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

  Where had she seen this before?

  The disembowelment might have been tolerable… after all, Mala had experienced quite a lot since she’d been working with the precinct… but the part that took the whole thing over the top was what had been done to the head.

  It had been cut off, just as one would do to a recently caught fish. But then the killer had sliced open the edges of the mouth and opened up the jaw, exposing the ragged cuts along the sides.

  A large hook had been shoved up through the man’s soft palate, making him appear for all the world like some kind of captured merman. There were even slits cut into the victim’s throat, making it look like the man had possessed gills.

  The entire effect was both nausea- and horror-inspiring.

  Then something clicked in Mala’s brain. She knew where she had seen those patterns before. The ones laid out by the dead man’s viscera.

  “Fractals!” she called out to Darc and Trey, who were examining the remains.

  Darc turned his face toward her, and she could see that he had already made that leap of logic. Of course he had.

  He was Darc.

  The pattern wasn’t perfect, but she could see the same strange and apparently random motif play itself out in the intestines and bloody trails surrounding the headless body. She was about to point out some of the inconsistencies, when Darc suddenly stood.

  “Run.”

  * * *

  Darc grabbed Trey by the collar, pushing him forward, while reaching out for Mala at the same time. Even as he grabbed her arm, the bands of light encircled Mala in their observations.

  She was much more badly hurt than she had let on. Darc had known of her deception, but had not seen the full extent until it was revealed in crisis.

  Even as the streams of logic fed him information, Darc pushed for additional speed from his companions. Their reaction time was slower than he would have liked, but still faster than it once would have been.

  When Darc told them to run, they ran.

  As they rushed along the pier, an explosion from behind threw them all forward, while shaking the pier beneath them. Darc felt his torso pierced by stray pieces of debris shot out by the massive blast.

  But at least Mala and Trey were shielded from the main brunt of the blow. Darc had placed himself between them and the direction from which he had expected the explosion to come.

  Glancing back, Darc saw that several of the ships docked at the pier were ablaze. But one appeared to no longer be there at all. The source of the attack.

  His body, shielded from pain for a moment by adrenaline, spoke to him of damage. Extensive, but not enough to kill. He might even be able to keep from having to go to the hospital, but only if he hid the full extent of his injuries.

  That would be a challenge, with a doctor as a wife. Well, almost wife. The not-quite-marriage was a situation they had yet to remedy.

  Mala stirred in front of him, calling his attention back to what had just occurred. Trey coughed and pushed himself up to a kneeling position.

  “What the hell…?” he asked, staring back at the damage to the boats and pier.

  The statement stabbed Darc to his core, landing somewhere in the midst of the pillars made of silver chains and black ties. Darc should have seen this coming even sooner than he had.

  The pattern had been there, staring him in the face the entire time.

  He had, of course, seen the fractals. Had seen the breaks in the pattern, as well. But the logical probability had been that wind or imprecision on the part of the killer had caused those errors.

  But the entire time they had been processing the pier, the strands of colored light had continued to work in the background, assessing the data that entered. And then, the patterns had aligned, and the result had been clear.

  Death.

  The altered fractals had been left as a message. One that only he could decipher. And the missive was a clear one.

  The dream of the Master had not died with him. And now, those who were left were coming for the ones who had taken their leader down.

  Starting with Darc.

  CHAPTER 3

  Trey knew Darc was hurt.

  The blood had leaked through his partner’s shirt in several places along his back, and while Darc had done what he could to keep anyone from seeing, it was impossible when there was more than one person involved. In the end, the bald detective had been forced to choose between Trey and Mala.

  And he’d chosen Trey.

  Trey knew he should say something. The injuries could be bad, even if they appeared relatively slight. Any one of the pieces of debris could cause some massive internal bleeding or nasty infection.

  Just the thought made Trey cringe.

  But they had a killer on their hands. One who had proven slippery enough that he’d managed to elude Darc multiple times. And this was Darc he’d managed to fool.

  Trey had no chance, not even with help from Mala and Janey. And from what they’d gone through tonight, there was no chance Darc was going to risk those two.

  As if he’d conjured the words out of Darc’s mouth, his partner spoke to Mala.

  “I need you to leave. Take Carly, Jess and Janey with you.”

  Mala turned sharply and then winced. Seemed she had some injuries of her own that she was dealing with still. Trey had been there when Cat had head-butted Mala. That hadn’t been fun to watch, no matter what some guys said about catfights.

  “I’m fine,” she snapped, her tone almost defensive. “I’ll take the girls home, but then I’m going to help.”

  A muscle at the side of Darc’s jaw worked for a moment, then he nodded. “Take them back. I will meet you at the precinct.”

  Mala gave him a hard look, then softened and kissed his cheek before turning on her heel and heading back toward the car. Trey turned to his partner.

  “We’re headed to the precinct?”

  Darc looked at him. A long, steady look that was about as flat as they came.

  Ah.

  They weren’t going to the precinct at all. Darc had just lied to his wife. Well, almost wife. Whatever.

