Seeing Red

by Lyra Evans

  “Have you enough evidence?” Cobalt asked, watching him slide the little sleeve into his pocket.

  Niko shook his head. “I need more details on what was done to his body,” he said. “Only Dr. Aspen can give me that.” He pressed the pad of his thumb to his temple, rubbing circles there. The drain from maintaining the manifested crime scene was getting to him. The throbbing in his skull had returned, increasing tenfold. He needed a painkiller and an energy potion.

  “The medical examiner? Who works for the police trying to kill you?” Cobalt asked, his point evident in the question.

  “No choice,” Niko said. “I have to talk to her.” Suddenly, his knees gave out. Cobalt caught him, wrapping his arms around Niko tightly to steady him. Niko breathed him in, aching with his impulse to hold Cobalt. Instead of giving in, he pushed gently out of Cobalt’s grasp, steadying himself on his feet. “But first I need to—” And without finishing his statement, he reached out both hands and pulled all the magic of the manifestation back into himself, closing his fists around the threads of the scene and the memory, letting it crash back over him in a tidal wave.

  “Hey, what gives?” Coral asked, stumbling sideways from the abrupt change in surroundings.

  Cobalt wrapped an arm around Niko again, catching him as he fell. Niko hadn’t even noticed he was moving. Starla went to the kitchen immediately and picked a bottle from the fridge to give him.

  “This’ll help for a bit,” she said, offering him an energy potion. Niko downed it. The cinnamon and citrus flavour was awful but it helped. “So what’s next?” She asked this just as she got a message on her phone. Pulling it out, she swiped at the screen.

  “I’ve got to find a way in to speak with the medical examiner,” Niko said, but as Starla’s expression changed, he realized they had other problems.

  “My boss,” she said, when she found them all staring at her. “He said the police have been by to speak with him about me.”

  “Are you getting fired?” Niko asked, tension building again. He tasted guilt on his tongue.

  “No,” she said. “He’s told me he knows I’m a determined asset to the team. But he says they need to cooperate with an official investigation, and to help keep my name clear, he’s given them full access to all of the properties the agency keeps for work. As of fifteen minutes ago, the police have keys to all the properties. Including this one.”

  Chapter 9

  Given the late hour, Niko didn’t expect anyone to really be at the medical examiner’s office. It was housed in a separate building to the precinct, on a property all its own, and generally had much less security than any of the police precincts Niko had visited. The circumstances of this particular case being what they were, however, he did anticipate the possibility of officers stationed there round the clock. A couple rookies paying their dues by sitting on a boring government building through the nightshift did not worry Niko. What did worry him, was somehow getting by said rookies with a caravan of three other people and enough packed duffel bags to look as though they were furnishing an amateur hockey league.

  He lingered in the delivery bay of some kind of corporate building, peering around the corner and between the two skyscrapers to take stock of the coroner’s building across the street. Cobalt, Starla, and Coral stood just behind him, shuffling bags between them to adjust their loads while Niko formulated a plan. But as he stared out at the streetlamp-lit parking lot and the cruiser sitting silently before the front doors, Niko struggled to come up with a good idea for how to approach this.

  “Why are we carrying so much water when I got you those filter bottles?” Starla asked in a frustrated whisper. “This is stupid.”

  “We packed in a hurry,” Cobalt said. “There was little planning involved. Only shoving things haphazardly into the bags so we could leave before the police arrived.”

  “If we got too much water, let me help with that,” Coral said, taking a full bottle and chugging it. Cobalt picked another and did the same. “Got some kind of weird mineralization, but overall not bad. Would drink again.”

  “Mineralization?” Starla asked. “This shit is supposed to be pure spring water. I picked the pricey stuff for you. After the dump incident, I wasn’t about to risk poisoning you again.”

  Coral picked up another bottle, cracked it open and drank half. She swished the water in her mouth almost like a wine taster, then swallowed and sucked her tongue a moment. “Nope,” she said. “Definitely treated water. Too much chlorine in there for it to be natural spring. False advertising, I guess.”

  Starla struck her chest with her palm in mock horror. “You mean the good people at the Krystal Klear Water Company lied to me?”

  Niko frowned, trying to ignore the others. The cops in the cruiser hadn’t moved in all the time Niko had watched them. Either they hadn’t been instructed to do perimeter checks of the property, or they were shirking their duties. Or they were dead, he supposed.

  “Maybe they fell asleep?” Cobalt asked, suddenly right next to him. Niko’s muscles clenched in surprise, but he didn’t show it. It was as if Cobalt was reading his mind.

