Jessica Kimball and The Missing Brain

    The body was half- covered by roses and lush green bushes.  The head had been sliced opened horizontally like a grapefruit.  The brain was missing.  No blood, no lingering marks; nice and neat …an expert job.  It had taken some time to do.  A long time.    Jessica  considered the position of the body.   John Doe lay in heap like some discarded piece of garbage on the manicured grounds.  But  she had never seen “garbage” this young.  

     Officer Robert Connors approached her slowly.

“No ID, captain.  We’ve searched the grounds for the last two hours.  Nothing.”

“I want a perimeter about 100 ft. square around this place.  No one comes in or out.  No one touches him except for me until Richardson gets here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Call for the K-9’s. “  She gazed across the great lawn and scanned at the thick bushes surrounding it,

“They may be able to sniff out some ID or his brain…or…something.”

“Yes, ma’am.”   Connors  took off.

  Jessica Kimball bent slowly over the body and began her inspection.  His eyes were closed and she gazed at his face, neck and shoulders.  Good looking kid.  What a shame.  He was about ten years old, 4’2 and around 40 lbs.  She looked again at his face.   A pretty boy.   Model  face.  He could have been…

Her mind suddenly flashed.  He had been a model.   She had seen his face;  some advertisement for some thing on some internet site.   Another  flash.  No..many internet sites.  Some award…Highest  User of internet…something..

   She slowly picked up his finger polished right hand.   She turned it over.    Indents on the finger tips,

deep ones.  A chill passed through her body like a cold wind.  She picked up the left hand.  Same indents …deeper.  He had been a lefty.  She realized what she was looking at and shut her eyes and pushed away the hands.   Her mind raced.  She considered carefully what she would do next.  So young.  She had seen it before but in John Does much older.  He was ten for god-sakes.  Ten.  She had to be sure.  She had to.  She slowly bent over the body again and moved her hands to his eyes.  She pried the right one.  She could even seen the glaze through the dilated pupils.   She pried open the left.  Damn.

“Connors!!  Connors!!”   She screamed.

He came running.

Without looking at him she directed him.

“Shut it down, call off the teams.  Pack it up we’re out of here.”

“Ma’am?”

“There’s been no murder here.”  Connors was silent for a long minute.

“But the head…the missing brain.  It has to be..”

“A suicide,”  Jessica finished.

“A suicide?!”  

“Here.”  She took Connor’s hands and moved them to turn over the boy’s hand.

“The fingers.”  She directed.

Connors looked and his face lost color.  “SES.”  He shook his head slowly.  “So young.”

“Yes.  Search Engine Syndrome,”  Jessica nodded.  “This is the first case I’ve seen in a ten year old.”

“Eyes?”  Connors asked.

“Deepest  glaze  I’ve ever seen,”  Jessica answered.

“Damn.  Well that would explain the missing brain and no ID.  He lost them to the Engines.  What a shame.”

• Autorensteckbrief von Joseph Trance
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