The Glass House

When they arrived a tall, stout man with a respectable grey moustache walked down the steps from the glass house. He shook the woman's hand and gave the young man a friendly nod.

'Elanor, Harry, good to see you. We're just about finished here. Please follow me.'

'Good morning, Doctor Nadolski. I hope your wife is feeling better? How are the grandchildren?'

He led them back up into the conservatory. Here the air was quite a bit warmer than outside but just as humid. Three hovering lights were placed under the glass dome and illuminated the scene while a bunch of small camera drones were buzzing through the air. Metal tables were arranged, following the curve of the glass house. The pots and soil scattered on them indicated that the flower pots were originally standing there. The center of the room was a chaos of green fragmented leaves and blue petals, soil and broken flower pots.

In the middle of all this mess lay the reason for this gathering of people: Henry Morgenstern 84 years old, retired pharmacist, former owner of his own company and passionate breeder of orchids was deceased of unnatural causes some time between the night before and this morning. He was wearing striped pyjamas and a fuzzy red morning gown. His shoes were half open. It was obvious that Mr Morgenstern left the house in a hurry. The cause of death seemed hard to miss: he was lying on his back, with a large pair of hedge clippers sticking out of his chest.

'First scans indicate that it was indeed the garden tool which killed him. So no surprise here. There are also further wounds on his forearms,' he pulled back a sleeve to show them the wounds, also revealing a large birthmark on his left lower arm, 'and on the upper body. And we found one of his fingers under a table.'

'So he faced his killer and there was a fight,' Harry remarked.

Doctor Nadolski nodded, 'a very short fight. He didn't stand a chance. The time of death was around 3am this night.'

They returned outside to quite a commotion in the garden: two shouting people in protective suits were chasing the four-handed robot, which seemed to have a bag stuck on its rake. Elanor and Harry watched as they disappeared in the fog.

'That's the new RoboFlux gardener 3k,' Harry explained – because he had an interest in things like these -,'It mows the grass, trims the bushes, rakes the leaves – as you see – even picks fruit and waters the flowers. If I would have the money...'

'Harry, you live in a one-bedroom apartment. Do you want a gardener for your cactus?', Elanor interrupted him.

'Someday I'll have have one, you'll see.'

Elanor patted his back, ' we're the police, not millionaires.'

Tavaron