by Hadena James
“Where we going chief?” Xavier asked as we entered the hall.
“Somewhere you won’t need that,” Alejandro gestured to my coat. I watched it sail back into the hotel room as Xavier tossed it.
“Where?” Lucas made a face.
“Michael got a hit on Welbourne; he’s three floors above us in a suite.”
“Well, that’s probably not a coincidence.” I pulled on my holster and checked that the guns were loaded.
“Probably not.” Alejandro pointed to the stairs.
Lucas grabbed the door and we slipped into the stairwell. The hotel designers had tried to keep it from looking drab. There was very thin pinstripes on the walls following the angles of the stairs. They were set low to the ground, barely noticeable. The paint was beige, the pinstripes were hunter green.
Lucas took point. Despite his massive size, he moved silently. His footfalls making almost no noise in the enclosed stairwell. I was not as stealthy. My footfalls sounded like thunder. Even my breathing seemed loud.
We reached the tenth floor. Lucas peeked out the door before opening it. We hadn’t been given a room number. There was no need. Alejandro, Michael and Xavier had already piled out of the elevator and stood outside the door, guns drawn.
Alejandro made hand motions to Lucas. Lucas moved, I shadowed him, unsure what else to do. I didn’t understand hand signals.
I stood slightly behind Lucas. Alejandro moved in front of the door. I had seen enough movies to know to expect him to kick it in and watch it explode. Or have it be rigged up to fire a shotgun directly into the chest of our “fearless” leader. Alejandro drew back and kicked the knob at the handle.
I held my breath. Nothing happened. I exhaled loudly.
“Were you expecting something?” Lucas grinned.
“I was expecting more than nothing,” I admitted.
“Life is rarely like the movies. It is usually far worse.”
“Are you two done?” Alejandro had his gun trained in the room. Everyone else was staring at us. I blushed.
“Good,” Alejandro started into the room. He let out an audible gasp.
Lucas pushed me in behind Alejandro. I couldn’t help but let out a gasp either. The room smelled of death. Not the romanticized version they talk about in movies, but real death. All the sphincters in the body relax; this includes the valve at the top of the stomach, all of them in the intestinal tract and the couple between the bladder and the outside. Decomposition also begins immediately. Creating more gasses to release.
I gagged. I tried to breathe through my mouth, but the smell was already in my nose. Then my eyes found the bodies.
Ten women, hog tied. Their legs were to us, pulled up; I couldn’t see how they had died yet. Xavier came up next to me. He handed me a breath mint and some peppermint balm. I spread the peppermint balm under my nose and inserted the breath mint into my mouth. It helped, but I could still smell the death in the room and the skin on my upper lip tingled from the peppermint oil.
“Oh my fucking god, RATS!” Lucas let out a squeal and ran to the bathroom.
He slammed the door behind him with enough force that it rebounded against the frame, failing to latch. His massive frame leaped up onto the toilet. For a moment, he stood perched on the center of the toilet lid, his eyes darting around the room like a terrified prairie dog. There was a loud cracking sound. The porcelain lid on the toilet gave out. Lucas let out another squeal as his feet plunged through the lid and into the toilet.
“Ew, toilet water!” His voice was high pitched, almost shrill. I stifled a giggle as he pulled his feet from the toilet and tried to precariously perch on just the rim. His hands had a death grip on the towel rack overhead. One of his wet feet slipped from the toilet edge, slamming into the floor with a deafening thud. The towel rack broke free and crashed into his head.
I held one hand over my mouth. My side was starting to hurt from not laughing out loud. Some part of me was worried that he might have cut himself on the lid, but it was overshadowed by the insanity of the situation. Xavier grinned at him. Michael was beside me, trying to hold in his own laughter. Alejandro frowned.
“Are you done? We have dead bodies and a serial killer.”
“We also have rats.” Lucas told him, scurrying onto the rim of the bathtub.
“Rats won’t kill you,” Alejandro scolded him.
“What about Plague? Rats carry Plague. That can kill you.” Lucas retorted.
“Fleas carry Plague, not rats,” I said between giggles.
