oMaS, Chapter 3
AN: can I say off the bat that I really hated writing the second half of this chapter? I really did. I had to revise it twice before I was happy.
Setsuna Matthews’s office was remarkable in how ordinary it seemed. Serena often mused on how its banality was unlike her mysterious boss, who was, for all intent and purposes an omnipotent being, who reminded Serena of the all-knowing, all-seeing, untouchable Oz. There was a bookshelf brimming with books, an imposing mahogany desk (which Setsuna lorded over with an efficiency that scared all defiant agents under her charge into compliancy), two file cabinets (which as an intern Serena had been unlucky in having to organize), a potted plant, and a single black leather chair (which always made Serena shudder just by looking at it).
“Have a seat,” Setsuna motioned Serena to said chair.
Serena handed her the report and all the paperwork she’d spent her two days off filling out. Serena had never liked paperwork that came after a case, especially when a dead body was involved. Taking a seat, she maintained a prudent silence as Setsuna skimmed through them, her eyes focusing instead on a spot just above the older woman’s shoulder, her eyes coming in contact with the closed beige blinds of the floor-to-ceiling window.
In the presence of her boss’s Serena was always on edge. Psychic energy came off the woman in waves and the fact that no one in their division or unit knew exactly what the woman was never sat well with her.
“Stop fidgeting.” Startled, Serena stopped tapping the foot she hadn’t even known was moving. Her eyes snapped up only to find herself being scrutinized by garnet eyes she was sure could pierce through any demon’s disguise. The look Setsuna sent her told her clearly what she thought about Serena’s return to the job so soon after she’d just been released from the hospital. Serena could feel a lecture coming on.
Serena, who usually dreaded after mission debriefings, had found herself on the receiving end of one of Setsuna’s lectures on recklessness and its inevitable consequences more than once. Lately it had become a regular occurrence and that made Setsuna worry and Setsuna made it her business to worry about everyone under her command.
“I’m surprised you’re even able to walk.” She started off matter-of-factly. “From the medical report faxed to me, your internal injuries should require more time to heal.”
Serena shifted under her gaze uncomfortably. She felt like a child who’d just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “You know me,” she tried to laugh. It came out nervous and strained. “I’m a faster healer.”
“Are you certain of your health?” Setsuna asked in gentle reproof.
“Yes, nothing hurts. Everything that broke was-” the rest of her sentence died as Setsuna’s office phone started ringing. Serena mentally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Setsuna Matthews speaking.”
On the other end of the line, a breathless Rei replied, “we’ve got a situation.”
Setsuna looked at Serena, and then asked, “How far away from the location are you?’
“Pretty far. From what I’ve gathered, it’s in the nicer part of the city. I’m thinking outside Olympia. Have Mercury do a check on some street names for me.”
“All right,” Setsuna conceded. “You’re pretty sure that it’s in Washington State?”
Indignant, Rei replied tartly, “I was at the Seattle courthouse when I got the vision, so I’m guessing the crime was committed here.”
“It could be elsewhere.”
“Stop wasting time,” Rei hissed angrily, “have Amy run Brattle and Bedford Street for me. See if she gets any hits. Have her call me.”
“You’re sure this hasn’t already been reported? That the murderer hasn’t already been caught? You were at the courthouse, correct? It could be an old crime.”
Rei never liked it when Setsuna decided to play devil’s advocate. She felt insulted that her boss thought so little of her gift. She was always right. “I can tell the past from the present and future Hades, this one’s fresh.”
Satisfied, Setsuna stood up, stuck her head outside her office door. She didn’t even have to scream, but her words seemed to echo around their spacious office, “Mercury, come here.”
For some reason, Serena found her boss more intimidating standing up. She suspected it had something to do with the fact that the woman was taller than her by nine inches. And her impressive heels weren’t doing anything to relieve Serena’s height-complex.
It only took the blue haired water sprite two minutes to make it to the office. Amy regarded Setsuna with an enquiring stare.
“Find out if Bedford and Brattle Street intersect anywhere outside of Olympia or Seattle. Call Rei when you get something.”
“I’m on it.” She said, sending Serena a glance before leaving.
Back behind her imposing desk, Setsuna said into the phone, “Are you happy now?”
“Very.”
“How did you find this?”
“I bumped into a guy outside the courthouse. I didn’t get a good look at his face. Our suspect’s blond though, above average height. He may be around 5’9.” Setsuna scribbled down the information on the back of a sheet of paper, she’d have the tech department do a check on the camera’s surrounding the courthouse. She was sure they’d find their blond.
“The vision impaired me.” Rei grudgingly admitted. “I couldn’t get out of it on time.”
“It’s not your fault. Every gift has its drawback and this is yours. Amy will be calling you shortly.” That said, she hung up and turned her eyes back on Serena, who was a little mystified as to what was going on. Had Rei stumbled onto a crime?
“How do you feel about taking a trip to Olympia?”
Serena didn’t even have to think about it, without a hint of hesitation she replied, “Sure, why not?”
Rei’s visions always panned out.
----------
Stepping into Amy’s office, Serena found the water sprite surrounded by mountains of well-organized paperwork. She was chattering into the mouthpiece of her headset, her mass of shoulder-length blue hair in a tight bun that bobbed up and down as her fingers rapidly moved across the keyboard of her office computer.
Amy was the best at what she did. Considering what she could do with a computer, well, Serena had always tried not to get on her bad side. Annoying her while she was busy working was the best way to do that. She knew that in a few keystrokes Amy could wipe out all traces of her existence, and that was scarier than the fact that she was a water sprite who liked to date incubi.
Knowing this fact, Serena, who usually knocked to draw her unit’s resident techie’s attention due to her fear of Amy’s wrath when interrupted while busy working, decided to forgo the formality. It was rare to catch the water sprite unawares.
“How’s the boyfriend, Merc?” At her greeting Amy, who hadn’t heard the blonde come in stopped in her typing, her blue eyes widening a bit as she looked up in surprise. Serena watched in fascination as a blush rapidly crept from the other’s neck to her cheeks and ears. It tainted the water sprite’s creamy completion a crimson red.
Amy mumbled, “Zach’s fine.” Her eyes returned back to the computer screen. She waved Serena in and the blonde perched herself on the edge of Amy’s desk after moving a pile of papers out of the way.
“I’m sure he is.” Serena answered slyly.
The blush could not be staved off and Amy, after clearing her throat asked, “What can I do for you, Serena?”
“I need to know whether or not Bedford and Brattle street intersect anywhere outside of Olympia or Seattle.”
“It’s actually outside of Olympia. Are you going to meet Rei?”
Serena beamed her coworker a proud smile, “yup. Boss-lady says so.”
“Good,” Amy rummaged through the piles of paper on her desk and handed Serena one. “Here’s a printout of the directions. It’s about a half-hour drive from here. If you get stuck, call me.”
“Use your GPS system.” Amy reminded her as she hopped off the water sprite’s desk. It was a universal fact that Serena would most likely get lost. She always did unless someone reminded her that the car she drove had a GPS system in it.
Serena laughed sheepishly, “I always forget about that.”
“Stop by a convenience store and buy some energy bars. You might need it.” Amy gave her a once over and added, “Get enough for Rei, too.”
Serena was halfway to the elevator when she decided to go back and tease Amy some more, “oh and don’t forget to give Zach my love.”
