by West, Shay
“I’ll talk to the Captain and see if he wants to give this guy’s picture to every news station in the city. It might generate some leads.”
“What’s up with that name he gave us? What was it? Slatick? Sutick?”
“Satrick. I don’t know. Probably a name they take on once they join the cult or something they use if they get caught, to keep us off the trail.”
“Something about this has my skin crawling.”
“I agree. It’s the most bizarre case I’ve ever worked, that’s for sure.”
Ava got up from her desk and updated the white board with the current information they had about the perp in their custody: name, approximate age, weight, description, contents of his pack.
“I want to get a closer look at the stuff he had in his bag.”
Eli got up from his desk and went to the evidence room. He checked out the evidence bag containing the man’s pack and all of the contents and took it back to his desk. He and Ava donned gloves and carefully opened the brown paper bag.
The first thing he grabbed was the black bag containing the surgical instruments. Eli unrolled it and laid it out on the table. He took the pieces out one by one, turning them over in his hands, looking for identifying marks.
“Do these look strange to you?” he asked Ava.
She whistled softly. “Do they ever.” She took the scalpel by the black wooden handle and held it up to the light. There was still dried blood on it. Her eyes tightened as she handed it back.
“Look at this.” Eli help up an old saw. “It’s like something an old Civil War doc would have used. Not all shiny and streamlined like they use today.”
“The only other thing in here is a cloth with some dried bread and cheese.”
Eli took the bundle. The cloth looked old and hand-woven. The bread definitely didn’t look like something you’d buy in the store, but the cheese could be a hunk of cheddar.
“Check to see if anyone has brought a sample of this to the lab. And if they haven’t, bring them some.” Eli handed her the bundle of cloth and food.
Eli walked back to his desk, eager to add this latest bit of evidence to the white boards. Between the clothing the killers wore, the medical tools, and the food, Eli wondered if they weren’t dealing with some sort of cult that was obsessed with living in the past. When Ava got back, he shared his idea with her.
“Like Amish gone wild?” She frowned and nodded. “I can see that. You know what it reminds me of? Something you’d read in a fantasy novel.”
“You mean like Lord of the Rings or something?”
“Yeah. I mean, look. You have the clothing, definitely medieval/ fantasy. The pack with food kept wrapped in cloth? The old tools? It’s like we’re in a movie.”
“Except that stuff isn’t real. We have to solve this crime in the real world.”
“I’m not saying that this is a fantasy come to life.” She leaned forward. “Have you ever heard of those guys that play Dungeons and Dragons?”
“Yeah.”
“What if we’re dealing with a group that is playing their own made-up version of Dungeons and Dragons? Maybe they even have a King and Queen or something they take orders from.”
Eli wanted to tell Ava she was being ridiculous, but it didn’t sound all that far out of the realm of possibility if he considered all of the evidence. Occam’s razor stated that the simplest explanation tended to be the right one. In this case, Ava’s idea was the only thing that fit.
“If this is true, there has to be some sort of online presence that ties them all together, helps them to coordinate their attacks. And they must be a tight-knit group of people since not one has come forward to claim the large reward,” Eli said.
“I’ll start checking to see what I can find,” Ava said.
“Contact the FBI with this theory. If anyone can find out information about a covert website operating internationally, they can.”
Eli walked back to the interrogation room to look in on Satrick. The man still sat at the table, but he didn’t look as frightened as he did before. If Eli had to put a name to the look on the man’s face, he would have to say it was resolved.
We got you, didn’t we? It’s only a matter of time before we find the rest of you and bring your organization down.
CHAPTER 18
THE MONASTERY was strangely empty as Tani and Keena made their way to the gateway chamber. The few people they saw hardly seemed to notice them. Each moment that passed without an alarm being sounded raised Tani’s confidence that they might actually be able to pull this off.
He rounded a corner and his heart beat wildly. An Enforcer was coming down the hall right toward them. Tani forced his steps to remain steady and slow. He kept his eyes straight ahead, refusing to glance at the man. The Enforcer passed so close he could feel the leather armor rub against the skin of his arm.
Just when Tani thought he and Keena had gotten past another hurdle, the Enforcer ordered them to stop and turn around. Tani stood frozen to the spot, unable to move. He could hear Keena whimpering behind him.
“I ordered you to turn around.”
The footsteps of the Enforcer drew closer. Tani hoped they could pretend to be someone else just long enough to get to the gateway chamber.
“What are your names?”
“Landon, and this is Keshwa.” The names of Tani’s parents were the first thing he thought of.
“What is your business here?”
“We need to see one of the priests.”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “Their meeting chambers aren’t on this level.”
Tani’s mouth went dry. The excuse had come to him, but he hadn’t really thought about where he and Keena were. They were several levels below where the priests would be located.
“We just got turned around,” Tani answered.
“If you were truly going to see a priest, you would have an escort. I’ll ask you again.” The man came a few steps closer, his hands going to the sword on his hip. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
Tani grabbed Keena’s hand and pulled her down the hall. He ran like a panicked animal, moving purely by instinct. He let go after a few steps, needing the pumping action of both arms to run and to grab a hold of the corners to keep from taking too wide a turn. Keena stayed right on his heels.
