"I meant you might want to reconsider the hobby. Remember. Only you can prevent forest fires."
"We'll try and remember that," Devin said, snickering. "Tell Smoky the Bear we'll be more careful from now on."
"I'll do that," Cavanaugh said with a wink.
"One more thing," I said. "I feel bad for Katie. What she's been through. I'd like to pay her a visit if that's alright."
Cavanaugh nodded. "I'm sure that could be arranged. Would you like to see her today?"
I nodded. "Yes. After I shower."
"If all three of you will be going, I can escort you to the station. Otherwise, I'd need to send a car to watch your place."
"Give us thirty minutes. So we can clean up."
Chapter Thirty-Four
"What do you think happened to the bodies?" Devin asked.
I shook my head. "Presumably, when we destroyed the grimoire, the souls Heather and Tom harvested were freed."
"Do you think they came back to life?" Devin asked.
I shook my head. "I don't know. I suppose it's possible. But would they attack the coroners?"
"Probably not," Devin said. "Not if they were themselves."
"All I know is when I destroyed that scroll, something happened. We need to find out what it was."
"I'll call up Hailey," Malinda said. "Maybe she'll have some ideas."
"Good idea," I said. "But I want to find out what Katie knows. She obviously knew Rose was her grandmother. She was protecting her. I'm not saying she's as guilty as Rose was for what happened. But Amelia's death, and the death of Geraldo's mom, were no doubt on account of Rose's desire to help Katie get a spot in my show."
"Do you think Katie will know what happened to the bodies, though?" Devin asked.
I shrugged. "I don't have a clue. But we have to ask."
I showered first. It was probably the quickest shower I'd ever taken. I was known for my long showers. I don't know. Maybe on some subconscious level, the water reminded me of home. This time, though, I soaped myself up and shampooed my hair fast. I even skipped my conditioner—something I'd surely regret later. Devin and Malinda cleaned up quickly, too.
We got into the car. Again, I took the front seat. Malinda tried to call Hailey while we drove. No answer. She left a voicemail and gave her a brief run-down of what had happened. We followed Cavanaugh to the Lee's Summit police department where, apparently, Katie was being held.
I stepped out of the car.
"Pardon me for asking," Cavanaugh asked. "I noticed it as I was going to my car. Is that a crossbow in the back?"
I smiled. "It was a hunting trip as well as a camping trip."
"You're a hunter?" Cavanaugh asked. "And you hunt with a crossbow? That's bold."
"I know I don't look the part," I said. "But I've been hunting for years."
"You realize deer hunting season for archers doesn't begin until the middle of next month, right?"
I cocked my head. "It doesn't?"
Cavanaugh laughed. "I work in homicide. Not exactly my priority. But you might want to be more careful about that in the future."
I nodded. "I'll be sure to do that."
Detective Cavanaugh led us into the department and directed us to the visitor area. About twenty minutes later, Katie appeared on the opposite side of the glass. She picked up her phone. I grabbed mine.
"Nicky? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same question," I said.
"I'm so sorry about Rose. I had no idea..."
"Don't you mean you're sorry about your grandmother? Heather Morgan, right?"
Katie stared at me wide-eyed with her jaw dropped. "How do you..."
"Never mind how I know," I said. "And the detectives will never suspect it. But I need to know what happened to the bodies."
"What bodies?" Katie asked. "I assumed they were in a morgue somewhere."
I shook my head. "Not anymore."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"I know about the Grimoire of the Nazarene, Katie."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I think you do. But it doesn't matter. It's been destroyed."
"It was.. but how? Rose said, I mean, well, you know. She told me that it couldn't..."
"I'm telling you the truth. The grimoire no longer exists."
"Holy shit," Katie said, shaking her head. "That means my grandmother..."
"I'm sorry. She's gone."
Katie took a deep breath and exhaled. "That's a relief! Oh my God, Nicky. You don't know the horror I've been living through the last few weeks! At first, I was just so glad she was alive. I didn't believe it at first. She was so young. But then, you know, she knew things. She had the same birthmark."
"And you couldn't tell anyone the truth. They wouldn't believe you."
"Exactly," Katie said, a tear falling from her eye. "I know this isn't the best of circumstances. I'm so scared of what they're going to do to me. I'm not a killer!"
"I know that," I said. "If there's anything I can do to help, I will. But if you know anything about what might have happened to the bodies after the grimoire was destroyed, I need to know."
Katie shook her head. "I don't. I mean, she said there wasn't any way she could die again. Oh my God, I'm so sorry about Amelia. I admit I was jealous as hell after she sang. But I never..."
"I know," I said. "There wasn't anything your grandmother told you that might give us some idea what could have happened?"
Katie sighed. "All I know is she consumed those people's souls. She said she had to. Not sure why because she couldn't die. So, you know, what's the worst that would happen if she didn't kill people? I asked if she could give them their souls back. You know, bring Amelia back afterward. But she said it was too late. Too much of her soul was already consumed."
"And did she change after she did it?"
