Life is for the Living

by S. C. Stokes

  "Suspicions of what?" he asked.

  "The World of Magic =. We may hide ourselves in plain sight, but we still want to remain hidden. The last thing we want is a world full of paranoiacs with guns hunting for witches and wizards among them. It didn't go well in the middle ages and it won't be any better now."

  "You’re serious?" he replied. “Those were actual witch hunts?”

  "Yes!" Kasey responded shaking her fists. "Why would I make this up? Now I need you to help me come up with a story for Bishop before she starts asking more questions."

  "Okay, okay," Vida conceded. "One last question, for the moment. If the hair wasn't from a dog, what was it from?"

  "A Werewolf," Kasey replied. "Collins was both a murderer, and a Werewolf."

  "Shut the front door!” Vida replied. “Now you're just messing with me."

  "I wish I was. Why do you think I burned the body? I had to finish what I started in my apartment. I couldn't risk you running more tests on him and putting it through our system."

  "Why was he after you?" Vida asked.

  She held up her hand. "No more questions. We'll deal with the history lesson later. It's the present we have to worry about."

  "You can't just tell me you had a Werewolf hunting you and not let me ask any other questions. That's just cruel."

  She rested a hand on his shoulder. "Later, Vida. We'll get to all your questions later. First, we need a reason to have disposed of the body. Things are just getting back to normal with Bishop. I don’t want her thinking we are keeping anything from her.”

  “But we are,” Vida countered.

  Kasey spun to face him. “Yes, but only because explaining what we are up against will wind up with her tossing us in the funny farm, or worse still land us in trouble with the ADI The world of magic’s law enforcement community.”

  Vida tapped his foot as Kasey paced. “What, exactly, are you planning on doing?”

  Kasey stopped. “There is only one thing we can do. We’re going to find the remaining Shinigami, and we’re going to kill them.”

  “Kill them? Are you mad? First that’s murder. Second, I thought your mother said to stay clear of them.”

  “She did, and it is. But they didn’t come all the way to New York just to kill Cyrus. There is a bigger picture here and I’m not waiting to find out what it is.”

  “Cyrus? You mean the man the waiter gunned down?” Vida asked. “What’s he got to do with this?”

  “Cyrus is at the center of everything that has happened this week. The gala robbery was just a cover. It was the Shinigami that organized the entire thing to cover the real crime, Cyrus’ murder.”

  “But he’s a nobody,” Vida countered. “Why kill two dozen people just to get to him.”

  “He might be a nobody in your world, but not in mine. He’s a member of the Arcane Council and the head of the ADI. He is the leader of the Magical community’s law enforcement arm. In the World of Magic, he’s as important as they come. The Shinigami are planning something big in New York, and they need the ADI in disarray. They just didn’t want to draw any suspicion.”

  Vida rubbed his chin. “I have literally a thousand questions.”

  “Not now, but soon. I’ll answer them all. You wanted to know why we couldn’t just avoid them, that’s why. If we don’t stop them, there will be more bodies. A lot more. I’m not going to let that happen.”

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

  “Prepare an autopsy report for Bishop. The body was of a young woman in her twenties, went by the alias of Skyler. We don’t have any other information. We’ll need a reason to have had the body quarantined and destroyed in due course.”

  Vida looked at the steel shelves that ran along the morgue’s wall. Spotting what he was after, he made his way over to the shelves and snatched a pair of face masks from it. The masks were designed to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

  Handing one to Kasey, he said, “We’ll go with tuberculosis. It kills more people than almost any other. It can be contagious and will account for the body being destroyed, and the masks will give our story more credibility.”

  “Nice thinking,” she replied as she took the mask and fastened it over her mouth and nose. “If you can tackle the paperwork for Skyler, I’m going to work out our next move.”

  “On it.” He fastened his own mask as he disappeared into his office to prepare the necessary paperwork.

  Left to her thoughts, Kasey pulled a stool over to the raised bench and sat down. She drew out her phone from her jacket pocket.

