Stargazer – I
My cell rattled against the chair where my suitcoat landed when I shrugged it off. I’d stepped onto the motel balcony, staring into Wyeth County’s coal black sky. A million stars spattered white-hot pinpricks of light into the black. I needed the break from a tough week. My cell wasn’t having it, rattling like a bumble bee trapped in a tin can.
I’m a Union City homicide detective on loan to Wyeth County. Union City has homicides. Wyeth County doesn’t. Or didn’t. Wyeth County is remote and sparsely populated, boringly slow and quiet. Until the homicides. Not that Wyeth’s homicide rate compares to Union City’s. Three in two weeks. Violent deaths but indeterminate causes. Like laser burns but boring holes through the victims like a steel rod. No burns. Well-placed shots. Or whatever. One vic took it between his eyes over his beezer. The female took it below her left nipple through her heart. The third, a male, looked like someone pushed a pencil through the center of his forehead clean through his skull.
There seemed no motive. No relationship between the vics. Except. They all worked Project Stargazer, analyzing Pegasus Deep Space Stellar Survey data. I questioned the project lead, an older professorial type, Doctor Evers. He let it slip they’d stumbled into undeniable confirmation of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Yeah, right. Nervous I guess, him being alone now.
On the third ring-rattle I answered, “Bardsden. What’s up?”
Sheriff Watson sounded a little rattled. Not the old-school sheriff I’d met two days earlier. “We have another one. Evers. You need to take a look. On the road into Pegasus.”
I stupidly responded. “I’m on the way.”
“Might be the last chance you get up close,” Sheriff Watson offered.
“Why?”
“Rarely get calls from the state. Tonight, got one from Washington. There’s more alphabet headed this way than there is in a can of soup – FBI, CIA, NSA. Be here in the morning. Something’s up.”
– – –
The Sheriff’s men were securing the scene for the night when I pulled up. The Union City forensics tech narrated my tour. “Car was parked. Whatever it was, went through the windshield. Except for the hole, never disturbed the glass. Through the vic’s skull, the seat, the floorboard. Bored into the pavement. Hole goes on forever. We’ll check it out tomorrow.”
I thanked the tech. He left. The floodlamps went out. I glanced into the dark Wyeth County sky. Something pushed me two feet to the left. I heard nothing. Saw nothing on the ground. Smelled something. Something strange. A second something pushed me aside, but I saw a razor thin ray of light. Light, I guess.
Following the trajectory of whatever it was, I again stared into the stars. Four glowed oddly bigger and brighter, pulsating in a rotating circle. No pattern. Abruptly, they disappeared. Gone. Completely. Beats the hell outta me. Whatever alphabet is in charge tomorrow can figure it out. I need some sleep.
© 2020 spwilcenski
Exposed by TheProse 5/15/2020; spwilcenwrites “Episodic Fiction – June 15, 2020”
Stargazer – II
“Okay, Sheriff. Watson, is it?”
“Yeah. And your name again is?”
“Spangler, FBI. You saw my credentials.”
“Seen so many the last few days, I don’t pay much attention anymore.”
“Why’s that?”
“All this outside help doesn’t seem to be doing much good.”
“I don’t understand Sheriff. Let’s take it from the top, shall we?”
“Sure. Your show now.”
“Sort of. We’re kind of doing legwork for the big boys.”
“CIA and NSA?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s in charge?”
“Not up to me. They’ll sort it out.”
“While the FBI investigates?”
“Something like that. Now. Catch me up on the basics. Four murders…”
“Pretty spooky. I mean murders. Or whatever. FBI, sure. Noted scientists and all. But the CIA? The NSA? For serial murders?”
“Not my decision, Sheriff. Okay. Four murders…”
“Five, now.”
“Alright, five murders…”
“If it’s murder.”
“What?”
“Doesn’t seem natural.”
“Exactly how’s that?”
“Unless someone has a ray-gun or a laser something or other. You been briefed?”
“Mmm. In a hurry. Just got here this morning. Look like gunshots?”
“At first.”
“Okay let’s back up. The first victim…”
“Benjamin Phillips. Took it through the head right at the bridge of his nose.”
“Shot?”
“Dunno.”
“What’d the crime lab say?”
“Union City still has no idea. They’ve been kinda pushed aside. They’re pretty steamed.”
“Pushed aside by the Bureau?”
“Yup. Your people. They dunno either. They think some kind of laser too. Pretty tight-lipped.”
“Second victim. The woman?”
“Doctor Elanor Lipton. Second senior scientist at Stargazer.”
“Shot?”
“Whatever. Your call. Right through the heart.”
“Third?”
“Stanton Perview. Smack through the center of his forehead.”
“Shot?”
“Okay, let’s call it that. Easier.”
“Number four?”
“Doctor Llewelyn Evers. Stargazer Project Lead. Parked in his car, I guess.”
“Best evidence at the scene, you said?”
“Yeah, because he was parked. Dunno why, but he was.”
Go on.”
“Hole in the glass kind of cauterized. No burn though. No shattering, no blistering. Just a hole.
Same with the hole in his head. Whatever went through Evers’ head, the seatback, the floorboard of the car and into the asphalt. Pencil thin. Bottomless hole. Lab people are still playing with it.”
“That’s when they called me. Odd, the Stargazer team. Private funding but the NSA knew about it…”
“Why?”
“It’s their job. When anyone drops a penny, they know. They dragged us along for forensics.”
“Us?”
“The FBI.”
“So what were they studying at Stargazer?”
“That, the NSA people don’t talk about. Maybe they don’t know. Yet.”
“Dunno, but Bardsden, Union City Homicide Detective, said he had a wild idea.”
“Maybe grabbing at straws?”
“Maybe. Seemed pretty savvy. Nice guy, really.”
“We’ll get to that. Victim five?”
“Looked like the murderer, murderers, whatever, were trying to make a point.”
“Howzat?”
“Shot or whatever twice. Through the head and through the heart. Belt and suspenders.”
“Belt and suspenders?”
“It’s an old saying. Cover all your bets. Leave nothing to chance. Like he, they, it, wanted to make sure. Or send a message. A warning.”
“That’s it?”
“Well the lab boys, your FBI lab boys are still poking fingers in holes in concrete and asphalt adjacent to the shooting. Or whatever.”
“This Union City cop?”
“Yeah, Bardsden. Nice guy. Seemed so. Phoned he had some thoughts. Said it was really off the wall stuff.”
“That all?”
“That’s all he said. Said he was tired. Was going to bed when we talked on the phone.”
“Let’s go have a talk with him.”
“Tough to do.”
“Why?”
“Bardsden was the fifth victim. Guess you couldn’t know.”
© 2020 spwilcenski
Exposed by TheProse 5/29/2020; spwilcenwrites “Episodic Fiction – June 15, 2020”
Ramblings 