A Declaration of War (God and Satan's Talks Book 1)

by Matthew Paisley

  The security guard’s hands were trembling as she returned the torch to his grasp.

  She pulled out the post-it note from her other pocket and quickly dialled Dakota’s number. She didn’t answer the first call, leaving Esther to curse under her breath and walk around in a small circle.

  She sent Dakota a quick text:

  Answer my call. It is urgent.

  She dialled the number again, relieved when Dakota finally answered on the second ring.

  “Dakota speaking, who is this?”

  “It’s Esther Zhi again.” Esther grinded her teeth together, determined to drop her use of ‘ma’am’ forever more now.

  “Right, what do you want?” Dakota’s voice was formal, clearly already irritated at being disturbed for a second time during her evening out.

  Esther imagined it was some ridiculously fancy party Dakota was attending, something she would mock Esther about the next day, wondering why she didn’t have more of a social life.

  Esther’s eyes found the dead body again—it was not the time to think of such petty disagreements.

  “I found where the riddle pointed to.”

  “Why didn’t you text it to me?” Dakota’s voice moved up a notch on the irritation scale.

  “There wasn’t time.” Esther kept her eyes on the shadowy figure laying across the step. The unnatural way it did not move or breathe sent a coldness through her. She pushed the thought away, determined to return to a formal manner. “It was the Roman Baths. I’m here now.”

  “What? You disobeyed—”

  “It’s not that simple. There’s a body here,” Esther spoke over her boss, aware it would only cause more problems, but desperate to get out the words as quickly as possible.

  Dakota’s voice disappeared from the other end of the phone. Beyond her silence, there was the gentle murmur of a bar or restaurant still in the background. People were laughing, there was a clinking of glasses too… lots of alcohol undoubtedly.

  “Okay, not a prank call then.”

  “No. I told you it wasn’t,” Esther hissed through her teeth.

  “Now is not the time to assign blame.” There was a kerfuffle on the phone, possibly Dakota collecting her things. “I’m down the road at a bar, I’ll be there in ten minutes. I’ll call the pathologist and forensics. Stay there. You’re not going to disobey this order now, are you?”

  “No, but I’m still glad I disobeyed the first.”

  “We’ll talk about that later. Don’t touch anything.” Dakota hung up the phone, leaving Esther just as angry as before.

  She turned away from the body, looking back to the security guard who was trembling, his eyes still fixed on the mystery man.

  “Do you recognise him?” she asked after a minute of silence, pointing at the figure.

  He shook his head, supposedly unable to speak.

  “He doesn’t work here?”

  He shook his head again.

  “He could have been a tourist then? Someone who may have come to look around today.”

  “We sweep the building at closing time. No one was here.” The words were quiet, mumbled in fear. “We always do two checks. No one was here. All the doors and windows are locked. How did he get in?”

  “Alright. I need you to go to the door. Forensics and the inspector will arrive soon, and I need you to let them in for me.”

  “Yes.” He nodded shakily. “I might get some water… or something to…” He tore his gaze away, scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably, full of unease. “Do you want anything? You know, for the shock?”

  “No, I’m good.” She looked away from him again to the body.

  She wasn’t in shock. She was just angry that Dakota hadn’t listened to her. Angry too at the mysterious Abner and what game he had started.

  “You should go. Now.” She dismissed the guard with a wave of her hand.

  He hurried away, letting the torchlight bob ahead of him as he moved.

  Esther waited until she could no longer hear his steps and then returned to the body, using her phone as a new torchlight, she clambered up the steps and looked over the man.

  His large waistline stretched at his shirt and jacket buttons. The hair around his face was neat and trimly set too. His whole appearance was formal as though he had been interrupted on his path to some event for the evening.

  Well, apart from how wet he was. Esther noted the dampness of his hair, how water pooled in puddles on the step from where his clothes had leaked. There were droplets of water across his neck and cheeks too, even some nestled in the corners of his closed eyes.

