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

  Darc’s cell phone buzzed, the vibrations resonating from his thigh outward in an expanding circle. The oscillations converted themselves into symbols and hued lines that swirled and coalesced together inside his mind, as the network of strands processed the data and spat forth the results. The mechanism worked in the background, a part of Darc’s makeup that never stopped.

  So what caused him to pay attention to it now? Why did it cause such a sensation of hollowness in his abdominal region?

  The number flashing on the screen came from the morgue. Darc swiped across the screen to answer the call, the sensation logged, categorized and regurgitated. Useless information that, combined with other meaningless data, could identify a pattern that might lead to the capture of a madman.

  “Detective Darcmel.”

  “This is Dr. Kelly,” came the voice on the other end of the line. “I’m glad I caught you.”

  “I am not seeking to escape,” he responded. “There is no need to catch me.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. Darc checked the reception on his phone to verify that the call had not been dropped. Full bars.

  A white throb murmured something of idiomatic expressions. One of Trey’s rules flashed through Darc’s mind. If you can’t understand something somebody said, they’re using slang. Just roll with it.

  Darc had not understood the rule at first, because of the fact that Trey had used an idiom. They had then discussed irony at length.

  The rule might be apropos at this moment, but Darc had no interest in interpreting the M.E.’s less-than-straightforward speech. He shoved down the voice that kept repeating Trey’s rule, and waited the doctor out.

  “Ah, right,” the man stated after a pause of seven-point-three seconds. “Well. I wanted to let you know that I completed the autopsy on that body we recovered from the fire down there.”

  The statement contained information, but as no question was put forth, Darc waited once more. The doctor cleared his throat and continued.

  “I found a cocktail of MDMA and methamphetamine in the man’s system. Street name Speedy E.”

  The information swirled about in Darc’s mind. MDMA, or ecstasy… a drug that caused feelings of euphoria and oftentimes sexual arousal. Methamphetamine, one that increased focus and energy.

  Combined, the result would be extended and energetic sexual pleasure in those that could no longer have sex. It also explained the speed and power with which Darc and Trey had been attacked.

  A potent combination.

  The doctor no longer spoke, nor did he make any indication that the conversation needed to continue. Therefore, Darc touched the screen to end the call.

  Use of MDMA was not unheard of in tantric circles, but the likelihood of that combination remained small. The addition of methamphetamine decreased that probability exponentially.

  Goddess Tanja was not their suspect. Trey’s sting operation now appeared irrelevant to the case.

  It would be a simple matter to climb the stairs and inform his partner of that fact, and yet Darc remained motionless. A part of him, a throbbing inside the grey formless land, kept his feet rooted to the ground.

  There was a hard glint of humor to the sensation, but something darker existed there as well. Some section that wished for Trey’s humiliation. Or worse, sought a wedge to force between him and Maggie.

  This was not the white glint of a hidden light. Rather it was an anti-illumination. A dark sponge that sucked all light and color dry. Any exploratory tendrils of logic that extended themselves to chart this territory refused to return again.

  The darkness sought after him.

  And Darc found himself willing to join with it.

  CHAPTER 9

  Janey sat and looked at the building from the safety of Lula’s car.

  Popeye cleared his throat.

  Okay, well, it was safe now.

  The trip over here had been a little crazy. Lula didn’t like to obey traffic laws. Or pay attention to other drivers. Or use roads, sometimes.

  But they were here now. Outside the DSHS’s office building.

  Popeye said something about this being the stupidest idea in the history of ever. And Janey had to agree with him. This was the stupidest idea in the history of ever.

  It also happened to be the only idea she could come up with.

  Something bad had happened back in that courtroom. Things had not gone the way they were supposed to. And she didn’t mean about her getting taken away from Mala. That was bad, sure, but that had been one of the things that she knew right from the start might happen.

  But the way that the time had gotten changed, and the fact that they had started right on time even though Mala wasn’t there. Even the way the judge had gone ahead and given the judgment so fast, without taking time to really think about it.

