(no subject)
Desideratum, continued
Five victims. Same number as Jack the Ripper. Each with a large family-the one thing Duo didn't have.
April 11: Tanesha Williams, age 35, second trimester bigeminal pregnancy. Cause of death: multiple trauma. Killer was apparently interrupted during the attack, possibly by sound of children returning home from school. Victim suffered numerous mutilations antemortem, including removal of eyes with pointed object-probably a screwdriver-and amputation of digits. Severe lacerations around wrists and ankles where victim was restrained to bed posts with rope, indicating struggle. Traces of homemade chloroform found in mucous membranes of nose and mouth. Uterus was removed with a scalpel from the fundus to the labium majus, including all attendant musculature and ligaments. Fetal death occurred almost immediately.
May 2: Tiffany Anderson, 32. Homemaker, ten children. Victim was eight months pregnant at time of death. Cause of death: severance of ovarian arteries commensurate with removal of peritoneum. Death occurred at around 2:15 pm and took approximately 5 hours from infliction of first injury until mortal wound.
June 19: Eilish Cavanagh, undocumented alien on L2-V08744. Age and marital status uncertain. Pregnant; mother of 15. Victim died at approximately 1300. Removal of several organs (see attached diagram) using surgical scalpel.
July 8: Donna Taylor, 21. Cause of death severance of ovarian arteries resulting in vasovagal syncope. Complete autopsy report attached.
August 26: Maria Ramírez, mother of 13. Five months pregnant at time of death. Death estimated at approximately 4:15 pm from multiple trauma. Body discovered about an hour later when husband returned home from work. Children visiting grandparents at time of assault.
In each case the victim was kept alive during a sustained attack during which egregious mutilations occurred. The target of these attacks appears to be the uterus. Assailant(s) believed to possess some medical knowledge. It would be difficult to keep a victim alive and conscious throughout the assault.
Same modus operandi in every case.
"Thank you so much for coming, Heero. The Preventers have a problem we're not exactly mandated to deal with, but it's beyond the scope of the local police department. We believe Duo Maxwell might be a serial killer."
But was Duo Maxwell capable of this kind of carnage?
"So what makes you think it's Duo?"
"A webcam at a hotel across the street from a homicide captured him entering the building only a few hours before the body was discovered. He was recorded again some two months later by a traffic camera as he crossed an intersection in front of another crime scene. We don't know if he's the assailant, but it's certainly odd that he should show up on camera near two different murders within hours of discovery in both cases. We'd like you to investigate and find out the truth."
Physically capable, certainly. But psychologically? Only if he'd lost his mind.
"If it turns out that he is the killer, I don't need to remind you what you have to do. There isn't a prison in this galaxy that could hold Duo Maxwell for very long, and we can't afford to have him escape. Justice must be immediate...and permanent. You understand?"
"Understood."
"Good. If there's anything the Preventers can provide in the way of equipment or manpower, just say the-"
"I'll call you."
Maybe if he had a head injury or a brain tumor. Nothing less could turn what was possibly Heero's best friend into a psychotic sociopath. It wasn't his place to psychoanalyze Duo Maxwell, however. He was only here to determine whether Duo was a danger to society and needed to be destroyed.
Destroyed. As if he were a dog.
Why did Lady Une have to call Heero for this instead of Trowa or Wu Fei?
Or a puppy.
Not that it would necessarily be any easier for them. Didn't matter; he was committed to the mission now, and he had a job to do.
That had brought him here to the middle of 38th Street. The easiest way to investigate Maxwell would have been to simply knock at his apartment in the L2 cluster. Apparently he was still using it. But Heero hadn't seen Duo or any of the other pilots since the war ended nearly three years ago. Duo was no idiot; he'd suspect something was up if Heero suddenly dropped in out of the blue. He'd have to stage a 'chance' meeting on the street-track Maxwell to his next target and then bump into him from the other direction, opposite wherever Duo was headed. If he were a great actor that day or incredibly lucky, it might work. Couldn't think of a better way to connect with Maxwell convincingly, so he had no other choice.
