Criminal Minds (Fox Meridian Book 4) (21 page)

‘So this information did not come from the parallel investigation by Palladium Security Solutions?’

‘No comment.’

‘Any comment on the sighting of Palladium’s forensics vertol in the Sprawl north of the Combine yesterday?’

‘I am not privy to the day-to-day operation of a private security company.’

Another voice took up the questions. ‘Captain, there has been considerable speculation that the deaths in Jersey don’t fit the same profile as the others. Leaks of crime scene information suggest a copycat. Are you sure that this arrest is the end of the matter?’

Mott was a fairly cool customer, Fox had to admit that: he did not skip a beat. ‘Investigation continues with respect to additional charges which we
expect
to be brought against Tony Driscoll. Further comment could jeopardise those investigations.’

‘Sister Naomi wishes to speak to you,’ Kit announced.

‘Right,’ Fox said, ‘mute that crap and put her through.’

Naomi appeared in full avatar form beside the sofa. She looked more annoyed than Fox thought she had ever seen her. ‘Ah, I’m not going to be telling you anything new then,’ Naomi said. ‘The memetics room picked this up and contacted me immediately.’

‘Belle did much the same,’ Fox replied.

‘Detective Rutherford does not look convinced. How can she be allowing them–’

‘She’s being overridden. She told me there has been some reluctance to admit there was a copycat. She was hoping a third victim would change that, but now they have an arrest and they want to be able to tie it all up and throw it in a hole.’

‘And there I thought I had become too cynical regarding NAPA.’

Fox shrugged. ‘Too much politics. It’s things like this that make me wonder whether privatising policing wouldn’t be a good thing. Luckily, I usually come to my senses fairly quickly.’

‘I’m getting queries regarding your availability from a number of news agencies, Fox,’ Belle announced.

‘Gah!’ Fox exclaimed, covering her face with her hands.

‘To be expected,’ Naomi said. ‘They’re contacting us at the moment. I’m coming up with a statement.’

‘Ah, good ploy. Belle, tell them a statement will be released later today. Kit, contact Garth Eaves and Dia Barrera. Ask them if they’ve got an opinion on what we should say, if anything.’

‘Passing the buck,’ Naomi said, smiling, ‘is almost always an astute political move.’

‘Yeah, well… So much for “no surprises.” I did not expect NAPA to be this dumb. I mean, I understand it, but I figured they’d hedge more.
When
Jack strikes again, they are going to look
really
stupid. Rutherford will take it in the neck to save Mott’s ass… She’s not the best detective out there, but she doesn’t deserve that.’

‘You could save her some of the embarrassment if you caught him before he strikes again.’

Fox gave Naomi a humourless smile. ‘That would be good, yes, but this guy is a ghost. The best and only identification we have on him is that he looks like a dead actor. Um, Kit, did we get anywhere with that guy’s daughter?’

‘Miss Sanderson has not responded to any of my messages,’ Kit said.

‘Keep trying, and run a basic background on her. Maybe we can find something to give her a reason to respond. If all else fails, I’ll fly out to Chicago, but it seems a little excessive considering her father
can’t
be our killer.’ Fox looked up at Naomi. ‘This case is twisting worse than a dust devil. There’s some key bit of information missing. There’s going to be one little thing that makes this all fall into place, and I don’t have it yet.’

‘Well,’ Naomi said, ‘I hope you find it soon. We’ve been told we can have the funerals for the ones we’ve lost so far. They’re planned for Thursday. I hope I don’t need to organise more.’

‘I’ll try to be there, but I might be out trying to make sure you
don’t
need to do any others.’