She had on a self-satisfied smile by the time she decided to seek out her next victim: Andrew, MID’s weapon’s expert. The poor guy would have no idea what hit him.
----
The victim’s house was located ten miles outside of Olympia. For a young woman-Rei was positive that she was young-she sure lived in a nice neighborhood. It was a sublime picture of suburbia. One of the victim’s neighbors was watering the lawn from across the street and was eyeing Rei suspiciously as she unlocked the door with one of the gadgets Andrew had given her. Really, who needed a search warrant when you had magic on your side? She opened the front door and stepped inside.
One of the annoying things about Rei was how often she was right and Rei hated when she was right. She hadn’t even gone past the living room when she’d been assaulted by it: the trace of Fear that still lingered heavily in the air. The victim had still been alive before the kill and she’d been terrified. As a psychic, Rei could easily pick up on it.
The crime had made a mess of the expensive-looking oriental carpet. And, Rei thought irrelevantly, the next owner was never going to get the stains out of that nice oak floor.
Now standing in the kitchen, the feeling intensified three-fold, nearly knocking Rei off her feet. She should have expected this: the killer had made his intent known in the kitchen. The kitchen looked exactly like it had in her vision, except instead of moonlight, the kitchen was bathed in sunlight. Under any normal circumstances she was sure that the kitchen with its combination of cherry cabinets, dark granite counter tops, warm caramel paint and wood flooring would have made the space feel warm and cozy, but the intensity of the victim’s fear took away from all of that. There was still remnants’ of a romantic dinner on the kitchen table. The two candlesticks were now stubs of melted wax, the untouched dinner-for-two still laid out. The food was spoiled now, she was sure.
Whenever she got the chance to go over a fresh crime scene, Rei liked to do it alone and undisturbed. She easily got bombarded by random visions when there were too many people in a crowded space. By the time the forensics’ team from MID came to process a crime scene, Rei usually wasn’t entirely functional. But she knew where the body was. She would refrain from touching it until backup showed up. It had been risky enough coming here alone and tempering with evidence was something MID frowned upon.
She would leave the bedroom alone, but there was plenty to do before then.
-----
Andrew’s office was the furthest from all the other offices. His office was also the only one with a lab connected to it. Serena was sure it had something to do with the fact that his lab housed more than a few weapons capable of killing both humans and preternatural beings. She’d never spotted one, but she was positive that his office was booby trapped.
She strode into his small, cramped, gloomy office, which required that she be fingerprinted and undergo another retinal scan. Serena’s eyes were assaulted by the racks full of unmarked boxes. They were everywhere she looked.
She was unexpectedly pulled into a bear hug.
Being a shapeshifter of the loup-garou variety, Andrew was unnaturally strong. Serena had suffered more than a few bruises from one of the blond loup-garou’s worried hugs.
After a final squeeze, he let her go and held her at arm’s length. He bestowed her with an anxious, searching look, “are you well?”
Andrew wore a custom tailored-suit and a worried scowl. He looked like one of those stereotypical FBI agents on TV: good suit, bad hair. Serena considered telling him this, but found his concern for her health too cute for words. She resisted the impulse to snuggle into him. Instead she deigned him with a beatific smile. “Perfectly fine.”
Andrew’s brows still furrowed in concern as he looked her over. “With you running around getting yourself hurt like this, Setsuna might just make you take a long vacation.”
Serena shrugged herself out of his grip and blithely answered, “I don’t think she will. I’m not that hurt. Like I said, it was mainly bruises.”
“We’re just worried about you.”
As if she didn’t know that. Out of all the psychics in their unit, Serena was not only the shortest, she was also the smallest. She got tossed around a lot when it came to cases dealing with shapeshifters. When she and Mina had been a team, they always dealt with angry spirits, vampires, and an occasional shapeshifter or two, but nothing that landed Serena in the hospital. Mina always had her back and prevented such things from happening. Serena just had to get used to protecting it herself.
As if reading her mind, Andrew asked, “Have you heard from Mina?” She flinched and he immediately began apologizing. “It’s just…I thought she’d contact you, you were so close.”
“In this case, closeness is worthless.” She answered bitterly. Serena hated being reminded of the fact that Mina wasn’t around and the members of her unit seemed to think that if they each broached the subject of her missing partner one at a time, she’d be able to open up about it. The possibility of this happening was not likely.
She cleared her throat and watched as he moved to sit behind his desk. “Have you seen Rei? Did she leave without me? I swore I saw her before I went to see Setsuna.”
“You probably did.”
“So?”
“She left without you.” He answered in a voice that said he was stating something obvious.
Serena inwardly grinned. “Damn it, I don’t wanna go to Olympia alone. And her car’s so much nicer than mine. Why can’t she ever wait for me?”
“Rei always waits for you, you’re just always late.”
“You like her more than me, huh? That’s why you’re picking her over me.” Serena added a pout just for good measure. She always liked to fluster the blond shapeshifter. He never seemed to learn.
Her scheme of embarrassing him fell short, though he did look at the moment to be extremely discomfited. After a pregnant pause, absurdly enough, he said, critically surveying her, “you’re more of my type.”
“I am, am I?” she leaned flirtatiously against his desk, the semi-automatic at her waist flashing.
She was a little too close, when he inhaled, his senses filled with her unique scent. He cleared his throat and fidgeted. “Don’t play games, Sere.”
Pouting a moue of displeasure, she hopped off his desk, “you’re no fun.”
A little flushed, he replied, “You’re a tease.”
“Sticks and stones, Drew. Sticks and stones.” She absentmindedly ran her hands down her suit jacket, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. “This was fun and all, but I have to go meet up with Rei.”
“You knew she wasn’t here, didn’t you.” He accused her reproachfully with a teasing glint in his eyes.
“But it’s so much fun teasing you Drew, I couldn’t resist.” More then pleased with herself, she flitted away. “I’ll be seeing you.”
------
The distant wail of a siren sliced through Rei’s concentration. She was in the middle of processing the living room when the sound of police sirens pulled her back to reality. MID never came with sirens.
She moved to take cover behind the couch. She counted to twenty before the front door creaked open. In one fluid move, she stood from the place she’d been squatting and whipped out the Beretta located at her waist and switched the safety off.
Her eyes were assaulted by a tall, blond, broad-shouldered Adonis in a navy blue suit. The twilight’s dying rays haloed his golden locks and made him glow. Rei would have thought he was angelic except for the fact that he also held a gun leveled to her heart.
‘This could end badly,’ she thought, eyeing his gun impassively. She could either shoot first and ask questions later or he could take the opportunity out of her hands. The seconds slowly crept by with neither lowering their weapons. They were at a standstill, both ready to shoot. Rei shifted her gun to one hand and watched a muscle tick in his hardened jaw. Better she give him her alias than her real name, Rei told herself, before one of them lost interest and shot the other.
“Agent Mars, MID,” she said, before taking her shield from a side pocket of her black pantsuit and holding it out. “And you are?”
Clicking the safety back on, he lowered his gun and stepped out of the sun’s rays. “I’m detective Jared Knight, Olympia Police Department.” He stated, his voice floating over Rei like a silky caress. His eyes were focused on the gun she still held in her hand. After a moment of internal debate, he holstered his weapon.
“Oh, a local,” she all but sneered, following his example and holstering her gun as well. It was then Rei realized she hadn’t done a very good job at hiding the fact that she was working on the house. One of the nosey suburbanites must have called OPD. She gave the blond a writhing glare. She really couldn’t deal with the locals right now. And where was her backup anyway? She’d been at the house for almost an hour now.
