Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 08:39:50 -0800 (PST) From: "Lori Hansen" To: crystal@duke.poly.edu (Crystal) Subject: LOG: Alex in Yarro Message-ID: Alex's search for Rhys continues, day in and day out, for the next couple of weeks. Each day she's no closer to finding him than she was the day before. Frustrated, tired, and nearing the end of her credit line, Alex returns to her rented room to contemplate what she should do next. She flips on the vidifax, sees that it's running through the daily news and turns the audio on. "The weather for the greater metro area is..." Alex lies flat on her back on the bed, thinking, and idly listening to the news. *Ah haven't found 'im yet, an' at this rate, it ain't likely Ah AM gonna find 'im.* She sighs. The news launches into a story about some tourists who were eaten by a local attraction at the zoo. Their surviving relatives were then charged for breaking the planet ordinance restricting visitors from feeding the animals. *My credit's runnin' low...Ah s'pose Ah could contact someone back on Ballybran fer a loan...or mebbe take a menial job heah...* She sighs again. *Or mebbe give up an' return home...* On the news: Ten people killed in a massive hovercraft collision over the stadium. Authorities urge anyone who finds the scattered body parts to turn them over to the morgue. *Givin' up ain't a option, Alexandra Marie Behrens* she scolds herself, then flips over onto her stomach, burying her head under her pillow. *So now whut do Ah do?* The vidifax news drones on. Alex pulls her head out from under the pillow as the anchor tells a story that catches her interest. She crawls to the edge of the bed, kneeling there, watching the digital display. "Authorities have found the remains of a local Yarro man, who, sources say, appears to have been severely beaten to death. The victim, a man in his late third decade, also apparently suffered multiple fractures and stab wounds. The victim's identity has not been released, pending notification of his surivors. Most notable is the victim's missing hand. There are no suspects at this time." The anchor pauses and waits for his next cue before reading again from his teleprompter. "Authorities request anyone who may come across a severed hand to please bring it to their local police station..." Alex frowns as the news anchor continues babbling about the alarming increase in lost body parts floating around Yarro. *Missing hand....* she shakes her head and moves back to recline on the bed once more. *Naw..it cain't be.* A number of days later, Alex is in a local eaterie, mechanically meeting her body's daily food requirements, when her symbiont enhanced hearing catches the conversation of a couple of nearby patrons. "Yeah, they're saying we might have a serial killer here on Yarro," one woman tells another. "They say this killer likes to cut off the hands of his victims, and damned if they can figure out what he's using to do it with!" The second woman babbles excitedly back to the first, "Well, look at this!" The click of a button. "Look, the media got a picture of one of the victims..." Alex turns around and peers at the hologram being displayed by the day's newsholo. She walks over to the table where the two women are sitting. They look up at her curiously, with a bit of annoyance. Alex smiles apologetically and studies the picture of the arm, clearly displaying its lack of a hand. "Well, Ah'll be..." she breathes. The ladies are about to protest her intrusion when she smiles again and retreats. Alex abandons the rest of her sandwich and pays her bill. Smiling to the waitress who served her she hurries out of the restaurant, heading straight for the police station. Affecting the local accent, she speaks politely to the large, burly man on duty in the reception area. "Excuse me, sir?" she smiles charmingly up at him, "My name is Leslie Mentel and I am a criminology student at the University.... " she digs through her satchel and flashes an ident card at the man, stuffing it away again before he has a chance to take a good look at it, "And I was wondering if I could talk to someone regarding the recent rash of killings that has been plaguing our planet?" The man frowns at her and begins to object, "Please, sir...I am working on a project where we try to piece together tidbits of information to try and come up with evidence and/or clues to lead to the offender...it would be really fantastic if I could use this case as a basis for my project..?" She smiles again and looks hopefully up at the man. A few hours later she's back out on the street, her datapad full of information. She returns to her hotel room and sits at the terminal. She pulls up a map of the immediate vicinity then starts looking through the notes she took while talking to the police officers and starts plotting points on the map of where each victim has been found recently. Putting her datapad aside, she studies the map on the screen, and the blinking points of light that indicate the area in which the bodies had been discovered. She frowns. "He cain't be that close..." She looks at the map some more and shakes her head. "Cannee?" She clears the screen, gathers up her things and packs her satchel. Heading down to the lobby, she checks out of her room, going out to her rented hovercar. She hops in and speeds off towards the area in which she believes she'll find what she's looking for.