  All of it smelled bad. Like, really stinky stuff.

  Popeye grumbled about it not being the only thing around here that was stinky. But he was just mad that they were going into the building. Her bear was afraid of the social worker.

  To be honest, Janey was kind of scared of him, too. He had beady little eyes that would squint at her when he was talking. The thought gave her the shivers.

  There was also something funny about the way the lines in her head acted when he was around. There were links, but they didn’t make any sense to her.

  Bands of light linking him to Mala, but they were funny ones, ones that Janey couldn’t figure out. Links to her. Links to the lady, Regina Cross.

  But even though there had been a funny look between him and the judge, there hadn’t really been a line there where Janey would have thought there might be. Those lines weren’t being very helpful right now.

  She nodded to Lula and started to get out of the car.

  “Hold up, little lady.”

  Janey stopped. This was the part where Lula told her grown-up stuff that meant that Janey wouldn’t get to do what she needed to do.

  Lula had been super nice to them, and Janey didn’t want to have to trick her. But if she wasn’t going to let Janey figure this out, that might be just what had to happen.

  “I’m just spit-balling here, missy, but would you happen to be an orphan?”

  That was a word that people didn’t use much around her, but Janey had heard it sometimes whispered. She’d looked it up when Mala hadn’t been looking. It was a word that meant that you didn’t have any parents.

  But Janey did have parents. Her first ones, her mommy and daddy, they were gone, and sometimes that made her cry at night, when her pillow throbbed and the room seemed like it was growing and shrinking and she felt all alone. But then Mala would come in and stroke her hair and tell her that everything was going to be okay. Somehow Mala always knew when to come in.

  And Darc. Darc would pick her up even though the colored streams told her that he wasn’t sure what to do. When it came to Janey, he always worked harder to be nice. And Janey knew how hard that really was for him.

  Trey. He made her giggle every time she came to see them at the precinct. Not only would he tickle and tease her, but he also talked to Popeye like he was a real person.

  Even Popeye liked Trey.

  Maggie, too. Maggie made the best hot cocoa in the world, even when she forgot to buy marshmallows. Janey was pretty sure that she didn’t forget, but that she had just eaten them all herself.

  But that wasn’t what Lula was asking, so even though she felt like she was lying, Janey nodded her head. Lula sat back and gave a nod herself.

  “I thought so.” She sighed and then shifted around in her seat so that she was facing Janey over her seat. “I was an orphan myself.”

  For the first time in a long time, Popeye was quiet. He didn’t make even a peep. Which meant that he was surprised.

  Janey sorta was, but not too much. There had been something about Lula right from the start that had made Janey want to trust her. Something that bound them together, like the shoes that Janey had star
ted learning to tie this past year. She always got stuck in the part where you went around the bunny ear. That part was hard.

  “Here’s what I’m thinking, princess,” Lula said after a minute. “I’m thinking that you don’t want the people in there to know you’re out here. Am I right?”

  Once more, Janey nodded. She didn’t have any reason to keep secrets from Lula anymore, and if Lula was going to get her in trouble now, there wasn’t anything Janey could do.

  “Right,” she confirmed, pressing her lips together. “Now. I’m sure you can take care of yourself and all, but if you go in there by yourself, people are going to notice. A little girl all by herself in a place like that? Doesn’t work all that well.”

  Lula was right. Janey had known that this was going to be the hardest part. She sat up and paid closer attention. Even Popeye was listening. He must like Lula, too.

  “But if I go in there with you, and we act like we know what we’re doing, I’m guessing that’s going to be your best bet.”

  It was an awesome idea. Walking in there with Lula holding her hand, no one would pay attention to them at all. Well, once they got past the receptionist, that was.

  Janey looked down at Popeye. Popeye looked back at her. For once he didn’t say that this was a stupid idea. He didn’t say anything at all.

