by Shaun Meeks
“Do you want to call a lawyer?”
Maybe I did. If only I knew one to call.
The detective had been gone for nearly an hour and I’d started to feel sick to my stomach. My head spun. I’d become light headed, and there was more than one moment I thought I was going to actually faint or pass out at the very least. It’d already been a long day, and it felt as though it was being stretched out even more. How far could it be rolled, pulled, tugged, and yanked before something finally snapped and everything came undone? I was sure it was going to happen at any moment. Maybe when the detective finally returned and allowed me to make my phone call…
When he came back and asked again if I wanted to call a lawyer, I’d said yes, I did. I figured at the very least I could call legal aid, but he’d yet to come with a phone or to get me to take me to a phone. I tried not to let what he’d said run through my mind too much as I sat in the small room with nothing but my thoughts. It was hard not to, though. It was even harder not thinking about what they were putting Rouge through. She had nothing to do with any of this, and had no experience that I knew of dealing with cops, especially hard-nosed detectives who already had their minds made up of your guilt or innocence. I knew she was smart, and quick-thinking, even quicker witted, but this wasn’t the type of thing you could be snarky and get out of. A murder charge was a weighty feeling on every inch of your body.
I felt impatient, and slightly anxious. One hour passed, and it was nearly halfway to the second hour being in there, and I was starting to need to piss. I would’ve gotten up and paced the room if I could, but I was still chained to the desk.
“Any time with that phone call!” I yelled, but the response was only the echo of my own voice.
This was just great.
It wasn’t until a quarter past the second hour in the interrogation room that the door finally opened again. I let out a sigh of relief. By that time, I’d put myself into a full-on panic with all the possible outcomes that had played through my head. I’d be happy to say something to someone, even if it was the super-aggressive detective ready to accuse me with more crimes.
It wasn’t him, though.
It was Detective Winger.
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” I said, as she shut the door. I smiled, figured she’d be my saviour, the one person who actually knew me here and had an idea of what I really did. No need to beat around the bush.
When she turned around, though, she didn’t look like the same woman I’d known. There were circles as dark as coal under her eyes, and her skin was pale, nearly ashen. She had a look of someone who hadn’t been sleeping much over the last little while, a feeling I knew all too well. “Are you okay?”
She sat down with a sigh, and looked at me. There was a deep sadness there, and a part of me wanted to try and console her, reach out and take her hands. But I was chained up and no doubt someone was behind the two-way mirror watching us.
“Why’d you do it, Dillon?” she asked. Her voice was low and coarse, like someone who’d just been woken up from a restless sleep.
“Do what? Are you talking about what he said? You know I had nothing to do with Chance.”
“How do I know that? I don’t really know you at all. And from what I’ve been told from an eye witness, you’re the only one who’s been at all the crime scenes.”
“I wasn’t anywhere near Niagara Falls when the church fire happened. I don’t know the dates for that, but I can tell you, I hadn’t been here in years before I got called by Chance. And yes, I was here when that happened, but I was nowhere near his office when he was killed.”
“And what about last week? You going to tell me you weren’t here last week? I’m sure you have some sort of alibi for that murder too?”
That murder? It must be the fifth homicide charge they were trying to pin on me. At least I had a good excuse for not been responsible for that. I’m pretty sure I hadn’t been an outpatient at CAMH. I just had to hope that all traces of me being there hadn’t been erased by Garcia and Dr Marshall.
“I do actually, a good alibi. I’d rather not talk about it here, but yeah, there was no way I was here.”
“We have a witness, Dillon. The same one that puts you at the church on the day of the fire also puts you at the scene where Esho died.”
“Esho? Who’s that?”
“My partner. Detective Korkis,” she said softly, but her teeth were gritted tightly and there was rage boiling in her eyes: rage aimed right at me.
“I’m so sorry, but I can tell you, I had nothing to do with that.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I can prove it.” There was no way I was going to get out of this if I wasn’t up front and told her everything that had happened. If they thought Rouge and I were involved in killing a police officer, we’d be in a world of hurt. No doubt one of us would end up in the hospital or morgue before we ever made it to court to be processed. Being transparent was the only we would walk away unscathed. “When I left here, things got pretty weird for me. The things Chance had be seeing, I started to see them too. I thought I was going nuts, and, well, I guess I did in a way. I was picked up and taken to the hospital. They thought I was nuts, so they put me in CAMH. I’m sure you know what that is.”
She nodded. “How long where you there for?”
“Two weeks. It wasn’t until I figured out the things I was seeing all had to do with here, and a doctor believed me, that I was let out.”
“What were you seeing?”
“People with melting faces. Their eyes, noses and mouths bled this black oil full of insects. It’s the same thing Chance Anderson saw. It’s the reason he called me here to begin with.”
