“I need you to find the Shadow-Dwellers yesterday and shut them down,” Elowen continued. “Especially the one who revealed herself during Alvilda’s abduction, Mimir. That’s top priority from the mayor himself. I also need you to keep your focus quiet from the public. The absolute last thing we need is the city in a panic over what most consider to be ancient boogeymen!”
“We’ll all do our best, Chief,” Quinn replied.
“No, Quinn.” Elowen slammed her fist down on the table, and Becka noticed she wasn’t the only one to jump in response. Only Hamish was unmoving, cool as a cucumber. “You’re lead on the team. I don’t care if you give your best or your worst. If news that the Shadow-Dwellers are real and actively killing people in this city becomes common knowledge, not only could the city descend into chaos, but the mayor will also have all of our jobs.”
“Okay. What’s our cover story?” Quinn asked.
“If pressed, you’re to reveal we are investigating a suspected serial killer who is abusing magic they procured illegally,” Elowen replied. “You may imply they are either human or shifter, the mayor doesn’t care which.”
“No shifter would—” Hamish broke in, his cheeks flushed.
“It doesn’t matter,” Elowen replied, her tone sharp. “And further, I don’t care. I need to know you understand the importance of keeping this under wraps.”
Hamish worked his jaw for a minute, his right fist clenched, and then nodded. “I understand you. I meant the narrative is more believable if the suspect is human.”
“Fine, go with that,” Elowen replied.
Becka cleared her throat. “How many murders have you associated with Shadow-Dwellers in the city?”
Elowen leaned back in her chair, looking around expectantly. She’d come to crack the whip, and now looked around expectantly for them to fall in line.
Ted tapped the screen on his tablet device. “Let me bring up the timeline of suspected cases.” A moment later, the image switched from Suspects to Timeline.
Taking in the dots and year markers displayed, Becka’s throat constricted. For a moment, she couldn’t even breathe.
Chapter 6
Ted made sweeping gestures on his tablet, which controlled the view on the wall display screen. The sequence zoomed out, showing the entire timeline, revealing dozens of dots, each connected to their own case.
Becka forced herself to take a long deep breath. She’d been thinking a dozen deaths. Maybe double that? But, if she was interpreting the graphs correctly, there’d been eighty to a hundred in the last six months alone. And it didn’t take formal training in statistics to see that the trend had markedly increased in the past few months.
“How far back does it go?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper.
“We have cases tracking back nearly a hundred and fifty years. The early cases don’t have the detailed documentation we keep now, but we continue to update those historical cases as additional evidence comes to light. Until recently, the killings were sporadic and regularly spaced out; about one every six to twenty-four months. As you can see, that's all changed in the past seven to nine months.” Ted leaned back in his chair, gesturing for her to take control of the viewscreen. “They’ve managed to leave minimal traces at the scenes, which is remarkable when the bodies have been exsanguinated. We believe they have significant funding and numbers in order to manage this level of coverup.”
Becka picked up a tablet on the table near her, but she wasn’t quite sure where she wanted to begin. Unlike most fae, she’d been raised in the city and therefore understood how the technology worked just fine. But understanding where to start with a killer or killers who’d operated over lifetimes?
It was difficult to wrap her head around. Mimir, or the Shadow-Dwellers, had been responsible for all of this death? And she was supposed to help bring them down?
“This isn’t just a death cult,” Becka said. “Not if they have financing. Do you know how they get their money?”
“We’ve formulated a theory, based on a couple of confidential informants who’ve claimed to work for them. They seem to have their hands in all sorts of businesses, and it appears they are behind the unregulated magic trade in the city.”
Becka had fought off a magic junkie with her sister a couple of years ago, so she knew the problem was no joke. “Junkies are a real issue. How expansive is this criminal organization?”