  That was good enough for Janey. She looked up at Lula and smiled.

  They were going in together.

  * * *

  Trey hadn’t known what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this.

  Goddess Tanja had come out to meet him dressed in workout clothes. A baggy shirt that said CHICAGO on it in big, faded block lettering, draped over yoga pants.

  There was no incense burning, no gongs chiming in the background, no new age music playing mysteriously through the air. In other words, everything seemed normal.

  That was so not okay.

  “You can call me Tanya if you want,” the woman said as she stood aside in the open door to let him pass. “Goddess Tanja seems so… I dunno. Pretentious. Don’t you think?”

  “I… uh… Well…”

  “Don’t answer that,” she said with an earthy chuckle.

  Goddess Tanja… or Tanya… had her dark hair chopped short in a stylish pixie cut, with a chunky messiness to it that gave the impression of a kind of fun spunkiness. Looking to be in her early to mid-thirties, Tanya had a smile that made tiny crow’s lines appear at the corners of her eyes.

  In short, she was the kind of woman Trey would go for in a heartbeat if he weren’t smitten with Maggie. He cleared his throat in discomfort. Even that thought made him feel guilty.

  What the H. E. double hockey sticks was he doing here?

  Taking the question in his mind and turning it outward, he faced Tanya. “So, how does this work? Do I take off my pants, or…?”

  Tanya cocked her head to the side and pursed her lips. “Do you want to take off your pants?”

  “No, not really.”

  Why had he said that? Wasn’t he here to try to get some leverage? Try to force some information out of her?

  “So, don’t. I don’t really dig working with the guys that are here looking for a quick ‘fix’ for their never-ending erections. They get what I call the oak treatment.”

  “Oak treatment?”

  “Yeah. I ask them to leaf.”

  Trey just stared at her for a long moment, not understanding what she was saying. Her face flushed red, and she giggled… a dry, throaty sound.

  “Sorry. That was a bad pun. I don’t know what came over me.”

  Then Trey got it. “Oh. Oh. Right. No. That was great. Funny.” He looked at her and grimaced. “Sorry. I’m just really nervous.”

  “First time?”

  “Yeah, you could say that.”

  “Well, why don’t you come into my living room and we can talk.”

  There were a lot of things that Trey might have expected a tantric priestess named Goddess Tanja to say to him. Come into my living room and talk was not one of them.

  “Right. Sure.”

  Tanya must have sensed his confusion. Turning around and placing a hand on his chest to stop his forward movement, the tantric practitioner raised an eyebrow.

  “Here’s the deal. I’m here to help you find connection with your sexual self, more intimacy and power in your relationships with others and maybe even a step or two toward some kind of enlightenment. This isn’t about getting you off.” She winked at him. “At least not before you buy me dinner.”

  Trey blushed. On every level, this wasn’t what he had anticipated. And the more he talked to this woman, the more he liked her. Not liked her liked her, but found her to be honest, straightforward, strong…

  Time to nip this whole thing in the bud.

  “Ah, listen…”

  “You’re really an undercover cop?” Tanya asked, her eyes innocent and wide.

  Busted.

  Wow. Had he really lost that much of his touch since his days in vice?

  And another, more disturbing question… if she was that quick to jump to a conclusion like that, was Trey so positive that she was on the up-and-up? Those that were always on the lookout for the cops were, in his experience, the guilty ones.

  Once more, she seemed to be able to read his expressions. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him what looked like a mock glare.

  “Please. You think I haven’t had vice look into me before? I know the drill.”

  “I’m not vice.”

  Giving him a sideways look, Tanya moved off into the living room, waving at him to follow. “You know, I believe you. A lot of those guys are kinda sketchy.”

  Trey was about to protest… he’d been vice, after all… but she was right. A lot of the guys in vice were kinda sketchy. It was one of the reasons he’d jumped at the chance when Merle had approached him about coming over to homicide. Even though he’d known in advance that it was a glorified babysitting job.

