Just Lookin Around

It was a hot summer day, outside. The wind blowing through the trees was hot and humid like Oklahoma is this time of year. They always say that it wasn't the heat that would get to you it was the humidity, they were right. One step out the door and sweat would start to run off his body. This is the reason the gods invented air-conditioning.

Inside his climate controlled room Max looked out the window and felt sorry for the commuters that had no a/c in their cars in the streets below. He was there sitting at his computer again. The people who consider themselves his parents were worried about his obsession with his computers. He however, knew what he was doing.

His parents died in a car wreck a few years ago and he was sent to live with his closest relatives. The pair that own the apartment drew the short stick so to speak. He gathered all his hardware and software, some clothes and his most treasured possessions. All told he gathered enough to fill his loft and sold the rest. He still missed them if he sat and thought about it too much. Their pictures still lived on his hard drive. He always lived on his hard drive

The terminal window running a brute force hack in suddenly sprang into the front of the view. He examined it closely and realized it had finished its run, successfully. It was a game he had. He was always trying something new. He was always trying to be where he wasn't supposed to. He had the best hack in the city. He had found a way into the most secure site in town. He was Elite.

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A terminal in a basement of the local police station came on suddenly illuminating the empty room. A skeleton crew of officers were around tonight. Graveyard shift meant the detectives not working cases were in bed. Some with their own wives, some with other peoples wives and some with complete strangers. Then again there was Sam. He was always alone. He worked the hard cases, the cases no one would ever think of working. Sam was a stand up guy. He lived his life by a strict code of ethics and sometimes that meant he lost people.

He was out tonight. The heat of the night was typical in this summer. the building was one of those built at the beginning of the city. The old brick face weathered with age, the old wooden windows replaced with energy efficient aluminum and triple pain glass.  The tenants were paying a month what the building cost to build new. The building had a state of the art security system that meant Sam should not be here tonight.

The grizzly murders had been too hard for most of the beat cops that showed up so the scene was left for him. He liked it that way. He was good at getting into the mind of the killer, or killers. Sam walked into the room carefully, the heat of the day had strengthened the smell of blood and bile that soaked the carpet and walls. He barely flinched when he looked at the bodies. The air conditioning should have held the scene at a stable temperature but, it wasn’t working properly. The windows were closed and the skylights turned the loft into a hot box. Sam looked into the room.

"Three bodies, two male one female, been dead a while. We'll let the coroner determine time of death." He said into his handheld digital recorder as he examined the room.

Most other detectives used pads to write on while reviewing a scene. Sam didn’t take his eyes off the scene long enough to look at a pad of paper. Besides the computers at the station accepted the audio to put into his files. The thoughts came into his mind and the recorder before he looked at the entire scene. An officer’s first thoughts upon entering a scene were always important to Sam. Guys on the force who used a pad would sometimes wait until the end of the walkthrough to write what they thought happened. Sam wanted every detail to stand out. He started talking as soon as he hit the door

"OK male 1 on the bed gunshot to his head. Quick and clean, a kill shot. Male 2 again in bed hole directly between his eyes. Just thoughts gangland style. Coulda been a hit. Coulda been a statement."

"Single female near the bathroom door. Shot through the abdomen and chest. Will have to get her to the lab and look. Too much blood on her for quick shots. Too much blood in the room for the good kill shots"

Sam slowly looked over every detail of the room as he approached the bed. Blood pooled and started to dry on the bedding covering the two men. He removes the bedding slowly to preserve any evidence that remained. The sight that met him was out of some horror movie. The two men had been opened from neck down and the insides removed. The coroner would have to say, but, to Sam they looked like medical tools were used to cut away the pieces.

"Damn insides gone on both men. Girl must have interrupted the killer in the process. Wrong place at the wrong time. Damned grizzly scene.“ Sam said as his head sunk lower. Memories started flooding back into his head. “Fuck he's back."

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Max stared at the computer screen looking at what he thought were pictures of the latest batch of bad murders in the city. The pool of evidence logged was becoming rediculous. The pictures of the men killed throughout the city were bad. He had no taste in the killings. Murder wasn’t one of his hobbies, it was just the latest thing the cops were looking into. He would have been happy looking at the way his friends had been caught speeding or smoking pot. He did look up who got arrested for public intox and where. Hell he was young and needed to know where the parties were.

It was a game for him to come in and look around a computer system and see where he was. He would get an ip address from somewhere on the net and try to find out what it is without help. It had worked for him so far and it was the way he had become elite in his little circle. This computer he was pretty sure was one of the officer’s computers downtown. It had all the evidence from the murders and even the greusome pictures that the cops take to document the scenes. Man this guy was one sick fuck. He read the papers on what this guy had done but it didn’t come close to the crime scene photos. The papers left out a lot of what was going on at the scene. Of course they couldn’t put out what the guy was really doing there. Hell even the cops weren’t sure what he was doing. Body parts missing, internal organs removed and nothing was found at the scene to lead them to the freak. Max was disgusted by the sight but it was like the proverbial train wreck, he couldn’t look away.