Now that he was standing in front of her, Rei could see that his eyes were an electric blue. As they shook hands, his larger, warmer one engulfing her smaller one, a shot burst of electricity shot through her arm.
She was paralyzed as a very graphic vision of him tangled up in bed with her rose unbidden to her mind’s eyes. She felt the beginnings of a blush and pulled her hand from his handshake. Rei averted her eyes and tried to ignore the vision not sure if it had just been her imagination or if it had actually been a vision. She shook the after effects off, a little more than perturbed.
The not-quite vision just gave her another reason to not like this guy, detective or no. He’d put himself on the long list of people Rei could only bare to tolerate the minute he’d pulled a gun on her. But then again, Rei hardly ever found herself with a gun in her face. She had to give him props for that.
He’s not your type, she reminded herself. She didn’t go for blondes. She had enough of them in her life to know that the attention they required was beyond her emotional scoop. And he was a cop. Rei rarely ever dated other MID agents. Dating local law enforcers wasn’t anywhere in her future.
“What are you doing in this house?” he asked after surveying the living room and seeing her open portable evidence kit.
She met his eyes once again and nothing happened. Idiot. What exactly had she been expecting to happen? She snapped in irritation, “What does it look like I’m doing, genius?”
He rocked back on his heels, brows lifted. “Processing a crime scene for a crime that isn’t under your jurisdiction?”
“Last time I checked, murder by magical means is a federal offense.” She stated scathingly. She didn’t have time for this. And the more time she spent in his presence, the more of her calmness she’d lose. She was really starting not to like this guy. “I’m sure our victim was killed by a magical creature, which makes this a crime by magical means. I’d suggest you leave before I need to place a few phone calls. Am I understood?”
He smiled at her in poorly hidden amusement. Rei rewarded him with a quelling stare. Not in the least bit troubled by her glare, Jared grinned guilelessly at her. “Not according to your boss.” He was sure she had no idea who or what he was, not with the way she was broadcasting her thoughts and battering his skull with her malevolence. There was a puzzle there. Most MID agents he knew had very stable psychic shields. “The local crime lab’s processing this crime scene. OPD was given directions to this crime scene through MID. So technically, this is our crime scene.”
Rei wanted to hiss her displeasure at him, but reminded herself that she had to keep this professional or she’d be giving him an advantage over her. And that she could not do. She couldn’t afford to be any less than professional when dealing with the locals. But standing this close to him was starting to aggravate her.
“The local police department has more information on this killing and others like it.” He tried not to writhe under the increasing hostility in her gaze. The more he continued to talk, the more her eyes began to narrow into slits. She lacked the professionalism he’d come to appreciate in other MID agents. But then again, he found her hostility amusing. It wasn’t everyday someone tried to kill him with a stare.
Why was he volunteering information? Rei was sure that had she been in his position, there wouldn’t be a word of useful information coming out her mouth. He was either very stupid or Setsuna had already worked him over. The woman had an uncanny way of drag information out of any unwilling source. “If OPD has information, why hasn’t it been turned over to MID?”
“It hadn’t occurred to us until recently that these crimes were connected.”
“And now you think they are?”
“Now I know they are.” After a long pause he finally ventured to add, “The local police department is willing to cooperate with MID on this case, and that’s only because your boss has directed us towards this latest addition to a crime we’ve been investigating.”
He was saying more, but Rei tuned him out, her eyes instead focusing on his moving lips. Rei was stubborn, mostly ruthless when it came to winning an argument, but knew better than to argue a moot point, especially when Setsuna was involved. Peeking over his shoulder, she saw that the local police were already taping off the house. Squad cars were already parked across the street and a group of people, whom she assumed was part of the forensics’ team, impatiently waiting to get access to the house. She could already feel a headache coming on. She hated dealing with the locals.
Smoothing her features into a mask of neutrality she told the blond detective, “I have a call to make.” It was her way of giving access to the house. There was no way in hell she’d say it out loud.
Walking down the front steps, she pulled out her cell phone. Setsuna better have a good reason for handing her crime scene to these local punks, especially that infuriating jerk Jared Knight.
-----
Serena got out of her black SUV and made her way toward what could only be the crime scene. All she’d had to do was follow the flashing of blue lights from a couple of police cars to find it. After leaving Andrew’s office, she’d gotten an angry call from her fellow psychic to “hurry on over. Now.” Having been stuck in traffic, the raven haired psychic’s agitated words had made Serena rush, nearly causing more than one accidents. She’d assumed Rei had apprehended the suspect and the last thing she wanted was her partner alone with backup thirty minutes away. She’d permitted herself a sigh of relief when a call from Setsuna proven otherwise.
But out of all the scenarios that flashed through her mind, she hadn’t expected this. There were patrol cars parked from where Brattle and Bedford Street intersected. They lined the street, blocking off entrance to the residential area. She had to flash her badge in order to get through the melee of curious onlookers.
‘There’s nothing like the smell of death to draw in a crowd.’ As an agent, she knew that spilled blood drew a crowd faster than spilled sugar drew flies. The members of the public attending this particular crime scene probably hadn’t ever encountered one in their lifetime.
Though the police were doing all they could to keep the onlookers at bay, Serena knew they needed to neutralize the situation before the locals started to get antsy and the place was crawling with reporters. The last thing they needed was for this to be blown out of proportion.
Most cops tended to be pragmatic by nature, being MID meant that she had to think outside the box at all times when a crime was reported. The unofficial policy was to assume nothing. Even the most blatantly obvious cause of death could turn out to have been caused by something entirely different. Magic was strange. It tended to mess with everything in its path, never leaving a substantial trail.
She smiled slightly if not a little cynically. Since she hadn’t been informed the nature of the crime, Serena had to assume it could be anything. In this city, anything could have happened. As she ducked under the yellow crime scene tape which surrounded the two-story house, taping off the perimeter, she had to flash her badge at the officers in order to get into the house.
She wondered how Rei was fairing. Her unasked question was answered when she rounded the corner in her search for the bedroom. The detective in charge must be the man with Rei, Serena inferred. They were arguing. Their body language said it all. Though Rei wasn’t blowing up like she was prone to do when annoyed, Serena knew that the blond man and her partner were currently in a heated battle of words. It involved Rei hissing orders and he nodding dispassionately at her. Serena wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was going on, but knew she needed to get to them before Rei decided to do some real damage to him, like putting a bullet through his skull.
“Where’s the body?” she asked the duo when she finally reached them.
“In there.” Rei pointed behind, “We’re waiting for the photographer.”
If only the photographer had been allowed inside the bedroom, that meant none of the CSI’s had touched the body yet. “Right.” Serena tried not to show how anxious she was to see the body. MID always got the body first, unlike the local police department who usually had to wait until the coroner’s had a chance to examine their victim’s remains.
“This is Detective Knight, by the way.”
“Serena Tsukino.” She stated, holding out a hand to be shaken. Her hand tingled from where it touched his. That formality over with, the detective and Serena’s partner went back to their conversation. Serena mauled over the fact that the man was evidently psychic and Rei hadn’t mentioned it in her call. What was a psychic doing at the local PD? Shouldn’t he be in MID solving real crimes?
As puzzling as it was, Serena was drawn out of her and found herself eavesdropping. She knew it was a bad idea to eavesdrop, but she was just there and they weren’t trying very hard to hide their conversation.
