Chapter 24
The train that led to the canyon was slow, but abnormally deserted. Matt still felt uncomfortable. When he finally reached the first canyon stop, he made his way out of the car as quickly as possible without raising Detective Rishards’ suspicions. She was already a bit skittish around him and he wondered how far he could trust her if the shit ever hit the fan.
The light of Sirius Beta was fading at the edge of the dome that covered the canyon. The dimming sky allowed Matt to see some of the brightest stars. An old child's rhyme came to him as he walked the path toward the farms administration building.
Starlight, star bright
First star I see tonight,
Don’t let me screw this up.
It was the first time he'd ever been to the agricultural division. He felt strangely at peace, even more so than he felt in the central park in the main dome. There was dirt under his feet for the first time in years, and even if it wasn’t the dirt of earth, it felt good. The walk was almost enjoyable.
“I don't know what you hope to get from these excursions.” Rishards said. “I don't see that we've learned anything solid from the other two sites.”
“Probably not from this one either.”
“Then what is the point?” She complained.
“Cases are not always made by solid evidence. When technology fails then we have to look for small discrepancies, odd patterns, anything out of the ordinary then piece the facts together to form a picture.” Matt said.
“How can you ever be sure you have the right person?” She asked.
“You do the best you can, and let the jury decide.” Matt said.
“Dales, on Sirius there are no need for juries. We give the judges solid evidence and they decide the guilt and punishment.” She said. “Any uncertainty and the system would fail.”
“Not at all,” Matt said. “The judges will still have to determine guilt; it just won't be as easy for them.”
“Then we'd better put together a strong case and hope that pressure to solve the case and fear will encourage them to do so.”
“Fear?”
“Yes, fear for their families, their jobs, even fear of losing their sense of security or control over the populace. People in large groups can be dangerous when they believe their government has lain them to. Disillusionment and fear are a bad combination. The judges know this, they won't risk it they are likely to convict anyone we give them. So it is up to us to give them the correct one.”
“And if we are wrong?”
“Then an innocent man gets punished and a killer goes free.” Matt said.
“I like our system better.” She responded.
“It does provide certainty, except when it doesn’t.” The two detectives come up to a large field scattered with machines and agricultural specialists. The soil was being excavated and moved out in trucks. “I though the forensic investigation was completed.”
“It was.” Rishards walked up to one of the worker and inquired about the whereabouts of their supervisor. The tired technician pointed toward a mature woman standing in the center of the field.
“Yes,” the woman greeted them uncordially as they approached. “What do you want?”
“Just to ask a few questions and to look around?” Matt smiled.
“Be quick then, we have a lot to do here.” The woman responded.
“A man died here.” Rishards reminded her.
“Oh, and you think that’s the worst of it do you.” The woman turned on her. “Look at this field.” She waved her hands.” Ruined, all of it contaminated by human remains. This wasn’t just a murder officer. It was an act of terrorism against the colony.”
“I’m sorry if this inconveniences you.’ Rishards continued.
“Inconvenience, no officer.” She took on an even more patronizing tone. “Preventing the entire colony from becoming cannibals is no inconvenience. Now, moving four acres of soil off the fields and preparing another four acres from the dirt of a dead, acidic world, making it fit to accept seeds and saplings so that the colony will have enough food next season, that is a bit of an inconvenience. Charlie! Where is the new soil shipment?”
“It should be here within the hour.” A worker called back. “They just finished excavating it.”
“I bet you think we just put the seeds in the ground, like on Earth, don’t you.” She turned to Matt. “Most of the people here have no clue what we have to do to make the soil ready. I have four PhDs dammit. I should be in an office reading soil analysis reports and crop yield projections.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Matt responded.
“Why haven’t you found this terrorist yet?” she barked. “This is Sirius, no crimes go unsolved here. Isn’t that what they say?”
“And no one will now.” Matt assured her. “But there are still procedures that have to be followed. And it would greatly aid our investigation if we could have a few moments of your time.”
“Yeah,” The old woman sighed. “I’m stuck until the new soil arrives anyway. What can I do for you?”
“Did you know the victim?” Rishards asked.
“No, never met him.” She said. “Look, we’ve already been through this with the officers yesterday.”
“I’m sorry.” He glanced at Rishards. “The questions that I need to ask you are of a more practical nature.”
“Such as?”
“The victim was cut into pieces by a laser cutter.” He continued.
“Yes.”
“Do you have many of those lying around?” Matt asked.
“No, we only have a couple, we use then to dig out the large plants and break through hard patches of soil.” She answered. “And we don’t leave them lying about. They are secured in the tool shed.”
“The blood spot was behind the shed.” Rishards whispered in Matt’s ear. “That’s where the body was cut up.”
“Yes,” The woman said. “And if that we’re not bad enough, the sociopath put the pieces into the automatic fertilizers. The machines spread the man over four acres of prime growing soil.”
“Our investigation showed that the tool locker is access secured.” Rishards said. “The victim was responsible for overseeing materials and therefore had access to the shed.”
“From what I was told, he was a rep from one of the corps, checking on the condition of our equipment so they could put in a bid for the new batch. The man had no business in a farm, but they gave him access anyway. It’s no way to run a colony.”
“Are the fertilizer compartments of the spreaders locked?” Matt asked.
“No, the thought that someone would use them to contaminate our food supply hadn’t occurred to us.” The woman answered. “I will of course immediately request that the equipment be upgraded with such security precautions. Are we done?”
“One last point.” Matt pressed.
“What?”
“The cutters do they require special training to use, are they heavy, or clumsy.” Matt asked.