  I need more information.

  In her vision, the Shinigami had been meeting in a temple or shrine. It made sense. If people believed them to be the spirits of death, they would have insinuated themselves within the religious culture of their people. Using her phone, she searched for Japanese temples in New York City. To her disappointment, there were more than a dozen candidates.

  She made her way down the list, looking for anything that might hint at the Shinigami’s base of operations.

  It’s time to go on the offensive. I just need to know where.

  As if in answer to her unspoken question, her phone began to ring.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Kasey startled so badly she almost fell off her stool. Looking down at her phone, she checked the Caller ID.

  Bishop. I guess when it rains it pours.

  She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and answered the call. “Hey, Bishop, what’s going on?”

  “Hey, Kasey, just wondering if you could bring me up to speed on Skyler? Did you find anything we can use?”

  “In a sense,” Kasey replied, settling back onto the stool. “It’s a little complicated. Do you want to chat about it on the phone? Or would you rather I come to you?”

  “If you’re done, come on up. I can’t really leave the bullpen right now. We are in the middle of a shift change and can barely move up here. It’s like all of New York decided to try their luck tonight,” Bishop answered.

  Kasey checked her watch. It was almost 6:00pm. She was going to be late home.

  “No problem, Bishop, see you soon.” She cut the call and breathed a sigh of relief. The busier Bishop was, the greater chance they had that the body’s disappearance would not be questioned to thoroughly.

  “Hey, Vida, it’s almost 6:00. Time to call it a night,” Kasey called.

  “Soon, I’m almost finished here,” he answered from his office. “Just putting the finishing touches on this report and I’ll be out of here. What are you going to do about our friends?”

  She stood and walked over to his office. “I don’t know. I still have to find them.”

  Vida looked up from his keyboard. “Well, whatever you do, don’t go it alone. Just wait for tomorrow, okay? No more hero business.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Have you got some expertise on ancient Japanese death cults that I should know about?”

  “No, not really, but then again, do you?”

  She laughed. “Touché.”

  He smiled. “That’s my point. Two heads are better than one. We’ll figure it out together.”

  “Sounds good, Vida.” She covered a yawn. “Have a good night.”

  “You too, Kasey.”

  She made her way over to the morgue’s door and unlocked it. Opening the door, she headed for the elevator. Fortunately, one was already waiting on the basement floor.

  Stepping into the elevator, she pressed the button for the second floor. The doors closed, and the elevator shuddered into motion.

  It only took the elevator a few moments to reach the second floor. The doors parted.

  “Wow!” she exclaimed.

  Bishop hadn’t been exaggerating. The second floor was thronged with people. More than a dozen perps sat handcuffed on a bench seat near the elevator. Police struggled to keep the chaos in hand.

  Kasey made her way through the madness toward Bishop’s desk.

  “Hey, Kasey, over here,�
� a voice called.

  Kasey turned to find Bishop manning the front counter. She was locked in a struggle with a large man who she was trying to process. She had one of his arms pinned behind his back while another officer was taking finger prints from his free hand. The burly thug tried to pull free, but Bishop drove him back against the counter.

  “Easy, tiger. One more of those and I’m gonna tase you. We can get your prints a lot easier when the spasms settle, so don’t push your luck.”

  The perp stopped struggling but gave no audible response.

  “Bishop, what’s going on up here?” Kasey asked.

  Bishop sighed. “The city’s gone mad. Dispatch has been going crazy all afternoon. It started with a jumper on the Brooklyn Bridge. We’ve had three armed robberies downtown and a riot in Central Park. We can’t book these idiots quick enough.”

  “Are you sure you want to talk about Skyler now? Seems like you have your hands full.”

  “I certainly do. Toni, here, is going to settle down and we’re going to talk about the case. We need to round up the rest of these ghosts before they can cause any more damage.”

  “Agreed,” Kasey replied as she leaned on the counter next to Bishop. “Did we recover anything from her apartment?”

