Page 25 of Killer Clone

Stella didn’t reply. She’d seen people like this receiving treatment recently, up in Claymore Township. But at least they weren’t sleeping on the streets.

Something else bothered her now. Fett had said they were being watched. Stella knew that kind of paranoia wasn’t unusual, but she’d felt it, too, a strange coldness on the back of her neck that made the hairs stand up. Maybe he had seen something.

She turned to ask him who was watching them, but Fett was already on his feet, holding his bundle of blankets in one hand. He stumbled toward Commerce Street, pulling his coat tightly around him. Stella let him go.

The beer can stood by the wall. Stella pulled on a glove and dropped it into an evidence bag. Maybe the forensic lab could tell them who Fett was—right along with whoever had left their blue latex gloves behind.

Maybe they were one and the same.

10

Hagen sat in the meeting room with his team members, waiting for Slade to arrive for an end-of-day debriefing. The day’s investigation had left him mentally drained, and the persistent image of Patrick Marrion’s bloodless body kept replaying in his mind. He drummed his fingers on the table, ready to share what they’d found and move the case forward before another victim turned up.

Slade strode through the door seconds later, his tie loosened and suit jacket bearing the wrinkles of a long day spent behind his desk. Deep shadows beneath his eyes suggested he’d been reviewing case files all day. Despite his obvious fatigue, he carried himself with purposeful energy.

As he sat down, he got straight to the point. “Where are we?”

Hagen spoke first. “Dr. Brennan confirmed exsanguination as the cause of death. The fatal wound was a clean incision on the right side of the victim’s neck. He noted bruising around the ankles and neck. The latter could indicate asphyxiation, but given the lack of deep tissue damage, Dr. Brennan thinks it may have been post-mortem, likely from the positioning of the body.”

“How long was the victim outside?”

“No more than a few hours before it was found.” Hagen leaned forward. “But here’s the interesting part…Dr. Brennan said the cut itself looks like the work of a professional, someone with experience handling bodies. He suggested we take a hard look at morticians.”

Slade gave the smallest of nods. “That sounds promising. Let’s hold that thought for now. Stella, you and Stacy visited the site where the victim’s body was discovered. What did you find?”

The two agents took turns sharing their information. Since the women sat across from each other, the other team members bounced their glances between them like a tennis match.

“The body was found in a stinking alley in the center of town. Just far enough out of the way to drop a corpse without attracting immediate attention. But not so far that the body could lie for long without being discovered. Our theory is that whoever did this wanted us to find the victim and find him soon.”

Stacy’s nose crinkled. She looked like she was reliving the moment too. “There was no blood at the scene. However, we did find a pair of discarded latex gloves. Blue. We bagged those, and I dropped them with forensics when we got back.”

“The gloves might not lead anywhere, but as we worked the scene, the discard location would be consistent with someone throwing away evidence.” Stella marked something in her notebook.

Stacy filled the small gap. “Forensics said they didn’t take any scrapings from the alley wall. The site was clean.” She wrinkled her nose again. “If you count filthy as clean.”

Ball to Stella. “We did find an unhoused individual living in the alley. We’re running some of his DNA, see if anything comes back.”

Slade tapped the table twice. “Okay, sounds good.” He aimed his next question at Hagen and Ander. “How about his roommate? Any intel from him?”

Ander grinned wryly. “First off, that kid is a piece of work. But I suppose that’s neither here nor there. But he did mention that Marrion had a friend who recently arrived in town. Marrion was going to visit him and show him around the day he was murdered.”

Slade straightened. He looked like he’d just found a twenty-dollar bill in the pocket of an old pair of jeans.

“Great. Who’s the friend?”

“We don’t know. It seems like Marrion and his friend had never met in real life. They met online.”

“Okay, so we need Marrion’s computer and his phone. Any luck there?”

“There was no laptop or phone in the room that we could locate.” Hagen shifted his weight. “But we did run into a Rohan Dhar who lives on the same floor as Jake Tripp and Patrick Marrion. He told us Tripp has a bad habit of holding technology hostage.” He went on to describe Tripp’s M.O.

“Could be that Tripp was holding Patrick’s technology hostage.” Ander twirled a pen in one hand. “Could be Patrick took it with him and the tech is at the murder site. Or the killer could have disposed of it. But we should keep an eye on his roomie’s eBay and Craigslist accounts.”

“That’s interesting. Did you get a username?” Mac spoke up from the opposite side of the table.

Hagen rustled through his notebook, though he remembered the handle. “Yeah. It’s ‘trippinballz12.’”

Slade’s eyebrows went straight up on his face. “That kid is a piece of work. Mac, save us for crying out loud. Can you find Marrion’s things?”

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