“It sounds like Becka is coming up to speed with the scope of the Shadow-Dwellers’ reach.” Chief Elowen pushed back her chair and stood, the sound interrupting everyone’s concentration. “I'll let you get to it. Just remember the official line: you're chasing after a human serial killer. End of story.” With those last words, Elowen swept out of the room, closing the door behind her.
“No pressure,” Caeda muttered.
“We should be glad she didn’t tell us to have the case closed by next week,” Hamish said.
“It gives the chief time to let us settle in before dropping the other shoe,” Nikkita added with a nod.
There was an uneasy murmur of laughter around the table.
Quinn stood up, placed his hands on the table, and looked at each of them. “You heard Elowen. Whining about it won’t change a thing.”
“We get to react,” Ted replied, holding up a hand as if he could pause everyone’s moods. “Wait, since you’re the lead on this case, do I have to call you boss now?”
Quinn’s lip curled in a half-smile. “Boss works, or you can keep calling me Quinn. Means the same either way.”
Hamish barked out a laugh, and Ted glared at the shifter. “What? He’s funny.”
“Any other questions before we dig in?” Quinn asked, but his tone cautioned them against pushing him.
“Yeah, I have one,” Nikkita replied, leaning back in her chair. “Why do we have to have her on the team?” She pointed at Becka. “She’s dishonest. I’ve also read up on the poisoning investigation, and she takes a lot of risks.” Becka felt her brows rise. Nikkita was not one to pull punches, but could she blame her? “Risks that could hurt our team and our ability to focus on this case. Seems like we could get by just interviewing her when needed?”
“Becka Rowan is serving her civil service with the bureau, so she’s already at the department’s disposal for assignments. We believe her Null ability will give us an edge against the Shadow-Dwellers’ magic, as she’s uniquely able to see through it. Plus, she’s promised to make every effort to amend her prior behavior. Do you have any other problems with her?”
Hearing his defense, Becka sat up straighter and nodded in agreement with Quinn.
Nikkita leaned forward and shrugged. “The chief made it clear all of our jobs are on the line if we fail. We humans don’t have the houses and enclaves you fae-touched and wolves do if things go sideways. You have less to risk, because you have something to fall back on if you get fired. Plus, beside what I’ve read in the reports, Becka's an unknown to me. Some fae houses, like Hawthorne and their allies, have already filed complaints that she’s working with us. She brings complications, and we can’t be blind to them. That’s all I’m saying.” She looked Becka in the eye. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Becka shot back.
Becka looked at Quinn, but his expression was neutral and difficult for her to read. Considering their recent fight, would he defend her to Nikkita?
“Elowen trusts her for this case. That’s all you need to know,” Quinn replied. “I do hear your concerns. Do you have anything else to add, or can we get to it?”
Nikkita held up her hands, giving up the issue, at least for now.
“I have a question,” Becka said. “Elowen said you’ve been investigating Shadow-Dweller activities for years. How long has this task force been around?”
“Just over eight years,” Quinn replied. “Although this is the first time it’s been made our sole priority. Also, we call her Chief, or Chief Elowen.”
“Oh,” Becka replied. “Got it.”
> “That’s the understatement of the day,” Caeda muttered.
“Okay, let’s get Becka up to speed.” Quinn turned to the screen and started reviewing the timeline.
Becka tried to focus, but Quinn’s response to Nikkita ate at her. How long would it take to win back his trust, assuming she could? She shook her head, trying to dispel the worry dragging her thoughts to distraction. Becka picked up a tablet and started taking notes to stay focused on the case.
“… that adds up to over 130 deaths in the last six months,” Hamish said. “For some perspective, the average number of homicides in Denver over the past ten years have ranged from fifty to a hundred annually, including only humans and shifters. Fae deaths over the same period range from a hundred to two hundred per year, closer to 250 this year. The fae percentage of the population in Denver fluctuates between five and ten percent, about fifty thousand total residents. That means the homicide rate for non-fae is about ten per hundred thousand. For fae, it’s more like ten for every 3,500.”
