Karþied, Esplandia
Saturday Morning
5:58am
Even this early a small crowd had already started to gather. Isuld Arhaldsen blasted his horn, startling a group of rubberneckers. They jumped back at the sound giving him spiteful glares. He blared his car siren but it took a Folkgeraf in uniform to clear the crowd and direct the Inscearwarer to a place to park.
Vith-Inscearwarer Hilden Orberrad met him as he got out of the car, a piping hot cup of coffee in hand.
“Sorry about the crowd,” Hilden said. “They just started showing up in the last fifteen minutes.”
“It’s Lakeside.Nothing ever happens here so they all gotta come out to take a look.” He took the coffee and sipped it. It was black and rich and hot. Just what he needed for such an early morning. “Where’s the body?”
Hilden gestured for him to follow. They walked through the park, the grass still wet with morning dew. They headed towards the lake shore, crossing a paved jogging path and climbed down the rocky slope to a narrow gravel beach between the park and a thicket of reeds and cattails.
Two men waited near the waters edge watching the Crime Scene specialists wade around among the reeds, taking photographs and poking about the scene. Isuld greeted them as he approached.
“They got you out of bed this early, Eadulf?”
Eadulf Walferstan was a scraggly looking old man, his graying beard and hair unkempt. He was the coroner for the ministry and was granted leeway in his appearance due to the nature of his work. “I guess somebody had to ruin my weekend,” he said.
Isuld smiled at him, offering a cigarette. The coroner waved it away.
Turning o the other man, Isuld greeted him as well. “What’ve we got, Berhald?”
Berhald was the opposite of the old coroner. He was clean shaven, his entire appearance neat and perfect, his blue and gray uniform crisp and pressed. “Joggers spotted the woman’s body in the reeds around 4:39 am,” he reported. “A Civil Order Folkgeraf was dispatched to check it out. That’s when they called us in.”
He directed them closer to the reeds. Eadulf stayed back but Hilden and Isuld stepped forward until the water was to the tips of their shoes.
The uniformed Folkgerafs were hip deep in the water documenting everything. Another man dressed in protective gear was preparing the body to be pulled out of the water.
The body, a woman with dark brown hair that Isuld guessed was in her late twenties, floating face up in the water. She was wearing a dark gray suit top and skirt, with a lavender blouse underneath. One of her feet was wearing a black high heeled shoe. The other foot was bare, the other shoe nowhere to be seen.
“Anyone ID her yet?”
Berhald pulled out a plastic evidence bag and passed it over. Inside was a waterlogged wallet. The wallet, a red leather clutch, held a number of credit cards and at least two hundred Crown Florents. So it hadn’t been a robbery.
Her ID was still in its display sleeve. “Ah, fuck.” he said seeing the emblem of the Iraelian government on the ID. “She’s a foreign official.”
“Shimiri Yuval, Secretary of the Iraelian Embassy Cultural Attache. Age 33.” He read the ID out loud, holding it up for Hilden to read as well.
“Initial assessment of the body shows no sign of violence,” Berhaldinformed them. “No cuts, no bruises, and no scrapes.”
If we’re lucky, hopefully this is just an accidental drowning,” Hilden said with a tone that was obvious he didn’t expect it to be an accident.
The body was pulled out of the water and laid out on a black bag.
“What do you think, doc?” Isuld asked turning to Eadulf.
The coroner stepped forward and began examining the body. While he looked Isuld took a camera from one of the Folkgeraf and took pictures of the body until Eadulf stood up.
“Without a full autopsy we won’t know for sure, but I noticed some discoloration on her lips and fingertips. That could indicate asphyxiation, or possibly a number of toxins.”
Isuld took closer pictures of those areas.
“How did you notice that?” Hilden asked. “I can’t even see a difference.”
“I’m old, not blind. At least not yet.”
The body was carefully zipped up into the bag and lifted onto a stretcher at the top of the embankment.
“Alright. We’ll have to speak with the Iraelians and get clearance to perform an autopsy. See if there’s any religious restrictions about that. In the meantime, Eadulf, do what you can once they get her to your office. Anything that looks suspicious I want to know about right away.”
The old man nodded and headed off after the stretcher to ride back with it in the ambulance.
Isuld handed the wallet back to Berhald who gathered it and went to make sure the scene was thoroughly investigated.
“What do you think?” Hilden asked.
“I think we need to retrace her last night. Find out who saw her last. I want to know every move she made and every place she went in the last twenty-four to forty-eighth hours. The embassy is probably the place to stop first after we report back to the Ministry. Let’s go.”
They climbed back up the slope to stand on the jogging path.
“Looks like our day’s getting worse,” Hilden said gesturing towards the police cordon.
Isuld looked and sighed. “The press is already here?” Three news vans had already pulled up and cameras were rolling.
“A body found in Lakeside was bound to draw attention. You want to deal with them?”
“Why? Do you want to talk to the old man?”
Hilden grimaced at the mention of the Minister of Foreign affairs. “I’ll talk to the press. You can deal with him.”
“Tell you the truth,” Isuld mused, “right now I’d rather deal with the old man in one of his moods than call my ex-wife. She’s gonna be fucking livid.”
Hilden raised a quizzical eyebrow.
“I’m supposed to have the kid this weekend.”