  She looked away, suddenly feeling nauseous at the sight. Anyone alive would have brushed those puddles away from their eyelids.

  Her gaze turned up to the large square green pool in the centre of the courtyard, with a theory quickly forming as to how the man died. She peered down at his hand after a moment, reluctant to touch him again and affect any chance of fingerprints. He wore no wedding ring and his fingernails were cut short. Looking about his body, she could see no jewellery of any kind. She shifted her eyes to the man’s feet. One of the shoes was tied neatly to match the rest of his outfit. The laces of the other shoe were much more haphazard, with the tongue of the leather skewed to the side.

  She leaned closer, flicking her eyes between the shoes. One shoe had been tied by its wearer, the other, she thought not. Perhaps whoever did this to him, this Abner, had knocked off the shoe and had to put it on the body again.

  She stood straight and walked around the body on the step, using the light from her phone to direct her feet. By his side, next to his elbow that was closest to the wall was what appeared to be a stuffed toy.

  Esther placed the phone inches away from the toy to see what it was. A bundle of fake fur came into view, a mixture of cream and a sandy brown, with big wide black eyes and a small beak. In the shadows, it took a minute to realise what it was.

  “An owl!” Esther murmured aloud in shock, piecing together the information she had.

  Somewhere in the baths, a door closed. Esther made her way back around the body and hurried down from the steps, walking away to the side of the pool in preparation for who would soon be arriving.

  She rolled her eyes, gazing up at the stars tainted by the streetlamps when she heard the voice of Dakota before she saw her.

  “Where is she?”

  “Through here.”

  “I am sorry about this, sir, but I need you to get back to the door. Whole teams of people will be here before you know it. You have a general manager?”

  “Er… yes.”

  “I would be very grateful if you could get me his number.” Her footsteps clomped through the corridors and appeared at the top of the steps to the pool. “Esther Zhi?”

  Dakota lifted her own phone to see the courtyard better—she also had an app to use the device as a torch.

  “Here.” Esther waved her phone in greeting.

  “Please, return to the door,” Dakota pointed the security guard back down the corridor. “Fetch yourself a cup of tea when you have a minute as well. I understand this is a great shock, but you do not need to be afraid. We’ll take care of everything.”

  As the security guard disappeared into the corridor, bearing a small smile from the last words, Dakota marched down the steps and across the mosaic stone floor.

  Esther prepared herself for the inevitable onslaught that was to befall her. She braced her mind against the admonishment of ignoring orders, but it didn’t come. Dakota walked straight past her, heading for the temple steps where the figure lay.

  Esther followed her, turning with surprise and narrowed eyes.

  Dakota was dressed for an evening out. Gone were the trouser suits she wore in the office, replaced by a thin black dress reaching her knees with silver heels and a grey winter coat. Her brown, almost red hair that was poker-straight and usually reached her shoulders was swept into an elegant updo.

  Esther watched her closely, amazed at the t
ransformation.

  “What is it, Zhi?”

  “Nothing, I have just never seen you dressed up for an evening before.”

  “It’s called going out. You should try it sometime.” Dakota kept her eyes on the figure, her face taut in judgement and analysis of the situation. “You know, stop working so late and find some friends. They keep people in our jobs sane when we have to deal with such things.”

  “Well, if I hadn’t been working late tonight, I wouldn’t have found this,” Esther gestured with her phone to the figure, feeling her frustration rise again.

  Dakota often riled her by pointing out her lack of social life.

  “Him. Not this.” Dakota turned away with one eyebrow raised to face Esther. “He’s a person, not a thing.”

  “That is not what I meant.” Esther shifted on her feet, struggling to handle her two warring emotions: fear for the body and irritation at Dakota.

  “Right, sure you didn’t.” Dakota shook her head and turned back to the figure. “Have you touched him?”