He read the reports some of the cops had written about the killer, or killers for that fact. No one knew if there was only one or if it was a cult. ‘The bodies were taken apart as if to me used in some ritual’ one report had said. ‘It looks like the organs were surgically removed as if to be sold on the black market’ another had stated. What it meant was the cops really didn’t know what was being done at the scene or why. It was all just a guessing game at this point. The one overriding fact was there was no evidence left at the scene to tell the cops who was behind it. Then he realized what he was looking at was a case that was open but years old.

Suddenly new pictures started popping up in the file. New ugly pictures of more murders, body cavities empty and bullet holes in the heads. Blood soaked the beds and walls. It was a messy scene but, in a way it was neat and tidy. The bodies were positioned as if on an operating room table. However, even an operating room wouldn’t have this much blood.

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Sam was back at his desk the next day deciding to go through his old case files and look at what had happened before. A few years ago the department had caught up with the world and started digitizing all the files. However, Sam still had the originals in his file drawers in his office. He called it an office and the other detectives laughed at him. He was the one who had the broom closet in the basement that no one ever looked into. It was a laugh for everyone but him. He looked at it as a way he didn’t have to deal with the people who criticized every thing he did on a daily basis. From this office he had closed cases that no one else would touch. He had space to put up the pictures of the grizzly scenes and no one would get sick when they glanced at them.

He pulled the file he was looking for to refresh his memory. The scenes were bad. The pictures were ugly. But, they weren’t as collected as the scene from last night. The file looked amatureish compared to the delicate cuts that were made at this one.

“Maybe it isn’t him.” he said, more hopeful than anything, as the phone rang.



“Knight here” he said as he answered the phone.

“Detective this is lance at the morgue you had questions on the bodies brought in last night?” It was the assistant coroner on the other end of the line. This was not a good sign since it usually meant that the lead coroner was still looking at the bodies and sent his assistant to as the officer to come down.

“OK don’t even ask I’m on my way” Sam said as he hung up the phone and grabbed his coat.

On the drive to the morgue he went over the scene in his mind. The blood and emptiness came into his mind. The biggest question still roaming around that empty space in the back of his head. He could not get it out.

The morgue was a place of rest for the unfortunate to have been involved in some kind of questionable situation. It was located in the heart of old downtown. The classic brick buildings had to be renovated to suit other kinds of buisnesses  but the old meat packing plant was a great building to be used for the morgue. The freezers were still intact and the cattle trade had moved to a better location closer to the railroad tracks. They had better ways to move and store beef now. However, human bodies didn’t need the size of facilities the beef industry needed. It was Oklahoma after all and the heart of beef country ran through here every day.

The interior had been refitted to house the bodies and three autopsy rooms. Sam had a badge that let him in the door without needing to be buzzed in. It is a sad state of affairs when the detective is there enough that they give him the key to the front door and any subsequent doors he needs into. He buzzed himself in and found Lance walking down the corridor towards him.

“Hey Lance” He said and offered his hand in the usual gesture.

Lance took his hand and shook it politely but with no real greeting in mind. “Yea Sam the doc wanted to see you as soon as you got here. He is in O.R. 3.”

“He say anything about why he wanted to see me?”

“Your case I’m sure,” Lance said a little too smugly for Sam’s taste.

“You think so Sherlock?” He said as he looked Lance in the eyes. Sam had a way of staring down hardened criminals that translated into a don’t fuck with me attitude to the normal people Lancer got the message and shut up for the rest of the walk.

"What's up Doc?" It was a standard greeting that the coroner is used to. But Sam did it because he knew the "doc" washed out in the world of the living and had to exist int the world of the medical examiner. Doc Hated the small dig into his pride.

"OK look the guys you sent here were operated on."

"You mean the organs were surgically removed?"

"No they have all had operations to replace body parts. Come in here I will show you." The coroner said as he turned to move to the O.R.. "It was small but, whoever removed the body parts took the synthetic organs and the real ones. Look here." He said as he opened a coffin on the wall.

Sam looked inside and the doc pointed to a couple or wires that were too small to notice in the blood and gore of the crime scene. Two simple wire ends that were used to provide power to the electronic heart that one of the men had implanted.

"What the fuck?"

"It looks like the organs, natural or synthetic, were removed in a manner to preserve them in whole and working."

"What the fuck?'

"Yes" The coroner said looking at Sam. "Black market?"

"Worse than that." Sam said as his face turned white. He turned and walked out the door. He didn't even notice when Lance mentioned something to him as he left.

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Max came home that day after talking about the murders to his friends at school. It was the hot topic and he was the center of the conversation. He knew all the inside scoop. He was the one everyone wanted to hear from. He enjoyed being the center of attention for once in his life. He had been overshadowed by the jocks and the popular kids his entire life. Now it was his turn. He told everyone details that weren't in the newspapers. He amazed the popular crowd with the amount of information he knew. He retold the story of the latest killings several times that day. Everyone wanted to talk to him.

