by R. Lee Moore
Decker smiled. It was the first time she'd seen it. It wasn't a pleasant smile.
“Be hard to do with Ms. King in LAPD custody,” Decker said. “I'd be surprised if she doesn't have a few lawyers hovering over her already. You ain't exactly going to get away with bouncing her head off the walls in police custody even if my people were inclined to look the other way. Which they're not.”
Damn it, Tamina thought. In handing King over to the LAPD, she'd inadvertently given the woman enough legal protections that she'd limited her options considerably.
“On the other hand,” Decker continued. “I've never really been able to figure out all the paperwork dealing with you Supernatural Affairs types involves. I mean, does it really have to be that complicated transferring someone from one agency to another? Too easy to screw up if you ask me. Be a real shame if I went through all that work and ended up having to hand Ms. King right back to you because I didn't fill a form out right, wouldn't it?
“It would,” Tamina agreed.
“I haven't really been getting much sleep lately,” Decker said thoughtfully. “You been keeping me up pretty late with my phone ringing off the hook. I'm bound to make mistakes here and there.”
Siobhan darted back inside preventing any response Tamina might have made. The red wolf looked agitated and was growling and motioning with her nose insistently towards the door. She'd found something.
Without even questioning it, Tamina and Decker followed the wolf as she sped back out the door and up the back of the hill. It was a hard climb and even harder to see with the low level of available light. Siobhan led them up into the hillside for about ten minutes before she stopped and began howling down into a ravine. When the two of them finally reached the red wolf and looked down at what she was looking at, both Tamina and Decker reacted with the same wincing grimace.
There at the bottom of the ravine was a pile of bodies, both men and women, half-eaten and tossed into a shallow mass grave. The sight made Tamina remember what Giovanni had told her. These people didn't leave anything behind when they moved on. Anyone who wasn't part of their little group had been eliminated. Nothing survived that could be traced back to them.
“I'm going to kill every one of these motherfuckers,” Tamina growled.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The corpses in the ravine looked different from any of the other victims that Tamina had seen so far. The cause of death was the same, mauled and torn to literal pieces by a werewolf, but that was where the similarities ended. None of the people she was looking at beneath the thin layer of dirt that covered them in their shallow grave looked to be performers. They had the look of crew members and general laborers. The same people that had likely sterilized all the evidence in the house out of existence. The people who did this didn't even bother to remove any of the personal effects from their victims. Wallets, watches, identification, even loose wads of cash. It was all still there. They'd just been killed, dumped into a mass grave, and left to rot.
That was troubling. Both Tamina and Lieutenant Decker quickly came to the same conclusion that the people behind all the horrors they'd been seeing since they'd found Amy Lynn's body in Culver City weren't just cleaning up after themselves. They were getting ready and disposing of any loose ends and evidence they might have had. Closing up shop and preparing to move on. If they hadn't skipped out of town and out the country already, it was only a matter of time.
After Decker called it in, the two of them sifted through the bodies looking for something, anything that would point them in the right direction, but they came up empty. They were able to identify the bodies easily enough, but outside that there was nothing useful. Maybe something would turn up in time, but time wasn't a luxury they had. Both of them agreed on that.
Tamina left Decker to deal with the details and lock up the rest of the scene. By the time she'd started back down the hill to set other things in motion, he'd already started making arrangements to transfer Jennifer King back into Supernatural Affairs custody. That just left Albira Adams' agent to deal with.
She'd let Siobhan handle that. After she'd changed back to her human form, the redheaded werewolf had expressed a singular desire and willingness to get her hands on the man who'd likely sent Albira Adams to her death. Tamina might have had sympathy for the man after seeing the look in the wolf's eyes, but considering what he'd likely done, she had no sympathy left. All she was able to manage was making sure that Siobhan understood that she needed him alive and able to talk. She'd purposely left quite a bit up to Siobhan's discretion. Tamina knew what was going to happen, and really didn't have a problem with it.
As she climbed into the driver's seat of her Firebird, she sent off a few messages to Giovanni asking for his help again. She didn't have any high hopes that he'd have any more success than he'd already had. Whatever connections the Sicilian werewolf had to the city's criminal element had likely given him all they were going to on the matter. If it was out there to find, he'd have found it already. Didn't hurt to ask him though, and Tamina knew he'd still try despite the minimal chances of him digging up anything useful. She hoped he'd come through like he had previously, but she wasn't going to get her hopes up.
With her lights flashing, Tamina sped back through the city back to the Station House. When she exited out of the elevators and walked into the bullpen, she found Carson waiting for her. She was a bit surprised considering the last time she'd seen him he was getting patched up after taking a few bullets. He looked a bit worse for wear, but he was there, so that had to count for something.
“You went out without me again,” Carson said. “Thought you understood you're not supposed to do that.”
“Couldn't be helped,” Tamina replied shrugging his accusations off. “Was kinda a spur of the moment thing.”
She filled him in on everything on the way to Harris' office. His whole demeanor changed when she told him about the videos she'd seen, and what she'd gotten out of Jennifer King. He still didn't approve of her methods, but his outrage had been tempered by what he'd just heard.
