Chapter 2

Kram woke abruptly from his blissfully dreamless sleep to the shrill sound of his phone going off, not his alarm but the ringtone he had set for the precinct. Fishing under his pillow, he seized his phone, jabbing the glaring screen blindly in the darkened room.

"What!" He barked. Sleep was a precious commodity, and dreamless sleep was his unicorn.

"It's Xavier." His wince was audible, he knew how much Kram hated being woken up. 

"Noh told me to call. Our team's on-call tonight; we have a body and you're closest to the scene. I'll text you the address." Xavier hung up abruptly, not waiting for Kram to yell at him again. 

Kram splashed water on his face and ran his hands through his hair, trying not to stare at his worn expression in the mirror before setting off to the crime scene. It must be bad if the local police asked for their help so soon after finding the body. 

An hour later, Kram eased his car into an alley, the murder scene was in a blind alley adjacent to this one that ran behind the shophouses here. Hanging his badge around his neck he got out of the car and walked toward the police tape. The local police pointed out the person in charge who was standing near the body. 

 "I'm Kram from the DSI. I was told you requested we take over this case. It's unusual for local police to request our help, usually, we have to fight our way in. Any particular reason why you're in such a hurry to pass this case off? 

The officer in charge shifted his eyes away from Kram and to the body that was already under a sheet. 

"Look, I don't want to get anyone in trouble. I've just been transferred here, but this isn't the first body to turn up with these same wounds. There are differences of course. The first victim was a male, but they are about the same age and the wounds have the same strange shape. Most importantly there is this blue substance on both victims. Come on, I'll show you." He gestured for Kram to come closer. 

The officer pulled back the sheet covering the body. They had bagged her hands and head to preserve evidence, but through the plastic could be seen the fine sparkle of something blue, like glass powder.

"My boss doesn't want any part of this when the media finds out, so it's your problem now. I'll have the files from the other case transferred to your team." he said. 

Xavier appeared at the police line behind them as he walked over, the other officer walked away glad to be rid of this problem and ready to be off shift. 

"Where's the rest of the team?" asked Kram, stooping to examine the body more closely. 

"On their way.they should be here soon. Why did we pull this case or do you want to wait for the others before you tell me?" Xavier said. 

"No need, we can fill them in later. I want you to look at the body and give me your opinion about anything that stands out to you. Have you already called in our techs? I want our lab to do this. I want to be sure the provincials didn't miss anything." 

Kram walked the perimeter of the crime scene looking for anything that stood out. The markers from the other team were still in place. Taking the stack of numbers, Kram marked several other things he wanted the lab to take a look at, bagging several bits of paper, a pen, and a lipstick tube, as he followed the trail of debris toward a heap of garbage bags waiting to be picked up. The team arrived as he was finishing up the bagging. 

"I found her purse. Can I get another bag over here?" called Kram over his shoulder. Kram changed his gloves before placing the purse in the bag Tan brought him. Together they walked back to the body. Tan was about the same age but shorter than Kram, his specialty was building tech; he could make anything work and was always coming up with new gadgets. He had a kind but quirky personality that made people trust him quickly. He was always willing to listen and give advice as long as you didn't touch his stuff. He and Love had that in common.

Xavier stood up from the body as the others gathered around. 

"Well first things first. This is definitely not this killer's first body, and while there is no sign of magic used to commit the murder tthat doesn't mean the killer doesn't have magic. I don't see any hesitation marks on the body and even though this does seem to be a blitz attack, the body was deliberately left here. Most importantly that sparkling dust could be signs of magic if came from the killer. I couldn't find it anywhere except on the body. It's either accidentally transferred or deliberately put there, once we know what it is, hopefully we can track it to a source." Xavier looked up at the group standing around him.

 "Tan, get your drones in the air. I want aerial photos and an assessment of the area. He had to have known about this place. You don't come here by accident and then attack someone." Noh said. 

Tan opened his kit and unfolded the wings of the drones before sending several into the air, the screen and controller in his hand allowing him to view the area in real-time. 

Noh walked back to the van with Kram and Love.

"Love, can you take a sample of that blue sparkling dust off the body to the lab? As soon as we have results on what it is I want you to track it down. Meanwhile, run down all the information you can about our victim. Who was she? Where had she been over the last 24 hours and if she had any enemies. Kram and I will go to the victim's house and see what we can find there. Once the scene is processed and the body moved, the team can go home. We won't get any results tonight anyway. I just want to make sure we get to the victim's home before anyone has a chance to disturb it." Noh said. 

