A Real Dead Body

Posted on Sat 9th Dec, 2017 @ 12:28am by

654 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: A Phaser as Deadly as a Candlestick
Location: Orchids & Jazz, Deck 600
Timeline: MD 3, 1015

"I can't figure out who the dead man was," Serena said to Jade, as they finished their morning meeting in her office. "Even with the gruesome throat, he should have looked familiar."

Jade shut down her computer, and rose from behind her desk. "Serena, there is an entire city of people on this starbase. I think the last figure I heard quoted was around 150,000, and we're still adding people. You do realize they don't all walk through our doors, don't you?"

"Oh, I know ... but still." They walked down the corridor to the restaurant, and toward the door, where Jade wanted to talk with Reon for a moment.

The doorman was standing with his head together with Caroline Post, looking at something. He turned as he heard the two women approaching. "You'll never guess what someone found this morning!"

Jade's eyes narrowed, "I hope you aren't going to tell me it's a dead body, and you recognized it."

"Uh, well, yes, that's what I meant to say. It's the truth. Take a look at this." He held a small picture log out to her. "Tell me that isn't the man we saw at the séance last night."

Automatically, her hand took what Reon shoved at her, and she looked at it. Serena looked over her shoulder and exclaimed, "Oh, no! It is the same man."

"Maybe," Jade said, looking closely at the picture. "I think the hat ... yes, the hat looks the same," she looked up, "but hats like that must be all over the quadrant. Where did you get this?" The question was directed to Miss Post.

With a sigh, Caroline took her picture log back and dropped it in her purse. "It's one of several pictures Handsome took this morning before Security blanked the field. The only thing I got was a statement from Michaels that they didn't have an id yet, so I've been going around showing the picture, trying to figure out who he is. You're the first people who could tell me anything, but it sounds as if you don't know his identity either."

"Sorry," Jade said. "I'm sure someone is missing him though. What we saw ... " she hesitated. "It was a séance, Caroline. It doesn't prove anything."

"Maybe not," the reporter agreed, "but there is a dead body that will soon be lying in Dr. Addams's gruesome morgue. I think at least one of the spirits who appeared to you last night was real."

"Or maybe," Serena interjected, "the person who murdered him created that little scene last night."

"Don't go off to Never-Never Land," Reon cautioned. "I'd never seen that woman before, the one with the knife. Had either of you?"

Both women shook their heads, and Jade added, "She wasn't in the room with us, so I think it highly unlikely she would have been able to have influenced events. Besides, I think at least one of the Addams sisters would have noticed something amiss."

"Never-Never Land?" Serena asked. "What in the world is that?"

Reon shook his head. "I don't know about you younger kids. Wendy? Tinkerbell? Peter Pan? Captain Hook? None of that rings a bell?"

Alia shook her head. "Gibberish, do you have a fever?" she reached to check his forehead, but he pulled back.

"Geesh, didn't they have any children's stories where you came from?"

"New Paris is not prone to catering to children's interests," Serena informed him. "But I don't think it's far-fetched, which is what I presume you mean, to think that someone could have planted that little scene at the séance."

"Looks like I have more work to do," Caroline said. "I don't think the people in Security will tell me anything, but I'll keep asking people. Someone has to know him, and whatever happened last night at the Addams house, there is a real dead body in Tivoli Gardens."

 

RSS Feed