Skip to main content

Atlas Missing - Part 10

'Are you sure you're OK?' I asked.

'I'm not planning to #defenestrate myself or anything. I just need to focus. Let's go through the police, crime scene, and autopsy reports and then we'll work on pinning everything down tomorrow.'

I grabbed the first victim's reports.

***

An agent brought sandwiches while we were reading. I saw Hannah grab one and start eating without conscious thought.

Jaci caught me staring and said, 'Don't #groke at her. Get your own.'

'That wasn't what I was doing.'

'Really?'

'She's not even aware she's doing it.'

***

'Hannah, how's the sandwich?'

'Huh?' She dropped it on a napkin and then sniffed it. 'Do you smell something odd?'

'Nothing unusual. Do you?' I asked.

She nodded. 'I'm #macrosmatic. I have a heightened sense of smell. Something in here smells and it's not the food.'

***

'Could be this book,' I said, holding up an evidence bag. 'It's old. One of the victims had it in her possession. She's a #biblioclept because it was stolen from a rare book store.'

'Maybe,' Hannah said. 'Have either of you learned anything from reading these reports?'

***

'I must've read a #chiliad of pages, and I've learned the Oak Leaf Killer is smart, using forensic countermeasures,' I said to them. 'There's too little physical evidence for it to not be deliberate.'

'That'll make it harder to catch him, but not impossible,' Jaci said.

***

'True,' I agreed.

Hannah sneezed into her elbow. When she looked up again, she had a #meldrop. I tried to point it out to her through gestures, but she wasn't getting it.

Jaci sighed and told her. 'You have a booger coming out of your nose. She was trying to be nice.'

***

'Thanks,' Hannah said, wiping it away. 'I think it's time we get out of here, get something to eat, and show you your apartment. I just need to lock up the evidence.'

'We're not going to #absquatulate with it,' I told her, slightly offended.

'It's not you, just policy.'

***

We left the office and headed to a local restaurant that Hannah said was one of her favorites. Once we'd ordered, Hannah said, 'If a #colporteur comes in, don't buy anything. The books are usually tatty and look like they've been through a landfill.'

'Maybe they have.'

***

'How far is the apartment?' Jaci asked as the sun finished dipping below the horizon.

'It's relatively close, but it takes a while because the road is kinda #anfractuous.'

'Let's wrap this meal up quickly then. I'm not sure how much longer I can stay awake,' Jaci said.

***

'You don't suffer from #deipnophobia, do you?' Hannah asked.

'What's that?' Jaci asked.

'It means you feel awkward dining with strangers.'

Jaci shook her head. 'No, I just want to sleep. It feels like I've been working for three days straight without any caffeine.'

***

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Atlas Missing - Part 12

Hannah chimed in. 'You need to reach #satori.' 'Isn't that like nirvana?' Jaci asked. 'Something like that,' Hannah replied. 'Are you ready to focus on the case again?' Jaci took a deep breath. 'I'm ready.' 'Good. Are we going through the timeline this morning?' *** 'We'll go through the reports for each victim, jotting down notes about times and places, then we'll go #back and write it all down on the big board. Hopefully by combining all the data we can get an idea of what happened when.' 'How long will that take?' Hannah asked. *** 'It depends entirely on how much is in the reports.  Based on what I saw yesterday, it could take us a couple of days to go through everything.' Hannah smiled. 'I'm not a delicate little #flower. I can handle it.' 'Good. This is just the start. It's going to get worse.' *** 'Hey, watch out for that #cat,' I yelled as the small black furb...
Post a Comment
Read more

Atlas Missing - Part 9

The #nudistertian day began with me moving everything I owned into storage except for what I needed for a cheap one-bedroom apartment, and now here I was just a few days later, pawing through the remains of someone else's life. I wondered if I would ever get mine back. *** 'Why is it always a post-#jentacular jogger that finds the bodies?' Jaci asked. 'Is no one else up that early?' 'Who else did you want to find them?' I countered. 'Dog-walkers? Little old ladies?' 'It's such a cliche.' 'There's a reason for that,' Hannah interjected. *** 'It's a cliche because it's true,' I told Jaci and held up an evidence bag. 'This is a hair sample, but it hasn't been tested. Why not?' 'They don't have the funding to test for DNA on cold cases,' Hannah said. 'According to the police report, the hair is #ulotrichous.' *** 'And?' 'All of their suspects had straight hair, not curly....
Post a Comment
Read more

Pandora's Children - Part 1

The lead detective approached the car but it was empty. He gestured for us to fan out and search the area but I thought I knew better. I touched the hood, still #warm. They hadn't been gone long. On a hunch I checked the trunk and found the suspect's body, without a head. *** While we waited for the ME to arrive, the CSI assigned to the case began taking pictures, collecting evidence from the car, and asking questions. "He was your suspect? Who was he supposed to have killed?" "Didja hear 'bout the dead football player, a Baltimore #Raven?" *** The CSI's eyes went wide. Everyone had heard of the footballer's death. The problem was the number of suspects. Tyrrell Marcus had made a lot of enemies and was known to have a short #fuse. Now their best suspect was dead. They had two bodies and there were no answers. *** "Detective. There's a bag in here, partially covered by the body," the CSI called out. "I ...
Post a Comment
Read more