  “Darc,” he said to his partner. “I get it. You want her safe. But she’s not going to be happy about you tricking her like this.”

  “She was not deceived,” Darc said after a moment. “But perhaps she will think twice before following. For Janey’s sake.”

  Trey shook his head, trying to follow Darc’s labyrinthine reasoning. “So, she knows?”

  Darc shrugged. The Vulcan detective… shrugging? Man, he had changed.

  “She is Mala.”

  Trey looked down the pier, seeing the ambulance there that had been called by the harbormaster. Time to say what needed to be said.

  “Listen,” he began. “You really need to--”

  “Have my wounds checked,” Darc finished for him. “Yes. I know.”

  Trey just about tripped and fell down at that. His partner, actually paying attention to his own physical needs?

  Was this the Apocalypse?

  * * *

  Mala had seen.

  Darc had done a good job of keeping his injuries from her. But she had felt the force of that explosion. Had seen all the debris flying through the air.

  She’d been looking for the wounds.

  Janey rushed up to join her at the end of the pier, her eyes scanning Mala. Holding up a hand, Mala staved off her question.

  “I’m fine.” Then she gave Janey a significant look. “But Darc’s not.”

  So when they walked down the pier toward her car, they made a point of stopping one of the EMTs by the ambulance. His plain face creased in an odd pattern as he raised his eyebrows in a clear question.

  “Can I help you?”

  Mala nodded, pointing back at the bald detective. “Will you make sure and see that my… husband… gets seen to. I think he might be hurt.”

  The man nodded, and gave her a smile. “Sure thing. You okay, ma’am?”

  At what
point in her life had she become ma’am? She shook off her irrational irritation and gave him a smile in return.

  “Right as rain.”

  Okay, so not completely true, but at least she wasn’t bleeding. Was she? She checked her suture.

  Nope. Still intact.

  They arrived at the car only to see Jess’s face pressed up against the window. As Mala stepped in, she was immediately accosted by two voices at once. No, actually three. Janey had decided to join in for some reason.

  “What the hell was that?” Carly.

  “Are you okay?” Jess.

  “Next time, take me with you.” Janey.

  Mala shook her head. “That was the suspect trying to kill us,” she answered Carly. “And yes, I’m fine,” she said to Jess.

  Then she turned to Janey. Her girl. One of the two people in the world who made her life worth living.

  “Fine,” she answered her no-longer-mute girl. “I’ll take you with me right now.”

  There was no way in hell Darc was leaving without them.

  * * *

  Darc moved toward the ambulance, trying to block Mala’s view.

  This had been the only way forward, if Darc truly wished Mala and Janey to remain safe. Acquiesce to Trey’s demands that he see to his wounds. Then use the psychological distraction of him receiving care and the physical obstacle of the ambulance to leave without Mala observing him.

  The harbormaster trotted alongside Trey and Darc. The mid-sized man was a bland sort, nothing memorable about him at all, including his voice.

  His interference had not factored into Darc’s plans.

  “Who’s going to pay for all the damage?” the man demanded. “That’s what I want to know. There are at least four boats burning out there, and--”

  “And as the harbormaster, you’re the one responsible for security, right?” Trey interjected.

  All of the sudden, the man’s tirade ended. It seemed he no longer had all that much to say. The man slunk off around the other side of the ambulance.

  In his place appeared one of the paramedics. He approached Darc and Trey with his arms out as if he were beginning a hostage negotiation.

  “Um. Sir?” he said, his voice apologetic. “I have orders from your wife to look you over.”

  Darc stared at him for a moment, then nodded. The hope had been to avoid an examination altogether, but now it appeared that would not be possible.

  The paramedic moved around to see Darc’s back, pulling out and lifting up the shirt as he did so. Then there was a deep inhale, followed by a hissing exhale.

  “Sir,” he said. “I’m so sorry. But you need to go to the hospital. Now.”

  This was unexpected. Darc knew he had been hurt. There was a wetness that had seeped down his back that could only be the blood from the wounds he had sustained. But the amount of bleeding had not been enough to elicit alarm.

  “You heard the man, buddy,” Trey said, pushing Darc toward the gurney the paramedic had lowered to the ground. “I’ll take care of the investigation. You go get yourself checked out.”

  The strands of logic swirled around the face and expression of the paramedic. Darc felt the urgency of following up on the leads that he knew must be present here at the marina.

  Mala had demanded that the paramedic see to him. Trey had as well. Darc knew them both well enough to understand their stubbornness when it came to his health.

  That was not something that would typically sway him, however. But there was another part to this that Darc could sense, but not see. Some piece of the puzzle percolating down in the depths of the pillars that supported his inner logic network.

  There was no way around this that he could see, other than to continue forward.

  No matter what.

  CHAPTER 4

  Something was wrong.

  Janey knew Darc. And while he had changed a lot over the last while, the likelihood that he would allow himself to be hustled into an ambulance like what they had just seen was beyond believable. He wouldn’t. Would he?

  Turning to face Mala, Janey could see that her adoptive mother was troubled by the chain of events, as well. Troubled, but trying to hide it.

