The 2nd Cycle of the Darc Murders Omnibus (the acclaimed series from #1 Police Procedural and Hard Boiled authors Carolyn McCray and Ben Hopkin)

by Carolyn McCray

  The nod turned into an enthusiastic shake. The smile transformed into a full-on grin. It looked like Janey was on board.

  “Well, Janey’s excited about it. How about a late-over?” Mala answered. “I actually have a date tonight, and I could come pick her up after.”

  “Oh, that sucks,” Cat said, but then quickly followed up with more. “I mean, great that you have a date, but I was going to invite you over too. You know, have some girl time before the kiddos went to sleep.”

  “I’m so sorry--”

  “No, no. Don’t even worry about it. We’ll do it another time. Dating life takes precedence.”

  “Are you sure?” Mala felt guilty. The situation with Carly was forcing her into some uncomfortable situations.

  “Seriously. If I had a date, I’d ditch you in a heartbeat. And dump Jessalyn off on you.” She chuckled again, a low ripple of sound. “Honestly, depending on the guy, I probably would’ve taken advantage of the sleepover.”

  Mala laughed in response. “Don’t tempt me. I might just do the same.”

  “Offer’s open, girl. Take it if you want.”

  “When should I bring her over?”

  Cat paused for a moment, as if she was thinking it over. “Well, pretty much anytime you want. I’ve got no plans this afternoon.”

  “How’s five sound?”

  “Perfect. See you two then.” And then Cat was gone.

  It might not be the ideal situation, but considering the alternatives, Mala was pretty happy. She’d make an assessment when she went over to Cat’s place, and honestly, how much time was too much or too little time before allowing for a sleepover?

  Now all she had to do was let Carly know.

  * * *

  Okay, if this really was the work of aliens, those guys were pricks.

  Trey stepped over a… what was that? A pancreas? A liver? A gall bladder. Man, he really should’ve paid more attention in biology class.

  This was bad.

  Jeff had offered the two detectives some menthol rub to put under their noses to cut down on the smell. Trey had grabbed at the little container like it was a lifeline. Darc hadn’t even noticed.

  Sometimes Trey wondered if anything affected his partner. Like, anything at all. Didn’t seem to matter what the scenario was, Darc took it all in stride. Of course, he came across as a robot to pretty much anyone who ever met the guy, but still. Might be nice to not have to force down the vomit when you walked in on a crime scene like this.

  Speaking of vomit… Maggie’s morning sickness had come back with a vengeance today. But that might have just been the fact that Trey had told her about staying at Darc’s.

  At least he knew that Maggie was going to be okay there. The idea hadn’t sat well with her at first, but when Trey had gone over the amount of money they’d end up spending in just one week of staying at the Hampton, she’d stopped talking. Right before she’d upchucked all of her food into the toilet.

  And then she’d forced Trey to stop by the local market to grab an entire block of extra sharp Irish cheddar cheese and a 48oz jar of mayonnaise. Trey didn’t even want to think about how those items were going to get combined. And her obsession with mayonnaise was starting to get out of hand.

  “Listen, dude,” he said to Darc, forcing his mind back to the task at hand. “Do you think that maybe, just once, we could show up at a crime scene and not have to worry about getting blood and guts all over our shoes?”

  “You should not get blood on your shoes. It would contaminate the scene.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Trey replied, his voice going up into the stratosphere. “This from the guy that charges into puddles of blood, tips over vats of the stuff and dives into pools filled with human sludge?”

  Darc just peered at him with those dark, impenetrable eyes of his. “That is only when necessity dictates it. A life is more important than a pristine crime scene…”

  “But why not have a pristine crime scene if you can? Right.” Trey finished for his partner.

  Jeff, the new tech guy, cleared his throat, apparently done with the partner banter. He shifted from one foot to the other, seemed to panic and looked down at his feet. Probably worried that he’d stepped on something. Working for Dr. Hutchinson must be an absolute nightmare.

  “So, we found out some other stuff that I think you guys should know about,” he said. “This crime scene’s been here a while. Like, it was probably the first.”

