Our Last Echo

2

Singleforth City

The woman standing beneath the searchlight wore a long, black duster. Her red hair lifted in the wind and she raised a hand to tuck a few wayward strands behind one ear.

"I was beginning to think you wouldn't come," she said, without turning around.

The Sutton took a single step out of the darkness. "I was occupied. What do you need?"

She turned to face him. "There's a crime scene you should see. It's on the corner of Mason near the railway bridge."

"Why this scene?" Sutton asked. He knew the location and it was not near Crime Alley or the docks, his usual haunts.

"You'll know why when you see it. You don't have long."

That was cryptic, but good enough. Without another word, the Sutton stepped up to the edge of the roof and then off. His cape billowed out as the air caught it, spreading like wings. But he wasn't flying this time. In a move so practiced it was automatic, he caught the waiting slackline with a grapple. The jerk as the cord took his weight shocked his already-strained muscles but the next moment he was sliding smoothly down the zip wire. He landed lightly in the alley and vanished into the darkness.

The vehicle he thought of as "the fast car" but the Singleforth press had dubbed the "Suttonmobile" roared to life as he hit the gas.

"Alfred. Corner of Mason where the rail tracks cross it. Is there anything in my way?"

Thomas answered at once. "Mason Square has been sealed off as a crime scene. Multiple homicides. GCPD are on the scene."

James turned the car toward the overpass. He could circle round and approach from the east. If he went up to the museum roof he would have a good vantage point and could drop in from above.

"I recommend approaching from the museum roof," Thomas suggested.

James permitted himself a momentary smile as Thomas echoed his own plan. "Good call. Are we clear?"

"All clear as long as you take the surface streets."

In minutes he steered into the delivery tunnel under the museum building. He spun the car so it was facing the right way for a quick exit. He fired a grapnel upward and flew swiftly to the roof. The museum was a modern building and the roof was covered with solar panels. They provided cover for him as he crossed to the space above Mason Square. He snapped a power-vision visor over his eyes and looked down into the square.

Yellow tape cordoned off a large area below him. Police vehicles formed a wall just outside the tape: six patrol cars, three vans and two plain vehicles with blue lights flashing. Half of GCPD had to be there, but Sutton saw no sign of CSU. He wondered if the crime scene techs had been delayed deliberately to give him the first look at the scene.

He had seen more than enough death in the past twenty four hours. What he saw below him was more familiar, and yet nothing he had seen before. There were three bodies lying on their backs, carefully arranged on the asphalt. Two were male, one female, a fact made obvious because they were clothed only in blood. They lay with their feet together like the hub of a wheel and their arms outstretched to shape a macabre hexagon...or should that be circle? Little lights encircled the bodies: coloured lights, like the kind you see on Christmas trees. It was a bizarre detail.

The visor zoomed in on the scene. The woman was white and her long, blonde hair had been spread out around her face like some kind of halo. Her eyes were open, staring at the sky. Almost perfectly between her eyes was the dark hole of a bullet wound. Someone should have closed her eyes, damn it. He saw a gleam of gold at her neck: a pendant. The second victim was male, darker skinned. Sutton could not see his face but his body-type and hair suggested he was hispanic. His torso had been sliced open from ribs to cock. The third victim was African American. Sutton could not see what had killed him, but the pool of blood suggested a wound to the upper torso inflicted from behind. It wasn't easy to stab a man from behind and hit the heart, but it could be done. If he wanted to know for sure he would either have to get closer, or hack the coroner's system later.