Unknown man, City of Von 2067, 12:32 AM, Monday, January 6th
A car pulls up to the crime scene, its windshield wipers wiping off the snow that's coming down, with its red light flashing on the hood of the car. The vehicle pulls behind a cop car that has its flashing red and blue lights on. The cop car has Von Police on the back of the vehicle. A man exits the vehicle and approaches the yellow tape, where patrol officers stand guard behind it.
"Identification, sir?" Asks the trembling patrol officer.
The man reaches into his right coat pocket and pulls out a badge with a lanyard. The man holds the badge up to the patrol officer. The patrol officer takes a look at the badge and confirms his identity. The officer then lifts the yellow tape just enough for the man to walk under it.
The man then continues his walk a little to the right of the patrol officer, where he comes up onto a bridge that is just above a little stream of water that is rushing under it. Before he walks across the bridge, he looks down to his right, where a sign lies covered in snow, but you can still see the letters, which say "Iris Park."
The man then walks across the small bridge, and both of his feet land in about a half inch of snow. The man looks forward and sees footsteps embedded on the snowy path that leads to the crime scene. The man begins his walk across the snowy, dark path before he stumbles across another bridge. The bridge is bigger than the first one, covering a much larger stream of water. Before the man walks across the bridge, he sees lights in the distance. The man walks across the bridge and approaches the crime scene.
The man stops just outside the lights that make out the crime and sees the body before him. The body appears to be lying on its back against a tree, with a mask covering its face. The mask has a smiley face on it. The body also appears to be missing its whole frontal skin, exposing the stomach, heart, liver, and intestines. Lastly, the neck of the body appears to have Christmas lights wrapped tightly around the neck and the tree.
An officer walks up to the man and taps him on the shoulder.
"Detective Rudolph, right?"
Rudolph blows into his hands to try to keep them warm, then responds with, "Yes, that's me, and you are?"
"Detective Fred." He responds. "As I'm sure you can already see, the victim is missing their skin, which covers the stomach, heart, and intestines, and so on. The victim also has Christmas lights tightly wrapped around the neck and the tree, which slices into their throat, and lastly, the victim has a mask on their head with a smiley face on the front of it. We believe that the killer drew the smiley face with the victim's blood. Oh, and the victim is stripped naked."
"Who is the victim?" Rudolph asks, who then walks up to the victim with Fred.
"We… we don't know. You see, the victim has a bag covering their face."
Rudolph sighs and then asks, "You didn't think to take the bag off the victim's face to identify them, maybe?"
"Sorry, sir, we were waiting on forensics to arrive."
Rudolph looks over at Fred and sighs again. Rudolph then reaches into his left pocket and pulls out a pair of latex gloves, and puts them on. Then he bends down in front of the body and slowly removes the mask, revealing their face.
"Fuck me!" Detective Fred runs off the crime scene to throw up.
Rudolph examines the face and sees blood dripping out of the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Rudolph then looks at the victim's right hand more specifically under their nails and sees blood, and then he drops their hand back onto the snowy ground.
"This is disgusting. Whoever did this isn't human."
"The victim's name is Winter Rose, age 22, and she works as an engineer at Robot's specialty."
Rudolph looks up at the individual standing before him, "and you are?"
"That's A-3, a new type of robot built for this type of work," Fred says as he finally rejoins the scene, wiping his mouth with his hand.
"You shitting me? We got a robot to do this work now?" Rudolph stands up straight and looks at Fred and the Robot A-3. "I thought this type of shit was unethical or something?"
"It was, until now, as you can see."
"Okay, A-3, tell me what you think happened to her?"
"Firstly, I believe the killer first poisoned Winter, but I don't think the poison killed her first. I think what kills her is the strangulation with the Christmas lights, and then afterward, he cuts her up, revealing her internal organs."
"Okay, and how do you think the killer got the body here?" Asks Rudolph.
"I believe the killer was carrying the victim on their shoulder and ended up bringing her here."
"Yeah, I think so too." Says Rudolph.
"Sir, I think forensics are now arriving."
"Alright, A-3, you, come with me back to the station." Rudolph begins walking back in the direction of his vehicle, and A-3 follows behind.
Rudolph and A-3 open the car doors and sit down. Rudolph goes to turn the heat on.
"Say A-3, why are you wearing a blue suit with a black tie?" Asks Rudolph curiously.
"This is what I woke up in, this is what my creators wanted me to wear." Says A-3 in a soft but cold voice. A-3 positions himself straight up and puts his left hand on his left lap, and right hand on his right lap, and just stares in front of him.
