3rd Body: Just try to keep your head (Book 1 in the 2nd Darc Murders Collection)

by Carolyn McCray

  But even as she thought of it, another memory sprang to mind. A steaming hood of a gorgeous restored Mustang sitting in Cat’s driveway.

  “Janey,” she said, looking down a the girl by her side, “did Ms. Figueroa take you and Jessalyn out while you were there? Maybe for frozen yogurt or something?”

  Instead of the immediate response Mala was expecting, Janey got a panicked look on her face. It was almost as if Mala could see the thought process go through her young charge’s mind. They hadn’t gone out, but Janey seemed to know that Cat leaving the two girls alone in the house was not okay. She wanted to see Jessalyn again, but she also wanted to be honest with Mala.

  Finally, Janey shook her head no.

  Mala’s heart sank into her stomach. Great. That was another awkward conversation she was going to have to have.

  But another concern made its way into Mala’s mind as she pushed open the door to the M.E.’s office. No one seemed to be here.

  The lights were all on, but there was no one at the receptionist’s desk at the front. Every other time Mala had come in, there had always been quite a bit of activity, with a bare minimum of three or four people moving around. Seattle was a big city. Lots of people died here every day.

  And it wasn’t like there had been a dearth of deaths lately. Mala could vouch for more than she’d like to, just from the one case they were working right now.

  She was pulling out her cell phone to call, when a huge young man rounded the corner. Finally, a living human being.

  “Dr. Charan?” he called out. Mala started, as she was pretty sure she’d never seen the man before. “Sorry. I’m Jeff. I called you on the phone earlier?” He nodded toward the cell that was still in her hand.

  “Oh, yes. Jeff… Fischer, wasn’t it?” Mala answered. “Can you tell me what the…” Mala glanced down at Janey and decided to rephrase. “Um. What’s going on?”

  Jeff glanced around the empty floor. “Oh. Right. Staff meeting.” He grinned at her. “Happens every Monday. Sometimes they forget to leave someone out here at the desk. Makes things awkward for visitors.” He shrugged. “Hey, why don’t I take you to Dr. Hutchinson?”

  Mala nodded, nonplussed. This wasn’t her first trip to the morgue. She knew her way down there, unless the M.E. was waiting for her somewhere else.

  Which must be the case, as Jeff propelled her down a hallway where she’d never been. Janey was still attached to her hand with a fierce grip, and Mala darted a look down at her. The frown that Mala had seen earlier was back. Actually, come to think of it, Mala wasn’t positive it had ever left.

  It was probably just her being worried about whether or not she could go back to Jessalyn’s house. Mala would have to reassure her later. There was no reason those two couldn’t play together, even if Mala was going to be much more careful about leaving Janey there on her own.

  And, at some point, she’d have to have that chat with Cat. She wasn’t much looking forward to that.

  Looking up, Mala realized that she was in a part of the building where she’d never been before. She turned to Jeff to ask him where they were, when he opened a door for them and indicated that they precede him.

  She stepped into what she realized after a moment was a storage space. Jeff must have made a mistake. Then there was a sharp squeeze from the little girl on her hand. It was all that alerted her.

  One second, Jeff was right there, the next he had snatched the cell phone out of Mala’s hand and was on the other side of the door. There was a click and the sound of something heavy being pulled into place on the other side.

  Mala and Janey were locked inside.

  Jeff’s voice reached them from beyond the door.

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Charan. I’m so sorry.”

  * * *

  The lines converged on the Medical Examiner’s Office Building. Darc had been concerned that Trey’s obvious emotional state would interfere with his being able to drive, but it seemed to have honed his partner’s skill. They had made it here in half the time it normally would have taken, and yet there had been no serious accidents.

  The one slight bump against the man in the Hummer would, no doubt, work itself out. The man surely had auto insurance.

  As they approached the building, the colors swirled, turning from orange to red. Red for uncertainty, yes. But also red for danger.

  Something was amiss.

  It took milliseconds for Darc to realize what it was. The level of activity around the building was diminished. There should be much more going on right now, even considering the fact that it was midday at the beginning of the work week.

  With a heightened sense of both awareness and urgency, Darc approached the entrance to the building. He was about to open the door, when someone else pushed it open from the other side.

  Jeff Fischer.

  Before Darc had a moment to react, Trey had grabbed the huge man by the collar and shoved him up against the wall of the building. The physics involved in that act were mind-boggling. Even the strands of logic where whirling in response.

  “What did you do to her?” Trey demanded, screaming into the man’s face. “Where is she?”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa…” the crime scene investigator responded, grabbing at Trey’s hands that were inching toward the young man’s neck. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, you don’t?” Trey demanded. “You just happen to be the new guy on the team right when a leak shows up in the department. A guy with medical knowledge and big muscles and…” Trey’s voice trailed off into incoherent ravings.

  “None of what you’re saying makes any sense to me,” Jeff protested, then glanced over at Darc. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

  “The murders,” Darc responded. “You are a suspect.”

  “Wait. What?” he sputtered, his face turning purple. “The killings? The ones with the animals? You think… that I…?”

  “Yes,” Darc answered.