A hundred thirty? Becka knew Shadow-Dwellers killed by siphoning the magic out of their victims via their blood. But why the recent escalation?
“Does that include Luce and Alvilda?” Becka asked.
“Yes,” Caeda answered. “So nine other murders within that range, all here in Denver.”
“And only fae were murdered?” Becka asked.
“We’ve only flagged fae as part of this investigation. As human and shifter murders haven’t spiked to match the fae deaths, and they don’t have magic to steal, they haven’t been our focus,” Ted explained, digging through the case data via his tablet. “There are plenty of unexplained deaths in this city, separate from the homicides Hamish noted. Let’s see, in the past three months there were only three incidents of deceased humans discovered alongside fae bodies.” He tapped his device. “Here, and here.” Blue circles popped up on the screen, showing the crime scenes involving both fae and human, with an event timeline running below the map display. The deaths were fairly regularly spread out, which amounted to about one murder every two to three weeks. “Just a single human each time. Two were male, one female.”
“Perhaps the humans died attempting to defend their friends? Or were bystanders who got caught up in the attack?” Becka asked.
“Both are possibilities,” Nikkita responded. “As part of my beat, I’ve been canvassing the areas undercover and there are some less-than-reputable underground establishments in both neighborhoods that don’t discriminate based on species. The theory is Shadow-Dwellers are capitalizing on these ‘middle zones’ where species come together to find magic customers. It’s not uncommon to come across illicit drug or magic trade either. So the humans could have been dates, or maybe customers?”
Did she just place interspecies dating on par with whoring, illicit drug, and magic use? Becka didn’t know if that was a sign of Nikkita’s inherent prejudice to fae or just a statement of facts. Based on her earlier comment, Becka figured the former and perhaps also the latter were true. Either way, Nikkita’s inference that fae traded sex for money left a foul taste in Becka’s mouth.
“How do we know when the line gets crossed with magic trade?” Becka asked. “I mean, plenty of magic is bought and sold legally in the city.”
Hamish answered her question. “Sure, but it’s regulated magic. Humans aren’t allowed unrestricted access or they can fall into addiction and persisting intoxicated states.”
“I’ve witnessed it,” Becka replied, thinking of the man who’d attacked Tesse and herself. “But it’s not something we fae have to worry about.”
“Nor we shifters,” Hamish replied. “But without oversight, even well-intentioned humans can get caught up in the thrall of some magic.”
Nikkita accessed her device, and a moment later a frame popped open in the upper right corner of the screen with a map of downtown, with some highlighted dots in reds and purples. “The reds are the club locations, the purples are where we discovered the bodies, usually within a few blocks of the clubs.”
Becka thought back to when she’d met Tesse for dinner in the city a few years ago. She’d narrowly rescued Tesse from a magic junkie hoping to cash in on her sister's powerful gift while also feeding his addiction. She didn’t think that was one place Nikkita had known about, but Becka definitely knew how volatile and dangerous dealing with a magic junkie could be.
“The Shadow-Dwellers could use those locations to target and then feed on vulnerable fae. To draw them out, we’d need a better lure than a human woman. No offense, Nikkita,” Becka said.
A brief look of surprise flashed across Nikkita’s features, followed by a slight smile. “None taken. You’d make an ideal lure, considering Mimir’s interest in you.”
She had a point.
When Becka looked back to the screen, Quinn had her fixed in his crosshairs. “Any such operation would have to be signed off by the chief. You’re not to take action on your own. Understand?”
“Understood,” Becka replied, wanting to reassure him. “I won’t run off on my own.”
Quinn’s shoulders relaxed just a smidge, but Becka sensed the point would come up again later.
“Is it time for crime scene photos?” Caeda interjected. “Or am I the only one who finds looking at dead bodies illustrative?”
“Everyone knows you have odd tastes,” Ted replied, but he was already pulling up images from the first event on the timeline. They split the screen between a map of the locations and the pictures with a timeline along the bottom. The face of a dead fae male popped into the picture segment. “We’ll start with the first one within our parameters. Who wants to review the notes?”
