more surprising things recently, so he just stood, offering his hand to her. "Inspector Coulton. I assume you must be Miss Wright?" He looked down at the duffel bag, seeming dubious about its contents.
A million dollars isn't cool. You know what is cool? A basilisk.
Christopher.Columbus, walked out of the offices of the Local Police Station of Planet Leeds. Too see the shock on the other officers face. "Haha, Welcome Ladys & Gents to Planet Leeds", he went around the room shaking hands. "Coulton, Reena, Lizzy'' Elizabeth turned around and asked "How did you get here so damn fast?" he turned to speak "My final patrol yesterday finished at Planet Leeds it was when I got the OK from HQ to collect my belongings from Uni from my Crime Investigation files. Something tells me.. Were not just dealing with the average murder if we've been called upon from the Planetary Staff." Eliz' " Well what do you mean" Chris; " I mean to say well, Evidence only lasts 14 Hours at its best then it can become contaminated, Technically, we should have been called from HQ months ago when it happened. But we all know that never happens." "Something tells me something else has happened even recently or we could be looking into something deeper than we expected here."
Chris turned then took a seat to await orders whilst reviewing a briefcase full of containers, spirits, brushes and a Digital Camara for pictures.
Officer Coulton just nodded slightly, seeming a little stymied. "Anyway...First things first. The bodies, I think, would be best."
Soon, the group was unloaded in the morgue, in a below-ground level of the district building. The air was still, cold, purveying the feel of the room, metal walls lined with numbered doors, about half of which seemed occupied, from the digital screen on the wall. Coulton walked over to a door, unlocking it and sliding out the body, covered by a heavy grey sheet.
Sliding the sheet away, the woman underneath could almost have been sleeping. She seemed perfectly fine, no lacerations, no injuries at all. Except for when Coulton turned her neck. Two small puncture wounds, one-and-a-half inches apart, lay swollen and red against the grey skin. Each was about the width of a pencil, or more, and seemed deep, the skin around each swollen and raised against the grey flesh around.
"She's a more recent victim. You can check the others, they're all the same. Some have broken legs or arms, or signs of a struggle, but some were killed in their sleep, like her. The odd part is, their bodies seem to have lost a large amount of blood- not unusual for a puncture wound, however, there was next-to-no blood at each crime scene. I reckon that a wild dog could've attacked them or somesuch, some kind of animal, but the pathologist tells me that no animal could've inflicted such wounds." He looked up to the group. "What do you think, Officers?"
A million dollars isn't cool. You know what is cool? A basilisk.
Elizabeth nodded again, staring at the body. The punctuality of her majesty's finest would never cease to amaze her.
"Very well. This.." The Officer took a deliberate breath. Focus Lizi. "Is quite unusual. If you don't mind, I'll take a look."
The Junior Constable retrieved her case, feeling decidedly short next to Coulton, even in his exhausted state. The man looked like he hadn't slept for days. With that manner of deprivation, it was unlikely he noticed the glance Elizabeth threw at Reena. Suffice to say that if looks could have killed the Leeds Department would have had another body on their hands.
In a few moments, she straightened, a pair of gloves now in place of those of the environment suit, and some variety of display in one hand. The medical student sincerely hoped that she wouldn't have to use her scalpel. There was a saying amongst Cambridge medical students, that those who went on to surgery were little more than licensed butchers. In a situation like this where the walls had seen more blood then any human would, it wasn't hard to believe them.
Elizabeth lay a hand on the woman's neck, half expecting a pulse. There was nothing of the sort. Of course not. She'd evidently been dead long enough for any heat to have long since departed. It was a blessing of sorts, at least rigor mortis had both come and gone. She didn't fancy handling a corpse that was as stiff as a board. On the flipside, it looked as if she wouldn't have to lower herself to something as archaic as actually performing surgery. The device ought to tell her most of what she needed to know.
She lowered the beeping system onto the wound, and moments later was scrolling through pages of data.
"Reena, could you give the good Officer the quiz, please? I need a moment with this." Elizabeth didn't even look up from the pad, determined not to look into Chris' inevitable camera flash.
Reena watch Chris come in, putting up with enthusiastic greetings and doing her best not to lisen to his normal tirade of words. Chris was a Law boy, studied on some University on Leeds, and seemed to have taken to this case in his usual manner.
Officer Coulton nodded slightly "Anyway...First things first. The bodies, I think, would be best." Reena followed Coulton down to morgue. She'd hadn't been in many morgues, in the odd cases where she'd been around the dead it was generally because she'd just made them so, but the morgue was quiet, almost peaceful.
Coulton stopped and opened one of the doors, pulling out one of the victims, Reena leaned against one of the other doors and watched Liz do her stuff. After scanning the women Liz started going over the data. Without looking up she said "Reena, could you give the good Officer the quiz, please? I need a moment with this." Sighing Reena straightened up and started thinking about the quiz, which she assumed meant asking the bland questions about the murder. Looking at Coulton she figured he could probably use a bit of cheering up before diving back into the depths of his case.
"Alright Officer, question one: Another Officer is passed out drunk do you, a) Join them, b) Assist them, c) Issue a fine, or e) Do you know what?"
Coulton was already lining up answers in his head, when the first question was asked. It struck him off-guard, and he stammered for a moment as his sleep-addled brain attempted to process it. "Uhhh..B, of course. Let 'em deal with the fine later, right now they don't need someone stealing their keys n' hooning in their fighter, or somesuch..." He spoke with slight conviction, almost as if from personal experience.
A million dollars isn't cool. You know what is cool? A basilisk.
After taking about 20 pictures of each suspect primarily of the bite marks and watch in amusement as other officers surround the dead victims.
Christopher then started taking DNA Samples for research, included within the teeth marks, finger marks, foot prints and a swab of sliva from the victims mouth. Then to add a touch of interest, a hair that was spotted on one of the victims clothing, the reason it took interest to chris, was because the hair was black, but was found on the body of a Blonde victim.
Christopher took the evidence in his case shut it, then opened a laptop nearby to start typing up evidence and notes, whilst over talking everyone else about his own previous scenes he's been to and how he solved them through DNA.