  Sinking into a dark leather couch, Tanya nodded toward an overstuffed chair that sat beside it.

  “Sit. Spill. Then we’ll see about whether or not we’ll continue with this session.”

  “Session? You mean…? I am a detective. You were right.”

  “Ooo. Detective. I must be moving up in the world.” She grinned at him. “Whatever. You’re telling me you don’t have any sexual issues you’d like to figure out?”

  Come to think of it…

  “No. I don’t know. Maybe.” Trey shook his head and took a seat in the chair. “Look. That’s not why I’m here.”

  “Doesn’t really matter. I can’t help but see what I see.” She cocked her head at him again, giving him an assessing look. “And what I see is all kinds of messed up.”

  “Hey!”

  She held up her hands. “Just being honest. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve got a lot more going right for you than the vast majority of the clients I see. But you look like you’re about to keel over from sheer sexual exhaustion.”

  Wow. This woman was good.

  Focus, Trey. Focus.

  “I’m here because of a case I’m working,” he said. “A homicide case.”

  Tanya’s eyebrows crawled up her face. “Homicide? Is this about those bodies they found?”

  “Yes.”

  Her face blanched. “And you think it had something to do with… what I do?”

  Trey pulled out his phone and opened up some of the pictures he’d taken of the glowing symbols, expressly for this purpose. As she gazed at the photos, Tanya’s face drained of color even more, and her expression grew haggard and wan. When they’d arrived, Trey had guessed that she was in her thirties. Now she appeared like she carried the weight of an entire lifetime on her shoulders.

  “This… this is an abomination,” she croaked, her tone horrified. “I have never…” Her voice trailed off. Then she shook her head, her expression turning puzzled.

  “What?” Trey prompted her.

  “Well, there was this grou
p…” she said, “but I thought they were all arrested a few years back.”

  “Tell me about them.”

  “They called themselves the Darker Side of Yin.” She rubbed her hands together, leaning away from Trey’s phone, but her eyes still locked onto the image. “You’ve heard of the Tao, right?”

  “Um… that surfer symbol? The light and dark teardrops that make a circle?”

  Tanya huffed out a breath in what seemed to be a combination of humor and disgust. “That’s the symbol, but that’s not the Tao. The Tao represents harmony between the forces of light and dark in the world.”

  “You mean like good and evil?”

  “No. Well, at least not usually.” She traced a finger on the glass coffee table in front of the couch, the heat from her finger causing a light fog to form. “The white half of the circle represents Yang, which is heat and light and dry things. The power masculine.”

  Trey nodded. It seemed like he’d heard something about this at some point in his life. It wouldn’t have been at Catholic School, that was for certain.

  “The other half represents Yin, the divine feminine. Dark, wet, cool, mysterious. But not evil. Just like Yang isn’t good. They’re just two different sides to what makes up the whole of the universe. The Tao.”

  “Okay, but you said usually just a second ago.”

  Tanya stood up and began pacing around the room, her hands moving. “Right. But, now, understand that I don’t know any of this stuff firsthand. It’s just that those who study this stuff are kind of a small community.”

  Trey nodded. It was like Darc’s serial killer thing. A lot of them knew each other because they shared common interests.

  “Well, see, the Darker Side of Yin were using the stuff they had learned through their tantric study and starting to apply it in ways that were… well… like that.” She pointed back at Trey’s phone. “Dark, icky, gross.” She stopped pacing and met Trey’s gaze. “Evil. And I don’t use that word lightly.”

  “But you said they all went to prison, right?”

  “I thought so. They were running a couple of tantric temples that were fronts for prostitutions, pretty much.”

  Trey remembered that bust. There were like three or four places that had gotten shut down. Some pretty skeevy stuff happening, from what he’d heard from some of his old contacts in vice. A lot of hushed talk about some of the clientele, as well, if memory served. And in this case, it probably did.