《Killer Bay》After the Storm
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"Adalet, Amy, Frank, everyone: you're doing a terrific job combating crime in Pacific Bay. I'm very proud of you," Andrea praised as she stood in front of the assembled team, "this time, though, we're going to work in a neighbourhood where crime is not the only cloud that hangs over the citizens' life. In Jazz Town, Nature can be a killer, too. You all know about the disaster that hit this area only three months ago: Hurricane Yves. Many people died, and many more lost their homes in the storm... or in the chaos that followed: flood, ruined streets, violence, looting... but Jazz Town is a place of hope, where the music never stops playing. People quickly set out to rebuild their homes after Hurricane Yves. And we're here to help them return to their peaceful lives!"
"Adalet, I've volunteered to take you and Amy to Jazz Town: that's where I grew up, and I still live here with my family," Yann spoke up, "we were very lucky not to be affected by the hurricane . . . And there are many more exciting sights and beautiful places still accessible! Come with me and you'll see!"
Later, in Jazz Town . . .
"This part of town was left intact by the storm, Adalet. Jazz Town's spirit is still alive and well here: the music, the food . . . I wouldn't live anywhere else!" Yann declared as they walked down the deserted street.
"Oh, I'm going to love it here in Jazz Town, Adalet," Amy squealed, "you'll see how well I'll fit in! Listen . . . I think I can hear some music already!"
"Oh yes, you're right! I recognize the tune, it's called "After the Storm". It was written just after the hurricane by a famous local jazz musician," he explained as they turned to walk towards the music, "the song became the symbol for hope and . . . Hey, it sounds like it's coming from that street, or maybe from the tram over there!"
"Adalet, why don't we follow the music and see where it's coming from?" the rookie suggested.
"Great idea, Amy!" Adalet praised, "let's go!"
Adalet, Amy, Yann, and the dogs followed the sound of the music as it grew louder and clear. It leads them to Main Street where the damage from the storm was still being cleaned up, but it wasn't the crack road of the broken buildings that made them freeze, but what was on the cables above that did. Hanging from the cables in a strange order were the body parts of a man
"Adalet, we've just . . . We've just found pieces of a human body hung up on the tramway cables!" Amy gags with her face going green, "and . . . Is it me or are the body parts arranged on the cables exactly like musical notes on a music sheet?"
"Wait a second, I recognize him! He's Elmer "Boogie" Buttons! He wrote "After the Storm", the song we heard playing a minute ago!" Yann exclaims shocked.
"Elmer "Boogie" Buttons? That's the name written on this suitcase you picked up, Adalet!" she pointed to one of the clues Adalet had found while they were talking, "we'd better search through it, you're right! And you already found the radio that played the song, too!"
"It may have been left here by the killer," Adalet muses examining the radio.
"Like a . . . a soundtrack for the murder?" Amy cocked her head.
"There's a serial number on the bottom of the radio," Yann noted pointing to what he had seen, "but it's illegible. Do you think you could decipher it, Adalet? Perhaps we could identify who owns it, or where it was bought!"
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"And I'll get the body to Roxie. Ugh," Amy groans pulling out her phone, "I bet this will be too much, even for her!"
"No, it won't! I guarantee she'll be excited, whoever she is! It's a great murder! Especially since the victim is the most famous jazz musician in town!" a bubble man appeared from nowhere, "ladies and gents, I'll show you the scene where this musical genius was murdered, for just the price of a regular tram ticket! A tour of jazz and history awaits you!"
"What?! Who are you?" Amy demanded, "this is a crime scene, not a tourist attraction! Move over and let Capt. Adalet work!"
"An, Amy?" Adalet spoke up, "I think it would be better if he stayed."
"Erm, wait, no! Actually, don't go anywhere!" she corrected, "you must stay here until Capt. Adalet is ready to talk to you!"
After getting the man's information and sending him behind the yellow tape, Adalet was able to take a closer look at the radio. She looked closely at the faded serial number and wrote down the repaired version on a sticky note. She attached the paper to the front of the radio and handed it over to Amy for safekeeping.
"Well done, Adalet, you've deciphered the serial number on the killer's radio in record time!" praised Amy, "I'll send this serial number over to Hannah for you, so she can tell us more about this radio."
