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Probability Zero
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Probability
Zero Presents
Holmes and
Watson
Meet Tom Jones
Representative
Jasper Witchwad was dead.
The town of Hale
on the planet Primus is a gated community for the super rich and the
hyper famous. Just to get on the waiting list, a client’s bank
account must show more than 107 credits. The township is
surrounded by a force bubble and nothing can get in or out unless it
comes through one of two heavily guarded portals.
Jasper Witchwad
was one of the few people who could afford to live there. He came
from an old family had been left a small fortune in his fathers
will. He was Senate Representative for the Blue Party but also he
had successful media career.
Witchwad had a
fascination with the twentieth century. His house in Hale was full
of memorabilia from that century. He specialized in what would now
be considered data in its different forms. He had a vast collection
of books printed on paper, films recorded on tape and music recorded
on vinyl. He had devices for playing all of these.
When the body
was found, he was clutching a copy of She’s a Lady, a 1971 album by
Tom Jones. The album was on vinyl and it looked as if Jasper had
made a special effort to remove that particular album from his
collection.
The police on
Primus decided they needed an expert on the twentieth century and
called in Doctor John Holmes and Mr. Sherlock Watson. Doctor Holmes
had been born in that century and although no-one knew when Watson
had been born, his almost encyclopedic knowledge of everything was
seen as an asset.
As Holmes
entered the room he noticed a large metal box.
“Do you know
what that is?” he said, smiling. “That’s a Betamax recorder.”
“Called Betamax,
because the shape of the tape in the cassette looked like the Greek
letter beta,” added Watson. “That’s our letter B.”
They we greeted
by Inspector Oolu, an octoped from the planet Oo. He invited the
detectives into the room and invited them to look round. Holmes
checked the collections of books and videos while Watson put on a
pair of surgical gloves and examined the album.
“I believe you
already have a number of suspects,” he said to Oolu.
“We have three,”
Oolu replied. “The first is a chameleoid life form, a Grine from the
planet Orme in the Baledo system. His skin changes its colour to
match his background. Comes in handy in this one’s case. He’s a
professional nark, he makes his money by selling information to the
police. He’s our best grass by a mile.
“That’s how we
caught him. When I got here, I spotted him in trying to get out
through the gatehouse. Even though he was camouflaged, I still saw
him because I’m used to him. He wouldn’t tell me why he was here so
we pulled him in. Their species don’t have names as such, being
chameleoids, they never look the same way twice so they take titles
such as Feels-like-Wool or Smells-Like-Socks. This one’s called
Good-To-Touch.
“The second is a
shape shifter, a Gassee from Telar in the Photo system. He can
change his shape into that of any other person. He only has to have
physical contact with them and he can shift into their shape. The
Gassees are genetically engineered. They don’t have names only
batch numbers, this one’s called A6600. His friends call him 58.
Do you know why?”
“In hexadecimal,
58 is the cube root of A6600,” said Watson without hesitation. Oolu
shrugged with all eight tentacles and continued.
“He’s well known
to us, a sleaze bag journalist who uses his skills to sneak up on
unsuspecting celebrities. He paid off one of the gardeners and has
been working in his place for a couple of weeks. Gassees have to
return to their normal shape every couple of hours and he had to do
this while he was waiting to give a statement. He’s clammed up
too.”
“The third
suspect is Jamie Briggs, a Galamatran from Thrall. He’s a career
thief. The Galamatrans are natural teleporters, which means they
can move from one place to another just using the power of their
minds. When they leave their planet, Galamatrans are supposed to
take psionic suppressors to stop them being able to teleport, but
Briggs has been laying off the pills. When Witchwad was found dead,
he tried to teleport out, but they’d intensified the force dome and
he couldn’t get out.
Doctor Holmes
had finished searching the shelves and had a question for Oolu.
“Do you know the
political affiliations of the suspects? This could be a political
assassination.”
“I’ve asked
them,” said Oolu. “Good-To-Touch was an active member of the
Environmentalists. The Greens believe that big business is
destroying the atmosphere of various planets by too many space
launches and too much flight. Witchwad often spoke out against
these issues in the senate.
“A6600 is a
natural conservative, the Blues have policies that support the
ostentatious consumption that his life revolves around. Also
they’ve provided him with more tales of sleaze than any of the other
parties. Recently, however, he was involved in a libel case and
Witchwad appeared for the prosecution. 58 lost is case and it cost
him big.
“Gus Carnaby is
a communist. The people of Trall are always in and out of each
others houses and have no concept of personal property. This makes
them natural supporters of the Reds. He admits that he had meant to
steal from Witchwad but denies murdering him.”
Sherlock Watson
still had the record in his hand.
“Well, from
what you’ve told me, I think I know who killed Jasper Witchwad.”
The Challenge
So who killed Jasper Witchwad?
Was it the chameleoid Good-To-Touch who used his
powers of camouflage to get into his home?
Was it A6600 who could have presented himself as
one of Witchward’s friends?
Or was it Gus Carnaby who could just teleport in?
But why was Jasper Witchward clutching a Tom
Jones album?
Click
here for the solution.
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