  “That’s good enough for me,” Trey growled, and pulled Jeff’s head just far enough away from the wall that he could pound it against the brick.

  “Ow! Hey!” Jeff slapped at Trey’s hands, but Darc’s partner was intractable, immoveable. “I didn’t do it! I promise!”

  “You had access to the crime scenes,” Darc stated, listing off the reasoning. “You had information that was not available to the public. You have the strength necessary to carry out the tasks involved. You have military experience. You are new and your presence would not have been missed by the team.”

  “Okay, okay. I get what you’re saying,” Jeff managed. “But still, it wasn’t me.”

  “You are here at the place of death, just as the message stated.”

  “The place of…” Jeff’s voice trailed off in apparent confusion. “Listen, the only reason I’m here was to set up the party.”

  Darc watched as Trey’s grip loosened around the man’s neck. “Party?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” the rookie investigator breathed, relief starting to show on his face. “Where do you think everyone is? One of the guys told me to help put it together.”

  “Party?” Trey asked again, his voice taking on a timbre that Darc was not used to hearing from him. Forlorn, the silver chain inside said.

  “Yeah. I’ve been working on it all week. Taking things here and there. Sometimes even leaving in the middle of an investigation. It’s supposed to be a big surprise.” The man’s face clouded over. “Oh, man. I wasn’t supposed to tell you. I’m going to get in so much trouble. Don’t tell, okay?”

  “Release him,” Darc said to Trey, who allowed his death grip on the man to drop entirely. “Go,” Darc said to the investigator.

  “Go?” Jeff questioned, and then seemed to look closer into Darc’s face. “Right. Go. I will.”

  The man straightened his shirt and scampered off in the direction of the next street over. From his gait, it appeared he was trying to get as far away from them as possible.

  Darc
turned his attention back to the building.

  “What now?” Trey asked, searching Darc’s face.

  “Now,” Darc answered, “we go to face the killer.”

  The lines all pointed in the same direction, the chains of silver binding them with certainty. There was only one way for them to go.

  Down.

  CHAPTER 14

  Janey watched as Mala paced back and forth in the small storage space.

  They had been in here for the time it took for a Spongebob Squarepants show. Not the whole show. Just the halfway part, where the first story ended.

  Mala had yelled and banged on the door, but no one had heard them. After about a minute or two of that, she’d seemed to have given up on that idea.

  Popeye had spent the last little while complaining about how he was going to die in a closet. Silly bear. They weren’t going to die in here.

  Most likely.

  Mala was about to start pounding on the door again, when there was a sound from outside. Whatever had been pulled up against the door was being moved away.

  There was another click, and then the door opened.

  It was Carly.

  Her hair was messy, even messier than normal, and she was holding Janey’s drawing in her hand. Janey was really surprised to see her sister here, especially since she’d tricked her in order to escape. But seeing the drawing in her hand made Janey super happy on the inside.

  “Carly?” Mala muttered in disbelief. “What are you--?”

  Carly cut her off. “Janey’s not as smart as she thinks she is. I knew that look on her face. There was no way she was staying with me.”

  “But--”

  “I followed her.” Carly looked down at Janey. “Listen, kid. If you’re gonna run, don’t leave a note behind. Kind of a dead giveaway.”

  Janey didn’t know what to think. This was the first time anyone had caught her before she’d had a chance to do whatever it was she was trying to do.

  Popeye, on the other hand, was laughing and laughing. She told him to hush his mouth, but he still went on laughing.

  “It wasn’t hard. Just stayed about a half-block behind her until she got to the bus stop. Got on the bus while she was busy pretending to be that lady’s kid.”

  Mala shook her head. “Okay. I get that. But how are you here?”

  Carly shrugged. “Found your car once Janey went in to the yogurt place. Jimmied the lock on the trunk and climbed inside.”

  Janey couldn’t tell if the look on Mala’s face was horrified or impressed. But after another moment, Mala seemed to shake herself.

  “Okay. Whatever. We’ll sort this out later.” She stopped, then looked from Carly to Janey and then back again.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Carly said, a wry expression on her face.

  “What am I thinking?”

  “You’re thinking that you need me to take Janey away from here. To keep her safe. But you don’t trust me.”

  Mala didn’t answer. But the shapes and colors in Janey’s head told her that Carly was right. There was a long pause.

  Finally, Carly spoke again.

  “I’m…” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry, okay. I shouldn’t have done that with the social worker and stuff. I was just…” She made a face, her mouth working. “I was just worried about Janey.”

  “I understand that,” Mala responded. “But what I don’t understand is this change of heart.”

  Carly just stared at her for a second, then shoved the drawing out at Mala. There was a pause, then Mala took the crumpled page.

  There on the front of the sheet was a picture. Janey could trace the outlines of it, even though she couldn’t see it from where she was standing now.

  It was a drawing of Janey. She was in the middle of a big detective’s shield, and Mala, Trey, Darc and Maggie were all standing around her, protecting her.

  And in the middle of that circle was Carly, holding Janey’s hand.

  “Oh,” was all that Mala said.

  “So yeah, you can trust me.” Carly went over to Janey and took her hand. “I’ll take care of her. And then I’ll bring her back to you.”

