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Well done Covems, quicker as I expected..
I'd better start writing, but the next episode might take a few days..
Hope you're all enjoying it..
Location: Achat City, Marina. 09:00 am
The dock is empty, All boats are either on the water or tied to one of the jetties. But even those are scarse with people, empty, hardly a soul is heard amongst the slowly swaying boats. It’s still early and most occupying these yachts have only just turned in for the night. Parties are common in the marina and often the sun starts rising before the last head off, for soft sheets and fluffy pillows. A seagull screetching now and then is the only noise heard, besides the purling waves around the hulls of the boats.
The subject to the intrusion, the “Mathilda”, is docked at the end of pier 69, yellow tape wrapped around the wooden beams that run into the water, securing the crime scene from unwanted visitors. The ‘Mathilda” is massive, 105 feet long, 35 feet wide and with at least 2 stories above the sealine, the deck hiding the gantry and guest bedrooms below. She sits alone at the pier, taking most of its length and just its presence alone claims all attention.
The yacht is still buzzing with activity when we arriove and techs walk on and off the gangway, back and forth between the on site lab-van and the ship, dressed in white, plastic suits to prevent contamination of the crime scene. As soon as we are spotted, a red headed woman with a quick step, starts walking towards us, her look strict and proffesional.
“Strike! Venice! Overhere..!”
“doc Gracious!”
Her pace quickens as we turn towards her and wave at her at the end of the gangway, her cheeks flushed and red, matching the color of her hair. As soon as we are face to face, she starts blurring out information about the scene, clearly upset by what she has found.
“So far we collected over 100 hundred samples of bodily fluids. They are everywhere.. It’s a madhouse. The chromosome analyser has overheated because it’s been processing samples constantly”
Her hands move urgently and she toddles from left to right, clearly overwhelmed with the situation.
“When we scanned the bed…. It was amazing… There is no doubt there were at least 8 people on the boat that had intercourse with eachother. And I mean, everybody had sex with everybody.. so you do the math.. And it could be much more.. But we were able to differentiate at least 8 sets of prints. All of them unknown in Codis though.. I’ll show you.. This way..”
Without waiting she turns and charges up the gangway, turns left and disappears behind a side panel of the ship. I turn to Jaz with a questioning look and am answered with the same. I shrug my shoulders and step onto the dangling gangway. But as soon as I am over the gap between the ship and the pier, I start getting dizzy, gripping the ropes that act as railing but offer no support whatsover. Only the grip of Jaszmin’s hand on my arm, prevents me from stepping back onto dry land or tipping over the side and taking an unwanted dip in the sea.
“Come on Johnny-boy, I know you don’t like being on the water, but the ship will feel like land. Just three steps.. Go on.. Go on, big boy..”
I take a deep breath, set my mind to oblivion and take the three steps, letting out a sigh of relief as i feel the sturdy wooden deck of the boat beneath my feet. While I grip the mahogany railing with my left hand, I extend my right to Jaszmin and feel her slip her fingers into my fingers. With a smile on her face she lets me help her on board and I am rewarded with a brush of her fingers over my cheek. Without missing a step, she walks towards the back of the ship, following the direction of dr. Janice Gracious.
With a deep sigh I start following her, keeping my left hand on the railing that runs all the way to the back and around the stern of the ship. I get seasick as soon as I feel the floor move underneath me, a quality that disqualified me from stepping into my father’s footsteps, sailing the waves as a crab fisher on the Beringsea. He took me with him once, but was forced to sail back after 3 days. After 3 days of vomitting I was so dehydrated that I had to stay in hospital 3 days. He never let me live that trip down.
I reach the stern of the ship, the back open, allowing a perfect view of the coast and the ocean behind it, the sun slowly climbing into the sky. Techs are busy powdering each inch of the surfaces of the ship, swabbing the leather couches and chairs in the lounge and collecting the sheets of the masterbed at the centre of the room. Dr Gracious, a briljant technician and responsible for processing this crime scene, stands in the back of the room, between two ceiling high cupboards, her arms crossed over eachother across her chest, her fingers tapping impatiently asw e walk through the busy techs.
“Jaszmin, you should have left him on the docks. I don;t want my crime scene contaminated”
The sparkle in the eyes of the docter, along with the slightly curled left corner of her mouth, betray the tease behind the remark and immediatly she starts pointing at interesting locations within the aft deck
“It seems like 5 people at least were active on the bed. It’s too early to tell if that concurred at the same time, or if there was an order. All the couches and furniture have been used for coitus, which leads to believe this was planned. But I will have more conclusive results later.”
“Were you able to find evidence that something was stolen?”
The sweet-toned voice of Jaszmin sounds firm and decisive while I start to shuffle through the room, letting my eyes drift around aimlessly, focussing on nothing in particular, trying to capture everything in one image. While I hear the docter answer in the background, I suddenly see a white slither of paper sticking out from under the door of the left cupboard.
“Do you have a pair of gloves and tweasers?”
Rudely I interrupt the answer of dr Gracious, feeling the look of Jaszmin on my cheek. As sweet and subtle as she can be to get what we want, as rude and direct I am when I find something that needs a closer look, much to her dislike.
“Sure. David?”
At the call of dr Gracious, a tech wearing protective glasses, pulls out a pair of latex gloves from his suitcase and hands them to me, along with a pair of plastic tweasers. I lean in, grab the slither of paper with the tips of the tweasers and carefully pull it free from the door. Then I bring it up to my eyes and hold it in the light of the sun. The wrinkled paper looks like the torn corner of a news paper and when I look closer at it, I recognise the font of the letters printed onto it. There is some scribbling as well, numbers in blue ink.
“It’s a torn off piece of the ‘Tattler, and there is some writing on it.. At the top it says: ‘E=+5, followed by a series of numbers: ‘23.22.13 & 2.13.4.7.7’, space, ‘1.13.4 21-09’, space, ’22:00’.
Jaszmin steps in close to me and I feel the warmth of her body on my skin as she takes the tweasers from my hand and holds the piece of paper close to her face. After examining it for a few minutes, she hands the paper over to the docter who stepped in curiously.
“It is definitly the handwriting of a man, but we need to have a closer look at the lab at headquarters. We need to find out what it means, it’s the best clue so far”
{TO BE CONTINUED}
very nice Suzanna..
I think you should enter a story into the contest elsewhere on the forum..
I'll be pantless..
I forgot last week.. *blushes* I'll make up for it..
lol, i'll flash anyone who asks for it..