  “That explains the smell,” Trey muttered. Even through the menthol, the scent of human flesh decaying was everywhere. This wasn’t going to come out of his clothes anytime soon.

  “Right.” Jeff tiptoed his way over to the center of the room. “But take a look at this.” He pointed straight up.

  There, as the perspective changed, the bodies and symbols took on a different aspect. The combination of the splayed limbs, tied to one another with wire, alongside the bloody symbols, created the picture of something.

  The image was unclear, as the bodies were swaying back and forth in the slight breeze that had come in with Trey and Darc’s entrance. Until they settled down, there was no way he’d be able to pick this out.

  “Hey, can we get that door shut?” he called out into the space. One of the uniformed cops near the door pushed it closed, and the bodies stopped moving after a moment.

  And then he saw it. The picture was rough, but somehow almost beautiful in its simplicity, if you could forget for a moment what had been done to create it.

  “Whoa…” Trey uttered, unable to keep his admiration from coloring his tone.

  “What?” Darc asked.

  Trey glanced over at his partner, shocked. But Darc was staring up at the same thing that Trey was, and somehow he wasn’t seeing it.

  “It’s a tree, Darc. A huge tree. With what looks like fruit dangling from its branches.” The roughness of the depiction made it tough to tell for sure, but that’s what it appeared to be.

  “What do you think it’s supposed to represent?” Jeff asked, as he stared up at the same thing. They must look ridiculous, all three of them with their heads craned back, staring at the ceiling like they were at the Sistine Chapel or something.

  “Well, if I remember from Catholic School,” Trey murmured, entranced. “I’m guessing it’s something to do with the fruit of the tree that Adam and Eve ate.”

  Darc was still staring up with a blank look on his face. That wasn’t all that unusual for Darc, so Trey wasn’t positive, but it seemed like maybe Darc still couldn’t see the pattern.

  “Look, Darc. It’s right there. See that line combined with that guy’s leg… well, hoof? That’s the trunk. And that guy’s arm is one of the branches, with that symbol a part of the branch and one of the fruit that’s hanging down.”

  But Darc made no reply. Just kept staring up.

  Trey tilted his neck back down, and so did Jeff. The tech gestured for Trey to move over to the side of the room with him, and they both did a kind of hop-scotch set of moves to get to the edge of the gore without disturbing anything.

  “If you move even a tiny bit of my evidence, Detective, I’ll have your badge,” called out the voice of Dr. Hutchinson from up above. He was on a ladder, examining one of the bodies before they cut it down. It felt like the voice of God coming down from above for a moment.

  “Right. I’ll keep that in mind, Doc.” The M.E. frowned. He hated it when Trey shortened his title. Or maybe he just hated Trey. That was always a possibility.

  “You’re an idiot, Detective Keane. Always have been. Always will be.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Trey snipped back. “I’ve heard it before. And from better men than you.”

  Jeff whistled through his teeth. “You talk to him like that?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  “I’d be afraid he’d fire me.”

  Trey thought about that a moment. “Yeah, he probably would. But I’m the caretaker of the best police weapon the department’s got. Darc.” He pointed his
thumb over his shoulder at his partner who was still staring up at the bodies. “And trust me, nobody else wants that job.”

  Jeff gave him an appreciative look. “Must be nice. Anyway, sorry to pull you over here. I just wanted…” The tech cleared his throat. “I just was hoping that… Look, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

  Trey almost took a step back, but then remembered at the last minute that there was evidence back there. “What are you sorry for?”

  “Well, back at the other crime scene. Hutchinson was laying into you pretty hard, and I felt like I… I don’t know. That I should have stepped in.”

  That was a surprise. From what Trey remembered, Jeff had been one of the guys who had glared at him when the good ol’ Doc had reminded everyone that Trey had cheated with his partner’s girl and gotten her pregnant.

  Not exactly the truth, of course, but close enough for most of these guys.

  “So, you don’t think I’m…?” Trey began, but wasn’t sure how to continue.