"Yes. She got angry. More impatient. At first, when she first showed up, obviously, I didn't believe she was really my grandma. But she acted like her. She was sweet. She spoiled me. But then, like, every time she killed someone, it was like the grandma I used to know was gone. This, whatever she was, had taken her place."
I nodded. "That makes sense. Thank you, Katie. The information you shared. It helps."
"I still don't understand how you know about all this stuff," Katie said. "Does it have something to do with that weird little cupid thing? Brucie, you called him, right?"
I smiled. "It's connected to that. Let's say I've had a long-time interest in all things paranormal."
"Do you think, you know, if I get out of here that I could..."
"Katie, I don't think performing again at Nicky's after what happened would be appropriate."
"No, not that," Katie said. "I mean, could I come to see you? I'd like to get this stuff off my chest. No one else would ever believe me."
I nodded. "I can. And I know someone else who is more qualified than I am who could probably help more. His name is Dr. Cain. He specializes in this sort of thing. I'd be happy to put you in touch with him."
"I'd like that. Thank you, Nicky."
I nodded. "Take care. Remember, you were a victim in all of this too. I know you feel guilty. But there's no way to know the right thing to do facing what you had to deal with."
Katie sighed. "I'll try to keep that in mind."
I hung up the phone as Katie, in an orange jumpsuit, stood from her seat and a guard behind her took her back through a solid metal door. I felt terrible for her. Not only because she was going through legal hell. But a redhead wearing orange? It was a tragedy.
"You guys ready to go?" I asked.
Devin nodded. "Did you learn anything that might help?"
"I think so. She said Heather couldn't give souls back to the people who died. It was too late. She'd consumed a part of their souls already."
"So if only a part of who they were returned to their bodies, but not their whole soul..."
"That might explain why they attacked the cor
oners," I said.
We returned to our car. Another officer, not Cavanaugh, was waiting in a squad car parked next to ours. I looked at him and nodded. He nodded back. Apparently, we were going to have another escort back home. I wasn't entirely sure it was really about our protection. They were probably keeping an eye on us as much as anything. After all, Cavanaugh didn't mention a thing about what he'd turned up looking into my background. Until I knew for sure, I needed to be careful. Technically, phone calls with inmates were recorded. I knew that much. But this was an in-person visit. Sort of like attorneys and clients can speak in privilege, I hoped the system we used to communicate through the glass wasn't recorded. If it was, well, things were probably going to get complicated. Still, I had to know. If I had to deal with the detectives, later, I would.
As Devin drove, Malinda's phone rang. She answered it.
"Hey, Hailey," Malinda said.
"I got your message," Hailey said as Malinda turned her phone on speaker. "Did you say the bodies came to life after Nicky destroyed the grimoire?"
"Yes," Malinda said.
"And we just learned the souls that were harvested were partially consumed. Do you have any idea what would happen if a partial soul returned to a body?"
There was a long pause on the phone. "I'd need to confer with Annabelle about this. She's more experienced with this sort of thing. I've been looking into it. As a vampire, when we bite someone, we also consume a bit of someone's soul. When we do, though, it's only a component of the soul in someone's blood. Sort of like DNA, the whole person, persists in all the blood. Only when we drain a person to within a heartbeat of death is the soul taken. That's why, when someone in that condition is healed, they emerge as a vampire."
"Do you think these bodies became vampires, then?" I asked.
"I don't know," Hailey said. "I doubt it. Not if they weren't bitten first. That's what connects the remnants of the person to Baron Samedi, who holds the person's soul."
"And what if the Baron didn't hold someone's soul, but they came to life with a fraction of the soul they used to have?" I asked.
Hailey sighed. "They wouldn't be vampires. If someone totally dies and isn't healed after bitten but are later raised, they become something else."
"What do they become, Hailey?" I asked.
"Usually, a caplata does it. You know, a voodoo priestess who practices the darker side of the arts. A caplata or a bokor. They can control the corpses they animate. But if someone was raised but isn't under the compulsion of anyone, they'd operate on pure instinct."
"You aren't saying they become zombies, are you?"
Hailey sighed. "That's exactly what I'm saying. And you'd better hope they don't bite anyone else. If they do, and the rot from the bite spreads, they'll be turned, too."
"Holy shit," Devin said. "Freaking zombies? Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire."
End of Book 3
To be continued in...
Shift For Brains
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Author Notes
I hope you enjoyed No Shift, Sherlock! I've been looking forward to this book ever since I started The Legend of Nyx. The whole idea of combining Urban Fantasy with Mystery intrigued me from the start. The paranormal elements add a dimension to the typical murder mystery novel that I hope you found enthralling.
A lot of folks think of mysteries as "who done it" novels. This is more of a "why done it" and "how done it" mystery. That said, I hope the "who done it" aspect of the mystery took you on a similar ride of intrigue. In case you're one of those folks who reads the author notes before reading the book I'll refrain from offering any spoilers here. The original outline of the books, however, had a different character planned as the killer. As the "how" and "why" developed, however, combined with the paranormal dimension of "resurrection" I totally reworked the original plan. The "why," or motive, is not what you might have thought. Why the killer did it isn't totally connected to the paranormal dimension of the book but derives from a very human motive combined with the paranormal aspects that warp the killer's character.