Naomi nodded and gave a weak smile. ‘If you are, I won’t think any less of you.’

~~~

‘Fox, could you come into the murder room?’

Fox looked up from the contract data she had been reading. Kit was looking a little excited and a little perplexed, and the alternative was contract documents. ‘Anything so I don’t have to read this stuff,’ Fox replied. Then she closed her eyes and let herself slide into the viron.

It looked much as it usually did. Several complex webs of interconnected profile data filled the space. The problem was that there were few, if any, connections between the groupings: nothing linked the victims and gave a hint at who had put them in here.

Kit was standing beside one of the groups, a new one which had Alex Sanderson and his daughter in it, plus a copy of the picture from Gilly’s session, and one other image. Fox peered at that one, frowning. ‘Well… That’s him. Who is that?’

‘
What
is that?’ Kit corrected. ‘That is a Kildare-series surgical robot. Miss Sanderson was the chief robotics engineer on the project and, apparently, had the facial structure designed to look like her father.’

‘I’ve never heard of a Kildare android.’

‘That is not surprising. The concept was to produce a humanoid cyberframe which could handle all aspects of routine surgery, including the pre- and post-activities. It was equipped with built-in, retractable surgical blades in its fingertips, a self-sterilising system, high-quality fine-manipulation controls, and infrared and microscopic vision.’

‘Fingertip blades?’

‘Much as Sister Gilly described, yes. The model proved quite capable of the surgery, but the patient interaction idea failed. They gave it a class two AI and hoped that a highly sensitive olfactory system, capable of distinguishing a number of emotional response factors, would make up for the lack of emotional awareness.’

‘It didn’t?’

‘The “uncanny valley” effect hit the Kildare hard. It
looked
quite human, but its reactions were stilted or wrong. Patients described it as “too robotic,” “demonic,” and “more like a serial killer than a doctor.” The entire project was shelved, but a few of the series are still held in storage and one or two continue to operate in emergency rooms where delicate surgery is required. Those are in the protectorates where it is difficult to attract skilled physicians.’

Fox frowned at the picture. It matched Gilly’s memory far too well for it to be a coincidence, and there was the built-in armament, and the self-sanitising system would reduce the chance of trace evidence being left behind. An android could have easily waited in a box for several days to get into the chapter house… ‘Could one of these things be run remotely?’

‘The model comes with standard high-bandwidth networking. Any cyberframe is capable of operating as a telepresence drone with the right software installed. The on-board computer was designed with an AI in mind, however.’

‘Yes, but Terri went over the project data from Criminal Minds. If she couldn’t see a problem, then the most obvious AI to be inhabiting one of these things isn’t an option. I’m still looking at a human being behind this.’

Kit gave a shrug. ‘Ultimately, AIs are all subject to human control. There is
always
a human behind it somewhere.’

Boston Metro, 18
^th
October.

‘Okay, working theory.’ Fox was back in an autocab in Boston, and Terri was back there beside her.

‘Okay, give me what you’ve got and I’ll tell you how crazy it sounds.’

‘The Criminal Minds team
did
create a Whitechapel analogue AI.’

Terri nodded. ‘I think that’s fairly likely.’

‘It can’t have escaped, but it
could
have influenced one of the team. Overman or Mortenson, probably. It wouldn’t be direct influence. They just started… empathising with their creation. They started thinking, “Well, maybe old Jack was right. I should continue his great work.”’

‘Not
entirely
crazy so far.’

‘Good to know. So, our would-be Jack uncovers a Kildare surgical robot in storage, replaces the AI with drone control software, and starts killing women.’

‘Doesn’t explain why the project was closed down, or why the female team members died, or why it’s happening in New York. I mean, why in
our
metro when there’s one right here?’

‘I did say it was a working theory.’

‘Hypothesis.’

‘I thought that was a longer word for the same thing?’

‘No. Look it up.’

Fox glowered at her friend. ‘A working hypothesis, then. It has holes. Real life has holes, unlike academia.’

‘Touché,’ Terri replied, grinning.

The cab pulled to a stop and Fox reached for the door. ‘What’s wrong with my butt?’

‘Touché, not tush, you ig– You were joking…’

Fox gave Terri a smirk and stepped out of the car. ‘I’ve picked up a little French since I started going out with Jason. Admittedly it’s mostly exclamations made during sex, but I’ve learned a few things. Okay, so I’ll be the bad cop and you’ll be the good psychologist.’

‘That sounds like a novel approach, but we can try it.’

~~~

‘I was
not
expecting to see you again,
Miss
Meridian,’ Overman said, an edge of irritation colouring his voice.

‘Captain,’ Fox said, because she
was
getting annoyed with the man’s attitude.

‘What?’

‘It’s Captain Meridian if you’re going to insist on ramming titles down my throat. On Saturday afternoon, I had a really unpleasant time running forensics on the body of
Doctor
Arabella Hive, who I seriously doubt cares about the use of her title anymore.’