  “What? A jerk? An animal? A bad partner?” Jeff asked with a chuckle. “I have no idea. But I try not to judge, and you seem like a pretty cool guy.”

  Trey was a little flummoxed. Over the years, he’d pretty much gotten the impression that he was persona non grata around the precinct. He’d been well liked in vice, but most of those guys were pretty laid back when it came to personality quirks.

  The problem in the past had always been that no one thought he was good enough to be a detective. Now that had shifted to some of the guys thinking he was a bad partner.

  Thing was, he got it. There were still moments that he looked at Maggie and felt a twinge, but no one here really knew the whole story.

  Maybe that could change right now.

  “I’m not that guy, you know?”

  “What do you mean?” The big tech looked around the room, as if he were searching for someone or something.”

  “Just… what happened with me and my partner’s ex. It didn’t start until they were over. And we fought it.” Trey shrugged. “Plus, Darc’s okay with it.”

  The tech grinned. “Like I said, none of my business.”

  At that point the voice from up above echoed down again. “Detective Keane, if you’re not going to do any work here, will you at least allow my tech to get something done?”

  Trey frowned and whispered to the tech. “Sorry, man.”

  Jeff glanced up at the M.E. and whispered back to Trey, “I get fired and you’re taking me out for a beer.”

  “Done.”

  The tech made his way back over to the ladder where Dr. Hutchinson was coming down. The guy somehow managed to look pleasant and repentant all at once. That was a trick that Trey needed to learn from him.

  As Jeff was getting closer to the base of the ladder, the tech who was there holding it for Dr. Hutchinson gave his fellow technician a wave. As he did so, the man stumbled and reached out to steady himself against the aluminum apparatus.

  The ladder gave a metal protest and began to tip over, Dr. Hutchinson crying out at the top rungs. Jeff rushed the last few feet and braced his tree trunk legs against the floor, holding up the ladder with sheer brute strength. The veins on his neck and forehead stood out, his sinews etched in the illumination from the lights that had been set up to view the horrific crime scene.

  Slowly, the ladder began to right itself, as inch-by-inch Jeff forced it back through the sheer power of his muscles and dint of his will. At that point, the other tech, who had frozen in horror, began helping out and the crisis was averted.

  “Whoa,” Trey called out to him. “That was amazing!”

  The big man shrugged, seeming embarrassed. “Used to be a linebacker in college. Plus, I was in the army for a while.”

  Trey looked up at the M.E., who was clinging to the ladder as if it was a life preserver. In this case, it almost had been. The man would’ve taken a nasty spill and ended up with some broken limbs if he had been lucky, a broken neck if not. Plus, he would have landed in all that viscera. No telling what kind of nasty stuff he would’ve picked up in that muck.

  Thinking that through for a bit, Trey could admit to a small, nasty voice inside himself that wished that the uppity doctor had gotten at least a bump or two from the experience. But the man certainly seemed shaken, which would have to do in this case.

  As Trey picked his way back over to Darc’s side, he noticed that his partner was staring at Jeff Fischer, his gaze intent. Even as Trey gave Darc a playful slap on the shoulder, the bald detective didn’t shift his eye line.

  “Darc, what is it?”

  “Have you not noticed?” he answered.

  Great. Twenty questions. Trey hated it when Darc thought it was something he should be able to figure out for himself.

  “Noticed what, dude?” He snorted. “Maybe you hadn’t realized, but I’m not the most observant of detectives.”

  “The killer has at least a basic knowledge of human… and animal… anatomy.” Darc intoned.

  Trey thought about that for a minute. The ability to exchange body parts from a man to an animal and vice-versa did seem like it would require some skills. Or possibly extraterrestrial knowledge. That was still a possibility in Trey’s book.

  “Okay, fine, but what does that have to do with--?”

  “The killer would also require either a great deal of assistance or prodigious strength.” Darc’s eyes had not moved even a millimeter away from the new tech.

  Oh. Oh. Trey looked over at Jeff. He was strong, there was no doubt about that. He had to have some medical knowledge, on at least some level.

