February 17th, 2009
And the morning papers report another St. Louis man found dead in connection with the University City Women's' Shelter case. Martin Reyes' body was discovered by a clerk opening shop in the 'U. City Loop' business district. He was handcuffed to a pipe in an alley behind the row of shops and killed, just like Duane Sims. St. Louis Police are fairly certain that two murders are related, although the possibility that Reyes was killed by a 'copycat' hasn't been ruled out. Unidentified sources in the SLPD indicated that Reyes may have been involved recently with someone at the Shelter.
Later that morning, Technicality suddenly becomes aware of another presence within her mind, which she has encountered before. She almost fails to recognize him—he's much more lucid now. The last time she was in mental contact with Cosmic Ray, he was having a very bad trip!
"Sorry to barge in like this, you know, but what am I gonna do? This is kinda freaking me out, Technicality. I've got a message from Blackheart, of all people, and he came down to the Rail, all serious about making contact without scanning you himself. He even gave me the psi-clone for this trip! He says, everything's coming together on his end, and he'd like to talk to you again, same place as last time, tonite. I'm not sure if I want to know any more, but if you need any help, you know where I'll be, Technicality. I'm feeling better these days, and I owe you, big time."
Mary Tower walked outside and stopped cold at the top step. Harshad had left his signal at the drop site. She walked to the corner bus- stop and surreptitiously retrieved the latest copy of the SLANT from the bottom of the rack. She'd already read it, but there'd be something extra in this copy. She found it scrawled in the margins next to the add for last weekend's Litterbox concert at the Upstairs Lounge, written in Dakota Sioux: "Riverwalk, dusk." Now, what? The little man from Kashmir certainly had a flair for the dramatic, but surely he wouldn't go to all this trouble unless it was important....
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