Alaskan Magic: Shadows of Alaska Book 1

by CC Dragon

  “Personal effects too.” I noticed some pretty gross lingerie.

  “Obviously, there are some things the women will want and others that will be boxed for evidence.” Green surveyed the room.

  “Excellent. The lab already processed that stuff for evidence, so I can go through it?” I asked.

  “Work on your report of what happened up north. The body should be in here in a few hours. I want independent investigation of that evidence,” Green said.

  The power dynamic had returned. “You realize I was with Mitch. I never got to search the rooms.”

  “Compartmentalization is good. No tampering of evidence or agendas,” he said.

  “I want a clean case, too, but it’s my case. I got the tip. I want to make sure we’re not missing a lead or dropping a piece,” I said.

  Green huffed. “I’m your superior. I will make sure the case is handled impartially and properly though all phases. You’ll get the due credit.”

  “It’s not about credit,” I called as he walked away.

  I almost called him a jackass again, but there were too many people around.

  Heading to my office, I walked by the common room with all the women staring at the TV. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with the victims until I had actual news. My heart went out to them, but it was exhausting.

  A couple of them glanced back at me.

  One of them chased me down. She was a slender but very tall woman with straw colored hair and pale brown eyes.

  “Dot?” she asked.

  “That’s me. Everything okay? Do you need something?” It wasn’t one of the women I’d spoken to before.

  “I heard some of the women talking about babies. It made me think,” she said.

  The interview rooms appeared to be occupied. “Come in my office for a bit.”

  I led the way and locked the door behind us. After making sure the blinds concealed the meeting, I sat in my chair. “Water? Coffee?” I offered.

  She shook her head and sat in the guest chair. “Thanks.”

  “I’m sorry, what’s your name?” I wished I could remember every woman by name, but there were too many. They taught us in the academy to keep our emotions in check, but it was impossible in some cases.

  “Karen. I don’t want to bother you, but now that the shock of being rescued has worn off, some things are coming back.” She rubbed her temples like she was in pain.

  “If you need medical attention, we can get you that,” I offered.

  She shook her head and hugged a blue cardigan that was two sizes too big for her tighter around her torso. “It’s just a headache. I was using a lot of alcohol to cope. They gave us what we needed to keep working.” She put working in air quotes.

  “Withdrawal can be hard. If you need anything, please let us know.” That reminded me that some of the women had been put into rehabs to help them detox. I nearly lost my breakfast trying not to think about what they’d been through.

  “Thanks. My memory is coming back, and I’m not the only one. I’m not sure if they drugged us with something else. Why am I doing this?” She stood up.

  “Karen, wait. If you want to talk to a therapist about false memories or anything, we can arrange that.” I reached over and patted her arm. The woman had been under a spell. No wonder these women were so groggy and grouchy.

  “No, I know what I know. I just feel like no one will believe me. They’d always tell us we remembered things wrong. We were drunk or high. It didn’t happen that way. We’d all fall into line,” she said.

  “You had a baby too?” I hid the adrenaline rush bouncing in my veins.

  “I don’t think it was just me,” she said.

  “Did you hide your pregnancy?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “It was too obvious.”

  “What did they do?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Nothing. I guess some of the Johns were into that. But I couldn’t keep it. They promised to give it to someone who’d take care of it.”

  “Did you give birth in a hospital?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “They brought in a woman and said she was a midwife or something. It went okay, I guess. But then I was alone.”

  “I’m so sorry. How long was this? any idea?” I asked.

  “A couple years, but it was before they moved my group up here. The baby could be anywhere.” Karen looked lost in a daze, as if it’d all happened to someone else.

  “We’re going to get you a therapist to talk to about this,” I said.

  She nodded absently. “It doesn’t feel like me, but I know the pain was real.”

  “And there were other women who were pregnant and seem to have forgotten or been drugged into forgetting?”

