In 2149, a murder has occurred in one of Dennis Mulhearn’s buildings.
Since the cops knew it was a crime scene, they took their time sending in the scanners. The main one hovered in the center of the room, up near the ceiling, sending out multi-colored rays of light. Two more, buoyed by helium sacs, were much closer to the floor. These infra-scanners started at the edges of the room and worked their way towards the center. The whole process took about fifteen minutes.
The room appeared in 3D above a six-by-six foot sheet the police techs had spread on the hallway floor. The woman’s body lay in a pool of digital blood. The tech grabbed the image and pulled us in closer, rotating the room model so that we were looking at the victim’s face.
“Recognize her?” I shook my head.
He made a gesture, and several sets of glowing footprints appeared on the floor. Those low-floating infra-scanners could pick up shit no human tech ever could.
“These are mine,” I said, pointing at the heavy lug marks crisscrossing the room. The tech made another gesture and my prints went from white to blue. He cursed, moved his hand again, and they winked out.
He matched the bottoms of her shoes to another set of prints, and those turned blue. The final set of prints became red, and you could read their deadly dance on the floor of the digital model.
She had entered the room. He approached her from a corner and she backed away. Her prints were scuffled together, while his barely moved. To my eye, that showed he had enough training to position his body in order to manipulate hers. He’d used a weapon, and then squatted beside her – probably to take whatever she’d been carrying. Then the prints made straight for the door.
*****
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