Stormrage

by Skye Knizley

  The drive to South Halsted was uneventful and Raven parked in front of a small white house nestled between a children's center and a church. Kids were playing in the snow in front of the children's center and they stopped and stared when Raven parked the Shelby and the two officers stepped out onto the street.

  "Police! Police! It's the police!" a small dark haired boy yelled, pointing one little finger at the pair. The rest of the small group squealed and ran inside the center like zombies were attacking.

  Levac looked at Raven and shrugged. "Guess cops are none too popular in these parts."

  "At least they didn't call us 'pigs'," Raven replied. "That always annoys me."

  She led the way down the sidewalk and up to the door of the two story house. The white paint was cracked with age and the wood siding beneath was weathered and rotten, some so badly Raven was certain she could poke a finger through. She opened the storm door and knocked on the whitewashed door beyond. The wood rattled at her touch and flakes of paint scattered to the ground like snow. Raven closed the storm door and waited politely, but there was no answer. She knocked again with the same result. Casting a quick glance to make sure she and Levac were unobserved, she grabbed the door's antique knob and twisted. To her surprise the door was unlocked and opened easily, screeching on hinges that probably hadn't seen oil since the turn of the century. She pushed it fully open and slipped through. Like most houses this old, she found herself standing in a narrow hallway. An arch led to her right into a small living room stuffed with mismatched furniture and a television bigger than some apartments. To her left was an equally small dining room that contained a table and four chairs. White candles had been placed in the middle along with a small arrangement of what Raven's nose told her were fresh flowers. Two cartons of Chinese takeout sat at either end of the table on top of matching place-settings.

  Levac picked up one of the cartons and popped the top.

  "Moo Shoo Chicken?" Raven asked.

  "Pork, I think. Colder than Shevlin's corpse," Levac replied.

  Raven watched Levac make a note of the restaurant's name and then led the way deeper into the house, one hand trailing down the wall.

  An archway at the end of the corridor led into a large kitchen. Though old, the kitchen was well kept. The counters and sink were spotless, the 50s era appliances were in good order and looked to have been carefully painted within the last year or so; even the counter-top dishwasher had been painted to look like the Love Bug. A vase of white roses sat on a small table next to a doorway that led out to the back porch. Raven walked across the black and white tile and picked up the card: To Christina from Zack, Happy Birthday! was engraved in silver ink.

  "Looks like Zack had a girlfriend," she said, putting the card back and turning around. "Someone named Christina."

  Behind her, Levac had opened the refrigerator and was poking around with gloved hands.

  "What are you doing?" Raven asked.

  "Remember the last really weird one? We found bricks of cash in the freezer," Levac replied.

  "Yeah, but your hand is on a chocolate bar," Raven said with a smile. "Come on partner, let's check the other rooms."

  From the kitchen, a stairway led upwards into gloomy morning sunlight that filtered through barely visible windows like something out of the Amityville Horror; another archway opened into a sizable pantry stuffed with canned goods, instant soup and MRE's. Raven and Levac poked around among the packages and cans, but found nothing of interest, though Levac spent far too much time lingering over an unopened package of cookies.

  Upstairs they found themselves in a foyer lit by the Amity windows. Doorways led into two bedrooms and a spacious bathroom. Raven and Levac split up to check the bedrooms with Raven choosing the master bedroom.

  The bedroom, like the kitchen, was freshly painted in pastel blue. A king-sized bed took up most of the small room, flanked by white wicker bed stands, two matching lamps and an armoire. A single door led into a walk-in closet.

  Raven pulled on a set of fresh gloves and began a careful search of the room. The chamber was filled with the scents of a woman; perfume, hair products, lipstick and moisturizer permeated the air, undetectable to anyone who didn't have preternatural senses. Oddly, there was no indication that a man had shared the room.

  Storm moved through the bed chamber, letting her senses guide her. There was a tang in the air she couldn't quite place, but that was horribly familiar. After a moment she pulled open the draw to the bed stand. Inside was a collection of small glass vials, each filled with a fine red powder. She collected them as evidence and turned to the closet.

