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[inseine]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, PasUnPolicier. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 246.01.094.30 *** PasUnPolicier has joined 246.01.094.30 <PasUnPolicier> This mail centre belongs to Javert. <PasUnPolicier> Be accurate and brief. <PasUnPolicier> I suggest you not test my patience with practical jokes and clowning around. <PasUnPolicier> I will return your notice shortly.

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2nd murder

[baisunas]

[ An elderly man comes to Javert's office near midnight, ashen-faced. He's simply dressed, his clothing that of a laborer. He asks for Javert to come quickly. There's been a murder. If asked for further elaboration, he'll shake his head, a little wide-eyed, and request that Javert accompany him. "You have to see it, sir," he'll say. "You just have to see it."

It's to Bavan's warehouse district that the man takes him, to a large courtyard between two warehouses, dark at this time of night. He'd been on his way to work, the man says, and running late, took a shortcut through here and found this.

This is an intricate tableau of bodies, carefully arranged as if to form a story. To the right, eleven naked men—sheer swathes of colorful fabric loosely woven through their stiff limbs—set in a circle around the body of another man, large and muscular and clothed in a white robe. He has long white hair and a thick white beard. His left arm is curled around the body of a naked woman. His right is outstretched, reaching toward the body of another man, young and lean and blond, sprawled naked and reaching back toward him with his left hand. Their fingertips mere centimeters from touching.

Perhaps Javert recognizes it as a painstaking recreation of Michelangelo Buonarroti's Creation of Adam?

Although perfectly preserved, further examination will reveal that these individuals were not killed at the same time. Some died more than a week ago. One was killed earlier that night. They all appear to have been suffocated to death.

It will take some effort to uncover the names of all the victims: Gus Humphrey, Roger Daly, Tomas Weeks, Charley Moreno, Horace Foreman, Saim Wiggins, Wilson Murray, Aydin Aldred, Jack Talbot, McCauley Pace, Ajay Gibson, Cassidy Dawson, Cormac Neale, and Hallie Kirk. None of them are related. They don't seem to know each other. Further investigation will reveal histories of theft, murder, assault, robbery, selling illegal substances, and arson. Rumor has it that Cormac Neale may have even run in more dangerous circles.

Should Neale's apartment be searched, he will find the lower left-hand drawer of his bureau has a false bottom. Inside, one large pristine feather, white shading to black at the tip. Perhaps Javert recognizes it. It once belonged to him. ]