Now—if you are not interested in the religious/spiritual content of the book—you may want to stop reading. The following thoughts are for those who find these themes engaging and would like to probe the questions a posed by the book a little further.
This book, much like Bat Shift Crazy, also mingles a lot of theology with the broader LGBTQ+ themes that are central to Nicky's character. For those of you interested in probing a little deeper into the brief debate between Devin and Nicholas regarding the meaning of particular texts I don't really have the space to go into the details regarding the passages involved. I try to keep these exchanges brief. I don't want to interrupt my stories too much by long excurses or lectures. If you'd like to probe these questions further, however, I'll add a few thoughts here. Suffice it to say that the activities spoken to within the context of the ancient world were very different than what these verses are often used to condemn. Here is a brief summary of the issues involved from the abstract of an article published by Robert K. Gnuse:
There are seven texts often cited by Christians to condemn homosexuality: Noah and Ham (Genesis 9:20–27), Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:1–11), Levitical laws condemning same-sex relationships (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13), two words in two Second Testament vice lists (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; 1 Timothy 1:10), and Paul's letter to the Romans (Romans 1:26–27). The author believes that these do not refer to homosexual relationships between two free, adult, and loving individuals. They describe rape or attempted rape (Genesis 9:20–27, 19:1–11), cultic prostitution (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13), male prostitution and pederasty (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; 1 Timothy 1:10), and the Isis cult in Rome (Romans 1:26–27). If the biblical authors did assume homosexuality was evil, we do not theologize off of their cultural assumptions, we theologize off of the texts we have in the canon. The author attempts to introduce some new arguments into this long-standing and passionate debate.1
In No Shift, Sherlock, Devin takes a position in his discussion with Nicholas that relies on the broader context of the particular verse in question to suggest that the passage is addressing incestual relationships between married males. You can look up the passage in question and the issues being addressed to evaluate this claim for yourself.
Ultimately, though, I think the more important point comes later in the book when Nicky confronts Mina on the same issue. For those of us who follow a spirituality based on the Bible, we must ask what point there is to the identification of sin. If we take Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount seriously, even a man who looks at a woman lustfully commits adultery in his heart. The point here is not to suggest that it is possible in the flesh to avoid all lustful thoughts but to reveal to Jesus' hearers that all of us have sinned at several levels. Condemning sins doesn't solve the problem. Sin is not, in fact, merely a question of disobedience or about violating certain precepts. Do we really believe that an almighty God randomly creates rules just to see how obedient we can be? If we return to the Genesis narrative--whether you take it as literal history or as an allegorical tale doesn't matter--we see human beings made in God's image. There is one thing that we're told is not "good" in the Genesis text well before Adam and Eve at the forbidden fruit. It comes after Adam is created. "It is not good that man should be alone" (Gen. 2:18). Now, before we consider this we need to think about why this might have been the case.
An "image" in the ancient world was considered an extension of authority. If a king sent an emissary he would send him as his "image," his representative, to extend the king's character and dictates to his subjects. So, if we're going to define something like an "image" of God we must consider what the text has already told us about God. What we see is a God who creates, who bears fruit that flows from a loving heart. God creates selflessly. He gives life out of the character of His heart. He offers himself to humankind, his creatures, graciously and selflessly. I
t is not good that Adam should be alone because he cannot possibly reflect this image, this selfless character of giving oneself to another, without another with whom he might experience such love. This is why, for instance, Paul refers to marriage as a great "mystery" which reflects the love of Christ for the church. The same dynamic is present in Genesis 2. Once Adam has an object to love, who will love him selflessly in return, God declarers their union "good." It is only through dynamic that human beings can start to experience in their relationships something of what God's love is for humankind. The fall into sin is not, therefore, mere disobedience. Man and woman experience "shame" in their nakedness when they sin precisely because they've reoriented their hearts. No longer accepting what was given them selflessly (all the food of the garden) they attempted to seize what was not theirs. This change in orientation meant that they now saw one another differently. Man and woman did not see their bodies as gifts to one another, but as objects to use and exploit. Selfishness overtook the principle of selfless love.
If you'd like to explore this issue further I'd suggest John Paul II's Man and Woman he Created Them: A Theology of the Body, or an abbreviated version of John Paul II's theology, Called to Love by Carl Anderson and Jose Granados.
The larger concern we find in the Bible is not so much the identification of what is or is not sin. Rather, the Bible is actually a romance. It's the story of a wayward bride (humankind) who has rejected her perfect and loving bridegroom. It is a tragedy, on one level. But it is a compelling love story as the bridegroom (God) overwhelmed by his love for his wayward bridegroom goes to great lengths to win her heart again. For Christians, this consummates with God making the ultimate sacrifice for his people. This is why, when asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus does not quote one of the Ten Commandments. He boils it down to two principles centered on divine love: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Matthew 22:36-40). Why is the second like the first? Because our love for one another is how we experience God's love within the confines of our relationships.
No Shift, Sherlock: A Vampire Hunter Urban Fantasy Mystery (The Legend of Nyx Book 3) Page 18