  “Maybe,” Niko said, admitting it was the less grim alternative to thinking they’d died on the job. “But if they’re not leaving the car at all, we might have a way in.” He hesitated.

  “So what is it?” Starla asked. Niko turned back to find all three of them waiting on his plan.

  He shifted under their gazes. “The building is flanked by other businesses, and it backs up against another government office, with only a narrow service road between them. There’s a back door to the coroner’s—where they deliver cadavers—which might be unguarded. I doubt they really think I’d come here; maybe they got sloppy.”

  Cobalt seemed unconvinced. “Possibly. But what are the contingencies if there are guards back there?”

  Niko hesitated. “There are no other access points. If I’m going in, I’m using one of the doors. If there are officers back there, I don’t have much choice about what to do.”

  “No,” Cobalt said. The tone was final and conclusive. No space to argue. But Niko never responded well to that kind of instruction. Except under certain circumstances. “You cannot assault these officers for any reason.” He leaned in close, his eyes glinting with something close to pain. “Anything you do will only serve to build their argument and case against you.”

  Niko pulled back, running a hand through his increasingly messy hair. “Don’t you think I know that? But the only way to get answers is to know precisely what was done to Sade. Dr. Aspen will have figured that out. The reports should be in her office, so if I can just subdue the officers and—”

  “There’s an easier way,” Coral said flatly. They all looked to her. She cocked an eyebrow, giving Cobalt in particular a pointed look. “Just Sing to them.”

  “We can’t,” Niko said sharply. “Singing orders is what got us into this mess in the first place. If I hadn’t okayed the use of your power on Sade during the last case—”

  “Many more Selkies would have died,” Cobalt interjected. “And the Woods would still be operating a massive sex trafficking operation.”

  Biting back his frustration, Niko turned to look down the alley again. Nothing at all moved in the parking lot in front of the coroner’s building. “I know. But the fucking Court doesn’t see it that way. If the officers wake up or come to or whatever and remember Cobalt Singing to them before they did something—”

  In a flash, Coral was gone, pushing down the alley without any bags. Niko bolted after her, but she made it to the lit sidewalk before he could catch her. Cobalt and Starla rushed to follow him, gathering the duffels she’d abandoned.

  “What is she doing?” Niko asked sharply.

  Cobalt shook his head. “Nothing changes,” he said, more to himself than Niko.

  Starla moved to follow her, but Niko held out an arm to stop her. “If they see any one of us, they’ll react immediately. Call for backup and shoot. She’s the on
ly one they don’t know.”

  Niko watched in tense silence as Coral ambled along to the left, out of eyesight of the officers in the cruiser. He wondered, for a moment, whether she was just running for it, trying to escape, but as soon as she found shadow again, she turned and crouched down, approaching the cruiser from close to the ground. She sidled up to the back door, pressed against the metal body of the car. Niko felt his heart in his throat. He couldn’t move or speak. Then, from behind them, she raised just enough to speak into the slightly cracked front window of the car. Only she wasn’t speaking. Even from this far away, Niko felt a slight shiver and calm from the melody of her voice. He had no urge to act in any way, nor the clouded haze of pleasure that accompanied Cobalt’s Song, but he could tell she was Singing.

  A few beats passed, then Coral edged toward the back of the car and got to her feet. Without concern, she waved them over from across the street.

  Niko checked down both sides of the street, expecting to see a number of passers-by surveying suspiciously. Or for more officers to suddenly pop out of the woodwork. But the street was deserted, as most areas devoted to office buildings were at this time of night.

  Heart still pounding, Niko ran across the street to the cruiser. He stayed out of range of the front camera, but peering into the two front seats, he found the two officers, dressed in their standard duty uniform, fast asleep in their positions. One of them was snoring loudly.

  “You’re welcome,” Coral said.

  Niko spun on her. “I told you this wasn’t an option,” he whispered angrily. “They’re going to wake up and remember a woman Sang a song—”

  “They aren’t going to remember anything,” Coral said with an unimpressed look. “They didn’t see me at all, and I timed my Song to the music they were listening to. They’ll wake up and think they just passed out from how boring it was watching an empty parking lot all night.”

  Wanting to gnash his teeth, Niko turned back to the car, listening intently. The crack in the front window emitted a soft, soulful tune. The officers had been listening to music—probably the radio—which meant they were already breaking protocol. He felt the anger stutter in him, no longer certain where he meant to direct it. Coral had done them a favour, sure, but it had been reckless and dangerous and, most importantly, she’d done it without consulting anyone. Or rather, expressly acting against that consultation.

