13 Degrees of Separation (56 page)

“Why?”

“Because
they weren't involved.”

“How
did you... how did they know?” O'shee asked.

Nohar
tapped the side of his nose. “The nose knows. From what I gathered, no one
smelled a dog at any of the accidents. Since most of the early vics were
cats...”

“It's a
cat.”

“Right.
And since most of the cats are jaguar or lion...”

“It's
one of them.”

“It
could be a cougar, but I doubt it. Definitely not a cheetah, I'm leaning to
lion.”

“Why
rule the cheetah out? And why the lion?” Draskin asked, now genuinely curious.

“Because
of the skull and because the first victims were consistently cheetah cubs and
young adults. Lions hate cheetah, it's a thing going back to before uplift. I
don't know why, I don't think they do. They just see a gangly cheetah and think
kill. Which makes me see...”

“A lion
as the killer.”

“It's
been known to happen before. Just about every species including man has its'
dark side,” O'shee said.

“Magnum,
you are doing this pro bono. Why?” Draskin said, turning on Magnum.

Nohar
blinked in surprise. This was news to him.

Magnum
frowned and then spread his hands. “You know why Bobby,” he said softly.
“Tracy, she was a friend. She passed me intel off and on.”

“A
Confidential Informant,” O'shee said with a nod.

“Yeah,
she was a good kit, not just as a source, but as a good person. I saw her first
time, helping out at the mission and in the homeless shelter down the street on
Broadway,” Magnum said. “She was my friend.”

“Did
you know her daughter disappeared as well?” Draskin asked.

“She's
with me. I've got her stashed someplace safe,” Magnum admitted.

“You...
and you didn't...”

Magnum
spread his hands again. “You didn't talk to me. It's a two way street you know.
Besides, she doesn't know anything,” he sighed in disgust. “Her mother didn't
have any enemies, but she did talk to her on the phone, she said something
about feeling like she was being followed. That happened the other night.”

“The
night she was killed,” O'shee asked. Magnum nodded. “Damn.”

“So the
vic knew, or felt she was being stalked. But she didn't go into a public place.
She thought it was a hallucination?” Nohar mused, rubbing his chin. “Or did she
know the stalker but didn't say because she did? Did she lower her guard?”

“I
don't know,” Magnum sighed. “I wish I did.”

“We all
do. The thing is, we all need to work together on this. Look you two,” Nohar
said, looking at the humans. “We're in this together. Yes, Magnum and I are
civies, but we're sleepers with training and assets and contacts you lack,” he
said. His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of the vic. He saw the blood
splattered tied dyed skirt before a coroner covered it with a bag. He scowled.

“He's
right,” Magnum said, looking over his shoulder to the victim and then back. “We
can't be counterproductive anymore. The point is to catch this guy before he
kills again. You two can have all the credit. I don't care. I want this guy
found and brought to justice,” he said firmly.

“We'll
see,” Draskin growled, stomping off. O'shee looked sad and dismayed at his
partner. He shrugged helplessly and followed in his wake.

“Bobby...”
Magnum sighed and shook his head.

“So
much for that,” Nohar said. He turned to Magnum. “Any ideas on the killer?”

“I
didn't get a good look at the scene before they chased me off,” Magnum
admitted.

Nohar
frowned and pulled up a map of the area. He zoomed in as tight as the map would
allow. The image was heavily pixilated, but he had an approximate street view.
He oriented on it with their location and then pointed to where the coroner's
van was. “Here?” he asked.

“No
here,” Magnum pointed to an alleyway. “You can't see it from this, but that
alley slopes down from the street level. There is a low wooden fence there to
prevent people from falling down it. Dirt of course, no one paid to pave it.”

“So,
someone got the cat, dragged her down there... or did they snap her neck and
toss her body down there? How did she die? Where? Is this the primary crime
scene or is there another?” he asked. He looked up, remembering something,
something he'd forgotten to do, a vital chore. He started to scan the crowd. He
caught sight of a flash of purple tinted fur on the other side of the crime
scene rounding a corner and snarled. The fur was about two meters up, right where
a mane would be.... a mane on a male lion.

“Draskin!”
he snarled, pointing. Draskin and O'shee looked up. He pointed urgently,
starting to move. “Suspect!” he said, tucking the precious computer into his
bag as he picked up speed. Magnum muttered an oath and started running beside
him.

A cop
held out his hands and stopped them at the crime scene tape.  Draskin however
had picked up his urgency and smacked his partner and another cop. Both trotted
to the corner. They drew their weapons and looked as the tiger and human PI
argued and craned their necks to see. Finally Draskin shook his head and came
back, looking disgusted.

“There
is no one there,” he growled.

“There
was! A purple tinted mane!” Nohar said, pulling out his optical cable and
plugging it into the port on the side of his eye implant. Draskin paled and
looked away. His partner though looked fascinated.

Nohar
plugged the other end into the computer and pulled up a visual. It was blurry,
but he'd gotten just a hint of purple tinted fur. “See?” he demanded, turning
the computer to show them the still.

Draskin
wasn't looking. He spat, and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“See what? Blur?”

“No,
he's right,” O'shee said excitedly. “Remember what you said about the criminal
going back to the scene of the crime Rob?” he asked.

“He's
right,” Magnum said. “Serial killers did. They loved the attention, gloated
over it. Same with fire bugs, they'd set a fire and then sit back and watch it
burn. They get off on this shit, sick bastards,” he growled. He pointed to the
screen. “I'm betting that's our guy.”

“And
all we've got is him at the crime scene,” Draskin said with a shrug. He turned
back to look at the corner.

