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 killer.

  Trey still wasn’t ruling out aliens completely, and lately his dreams had mirrored his obsession. Last night, he’d had one where he was in the episode of The Twilight Zone. “To Serve Man.” Except this time, instead of trying to feed Trey, they kept trotting in different animals, forcing him to chose which one he wanted to swap body parts with.

  Trey had settled on the monkey, thinking that, in typical dream logic, a monkey would be the most compatible genetically. And then he’d woken up.

  Freaky.

  There were a whole lot of ideas that Trey had come up with that he wanted to talk through with Darc. Most of them had come to him while he had been sitting out here in the hallway. Apparently, all Trey needed in order to come up with ideas was to sit still for long enough.

  Who knew?

  Turning the corner to the elevator, Trey ran headlong into his partner and almost got thrown back. Seriously, what was Darc made of? Granite? Adamantium?

  Brushing himself off, Trey started in. “Hey, man. I need to apologize for before. Maggie said that I totally screwed the pooch with this one. Like, completely messed with your head before sending you into combat or whatever.”

  Darc stared back at him, his expression blank.

  Great. That could mean any number of things, most of them bad. Trey brushed aside the thought. It was late. The date hadn’t ended early. There was always a possibility…

  “So, it’s like eleven o’clock, dude. It couldn’t have been that bad, right?”

  But Darc just kept looking at him. If anything, his expression hardened.

  “Okay, so it wasn’t perfect. But that’s okay. You can shake it off. No problem.” Trey paused. “Wait a sec. If you weren’t out with her, where were you?”

  Darc’s visage finally cracked, and the big guy spoke. “I went to a bookstore.”

  “You…?” Trey took that in. “Your date with Mala didn’t go well, so you… went to a bookstore?”

  “Yes. And then I went to her apartment. She was not there.”

  Trey sighed. It was clear that his partner was hurting, and at least according to Mags, it was all Trey’s fault.

  “All right, man. All right. Don’t worry about this. We can fix it.”

  “No.”

  “What?”

  Darc turned to face Trey and looked him right in the eye. As Trey had experienced earlier with his partner, there was more expression here than was typical for Darc. This was a big deal.

  “I do not require your assistance.” The bald detective shifted, and a bag rustled at his side.

  For the first time, Trey realized that Darc had not just gone to the bookstore, he had actually purchased books. Trey gestured to the bag.

  “Whatcha got there?”

  “It is a copy of Romance for Dummies. And the Kama Sutra.”

  Whoa. Heavy duty stuff. Even Trey had never gotten serious about the Kama Sutra. He’d tried once, but after about five pages he’d just gotten intimidated.

  Then a thought struck him. “Hold on. I’ve never seen you buy a book in your life. You just page through it and remember everything inside.”

  Darc stood there for a moment, and Trey realized he hadn’t actually asked a question. Sometimes that was tricky for the big guy. He was about to rephrase, when Darc spoke again.

  “I had been standing in the Human Sexuality section of the bookstore for two hours and thirteen minutes. The manager told me I needed to buy something or leave.”

  Was it Trey’s imagination, or was Darc… embarrassed? That couldn’t be right.

  He was about to call his partner on it, when the elevator down the hall dinged. Out from the open elevator entrance stepped Mala.

  She caught sight of Darc and Trey in the hall and stopped dead in her tracks, her face looking mortified. Staring at the ground, she approached, her steps seeming reluctant.

  “Hey, Darc. Trey.” She nodded at each of them. “I was hoping to have a conversation with Darc. Somewhere private.”

  Didn’t take more than that for Trey to get the hint. “Right. Yeah. I was just… going back to Darc’s place anyway. You know. Mags. Delicate condition and all that.” He pointed down the hall as he moved in that direction. Man, this was awkward.

  As it turned out, he hadn’t needed to worry about it. The two were completely wrapped up in each other. If Trey didn’t miss his guess, he and Mags weren’t going to be seeing much of either one of them tonight.

  Mission accomplished.

  Trey rounded the corner and made it back to the apartment, pushing open the door. Maggie looked up from her book, which it appeared she had just about finished.

  “All taken care of, babe,” he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. “They’re out there in the hall making up, but I don’t think they’re going to stay there long.”

  “You mean they’re coming back in here?” She began to sit up, a slightly panicked look on her face.”

  “No, no. I mean it looks like they’ll take this back to wherever they were earlier.”

  “Well, in that case,” Maggie said, putting away her book, “I think it’s time for us to spend some quality time together of our own.”

  Trey gulped.

  Maybe it would have been safer to stay out in the hallway.

  * * *

  Darc watched as Mala slipped out of the hotel room, her hair still tousled from the night before. Her movements were quiet, as if she were trying to make sure that Darc could stay asleep.

  But he had not slept the entire night.

  His mind was alive with light and color, the strands of beautiful logic alive as Darc had almost never before experienced them. What was even more unusual was the emotional waters that heaved and surged within.

  When the grey of Darc’s emotional life spilled over into the realms of light, chaos reigned. But right now, there was nothing but apparent order. This did not seem possible, and yet it was happening right now, under the watchful gaze of Darc’s inner eye.