“You broke her arm?” Carson said incredulously.
“No,” Tamina replied defensively. “Siobhan did. Bent it the complete wrong way. Should have heard the sounds she made. I didn't even tell her to do that. I did tell her to break her hand though, so I guess that one's on me. In my defense though, the bitch deserved it.”
Carson sighed and held the door to Harris' office open for her, and shook his head in disapproval.
“You are really abusing your authority sergeant. Those laws weren't put into place to give you an excuse to be a sociopath,” Carson chided. “As effective as it might be, there is a proper way to do things, and that isn't it.”
Tamina gave an uncaring shrug, and ignored him. Captain Harris had already heard the basics about her second run in with Jennifer King, but when Tamina filled in the details, his normal sunny and cheerful disposition clouded over and darkened considerably. Jennifer King and whoever Siobhan was bringing in weren't going to find much sympathy when they got here.
Harris listened carefully, asked a few pointed questions, and then helped Tamina and Carson lay out a plan off attack. He was as determined to not let the people responsible for all these murders escape justice as Tamina was.
The plan was simple enough. Get Jennifer King and whoever Siobhan was bringing into a room together, convince them to find a way to get in contact with the killers, and find out where they were so the Department could take them down. Permanently.
An hour later, Decker was the first to arrive. Tamina could hear the screams as soon as the elevator doors opened. He'd had King cuffed to a wheelchair, and it was taking several officers to keep her moving and drag her through the bullpen. The woman was fighting them with everything she had with sheer unadulterated terror and panic in her eyes. She knew what was coming.
Captain Harris immediately took charge and marched briskly to meet Decker halfway down the walkway at a pace that Tamina and C
arson had to struggle to keep up with. Decker flashed a somewhat cruel looking smile when he saw them coming, and extended his hand out in front of him.
“Jim Decker, LAPD,” he said. “You Captain Harris?”
“I am,” Harris replied shaking the Lieutenant's hand firmly. “And this is?”
“Ms. Jennifer King,” Decker replied. “Seems there was some paperwork mix up, so I have to give her back to ya. Sorry about that.”
“I see,” Harris said. He turned away from Decker and gave his attention fully to the woman bound to the wheelchair in front of him with a cold hard look. “Ms. King, regardless of your current physical state, you and I have some matters to discuss, and I would advise your full cooperation.”
The tone of Harris' voice, while calm and even, hinted at the dire consequences facing the woman if she continued to feel the need to resist. The woman's eyes began flitting back and forth between Tamina and Harris and the energy within her deflated leaving her meek and trembling under the Captain's scrutiny.
He sent Carson to escort Decker and his prisoner to the interrogation rooms in the back. After King had been taken away, Tamina watched the Captain for a moment as he stood there staring silently at the elevators. He'd never once raised his voice, and had remained politely professional in spite of how he'd looked at Ms. King. He'd gripped his hands to the small of his back after they'd left however, and Tamina could see them trembling slightly. There was more depth to the man than she'd first though, she realized.
When Siobhan made her entrance some time later, her arrival was heralded by the body of a severely bloody and beaten man with hands cuffed behind his back being flung from the elevator. Siobhan was strong enough to send the man sailing head first into the lobby desk where he lay in a dazed and crumpled heap.
The redheaded wolf glided up behind the man as if she was stalking her prey, and drug him forcefully back up to his feet. She didn't seem to care how unsteady he was on his feet when began propelling him with hard and forceful shoves through the bullpen. His eyes had glazed over, his head swayed back and forth dizzily, and with all the bruising and swelling, his face looked like someone had beaten him into unconsciousness at least once or twice. Siobhan hadn't been gentle, Tamina observed casually. Good for her. She must not have liked what the man had to say.
“Mr. Yesayan was uncooperative,” the she-wolf offered as an explanation. “And he's a slow learner.”
Captain Harris' expression didn't change, it remained calm and tightly controlled. He gave Tamina a questioning look, and when she explained who the man was and the likely reason that Siobhan had treated him so roughly, Harris nodded his head in grim acceptance and directed Siobhan where to take her prisoner.
As Yesayan was being led away, Harris politely excused himself and shut himself inside his office. Watching him take his leave like that concerned Tamina to some degree. He'd hidden it well, but Tamina could see that he'd been rattled at least a little. She was fully prepared to go it alone if Harris couldn't handle it, but it wasn't an ideal situation.
When he came back out several minutes later, he had a file folder and a pair of cell phones in his hands and a calm, collected and look of steel-eyed determination to him. Without a word he motioned Tamina to follow, and the two of them made their way into the interrogation room. He sat down across from the two suspects with Tamina standing over his shoulder. He made a show of carefully arranging the file folder and the cell phones in front of him without acknowledging the existence of the two people on the other side of the table. Both King and Yesayan made several attempts to speak, but each time they did Harris would lift his gaze silently up to them, and the words would die on their lips before they could be given voice.
Harris opened the folder in front of him, and removed two sheets of paper that he slid across the table and set in front of the both of them.
