As he watched over the field adjacent to him, wincing in the searing sunlight, Silas Virgilius-Nix wiped his arm against his forehead to sweep off the beads of sweat. The temperature in these farm lands was never anything but scorching, and if it were not for the sprinklers scattered over them, the entire farm region would be barren and desolate. The young detective swiftly brought his mind back to the matter at hand - the victim. He moved slowly closer to the tarpaulin that had been laid out with all due care next to a tall, wooden pole, where the medical examiner, Gordon, had set down the corpse and was checking over it. This one was vicious.

'He looks young.' Silas observed from a distance, 'Around mid-twenties.'

What killed him wasn't too hard to guess. The kid had had his arms sliced off at the elbows, and his legs at the knee. Bunches of straw had been forcibly inserted into each of his wounds, his body had been strung up on the pole, and as if to finish off some sordid joke, a scarecrow's hat had been placed loosely on top of his head. It was a shame - he was a young boy who was just starting his life, and now it had been cut short. Literally.

'What can you tell me?' Silas looked down to Gordon, 'Do we have any ID?'

'This was on him.'  Gordon carefully passed Silas a wallet, caked in dust and stained with blood.

'D'you think the killer was too careless to remove it?' Silas asked Gordon, as he open it and flipped through, 'Or maybe he was rushed.'

'Or maybe he wanted the body to be identified.' Gordon said darkly.

'Leon Ashley. . .' Silas read the boy's details aloud to himself, 'Number five, Devil's Street, Dust.'

Silas took a moment to think. He'd heard of the village of Dust, but only just. It was sleepy, out of the way and home to very few inhabitants. It was near enough, so believably where both Leon and his murderer came from, but it wasn't the sort of place you'd find some twisted murderer lingering.

'What've you got on the body itself?'

'There's not that much to tell, really.' Gordon replied, looking around the boy's body, trying to mentally note everything he saw, 'The dismemberment wounds were quite clean - whoever did this definitely used a sharp instrument, maybe some sort of knife, or a scythe. I'm pretty sure the cause of death is exsanguination from the main four wounds, and it would've killed him very quickly. . . Though, unfortunately, I'm also mostly certain the poor kid would've been conscious long enough to feel the straw. What do you think?'

'Well. . .' Silas began, crouching down to get a close picture of the scene, 'It's obviously a personal crime. You wouldn't make somebody go through this much pain unless you really hated them. Going from aesthetics. . . Thick, spiked blond hair; no tattoos, scars, piercings, or anything similar; and he's wearing a white top and brown shorts, particularly plain clothing - overall, he doesn't appear to be the sort of person who would get involved in criminality, he looks very honest and kind' Silas stood up again, 'Then again, first impressions can be decieving. The whole scarecrow get-up is curious, though. Maybe symbolic to the killer and the victim, or maybe just a way to make the body blend in. Who found the body?'

'An anonymous tip, apparently.' Gordon said as he signalled his assistants to bring the corpse into his van for transport back to the coroner's office.

'That's curious, too.'

'Yeah.' Gordon nodded, 'My job is finished here, I'll see you back at headquarters.'

'See you later, Gordon.' Silas watched as the medical examiner departed.

The investigator stared down at the wallet again, concentrating and thinking to himself, trying to lay the entire case out mentally - the strange nature of the body and how it was dressed up like a scarecrow; the youth and apparent innocence of the victim himself; the fact he'd come from the village of Dust. It was an odd case. A violent case, and a disgusting one, but an odd one nonetheless. He looked up at the policeman guarding the crime scene, and then to the pole on which the boy had been hung up, and then back at the wallet. Searching for more clues, he rifled further through the wallet. There was the usual - bank cards, membership cards, et cetera. But right at the back, behind all the other cards, there was a old photo. It was picture of a young girl. She was smiling. A girl whose appearance was very similar to Leon's.

'Now who. . .' Silas' brow furrowed as he looked down at the photo, 'Are you?'

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Author guidance for This story

Just started continuing this!

If you're interested, the first in this series is www.protagonize.com/story/the-girl-in-the-mask

The chapters will be a lot shorter, but there'll be around 14 or 15 of them.

Enjoy!
^_^

updated Aug 8 '11 by Diomedes