“It would be better if MID sent a telepath to interview the witnesses,” Rei was saying, both hands planted on her hips.
“That won’t be necessary,” the blond detective replied, “Like all the previous victims no one will hear anything.”
Not if the killer didn’t want them to, Serena was tempted to say, but didn’t. She wouldn’t be like Rei and make this guy’s day worse then it’d already been.
“There won’t be any hairs and even though every surface is being dusted for prints, we won’t find any. Our guy hasn’t messed up yet. He’s killed four women already and he’s left nothing behind.”
The guy sounded frustrated and looking at him from the corner of her eye, Serena saw that he looked it too.
“We’ve even tested the previous victims’ bodies for prints and the ones we do find all belong to our victims.”
“That’s because he wears gloves.”
“And you know this how?”
“Vision.”
Serena tuned out the rest of their conversation. She’d get all the details tomorrow or tonight, depending on how long it took to process the entire house.
It wasn’t soon before she noticed that the photographer was done taking pictures of the crime scene. She tapped Rei on the shoulder and motioned to the bedroom behind them. “Crime scene’s ready. Be right back.”
She approached someone on the forensics’ team and borrowed a pair of booties. Once her shoes were covered and her fingers incased in latex, she approached the bedroom. It was disturbingly quiet. Serena found herself at the receiving end of what she liked to call “bad psychic energy.” It made her skin crawl and left her feeling cold. There was something not right about the whole room.
She shook off the feeling. Rei was already examining the body. The stench of decaying flesh hit her square in the face as she approached the body. She’d been so busy hitting off the urge to run to have noticed the smell.
“How fresh is she, do you think?”
The blood, there was so much of it. She kept forgetting that people could bleed this much.
“Give or take a day or two.”
Rei seemed unbothered by both the stench and state of their victim’s decaying body. Her brows were furrowed in concentration as she focused all of her attention on the body before her.
Serena knew that like most things, solving murders was easy. People murdered people they knew and then they got caught. Most murders were crimes of passion, and if not then of overwhelming emotions. From the carnage, Serena could tell that this was definitely a crime of passion. You’d have to be really pissed at someone to do this much damage.
Serena started doing her own scooting. With all that mess, you’d have expected bloody footprints, or at least a trail of-
“These sheets are fresh.” Rei told her with a frown.
“Do tell.”
“Vision.” That was all that needed to be said.
That meant that she had been moved. So where in the hell had she been murdered? Serena knew that very few suicides managed to rip out their own throats and stomachs so efficiently.
“I can’t get anything off her except for jumbled images.”
“Think you can bounce some of those off me?” Rei refrained from commenting. Serena rarely offered to share a vision.
She nodded her consent. “All right then, let’s get to work.”
-----
It was almost three in the morning before the crime scene was fully processed. Once Rei got over the fact that the forensics team were locals and not MID, she’d taken to screaming orders at the CSI’s as if they were her own team. Out of fear and awe, they had done as the raven haired psychic commanded.
Jared Knight hadn’t wanted to leave, but after talking to the neighbors and taking their statements, nothing else could be done. He’d given Rei permission to do as she willed with the CSI’s. To Rei’s dismay, he’d only left after he’d ordered them not to talk to any reporters and left two OPD officers to look after them. Rei had rolled her eyes heavenward and had refrained from commenting. She and Rei had decided to stay behind to process the rest of the crime scene. For them this meant going through every inch of the house once again, this time without psychic interference. Serena knew Rei was a touch sensitive psychic and tended to get one too many visions from accidental touches, and Serena being close to her tended to get them as well. So they went through the house, touching everything in the hopes that it’d spark a vision that’d help them put a face on their killer.
From what they’d found magically, the victim had lived a very ordinary life. Out of the twelve visions they’d bounced off each other, nothing exciting had happened to this apartment…except for the crime itself. It seemed their killer had come to the victim’s apartment only once and that was to kill her. And he’d ended up staying for more than one day. That had explained why they couldn’t find any usable prints or hair samples other than that of the victim’s: their guy had stayed behind and wiped the placed clean.
Visions were always draining. Especially the ones Serena shared with Rei. So after shoving three granola bars down her throat, Serena was ready to call it the night. It wouldn’t do for a federal agent to get in a car accident just because she was suffering from vision-induced exhaustion.
Serena had escorted Rei towards her waiting car, with a promise of seeing the other in a couple of hours, and buckled her in her seat (with Rei silently glaring).
Her good deed of the day accomplished, Serena had waved a hesitant goodbye, not knowing if the raven haired psychic was fit to drive. Half way to her car, she’d turned around and practically had to knock on the driver’s side window before Rei had woken up.
For being a petite, fragile-looking blonde, Serena easily man-handled her raven haired friend, having to carry most of the others weight before she’d finally made it out of the car. Serena considered this to be karma for all the times either Mina or Rei had had to drag her to a hospital kicking and screaming.
Now driving at forty-five miles per hour in a sixty miles per hour lane, Serena eyed her sleeping friend. Rei had fallen asleep the minute the blonde had buckled her in. She was out like a light with her head pillowed against the window pane, her waist-length hair wrapping around her in a semblance of a blanket.
Serena sighed, knowing that visions usually hit Rei harder than they did her. She usually only felt exhausted after sharing visions with Rei and merely tired experiencing flashes of the future through daydreams. But Rei was her antithesis in this: either looking shaky and pale or extremely exhausted and drained.
Her cell phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. For a moment, she debated answering. Who in there right mind would be calling her at three in the morning? The caller ID said it was her brother, Sammy.
Heaving a sigh, Serena flipped open the phone and whispered, “What do you want? And what did I tell you about not calling me when I’m working? And do you know what time it is?”
“Well, aren’t you just a ray of sunshine.”
Her younger sibling bemused reply didn’t amuse her. Sending Rei’s sleeping form another glance, she hissed, “Spit it out you bratty little pest, or I hang up.”
“Rozen Ball. Go with me.”
“No.”
“C’mon Serena,” he wheedled, “dad can’t go and he asked me to go in his stead.”
“Then go.”
“But I don’t have a date.”
“Go find yourself one.”
“I’m in the process of doing just that. I want you to go with me.”
Serena was pretty sure there was some logic behind his reasoning, she just wasn’t sure where.
“I’m sure one of the girls in your dorm would gladly go.”
“That’s the problem, Sere. If this was just another regular event, I would have asked one of them. But I don’t think they’d know how to deal with this.”
“You mean the loup-garou.”
“Yes, the loup-garou. They’re celebrity crazy. They’d ditched me in a second.”
Serena resisted the urge to laugh. She could feel her resistance weakening. It was disheartening to know she couldn’t refuse her brother even though he was being a pest. “I don’t have a dress.”
“I’ve already bought one in your size along with some jewelry and shoes. I remembered to get the shoes.” Sammy answered smugly.
“Arrogant little prick!”
“And I’ve arranged for you to have four private dancing lessons.”
Damn it, he remembered she couldn’t ballroom dance to save her life. She glared at the phone hoping that it would melt. “I should really make you beg.”
“Thanks sis, I owe you a big one.”
“I’ll remember that.”
As you can see, I like to abuse commas. I blame it all on reading Moby Dick and other stories by Melville over the summer with all those long compounded sentences that take up a page or more before a period is reached. Herman Melville is a bad influence>< that’s for sure.