Amy took the radio and put it off to the side as Adalet began looking through the victim's suitcase. It was filled with music equipment, headphones, sheet music and other supplies, but she found a torn poster at the bottom of the case that was definitely out of place.
"Hm," Amy hummed out loud, "I wonder what those torn bits of paper you found in the victim's suitcase are, Adalet . . . But I'm sure you can put them back together!"
Adalet laid out the pieces of paper on the dry stone curb and arranged them into the proper order. She taped them all together to see what the poster was about, and they saw their victim was featured on it.
"Adalet, the paper you restored is a poster advertising a performance by Elmer Boogie Buttons! That's our victim!" Amy remarked taking the poster to read for herself, "the poster says the concert was to take place in The Jazz Joint . . . You think we should go have a look there?"
Adalet nodded, "I think that's a great idea, Amy!"
"Perfect! I can't wait to see a real jazz club, Adalet!" she grinned, "I mean . . . I know we're going there to investigate and to collect evidence, of course. I was just excited in the general sense . . ."
After Roxie had arrived to take the body away, Adalet and Amy went to go talk to Ricky Hillingdon about the murder. The tourist director had already managed to gather a crowd of people off to the side and was speaking through a megaphone to them.
"Welcome, folks!" Ricky yells, "for just the price of a tram ticket, you can visit the scene where Elmer "Boogie" Buttons was murdered! Unfortunately, the body is gone, but there's still enough blood, and . . ."
"Mr. Hillingdon, we told you you can't sell a crime scene to tourists!" Adalet glares. The crowd quickly scattered.
"Oh, no, Capt. Adalet, it's you again!" he complained putting his megaphone down, "I'm just . . . trying to keep visitors happy while the tram service is suspended! The least I can do for my passengers is to show them a famous musician! Even if he's dead!"
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"No, the least you can do is not contaminate our crime scene!" she shot back.
"Very few tourists have come to Jazz Town since the hurricane. And we need tourism to re-build our economy!" he defended, "Jazz Town was Elmer's home, too! I'm sure he wouldn't mind helping us get back on our feet!"
After giving Ricky one last warning, Adalet and Amy left to go find the jazz club. There was a shocking amount of clubs in the town, but they finally found the one they wanted after driving around for a half-hour. They entered the warm building and looked around for anything of use. They found a pile of torn papers on one of the tables, while Dean and Hunter discovered a champagne bottle resting against the stage.
"So this is the famous Jazz Joint, the club where Elmer Buttons played regularly! And you've already found something: a bottle with a note?" Amy looked at the faded paper, "something used to be written on the note! You're right, Adalet, it's best if I let you figure out what it says! And there's a torn paper, too . . . Do you think you can piece it back together?"
"We're about to find out!" Adalet replied.
She used the table she had found the paper on as her workspace and opens her case up on top of it. She found her roll of tape inside of it and used pieces from it to hold together the pieces of paper as she found the matches. Once she had gotten them all back together, she was able to see that it was for a charity fundraiser with their victim on it, but there was also a large cancelled sign on top of it.
"Adalet, you restored the torn paper! It's a flyer for the Play for Hope fundraiser event . . ." Amy read the event's name, ". . . and there's a cancelled sign over the victim's picture!"
"I wonder who was putting on this fundraiser..." Adalet muses, "and if they know that the man they wanted to perform is dead?"
"You're right, Adalet," she agreed, "we must know more about this fundraiser! Perhaps Hannah can work out who organized it!"
Amy took the poster to get it ready to send to the lab while Adalet grabbed the bottle of champagne. She dusted the faded note attached to the neck of the bottle and recovered the message that had been written on it.
"Dinah, be my hurricane - Elmer"." Adalet read the short note.
"OK, let me think this over: Elmer, the victim, wanted to drink champagne with someone called Dinah . . ." Amy pondered, "and he compared her to a hurricane, because . . . Well, we can only guess . . ."
"Or we could ask," she volunteered.
"Oh, right, we could also find this Dinah and ask her!" she laughed looking around, "I think I've seen her name at the entrance on a poster, she must work here!"
"Did someone say my name?!" Adalet and Amy turned to the source of the voice and saw a beautiful woman dressed in red approaching them from a door next to the stage.
"I take it you're Dinah then?" Adalet inquired.