“Not particularly.” She answered. “I could teach you to use one in a few minutes, but to use one well does take practice. It is not a piece of equipment you’d want to be careless with. If you’re fond of your limbs.”
“Thanks. We’ll just look around some then we’ll be outa your hair.” Matt told her. “Thank you very much.”
“Come back when we’re not in crisis mode and I’ll give you a real explanation as to how this operation works.” She walked away as a truck full of soil rolled up. “Charlie! See that this gets to the mulch mixer first.”
The detectives left the woman barking orders and went to see the crime site. It wasn’t hard to find. It was one of the few buildings in the cavern. Matt examined the security panel on the tool shed.
“It doesn’t look forced.” He commented.
“It wasn’t, the victim opened it.” She said. “Or the murderer opened it after cutting the chip from his palm.”
“Why would he open the tool shed.”
“Maybe the killer was armed and forced him.” Rishards asked.
“The killer left the same message.” He said half aloud. “Where is the public terminal?”
Rishards pointed to a building about a half Kilometer along the road. “Over there is a service building. It has one.”
“A laser cutter would cauterize the wounds; even so, there must have been some blood.” Matt looked around.
“The images of the patch of dirt behind the shed indicated quite a bit.”
“Well,” Matt continued. “It would be really difficult to keep ones clothing free of it. If I were a blood soaked murderer and I didn’t want to go all the way to the building, let alone back to the main dome covered in blood.”
“Agreed. The killer would have to have changed their clothing.”
“Then what would I do with my clothes, if they were soaked with someone else’s blood.” Matt started to walk around the building. The dirt all around was recently dug out, to be replaced. “They didn’t bury it or it would have been found.”
“They brought clothing with them.’ Rishards commented.
“And took it back with them.”
“Which means they had to have been carrying a bag of some kind.” Rishards realized.
“Or a case” Matt added.
“So let’s go see if anyone remembers seeing someone during the early shift who was carrying a case or a bag.” Rishards headed back to the supervisor, Matt close on her heals.
“It seems as though the killer didn’t display this one.”
“Then maybe, the Christian killer theory is wrong.” Rishards sounded vindicated.
“Or they just changed, their MO.”
After wandering around questioning the workers, they learned that the victim was killed on the same day that many of the primary schools had been present to learn about colonial agriculture. There were over twenty classes full of children roaming the canyon at the time, all with backpacks as well as teachers and escorts. It was fortunate the body wasn’t discovered by a class full of children The killer planned it well, no one would notice one bag more in that group.
It was also the day that the return train had broken down.
Matt wasn’t sure how that information could help, but it was one more piece to throw into the box.
Chapter 25
For the next several hours, Matt was at his desk. The paperwork involved was worse than it had been on earth. The contact chain data for Kossman and he dove into the documents like a dog going for a bone. He spent hours following Kossman’s signal. He traced and backtracked everyone that he met, luckily there weren’t many. Even so, there were too many random contacts, none of which coincided to any significant degree with any one on the contact list for Marc Matthews. It was useless; on an isolated colony, everyone is going to encounter everyone occasionally.
Once they had a suspect, the collected data could be very useful in getting an indictment, but looking through the glut of data was just giving Matt a massive headache. The gaps in information cause by the black-outs made the volumes of information he’d collected all but useless. He continued to pound his head into the data wall until his eyes started to unfocus.
At least on the contraband front, the situation was better. His smuggler was convicted. None of the judges bought into the defense theory that he'd planted the evidence, or at least didn’t have any confirmation to prove it if they did. The bursar was condemned and pending sentence.
To reduce his sentence, the man turned on his friends. The man gave the department information on a docking bay’s night guard, who under interrogation implicated another man, Perry’s mystery man. Unfortunately, the guard couldn’t describe the man. Even though he’d met the stranger several times in the park, they always sat back to back on a double bench and hid their voices when they talked. He couldn’t provide any relative details. The guard was very obliging when it came to providing dates and times. Still, now they should be enough evidence to get that warrant. That should make Perry happy. One wall down.
At least one investigation was going well. Matt slumped back into his chair and looked at the clock on his computer. He’s been off duty for over two hours. He reached in his drawer and pulled out a sealed med packet and pushed the pill through, popped it in his mouth and swallowed, chasing it down with cold coffee. As much as Matt hated cold coffee, he'd been fighting to control his emotions a bit too much as of late. If he couldn't continue to keep them under control himself, then he'd just have to let the meds do it.
After several more minutes involved in a futile staring contest with his display, Matt rose and grabbed his jacket. He needed to get out and get some ‘fresh’ air. The park shouldn't be too crowded, he thought. A walk might help clear his mind.
Chapter 26
Matt learned as he arrived at the park that his previous assumption was wildly mistaken. The park was not going to be a place where he could clear his mind. The park was crowded. He had walked in a celebration of some sort. Most of the people assembled near the amphitheater in the middle of the park. Instead of turning around and heading toward less crowded paths, Matt thought he needed to push himself a little. Crowds of people have been getting making him too anxious. It wasn’t a good thing for someone whose job it was to protect the multitudes. The medication that he took earlier was working well, he felt very little as he walked along the less busy edges of the park. It was easier for his mind to cope with the mass of people when they were mostly on one side of him.
From his vantage point, Matt could see the uniforms of several colonial security moving in and about among the throngs of partyers, patrolling the area. A closer inspection of the crowd allowed him to pick out several security officers that he knew personally. They were in civilian attire, but walked around with purpose, their eyes scanning the crowds as his did. Matt wondered if the increased police presence was noticeable to the general populace.