  It was nothing she hadn't seen before. Ladies clothes in a size six filled the closet, all organized neatly; jeans, tees, blouses, sweaters, dresses, skirts…and at the back of the closet what could only be described as dancewear, the kind of garments that could only be called clothes because you couldn't call them lingerie. Raven picked through the outfits, looking for one that had been worn, but not yet laundered. Her sensitive nose picked up the sour scent of sweat, cigarette smoke and booze coming from a leather number that consisted of a belt that was probably supposed to be a skirt, a shelf bra and a choker with a D ring at the front. She picked it up and sniffed gently, but detected nothing new beyond the subtle scent of a woman; she had a hunch the girl had danced at one of the clubs in Chicago. A girl had to make ends meet and sometimes that was all you could do.

  Raven put the outfit back on the shelf and left the master bedroom to find Levac leaning into the bathroom.

  "Find anything in the other bedroom?" Raven asked, walking toward him.

  Levac shook his head. "Not really. Looks like it was being used by a guy, my guess would be Shevlin, but there was nothing in there to prove it," he said in a dead voice.

  Raven looked at her partner and then turned to follow his gaze. The bathroom was pristine with a new white vanity, black and white tile and a new-looking claw foot tub. A young blonde woman lay in the tub, her hair plastered to her skull, one hand trailing in a pool of red on the tile floor. She stared accusingly at the two detectives with blank, white eyes.

  "Shit," Raven said softly.

  Levac nodded.

  "I think we found Christina," he said. "Looks like a suicide to me."

  "I don't think so," Raven said, pushing past Levac. "I don't smell any blood, do you?"

  She stooped and ran a finger through the red pool. It was thin and grainy, full of red particles like the ones in her evidence bag.

  "Thirst," Raven said, holding up one red-coated finger.

  Thirst? What's that?"

  "A drug," Raven said. "An expensive designer drug I came across when I worked in Narc. I thought we'd gotten it off the streets, but I guess not. Think of it a sort of predecessor to Bath Salts."

  Levac frowned at his partner. "You mean that stuff that made that guy eat someone's face off down in Miami?"

  "The very same," Raven said. "Only this shit is one thousand times worse."

  "Why are her eyes all white like that?" Levac asked, leaning over Christina.

  "It is the last stage of Thirst addiction," Raven said, her voice tight. "In most people it causes a type of madness and thirst for blood, hence the name. In others, complete blindness. You end up in your own private little hell. And if there is no one to feed your addiction, you die as your organs shut down one at a time. It’s a horrible way to croak."

  "Did you see a lot of this in Narc?" Levac asked, putting away his pistol and laying a hand on his partner's shoulder.

  Raven flinched, but didn't move away. "Yes. It's why I got suspended and why I transferred to homicide. I beat a Thirst dealer to death with my bare hands. When I realized what was happening, there was nothing left of his face, but meat and bone. I was acquitted for 'extenuating circumstances' but something like that sticks with you for the rest of your life."

  She shook her head and turned away. As she entered the hallway she called to Levac, "Rupe, can you call Aspen and have
her get her team down here? Maybe we can get a firm ID on the girl and some clues as to what Thirst has to do with Shevlin. I need some air."

  "You got it, partner," Levac replied. Raven felt his eyes on her as she walked down the stairs, the railing creaking in her grip.

  * * *

  The noonday sun was high overhead, burning the morning chill away into a bright afternoon. Raven leaned on the hood of her Shelby sipping black coffee and watching the crime scene technicians come and go from the house through her aviator sunglasses. Aspen came out at the end of the parade with her kit and a disgusted-looking Levac. The young woman stopped next to Raven and started to set her kit on the hood of the Shelby. Raven lowered her sunglasses and glared at the younger woman. Aspen pulled her kit away as if the car was on fire and held the case to her like it was her favorite stuffed toy.

  "So what did you find that connects all of this to Shevlin?" Raven asked.

  Levac opened his notepad and began flipping through the crinkled pages.

  "The woman's name was Christina Shevlin," he said. "She was Zack's little sister. Her birthday was last night. Shevlin ordered the flowers and had them delivered before noon yesterday, Christina ordered the Chinese at 7:00pm last night.

