A Great Leap (First Draft) - Outer Realms Book 1

Chapter 8

Sydney was cold and blustery, the overcast sky reflected in the leaden water of the harbour. The sun made little effort to break through the clouds to warm the day and a briny tang lay in the air. Mikayla stepped out of her car into the narrow street, pulling a coat out of the car and wrapping herself up to ward off the cold. A tiny fluttering of nerves wriggled restlessly in her gut but she paid them no mind as she took in the scene.

The inner city suburb of Dawes Point buzzed with activity. The Harbour Bridge would have been plainly visible not six hundred metres away if it did not blend so well with the steel coloured sky. The sounds of morning traffic were audible but muted. Police cars blocked a section of the street and uniformed officers were busy at work. A small park was taped off, clear of all but Joel and Cameron. It was there that Mikayla headed.

They stood on the path through the park beside a large white tent. As she approached she saw dark red sprayed across the grass in long arcs and splattered across the the grey pavement. Dew clung to the grass and an enthusiastic magpie warbled in a nearby tree, defying the dreary weather and grim scene. Joel and Cameron waited silently, watching Mikayla approach.

"How do you two keep beating me to scenes?" she asked.

"Fewer kids," Joel replied.

"No kids," Cameron added.

"Got told there was another body," Mikayla said, "Definitely connected?"

"Worse than the first," Joel answered, "We didn't get here as quickly this time." He opened a tent flap. "Everything's been documented. We're just waiting on transport for the body. Cameron?"

Cameron entered the tent and Mikayla followed with Joel right behind her and closing the tent behind them.

The body laying on the grass inside the tent was worse than the body of Rhys Colora. Jagged bone stuck out through shredded flesh in a shape that was only vaguely human, the grass around it soaked with dark, sticky blood. The torso had been ripped open, the splintered remains of the ribs sticking out of the surrounding blood and the pulped mess of internal organs spilled out. The face was surprisingly intact except for a single gash on one cheek. It was the face of an older man, grey and balding with wrinkled skin.

Mikayla felt her face curl involuntarily in disgust. "Who was he?"

"Nicholas Battaglia," Joel replied, "Eighty five years old. Cam managed to find his wallet. His name's flagged so we got his information back quick."

"Good flag or bad flag?"

"Good. General in the army, retired fifteen years ago. He's not from the neighbourhood though. His address is in Lane Cove."

"We know what he was doing in the city?"

"Not yet but we think he was coming from the east; from the other side of the park. There's stairs up to some houses but there's all sorts in that direction. His car's little down the road there where you came from. Considering his age, the car's location, the time he died, the position of the body... We're assuming he was on his way back to the car to go home until we get anything else. Someone's on their way to talk to his wife and bring her to the office for us." Joel pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. "The constables I sent to the wife." He answered the phone as he left the tent.

"What about the body, Cameron?" Mikayla asked, "Sure it's the same attacker? It's messier and what? A thirty or forty kilometer drive from the first scene. Long way to go for it not to be personal. Not to mention very different ages."

"I'm almost certain it's the same attacker," Cameron answered, "I'd say it was a similar implement that did most of the damage at first glance. An ambidextrous attack this time though. That cut on the face was from a right handed attack but those there on the thigh were left handed like last time. Coroner will have to put a lot of this back together to get impressions from most of these wounds though if that's actually possible. I noticed something in the wounds though. Pretty sure it's the organic substance we found in the wounds of the first victim."