  At first, the network of data strands had trembled in anxiety, dreading the approach of the formless emotion that threatened them. Then something strange appeared that seemed to bridge the gap between them.

  An unusual color made an appearance. One that Darc had only seen glimpses of before this, but that was now becoming more and more present.

  A link. A tie. A binding. They were links in a chain that allowed for the vibrating lights to settle, without being tied down. That calmed the raging of the emotional sea, without forcing it into submission.

  Harmony.

  The links had the brightness of the logic, but without any real color that the data imbued. They were gleaming chains of silver that somehow flowed while keeping their shape. A way for his emotional responses and his logical influx to begin to live in harmony together.

  It was imperfect, Darc could see that. There were still many gaps that remained unbridged. Places within that resisted both the light of reason and the grey wash of raw emotion.

  There was strength and power in the joining that both exhilarated Darc and frightened him. What if this were a signal of encroaching madness? The beginnings of a breakdown of the entire system. It did not appear to be so, but did demented individuals think themselves mad?

  Another, deeper concern struck him. If Darc could access the information contained within both the emotional and logical sides of himself, he would be more readily able to connect with others.

  He wasn’t sure he was ready for that.

  So he stayed awake, and watched as the love of his life walked out the door. He hoped that she wasn’t walking out on him for good.

  * * *

  The moment Janey had seen Mala this morning at Jessalyn’s house, she had known that something was different. Some kind of change had happened.

  Mala had come into the bedroom, her hair down and flowing over her shoulders. She almost always kept it swept up, either in a ponytail or in a bun. But then, it had spilled down her chest, the dark strands sh
ining in the light from the lamp in the corner.

  And there had been something about her face, too. It had almost seemed like she had been glowing or something.

  Popeye said that was stupid. People don’t glow. But Janey could still see it, no matter what her bear said. Even now that they were back in the apartment, the smile Mala had greeted her with this morning seemed to be staying on her face.

  It made her look very happy.

  Carly was there, and she smiled at Janey the moment the door opened. Something about the smile told Janey that Carly wasn’t as happy as her smile said.

  It was weird. The pathways around the two women there in the living room were all tangled, like that one time that Bobby had gotten into the crafts center at school and pulled out all the yarn. That had been such a mess.

  Popeye grumbled something about it not being as big a mess as Janey’s room. But Mala had made Janey clean before she went over to Jessalyn’s house, so she just flicked her bear on the head.

  He hated that.

  “Hey, sweetie,” Carly said, holding her arms open for Janey to come and give her a hug. “Did you have fun?”

  Janey nodded. It had been fun. She couldn’t remember exactly when they’d fallen asleep, so it was kind of hard to remember all of the last part of the night.

  After they had played with the action figures, Jessalyn’s mom had made them smoothies. They had been so yummy, with strawberries and oranges and pineapple in it. It was almost like frozen yogurt, but not as sweet, which had been weird at first. But Janey had ended up liking it a lot.

  Then Jessalyn’s mom had gotten out some fingernail polish and done their nails… both on their hands and their feet. Janey hadn’t thought that she would like that at all, but once they were done, she had really liked how they looked.

  She showed off her hands to Mala and Carly. Both of them oooed and aaahed, but Janey only believed Mala. There was something still the matter with Carly.

  The lines started to unravel themselves, figuring out what the problem was. It still wasn’t clear, but from what it looked like, Carly was mad at Mala for something.

  It seemed like Carly was mad all the time. Maybe that was because she didn’t have anyone to love her like Janey did.

  Popeye said it was because she didn’t have a bear like Janey did, but Janey knew that couldn’t be it. Having a bear was great and all, but it would probably make Carly angrier than she already was. With some of the things that Popeye said, it was lucky she hadn’t taken out all of his stitches a long time ago.

  Grumbling something about bear abuse, Popeye stopped talking to her. Which was fine with Janey, because she needed to figure out what was going on here.

  If Carly was mad because she didn’t have people to love her, maybe she just needed to be loved. Like right now.

  So Janey walked over to her and gave her a big hug. And not just a hug like she gave Mala a second ago. A long one. One like Mommy would give her sometimes at night, where she would hold until their breathing started to happen at the same time. Almost like they were one person.

  At first, Carly’s body seemed to get really stiff, and her big sister almost pulled away from the hug. But Janey just held on, not letting go. She was strong for her age. Everybody said so.

  And then, after a while, Carly relaxed. Once her muscles had let go, Janey could feel her sister start to hug her back. Then after another minute, the hug got even stronger, almost like Carly was trying to squeeze all the love out of her.

  It was a little uncomfortable, but it was also nice.

  Then Carly started to cry.

  It was a quiet cry. Like one where Carly didn’t want anyone to know that she was crying at all. But Janey could hear it. Even more than that, she could feel it.

  She stroked Carly’s hair, just like Mommy used to do. It had felt so good, and it was one of the best memories that Janey had of her mommy. So she shared it with Carly.

  After a long time, Carly stirred and let go. Her eyes were red, but she smiled down at Janey, and this time the smile wasn’t weird. It was real.

