Nightmare by Steven Harper Page B

"What’s the official cause of death?" Melthine asked.
      "Mental trauma," Gray said. "The patterns of bruises on Temm’s body are consistent with being wrapped up and partially crushed by something with an irregular surface, such as a tree branch. Her body created the bruises in psychosomatic response to what happened to her mind in the Dream. Being torn to pieces, however, is more than your average human brain can pull off, so to speak."
      Tan pursed her lips. "We need to discuss the finger angle." When the others didn’t respond, she continued. "Medical examiner confirmed that Temm’s finger was severed and replaced post mortem. Less than an hour after Temm died, in fact. Means that the killer murdered her in the Dream, came into her house afterward, cut the finger off, sewed Wren Hamil’s finger on, and left. We’ve interviewed the neighbors. None of them saw anyone."
      "What about her boyfriend?" Melthine said. "Is he a suspect? The neighbors wouldn’t think anything of him going inside."
      Linus Gray shook his head. "He’s not Silent. Genetic scan confirms. He couldn’t kill anyone in the Dream. And he has an iron-clad alibi for the time before and after she died. He’s a monorail engineer and he was driving one all day. Plenty of witnesses."
      "He kills them," Tan mused aloud, "tears off a finger in the Dream, writes a number on their foreheads. Then he goes to their house, cuts a finger off, replaces it with a finger from the last victim."
      "Whose finger was sewn onto the first victim—Prinna Meg?" Ara asked. "Do you know?"
      "The finger’s DNA isn’t in any computer records," Gray said. "All we know is that the thing came from a woman and she was Silent."
      "So maybe the killer does come from off planet," Ara postulated. "The killer brought the finger with him from somewhere else."
      "That would seem to follow," Gray agreed.
      "What do all the victims have in common?" Tan said. "That might give us a clue, too."
      "They’re all women," Gray said, ticking his fingers. "They’re all Silent, and they’re all Children of Irfan."
      "Wren Hamil, the second victim, was a student," Melthine pointed out. "Not a full Child."
      "But they’re all associated with the Children in some way," Gray said. "They were all between eighteen and forty. Hair and eye color are all different. So are height and weight. None of them knew each other as far as we’ve been able to tell. We’ll have to do a deeper comparison just to be sure, but I’m not optimistic."
      "Did the forensics team find any clues at Iris’s house?" Melthine asked.
      "Not yet," Gray replied. "But it doesn’t look good either. No fingerprints, no blood or other body fluids except the victim’s. We’re looking into fibers, but since there wasn’t a struggle where any would get rubbed off, we aren’t hopeful."
      "Why does he do it?" Ara blurted.
      Tan shrugged again. "Been doing some reading, but I’m not an expert on serial killers. Maybe he hates Silent women, or just the Children.  Hope we can figure it out. It’ll bring us one step closer to catching him." Her face hardened. "We will catch him."
      They discussed the case further, but brought nothing new to light. Ara walked home, jumping at every shadow and every fluttering leaf. She regretted passing up Tan and Gray’s offer of an escort. The warm summer breeze only reminded her of the cold one in the Dream, and it seemed like she could hear Iris Temm’s final heart-rending scream in the far distance. Once, a dinosaur roared below her and she nearly leaped off the walkway in panic.
      When Ara got home, the house was dark. Fear clutched at her and she ran inside. Ben’s door was shut. Shakily, Ara opened it and peered inside. Ben lay face-up on his bed in a puddle of silver moonlight. The sheets were tangled around him, leaving his bed as messy as the rest of the room. His skin looked like marble, and she saw with relief the gentle rise and fall of his