Where In The World Are The Killers?

Killing Spring

Somewhere in the desert...

"We've been trudging through this desert for ages, Anders!" Carmen exclaims, panting slightly from the blazing sun, "I'm starting to think we'll never find the town Ingrid told us about!"

"Want to recap while we walk?" Anders offers.

"Alright, fine. We might as well recap while we walk," she agrees, "so we know there's a protest movement in the town to overthrow the Sultan. He's a dictator who's caused misery and poverty for his people! Ingrid thinks things could get ugly if the Sultan decides to crack down on the protesters..."

"But she also believes that such an atmosphere of dissent could be the perfect place for the Chief's killer, The Sword, to stir up trouble!" he takes over, "it's not a solid lead. But for the moment, it's all that we-"

"Wait, what's that in the distance, Anders?" she asks, cutting him off as she squints to make out what she had spotted in the sand, "it's an oasis! Quick, let's go and have a look around!"

"Wait, I thought those things were a mirage?!" he yells, chasing after his partner.

"Not this one!"

Anders and Carmen ran the rest of the way to the lush oasis and pushed aside the leaves as they walked onto the shoreline of the water. It was a beautiful place with large palm trees surrounding the water and a short cliff with a waterfall spilling down it. As they walked down the shoreline, they saw a man lying face down in the sand with a puddle of blood surrounding his head.

Looking around the dead body, Anders found a heart-shaped locket laying on a rock. Inside the locket was a picture of the victim and a woman wearing a pink hijab on the right side and the left side had a faded inscription engraved on it. As he was picking it up, Hunter stuck her nose into a bush of reeds sticking out of the water a couple of feet from the shoreline.

"Darn it! That man... he's dead! You gotta be kidding me, Anders. Why is it that everywhere we go, we find a dead body?" Carmen complained, feeling a headache coming on.

"I'm beginning to think someone's playing a sick game with us, and we're only in the Sahara Region!" Anders says, crouching beside the body, "but as annoying as it is, we can't just ignore an obvious murder!"

"I know, we can't turn a blind eye to this - we'll have to investigate! But if we're lucky, this man's death might be linked to The Sword..." she muses, "if you ask me, it looks like our victim was killed by your average bullet wound. But we'd better send this body to Angela to be sure. What else did you pick up, Anders?"

He passed her the silver piece of jewellery, "this locket has a picture of our victim on it!"

"And there's some faded writing on the other side! I'll grab your dusting kit!" she says, kneeling to open the man's case, "and what are those reeds Hunter's interested in?"

Anders looks over to where his dog was standing, "she must have smelt something interesting in them! Be careful, Hunt!"

Carmen got out Anders's dusting kit and worked to retrieve the faded inscription while her partner sent the body back to the plane for Angela. While the agents worked on their respective tasks, Hunter found a bloody fishing hook stabbed into one of the reeds. She carefully bit the non-hooked end and removed it from the reed before carrying it over to her owner to present her finding.

"What was hidden among those reeds you found, Hunter?" Anders inquires, holding out a hand for Hunter to drop the hook into, "a hook? And it's covered in blood!"

"The killer won't get off the hook with us on the case, Anders!" Carmen jokes, finishing up her work, "let's get this hook to Lars!"

"Good job on the victim's locket, Carmen," he praises, reading the recovered text, "the inscription reads, "Fatima & Hamza".