[mood|
accomplished]
[music| Panic*ch -- Together]
Setsuna Matthews’s office was remarkable in how ordinary it seemed. Serena often mused on how its banality was unlike her mysterious boss, who was, for all intent and purposes an omnipotent being, who reminded Serena of the all-knowing, all-seeing, untouchable Oz. There was a bookshelf brimming with books, an imposing mahogany desk (which Setsuna lorded over with an efficiency that scared all defiant agents under her charge into compliancy), two file cabinets (which as an intern Serena had been unlucky in having to organize), a potted plant, and a single black leather chair (which always made Serena shudder just by looking at it).
“Have a seat,” Setsuna motioned Serena to said chair.
Serena handed her the report and all the paperwork she’d spent her two days off filling out. Serena had never liked paperwork that came after a case, especially when a dead body was involved. Taking a seat, she maintained a prudent silence as Setsuna skimmed through them, her eyes focusing instead on a spot just above the older woman’s shoulder, her eyes coming in contact with the closed beige blinds of the floor-to-ceiling window.
In the presence of her boss’s Serena was always on edge. Psychic energy came off the woman in waves and the fact that no one in their division or unit knew exactly what the woman was never sat well with her.
“Stop fidgeting.” Startled, Serena stopped tapping the foot she hadn’t even known was moving. Her eyes snapped up only to find herself being scrutinized by garnet eyes she was sure could pierce through any demon’s disguise. The look Setsuna sent her told her clearly what she thought about Serena’s return to the job so soon after she’d just been released from the hospital. Serena could feel a lecture coming on.
Serena, who usually dreaded after mission debriefings, had found herself on the receiving end of one of Setsuna’s lectures on recklessness and its inevitable consequences more than once. Lately it had become a regular occurrence and that made Setsuna worry and Setsuna made it her business to worry about everyone under her command.
“I’m surprised you’re even able to walk.” She started off matter-of-factly. “From the medical report faxed to me, your internal injuries should require more time to heal.”
Serena shifted under her gaze uncomfortably. She felt like a child who’d just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “You know me,” she tried to laugh. It came out nervous and strained. “I’m a faster healer.”
“Are you certain of your health?” Setsuna asked in gentle reproof.
“Yes, nothing hurts. Everything that broke was-” the rest of her sentence died as Setsuna’s office phone started ringing. Serena mentally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Setsuna Matthews speaking.”
On the other end of the line, a breathless Rei replied, “we’ve got a situation.”
Setsuna looked at Serena, and then asked, “How far away from the location are you?’
“Pretty far. From what I’ve gathered, it’s in the nicer part of the city. I’m thinking outside Olympia. Have Mercury do a check on some street names for me.”
“All right,” Setsuna conceded. “You’re pretty sure that it’s in Washington State?”
Indignant, Rei replied tartly, “I was at the Seattle courthouse when I got the vision, so I’m guessing the crime was committed here.”
“It could be elsewhere.”
“Stop wasting time,” Rei hissed angrily, “have Amy run Brattle and Bedford Street for me. See if she gets any hits. Have her call me.”
“You’re sure this hasn’t already been reported? That the murderer hasn’t already been caught? You were at the courthouse, correct? It could be an old crime.”
Rei never liked it when Setsuna decided to play devil’s advocate. She felt insulted that her boss thought so little of her gift. She was always right. “I can tell the past from the present and future Hades, this one’s fresh.”
Satisfied, Setsuna stood up, stuck her head outside her office door. She didn’t even have to scream, but her words seemed to echo around their spacious office, “Mercury, come here.”
For some reason, Serena found her boss more intimidating standing up. She suspected it had something to do with the fact that the woman was taller than her by nine inches. And her impressive heels weren’t doing anything to relieve Serena’s height-complex.
It only took the blue haired water sprite two minutes to make it to the office. Amy regarded Setsuna with an enquiring stare.
“Find out if Bedford and Brattle Street intersect anywhere outside of Olympia or Seattle. Call Rei when you get something.”
“I’m on it.” She said, sending Serena a glance before leaving.
Back behind her imposing desk, Setsuna said into the phone, “Are you happy now?”
“Very.”
“How did you find this?”
“I bumped into a guy outside the courthouse. I didn’t get a good look at his face. Our suspect’s blond though, above average height. He may be around 5’9.” Setsuna scribbled down the information on the back of a sheet of paper, she’d have the tech department do a check on the camera’s surrounding the courthouse. She was sure they’d find their blond.
“The vision impaired me.” Rei grudgingly admitted. “I couldn’t get out of it on time.”
“It’s not your fault. Every gift has its drawback and this is yours. Amy will be calling you shortly.” That said, she hung up and turned her eyes back on Serena, who was a little mystified as to what was going on. Had Rei stumbled onto a crime?
“How do you feel about taking a trip to Olympia?”
Serena didn’t even have to think about it, without a hint of hesitation she replied, “Sure, why not?”
Rei’s visions always panned out.
----------
Stepping into Amy’s office, Serena found the water sprite surrounded by mountains of well-organized paperwork. She was chattering into the mouthpiece of her headset, her mass of shoulder-length blue hair in a tight bun that bobbed up and down as her fingers rapidly moved across the keyboard of her office computer.
Amy was the best at what she did. Considering what she could do with a computer, well, Serena had always tried not to get on her bad side. Annoying her while she was busy working was the best way to do that. She knew that in a few keystrokes Amy could wipe out all traces of her existence, and that was scarier than the fact that she was a water sprite who liked to date incubi.
Knowing this fact, Serena, who usually knocked to draw her unit’s resident techie’s attention due to her fear of Amy’s wrath when interrupted while busy working, decided to forgo the formality. It was rare to catch the water sprite unawares.
“How’s the boyfriend, Merc?” At her greeting Amy, who hadn’t heard the blonde come in stopped in her typing, her blue eyes widening a bit as she looked up in surprise. Serena watched in fascination as a blush rapidly crept from the other’s neck to her cheeks and ears. It tainted the water sprite’s creamy completion a crimson red.
Amy mumbled, “Zach’s fine.” Her eyes returned back to the computer screen. She waved Serena in and the blonde perched herself on the edge of Amy’s desk after moving a pile of papers out of the way.
“I’m sure he is.” Serena answered slyly.
The blush could not be staved off and Amy, after clearing her throat asked, “What can I do for you, Serena?”
“I need to know whether or not Bedford and Brattle street intersect anywhere outside of Olympia or Seattle.”
“It’s actually outside of Olympia. Are you going to meet Rei?”
Serena beamed her coworker a proud smile, “yup. Boss-lady says so.”
“Good,” Amy rummaged through the piles of paper on her desk and handed Serena one. “Here’s a printout of the directions. It’s about a half-hour drive from here. If you get stuck, call me.”
“Use your GPS system.” Amy reminded her as she hopped off the water sprite’s desk. It was a universal fact that Serena would most likely get lost. She always did unless someone reminded her that the car she drove had a GPS system in it.
Serena laughed sheepishly, “I always forget about that.”
“Stop by a convenience store and buy some energy bars. You might need it.” Amy gave her a once over and added, “Get enough for Rei, too.”
Serena was halfway to the elevator when she decided to go back and tease Amy some more, “oh and don’t forget to give Zach my love.”
She had on a self-satisfied smile by the time she decided to seek out her next victim: Andrew, MID’s weapon’s expert. The poor guy would have no idea what hit him.