Duo must have created a list of potential victims, possibly hacked from a government database. Heero therefore hacked into ESUN's Social Security records and hopefully secured a similar list. Assuming Duo had such a list, he didn't seem to be following it in any kind of logical order. More of a random basis. Fortunately for Heero, that randomness translated into 'nearest victim to his current location'. That put Duo somewhere downtown where he'd be close to various transportation lines. Heero eventually discovered the dingy motel he was staying in, and tracked him to a coffee shop on the corner. From there Duo could head in either direction, but Heero was betting on south. He'd have to go south if he wanted to catch a bus or the subway, so Heero headed that way and waited, briefcase and cell phone in hand. There was no one on the other end, but he needed to look like a typical suit.
The one thing working in his favor was that Maxwell was on Earth. It would be hard to explain Heero's presence in the L2 sector, but to run into Duo on essentially neutral territory anywhere else removed one tremendous obstacle. Dressed in a power suit and lugging a briefcase, Heero headed down the street with his cell phone in one ear. Hopefully Maxwell would believe he'd joined the corporate cubicle collective after the war.
The street was crowded with other suits, and reminded him of any street in New York, Tokyo or L1-C83925. Constant bustle and purpose, just not a purpose he was interested in. It would make it harder to see Duo with all these people in the way, but more credible to bump into someone 'accidentally'.
Until further notice, Heero was assuming Maxwell was the killer. The evidence would have to prove he was not, or his fate was sealed. But could Heero bring himself to kill Duo this time? He couldn't during the war.
Duo didn't commit atrocities like this during the war.
Unless there were murders the Preventers and the news media didn't know about yet, he was killing one per month, starting in April. Perhaps more, though. Like Jack the Ripper, Duo probably had earlier victims that were simply never connected to him-early experiments when he was still honing his skills. There seemed to be no pattern to the dates these women were murdered; some were assaulted on the weekends, some on weekdays. Heero would have to find out where Duo was working, if at all, and see what days he'd been absent. Financially, the victims seemed to span the spectrum. At least one of them was a celebrity, the star of a popular show called Donna's Dozen! which followed the travails of raising the world's first surviving set of duodecaplets.
DUOdecaplets. Was that what had set him off? All the public ovation of Donna Taylor? Why wasn't she his first victim then?
And what was keeping him?
One thing that bothered Heero was the coroner's report. 'Assailant believed to posses medical knowledge'? If so, it surely wasn't Duo...but Duo wouldn't need medical knowledge to learn how to keep a victim alive and conscious throughout an attack. He'd learn the hard way, the same way he did everything else.
At least that much hadn't changed about him. If the real Duo Maxwell was still inside him somewhere, Heero might be able to reason with him...but no. His orders were to kill. Why even consider the possibility that Duo might have a rational reason for this? There couldn't be a rational reason for this.
I can't just shoot someone without an explanation for his-
"Oh, man! I'm so sorry! Sorry, buddy...didn't see you there. Damn, I knocked your phone into the gutter. Wait, is that your cell over there on the curb? Sorry. I guess I just wasn't watching where I was-wait, Heero? Heero Yuy? No way! Is that you?"
Heero had been so absorbed in pondering the mystery of Duo the serial killer that he hadn't even noticed the pilot had left the coffee shop. The perpetual throng of people on this street had carried the two directly into each other, and it couldn't possibly have been more convincing. Heero tried to sort out two scenarios in his mind-the one where he was an old friend working for the corporate machine, and the one where he was a former gundam pilot tracking a potential murderer.
"Maxwell. Never expected to run into you in this city. Yeah, that's my cell. Thanks." He reached down and grabbed it, then quickly thought up something he'd likely say to someone on the other end right now. "Sorry, Mary. I dropped the phone. I'll call you back. Just ran into someone I used to know."
He shut off the phone and tossed it into his briefcase, then brushed off his jacket. "You all right?"
"Huh? Yeah, fine. Just a little shaken. So whatcha doing here? In a Perry Ellis suit, yet. Don't tell me you work for the Madison Avenue Mafia?"
"It seemed the best way to use my computer skills after the war."
"Heh. Should have joined you. I went into salvage after the war. You wouldn't believe how long a corpse can last in the fuselage of a floating wreck in space. Hey, you late for a meeting or something?"
"No. Why?"
"I'm staying in a little motel a few blocks from here. Got a little kitchenette with a fridge full of beer."
"Ah. Lead the way."