"Huh," says Rudolph as he performs a 2-point turn and goes back towards the station.
"A-3, when we get back to the station, we will most likely see a lot of reporters, so when we get there, don't answer any questions." Rudolph's voice gets more serious. "We don't want to say anything that might… cause a disturbance in the peace, especially since we don't have a lot of the facts yet, got it?"
"I understand, sir." Says A-3.
"Is the cold voice programmed in you?" Asks Rudolph, obviously getting annoyed by the voice.
"Sorry?" Asks A-3.
"Never mind." Rudolph sighs.
Rudolph and A-3 pull up to the entrance of the police station. As they pass the walls that guard the police station, A-3 takes notice of the words on the walls that say 'Von police of the 2nd district.' The car pulls through the entrance and parks close to the doors of the police station.
"Shit, there they are." Rudolph and A-3 look at the swarm of reporters standing near the doors to the police station.
Rudolph gets out of the car first, and A-3 follows quickly behind.
Before Rudolph and A-3 even make it to the steps, reporters start to surround them, and they begin the ritual of questions.
"Is this the work of another serial killer?" A female reporter shouts.
Another reporter asks, "Is this going to be another serial killer like the Primal Killer?"
Then an AI reporter asks, "Who is the victim? Is this victim the target of a new serial killer?"
"Is that a fucking AI reporter?" Rudolph mumbles to himself.
Rudolph and A-3 walk up the steps past the flashing bright lights from the reporters' cameras and walk through the motion-censored doors.
As soon as Rudolph enters the station, he sees the chief walk up to him.
"Hey, you didn't say anything to reporters, right?" The chief puts his hand on Rudolph's shoulder.
"No, sir." Replies Rudolph.
"Right, good." The chief glances outside, then he glances at the other police officers to the other side of him. "Things are fucking crazy, I mean shit, we got people thinking we got another serial killer on our hands!" The chief laughs nervously. "Well, we don't, right?"
"We don't have all the facts, sir, but it isn't looking good."
"Right, okay, well, I'm going to have you take care of the briefing today."
"Yes, sir." The chief then nods his head and walks away. Rudolph salutes him.
Rudolph looks over to A-3 and says, "I'm going to have you help me with the briefing today." A-3 nods.
Rudolph looks in front of him and sees everyone trying to piece everything together with the holograms. "It's like a computer, only without a computer, just the blue screen that anyone can touch and pull anything they might need."
Rudolph starts walking to the back of the station, and A-3 loosely follows behind. "Alright, guys, we are now going to begin the briefing!"
Rudolph comes to a stop at an iPad on a desk in front of him. Rudolph looks down at the iPad and enters a six-digit code, which opens a hologram. Rudolph then picks the iPad up and begins.
"Alright, everyone, listen." Rudolph used a loud voice and glanced around the room. The room goes silent.
"I am Detective Rudolph, as most of you know, and the thing next to me is A-3, a new robot model that's especially designed for these cases by engineers.
"Any questions?" Hands go up. "None? Great, let's begin."
Rudolph pulled up the victim onto the hologram. "This is Winter Rose, the victim found in Iris Park, approximately around 12:32 am. Now I don't feel like breaking down how killer might have killed Winter, so here's an image we just got from an aerial drone." Rudolph pulls up a picture of the body.
All the people in the room gasp in disgust except Rudolph and A-3.
"Exactly, you can tell whoever did this feels nothing towards their victims."
"Now, back to the victim, she was age 22 and worked at Robots Specialty, and as far as we know, she only has one living family member, a brother whose name is Otus. He currently lives on SunnySide Rd in the second district."
"That's about it for the victim, as for how to find the killer, we need to figure out anyone who may have been last seen with Winter Rose. Ask anyone and everyone you think might know something."
"Lastly, we need to figure out why someone might have killed Winter Rose. Once we figure that out, we'll be closer to finding the killer."
A police officer raises his hand, "Is this the act of another serial killer?"
"We don't know, but if this is the act of another serial killer, this would be the second serial killer in the City of Von since the Primal killer."
"Okay, I think that's it for the briefing. You guys have access to all the data you need that might help you find this killer."
Everyone quickly gets to work, and Rudolph walks back to his desk and sits down. A-3, standing beside him, gives his opinion.
"I think this is the work of a serial killer, sir, purely just based on how the killer killed her."
Rudolph glances up at A-3, "I agree." Rudolph looks down at his computer, "We'll have to find this guy before they kill again."