"Yes, I'm Dinah Cooper. I dance at The Jazz Joint. Beats being a checkout girl at Kauf-Mart!" Dinah laughed, "especially now I don't have to put up with Elmer anymore!"
"Put up with him? How so?" Amy asks, "Capt. Adalet found this message he wrote to you on a champagne bottle."
"I was Elmer's favourite dancer. He kept buying me drinks and perving around my changing room. I complained, but the boss said we all had to dance to Elmer's tune, and not just on the stage. Grant him his every wish, ya know? 'Cause Elmer was a legend . . ." she rolled her eyes, "and us dancers are just sluts in fancy dresses. But now Elmer's dead and look who's still dancing! I'll dance up a storm for you tonight if you come back to see my show, Capt. Adalet!"
Autopsy Victim's Body...
"What a fitting introduction to Jazz Town: musical notes cut out from a musician's dead body!" Roxie joked, "I don't know much about jazz, Adalet, it's music for old people . . . But I asked Yann about the notes formed by the victim's body, and he said they match a song called "After the Storm"."
"Oh, I remember, Adalet: that's the victim's most popular song!" recalled Amy, "you think this means the killer must know a bit about music?"
"It would make sense," Adalet mused, "since the body parts were arranged on the cables like musical notes!"
"There's something else, Adalet. Cutting up a body to pieces is a gruesome job, requiring specific tools that leave specific marks. Almost like each musical instrument making a distinct sound!" Roxie informed them, "well, I'm pretty sure the killer used some kind of electric blade to cut up the body, like those household appliances used to cut turkey. A rather clever murder weapon, if you ask me!"
"So the killer knows music and . . . likes to cut turkey?" Amy frowned in confusion, "I think I'll just write the music-bit for now, if it's okay with you, Adalet . . ."
Adalet laughed, "that's fine by me, Amy... let's go check in with Hannah."
Adalet and Amy left the morgue and headed down the long hallways to the tech lab. They were greeted by both Hannah and Yann as they arrived inside the large, air-conditioned room.
"Adalet, I've had a bit of trouble with your killer's radio - I tried to connect it to my laptop but it doesn't have a USB port!" Hannah grumbled showing her the smooth sides, "what do you think this means? That the killer is an enthusiast of pre-digital technology? I had to ask Yann if this thing even ran on electricity!"
"And I told her it runs on batteries. The serial number matches the portable radios that were sold as part of the hurricane survival kits. Survival kits were given to people who stayed behind during Hurricane Yves. We had one, too. Luckily, we didn't need it," Yann added, "the hurricane spared our quarter of town. The radios in these survival kits are there so people can get news and instructions even during a power cut. They saved many lives."
"And since the killer used this radio, it means they own one of these storm survival kits, too!" Adalet reasoned.
Amy whipped out her notepad, "I'll write it down!"
"What about that flyer, Hannah?" Adalet inquired.
"I've looked at the Play for Hope festival flyer you found at the Jazz Joint, Adalet. And I tracked down the person who organized this event: a guy named Freddie Alonzo," Hannah replied.
"But why was there a big "cancelled" sign across the victim's picture? This flyer was printed before his death, and surely everyone wanted to see the legendary Elmer Buttons play?" Amy pondered.
Adalet shrugged, "I guess we'll have to ask this Freddie Alonzo about this cancellation."
Adalet and Amy left the station and drove around the streets of Jazz Town looking for Freddie Alonzo. They drove for about fifteen minutes before Amy shouted that she had spotted the man walking down the street ahead of them. Adalet whipped the can into a parking spot and they hopped out and introduced themselves to Freddie.
"Oh hello, Capt.! Do you have some loose change? It's for Hope!" Freddie says with the largest grin they had ever seen on his face, "a week ago I'd have sold you a concert ticket with it, but Elmer Buttons refused to play at the event! So I had to cancel the concert - nobody was interested without Boogie Buttons!"
"So Elmer refused to play at the fundraiser? Why?" Adalet inquired.
"I don't know! Jazz Town was his 'hood! You'd think he'd agree to blow a few songs for the city that made him famous! Five times winner of the Best Living Jazz Musician Award, he was going to be the highlight of the event!" he exclaimed, "but he refused, and I didn't sell a single ticket for the fundraiser! Selfish people deserve to die, Capt. Adalet! I wouldn't pee on Elmer Buttons if he was on fire!"