----
The victim’s house was located ten miles outside of Olympia. For a young woman-Rei was positive that she was young-she sure lived in a nice neighborhood. It was a sublime picture of suburbia. One of the victim’s neighbors was watering the lawn from across the street and was eyeing Rei suspiciously as she unlocked the door with one of the gadgets Andrew had given her. Really, who needed a search warrant when you had magic on your side? She opened the front door and stepped inside.
One of the annoying things about Rei was how often she was right and Rei hated when she was right. She hadn’t even gone past the living room when she’d been assaulted by it: the trace of Fear that still lingered heavily in the air. The victim had still been alive before the kill and she’d been terrified. As a psychic, Rei could easily pick up on it.
The crime had made a mess of the expensive-looking oriental carpet. And, Rei thought irrelevantly, the next owner was never going to get the stains out of that nice oak floor.
Now standing in the kitchen, the feeling intensified three-fold, nearly knocking Rei off her feet. She should have expected this: the killer had made his intent known in the kitchen. The kitchen looked exactly like it had in her vision, except instead of moonlight, the kitchen was bathed in sunlight. Under any normal circumstances she was sure that the kitchen with its combination of cherry cabinets, dark granite counter tops, warm caramel paint and wood flooring would have made the space feel warm and cozy, but the intensity of the victim’s fear took away from all of that. There was still remnants’ of a romantic dinner on the kitchen table. The two candlesticks were now stubs of melted wax, the untouched dinner-for-two still laid out. The food was spoiled now, she was sure.
Whenever she got the chance to go over a fresh crime scene, Rei liked to do it alone and undisturbed. She easily got bombarded by random visions when there were too many people in a crowded space. By the time the forensics’ team from MID came to process a crime scene, Rei usually wasn’t entirely functional. But she knew where the body was. She would refrain from touching it until backup showed up. It had been risky enough coming here alone and tempering with evidence was something MID frowned upon.
She would leave the bedroom alone, but there was plenty to do before then.
-----
Andrew’s office was the furthest from all the other offices. His office was also the only one with a lab connected to it. Serena was sure it had something to do with the fact that his lab housed more than a few weapons capable of killing both humans and preternatural beings. She’d never spotted one, but she was positive that his office was booby trapped.
She strode into his small, cramped, gloomy office, which required that she be fingerprinted and undergo another retinal scan. Serena’s eyes were assaulted by the racks full of unmarked boxes. They were everywhere she looked.
She was unexpectedly pulled into a bear hug.
Being a shapeshifter of the loup-garou variety, Andrew was unnaturally strong. Serena had suffered more than a few bruises from one of the blond loup-garou’s worried hugs.
After a final squeeze, he let her go and held her at arm’s length. He bestowed her with an anxious, searching look, “are you well?”
Andrew wore a custom tailored-suit and a worried scowl. He looked like one of those stereotypical FBI agents on TV: good suit, bad hair. Serena considered telling him this, but found his concern for her health too cute for words. She resisted the impulse to snuggle into him. Instead she deigned him with a beatific smile. “Perfectly fine.”
Andrew’s brows still furrowed in concern as he looked her over. “With you running around getting yourself hurt like this, Setsuna might just make you take a long vacation.”
Serena shrugged herself out of his grip and blithely answered, “I don’t think she will. I’m not that hurt. Like I said, it was mainly bruises.”
“We’re just worried about you.”
As if she didn’t know that. Out of all the psychics in their unit, Serena was not only the shortest, she was also the smallest. She got tossed around a lot when it came to cases dealing with shapeshifters. When she and Mina had been a team, they always dealt with angry spirits, vampires, and an occasional shapeshifter or two, but nothing that landed Serena in the hospital. Mina always had her back and prevented such things from happening. Serena just had to get used to protecting it herself.
As if reading her mind, Andrew asked, “Have you heard from Mina?” She flinched and he immediately began apologizing. “It’s just…I thought she’d contact you, you were so close.”
“In this case, closeness is worthless.” She answered bitterly. Serena hated being reminded of the fact that Mina wasn’t around and the members of her unit seemed to think that if they each broached the subject of her missing partner one at a time, she’d be able to open up about it. The possibility of this happening was not likely.
She cleared her throat and watched as he moved to sit behind his desk. “Have you seen Rei? Did she leave without me? I swore I saw her before I went to see Setsuna.”
“You probably did.”
“So?”
“She left without you.” He answered in a voice that said he was stating something obvious.
Serena inwardly grinned. “Damn it, I don’t wanna go to Olympia alone. And her car’s so much nicer than mine. Why can’t she ever wait for me?”
“Rei always waits for you, you’re just always late.”
“You like her more than me, huh? That’s why you’re picking her over me.” Serena added a pout just for good measure. She always liked to fluster the blond shapeshifter. He never seemed to learn.
Her scheme of embarrassing him fell short, though he did look at the moment to be extremely discomfited. After a pregnant pause, absurdly enough, he said, critically surveying her, “you’re more of my type.”
“I am, am I?” she leaned flirtatiously against his desk, the semi-automatic at her waist flashing.
She was a little too close, when he inhaled, his senses filled with her unique scent. He cleared his throat and fidgeted. “Don’t play games, Sere.”
Pouting a moue of displeasure, she hopped off his desk, “you’re no fun.”
A little flushed, he replied, “You’re a tease.”
“Sticks and stones, Drew. Sticks and stones.” She absentmindedly ran her hands down her suit jacket, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. “This was fun and all, but I have to go meet up with Rei.”
“You knew she wasn’t here, didn’t you.” He accused her reproachfully with a teasing glint in his eyes.
“But it’s so much fun teasing you Drew, I couldn’t resist.” More then pleased with herself, she flitted away. “I’ll be seeing you.”
------
The distant wail of a siren sliced through Rei’s concentration. She was in the middle of processing the living room when the sound of police sirens pulled her back to reality. MID never came with sirens.
She moved to take cover behind the couch. She counted to twenty before the front door creaked open. In one fluid move, she stood from the place she’d been squatting and whipped out the Beretta located at her waist and switched the safety off.
Her eyes were assaulted by a tall, blond, broad-shouldered Adonis in a navy blue suit. The twilight’s dying rays haloed his golden locks and made him glow. Rei would have thought he was angelic except for the fact that he also held a gun leveled to her heart.
‘This could end badly,’ she thought, eyeing his gun impassively. She could either shoot first and ask questions later or he could take the opportunity out of her hands. The seconds slowly crept by with neither lowering their weapons. They were at a standstill, both ready to shoot. Rei shifted her gun to one hand and watched a muscle tick in his hardened jaw. Better she give him her alias than her real name, Rei told herself, before one of them lost interest and shot the other.
“Agent Mars, MID,” she said, before taking her shield from a side pocket of her black pantsuit and holding it out. “And you are?”
Clicking the safety back on, he lowered his gun and stepped out of the sun’s rays. “I’m detective Jared Knight, Olympia Police Department.” He stated, his voice floating over Rei like a silky caress. His eyes were focused on the gun she still held in her hand. After a moment of internal debate, he holstered his weapon.
“Oh, a local,” she all but sneered, following his example and holstering her gun as well. It was then Rei realized she hadn’t done a very good job at hiding the fact that she was working on the house. One of the nosey suburbanites must have called OPD. She gave the blond a writhing glare. She really couldn’t deal with the locals right now. And where was her backup anyway? She’d been at the house for almost an hour now.
