Corsi was really getting sick of the harsh, sharp smell of death forcing its way into her life. Deverick’s body stared up accusingly. She cursed to herself, convinced that she should have been able to stop this one. They had the padds in custody. How could one of them have gotten out?

Maybe it isn’t the padds after all?

The evidence, what little there was of it, was just as inconclusive as it had been for Caitano. No fibers out of place. No unusual dusts. Nothing remotely of use. The only major difference with the body seemed to be that this time, he’d ended up on his back instead of facedown. Corsi took little time pointing out a trail of blood that led from the victim’s ears. “From what you said you found in Caitano’s autopsy, looks like the same thing.”

“That would be a logical assumption,” Lense said from beside her. The doctor had followed her from their quarters the second the call from Hawkins had come in.

Lense pulled out her own tricorder and began scanning the body. “Creatine kinase levels are normal. Save for blood type, these readings are virtually identical to what I found on Caitano. It’s even picking up the same percentage of brain tissue in the blood.”

Corsi couldn’t believe her ears. “Identical? That shouldn’t be possible. There are too many variables involved for it to come out identical.”

Lense held out the tricorder, and Corsi immediately inspected the readings. The tricorder was only able to do a few of the exams, but a bare-bones toxicology reading, pathology scans, even scans of the blood trails from his ears, scan after scan, it was all the same. “At least now we’ve got a signature on the murder weapon,” was all she could manage.

Corsi visually scanned the area around the body. It looked remarkably like the scenario she’d found Caitano in, only transposed to the new quarters’ sitting room: body on the floor near the sofa, glass of a clear liquid on the table near his head—she presumed it was water, but aimed her tricorder at it, just to be safe.

It was precisely as it appeared—water.

Damn. With the glass Caitano had, that’s about the only other consistency between the crime scenes.

She checked the closets and dressers, but came up empty. The replicators showed that he’d requested a homeopathic headache remedy. She called up the chemical composition that had been programmed into the replicator. Both the pattern on that and the one on the aspirin Caitano had called for checked out as having nothing added.

One detail jumped out at her, though. “Where’s the padd?”

“Padd?” Lense asked.

“Yeah. The padd. If what I was thinking before is right, it might be the key here.” As soon as Hawkins had scans of the room for the official record, Corsi began going over the room. Between a pillow and blanket on the sofa, she found the object of her search. “Here it is. Hawkins?”

“Yeah, Chief?”

“Get this to Commander Gomez. Run a DNA trace while you’re at it. I want to know what the difference is between this one and the ones we’ve got in custody.”

Hawkins nodded, and gingerly took the padd. “Anything else?”

That was when it struck her. “Yeah. Take a DNA trace on the glass. Compare it to the one from Caitano’s murder and standard replicator settings. Have the chemical compositions double-checked on both glasses. I want to make sure the replicators aren’t lying to us.”

“You got it,” Hawkins said.

“What are you thinking?” Lense asked.

Corsi tried to figure out an appropriate way to phrase the thoughts in her head. She gestured for Lense to follow her into the corridor. “Remember how I was saying that the terrorists used everyday things as weapons?”

The doctor nodded. A glimmer of understanding quickly followed. “You think whoever did this used something we wouldn’t notice?”

“That’s exactly what I think.”

“But, what is ‘it’? Domenica, I don’t know of anything that could do this kind of damage that isn’t something we could easily pick up on a simple scan. Whatever this is, it’s something new. The only drug I found in Caitano’s body was the aspirin, and so far I don’t see any difference here, either. I don’t think whatever did this was delivered in the glass.”

Corsi slowly shook her head. “I’m not so sure, either. I’ve got a feeling it’s got something to do with the padds. So far, it’s the only other connection between the two deaths. We need to examine that padd.” Tapping her combadge, she said, “Corsi to Gomez.”

“Yes, Commander?”

“Has Mr. Hawkins reported to you yet?”

“He just got here. What’s up?”

She took a deep breath. “Doctor Lense and I need your help. Could you meet us in the hololab as soon as you have a chance?”