She blinked, "alright then..."
"But you, you care about your fellow men, right?" he winked, "come on, Capt., spare a fiver for Hope!"
Later, at the station . . .
"Adalet, life seems strangely vibrant in Jazz Town despite the horrible things people have been through. But the upbeat attitude of some people is perhaps questionable: like the tram driver's who'd sell us a dead body as a tourist attraction . . ." Amy mused, "or Freddie Alonzo, with his own definition of generosity: donate or die . . . Then there's Dinah, the dancer, who said Elmer took advantage of his fame to hassle her . . ."
"Hey, guys! Guess what just came up on my Friendnet feed," Hannah showed them her cell phone screen, "the Play for Hope concert, for the hurricane victims, is finally taking place!"
"What? I thought Freddie said it was cancelled because Elmer Buttons refused to play!" she recalled.
"Well, it's now held in memory of Elmer Buttons! And it's completely sold out!" she tells them.
"Wasn't the fundraiser about the hurricane? Why would they change it to be about our victim?" she frowns.
"Money, I'm guessing," she snorted and Adalet nods in agreement. "someone's just made big bucks out of Elmer's death!"
"Which is very fishy..." Adalet muses, "the concert is held in the park, we should hurry there and see what this is all about!"
At the Concert Venue...
"Adalet, you've found a storm survival kit! And you're right, we know the killer used one! We have to see what's in it!" Amy decided, "you picked up some bits of torn paper, too? Can you put the pieces back together?"
"Of course I can," Adalet smirked, "and we need to go talk to Freddie again.
"And you're right, we should also speak to Freddie Alonzo. He organized the event, so he must be responsible for the change of theme. If anyone's made big bucks out of Elmer's memory, it's him!" she agreed.
Adalet picked up the survival kit first. She opened the kit up and dumped everything that was inside of it out onto the ground. As the emergency supplies fell to the ground, the last thing that fell out gave both of the women quite the shock.
"Oh my gosh, Adalet, what did you just pull out of that storm survival kit?! It's covered in blood!" Amy shrieked.
"It's definitely a kitchen appliance," Adalet says putting on some gloves to handle the device, "what did Roxie say our victim was killed with again?"
She double-checked her notes, "Roxie said the victim's body was cut to pieces with a turkey carver! This must be the murder weapon! So the blood is obviously our victim's . . . But you think there's a foreign substance on the handle?"
"Looks like it," she said reaching into her case.
She swabbed the handle of the turkey carver and the cotton came back soaked in a pinkish substance. She saw what had changed the colour of the blood and got out a scrapper. She scraped off a sample of white powder from the handle and sealed up the dish she put it in.
"You were right, Adalet: the turkey carver you found in the storm survival kit wasn't just covered in blood! You've isolated some white powder, too!" Amy remarked taking the dish, "hopefully Yann will be able to tell us what that powder is!"
Once the dish was out of her hands, Adalet was able to take a look at the torn photo. She tapes up the pieces back together and saw that it was an old picture of their victim. He was standing beside a pretty woman with blonde hair, she was smiling up at Elmer as she was resting her head on his shoulder.
"Great, Adalet, you've restored the photo you found near the pavilion!" Amy cheered, "hmm, you think the young man on the picture looks a lot like Elmer Buttons? But he's so young! Wait, let me work this out . . . If this is Elmer, then the photo must have been taken at least thirty years ago!"
"You read my mind!" Adalet chuckled.
"But who's the woman? She's so pretty and happy! And there's a message, too: "If only we could turn back time"," she read the cursive words, "aww, I don't know who wrote this, but I know how they feel! I'm only twenty-three, but I get nostalgic, too!"
"Now we just need to see if Hannah can work her time-travelling magic!" she responds packing up her case.
"OK, I get it, Adalet: we can't turn back time, but we can save some by sending this photo to Hannah straight away! So she can identify the woman, yes!" she agrees.
The partners pack up all of their clues and walked around the park looking for Freddie. They found the organizer putting the final touches on the stage for some event that must be happening soon.
"Hello again!" Freddie hopped off the stage, "still don't have any loose change? There will be storms next year, too! You don't want to miss out on the next fundraiser!"
"Mr. Alonzo, why did you change the fundraiser so it's now in memory of Elmer Buttons, instead of about the hurricane victims?" Amy inquires.
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