“And Esho too,” she said, and a tear leaked from the side of her right eye. She wiped it away and shook her head. “No. The two have nothing to do with one another.”
“He was seeing the melted faces too? And did the people he saw melting eventually die?”
“How’d you know?”
“It’s the same thing I figured out. Chance was seeing it too. He lost it even more when he looked in the mirror: he saw himself melting. That was a few days before he died.”
Winger laughed and sat back down, still shaking her head though.
“None of this makes sense. You know that, right? What am I supposed to tell anyone when they ask me about this?”
“Is there nobody behind the mirror?” I asked, and she shook her head and told me the video camera was off. “You tell them what you can. But I had nothing to do with this, and I think a part of you knows it, too.”
“Yeah, that’s why I’m here. And why I turned the camera off. When you left, we started looking into everything, and none of it made a bit of sense. A few days later, Esho started seeing things, acting weird, and he started going off on his own. Then, he’s dead, killed the exact same way Mr Anderson was.”
“And someone puts me at the crime scene, also saying I was at the church?”
“Yeah. They said they never put two and two together, until Esho was found dead, but when his body was discovered, she pinned it all on you.”
“She?” I asked, but I was starting to see where this was going.
“Yeah, Chance Anderson’s secretary, Ms Mittz. She’d been clearing things out of Mr Anderson’s office, and last week she showed up and found Esho dead in the same room where her boss had died. Right away she said she’d seen you driving down the street just as she arrived, as though you’d just left the office.”
“Well, I was in the hospital, so we know that’s a lie.”
“But there’s no way she did it. Look at her. I mean, she could have set the fire in the church, but there’s no way she twisted the heads off two men that outweigh her by at least a hundred pounds each.”
Oh, there was a way. I just didn’t like the idea of what that way was.
“I need to get out of here,” I told her, and lifted my hands up hoping to get her to take the cuffs off me. “I need to get to Ms Mittz and to Chance’s office before anything else happens.”
“No. You wait here and I’ll go arrest her.”
“That’s not going to work. You have to know that.”
“I’ll take backup.”
Since she’d come into the interrogation room and told me everything she had, I’d been adding it all together with what I already knew. I’d been piecing the whole mess together into a puzzle to try and make actual sense of it, create a picture that lined up. For so long I’d been missing crucial bits, but with the new information, I was able to unveil a truth that gave me one of those eureka moments.
“Backup isn’t going to be able to help you, detective. Not with this. You’re not facing a normal person guilty of murder, there’s more to it than that. And if she touches you before I can end this, you’ll end up going crazy like the rest of us.”
“What are you talking about? I’ll bring her in, get her to confess and then you can leave.”
“It’s not that easy,” I said, and took a deep breath, getting ready to say things she might not be ready to hear. “This is not a woman guilty of murder and arson. There’s something bigger at play here, and I think it’s all focused at Chance’s office.”
“You’re going to have to give me more than that.”
“I know, for example, that some sort of gate to another realm has been opened, a place called Beelz. It’s where some pretty nasty demons live.”
Winger stood up abruptly and held her hand up. “No. None of that. I don’t want to hear this, Dillon. There’s no way I’m going to tell the higher-ups about demons and whatnot.”
“You’ll have to figure that out on your own, but if you go in there with backup, you’re going to need to know what you’re facing. There is a gateway open, and the only thing I can put together is that it’s somewhere in Chance’s building. That’s why two people have died there. I could be wrong; it wouldn’t be the first time, but what you’ve told me now about Ms Mittz, it has to be there. I’d stake my reputation on it at this point.”
“So there’s a gate opened. Why can’t I arrest her?”
“Because she might not really be who we think she is. If she was there when the gate opened, or even opened it herself, then she may be the source of whatever has come through. That’s why Esho, Chance, and I were seeing the things we were. She’s the carrier of a demon from that world, and when she touched us, she infected us. Did she touch you at all?”
“No,” she said, and sat back down. “But the day we met, Esho had been interviewing her and she kept taking his hand and hugging him.”
“She did the same to me.”
“So, we arrest her, and if she tries to touch me, I’ll shoot her. Self defense.”
“You can’t. I don’t know if this is even her fault. If the door was opened by someone or something else and she just happened to be there, she might’ve been nothing more than a convenient cab some demon has hopped in to take it where it wants to go. If you guys go after her, not knowing how to stop whatever is doing this, you’ll all end up like Esho and Chance, or in a psych ward. This has to be done right. I need to go.”
“I’m going to lose my job over this. I’m already suspended for not bringing you in when Chance died.”
“If I don’t stop this, more people will die, I can guarantee that. And there’s going to be a lot more people going into this demon’s belly than to the great beyond.” I saw her look of confusion at that, but shook my head. “Never mind that. If you think all this is already crazy, you have no idea what else I could tell you.”