  Bishop shook her head. “Not particularly. Just some brochures about the city and plane tickets from Tokyo to New York with a stopover in Los Angeles. It seems she’s only been here for a few weeks. The strangest thing was, we didn’t find a single piece of ID. There wasn’t a license, passport, bank statement, or even a piece of junk mail. If it wasn’t for the body downstairs, we’d have no proof she existed at all.”

  “Well…” Kasey started.

  “Oh, Kasey,” Bishop began. “Whatever comes out of your mouth next better be good news.”

  Kasey paused. “Well, the good news is, we have dealt with the problem.”

  Bishop raised an eyebrow. “What is the bad news?”

  “We no longer have a body.” Kasey winced.

  Bishop turned to face her. “What? You lost the body?”

  Toni wrenched his hand away from the officer at the counter and pushed against the bench with his free hand. He slammed backward into Bishop, forcing her backwards. Bishop’s face was a grimace as she strained to keep his other arm pinned firmly behind his back. Toni stomped on her foot and elbowed at her. They stumbled back and collapsed on the floor. The officer who had been conducting the fingerprinting raced around the counter to aid Bishop.

  Under him, Bishop struggled to catch her breath.

  Toni, now with his hands free, scrambled to get his feet underneath him. His gaze locked on Bishop’s Glock in its holster.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Bishop snapped.

  Toni reached for the weapon. Kasey sprang forward.

  As Toni’s fingers brushed the holster, Kasey’s fist struck his cheek, hard.

  His head whipped violently. He collapsed unconscious.

  Kasey shook her hand. “Youch, what is his jaw made of? Granite?”

  Bishop rolled Toni off her, as she replied, “Perhaps. Doesn’t seem to have helped him though.”

  Kasey reached down and offered Bishop a hand up.

  Bishop took the hand and got to her feet. Dusting herself off, she spoke to the officer who had been taking Toni’s prints.

  “Finish up here, will you, Danetto? I think you’ll find he’s a little more cooperative now.”

  “Sure thing, detective,” the officer replied with a chuckle as he reached over the counter for the fingerprinting scanner.

  Bishop turned to Kasey. “You were saying?”

  Kasey backpedaled. “We didn’t lose the body, Bishop. We performed the autopsy. Unfortunately, during the autopsy, we discovered an active infection. It was tuberculosis.”

  “She was dead. What danger is tuberculosis to a dead person?” Bishop asked.

  “Not to her, Bishop, to us. Tuberculosis is responsible for more deaths per year than almost any other disease on the planet. Each year it becomes increasingly resistant to the antibiotics currently available on the market. While countless people carry a dormant strain of TB, Skyler’s was active and well advanced. She posed a danger not only to us, but everyone she has come in contact with. The body has been sent to the incinerator,” Kasey said.

  Bishop’s face was downcast. “You have to be kidding me. I mean, I get it, it’s dangerous but we find one of these ghosts and before we can force her to answer our questions, she gets turned into roadkill and then you incinerate her.”

  Kasey held up her hand. “Easy, Bishop. It’s not like we had a choice. If we hadn’t acted when we did, it would have been a risk to everyone at the station. The Centre for Disease Control may have been called in. Being quarantined here in the station for forty-eight hours isn’t going to help us catch these guys, so I did what I had to do to keep our investigation moving.”

  Bishop took a deep breath. “But you did manage to get the autopsy done, didn’t you? Before you destroyed the body?”

  “Yes. We locked down the morgue for the duration and took precautions to ensure the infection was not spread.”

  “Tell me you got something we can use. We’re holding on by a string here. Every time we get anywhere close to these guys, they shut us down. Did I tell you about the thief in the hospital?”

  “Yeah, Vida performed the autopsy this morning, he told me the thief was poisoned. Toxicology hasn’t come through yet, but it was potent. The thief didn’t stand a chance,” Kasey replied leaning against the counter.