The lumbering footfalls of the Enforcer grew fainter as they ran for the gateway chamber. Tani thanked the gods the Enforcers all wore full armor; without the weight, Tani was certain the man could have caught them easily.
The double doors to the gateway chamber were open. Tani flew through the doorway and he and Keena each took a door and pushed them closed. He frantically searched for the large crosspiece of wood that would bar the door against intruders. The Enforcer could get in using a second door, but it would take him time to go around the circular chamber to come at it from the other side. Tani and Keena would be long gone by then.
He spotted the door block; working together, they managed to slide it into place between the metal brackets just as the Enforcer hit the door with his full weight. The doors rattled, but held fast.
Tani and Keena ran to the machines, flipping switches and turning knobs. They had both witnessed Master Kelhar do it countless times and they knew the sequence by heart. The steam engines vibrated to life, filling the chamber with their clanking and rattling. Tani set the dials to Colorado, and then to the city they had visited their previous trip through.
“How do you know that’s the right city?” Keena asked.
“I don’t; it just seems right.”
The banging on the door stopped abruptly. He’s going to the other door.
“If you have a better idea...”
Keena shook her head. “This selection does feel right. Perhaps the gods guided your hands.”
“Are you sure about this?” Tani asked, his hand poised above the launch button. “Once we get on that platform, there’s no turning back.”
“I’m certain. We have
to do this.”
Tani hit the gold button and ran up the stairs to the launch pad. The whole thing vibrated with immense power, sending his teeth chattering. Though he had made this trip many times before, his nerves were at an all-time high.
Suddenly the smaller door opposite the locked one flew open and Master Kelhar ran through, crimson robes flying behind him, followed closely by his two attendants and the Enforcer.
“You two, get down from there!”
Tani could see the man’s mouth move, but no sound reached his ears. He sighed in relief. He and Keena were past the point of no return. Even if Kelhar managed to shut down the machines, Tani and Keena would still be transported to Earth. He shielded his eyes against the growing brightness. Keena reached out and took his hand. He drew strength from the feel of her fingers locked tightly with his.
The light began to give way to shadowed shapes that solidified into tall buildings. In a brilliant flash that left them momentarily blinded, Tani and Keena found themselves back on Earth.
CHAPTER 19
AS ELI LAY in bed, his mind wandered to Ava. Better than thinking about the murders. He stared at the ceiling and reminisced about their steak dinner from days ago. He wanted to ask her to come over again, but every spare moment had been taken up with the case. Eli went back and forth between calling it a case and calling it cases. With more murders popping up on the FBI’s international radar, it just didn’t feel right calling it a single case anymore.
Eli thought about the killers and their ability to be in two places at once, killing and butchering their victims. It was a scientific impossibility, but no one had come up with a theory to explain the video footage of people showing up on opposite sides of the globe with no way to travel between the two scenes fast enough.
Could the times of death be wrong?
He had spoken to Sherry about it several times, to the point she had started saying that the times of death were accurate every time she spotted him coming. She had checked the reports from the FBI and didn’t find anything that would lead her to believe the times of death could have been mistaken.
Either the times of death are wrong or these killers can disappear from one county and reappear in another.
His mind wandered to the bright light he and Ava had seen after they had apprehended Satrick. If he hadn’t seen it for himself, he would have been able to blow off that evidence as not actually being evidence. But Eli was fairly certain he was of sound mind and he couldn’t deny what his eyes had seen.
The more he thought about it, the more he liked Ava’s theory of some sort of gaming community gone rogue. Everything fit.
Except for the killers being in two places at once.
He looked at the clock and shoved the sheet back. He’d been laying here for three hours and he was as wide awake as when he’d first come to bed. He wandered out to the living room to watch some TV, something that would take his mind off the case and let him drift off.
Eli flipped through channels on the satellite’s guide. Nothing appealed to him. He scrolled through pages of shopping and music channels. Why the hell do I pay for this when I never watch most of them?
He settled for a cheesy movie on a science fiction channel and lay on his side with a pillow shoved under one arm. As he watched some sort of giant reptile fight against an enormous bird, he let his mind drift. It flitted from images of Ava to images of the victims to images of the killers. Eli sifted through the little evidence they had managed to collect, hoping his subconscious would find something everyone else had missed. The DNA on the perp still hadn’t been run through CODIS. The Feds weren’t in too big a hurry, since the guy’s face didn’t match anything in their databases. The chances of him being in CODIS were slim to none.
I wonder what Ava’s doing right now?
As the reptilian monster fought against the crow from hell, he pictured his partner sleeping or even watching TV, as he was, unable to sleep because of the case. Who are you kidding? You want her to be losing sleep over you.
He’d never been to her apartment, so he tried to visualize what it would look like. Since she was down-to-earth and not flashy, he imagined neutral tones and nondescript furniture, a few tasteful pieces of artwork on the walls, maybe some family photos. Unlike his ex, her bed wouldn’t be filled with dozens of pillows whose purpose was nothing more than to take up space and make it impossible to go to bed on time, unless you started an hour before you wanted to sleep to take the pillows off the bed.