Next >>
Five victims. Same number as Jack the Ripper. Each with a large family-the one thing Duo didn't have.
April 11: Tanesha Williams, age 35, second trimester bigeminal pregnancy. Cause of death: multiple trauma. Killer was apparently interrupted during the attack, possibly by sound of children returning home from school. Victim suffered numerous mutilations antemortem, including removal of eyes with pointed object-probably a screwdriver-and amputation of digits. Severe lacerations around wrists and ankles where victim was restrained to bed posts with rope, indicating struggle. Traces of homemade chloroform found in mucous membranes of nose and mouth. Uterus was removed with a scalpel from the fundus to the labium majus, including all attendant musculature and ligaments. Fetal death occurred almost immediately.
May 2: Tiffany Anderson, 32. Homemaker, ten children. Victim was eight months pregnant at time of death. Cause of death: severance of ovarian arteries commensurate with removal of peritoneum. Death occurred at around 2:15 pm and took approximately 5 hours from infliction of first injury until mortal wound.
June 19: Eilish Cavanagh, undocumented alien on L2-V08744. Age and marital status uncertain. Pregnant; mother of 15. Victim died at approximately 1300. Removal of several organs (see attached diagram) using surgical scalpel.
July 8: Donna Taylor, 21. Cause of death severance of ovarian arteries resulting in vasovagal syncope. Complete autopsy report attached.
August 26: Maria Ramírez, mother of 13. Five months pregnant at time of death. Death estimated at approximately 4:15 pm from multiple trauma. Body discovered about an hour later when husband returned home from work. Children visiting grandparents at time of assault.
In each case the victim was kept alive during a sustained attack during which egregious mutilations occurred. The target of these attacks appears to be the uterus. Assailant(s) believed to possess some medical knowledge. It would be difficult to keep a victim alive and conscious throughout the assault.
Same modus operandi in every case.
"Thank you so much for coming, Heero. The Preventers have a problem we're not exactly mandated to deal with, but it's beyond the scope of the local police department. We believe Duo Maxwell might be a serial killer."
But was Duo Maxwell capable of this kind of carnage?
"So what makes you think it's Duo?"
"A webcam at a hotel across the street from a homicide captured him entering the building only a few hours before the body was discovered. He was recorded again some two months later by a traffic camera as he crossed an intersection in front of another crime scene. We don't know if he's the assailant, but it's certainly odd that he should show up on camera near two different murders within hours of discovery in both cases. We'd like you to investigate and find out the truth."
Physically capable, certainly. But psychologically? Only if he'd lost his mind.
"If it turns out that he is the killer, I don't need to remind you what you have to do. There isn't a prison in this galaxy that could hold Duo Maxwell for very long, and we can't afford to have him escape. Justice must be immediate...and permanent. You understand?"
"Understood."
"Good. If there's anything the Preventers can provide in the way of equipment or manpower, just say the-"
"I'll call you."
Maybe if he had a head injury or a brain tumor. Nothing less could turn what was possibly Heero's best friend into a psychotic sociopath. It wasn't his place to psychoanalyze Duo Maxwell, however. He was only here to determine whether Duo was a danger to society and needed to be destroyed.
Destroyed. As if he were a dog.
Why did Lady Une have to call Heero for this instead of Trowa or Wu Fei?
Or a puppy.
Not that it would necessarily be any easier for them. Didn't matter; he was committed to the mission now, and he had a job to do.
That had brought him here to the middle of 38th Street. The easiest way to investigate Maxwell would have been to simply knock at his apartment in the L2 cluster. Apparently he was still using it. But Heero hadn't seen Duo or any of the other pilots since the war ended nearly three years ago. Duo was no idiot; he'd suspect something was up if Heero suddenly dropped in out of the blue. He'd have to stage a 'chance' meeting on the street-track Maxwell to his next target and then bump into him from the other direction, opposite wherever Duo was headed. If he were a great actor that day or incredibly lucky, it might work. Couldn't think of a better way to connect with Maxwell convincingly, so he had no other choice.