“Well, how am I supposed to do this?” she asked, and looked back at the door. “It’s not as though the station is empty and I can just sneak you out of here.”
“What time is it?”
“Nearly eleven thirty.”
“And when is shift change? Midnight?”
She nodded, and I told her what would happen.
Thursday
It was nearly two in the morning when the door to the interrogation room opened again. I was happier than ever to see not only Winger back, clear evidence bag with my belongings in hand, but she also had Rouge at her side. The detective looked nervous, but if she followed my instructions we’d all come out of the whole mess smelling like roses and saving lives.
“How’d it go?” I asked, and took the bag from her. I put my things in my pockets and attached my Tincher to my belt, then turned to Rouge and hugged her. “You okay?” I whispered in her ear, and she nodded.
“It went just like you said it would,” Winger told me, but looked nervous.
“Staff is lower on the night shift, and when there’s a call of someone breaking into a business, especially one like a Tim Hortons, the cops go running. The sleepier the town, the more cars show up. I’m sure it’s all hands on deck there.”
“Pretty much.”
“And the video feeds?”
“All but the front end was turned offline.”
“Are we getting out of here?” Rouge asked, and I handed her the items the police took from her when we were arrested.
“Yeah. This time I have no doubt where to go.”
“You said that last time,” Rouge snapped back, and I could see the look of concern on Winger’s face.
“I didn’t have the full picture then. Now I do. Let’s go and get this over with.”
We headed towards the back doors of the police station and when we stepped outside, there was no sign of my car. Great.
“Where’s my car?” I asked Winger.
“There’s nothing in the report about it. Maybe it’s where you left it.”
“And how far away is Pastor Herb’s church?” I asked, wanting to make sure I had my car with me, in case I needed something from the bag Godfrey had given me. It would also be nice to get the hell out of Niagara Falls once the job was done.
“I can drive you there, but I thought you wanted to go to Chance’s office.”
“I might need things in my car first.”
“Sure. Stay here and I’ll pull my car around. We’ll go get your car, and then we can drive over to the office.”
“Id appreciate the drive to my car, but you shouldn’t come with me any further than that.”
“This woman killed my partner, my friend. I’m coming, or you can go right back in that fucking room and wait to see what they do with you. With or without you, I’m going to go and deal with her.”
I opened my mouth but Rouge put her hand on my arm and shook her head. She was right. There’d be no point in trying to argue the matter. It wasn’t as if she was going to be stubborn or anything like that. The truth of the matter was, we needed her, and she needed to see what this was all about. She was going to have a hard time explaining everything to her superiors, but at least if she was there to witness it, to see that I wasn’t lying or making up some weird story to save my ass, she’d at least be able to live with the decision she’d made.
We parked both cars a block away from the real estate office. The three of us stood on the deserted sidewalk, looked towards the unimposing building, and took a moment. I felt something close to fear stir in me. I wasn’t really on my A game, thanks to the drugs still in my system, and I wasn’t going into this alone like I normally would. Not only was I bringing a police officer with no experience in the supernatural, but I had the woman I loved at my side. Would I be worried about her safety the whole time, looking over my shoulder to ensure she wasn’t in harm’s way? That would be a good way to get us all killed, so I wanted to make sure I had my head screwed on right before we went in. I had to believe in them as much as I did myself. The problem was, I had little faith in my own skills at that moment, so my trust felt spread a little thin.
“You think she’s in there?” Rouge asked as we started to make our way towards Chance’s office.
“It’s possible. If she’s as bad off as I’m guessing, she might not be able to stray too far away from the gateway.”
“Why not?”
“Some demons can only manage to be a certain distance from their home world. It’s as though they’re tethered slightly so they need to stay close to the breech. This is especially true if they need a human host or are more of a parasite with a symbiotic relationship to the host. They are only having a piggy back ride here inside a person. Others hide in the aura of a human and devour their souls before they move on to the next one.”
“And a Beelz is one of those?”
“I don’t know for sure. There are a lot of different demons living in that realm. Or it might not even be from Beelz at all. It could be any of them, or none of them. Until I see her, or the gate, I won’t know what needs to be done. The only thing I know for certain is that one of these demons has infected Ms. Mittz, which is why she passed on these symptoms to me, Chance and your partner. How deep the grip of it is, I can’t say for certain.”
“You have done this before, right?” Winger asked. She sounded as though she expected it to be my first rodeo.
It kind of was.
“Not this exact situation, but something like it. I’ve never had a Beelz gate opened, but I know enough about them to know different ways to shut them down.”
“I’m quickly losing faith in you.” The detective’s flat voice matched her emotionless face.
“That happens from time to time.”
We got to the office front and the place was dark. I peered in through the window, thinking it might be possible Ms Mittz would be in there waiting for us, and we’d get it all done fast and easy. She wasn’t anywhere in sight, but at least the front door was unlocked.