Chapter 1

Tuesday 3:42 PM

231 Greene St.

Boston, Ma.

 

 

The uniformed officer gestured to the plainclothes detective towards the body. She was slumped over the desk with her head laying on the laptop.

The detective looks over at her partner and asks, “Murphy, what is this, the third one?”

        He replies to Lead Detective Valdez, “ No, the fourth one in seventeen days. And we still have no idea how they are dying. Nothing to point to foul play anyway, but all four died with no apparent cause. The Coroner’s report stated that they all died from an apparent heart attack. Yet, not one of them had any history of heart disease. The two common links to all four is that they worked for CYBERSEX.com and they were all found dead at their laptops. Three women and one man.”

            Crime scene technicians are under foot dusting for prints, bagging possible evidence including the corpses hands. As the two detectives approach the body they smell an ever-so-slight scent of scorched hair, similar to the aromas surrounding the other bodies. And, as with the others, this laptop has a window opened to the CYBERSEX.com website, their email client as well as one for the CYBERSEX Instant Messaging system.

            “Let’s hope the crew in the Virtual Internet Forensics lab has better luck getting info from this laptop then they did the other three.” Valdez says. She stands over the body for a moment taking in the desk and computer. There are your usual items found on a desk such as pens, pencils, sticky notepad, speakers for the laptop. Then she notices it! Something the other three have had in common and now it hits her! The flower! She turns to the technician closest to her and quickly grabs a baggie and places the flower in it. She grabs another baggie and places the vase in it. She turns to the technician and says, “ Get these over to the lab now! “ She turns her head to the uniform standing at the doorway and says, “Patrolman, have your partner bring this technician over to the lab right away.” Then she turns to the Coroners technician and says, “Let’s get her bagged and tagged and on her way to the morgue. I want you to go over her body with a magnifying glass. Check for puncture marks of any kind.”

Murphy looks at her and without saying a word she knows the question and as he is about to ask it she says “Not now, Murphy, on the way to the morgue.”

Just then two more detectives enter the room and Valdez sees her opportunity. “Robbertucci and Williamson. Glad to see you could make the party. Take over here; Murphy and I are headed to the morgue.” And without waiting for a response from either detective, Murphy and Valdez exits what Valdez now thinks of as a crime scene.

After entering their unmarked cruiser Murphy pipes up “ Ok Sierra, what gives. What got you acting like you had a bee in your bonnet?”

She turns and looks at him and says, “Exactly!” then continues to back the cruiser out of its spot, then placing it in drive they speed off.

Kevin Murphy looks at his partner and says “ Sierra Valdez, I asked you a question and I don’t want to start doing the Abbott and Costello ‘Who’s on first’ routine. Now, what in the hell is going on!

“Ok Kevin, you’ve been to all four crimes scenes, what has been at each and everyone of them. Think. Close your eyes and picture each location. Now overlap each one and tell me what you see that was in each one of those crime scenes.”

Murphy closes his eyes as he was taught at the academy. He starts visualizing each crime scene. Picking each one apart piece-by-piece until he is finally left with what his partner has been able to conclude. The flower! Each one of the crime scenes had a vase with a flower in it. Each flower was different as was each vase and that was what was throwing everyone off, until now!        

Then a puzzled look comes over him and he says, “How could or did a flower in a vase cause all four victims to have a heart attack?”

“Before I answer that question, lets see what the Coroner has to say about the examination of the latest victims body.”

Upon arriving at the morgue, Murphy and Valdez exit the vehicle to the beginning of a springtime downpour in New England. They enter the municipal building and take the elevator to the basement.  As they enter the morgue, the receptionist buzzes them into the back. Valdez asks where the body is that just came in. She tells her that it is in examine room two and that the Coroner is there.

Entering the examine room Valdez says, “ Well ‘Doc’, what have you got for me?”

At first glance Doc leaves you with the impression of an old country doctor. “I’ve had the stiff for all of what” he looks at the wall clock “ twenty minutes. We’ve barely had time to get her naked let alone do an examination on her. I’ll have more info in about four hours.” He says, turning back to the body.

“Come on, Doc,” Valdez says “make it an hour, ok? And I’ll throw in some dinner.”

  “The best I can do is two hours, I can’t rush it! Just the blood work alone will take half an hour! And then, as you requested, we have to go over the corpse looking for puncture wounds, which in itself will take forever!”

“Alright Doc, we’ll be back in two hours. Will Chinese take-out be ok?”

“That’ll be fine now let me get back to work!”

Valdez and Murphy exit the morgue onto the street and into a torrential down pour!  Valdez presses the button on her key chain, unlocking the doors and they dash across the street hopping into the vehicle.

Wiping the water pouring down his scalp into his eyes Murphy says, “Ok Sierra, what gives? You said you’d explain it to me after we saw the body.”

“Doc hasn’t finished the exam yet but I think that these four ‘unattended deaths’ have actually been murders. It depends on what the tech boys find when they inspect the hard drive of all four computers; my guess is that it has to do with the instant messenger and the flowers. We need to get to the evidence room and scrutinize the bags of evidence that were vacuumed up around the desk. We are looking for some kind of insect, probably a bee or wasp maybe even a mosquito. If we find the insects we will need to take the insects to Biosecticide and have them tested. What are you doing?”

“It looks like you have a long night planned out for us and I have a very attractive date for this evening; I’d prefer to post-pone the date rather than call at the last minute and cancel.  You know how women can be when you cancel at the last minute, don’t you Sierra?”

“Yes I do, so make your call and try to keep it short.”

Kevin Murphy makes his call apologizing and arranges to meet the flight attendant when her flight returns from Phoenix. After bumbling through a few more I’m sorry and I’ll miss you he hits the end button and scowls at Valdez. “You have no idea what I just sacrificed for you, Sierra. You owe me big time!”

“Maybe so but at least now your mind will be on work rather than your late night rendezvous!”

After another ten minutes driving in the downpour they reach the municipal building which houses the local government offices on the first floor, the public service offices on the second floor, the Fire Marshal on the third floor, the police department on the fourth thru sixth floors and the mayors office on the seventh floor. Entering the parking garage they drive down to the third parking level. They stop at the barrier and show their ID’s to the officer who raises the barrier and waves them thru.  They park in their assigned spot, exit the vehicle and enter the elevator. Valdez presses the button for the sixth floor, which houses the detectives division, evidence storage and the police chief’s office.  The elevator starts to ascend and when it reaches the public parking garage floor it stops and the door opens. Four passengers enter and each presses a button for the floor they want.

The elevator stops at the first floor and a male and female exit holding hands looking at each other with that ‘I love you’ look. The next stop is the second floor and the person getting off has been muttering under his breath ever since he got on, something about potholes being fixed.  As Valdez and Murphy get off on the sixth floor Sierra notices that the final passenger is wearing a green and yellow uniform and carrying flowers.  Sierra reaches out and stops the door from closing. Stepping back in she looks at the visitor’s badge that the deliveryman is wearing and, seeing that it is in order, exits the elevator