“If
you'd listened and laid off the donuts you might have had more,” Nohar sighed
in disgust. And if you're goons hadn't stopped us I might of gotten more.
"Come on, " he said, flipping the laptop closed and unplugging it
from his implant. He tucked both into his bag and walked around the crime scene
tape.

“Where
are we going?” O'shee asked following him. Magnum did as well. Draskin turned,
ducking back under the tape.

“To the
corner, I want to smell it,” Nohar said.

“Smell...”

“Yeah,”
he replied. He took a whiff and then coughed. “Someone likes cologne too much,”
he snarled.

“Sorry,
the ladies love it,” Magnum muttered. He stopped.

“Yeah,
you stay there,” Nohar growled.

He
scented the corner, found where someone had been standing. Definitely neolion.
He silently pointed to hair fibers caught in the rough stucco on the corner.
“Someone had moved around the corner fast, pretty tight to the corner to have
them there.”

“Yeah,”
O'shee said, pushing him back and snapping blue latex gloves on. He pulled and
evidence bag out of his pocket and a pair of tweezers and started taking
samples. Nohar pocketed one as well, wrapping it in a napkin.

“You
really think it's our killer?” O'shee asked.

“I'm
pretty sure it's a viable suspect. A neolion, here, at a crime scene, and when
I spotted him he bolted.

“An act
of a guilty conscious?” Draskin asked. Nohar turned. He hadn't noted the big
human's approach.

“Not
evidence I suppose, but if we could get him you could see if he had trace
evidence under his claws or on him. An ultraviolet light would illuminate any
blood spatter on his fur or clothing,” Nohar said.

“True,”
Draskin said. “Your pretty good at this. I thought you were another amateur,”
he said, glancing at Magnum.

“Training,”
Nohar growled.

“If we
had a suspect we could sweat him,” O'shee said from his crouch.

“Only
one problem, Neo's don't sweat,” Nohar sighed.

Chapter 7

The
next morning Nohar found not only Magnum, but also a tired Draskin and O'shee
waiting in the lobby. The three humans nodded and Draskin announced loudly that
he was going out to breakfast.

They
found a diner around the corner. The human proprietor wasn't too enthused about
seating Nohar, but Draskin flashed his badge and she relented without a word.
She did however later mutter about how she'd better get a big tip out of this.

Draskin
and O'shee ordered omelets. Magnum ordered fruit. Nohar ordered sausage and
bacon, a pile of it. He sat back, uncomfortable in the booth but aware
something was up. Silently O'shee put a 2 centimeter thick manila folder onto
the Formica table and pushed it over to them.

Draskin
didn't look, just commented about the local little league's chances of winning
the continental finals. Nohar took the hint, ignoring Magnum's snort. He
flipped the folder around and then sent a mental command to his implants to
record.

He
flipped through it rapidly, not really paying attention to details, just
hitting the high points. When he was finished with every page, including the
rather gruesome crime scene photos and sketches he passed it to Magnum.
Suddenly he wasn't very hungry though.

“Missing
persons aren't in that,” he muttered.

“You
kidding me? We've got enough unsolved as it is,” Draskin muttered.

“Yeah
well, I think they should be included. And the accidents should be re-opened,”
Nohar said.

“Oh you
do eh?” Draskin asked.

Nohar
pulled up his laptop and plugged his implant in again. He dumped the scan,
watching it flutter into the file, and then hit his correlating script. It
would cross reference everything in the report with what he already had. But he
pulled up the accident reports anyway.

“If
they are dead, where are the bodies?” Draskin demanded. Magnum muttered a curse
as he got to the crime scene photos. He gulped, turning a bit pale. Draskin
looked at him briefly. “Hey, you asked for it,” he said.

“Remember
when we led you out to the tunnel?” Nohar asked.

“Yeah?”
Draskin asked, turning to him.

“How
many of those bodies are in the missing persons report?” Nohar asked.

“Um...”

“Good
question actually,” O'shee said.

“Yeah.”

“Still,
not many bodies there,” Draskin said.

“Unless
he ate them all,” O'shee said softly. Draskin flinched. “Think about it, if he
turned total cannibal, he wouldn't go to a restaurant or store. He'd be
completely off grid. Some of the people were robbed, but the later vics
weren't. That fits...”

“Right.
But there are way too many people gone to fill one larder you know,” Draskin
said.

“So, we
look for an overflow,” Nohar said. “One we missed,” he said as the food
arrived.

Magnum
took one look and turned green. He pushed his plate away. “Not me,” he
muttered, hand going to his head. He didn't even want his coffee anymore
either, nearly knocking it over.

...*...*...*...*...

Outside
the diner, Draskin adjusted his belt and waist line and looked over to a still
green Magnum. “Wus,” he growled.

“Yeah
well...” Magnum shrugged.

“Yeah
well, nothing. You just saw the pics. You didn't get to see most of that in
person,” he growled.

“Did
you look into the water deaths?” Nohar asked.

“Water...”

“The
flume,” Nohar said. “22 deaths there in under a year? When there have been only
2 in a century? Seriously... guys, come on now,” he said spreading his hands.
His right arm jerked a little. He grimaced but got it under control.

“Yeah,”
O'shee said, eying the arm warily. “I see what you mean. Something's definitely
off there,” he said, looking at his partner.

“Yeah,”
Draskin admitted. “That's screwy, one or two I can figure, but 22?”

“That's
just the ones we know about,” Magnum said. “We counted a lot more crosses in
that area. We told you guys and the game wardens at the tunnel.”

“And we
didn't listen. Now we are,” Draskin said, tucking the folder under one arm.
“So, what do you want, us to look into them? We don't have the manpower. Or
time. If this guy stays to profile he'll kill again by sundown or just after,”
he growled.