Duo must have created a list of potential victims, possibly hacked from a government database. Heero therefore hacked into ESUN's Social Security records and hopefully secured a similar list. Assuming Duo had such a list, he didn't seem to be following it in any kind of logical order. More of a random basis. Fortunately for Heero, that randomness translated into 'nearest victim to his current location'. That put Duo somewhere downtown where he'd be close to various transportation lines. Heero eventually discovered the dingy motel he was staying in, and tracked him to a coffee shop on the corner. From there Duo could head in either direction, but Heero was betting on south. He'd have to go south if he wanted to catch a bus or the subway, so Heero headed that way and waited, briefcase and cell phone in hand. There was no one on the other end, but he needed to look like a typical suit.
The one thing working in his favor was that Maxwell was on Earth. It would be hard to explain Heero's presence in the L2 sector, but to run into Duo on essentially neutral territory anywhere else removed one tremendous obstacle. Dressed in a power suit and lugging a briefcase, Heero headed down the street with his cell phone in one ear. Hopefully Maxwell would believe he'd joined the corporate cubicle collective after the war.
The street was crowded with other suits, and reminded him of any street in New York, Tokyo or L1-C83925. Constant bustle and purpose, just not a purpose he was interested in. It would make it harder to see Duo with all these people in the way, but more credible to bump into someone 'accidentally'.
Until further notice, Heero was assuming Maxwell was the killer. The evidence would have to prove he was not, or his fate was sealed. But could Heero bring himself to kill Duo this time? He couldn't during the war.
Duo didn't commit atrocities like this during the war.
Unless there were murders the Preventers and the news media didn't know about yet, he was killing one per month, starting in April. Perhaps more, though. Like Jack the Ripper, Duo probably had earlier victims that were simply never connected to him-early experiments when he was still honing his skills. There seemed to be no pattern to the dates these women were murdered; some were assaulted on the weekends, some on weekdays. Heero would have to find out where Duo was working, if at all, and see what days he'd been absent. Financially, the victims seemed to span the spectrum. At least one of them was a celebrity, the star of a popular show called Donna's Dozen! which followed the travails of raising the world's first surviving set of duodecaplets.
DUOdecaplets. Was that what had set him off? All the public ovation of Donna Taylor? Why wasn't she his first victim then?
And what was keeping him?
One thing that bothered Heero was the coroner's report. 'Assailant believed to posses medical knowledge'? If so, it surely wasn't Duo...but Duo wouldn't need medical knowledge to learn how to keep a victim alive and conscious throughout an attack. He'd learn the hard way, the same way he did everything else.
At least that much hadn't changed about him. If the real Duo Maxwell was still inside him somewhere, Heero might be able to reason with him...but no. His orders were to kill. Why even consider the possibility that Duo might have a rational reason for this? There couldn't be a rational reason for this.
I can't just shoot someone without an explanation for his-
"Oh, man! I'm so sorry! Sorry, buddy...didn't see you there. Damn, I knocked your phone into the gutter. Wait, is that your cell over there on the curb? Sorry. I guess I just wasn't watching where I was-wait, Heero? Heero Yuy? No way! Is that you?"
Heero had been so absorbed in pondering the mystery of Duo the serial killer that he hadn't even noticed the pilot had left the coffee shop. The perpetual throng of people on this street had carried the two directly into each other, and it couldn't possibly have been more convincing. Heero tried to sort out two scenarios in his mind-the one where he was an old friend working for the corporate machine, and the one where he was a former gundam pilot tracking a potential murderer.
"Maxwell. Never expected to run into you in this city. Yeah, that's my cell. Thanks." He reached down and grabbed it, then quickly thought up something he'd likely say to someone on the other end right now. "Sorry, Mary. I dropped the phone. I'll call you back. Just ran into someone I used to know."
He shut off the phone and tossed it into his briefcase, then brushed off his jacket. "You all right?"
"Huh? Yeah, fine. Just a little shaken. So whatcha doing here? In a Perry Ellis suit, yet. Don't tell me you work for the Madison Avenue Mafia?"
"It seemed the best way to use my computer skills after the war."
"Heh. Should have joined you. I went into salvage after the war. You wouldn't believe how long a corpse can last in the fuselage of a floating wreck in space. Hey, you late for a meeting or something?"
"No. Why?"
"I'm staying in a little motel a few blocks from here. Got a little kitchenette with a fridge full of beer."
"Ah. Lead the way."
Next >>