Max unlocked the front door and let himself into the house. He went to the kitchen and made himself a snack. A message was left on the refrigerator which told him that his aunt and uncle would not be home until late so he was to do his homework and get to bed on time. He read that to mean that he was alone for the night and wouldn't need to worry about being interrupted in the middle of something. This happened quite often around the house. His aunt and uncle had no kids of their own so they didn't know how to act with a teen in the house. His night was his own. He was free. A freedom he had only learned of after his parents died.

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Sam showed up at work the next day with a note on his desk. Terry from IT needed to speak to him. He wondered what the IT guy wanted with him. Sam had been notorious for making sure all the ts were crossed and the is dotted. He had been instrumental in making sure that the other officers were using the computer to input their cases when the department started making them use the things. He was the one who was put in charge of making sure the old documents were being digitized. IT was his friend.

But it was only a working relationship. He kept having trouble with IT because they wouldn't let him do what he needed to do to get his job done. Since the IT department had come into the department he couldn't do the hacking he used to do. It wasn't legal to hack into people's home computers to get their information. But, He went on with life because he was first and foremost a detective.

He picked up the phone and reluctantly dialed Terry's extension.

"IT this is Terry"

"Yea Terry this is Sam. I got a note."

"Hey Sam something is weird with your files on the server."

"Weird? What's weird? Those files are on there just as I want them. I told you guys I put the files in the way that I want and I don't want you fucking with them." The guys in IT had their filing system and Sam had his. He hated it when they tried to make him conform to their way of filing.

"Hang on Sam that's not what I am talking about. Give me a minute."

"What the fuck man?" Sam said loosing his patience.

"How many times have you accessed the files?"

"Well if you start by telling me which files I am accessing I may be able to tell you."

"The files of the parts thief."

"Well some of the new cases have the same smell so I have been looking at them again. Where the big deal it is an old case I'm just looking it over?"

"OK but have you accessed the files from your house or on your laptop?"

"Terry you know I input all my stuff here at the station. Less possibility that it will get fucked up in transfer that way."

"Then we have a big problem. I have a remote access to your files. The parts thief only. Most of the access went undetected until now. I'm running a new...


"What the fuck!" Sam practically yelled into the receiver. "Do you have an  address for me?"

Sam wrote the address as he hung up the phone. He almost ran out of the building to go check out the lead.

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Max heard the doorbell ring as he was closing the door.

"Just a minute." He yelled as he headed to the front door of the home. As he approached the door he heard the knock. It was a police knock. Everyone knew that knock. He had seen it many times on tv and in the movies.

He opened the door and asked "What can I do for you officer?"

"Hello son are your parents at home?" Sam asked as he looked in through the door.

"First of all they aren't my parents they're my aunt and uncle. Second No they aren't at home."

"Well can I ask you a few questions son?"

"You aren't my dad so stop the son stuff. But, yes you can ask me questions."

"Are there any computers in the house?" Sam asked attempting to look unassuming.

"There are mine up in my room those are the only ones in the house. My aunt and uncle use them at work and don't like them in the house."

"Do you mind if I take a look at your computer?" Sam said again in his most polite voice.

"You can if you have a warrant." Max said with a smirk on his face. He knew his hacks were untraceable.

Sam pulled a warrant out of his pocket and waved at Terry behind him. "This is a warrant to search the house and any computer in it for evidence of illegally accessing private and public systems. Now you will tell my associate where your computer is and you and I will have a talk."

Sam took Max into he living room in handcuffs and sat him on the sofa as Terry went to work on Max's computer.

"Tell me what you know about the recent murders in town?" Sam asked knowing that Max was the one hacking into his computer files.

The interrogation went on for the next two hours as Terry looking through Max's computer. Terry came down the stairs looked at Sam and shook his head indicating that he wanted to see Sam alone.

"Sam, there was nothing on his computer in his room. They do have a wireless dsl modem so they either have a laptop or it was someone leaching onto their system."

"OK kid you got a laptop?" Sam said looking at Max.

"No, but my uncle does for work. Sometimes he brings home work late." Max said trying to keep his smile hidden on the inside. "Hellen hates it when he does but sometimes he has to do work here."

"OK Terry you can go. I'm gonna wait for the relatives."

"As long as we are just waiting is there any way I can get these cuff off?"

"You aren't gonna do anything funny are ya Kid?" Sam said taking out his key and unlocking the cuffs. "You got a nice place here kid. The relatives must be loaded. Mind if I look around?"

"No it's my place, they just live here with me." Sam heard Max say as he felt a sting at the back of his neck. As he turned around to see what happened he lost consciousness.

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The phone on Sam's desk rang and the detective next to him picked it up.

"Sam this is the doc." The coroner said in a hurried tone.

"Sam is out this is Jim. What ya got doc?"

"It is the bodies he brought in. Their tox screen came back. They were tranqed. The gunshots were cause of death but, they were alive through the disection. They were paralyzed with a neurotoxin while they were being cut on. We found the needle mark on the back of their necks.