Now that he was standing in front of her, Rei could see that his eyes were an electric blue. As they shook hands, his larger, warmer one engulfing her smaller one, a shot burst of electricity shot through her arm.
She was paralyzed as a very graphic vision of him tangled up in bed with her rose unbidden to her mind’s eyes. She felt the beginnings of a blush and pulled her hand from his handshake. Rei averted her eyes and tried to ignore the vision not sure if it had just been her imagination or if it had actually been a vision. She shook the after effects off, a little more than perturbed.
The not-quite vision just gave her another reason to not like this guy, detective or no. He’d put himself on the long list of people Rei could only bare to tolerate the minute he’d pulled a gun on her. But then again, Rei hardly ever found herself with a gun in her face. She had to give him props for that.
He’s not your type, she reminded herself. She didn’t go for blondes. She had enough of them in her life to know that the attention they required was beyond her emotional scoop. And he was a cop. Rei rarely ever dated other MID agents. Dating local law enforcers wasn’t anywhere in her future.
“What are you doing in this house?” he asked after surveying the living room and seeing her open portable evidence kit.
She met his eyes once again and nothing happened. Idiot. What exactly had she been expecting to happen? She snapped in irritation, “What does it look like I’m doing, genius?”
He rocked back on his heels, brows lifted. “Processing a crime scene for a crime that isn’t under your jurisdiction?”
“Last time I checked, murder by magical means is a federal offense.” She stated scathingly. She didn’t have time for this. And the more time she spent in his presence, the more of her calmness she’d lose. She was really starting not to like this guy. “I’m sure our victim was killed by a magical creature, which makes this a crime by magical means. I’d suggest you leave before I need to place a few phone calls. Am I understood?”
He smiled at her in poorly hidden amusement. Rei rewarded him with a quelling stare. Not in the least bit troubled by her glare, Jared grinned guilelessly at her. “Not according to your boss.” He was sure she had no idea who or what he was, not with the way she was broadcasting her thoughts and battering his skull with her malevolence. There was a puzzle there. Most MID agents he knew had very stable psychic shields. “The local crime lab’s processing this crime scene. OPD was given directions to this crime scene through MID. So technically, this is our crime scene.”
Rei wanted to hiss her displeasure at him, but reminded herself that she had to keep this professional or she’d be giving him an advantage over her. And that she could not do. She couldn’t afford to be any less than professional when dealing with the locals. But standing this close to him was starting to aggravate her.
“The local police department has more information on this killing and others like it.” He tried not to writhe under the increasing hostility in her gaze. The more he continued to talk, the more her eyes began to narrow into slits. She lacked the professionalism he’d come to appreciate in other MID agents. But then again, he found her hostility amusing. It wasn’t everyday someone tried to kill him with a stare.
Why was he volunteering information? Rei was sure that had she been in his position, there wouldn’t be a word of useful information coming out her mouth. He was either very stupid or Setsuna had already worked him over. The woman had an uncanny way of drag information out of any unwilling source. “If OPD has information, why hasn’t it been turned over to MID?”
“It hadn’t occurred to us until recently that these crimes were connected.”
“And now you think they are?”
“Now I know they are.” After a long pause he finally ventured to add, “The local police department is willing to cooperate with MID on this case, and that’s only because your boss has directed us towards this latest addition to a crime we’ve been investigating.”
He was saying more, but Rei tuned him out, her eyes instead focusing on his moving lips. Rei was stubborn, mostly ruthless when it came to winning an argument, but knew better than to argue a moot point, especially when Setsuna was involved. Peeking over his shoulder, she saw that the local police were already taping off the house. Squad cars were already parked across the street and a group of people, whom she assumed was part of the forensics’ team, impatiently waiting to get access to the house. She could already feel a headache coming on. She hated dealing with the locals.
Smoothing her features into a mask of neutrality she told the blond detective, “I have a call to make.” It was her way of giving access to the house. There was no way in hell she’d say it out loud.
Walking down the front steps, she pulled out her cell phone. Setsuna better have a good reason for handing her crime scene to these local punks, especially that infuriating jerk Jared Knight.
-----
Serena got out of her black SUV and made her way toward what could only be the crime scene. All she’d had to do was follow the flashing of blue lights from a couple of police cars to find it. After leaving Andrew’s office, she’d gotten an angry call from her fellow psychic to “hurry on over. Now.” Having been stuck in traffic, the raven haired psychic’s agitated words had made Serena rush, nearly causing more than one accidents. She’d assumed Rei had apprehended the suspect and the last thing she wanted was her partner alone with backup thirty minutes away. She’d permitted herself a sigh of relief when a call from Setsuna proven otherwise.
But out of all the scenarios that flashed through her mind, she hadn’t expected this. There were patrol cars parked from where Brattle and Bedford Street intersected. They lined the street, blocking off entrance to the residential area. She had to flash her badge in order to get through the melee of curious onlookers.
‘There’s nothing like the smell of death to draw in a crowd.’ As an agent, she knew that spilled blood drew a crowd faster than spilled sugar drew flies. The members of the public attending this particular crime scene probably hadn’t ever encountered one in their lifetime.
Though the police were doing all they could to keep the onlookers at bay, Serena knew they needed to neutralize the situation before the locals started to get antsy and the place was crawling with reporters. The last thing they needed was for this to be blown out of proportion.
Most cops tended to be pragmatic by nature, being MID meant that she had to think outside the box at all times when a crime was reported. The unofficial policy was to assume nothing. Even the most blatantly obvious cause of death could turn out to have been caused by something entirely different. Magic was strange. It tended to mess with everything in its path, never leaving a substantial trail.
She smiled slightly if not a little cynically. Since she hadn’t been informed the nature of the crime, Serena had to assume it could be anything. In this city, anything could have happened. As she ducked under the yellow crime scene tape which surrounded the two-story house, taping off the perimeter, she had to flash her badge at the officers in order to get into the house.
She wondered how Rei was fairing. Her unasked question was answered when she rounded the corner in her search for the bedroom. The detective in charge must be the man with Rei, Serena inferred. They were arguing. Their body language said it all. Though Rei wasn’t blowing up like she was prone to do when annoyed, Serena knew that the blond man and her partner were currently in a heated battle of words. It involved Rei hissing orders and he nodding dispassionately at her. Serena wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was going on, but knew she needed to get to them before Rei decided to do some real damage to him, like putting a bullet through his skull.
“Where’s the body?” she asked the duo when she finally reached them.
“In there.” Rei pointed behind, “We’re waiting for the photographer.”
If only the photographer had been allowed inside the bedroom, that meant none of the CSI’s had touched the body yet. “Right.” Serena tried not to show how anxious she was to see the body. MID always got the body first, unlike the local police department who usually had to wait until the coroner’s had a chance to examine their victim’s remains.
“This is Detective Knight, by the way.”
“Serena Tsukino.” She stated, holding out a hand to be shaken. Her hand tingled from where it touched his. That formality over with, the detective and Serena’s partner went back to their conversation. Serena mauled over the fact that the man was evidently psychic and Rei hadn’t mentioned it in her call. What was a psychic doing at the local PD? Shouldn’t he be in MID solving real crimes?
As puzzling as it was, Serena was drawn out of her and found herself eavesdropping. She knew it was a bad idea to eavesdrop, but she was just there and they weren’t trying very hard to hide their conversation.
