by David Jobe
Nurse Millie spun on him. “A little late.” Her words did not match her face though. To Mac, she looked relieved. “Hold onto her while I go get help.” She moved to hand over the little girl, but the little girl let out a horrible wail and clung to Nurse Millie all the tighter. Nurse Millie just shook her head and stormed out with the child in her arms.
Allison slipped into the room, her soft eyes going to Mac. “Mac?” Her voice low and full of worry.
Mac gestured without thinking. A sort of “come here” motion with his hand.
Allison gave a startled yelp as she rose from the floor and flew across the room. There she landed in Mac’s outstretched arms. She clasped tight to him, tucking her head in the crook of his neck. “That’s new.” She breathed into his ear.
Mac smiled despite the pain. “Don’t leave my side again, kay?”
She giggled into his neck. “Don’t you leave me.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Mac said, and hoped he wasn’t lying.
Part Three
Chapter Thirty-One
Get Them First
Lanton sat with his head bowed over a steaming cup of coffee he had no real desire to drink. Tendrils of steam caressed his face as he stared into the black liquid. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Allison walking the same path she had been for the last hour, her hands wringing with each step. The waiting room at this time of night stood empty except for the pair of them. Somewhere just beyond the swinging doors and myriad of hallways, Mac lay on a steel table surrounded by doctors trying to save his life.
The second time in such a short period of time. Same kind of wound, only this time the bullet had stayed inside him, complicating matters even more.
A door to his left swung open and he could see a pair of high top shoes walking toward him. Grimm back with his report.
“The body’s turning to goo.” Lanton watched the ripples form in his cup as he talked. “Techs say they won’t be able to pull any DNA from it. It degrades too quickly for any analysis.”
He heard Grimm sigh. “Yeah. How did you know?”
“Not the first time this particular person, thing, has pulled something like this. There were three at the freeway fiasco, and one at the courthouse earlier. Kid says she calls herself Henchwomen, which I guess implies there are multiples of her.” The coffee rippled with each shake of his hands.
“She the one who killed the lawyer?” He could hear Grimm writing.
“Yeah. Way I figure it is that she is killing the people involved in the death of her others. Or the defending of those involved.” He risked a glance at Allison to make sure she was out of earshot. If she heard, she made no outward sign of it. She still had the kid’s blood on the front of her shirt. They had been hugging and kissing right before the kid had coded. “I’m tired of cleaning up after these people.”
“Then we should take the fight to them, don’t you think?”
“Sounds good, but how? What leads do we have to go on? No one has any idea about what or who that dirt monster thing was. We can’t get any details to track this murder chick. The only ones I have a lead on are two people I think are playing mind games with people, and how am I supposed to write that up? Coercion? Conspiracy? We don’t have laws for some of these things. Sure, when lady kills with the gun, we can get her for murder, unless we have to write it off as murder-suicide, which is what it looks like. How do I go to the chief and say we think there are multiple versions of the same killer? I can see it now in court. We pull up one and all she has to say was, it wasn’t me. That person killed herself. It would be like trying to convict a twin for their sibling’s actions. We are fighting giants with our hands tied.” He sighed and went to take a sip but his stomach made a gurgling protest. He decided against drinking it. “You find out what happened to the kid’s detail?”
“Someone at the office dropped it down to one officer. An Officer Gontion. He and an orderly were found in a supply closet. One had a bullet to the back of the head. The other shot in the face while kneeling.”
“Jesus. Which was which?”
“Does it matter?”
Another sigh. “No, I guess it doesn’t. I knew the kid. He was young, but I didn’t think he was foolish enough to abandon his post.”
Grimm sighed. “Yeah. Well, he paid for the lapse in judgment. There is something else. There was a call to the station. Your friend Chris was involved in an altercation at the hospital.”
Lanton laughed. “Hospital. That’s polite. He okay?”
“Yeah. They sedated him. The details are garbled, but it sounds like he either stopped a fight or started one. Anyways, they would like you to come over and talk with them since you are on the contact card for him.”