  “Just to see if there was a pulse. His neck and wrist. Nothing. He’s cold too.”

  “Anything on the body that you saw?”

  “One of his shoes looks different to the other. As though two different people tied them.”

  “Hmm.”

  “There’s a stuffed toy by his elbow too.”

  “A stuffed toy?” Dakota’s mouth turned up into the smallest of smiles as she looked at Esther.

  “I’m not seeing things,” Esther stood as tall as she could, attempting to reach Dakota’s height, though the task was an impossible one while her superior was wearing tall silver heels.

  “I didn’t suggest you were. An odd thing to be by a dead body though. What kind of toy?”

  “It’s an owl.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “In a way,” Esther shrugged, “it’s not.”

  “What do you mean?” Dakota was scoffing at her again.

  Esther shifted on her feet, trying to push away her irritation.

  “The caller… his clue pointed towards two things. The Roman Baths and the goddess Minerva. This here is the old entrance to the temple of Minerva.”

  “Right. Seems a rather large hop, skip, and a jump from there to a cuddly toy.”

  “Minerva has many symbols. As well as things like an olive branch, that was mentioned in the caller’s riddle, another one of her symbols is the owl.”

  Dakota looked between Esther and the body; her sharp features lit by the blue light from the phones.

  “And you think it’s important?” She was smirking again, almost laughing at Esther’s idea.

  “Yes. I do.”

  Chapter Six

  Esther stood at the edge of the pool with her eyes set on the forensics team at work. Bit by bit, the crowd in blue boiler suits had arrived, wearing masks to cover their mouths, hair nets over their heads, and see-through gloves on their hands.

  Floodlights had been set up in two large circles. Running off an obscene number of extension cords and battery packs, the first circle was around the body. Stood on tripods, the rectangular beams flooded the body with glaring white light.

  Esther judged it to be a surreal interpretation of the theatre. The floodlights, so similar to what you would find perched above a stage, were brightening something that would never move again.

  The second ring of lights surrounded the courtyard itself, illuminating yellow stonework and the green pool.

  Dakota stood by the first ring of lights near the body, talking to a woman who was bent over the figure, dressed head-to-toe in her own blue boiler suit. Esther figured she had to be a pathologist. They moved slow, gloved hands over the body, taking in every part of it and ascertaining any hints.

  Esther stood on the edge of the pool, leaning forward and desperately straining to hear their conversation.

  “You think he drowned, then?” Dakota cut to the point of the matter, tapping her silver heeled shoe delicately.

  “At first glance, I’d say it’s most likely. Yet you will have to wait for the autopsy.” The pathologist appeared to be checking the temperature of the body.

  Esther took a step forward to see what was happening. The sound of her boots moving across the stone made Dakota flick her head back towards her.

  “Where are you going?” Dakota’s usual jovial tone once again turned curt when talking to Esther.

  “I was trying to look,” Esther shrugged, folding her arms again.

  “You’ve done your bit, stay back and let the pathologist work.” Dakota turned away again.

  “May I offer something that might help?” Esther tried to step forward again, but Dakota threw a sharp hand in her direction, indicating no further movement was to be made.

  “I want to hear the pathologist’s view now.”

  “It’s about how he died.”

  “Yes?” the pathologist cut in, apparently more eager to hear what Esther had to say. Esther turned her head to the pathologist, keen to talk directly to her.

  “The clue for where we would find the body said, ‘There, you’ll find someone who has taken a little too much of the Romans’ gift to this town.’” Esther looked between the two women with wide eyes, as though it needed no further explanation.

  “Alright, I’ll bite,” Dakota nodded. “What would that be?”

  “The Romans’ gift to the town was the Roman Baths itself.” She pointed to the pool behind them, all three looked at the green liquid as it shimmered in the floodlights. “I’m saying the riddle would also suggest he drowned.”

  “We should search the pool as well then.” The pathologist beckoned someone nearer, ready to set in motion the next steps.

