Forty-two minutes later, three blocks to the south-east

The low building looked like a skyscraper tipped on its side, with identical apartments lined up next to each other. The home of Jeanenne S. Namera was right at the end of the building, identical to its neighbours if not for the drones keeping watch over it.

"Here we are", Samuel Waters said after stepping out of the car. "This is where miss Namera was killed two days ago. The recording I showed was from the camera over there." He pointed at a camera mounted on a nearly identical house across the narrow street. "No cameras inside, so let's go take a look ourselves, shall we?"

He opened the door with his Argus card and entered the small apartment. "It's a bit of a mess, I'm afraid", he said over his shoulder.

The door led directly into a room that took up most of the small apartment, apparently serving as both kitchen and living room. Directly to the right was a dining room table with a single chair and along the right wall was a stove, sink and other assorted kitchen furniture.

On the floor between was the body of a woman, lying on her back. Her throat appeared to have been cut, though much more brutally than the fairly clean cut that had ended John Brown's life, and her face badly beaten to the point that it was barely recognizable as a human face.

Samuel Waters looked almost as pale as the corpse in front of him. "A preliminary scan suggests at least some of her wounds come from a similar blade to the one used on Brown and Lankin." He took a deep breath and regained some of his composure. "Same deal as with the other bodies, we've sprayed her with antidecomp and as soon as you're done here it's off to autopsy."

He turned away from the body and walked into the room ahead. Aside from a bed, most of the room was occupied by several computers, monitors and other equipment. In a corner, there was a trash can smelling of smoke. "Namera was officially unemployed, but she has two convictions for illegally manipulating security systems and was a person of interest in a dozen similar cases. Apparently, she had something of a reputation as a security expert in some circles."

Waters walked back into the main room and past the kitchen, obviously careful not to look at the body, and into the final room of the apartment, a small bathroom. It contained nothing but a sink, a shower and a toilet - currently overflowing with what luckily appeared to be nothing but water.

"Here's the window I mentioned", he said and pointed to the small window in the back of the room. "The alley outside isn't under surveillance, so technically a person might be able to squeeze in or out."

Spoiler: Map of the scene
Show