  Karen shrugged. “It seems so. I remember others getting pregnant, and it wasn’t like they’d waste the money on abortions. I don’t know if they sold the babies or safe dropped them somewhere to avoid any traceability. But I told Olive she wasn’t alone. She just managed to hide hers, so she got to keep the baby for a while. I think that would’ve been harder.”

  I nodded. “Thank you for telling me. Do you want to make an official statement on this? See a therapist?”

  “Maybe the therapist. I don’t know about the rest. I’ll never see my baby. I wouldn’t make a good mother, no matter what. I just needed you to know. Drugs and alcohol were a problem. I don’t know what was so good at making us forget, but it’s starting to come back, and it’s not just me.” She headed for the door.

  “Okay, thank you.” I grabbed my phone to get a therapist to meet her before she hit the common room. Pushing her to report or do anything else now would only hurt her. The therapist could help her to that end. Making notes about the chat, I tapped my fingers—my instinct wasn’t wrong. Olive wasn’t the only one.

  As soon as I hung up, Zelda was tapping on my door. I waved her in, or rather I waved the door open, but a little magic in private was good for me.

  “You’ve got a hunky state trooper here. He took the body to the morgue for autopsy. You want to head over?” she suggested.

  “Sure, I’ll meet him there.” I grabbed my coat.

  Zelda rolled her eyes and walked in, heels clicking for emphasis.

  “Did you not hear me say hunky?” she asked.

  I rolled my eyes. “You think every guy in uniform is hot.”

  “Suits too,” she replied.

  I smiled. “I’ll meet him at the morgue. Autopsies take hours, but I want to see the body before they cut it up. Once they do the exam, it’s easier to read the report.”

  An hour later, I stood in a chilled room staring at a baby corpse that had been ravaged by the elements. But it didn’t look right.

  The baby was only slightly decayed. The medical examiner took photos and looked over the body.

  “No apparent damage or injury. The elements should’ve done more to him if he’d been out there for a month.”

  “Looks like a bit of exposure,” said the trooper.

  I smiled. “Well, let’s hope maybe there is something else. Maybe the baby was stillborn or dead before it found itself in the snow.”

  “It looks to have been a healthy weight. At least two months old,” he said.

  “Two?” I asked.

  The doc nodded. “Healing of the belly button is good. Cranial shape. It’s the best guess until we do a more invasive exam.”

  “Then it’s not the baby in the amber alert. We can’t cancel it,” I said.

  The trooper nodded. “We’ll keep the word out and looking. We also found a child frozen not too far away. We’re running it against the missing persons database to try and identify the kid.”

  “That’s next on my list,” the doc said.

  “Can I see the body?” I asked.

  “I thought you were looking for babies,” the trooper said.

  I nodded and couldn’t really explain the magical tingle that told me to see the other body. “I am for this case, but dead kids that far north is odd.
I just want to get a visual just in case. We’re not sure how long this particular ring was operating here.”

  The doctor snapped off his gloves and marched over to one of the doors in the wall. He opened it and pulled out the tray.

  I went over, and the doc pulled back the sheet. A young male lay there lifeless. He looked perfectly preserved, if a bit thin. I pulled out my cell phone and took a picture. The poor parents had to be wondering and worrying—and here the kid was.

  “Pertaining to another case?” the doc asked.

  “Not sure yet, but something is very weird,” I said.

  “No sign of a struggle or cause of death. No stab or bullet wounds. Not even bruising,” the trooper summed up the condition.

  “I agree. That’s really weird. How far were they found from town?” I asked.

  “A mile or so. The baby was dumped. The kid should’ve been able to get help if he knew which way to walk.” The trooper shrugged.

  I frowned. “That’s not what I meant. Deadhorse has bear, fox, wolverines, and birds that’ll feast on dead animals. Plus, polar bear that far up. You’re telling me nothing ate any part of these bodies? Wolverines feed on anything, dead or alive. No animal activity? That’s crazy.”

  “You’re not wrong,” the doc said. “Maybe it was so cold that they froze too quickly?”