Lanton nodded. “I’ll swing that way after we hear about the kid.”
“Boss?” Grimm’s voice sounded hesitant.
“Yeah?” The coffee rippled again.
“Mind if I offer some advice?”
“Shoot.” He winced. “I mean, go ahead.”
“The office is running you ragged. Maybe you should bring on some more people to your team. I mean, I have only been with you a day and I am exhausted. Start delegating some of these tasks.”
“I delegated to Gontion.”
“Choose better applicants. You want to know my idea?”
“You already started talking. Might as well.”
“Get these kids involved. Not in a meet the enemy on the battlefield, but get them involved somehow.” He squatted down so he was looking at Lanton at the same eye level. “You remember where I grew up?”
“Gary, Indiana. You never shut up about it.”
Grimm laughed. “True. You know the difference between the police and the gang-bangers there?”
“The gang-bangers have better weapons?”
Grimm nodded. “Yeah, there’s that, but not what I am talking about. The difference is who got to them first. Who gave them a sense of purpose first. The police up there were so set on stopping the next criminal, they didn’t focus on the grander picture. Get these kids involved in fixing our society instead of making them part of the problem we have to solve. I saw what kind of pull you had to get me assigned. Use that pull to get these kids involved. That one over there,” he nodded toward Allison, “she’s as tough as nails and seems to be pretty handy with a firearm. Maybe get her started on training in ballistics and keep her from going on a warpath. You know that’s what she is thinking. As soon as they come back with the news on that kid, no matter which way it goes, her next move is finding the rest of those women things and ventilating them like she did the fireball lady.”
Lanton looked over at Allison. An aura of light surrounded her. Lanton knew it meant she had some sort of power, though he had no idea what. He had been trying to avoid thinking about it, but Grimm was right. He could feel the charge in her like a thunderstorm building to a violent outburst. “I don’t know. I’m just a junkyard dog on a chain running until the chain jerks me back.”
Grimm nodded, but asked, “That chain been jerked yet?”
Lanton shook his head.
“Then keep running, dawg.” He said the last with a bit of roll to his tongue, mimicking the rappers and street kids.
“Maybe.” He returned to looking at his cooling coffee.
“Up to you. Just my two cents. You ain’t no spring chicken, and they got you running your way to a coronary. Might be smart for you to ease off the throttle and build yourself an A-Team.”
Lanton laughed. “What do you know about the A-Team, youngin?”
“I know you supposed to be Hannibal, but you acting like Murdock.” He got up and walked to go relax in a nearby seat. “Oh, they got the teleporting kid downtown.”
Lanton blinked. “What for? He didn’t break any laws.”
“I think they booked him on fleeing the scene.”
Lanton sighed. “See, this is part of the problem. He saved a man’s life by getting him to a hospital. I saw the report. If t
hat kid hadn’t shown up, Mac wouldn’t have made it. Then he jumped back to whatever hospital was caring for his wounds. Wounds that he aggravated doing his whole rescue thing. There is no reason that kid should be in holding. None. He is one of the good guys.”
Grimm shrugged. “All about who gets to him first.”
“Yeah.” Lanton nodded. “I’ll go down tomorrow to get that sorted out.”
“You should offer him a job for sure. Transporter.” He gave a little chuckle.
Lanton went to open his mouth but another door opened to reveal Nurse Millie. Her face held no happiness, and Lanton’s heart sank.
Allison rushed over as Nurse Mille moved to address Lanton. “How is Mac?”
“They got him stable. Bullet’s in a bad place. I’d say he was at risk of being paralyzed, if he wasn’t already.”
“He’s what?” Allison rounded on Lanton. “You didn’t tell me he was paralyzed! And you let me sit on his lap!”
Nurse Millie stepped in. “Sitting on his lap probably did more good than damage. What he needs now is a reason to fight. I think you showing up gave him that. Kisses helped, I am sure.”
Allison’s face flushed a deep red. “Can I see him?”
