Read Online Deep Yellow by Stuart Dodds - Free Book Online Page B

stuff."
    "Nah, they're just
stupid, that’s all," Detective 1 said, spitting some wormweed on
the floor.
    "Got enough evidence
to keep the bosses off our backs. Time for lunch, eh?" Detective 2
said and scratched his stomach.
    Brell thought it over.
The easiest thing would be to give in and walk away with what they
had, keep the team happy. The holo assistants waited for a
decision.
    She went with her gut
feeling. There was something about this dusty, stinky old
house.
    "We do it again. Be
more thorough this time, hand held scanners into nooks and
crannies."
    The team mumbled and
grumbled as they trudged back into the building. Brell walked
around the front and back of the building again and then went back
inside to check on progress.
    "Waste of time," she
heard someone say over her implant comm channel.
    Then she heard, "Hey,
sarge, got something you should see." Her heart beat a little more
as she ran up the stairs.
    "What have you
got?"
    "Just found an old
stuffed bird inside a wall cavity."
    There was a snigger of
laughter from the others who had wandered upstairs to see what had
been found.
    "Ha, ha," Brell said
slowly and picked up the dead Puffer bird and threw it across the
room. A holo assistant glided over to scan and log it.
    "Who was the old
stuffed bird?" someone muttered from within the group of officers.
Brell ignored it.
    "Come on, one last
sweep, let’s get on with it." She paused and waited until the two
detectives started scanning the rooms. She knew as soon as she left
the room, they would sit down and just instruct the assistants.
    As she went back down
the stairs, she thought about the walls. Wide enough for someone to
put, unbelievably, a stuffed bird inside. Being an older building,
its construction was dated, unlike most modern dwellings and living
pods which had thin mixed-material walls, millimetres thick, which
gave ample sound and thermal protection.
    "Holo 1," Brell said.
The supervisory level assistant appeared in front of her. "Have you
scanned the building structure?"
    "Yes, sergeant. Fully
completed."
    "Any anomalies?"
    "No, sergeant."
    "Floor by floor on
view."
    Holo 1 projected a
floor scan of the structure in the centre of the room. Brell
stepped back, scratched under her protective helmet, then reached
forward and rotated the image. She was clutching at straws. May be
best to call it off, the team would be delighted. The gang lived
here for some time and a Corpswoman is dead. Concentrate.
    "Top down. Bottom up.
Main view." She spun the image around; there was something about
the top floor. The two internal rooms seemed narrower than the
rooms below. A couple of minutes later, Brell walked back up to the
top of the stairs and stood on the small landing, two room doors
either side. Turning around, she stared at the wall at the back of
the stair space, the wall that a lazy officer would not bother to
reach up and scan. Inside both rooms, the scanner readout was clear
when pressed against the walls at the rear.
    "Jherzery. Bring the
extension pole up to the top of the stairs."
    Brell heard footsteps
coming up the creaky stairs, with more joining in; this was
obviously becoming the final show in front of the team. The
sergeant’s last job before letting the team do whatever they
wanted, as long as their overtime requests were authorised.
    Jherzery duly arrived,
carrying the pole. The faces of the team, now bunched together on
the floor below, gazed up at her. Even the holo assistants had
joined them. Attaching the scanner to the pole, she went down a few
steps, then reached up and placed it against the wall above
her.
    “ Beep, beep .”
Lowering the pole, she reset the scanning density amidst the low
muttering and laugher from below. Checking the device again, she
held it up against the wall.
    “ Bong. Bong.
Bong. ” The screen glowed red.
    "Get the cutters,"
Brell said as slowly as she could manage.
    "Yes sergeant."
Jherzery ran back down the stairs, pushing the mumbling team out of
the