“Ms. King, Mr. Yesayan,” he began in a polite and professional voice. “Before we begin I have some relevant documents I need the both of you to read and review as carefully as you can. I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have, but I'm given to understand that we have a limited amount of time, so I would appreciate your cooperation and haste. I'd like to get this done as quickly as possible.”
Tamina curiously glanced over Harris' shoulder at the papers he slid across the table, and a thin smile turned up the corners of her mouth when she realized what the documents were. He'd given them each a freshly printed copy of the Supernatural Crimes and Enforcement Act, a document colloquially known as the Mankiller Laws.
For a legal document, they were remarkably straight forward in laying out the new powers and authority given to Supernatural Affairs. It stripped away everything that got in the way of the Department doing its job. There was a lot in there, but the most important part was that any supernatural entity found engaging in criminal activity, no matter what it was, were now subject to immediate on the spot execution. No arrest, no trial, and no rights. Just swift, brutal, and merciless justice.
The pertinent part to David Yesayan and Jennifer King was the section that laid out what happened to human accomplices. Aiding and abetting, even if you were human, carried the same penalty it would if they were supernatural. Death.
“It's within my authority to remand you to the civilian authorities if I see fit, to stand trial for the murders of Ms. Lynn and Ms. Adams,” Harris said quietly. Both of the people across from him had paled and begun trembling as they began to realize the grim future they had ahead of them. “That is contingent however on a written and signed confession and an immediate guilty plea. You will spend the rest of your lives in prison. If, and only if you provide full cooperation to this investigation. There are alternatives of course, but I'm certain it's not necessary to go into that right now.”
The implication was clear enough, Tamina thought. Supernatural Affairs wasn't in the business of imprisoning people. If King and Yesayan couldn't or wouldn't do what they were being asked, they wouldn't leave the building alive. The Department didn't have any prisons, but they did have lots of walls they could stand people in front of.
“Between the two of you,” Harris said sliding the pair of cell phones across the table. “I'm confident you'll be able to find some way to be useful to our investigation. Someone you can call perhaps.”
Tamina had to give the man credit. In the space of a few moments Harris had gained their full and unwavering cooperation by sentencing them to death in one hand, and offering them a way out with the other. She did wonder though if he'd actually go through with his threat. She wasn't so sure he would, but she'd been wrong about him before apparently.
King and Yesayan didn't appear to have the same doubts as Tamina. After Captain Harris told them what he wanted, the two of them frantically scooped up the cell phones he'd given them and began feverishly dialing and making calls.
Tamina watched with a certain amount of pleasure at their growing frustration and desperation as call after call ended without results. She knew it wasn't going to be easy. The killers likely had disposed of the contact numbers they'd used in the past. Which meant that for this to work, the two of them were going to have to reach out to any and every low-life they knew just to have a chance. Each failure pushing them one step closer to their deaths, and they knew it.
When Yesayan cracked under the pressure, he'd tried to make a run for it. He'd either forgotten, or in his desperation he just plain didn't care that Siobhan was still there standing behind him. The werewolf didn't hesitate in snatching him up by the back of his head and driving his face into the wall knocking him unconscious.
Harris closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded his head sadly to Siobhan. She picked the man up from the floor, tossed him over her shoulder and hauled him out the room without so much as a word. Yesayan had sealed his fate. There was no helping him now.
“Ms. King?” Harris prompted. The woman had frozen like a deer in headlights watching the man who'd been beside her being taken away with ut
ter and inescapable dread in her eyes. “Is there a problem?”
“N-no,” King stammered with a noticeable tremble rippling through her. “I-I can do this. Please. I just need time.”
“Continue,” Harris replied curtly.
With newfound motivation, Jennifer King was true to her word. It took some time and quite a few frantic calls to people she knew, but in the end she was able to convince someone to get a message out to the people they were after. After that, it was sitting back as the minutes ticked by waiting for a response. The longer it took, the more nervous Jennifer King became. This was her one chance at life, and she knew it. In Tamina's opinion, she was getting off far too easy. She took the opportunity to sit in the seat that Yesayan had vacated, and lay her weapon on the table beside her while she stared expectantly into King's eyes.
“If they don't call back,” Tamina whispered meaningfully. She wanted the woman to have no illusions about her future. “You're not leaving this room.”
When the phone rang, King reached out quickly to answer, but Harris' had gotten their first. He remained silent, but his eyes had locked onto Jennifer King. Paragraphs of unspoken words passed between them. Warnings. Harris instead of King acknowledged the call and selected the speaker option with a light tap of his fingers on the screen.
“Ms. King,” a soft whisperingly dark voice came out over the line. There was a slight accent that was hard to place. “Our business has been concluded and the client is pleased with the results. What do you want?”
Harris nodded to the woman across from him, and sat back in his chair with his arms folding across his chest.
“Y-yes,” King answered haltingly at first. She looked fearfully at Tamina and the weapon she was gently fingering, and she drew herself up with as much confidence as she could manage. Her life depended on it. “Yes. I'm well aware of that, thank you. I have another matter, a personal matter I want to talk with you about.”