  “Alright, fine,” Dakota sighed, clearly already exasperated. “Now, step back, Zhi. Let forensics work.”

  Esther took the smallest of steps back, her eyes still dancing across the pathologist, curious to see what she was doing. Yet Dakota soon stepped in front of her with raised eyebrows.

  “I know you have no liking for orders, but don’t make me say it again.”

  Esther snapped her head away and walked back to the edge of the pool with her hands in her coat pockets.

  “How long has he been dead?” Dakota turned back to the pathologist, who was checking her watch, apparently calculating something. Her dark eyes darted around for a moment before settling on a conclusion.

  “Not very long. Rigor mortis hasn’t set in. About an hour.”

  “So just before Zhi got here.”

  “He was telling the truth, then?” Esther called from the pool.

  “Who was?” Dakota didn’t even bother turning to look at her this time.

  “The man who made the call. He gave me a time limit and—”

  “And clearly you didn’t get here in time.”

  Esther could not reply. Sudden coldness invaded her stomach at the thought that if she had solved the riddle a little sooner, then she may have been able to save his life. She rested her eyes back on the pool and her usually calm mind ran away from her for a minute, imagining the sight she might have witnessed had she been a little quicker. She could have seen the poor man waving from the depths of the green pool, with someone else holding him under.

  She balled her hands into fists in her pockets, letting her nails create ridges in the skin, hoping the pain would draw her mind away from the image.

  “Well, the water will have washed away any chance of fingerprints.” The pathologist walked around the body again.

  “What about the toy?” Dakota continued to tap her silver heel.

  “Not so easy to get fingerprints off such a surface. Interestingly though, it’s dry.” The pathologist analysed the hands and neck of the body.

  “Any defensive wounds?”

  “Some. Suggests a struggle. There’s grit under the fingernails… he clawed at something.”

  Esther rested her gaze by her boots on the edge of the pool, watching as the water bobbed against the stone
edge.

  “Could it be from the stonework?” Esther called back to the pathologist, only to earn another dark glare from Dakota.

  “Zhi! This is not your field.”

  “It was just a thought.” Esther pointed down at the pool. “The stone surrounds the edge of the pool—he could have been clawing at it while trying to get out.”

  “From the colour of the grit, I’d say it’s possible,” the pathologist nodded with eyes crinkling, apparently smiling somewhere behind her pale blue mask.

  “Any ID?” Dakota looked back, quickly changing the subject.

  The pathologist slowly searched the pockets, pulling out all sorts of debris. It started with a packet of cigarettes and a lighter, there was a paper envelope too, some loose change, and a wallet. She opened the wallet first, holding the cards up to the floodlights.

  “No driving license, but the credits cards are registered to a Bryn Vaughan.”

  “Bryn? What kind of name is that?” Dakota reset the gloves on her hands and reached out for the pathologist to pass the cards.

  “It’s Welsh,” Esther called in response from her place by the pool. She couldn’t help but shrug with a small smile when Dakota looked back at her.

  “Do you have an answer for everything, Zhi?”

  “Did you not want an answer to your question?”

  “Not a fan of a know-it-all, that’s all.”

  Esther looked back down to the water, mumbling under her breath, “And I’m not a fan of you either.”

  “What’s in the envelope?” Esther pointed down to the debris as she searched the rest of the cards in her hand.

  The pathologist opened it carefully. The paper was damp, almost tearing as it was pulled from its confines.

  “Not so easy to read. The ink has run from the water.” The pathologist pulled a forensics bag from her pocket and laid the letter out across the surface. “It appears to be an invitation.”

  “An invitation to what?”

  “To an exhibition opening. Here, the Roman Baths… tonight.”

  “That’s impossible, there were no events on at the baths tonight,” Esther waded in again.

  “Thank you, yes, we are aware!” Dakota snapped again. “So, somebody drew our Mr Vaughan here with a fake invitation?”