“I’ll take it,” Hamish said, swiping through the case files on his tablet. “This is Baraa Hazel, discovered in an alley near 17th and Blake. Cause of death was determined to be exsanguination.” He tapped on the tablet and the picture changed, displaying a body, limbs akimbo, lying limp on the pavement. “The lack of blood at the scene shows this is not where Baraa was killed. We determined this was a dump location only.”
“Is that typical?” Becka asked.
Hamish nodded. “Very. It’s how we’ve found them all, including Alvilda. Luce would be the one exception.”
Becka took a deep breath, the memory of Luce’s death still so fresh it was raw in her emotions. She watched as Hamish moved on, body after body flashing up onto the screen, all following the same pattern. First the headshot, then images of the discovery location, and then images of each naked body from their autopsy.
She couldn’t take her eyes away from the display, despite losing focus on Hamish’s words. The autopsy photos focused on the wounds, which inevitably were surrounded by Shadow-Dweller glyphs—which had become all too familiar to Becka.
After Hamish had cycled through another few sets of photos, Becka couldn’t wait for him to finish, so she interrupted. “Do the bodies always have the glyphs?”
Everyone turned to her and stared in silence. Had she mumbled? Not made sense?
Becka cleared her throat. “In each of the autopsy photos you’ve shown, there were glyphs on the bodies near the wounds. Is that the case for all of them?”
“What glyphs?” Nikkita asked, frowning at the screen.
But Quinn arched a brow. “I suspected, due to your gift, that you might see something the rest of us couldn’t. It’s one of the reasons I wanted you to have a look at these case files. Are they like the markings that were on Tesse?” He stood up and walked around the table to her. He picked up the tablet in front of Becka and spent a moment configuring it.
Oh… “No one else can see them? None of you?”
“No.” Hamish leaned back in his chair. “Have the markings been there with all of the photos?”
Becka nodded. “Yes,” she replied to Quinn. “They seem very similar to what I found on my twin.”
“Were you able to decode the ones you found on your sister?” Caeda asked.
“No. I drew Tesse�
�s glyphs for Quinn, but I don’t know how to decode them.”
“Have you seen these glyphs in other places?” Ted asked.
“The Shadow-Dweller book Quinn gave me to look at has them, and I think everyone can see them?” Becka looked up at Quinn for confirmation.
“Yes, I think everyone here has studied that book,” Quinn answered.
“I remember it,” Nikkita said. “Our attempts to decode it have failed.”
“Which is why I passed it to Becka.” Quinn placed the tablet in front of her. “I’ve loaded up the autopsy photos into this program, which will allow you to draw right on the screen. Can you go through them and fill in the blanks for us?”
“Sure thing,” Becka replied, placing the device on the table before her. She thought about how she’d removed the marks from Tesse’s body, but also how she’d been able to reveal the markings to Quinn for a moment before the revelation process had destroyed them. “Are any of the bodies still here?”
“Just Alvilda Rowan,” Ted replied. “We should have it for another day or two before we need to transfer it back to her house for burial.”
They’d found her cousin clothed, so it didn’t surprise Becka that she had seen no glyphs on her.
“Do you want to look at her?” Quinn asked.
“Let me go through these images first,” Becka replied. The idea of seeing her cousin Alvilda again just made her heart ache. But that was the job, so she’d do it.
“Should I keep going through the cases?” Hamish asked.
“Sure, something else might jump out at Becka, and a review for the rest of us is valuable,” Quinn replied.
Becka focused on the morbid task ahead of her. On the tablet, she used a stylus to outline and fill in the glyphs on the autopsy images Quinn had loaded up for her. It felt a bit like filling in a coloring book, but the stakes were like nothing she’d experienced at school.
Shadow Underground: A Romantic Urban Fantasy Murder Mystery (The Shadow Series Book 3) Page 6