It was midnight by the time Kram and Noh arrived and woke up the landlord to let them into the victims' condo. It looked like most condos that belonged to someone in their twenties or thirties. This morning's dishes were in the sink. A basket of laundry was left waiting to be folded and put away and not much in the fridge. The main space of the Condo was dominated by her work. 

A laptop stood open on the coffee table surrounded by books, articles, and pictures of various pieces of art. A combination of cork board and whiteboard held hastily jotted notes and appointments. The room still held the feeling that the owner might return at any moment. 

"Let's take photos of these documents and the calendar then get the laptop to Love. Maybe he can find something useful on it. In the morning we can start tracking down her appointments. her death might have something to do with her work." said Noh. 

They left the condo at about 3 am. Kisa Boonnak's life was reduced to the a few cardboard boxes in the back of Krams SUV. Dropping Noh off at his vehicle, Kram headed home with the papers they had collected, having sent all the hardware to Love. It was 5 am when he turned on his coffee pot, spreading the articles out on the table. Kisa Boonnak was the author of many of the articles. A quick google search pulled up her picture staring back at him was the victim from the alleyway. Now we're getting somewhere, thought Kram. Sipping coffee Kram read through her articles, some of them were academic but most of them were reviews of art galleries and new exhibitions. At 7:30 am his alarm went off. It was time to get some sleep before going into the office. 

Kram collapsed on his bed, and grabbing his phone he sent a text to Love before drifting off: 

—Read through our victim's papers, it seems she was an art critic. Emphasis on the critic: maybe the murder was revenge or has an art connection? The sun's up so I'm going to get some sleep. Call me if anything significant develops. If not, I'll see you at about 1:30. —

 Kram double-checked his alarm and fell asleep.

It felt like he had just blinked, and his alarm was going off. After a quick shower and a protein shake mixed with coffee, he set off for the office. Twenty minutes later Kram pulled up, the rest of the team was already there. Noh had started the official timeline on the board. Kram read over the notes they had made so far. 

"Now that we're all here, Love, why don't you tell us what you learned?" Said Noh.

"Kisa Boonnak, 30, art critic and restorer, and sometimes guest lecturer at Silpakorn University. No family in the area, she's originally from Chiang Mai. She was active on social media which is good for us. It helps to narrow our timeline considerably and track her whereabouts. She went live from a gallery the night before last, that is pretty near to the alley where she was found so there is a good chance she was at that gallery again last night. We should start there. I have been going through her emails, most of them are just general work things, but there have been some threatening letters, people upset about her reviews, etc. I'm going to dig into that next. The coroner hasn't gotten back to us on the official cause of death, but I expect that it will have something to do with all these puncture wounds." He said sarcastically before continuing.

"Toxicology is not back yet. The good news is we do have results back on that sparkly substance. I have a 1000 baht for anyone here who can guess right. Tan, you want to guess first?" said Love.

"Uuh some kind of metal dust?" shrugged Tan.

"No, Noh?" said Love.

"Some sort of glass dust?" said Noh.

"No, Xavier?" Said, Love.

"Some sort of talc and glitter or magic residue?" Said Xavier.

"Mmm, closer but still no. Ok mister genius detective don't fail me, what is it?" Said, Love

Everyone turned to look at Kram who stood leaning against a desk sipping his coffee. 

"Hmm, my guess is some kind of mineral. Probably blue goldstone, from the look of it. Am I right?" asked Kram, wiggling his eyebrows. 

Love sighed, dropped his head, and groaned. Fishing in his back pocket for his wallet he pulled out a 1000 baht note. Just as Kram reached for it he snatched it away, smirking. 

"You know I hate you sometimes. I'll give you the money, but first I want to know how you knew the dust was blue goldstone." 

Everyone turned to look at Kram again who took the time to sip his coffee dramatically before continuing.

 "I read about it in one of her articles last night. An artist held an exhibition where all their work was based on the night sky, and they mixed this powdered blue goldstone with their pigment to give the sky more depth. Our victim Kisa was pretty critical of the artist and their work." Said Kram 

Love handed the money over to Kram. 

"Why do I feel like I got cheated?" he said, shaking his head. 

 "Don't blame me, this is a details game." Said Kram with a wink. 

"Will you two stop flirting! We have work to do. Love, I want you to use that article and track down the artist who uses the blue goldstone! Since it was found on the victim's body, we will start with them. Tan, you work on the victim's laptop to see if there is anything about it that we need to know. Was she hiding anything? Xavier, interview the victim's colleagues and see what kind of person she was or if she had any enemies. I'll go down to pathology for the autopsy. Once Love finds that artist Kram, take him and go interview them."