  “But a mile from town? They’d get noticed before they were frozen solid. The smell of humans would bring scavengers before the kids died,” the trooper agreed.

  “What happened to these kids?” I muttered. “Thanks, Doc. Send me the report. Call me if you find anything else weird.”

  In that part of Alaska, any human that was unarmed was not at the top of the food chain. Unless the bodies were frozen solid before they were dumped, it made no sense that they weren’t attacked by animals. But storing a body in a freezer was a viable option if they weren’t ready to dispose of the body yet or didn’t want to attract animal activity.

  “Trooper...I’m sorry, “I said.

  “Trooper Thorn,” he answered.

  “Thorn, thanks. Please let me know if you get an ID on either. Thank you, gentlemen.” I left with more questions and even more dead kids.

  Chapter Nine

  Zelda stopped me the moment I returned to my department.

  “You got three women waiting on you. Green has no clue what, but he thinks you’re up to something.” She walked me back to my office.

  “Thanks. Any update on Mitch?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Still stable, but might need another surgery down the line.”

  “Good, I guess. I really could use my partner.” The loneliness panged me at odd times, and I tried to ignore it.

  “Go visit him. You want to deal with Green or the women?” Zel asked.

  “The women. Green is just being a control freak like he always is. Without Mitch to keep an eye on me, I might show Green up.” I had to watch that sort of talk, or I’d be in real trouble. Visiting Mitch would make me feel better, but his wife would probably be blaming me still, and I didn’t need that. I needed to work the case. “Does he want to talk to me?”

  Laying low to help with magical cases was my goal, not climbing the FBI ladder of power. Still, I could do the job better without weird human oppression.

  “He wants an update on the body, but the autopsy results aren’t in. Power play. I’ll tell him you’re dealing with a few distraught women. He hates criers,” Zel said.

  “Thanks. If that trooper comes by, let me know,” I said.

  “Done and done.” Zel winked.

  A couple hours later, I had three more women who were sure they’d given birth at least once during their captivity. Their memories were messed with by drugs, but I knew it had to be magic. Indigo could be selling the babies. Such a weird operation. So much human contact and mess for money.

  The women were assigned therapists to help them recover memories and sort fact from nightmares. It was hard to prove or disprove things that happened years ago.

  I sat and stared at my coffee cup. These women had been in that life for years. One more than eight years of being moved around and brutalized. The magical fire stoked inside, and I wanted to kill Indigo and all the captors.

  I felt magic approach my door. “Come in, Zel.”

  The door opened, but it wasn’t Zel.

  “Trooper Thorn, come in.” I got up and closed the door behind him.

  “Sorry, I’m not Zel,” he said.

  “No, just an automatic reaction. I have good hearing, and I was expecting her,” I covered for picking up on his magic.

  He looked around. “You don’t have to cover. I felt your magic the minute you walked into the morgue.”

  “I see.” I locked the door. “You are?”

  “A bear shifter. I mean I was raised by humans. I got separated from the group or something, so it was weird. I’m not magical like you, but I wanted you to know.”

  “How can you tell what I am?” I’d sensed he was a para, but I’d learned not to assume everyone knew they had some magic in their bloodline—not everyone knew or used it.

  “There’s a smell. Shifters have a better sense of smell. Plus, your powers sort of pulse. I know you’re hiding it from the humans, and you’re trying to help.” He handed me a sheet of paper.

  “Exposure was the cause of death for both?” I asked.

  “Doc said it couldn’t be anything else. No sign of drowning or foul play. They’ll do a tox screen to be sure, but unless that hits, we just have to wait for the autopsy. That’s just a preliminary report to get the Feds off his back. It never goes as fast as it seems to on TV.” Thorn chuckled.

  “I know. I want the right answer, not the fast one. Then again, if it was a magical death, they’ll never find anything else but exposure to blame.” I leaned back on my desk. “I have sex trafficked women who are remembering they were pregnant and gave birth but the babies were just gone—taken away. I have magical captors and non-magical ones.”