“It would be better if MID sent a telepath to interview the witnesses,” Rei was saying, both hands planted on her hips.
“That won’t be necessary,” the blond detective replied, “Like all the previous victims no one will hear anything.”
Not if the killer didn’t want them to, Serena was tempted to say, but didn’t. She wouldn’t be like Rei and make this guy’s day worse then it’d already been.
“There won’t be any hairs and even though every surface is being dusted for prints, we won’t find any. Our guy hasn’t messed up yet. He’s killed four women already and he’s left nothing behind.”
The guy sounded frustrated and looking at him from the corner of her eye, Serena saw that he looked it too.
“We’ve even tested the previous victims’ bodies for prints and the ones we do find all belong to our victims.”
“That’s because he wears gloves.”
“And you know this how?”
“Vision.”
Serena tuned out the rest of their conversation. She’d get all the details tomorrow or tonight, depending on how long it took to process the entire house.
It wasn’t soon before she noticed that the photographer was done taking pictures of the crime scene. She tapped Rei on the shoulder and motioned to the bedroom behind them. “Crime scene’s ready. Be right back.”
She approached someone on the forensics’ team and borrowed a pair of booties. Once her shoes were covered and her fingers incased in latex, she approached the bedroom. It was disturbingly quiet. Serena found herself at the receiving end of what she liked to call “bad psychic energy.” It made her skin crawl and left her feeling cold. There was something not right about the whole room.
She shook off the feeling. Rei was already examining the body. The stench of decaying flesh hit her square in the face as she approached the body. She’d been so busy hitting off the urge to run to have noticed the smell.
“How fresh is she, do you think?”
The blood, there was so much of it. She kept forgetting that people could bleed this much.
“Give or take a day or two.”
Rei seemed unbothered by both the stench and state of their victim’s decaying body. Her brows were furrowed in concentration as she focused all of her attention on the body before her.
Serena knew that like most things, solving murders was easy. People murdered people they knew and then they got caught. Most murders were crimes of passion, and if not then of overwhelming emotions. From the carnage, Serena could tell that this was definitely a crime of passion. You’d have to be really pissed at someone to do this much damage.
Serena started doing her own scooting. With all that mess, you’d have expected bloody footprints, or at least a trail of-
“These sheets are fresh.” Rei told her with a frown.
“Do tell.”
“Vision.” That was all that needed to be said.
That meant that she had been moved. So where in the hell had she been murdered? Serena knew that very few suicides managed to rip out their own throats and stomachs so efficiently.
“I can’t get anything off her except for jumbled images.”
“Think you can bounce some of those off me?” Rei refrained from commenting. Serena rarely offered to share a vision.
She nodded her consent. “All right then, let’s get to work.”
-----
It was almost three in the morning before the crime scene was fully processed. Once Rei got over the fact that the forensics team were locals and not MID, she’d taken to screaming orders at the CSI’s as if they were her own team. Out of fear and awe, they had done as the raven haired psychic commanded.
Jared Knight hadn’t wanted to leave, but after talking to the neighbors and taking their statements, nothing else could be done. He’d given Rei permission to do as she willed with the CSI’s. To Rei’s dismay, he’d only left after he’d ordered them not to talk to any reporters and left two OPD officers to look after them. Rei had rolled her eyes heavenward and had refrained from commenting. She and Rei had decided to stay behind to process the rest of the crime scene. For them this meant going through every inch of the house once again, this time without psychic interference. Serena knew Rei was a touch sensitive psychic and tended to get one too many visions from accidental touches, and Serena being close to her tended to get them as well. So they went through the house, touching everything in the hopes that it’d spark a vision that’d help them put a face on their killer.
From what they’d found magically, the victim had lived a very ordinary life. Out of the twelve visions they’d bounced off each other, nothing exciting had happened to this apartment…except for the crime itself. It seemed their killer had come to the victim’s apartment only once and that was to kill her. And he’d ended up staying for more than one day. That had explained why they couldn’t find any usable prints or hair samples other than that of the victim’s: their guy had stayed behind and wiped the placed clean.
Visions were always draining. Especially the ones Serena shared with Rei. So after shoving three granola bars down her throat, Serena was ready to call it the night. It wouldn’t do for a federal agent to get in a car accident just because she was suffering from vision-induced exhaustion.
Serena had escorted Rei towards her waiting car, with a promise of seeing the other in a couple of hours, and buckled her in her seat (with Rei silently glaring).
Her good deed of the day accomplished, Serena had waved a hesitant goodbye, not knowing if the raven haired psychic was fit to drive. Half way to her car, she’d turned around and practically had to knock on the driver’s side window before Rei had woken up.
For being a petite, fragile-looking blonde, Serena easily man-handled her raven haired friend, having to carry most of the others weight before she’d finally made it out of the car. Serena considered this to be karma for all the times either Mina or Rei had had to drag her to a hospital kicking and screaming.
Now driving at forty-five miles per hour in a sixty miles per hour lane, Serena eyed her sleeping friend. Rei had fallen asleep the minute the blonde had buckled her in. She was out like a light with her head pillowed against the window pane, her waist-length hair wrapping around her in a semblance of a blanket.
Serena sighed, knowing that visions usually hit Rei harder than they did her. She usually only felt exhausted after sharing visions with Rei and merely tired experiencing flashes of the future through daydreams. But Rei was her antithesis in this: either looking shaky and pale or extremely exhausted and drained.
Her cell phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. For a moment, she debated answering. Who in there right mind would be calling her at three in the morning? The caller ID said it was her brother, Sammy.
Heaving a sigh, Serena flipped open the phone and whispered, “What do you want? And what did I tell you about not calling me when I’m working? And do you know what time it is?”
“Well, aren’t you just a ray of sunshine.”
Her younger sibling bemused reply didn’t amuse her. Sending Rei’s sleeping form another glance, she hissed, “Spit it out you bratty little pest, or I hang up.”
“Rozen Ball. Go with me.”
“No.”
“C’mon Serena,” he wheedled, “dad can’t go and he asked me to go in his stead.”
“Then go.”
“But I don’t have a date.”
“Go find yourself one.”
“I’m in the process of doing just that. I want you to go with me.”
Serena was pretty sure there was some logic behind his reasoning, she just wasn’t sure where.
“I’m sure one of the girls in your dorm would gladly go.”
“That’s the problem, Sere. If this was just another regular event, I would have asked one of them. But I don’t think they’d know how to deal with this.”
“You mean the loup-garou.”
“Yes, the loup-garou. They’re celebrity crazy. They’d ditched me in a second.”
Serena resisted the urge to laugh. She could feel her resistance weakening. It was disheartening to know she couldn’t refuse her brother even though he was being a pest. “I don’t have a dress.”
“I’ve already bought one in your size along with some jewelry and shoes. I remembered to get the shoes.” Sammy answered smugly.
“Arrogant little prick!”
“And I’ve arranged for you to have four private dancing lessons.”
Damn it, he remembered she couldn’t ballroom dance to save her life. She glared at the phone hoping that it would melt. “I should really make you beg.”
“Thanks sis, I owe you a big one.”
“I’ll remember that.”
As you can see, I like to abuse commas. I blame it all on reading Moby Dick and other stories by Melville over the summer with all those long compounded sentences that take up a page or more before a period is reached. Herman Melville is a bad influence>< that’s for sure.
[mood|
accomplished]
[music| Panic*ch -- Together]