  But the guy seemed so normal. Of course, so had Van Owen, and that guy had been a Grade A sociopath.

  And Captain had said something about there being a leak. Who better to feed sensitive information to the press than someone who had done the deed? And then spent time at the site doing cleanup on it.

  “No. No, dude.” Trey said. “Well, maybe. Okay, possibly. Dammit!” Trey punched his thigh and then immediately regretted it. “I guess we’re going to have to keep our eye on him, aren’t we?”

  But Darc didn’t answer. He just kept staring and staring.

  * * *

  Janey knew that she should probably not be as excited as she was to go over to Jessalyn’s house. Especially with everything that was going on.

  There was the new case Darc and Trey were working on. There was Janey’s new sister. But then there was something else that Janey wasn’t supposed to know about.

  Mala and Darc were going out on another date.

  It was weird, because usually when Mala and Darc went out together, Mala told her about it. But this time she’d just talked to Darc while he was here that night and they had kissed.

  That was another thing that she wasn’t supposed to know about, but please. It wasn’t like Darc was all that quiet when he was walking around the apartment. Besides, when it came to her favorite detective, Janey seemed to always know where he was.

  So she had seen him kiss Mala. It had made her feel all warm inside.

  And now they were going out on another date. For a minute, Janey had thought about maybe trying to see Jessalyn another day so Janey could hide in their car and help out. But they were pretty careful now, and she’d already gotten caught trying to do that twice. It probably wasn’t a good idea.

  Popeye thought the whole thing was gross. To him, kissing was the weirdest thing that weird old people did. When he’d seen Mala and Darc doing it, he’d gagged and Janey was sure she was going to get caught.

  But instead, Janey was headed over to Jessalyn’s for her first sleepover. Well, late-over, anyway, but maybe Mala would forget and let her stay.

  “So you’re just going to leave me here?” Carly asked Mala. She was the only one who didn’t seem excited by the whole thing. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll trash the place?”

  “Well, I am now,” Mala answered with a smile. It was a real smile, but Janey could see that there was a little bit of somethi
ng else in it. Carly and Mala weren’t getting along, and Janey hated it.

  She walked over to Carly and put her hand in her big sister’s. Carly looked down at her and her face softened. It seemed like Janey was the only one who could help her feel okay, and once again Janey wondered if maybe she shouldn’t go to Jessalyn’s.

  But she really liked Jessalyn, and if she said no, maybe Jessalyn wouldn’t want to invite her over anymore. It wasn’t like Janey had lots and lots of friends or anything.

  That hurt Popeye’s feelings and he started to pout again, but Janey told him to knock it off. She had too much to think about to be worrying about her dumb old bear’s hurt feelings right now.

  Carly glanced back up at Mala. “Why can’t I go with Janey?”

  Mala sighed. “Carly, I’ve told you this. She’s going over to a friend’s house. It would be pretty strange to have a girl there who was more than ten years older.”

  “What about you? Where are you going to be?” the girl demanded.

  “I…” Mala glanced at Janey. “I have a date tonight.”

  “With that freaky cop?”

  “He’s not a cop. He’s a detective.”

  “Whatevs,” Carly sneered. “He’s still a cop. And the guy acts like some kind of bizarre robot.”

  “He has Asperger’s. Remember, I told you all about the spectrum--”

  Carly cut her off. “I’m not an idiot. I know what it is. What I can’t figure is why you’re dating him.”

  Mala’s smile got even tighter. “Luckily, you don’t have to. Now, do I trust you with my apartment, or do I call in a babysitter for you?”

  Janey’s sister shrugged. The lines in Janey’s head traced the movement, and the way she was standing. Even the way her mouth was shaped.

  The colors shifted around and gave her an answer. Carly was upset, but she was also happy. That was weird.

  “You can go.”

  “Good,” Mala said, and her face softened again. “Carly, I…” She cleared her throat. “I know this is tough for you, but I really like you. And I admire you. I want us to be friends.”

  Carly’s face screwed up again, and even though it looked like she might cry, Janey was pretty sure that it wasn’t because she was sad. At least not totally.