  Bishop nodded. “I figured. After Kovacs and the others were killed, I went to the hospital and ran through their surveillance footage. The footage shows someone slipping into his room early this morning. At a glance, he looked like a doctor, but after our experience at the warehouse, I dug deeper. I checked all the footage for that wing. At the moment the doctor entered his room, all the doctors that were on shift were accounted for in other patient’s rooms or were at the nurse’s station. Our suspect coded shortly after our mystery doctor left his room. At the time, the hospital believed it to be a result of his injuries. Now we know better.”

  “Poison,” Kasey answered. “Vida said his heart practically exploded in his chest. The thief had already lost a lot of blood from the shootout at the gala. In that kind of weakened state, he didn’t stand a chance.”

  “Precisely,” Bishop replied tapping her hand on the counter. “Unfortunately, our killer was wearing a hospital mask so identifying him is going to be difficult. We have his height at about 5’8” with dark black hair. Not a lot to go on, unfortunately. We’ll run the scene again, but given it’s a hospital, it is unlikely anything has survived their cleaning procedures.”

  Kasey sighed. “Another dead end, I guess.”

  “Oh, come on, Kasey,” Bishop replied, fighting a chuckle.

  “What?” Kasey said. “I’ll take my puns wherever I can get them.”

  Bishop pointed a finger at her. “Vida’s beginning to rub off on you.”

  “You can’t give him all the credit. I was this bad with puns long before I met you lot.” She grinned.

  “Puns aside, did you get anything useful from Skyler?”

  Kasey shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Bishop. We went through her effects. A little cash but nothing of note. No ID, no driver’s license, not even a rewards card. As you said, it’ almost as if she didn’t exist.”

  “And the autopsy?” Bishop nudged.

  “Well, there was the tuberculosis, but otherwise she was in good shape. In her twenties, cause of death was clearly the damage caused by being run over by a car. Severe internal bleeding, broken ribs, and a punctured lung. We searched for any trace or residue that might tell us what else she’s been up to. There was nothing. At this point, we’re more likely to get a lead off the guns then we are off of Skyler.”

  “No luck there,” Bishop replied. “Serial numbers had been filed off. We’re
checking with our sources but I’m not holding out any hope. You didn’t get anything else at all?”

  Kasey heard the question but didn’t answer.

  Her eyes were drawn to the motion occurring at her feet. Danetto had finished fingerprinting Toni and had rolled him onto his back. As the officer slipped a handcuff around Toni’s wrist, Kasey saw it. On Toni’s right forearm was a tattoo, a series of intricate lines running away from his wrist. Kasey tilted her head, so she could see them better.

  “Kasey. Earth to Kasey,” Bishop called.

  “Yeah?” Kasey replied. “What’s up?”

  “Did you find anything else on Skyler?”

  Kasey pointed to Toni’s wrist. “The tattoo.”

  “What about it, Kasey? Most of the sorry cases we’ve dragged in today seem to have it. Looks like we have a new gang on our hands.”

  Kasey looked at the crowded bullpen and her heart sank.

  He’s a Shinigami. They’re already here.

  “Why Kasey, what about it?”

  Kasey looked Bishop in the eye as she answered. “Skyler had one too.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Gunfire erupted within the station. Kasey looked to Bishop for guidance. The shots were coming from directly beneath them, which could only mean the station’s lobby on the ground floor. The bullpen sat directly above it.

  “What the hell is going on?” Bishop shouted over the gunfire as it raged on.

  “It’s the ghosts, Bishop, they’re here. They’ve come for Skyler. They don’t know she’s dead,” Kasey replied.

  “Nonsense. You think they would storm the precinct? For one girl? It would be suicide.”

  Kasey searched the bullpen. Her eyes lingered over the assembled officers and the criminals they were struggling to contain. The department was stretched thin and Kasey could see now, it was no accident.

  As she studied the criminals throughout the room, she saw it. Inked into the forearm of each of them. The sign of the Shinigami. The symbol of the Gods of Death, or at the least a cult of wannabes with the power of the arcane to bear out their will.