  Mala stood there for a moment, tears standing out in her eyes. Then she nodded, and swept both of the girls up in a fierce hug.

  “Don’t let anything happen to her,” Mala whispered fiercely.

  The look Carly gave back to her was just as fierce, but not one of an enemy.

  “Always,” she said, and gave Janey’s hand a quick squeeze.

  The squeeze felt like another hug.

  * * *

  All the lights were off downstairs.

  Trey hated morgues at the best of times. There had been once, when Trey had first started working with Darc, that they had been down here looking at one of the bodies, and it had sat straight up and groaned at him.

  That had been the worst day of Trey’s life up until today.

  Darc had explained to him multiple times that what had happened was a result of rigor mortis and gasses that built up from decay, but none of that helped when Trey woke up from a nightmare at two in the morning bathed in cold sweat. From that point on, going to the morgue had always been under internal protest, as far as Trey was concerned. Not a great phobia for a detective. He hated every second of their visits.

  And now, here they were, going into the morgue with all the lights turned off, tracking down a serial killer who had taken Maggie and their unborn child hostage. Trey was going to take this guy down, and he wasn’t going to make it pleasant.

  Darc approached a light switch and went to turn it on. Nothing happened.

  “Well, I guess that answers the question of whether or not this was on purpose,” Trey muttered.

  Just then, there was a noise that came from down the hallway. It seemed to be coming from a door there, just on the left.

  Both Darc and Trey pulled out their weapons and stalked toward the door. Trey strained his ears, doing what he could to hear what might be taking place beyond the entrance there.

  Nothing.

  Darc reached out and grabbed the doorknob, turning it slowly. Once the door was pushed aside, Trey had to stop himself from retching.

  There, inside, was a slaughterhouse.

  Bodies and piece of bodies covered the ground from wall to wall. Human and animal comingled, looking as uncomfortable together, in a morbid dance of death that spelled itself out on top of the hard tile floor.

  Trey caught a glimpse of a woman’s face, with what looked like a squirrel’s head stitched onto her cheek. Another man had what looked to be a rat’s snakelike tail protruding from his neck at an odd angle.

  Everywhere Trey looked, there was another aberration of nature that confronted him. There was nowhere safe for his eyes to land.

  “Man, oh man, oh man,” Trey breathed, the speech his only link with reality.

  Darc was picking his way through the room to a door set on the opposite wall of the room. As he took a step, there was a brief glimmer of what looked like a wire at his feet. Trey started to yell at Darc, to tell him to get away, when a large object swung down from where it must have hung suspended in the darkness.

  It struck Darc on the side of the head, and Trey’s partner went down. Trey rushed to his partner’s side, trying to keep from tripping any other traps as he did so.

  Kneeling down, Trey felt for a pulse. It was there, and strong. Darc had just been knocked out.

  But now Trey was down in a dark, corpse-ridden morgue. Alone.

  This really could not get any worse.

  And then there was a sound, and Trey realized that he had been wrong.

  So very, very wrong.

  * * *

  Mala made her way down to the morgue, her heart in her throat. The alarm bells that had started making some noise when she and Janey had first walked in the building and had risen to a clamor when they’d been shoved into a closet, were now screeching at
their highest volume.

  Everything was dark. Nothing stirred. There were no sounds or signs of human habitation anywhere. If Mala hadn’t known better, she’d say that this was an abandoned building, left in the wake of some recent catastrophe.

  As she walked down the hallway, she noticed that there was a door ajar off to the left. She approached with caution, not wanting to alert any possible presence to her whereabouts, although as of yet, she was uncertain whether or not she had stepped into some sort of parallel universe.

  Then she passed through the doorway, and all doubts vanished. This was definitely something out of some nightmarish alternate reality.

  Blood was everywhere. Bits and pieces of once living flesh coated the floor and walls. Bodies of animals and humans alike created a mosaic of horror that was broken by only one thing.

  Darc.

  Mala ran to his fallen form, a cry on her lips. He was okay. He had to be okay.

  As she bent down at his side, Darc groaned and stirred, his eyes opening. He looked up at her, his gaze focusing in on her face after a moment. Then the most amazing thing happened.

  Darc smiled at her.

  “Mala,” he breathed.

  Her heart sang within her, in spite of the death and decay all around. She bent down and kissed him, wanting to reassure herself of his life, his reality, his presence.

  Darc kissed her back, and she knew all of those things and more. She knew that this man, this strange, wonderful man… loved her. She could feel it in his kiss, she could see it in his smile, hear it in the sigh that he let escape from his mouth when their lips parted from one another.

  But then reality surged back in, and she gasped. “Where’s Trey?”

  Darc’s next words chilled her to the bone.

  “Finding the killer.”

  * * *

  Janey tugged at Carly’s hand, trying to get her to go the other way.

  “Janey, I can’t. Come on. I promised Mala that I would keep you safe.”

  But Janey just keep pulling. Darc and Trey and Mala needed her help, even if Mala thought that she was doing what was best. And right now, Carly was the biggest obstacle in her path.

  There were a lot of different options here. She could pretend that she had to go pee. That one worked pretty well.