Nurse Millie nodded. “Nurse Milton,” she gestured to an elderly woman coming through the same doors she had entered from, “will take you to him. Let’s stick with holding hands this time around though, okay?”
“Will he be able to talk?” Allison’s voice waivered.
“No. But he will know you are there, and that is the important part.”
Allison looked at Lanton again. “Will anyone be guarding him?”
Grimm spoke up. “I will. You have my word on it.” He got up. “You go on ahead. I’ll check in with the boss and then meet you there.”
Allison moved to head toward the door, but Lanton caught her wrist. For a moment he thought about how to say what he wanted to say, but then just opted for being upfront and blunt. “I have a friend who sees visions. In one of them, you and your boyfriend are dead. You by hanging. Now, I don’t know if I managed to stop that fate for you, so I’ll still give you the advice he told me to give you. They are puppets. Only puppets.”
Allison blinked. “That’s it?” She pulled herself from Lanton’s grip. “What’s the point of visions if they are so cryptic?”
Lanton shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. But I want you to choose life.”
Allison nodded. “Puppets,” she repeated. “Did this friend say that Mac died of a gunshot?”
Lanton shook his head. “No. You sure you want that detail?”
Allison looked at him for a few moments, and he could see something harden in her eyes. “No. As long as it isn’t a gunshot, it can wait. Anything else?”
Lanton slumped. “No.”
Allison nodded and walked away. She and Nurse Milton vanished through the nearby double doors.
Grimm moved closer. “How did the boy die?”
“Beheaded.”
“Wow, that’s some next level shit. You sure you shouldn’t have told her?”
Lanton shrugged. “Here’s the thing. What Chris told me feels like those fortunes they tell you at fairs. Vague with just enough detail that you can work it in any way your mind sees it. I am still not sure they are even real and not part of the drugs he was taking.”
Shaking his head, “I don’t know, Boss. The girl hanging herself was kinda on the nose. I mean, I’m not one to give junkies a reason, but that’s a little more specific than ‘a mysterious stranger will enter your life’ type forecast.”
“Yeah, but then there is the other side of this. Chris says he has never been able to stop one of his visions coming true. Could be that their fate is sealed. That no matter how much I run, those two will die.”
Grimm shook his head. “I don’t believe that. Why have the visions at all, if not to change the outcome?”
“I don’t know.”
“Boss. You need to go home. Take a shower. Get some sleep. Attack this fresh in the morning. I’ll make some calls and see what I can get rolling.”
Lanton said nothing.
Nurse Millie watched him for a moment. After a moment. “I’ll make sure he gets some sleep.”
Lanton could see Grimm size up Nurse Millie. A slow smirk played across the younger detective’s face. Grimm had always been an intuitive one. Is one of the reason’s Lanton had enjoyed partnering with him.
“I’ll leave you in her capable care.” Grimm patted Lanton on the shoulder. “You follow her every order. She is a trained professional.”
“That’s enough,” Nurse Millie said.
Grimm chuckled and moved off.
Lanton looked up at Nurse Millie and his heart sank. He could see the glow that had been around Allison around her now too. He had infected her. “How’s the girl?”
“Currently she’s a stuffed blue bear, that refuses to acknowledge that she’s real. She just sits where ever we put her and plays the part of a stuffed bear.”
“So, she’s some kind of shape shifter?” That made Lanton’s head hurt.
“I guess. I will say that when I picked her up in her human form - God, that sounds weird to say. Anyway, I saw burn marks on her arms. Cigarettes, I think. Something tells me that kid’s in a bad way.” She sat in the seat across from him, letting out a long groan as she did. “I don’t even know if I should call child protective services or not. I mean, they’ll throw me in the loony bin if I try to tell them a blue stuffed bear is actually a little girl. That we think she turned into a monster and murdered a woman. Oh, and she might be being abused at home. Good luck.” She shook her head.
“I have a power.” The words flew from his lips like verbal vomit. Gushed forth from the depth of his stomach.