  "So we can place her death after that," Aspen interjected. "It's hard to get an accurate time of death though. The water was still warm so her liver temp is going to be off."

  "After seven is at least something to go on. Run a calculation on how fast the water should have lost heat, that should give us a better T.O.D.," Raven said. "Anything else?"

  Aspen nodded and opened her own notebook, which had a pentacle on the front.

  "I found hair that matched Shevlin's perfectly. The doc will want me to run it through the stereo microscope, but I am certain it was him sleeping in the guest room. And I found something else."

  "What?' Raven asked, looking down at the diminutive technician.

  "You're not going to like it, Ray," she said.

  Raven lowered her sunglasses again and glared at the smaller woman, her eyes flaring green. "Spit it out, kid!"

  "I didn't find any Thirst in Christina's body," Aspen said without taking a breath.

  Raven blinked in surprise and raised her sunglasses. "None? None at all? But she shows all the signs of an overdose!"

  "I know!" Aspen said, backing away slightly from the angry detective. "But she tested clean. Whatever killed her, it wasn't Thirst addiction. I will run another test when I get back to the lab, but I would bet anything she was clean as a whistle. Not even caffeine in her system."

  Raven shook her head and glared at the house from behind her sunglasses. It was supposed to provide answers, not more puzzles.

  "Aspen, rerun the tests and have Shevlin double checked as well," she said. "I want to be absolutely certain there is no Thirst in his system before I go opening old wounds."

  "You got it boss," Aspen replied.

  "What's our move, Ray?" Levac asked, stuffing his notebook back into his pocket.

  "I need a hotdog," Raven replied, walking toward the driver's door. "You coming?"

  Levac laughed and climbed into the Shelby. Raven started the engine and pulled away from the curb. As they drove, Levac leaned closer to his partner.

  "You going to tell me what is eating at you?" he asked.

  "Part of me really wants this to be Thirst related. Those dealers and I have unfinished business," Raven replied. "That shit put a thirteen year old girl in the psych ward, stuck in a nightmare with no way out. There is nothing I or anyone can do for her, but put a bullet in her brainpan."

  "You knew the girl, didn't you?" Levac asked in gentle tones.

  Raven nodded and accelerated around a slow-moving delivery truck, narrowly missing an oncoming taxi.

  "She was my adopted little sister from the Big Sisters program," she said. "Her name was…is…Nicole. She's the reason I beat a dealer to death."

  "I'm sorry, Raven," Levac said. "I didn't know."

  "You couldn't have. Hold tight, lunch is on me," Raven said with a soft smile.

  The afternoon was turning dark and Raven had turned the Shelby's lights on against the growing afternoon gloom as she guided the car through the growing traffic. Though it was still early, it was almost full dark when Raven pulled the muscle-car into the parking lot of Wonderdawgs. She backed the car into her usual spot facing the main street and climbed out, shrugging into a leather long-coat against the increasing chill.

  "You want the usual?" she asked Levac before she closed the door.

  "Yep. I'm going to check in with Frost and let him know what we've got."

  "See if Zhu has anything for us, too," Raven said. "I will be right back."

  Raven closed the door and crossed the lot, shivering in her coat. She barely noticed the white minivan parked to the side of the restaurant or the muscle bound man leaning against the side. She simply nodded at him and continued into the restaurant.

  Inside, the restaurant was brightly lit and smelled of grilled onions, fresh hotdogs and the sweet tang of relish. Raven smiled and stepped up to the counter where a familiar face grinned at her from behind a massive cash register that was new around 1955.

  "Good afternoon, Ms. Storm," the freckle-faced teen said with a dimpled smile.

  "Hi, Nadia," Raven said, somewhat surprised the girl hadn't called her detective. "Can I get the usual with one sweet tea and one black coffee?"

  Nadia punched in the order and Raven handed over the cash.

  "Keep the change, I heard about your college fund," Raven said.

  Nadia grinned wider and said, "Thank you, Ms. Storm, every little bit helps."

  Again with the Ms. Storm, Raven thought.