  But it left her sister’s face the second Carly looked up at Mala. Hard lines crept in where before everything had been all soft and warm.

  “This doesn’t change anything,” she said, and stalked off toward the guest bedroom.

  Mala stared after her, sadness surrounding her eyes like streaks of red and orange that trailed up from her face and made like a crown of unhappy around her head that only Janey could see. The lines and the cloud told a story. A story of angry words that had been spoken before Janey got there this morning.

  Carly only fought with Mala when Janey wasn’t around. Janey hadn’t been around this morning because she’d been over playing with her new friend.

  It was Janey’s fault.

  The lines vibrated, trying to get her attention. They made splashes of ugly colors, trying to tell her that she was wrong. And usually she would listen to them.

  But not this time.

  If Janey had been here, Mala and Carly wouldn’t have argued. And one thing that the strands of color would not say was that this wasn’t a big deal. It was.

  It was a very big deal.

  Carly was going to do something, and it wasn’t going to be a good thing. It was going to be something that would hurt Mala. But what Carly didn’t know was that it would end up hurting Janey too. And even Carly.

  Janey didn’t know what it was, but she knew it was going to happen. The colors pointed there. And as much as the colors were saying that it would have happened anyway, it was hard for Janey not to feel like it was all because she hadn’t been around.

  Popeye finally stopped pouting, and said something about her needing to stop feeling sorry for herself. The reason he had said it was because he wanted someone to pay attention to him. He was such a selfish bear.

  But he was right. About her not feeling sorry for herself, not the other part.

  Because there was someone else here that needed a hug.

  Janey walked through the red and orange cloud around Mala and put her hands on either side of Mala’s face, looking into her eyes and giving her new mother a smile. Then she wrapped her arms around Mala’s neck.

  It was the place she belonged, and she knew that Mala needed her just as much as Janey needed her back. They fit together, like the pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.

  Now they just had to figure out how to make Carly see it, too.

  And to fit her into the same puzzle.

  * * *

  Monday morning.

  Trey jittered his leg as he stood in line for some coffee for himself and some herbal tea for Mags, who stood by his side, shifting from foot to foot to keep her sciatic nerve from acting up. Another lovely gift from the advancing pregnancy. She wasn’t cutting out caffeine one-hundred percent with the pregnancy, but she was monitoring her intake, and she’d already had a cup this morning.

  So had Trey, which was why she’d been a little confused when he’d suggested they take a slight detour on their way into the precinct building for another cup. He’d had to explain that he was just more tired than usual.

  That wasn’t, strictly speaking, true.

  The bell to the front door of the coffee shop rang, indicating that someone else had entered, and Trey turned to see that it was Mala. There was a sharp intake of breath beside him as Maggie also spotted Mala and jabbed Trey in the ribs.

  “Just wanted to step in for a cup of coffee, huh?” she whispered.

  “What? They have good coffee here,” he answered, stepping out of the line to greet Mala. “Hey, girlfriend! What’s up?” he said, and then winced.

  Had he ever called her girlfriend ever, in the entire history of their friendship? She was going to think there was something up here.

  And from the look on her face, that might be just what she was thinking. But her response was pleasant enough.

  “I’m good. Just grabbing some coffee before I head into the precinct.”

  “Yeah,
me too.”

  Mala lifted an eyebrow. “You get coffee here? Seems a bit out of your way.”

  “Noooo, not really.” Trey shifted his feet, not quite meeting Mala’s gaze. “So,” he said, trying to turn the subject. “How’s it going?”

  “Good,” she said, her tone noncommittal.

  This was not what Trey was looking for. Maggie showed up at his side again, moving forward to greet Mala as well.

  “Hey, there! How’re you doing?” Maggie asked.

  “Fine,” Mala answered. “I’m fine.”

  Okay, this was getting nowhere. Trey decided that a little directness was called for in this particular situation.

  “How’d it go Saturday night?”

  Mala’s eyes widened a bit at that, and her gaze flickered from Trey, then to Maggie and back again. Clearing her throat, she answered.

  “Ah… good. Good. You know. It was fine.”

  What was up with Mala’s vocabulary? Good? Fine? The woman was multisyllabic enough in her speech that it sometimes gave Trey a headache, and now she was grunting out these one-syllable words that didn’t really mean a blessed thing.

  “Really?” Trey pressed. “Because I heard you burned the place down.”

  Shock registered on her face. “You heard…?” She cut herself off, clearing her throat. “I mean, right, but that was the first time around. That was a disaster. But…”

  “But?” he prompted.

  “Well, the second time around was okay. You know, nice.”

  Again with the vague descriptors. What the hell had happened last night? Trey’s curiosity burned with the intensity of two colliding suns.

  And Trey apparently wasn’t the only one.

  “Okay?” Maggie asked. “It was nice?”

  “Well, yeah,” Mala responded with what sounded like reluctance. “I mean, it was decent. Nothing spectacular, but not the train wreck that it had been.” She gave Maggie an awkward smile. “I’m sure you have some idea.”

  “Um… yeah, I…” Maggie stopped and looked more closely at Mala’s face. “Wait a minute.”

  “Yes?”

  “It was amazing, wasn’t it?”