Grantville Gazette 37

'Not shot,' Georg insisted. 'Stabbed or cut. Perhaps bludgeoned. But not shot.'

'Why do you say that?'

'The blood, it's not right,' Georg said.

'Neustatter!' Astrid called. 'There's something you'll want to know.' She waved Georg forward. 'Explain.'

'Whoever bled here, he or she was not shot,' Georg said.

'Speak up!' someone hollered.

Neustatter motioned to the watchmen. 'Gentlemen, we won't all fit. Perhaps the two professors and then you could pick out a couple dependable men?'

Meinhard nodded. He pointed at two men. 'Rudolf Schwartz. Klaus Huber. You witness for the crowd. And for the Committees.' Huber was the man with the quarterstaff.

Eight men crowding into an alley trying to avoid stepping in bloodstains was awkward at best. Once they were all at least close enough to hear, Neustatter said, 'Say that again, Georg.'

'This is not blood from shot,' Georg said again. 'This is blood from a blade.' He pointed at a streak of blood on the wall, three or four yards from the end of the alley. 'This is artery spray. It's about one American foot from the ground. Not head or chest level. And then whoever it was collapsed right there.' He pointed at a section of wall where the pattern sloped down to the ground, ending in a pool of semi-dried blood. It was irregularly shaped, about three American feet by a foot and a half.

'Right,' Meinhard said. 'Then he picked up the body and left these footprints here.' He pointed at a couple impressions that ended in a confused tangle with a smaller patch of blood at the edge of the alley where it met the street.

'What is the point of this?' Jost asked.

'Figuring out what happened,' Meinhard told him. 'Someone stepped in blood and walked to the edge of the street. There's no blood out in the street but there is this spot. As if someone who was bleeding stopped and stood here.'

'It would have happened while they were loading the body,' Jost said.

Georg pointed at it. 'That's dripping. Uh, gravitational spatter, they call it. See how the drops here by the street are all round? And that-' He indicated a spray pattern. 'is not gravitational. It's from a new wound.' He squatted down to look closely. 'There is also white stuff on the ground. I smell something, too.' He sniffed the ground. 'I think it's horseradish.'

Jost opened his mouth to argue and then reconsidered. But Huber said it for him. 'So the heretics stabbed him again and then put the body in a wagon.'

'That's not what happened,' Georg said. 'Look at these blood drops.'

Watchman Meinhard frowned. 'There are two blood trails. We're standing in one of them! Everyone step back against the wall.' He pointed at the ground and traced the trail as everyone got out of the way. 'One going into the alley and one coming back out?'

'Both blood trails are going in,' Georg corrected.

'You couldn't possibly know that unless you saw it happen,' Huber stated.

'It's very clear,' Georg countered. 'The footprints come out to the street. But both blood trails are going back in.'

Meinhard took a close look. 'Yes.'

'You can't tell that . . .' Jost began.

'Yes you can. Blood drops from a moving person aren't round. They're pointed, and they point in the direction of movement.'

'I don't believe that,' Huber said.

'Please, feel free to cut your finger and walk around,' Georg challenged.

'Why, you . . .'

'That's enough, Herr Huber,' Meinhard said without lifting his gaze from the ground. 'Why do you know all this, Georg?'

'My sister Katharina keeps staying after school for Bibelgesellschaft work. I was bored waiting, so I took the forensics class.'

'Forensics?' Meinhard stumbled over the word.

'Crime scene investigation.'

'Ah. Herr Frost has told us a little about this. He said he will say more about it on his next circuit. I remember that he said the up-timers have a chemical that shows blood.'

'Yes,' Georg agreed. 'Luminol. It's usually used to see where someone cleaned up blood. No need for it here.' Then a thought struck him, and he laughed. 'But it wouldn't work here anyway, Watchman Meinhard. You can smell the horseradish, right?'

'Ja.'

'Horseradish causes luminol to show a false positive,' Georg said. 'If we had any to spray around, I think this whole end of the alley would turn blue.'

'Have you used this luminol before?'

'No. I've just seen pictures of it in a book. If there is any left at all, it is not enough to let students use it.'

Meinhard was quiet for a few moments. 'Could someone have put the horseradish there on purpose so that luminol couldn't be used?'

Georg thought about that. 'I believe Herr Frost would say that forensic countermeasures suggest careful planning. Given the amount of blood everywhere, I don't think this was carefully planned. Certainly no one tried to clean up the scene. I think the horseradish is just an accident.'

'Good point,' Meinhard agreed. He turned his attention back to the scene. 'Steps in the blood, tracks it to the street, spills blood there, two people come back this way,' he mused. 'Steps over here around the blood pool.'

'I didn't see that one,' Georg admitted.

'It's just blood drops. There aren't any footprints.'

Georg cocked his head to one side. 'Why not? If there are footprints going out there should be footprints coming back.'

'This is hard ground,' Meinhard pointed out. 'We're not leaving footprints either.'

Georg thought about that for a minute. Then he stamped on the ground. 'Look – I can leave a footprint if I stomp. But why would anyone stomp after stepping in blood? I'd scuff my shoes to scrape it off.'

'He didn't scuff,' Meinhard observed. He pointed at a misshapen footprint. 'Georg, he slipped!'

Georg understood at once. 'He slipped in the blood and stumbled to the edge of the alley. Wait-then he stood around bleeding? Why was he bleeding?'

'He stabs the other guy . . .' Meinhard began. 'No, the other guy stabs him. No, that's not right, because they walk off together.'

'Do we know they left together?' Georg asked.

'There are the two blood trails,' the watchman pointed out. 'They never cross.' He began again. 'The first man walks through the alley and stabs someone. He slips in the blood. The victim injures him at the edge of the street. But the second man arrives. They kill the victim, and they load the body on a wagon, then walk back down the alley.'

'Why wouldn't they just ride away on the wagon?' Georg asked. 'Especially since the first man was wounded?'

'So there's a third man driving the wagon . . .' Meinhard shook his head. 'No, that is far too complicated.' He looked at Jost. 'Do you have a theory?'

'Not anymore,' Jost answered. 'But yours has the big blood stain made before the one next to the street. But the one next to the street is dried, and the big one is still sticky. Doesn't that make the one by the street older?'

Astrid watched Georg and Meinhard exchange looks of consternation. Then they both practically dove at the blood stain by the street.