  She dismissed any questions as her to-go tray was delivered. The smell of hotdog relish and ketchup was too good to resist. She picked up the tray, smiled at Nadia again and exited into the cold afternoon, balancing the tray in one hand and her coffee in the other.

  Once outside she took a sip of her coffee and instantly spit the oversweet concoction out, spilling the food tray as she did.

  "What the hell?" she snarled. "Nadia knows I hate sugar in my coffee!"

  She turned and looked back at the restaurant. This time she took in the man by the van, which was blocking the back door, and Nadia's strange behavior. On a hunch she turned her coffee cup over. On the bottom was written '211 Robbery in Progress'.

  "Ray? You okay?" Levac asked, joining her in the middle of the lot. "You dropped all the food."

  "Yeah. Call dispatch and tell them we have a 211 in progress, at least three armed suspects, maybe four," Raven replied, pulling her Automag.

  "We do?" Levac asked, looking at the restaurant.

  "Either that or it is going to be a 187 for putting cream and sugar in my coffee," Raven said. "Check the bruiser by the back door."

  Levac nodded and started to pull his own piece. Raven stopped him with a look.

  "Call it in then cover me through the back door," she said.

  "Be careful, Raven," Levac said.

  Raven smiled and continued toward the restaurant. She needed this more than she needed a hotdog. She was almost to the bruiser at the van when he turned toward her.

  "Can I help you?" he asked in a southern twang.

  "Yeah, you can lay down on the ground while I arrest your buddies inside," Raven replied. "Payroll day, is it?"

  The man laughed and pulled a snub-nosed .38 from his pocket. It looked ridiculous in his ham-sized hand.

  He got as far as "I don't think…" before Raven shot him through the forehead, spraying his tiny brain all over the side of the van.

  She didn't wait for the body to fall. She was through the back door and moving, a predator in search of prey.

  Ahead she could see two men standing outside the restaurant's tiny office while the owner worked at unlocking the safe. A third man was pushing hotdogs around the grill while a fourth was watching Levac through the windows. All were armed with pistols save for
the one on the grill, who had concealed a shotgun next to his legs. None of the men appeared to have heard the shot over the sizzle of the grill and the roar exhaust fans.

  "You know, every week my friend Nadia there has been making lunch for me and my partner," Raven said in a conversational tone. "I always order the same thing with a black coffee. She's a great kid, going to be a doctor someday and she never makes a mistake. But today my coffee had cream and sugar. A lot of sugar. I came back to complain and what do I find? You clowns trying to rob a Chicago landmark. Why don't you put those weapons down, lay down on the floor with your hands behind your back and say 'I'm sorry' one thousand times while we wait for someone to take you away."

  Instantly the men responded by drawing their weapons. Raven shot the man looking out the window, blowing him through the glass to land face-first on the sidewalk. As he crashed to the ground she ducked behind a metal countertop and waited as a hail of bullets rang out on the steel, destroying chopped onion, relish jars and the restaurant's famous pickles. She felt chunks of pickle and onion landing in her hair and felt her blood rise in fury. She snarled and called on her vampiric heritage. The world went blue and time seemed to slow as she sped up; she slid out from behind the countertop and shot both of the men by the office door, the thirty caliber slugs punching neat holes in their chests and dropping them like sandbags to the tile floor. She then turned and sidestepped a blast from the shotgun wielding cook. She watched as he jacked another round into the chamber in slow motion. By the time he was ready to fire again she was in his face. With her left hand she raised the shotgun, slamming the hot barrel into his face once, twice, three times in quick succession, pulping his nose and forcing him to let go of the weapon, which she let clatter to the floor. He sagged down beside it, one hand cradling his destroyed nose.

  He wiped the blood from his face and looked up at the towering redhead with the smoking Automag. His right hand was twitching toward his shotgun.

  Raven forced her vampire side back into the dark corners of her mind and offered the gunman a lopsided grin. "To quote the famous Inspector Harry Callahan, 'Go ahead, make my day!'" Raven watched the would-be crook's eyes widen and she couldn't help but grin wider. "Are you going to make a move or are you going to sit there and bleed?" she asked.