  “Were the women paras?” he asked.

  “Most were not. A few were planted there to keep the women in line. Spells were used, but how can I prove that in a human case?” I asked.

  “You can’t. If you want their justice, you must work in their world,” Thorn said.

  I nodded. “Then I was researching missing children. There are spikes and a bunch of cancelled cases. There are a ton of unsolved cases out there.”

  “Are they new?” he asked.

  “The spikes vary, and the cancelled cases, I can’t even access. Teenagers running off? I don’t know. Can you look at your data from the Troopers and see if you get a weird trend?” I asked.

  “Sure. I’ve got a buddy on the Anchorage PD who is half wolf shifter. He’ll run the data for the city. If we see a similar trend, we should coordinate and work together. Could be part of this sex trafficking. They grab kids,” he said.

  “Not babies,” I replied.

  “Side hustle. Selling those to desperate people. Black markets are sick, human or magic,” he said.

  I nodded. “Thanks. Let me know what you find.” I handed him my card.

  “My pleasure.” He shook my hand.

  He was cute, but he thought I was more powerful than I was. Raised by humans. The poor guy. I walked him to the elevator then headed for Zel’s desk.

  “Nice,” Zel said.

  “I need a conference room reserved this afternoon. At least a dozen maps of Alaska printed out. Warm bodies to crunch data. I’m going to have lunch with Mitch, and I’ll be back,” I said.

  “Um, pause.” Zel held up a finger. “Green will hunt you down. We’re at capacity, so forget the conference room, and we’re stretched too thin on staff. I might be able to drag some white-collar guys in.”

  “Great. Book a meeting with Green for 1:30. He has a conference room attached to his office.” I smiled.

  “I’m not going to like this. No one will,” Zelda mumbled as she made notes.

  “Thanks,” I c
alled.

  Mitch was in pain but trying to hobble around his hospital room clutching at the dreaded gown that exposed too much. “I hate this place.”

  “I brought your favorite burgers,” I announced.

  “You’re a saint,” he said.

  “No,” his wife scolded.

  “Honey, please. Take the afternoon off. I’ll work on walking and take my meds. I’ll be good. You enjoy some time away and take the kids out for dinner,” Mitch pleaded.

  His wife was type A control freak.

  “He’ll be good,” I said.

  She grabbed her purse and jacket. “He needs a nap too. He’s not been sleeping well.”

  “Lunch and I’m out. He can sleep all afternoon until PT works him out,” I promised.

  She nodded. “Bye. I’ll be back tomorrow for breakfast,” she said.

  Mitch exhaled slowly. “Thank you,” he mouthed.

  “She loves you like crazy. It’s sweet in a militant way. You do need to rest.” I helped set up the food.

  “Fries and onion rings, you’re my hero,” Mitch said.

  “Healthy food only? That stuff will kill you,” I teased.

  “What’s the problem?” he asked with a mouth partly full of burger.

  “No problem. The case is complicated, and I miss my partner. Green is Green. I may have found a weird tangent case of sorts, but we’ll see.” I ate my lunch.

  Mitch chomped on a greasy onion ring. “You came here for that?”

  “I wanted to check on you,” I said.

  He scoffed.

  “Green is being extra overlord without you to run interference. He’s acting like I’ll show him up.”

  “You will,” Mitch said.

  “I don’t want his job,” I said.

  He snorted.

  “I don’t. I just don’t like how he does things sometimes. He’s old school. Sexist and doesn’t think he is. I try to push him to be better, and he overreacts.” I’d fought this for a long time.

  Mitch sighed. “He won’t change. You can change departments, and you’ll be promoted over him in a year or two.”

  “I want to help people, not play politics,” I replied.

  “The more power you have, the more you can help people and keep guys like Green in line. Your choice. I’m getting the retirement lecture again. What will I do with the rest of my life?” he asked.