The colour drained away from Overman’s face. ‘Arabella’s…’

‘Dead. She was murdered. Have you seen the reports from New York about the recent mutilation homicides of prostitutes? Same man killed Doctor Hive. Same method, though he just executed the gang she had hired to protect her.’

‘I saw the reports. The man has been caught.’

‘Just a copycat. A rather sloppy fool who was actually a disciple of Silas Bent. The real Ripper is still out there, and I think you know who it is.’

Overman looked away from her and then he leaned forward, dropping his face into his hands. ‘I can’t believe… Arabella, too.’

‘I’m afraid it’s true, Doctor,’ Terri said. ‘Tara showed me the forensic reports and it’s quite apparent that the man they’ve caught was not responsible. The man who killed Doctor Hive is meticulous, skilled. He has a thorough knowledge of anatomy and probably of psychology. You have to admit that it seems strange that this man, who kills prostitutes, went out of his way to kill Doctor Hive.’

‘S-she was in the Sprawl. Perhaps she was a m-mistake.’

‘Now, see?’ Fox said. ‘There are two problems with that. The first is that our guy went through armed sprawlers, gang members prone to violence, to get to her. He normally takes his victims off the street. Surprises them, kills them before they know what’s happening. Most of them are probably dead long before he cuts them open and scoops their insides out. He made Hive bleed, slowly. She had to be screaming like a bitch when he was cutting her open.’

Overman looked up, anger in his eyes. ‘You’ve no right to–’

‘And the second thing is that you said you didn’t know where she’d gone.’

The man’s jaw worked for a second or two and then he said, ‘You can’t pin this on me. I haven’t been out of Boston any time in the last two months.’

Fox smiled and turned to Terri. ‘Doctor Martins, would you say that sounded like a suggestion that Doctor Overman believes he needs an alibi?’

Terri smiled back. ‘I would, Captain Meridian. Would you mind if I stopped being reasonable now? The prick lied to me too.’

‘No skin off my nose.’

‘Thank you.’ Terri turned an angry glare on Overman. ‘You lied! You built an AI known as Ripper based on the Whitechapel murders.’

‘You can’t prove–’ Overman began.

‘You lied! Why? What could you possibly gain from lying about that?
What went wrong
?!’

‘Mortenson. You have to ask Mortenson.’

‘We’re asking you. And don’t go saying you were here when the murders happened. We have sufficient evidence to confirm that the killings were carried out by a medical android. You could have done everything by remote from right here in Boston.’

Fox was rather impressed. She had seen Terri pissed off at someone before, but Overman had
really
annoyed her and she was laying into him as well as any cop Fox had ever seen. Overman looked scared. Fox frowned: Overman looked terrified.

‘He’s got a body!’ The exclamation burst from Overman as a squeak of distress. ‘I… I need protection. You don’t understand what he’s capable of. If he’s got a body… Oh God!’

‘Who?’ Fox asked. ‘Mortenson? What are you talking about?’

‘Mortenson. You have to ask Mortenson. He’ll tell you. He’s mad! He’ll kill us.’

‘I think the pronouns are getting in the way here,’ Terri growled. ‘Doctor? Doctor Overman,
who
is going to kill you?’

Overman slumped in his seat. ‘Mortenson. You go and ask Mortenson.’

~~~

Doctor Mortenson opened his door, took one look at Fox, and started to close it again. Fox’s brow wrinkled and she stepped forward, shoulder-barging the door right into Mortenson’s face. There was a combination of wince and barely suppressed giggle from behind her.

‘You can’t come in here like–’ Mortenson began from where he had sprawled in his front hall. Off to one side, through a large, open doorway, Fox could see a lounge with too much old, wooden furniture and a lot of big, fluffy cushions with flower-print fabric all over them. The man probably had not redecorated since his mother died.

‘Damn right I can’t, but if I have to come back later, I’ll be bringing a lot of cops with me and they’ll be tearing this place apart to find evidence of what you’ve been doing in New York.’

Mortenson climbed to his feet. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. I haven’t been to New York Metro in over three years.’

‘We know about the Kildare-series, Doctor,’ Terri said. ‘We know the murders in New York were done by remote. Now Doctor Hive is dead, killed by the same means as seven prostitutes. That links your project with the serial killer in New York. We know you created a Ripper AI; Doctor Overman confirmed it. It’s better that you come clean now–’