“Get down from there and get to work,” Alejandro gave him another blood-chilling look.
Lucas seemed unaffected by it. He continued to look around for the rats.
“Lucas, go outside, we’ll clear the rats,” Xavier told him.
“Ace, how dangerous are rats?” Lucas asked.
“Not very, not if you are a healthy, strapping human being like yourself. You could step on them and kill them and they haven’t carried fleas with Plague in a very long time,” I reassured the bigger man.
Lucas began to climb down from the tub. I walked over to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He looked at me with the same terrified look.
“I’ll Taser any rats that come near you,” I told him.
“I’d feel better if you shot them,” he told me.
“Ok, I’ll shoot any rats that come near you. You have to help me, I don’t know what I am doing,” I whispered the last.
This seemed to do something for him. He had a task; he could stop thinking about the rats as much. Besides, I really would Taser any rats that came near me. They could still carry diseases other than Plague. We exited the destroyed bathroom together.
“What the hell?” Xavier asked, looking at one of the bodies.
“What?” Alejandro asked.
“Head cages,” I tried to keep the disgust out of my voice.
“They look like that thing one of the ghosts wear in Thirteen Ghosts.” Xavier pointed out.
“The Jackal.” I told him.
“Yeah, that one,” Xavier slipped into gloves.
“How many rats?”
“Not nearly enough,” Xavier looked around the room. “I’m sure there are some that got free, they are pretty wily.”
“How many are you thinking?”
“Well, I’m seeing dead ones, but they wouldn’t account for this damage unless they had been at it for days, possibly weeks. That means there are more rats.”
“Ouch,” Alejandro shouted.
“What?” I asked, beginning to kneel down next to Xavier.
“Fucker bit me,” Alejandro said back.
“Bag all the rats,” Xavier told him, he was moving closer to the first head.
“They probably won’t have tongues.” I told him.
“Start the rats feeding if the victim is bleeding.”
“Exactly Dr. Seuss. Plus, they can’t scream if they don’t have tongues.”
“How do we get these open? I need to see how the rats died.”
“Probably killed each other, fighting for food.” I stared at the cage, trying not to see anything other than the metal.
“Unlikely, how do we open the cages?”
“There should be a spring latch,” I said examining it without touching it. “The latch will open the cage around the neck; you just pull the head out at that point.”
“Where’s the latch?”
“Here,” I found the small button. Xavier pushed it. The cage separated at the victim’s neck.
“What the hell?” Xavier began looking at the rats more closely.
“What?” I frowned.
“These rats have been poisoned. The bloody foam at the corners of their mouth would indicate cyanide.”
“Maybe they were rabid.” I offered.
“Nope, definitely poisoned.”
“Why poison a rat or a group of rats
?”
“Maybe they were poisoned before and it took a while to act?” Lucas offered.
“No, this was quick. They pretty much died where they were and fell into the bottom of the head cage. Someone poisoned the rats intentionally.”
“That seems like a waste of time and energy.” I told Xavier.
“Maybe they could be linked back if they were alive when found?” Xavier offered.
“Maybe he figured out they have plague. The Hippocratic oath and all,” I gave an inappropriate giggle that stopped me from thinking too much about what I was looking at.
There was a noise behind us. We turned to see Alejandro lying on the ground. His body was twisted unnaturally, it jerked and spasmed.
Xavier jumped up and rushed over. He checked Alejandro’s eyes with a small flashlight.
“Ace, check the counter.” Xavier ordered.
The counter looked clean except for some rat droppings. I shined a light over it. It was coated in a fine layer of dust.
“Uh, Xavier, does cyanide come in powder form?”
“Yes,” Xavier was still examining Alejandro.
“I think he might have cyanide poisoning.”
“We’d smell almonds.”
“Can you smell anything other than death and mint?” I asked pointedly.
“Not really,” he admitted.
“Xavier, I think she is right,” Lucas joined me.
“Why would anyone cover a counter in cyanide?” Xavier asked.
“Beats me, but it would explain the death of the rats.” Lucas answered.
Chapter 50