Her bathroom would be full of beauty supplies, most of which he would never be able to guess the use for. It would have the lingering scent of her musky perfume. That was one thing he missed about his ex. There was something sweet and comforting about being able to smell your wife even when she wasn’t there.
Why are you obsessing about something that can never happen? Eli didn’t have an answer for the voice in his head. He liked thinking about Ava and liked spending time with her, but a relationship was out of the question. Maybe that’s why, the voice said in a sneaky whisper. He had to admit it made a sick sort of sense. It was safe to fantasize about Ava. They would never go any further than being partners, never go through the awkward process of dating and chatting about their hopes and dreams and fears and blah, blah, blah, never have to take the chance of opening up and trusting someone again.
You’re a real head case.
The credits rolled and he was still wide awake. With a sigh, he got up off the couch and made his way back to the bedroom. He bypassed the bed and headed for the closet. He figured if his brain was going to be uncooperative in letting him sleep, he might as well get some work done.
The drive to the office took half the time it usually did. Eli enjoyed driving the city streets late at night. It allowed him to move about faster and it was so much more peaceful. No honking horns, endless traffic, people on bikes that didn’t follow the rules of the road, pedestrians who shuffled along like zombies through crosswalks as they typed away on their damn phones.
He could spot lights on in the precinct building. There was usually someone around, even at this late hour. There was always paperwork, interrogations, stake-outs to plan. Lots of detectives preferred to do some of their work at night without the distraction of a full building. It was easier to focus when you were the only one in the office.
While he waited for his computer to boot up, Eli went to see Satrick, hoping that spending several nights in a holding cell would loosen the man’s tongue. Satrick wouldn’t be at the station much longer. The Feds were coming to take him first thing in the morning. Despite having no identifying information and only circumstantial evidence, they were moving forward with the prosecution. Although it galled Eli to have his killer taken away, he knew the Feds had jurisdiction because of the murder in Tokyo. He hoped there was more physical evidence that would link Satrick to that murder; he didn’t think a grainy picture was enough to prosecute.
Satrick lay on the cot facing the wall. It was clear to Eli that he was fast asleep. He watched the man for a moment, trying to figure out a way to make him give up his secrets.
The more he thought about this case, the more his gut instinct said there was something majorly wrong about everything associated with the killings. The only way the evidence made sense was if there were an international killing group. But such a group didn’t make sense. In all his years as a detective, Eli had never encountered anything remotely like this. Hell, I’ve never heard of anything like this.
Satrick squirmed and mumbled something in his sleep. Eli moved closer to the bars of the holding cell, hoping Satrick would say something that could be used against him.
“No, don’t...”…incoherent mumbling… “just go, Lawnce. Get the organs back.” ...more mumbling... “Failed”… anguished cry... “Tell Sarah I love her…” ...a groaning mumble...
The man quieted down and fell back into a deep sleep. The words Satrick spoke were already jumbling together in Eli’s sleep-deprived mind, so he decided to wat
ch the video footage.
As it ran, he wrote down the names, guessing at the spelling as best he could. Eli wrote them down on the white board with “partner?” written next to Lawnce’s name and “wife/girlfriend?” next to Sarah. Get the organs back where? Cops had scoured the area and didn’t find any sign of the other man from the Tokyo photos. Eli assumed this would be Lawnce. He drew a line with a question mark linking the name with the photo.
Eli rubbed his eyes. His body was exhausted, but his mind was buzzing with this new information. He sent an email to the FBI agent he had been in contact with and told him about Satrick talking in his sleep and offered to have Charlie copy the video footage and send it over.
Knowing he needed some rest, Eli wandered into the bunk room and fell onto one of the bottom beds and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
***
Eli woke up feeling like he’d been up half the night drinking. His mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton and his eyes felt as though all of the fluid had dried sometime in the night. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get the tears flowing. He stumbled to his locker and grabbed his small toiletries bag. After he brushed his teeth and splashed his face with cold water, he felt almost human. He wished there was something he could do about his hair. Eli tried to floof it up on the side he’d slept on, but it was no use. Eli scrambled in his bag for a black rubber band and pulled his hair back into a low ponytail. He hated wearing it like this, but it looked better than his lopsided Afro.
He walked to the Starbucks by the precinct and picked out a couple of coffees and breakfast sandwiches. He ordered a latte he remembered Ava ordering once. Geez, you remember her crazy coffee order? You got it bad.
The precinct was buzzing with activity by the time he returned. Though these bizarre murders took up much of the task force, there were still plenty of normal crimes to deal with: burglaries, rapes, attempted murders, murders that didn’t involve missing organs, one case of arson, and a kid who thought it would be hilarious to bring a black plastic rifle to school. Eli wished he were on one of those mundane cases. Something straight forward, easily solved. He was beginning to think the Butchers would continue to kill and disappear and never be caught.