  Then Carly spoke up. “Was that weird for anyone else?”

  “What do you mean?” Mala asked.

  “That Darc just like… went into the ambulance.”

  Okay, that was it.

  “We’re following the ambulance, right?” Janey asked.

  Mala didn’t answer. Instead, she put the car in gear and pulled out behind the emergency vehicle. She turned on her blinker, about to turn onto the main road leading out, when there was a bang on the car.

  It was Trey.

  Janey reached forward and hit the button to roll the window down, as Mala appeared to be busy catching her breath from the shock of the sound. As soon as the glass had lowered a couple of inches, Trey started talking.

  “Yeah, as soon as he stepped into that ambulance, I knew something was up. Let me in.”

  Janey scooted over next to Jess, squeezing as close to her friend as she could. Jess leaned in close and whispered.

  “Is it always like this?”

  There wasn’t really a good answer to that, so Janey just patted her friend’s leg. She’d figure out the workings of this odd family soon enough.

  Everyone always did.

  * * *

  Darc felt the vibrations of the vehicle as the ambulance sped along. The threads of colored logic roamed around the back, where the paramedic… whose name was Jacob… was seeing to Darc’s wounds.

  The man’s companion had stayed behind at Jacob’s insistence. The idea being that there could be others wounded in the explosion that hadn’t come forward yet.

  Odd.

  Jacob stared down at Darc, a hypodermic syringe in his hand. The man’s face stretched in an odd way, the pockmarks of severe childhood acne spotting his otherwise bland visage.

  The pattern of the scarring caught Darc’s attention, the colored strands reaching out and tracing the fractals found there. Fractals were nature’s geometry, finding strange and random symmetry in everything from conch shells to leaf patterns on trees.

  But the pattern here was off. As if someone had taken the fractal and then bent it. Shaped it to their own will.

  And the streams of logic flashed pictures through Darc’s memory.

  Other views of this same deliberate altering of nature.

  A female policewoman in uniform. One whom Darc could not place. An old man walking on the dock, speaking to the harbormaster.

  The paramedic, standing alone in front of Darc with a needle filled with something unidentified.

  They were all one and the same person. Multiple disguises, so many ways for this man to escape detection. Even when Darc had been right on his tail earlier.

  Jacob must have seen some flicker of recognition in Darc’s eyes. Stepping forward, the man lifted the syringe, ready to plunge it into Darc’s body.

  But the threads of color had anticipated that, preparing Darc for the attack to come. Rather than lashing out with his arms or fists, which would have left his torso more exposed to the syringe, Darc struck with his foot in a roundhouse kick, knocking the needle out of the paramedic’s hand. The momentum from the kick pulled Darc onto his side, and for a moment he was unbalanced.

  Jacob proved more nimble than he looked. Even as the syringe flew out of his grip, the paramedic leaned down and struck Darc’s exposed back. His fists landed in quick succession, the first hitting him right where one of the larger wounds was located. The other struck his kidney.

  Pain shot through Darc’s stomach, but using all his strength, he yanked himself back into a more protective position. Sitting up, Darc held his hands and forearms up to guard his vulnerable face and torso.

  But the motion seemed to tear something. Darc was opening up his wounds wider with each action he took, and the blood began to trickle down his back once more.

  Darc was not sure h
ow much more punishment he could take.

  * * *

  Mala could see Janey’s face in the rearview mirror. The little girl sat in the middle, between Trey and Jess, but her mind appeared to be miles away.

  Her expression was one with which Mala was intimately familiar, but on a different person. Janey’s small features were drawn into that tight look that Darc normally got when he was figuring out something impossible.

  At least her girl was more articulate than Darc usually was. When her eyes finally lit up, she met Mala’s gaze in the mirror and immediately began firing questions at her.

  “The policewoman at the marina, do you remember her?”

  Mala thought for a moment, the non sequitur throwing her off. “Yes. I think so.”

  “What about the guy by the ambulance? The one with Darc.”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you see their faces?”

  That was all it took for Mala’s brain to kick into gear. How she hadn’t seen it before, she had no idea.

  Same height, same basic body shape, same pockmarked skin.

  “Hold on,” Trey said, realization appearing to dawn on his face. “The old man, too. Out on the pier. He was the same.”

  All the same individual. All the killer.

  And now that person was in the back of the ambulance with Darc. There was no way Mala was going to let that happen.

  “Buckle up, everyone!” she yelled.

  “We already are,” Jess complained. “And why do you want us to…?”

  Jessalyn’s voice trailed off, as Mala gunned the engine.

  “Mala?” Trey asked, his face showing that he perhaps guessed at her intention. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

  Not so much. She had theoretical knowledge about how to do this… had watched the procedure many times. But doing it?

  That was a whole different story.

  Driving up alongside the ambulance, Mala took a deep breath.

  She would have only one chance at this.

  * * *

  Darc saw Mala’s car as it accelerated. Somehow, the fact that she was following was not a surprise.

  The fact that she appeared to be attempting a PIT maneuver, however, was.