She raised a brow and crossed her arms, but said nothing.
He sighed and settled in for the confession that needed to happen. “I discovered it not long ago. I am still working out the details of what it is exactly, but when I come to a crime scene, I see it unfold in reverse. I see what the victim does before the event and what the perp does. I can also see other things. I am not sure how it all works together.”
“Other things?” Her tone even.
Lanton suddenly knew what it was like to be on the other side of the table in the interrogation room. “I see auras around people. It lets me know that they have powers. Sometimes I think it even tries to give me hints as to what they are. I saw a guy who I think has the ability to make people do what he wants, like puppets. I saw the aura of a puppet-master. I think. Maybe a mind manipulator?”
“What’s the part you are leaving out?”
“Not leaving out. Just working up to. I discovered that this thing. These gifts, they are contagious. Or maybe infectious. I am not sure of the proper term.”
“How is it transferred?” A small frown crept across her face.
“Bodily fluids.” He found himself staring at his coffee again.
“So, you are saying you might have…”
“I did. Not might have. I can see it on you.” He sighed.
“I don’t feel any different.” She seemed skeptical.
Lanton shrugged. “Maybe it needs a trigger to manifest? Maybe you just haven’t run into what it does? I mean, the Bulletproof kid didn’t know until he shot himself.”
“It was established he wasn’t bulletproof.”
“That’s not my point.”
“It should be. It means that his power might have worn off. Could be a limited engagement thing, like a cold.”
Lanton stood, shaking his head. “That kid was glowing like a sun up until the minute the bullet brought him down. I think that was more about an Achilles heel than a failing in his powers. Hell, he was still a light when they carted him away for the last time. I imagine it got snuffed out when he passed.”
Nurse Millie stared at him in measured silence.
“You forgive me?” He asked.
“Depends. Did you know about
the contagion before we…”
Lanton shook his head. “Got the call after. Figured it was the kind of thing you get told in person and not over the phone. Planned to tell you tonight, if we managed to get together.”
“Would seem the fates upheld your plan.” Her tone felt dry and forced.
“Yeah.” Lanton lowered his head.
Nurse Millie gave a soft laugh. “I forgive you, you giant block head, but I will let you know that sex is off the table. I will not have you doubling down on whatever this is. And I swear to God if I turn into a green monster, or a dirt mutant, you are my first victim.”
Lanton looked up, a smile playing across his lips. “So, no sex?”
“None,” she laughed. “Now let’s go home.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Reset
Seamless Suits had been a main staple of the Indianapolis Northeast side since before the freeway ran a full circle around the city. Father to son, the business had thrived because of its attention to detail and the high quality of their work. Though the shop remained a little building on a busy side street, the owners of the company lived well-off just up the block in a custom-built home. Stephen had driven by it on his way to get his first suit from Mr. Magioni, the grandson of the grandson of the original owner. “This is a lovely shop.” Stephen stood on a platform, arms outstretched, staring into a wall of slanted mirrors. In one of them, he could see Veronica typing away on her phone with a small smirk playing across her beautiful lips. Her name hadn’t been Veronica when he had met her at the café this morning. She had been a Sarah, or Sam, or some S word he couldn’t remember. She had told him and he had then informed her what her new name was. Just like that. “Veronica?”
“Yes, dear?” She didn’t look up from her phone.
Stephen felt the muscles in his neck tighten. “I want you to break your phone.”
“Yes, dear.” She placed the phone on the ground and began to stab at it with her heel. Veronica had been on her way to some big wig meeting with her corporation. Well, Sarah or Stacy had been. Dressed in a well-tailored business suit of black and gold, she looked the figure of a modern woman. Veronica, on the other hand, was unemployed. Well, maybe she could be his secretary. He wasn’t sure though. He had begun to notice that with each command, she became more robotic. Like the piece of her that made her who she was slipped away with each chisel blow. Not that it mattered to Stephen. All he needed her for was arm candy, and maybe a few little dirty deeds if she wasn’t drooling on herself by the time his day was done.