Black Flies - Ben Howard
Saturday Morning
5:58am
Even this early a small crowd had already started to gather. Isuld Arhaldsen blasted his horn, startling a group of rubberneckers. They jumped back at the sound giving him spiteful glares. He blared his car siren but it took a Folkgeraf in uniform to clear the crowd and direct the Inscearwarer to a place to park.
Vith-Inscearwarer Hilden Orberrad met him as he got out of the car, a piping hot cup of coffee in hand.
“Sorry about the crowd,” Hilden said. “They just started showing up in the last fifteen minutes.”
“It’s Lakeside.Nothing ever happens here so they all gotta come out to take a look.” He took the coffee and sipped it. It was black and rich and hot. Just what he needed for such an early morning. “Where’s the body?”
Hilden gestured for him to follow. They walked through the park, the grass still wet with morning dew. They headed towards the lake shore, crossing a paved jogging path and climbed down the rocky slope to a narrow gravel beach between the park and a thicket of reeds and cattails.
Two men waited near the waters edge watching the Crime Scene specialists wade around among the reeds, taking photographs and poking about the scene. Isuld greeted them as he approached.
“They got you out of bed this early, Eadulf?”
Eadulf Walferstan was a scraggly looking old man, his graying beard and hair unkempt. He was the coroner for the ministry and was granted leeway in his appearance due to the nature of his work. “I guess somebody had to ruin my weekend,” he said.
Isuld smiled at him, offering a cigarette. The coroner waved it away.
Turning o the other man, Isuld greeted him as well. “What’ve we got, Berhald?”
Berhald was the opposite of the old coroner. He was clean shaven, his entire appearance neat and perfect, his blue and gray uniform crisp and pressed. “Joggers spotted the woman’s body in the reeds around 4:39 am,” he reported. “A Civil Order Folkgeraf was dispatched to check it out. That’s when they called us in.”
He directed them closer to the reeds. Eadulf stayed back but Hilden and Isuld stepped forward until the water was to the tips of their shoes.
The uniformed Folkgerafs were hip deep in the water documenting everything. Another man dressed in protective gear was preparing the body to be pulled out of the water.
The body, a woman with dark brown hair that Isuld guessed was in her late twenties, floating face up in the water. She was wearing a dark gray suit top and skirt, with a lavender blouse underneath. One of her feet was wearing a black high heeled shoe. The other foot was bare, the other shoe nowhere to be seen.
“Anyone ID her yet?”
Berhald pulled out a plastic evidence bag and passed it over. Inside was a waterlogged wallet. The wallet, a red leather clutch, held a number of credit cards and at least two hundred Crown Florents. So it hadn’t been a robbery.
Her ID was still in its display sleeve. “Ah, fuck.” he said seeing the emblem of the Iraelian government on the ID. “She’s a foreign official.”
“Shimiri Yuval, Secretary of the Iraelian Embassy Cultural Attache. Age 33.” He read the ID out loud, holding it up for Hilden to read as well.
“Initial assessment of the body shows no sign of violence,” Berhaldinformed them. “No cuts, no bruises, and no scrapes.”
If we’re lucky, hopefully this is just an accidental drowning,” Hilden said with a tone that was obvious he didn’t expect it to be an accident.
The body was pulled out of the water and laid out on a black bag.
“What do you think, doc?” Isuld asked turning to Eadulf.
The coroner stepped forward and began examining the body. While he looked Isuld took a camera from one of the Folkgeraf and took pictures of the body until Eadulf stood up.
“Without a full autopsy we won’t know for sure, but I noticed some discoloration on her lips and fingertips. That could indicate asphyxiation, or possibly a number of toxins.”
Isuld took closer pictures of those areas.
“How did you notice that?” Hilden asked. “I can’t even see a difference.”
“I’m old, not blind. At least not yet.”
The body was carefully zipped up into the bag and lifted onto a stretcher at the top of the embankment.
“Alright. We’ll have to speak with the Iraelians and get clearance to perform an autopsy. See if there’s any religious restrictions about that. In the meantime, Eadulf, do what you can once they get her to your office. Anything that looks suspicious I want to know about right away.”
The old man nodded and headed off after the stretcher to ride back with it in the ambulance.
Isuld handed the wallet back to Berhald who gathered it and went to make sure the scene was thoroughly investigated.
“What do you think?” Hilden asked.
“I think we need to retrace her last night. Find out who saw her last. I want to know every move she made and every place she went in the last twenty-four to forty-eighth hours. The embassy is probably the place to stop first after we report back to the Ministry. Let’s go.”
They climbed back up the slope to stand on the jogging path.
“Looks like our day’s getting worse,” Hilden said gesturing towards the police cordon.
Isuld looked and sighed. “The press is already here?” Three news vans had already pulled up and cameras were rolling.
“A body found in Lakeside was bound to draw attention. You want to deal with them?”
“Why? Do you want to talk to the old man?”
Hilden grimaced at the mention of the Minister of Foreign affairs. “I’ll talk to the press. You can deal with him.”
“Tell you the truth,” Isuld mused, “right now I’d rather deal with the old man in one of his moods than call my ex-wife. She’s gonna be fucking livid.”
Hilden raised a quizzical eyebrow.
“I’m supposed to have the kid this weekend.”
Black Flies - Ben Howard