Chapter One - Breach and Cant

	It had rained the night before. Usually Damien didn’t much mind that- you turn up your collar, or stay indoors like a civilized person, so what? But now it was eight in the morning, and he was looking at a crime scene that had been washed clean six hours before he got there.
“Witness says she just found the body here?” He asked, turning to his partner.
“She ain’t really a witness. Didn’t see a thing.” Alistair shrugged, leaning against the cruiser. “Came to toss out the trash while she was opening up shop, saw the fella. Helluva good morning.”
The two looked at each other without meaning. Alistair shrugged again, and Damien turned back to the crime scene. Both of them had seen worse. Twenty years on the force, no way around it. But neither of them had ever quite gotten over that new-corpse smell.
This was a new corpse, no doubt about it. The rain had washed away most of the blood, but here and there little trails remained. The most prominent one was on one of the alley’s brick walls. Red on red and diluted by the rain, it wasn’t terribly distinctive. It looked like a shadow; like someone had bounced a wet soccer ball on the wall. A soccer ball that was red, that is. Bounced hard enough to crack the bricks. The corpse’s head was evidence of what the other half of that equation worked out to. He had been young. Or maybe middle-aged. Most of his face had run down the gutter, and what was left was enough for only the barest of observations. It was Damien that approached it first. Taking the handful of steps requisite to complete the journey he squatted down. He closed his eyes and opened one hand, muttering under his breath. Blue light danced between his fingers, soft in the humid air, and went out. After a moment more he opened his eyes again, staring at where the corpse’s forehead should have been.
“Died scared,” Damien told Alistair, cocking his head.
“No shit? How’d you expect him to handle being tossed like a dart at brick wall?” Alistair huffed, leveraging himself off of the cruiser.
“It means he wasn’t surprised, for one. Look at the impact- his head practically left a crater. Your mind doesn’t have time to react when you’re suddenly moving that fast.”
“Alright, so he had company. We’ll have a look around, see if any cameras caught him and his pal.”
	It was eight o’clock. It was a new crime scene, with new clues, and new questions. It was just another Saturday morning.
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