  “Let’s get inside,” Niko said, brushing it off. He had other things to focus on. He moved around the back of the car as quickly as possible, scanning for indication of other cameras or officers. But the lot was deserted, the windows of the front doors darkened.

  Cobalt followed close behind him, casting warning looks at Coral who moved without much concern. Starla came last. Niko pulled one hand into his sleeve and grabbed for the door handle through the fabric. The door held, though, as he tugged. Locked.

  “Shit,” Niko said. Popping his hand back out, he swiped one over the other, making trades as he did. He removed his finger and palm prints, then he held up the blank-slate hand to the door and traded around to open the lock. When it clicked, he opened the door with his print-less hand and gestured for the others to precede him in.

  Once they were all inside, he locked the door again and returned his prints to his hand. It was a painful trade to make, though he didn’t let on, and he had no desire to keep the print-less fingers. The smoothness of his skin was unnatural and so perfect any touch was almost too intense. He also lost grip easily.

  The building was dark inside, most of the lights having been extinguished at the end of the day. But Niko had walked these halls enough times to know his way around without guidance or light. He set off down the side hall toward the offices but stopped only a few feet down the corridor. Ahead of him was a soft arc of light emerging from beneath the door of one of the offices. The office he meant to search, in fact.

  “What’s the hold-up?” Starla asked in a whisper.

  “Is that Aspen’s office?” Cobalt asked Niko, and Niko nodded.

  “So she could be here?” Starla concluded. “Isn’t that better?”

  Niko wasn’t so sure. Dr. Aspen was a long-time colleague, and in another life, he might have considered her a friend. She was, at least, one of the few people Niko didn’t mind spending time around. But she was also doggedly empirical. She based all her opinions and conclusions on the analysis of facts. She did not speculate. Not really. And so far, the facts of the case rather pointed to Niko as the killer.

  Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Niko progressed slowly down the hall, making as little noise as possible. The antiseptic scent of the building made it difficult to breathe deeply, feeling as though he was inhaling chemical solvents whenever he did. This made it difficult for Niko to effectively calm his racing heart. He’d have to convince Aspen he was innocent. Somehow. He would never hurt her in any way. But if she reacted badly to seeing him…he wasn’t sure what the best recourse would be. Allowing Cobalt or Coral to Sing her to sleep might be more harmful than knocking her out physically. It really depended on perspective. And Niko didn’t want to cause Aspen to feel violated in any way.

  Bile in his throat, Niko approached the door of her office. From closer he could tell it was slightly open, the arc of light on the ground looking more like a scythe. When he could linger no more in the hall, he knocked gently on the outer door and pulled it open.

  “Wh—is it morning already?” Aspen asked, pushing her magnifying spectacles up her nose and looking up. “I’m just working. No need for—” she started, looking up to find Niko, Cobalt, Starla, and Coral standing in her doorway. Words died on her lips, her eyes widening to a comical degree behind the magnifying glasses. “Niko..?” she asked, dropping her pen. Niko felt the urge to run to her and cover her mouth, but he fought it. That wouldn’t gain him allies. Would it? “Oak and Ash, Niko, what are you doing here?”

  Instead of him rushing her, she rushed him. She threw herself at him in a flash of pink hair and white sleeves. Nearly bowled over, Niko caught her as she hugged him tightly. He froze, unsure how to react in the circumstance. He was not a hugger.

  “I—I needed to talk to you,” he said after a moment, unprepared for this reception.

  She released him and pushed up her glasses again. Leaning back on the desk, she nodded. “Yes, yes, I imagine so. About Hemlock, I would guess?”

  Niko blinked once or twice, still shaken by her reaction. “Y—yes.” He paused, staring at her. “You’re willing to help me?”

  Aspen cocked her head to the side, scratching behind her ear. “Why shouldn’t I?”

  Eyebrows running for the sky, Niko said, “Because I’m being accused of the murder. The police want me dead or in jail. I’m not sure which they prefer right now.”

  “Oh, dead, definitely,” she supplied.

  They all stared at her. “Right so, why help me?”

  Aspen shook her head, looking as though he was speaking a different language. “Because you deliver justice.” She picked up the file on the desk behind her. From the number and name, Niko ascertained it was Sade’s case file. But from the size of it, it was rather incomplete. He had a rap sheet as long as Cobalt.

  “You don’t think—” Niko started, and Aspen waved her hand.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Niko,” she said. “You wouldn’t do this. And I’ve found no evidence to support you did. Chief Banyan is going on some kind of power spree.” She said this all as though it was fact, which struck a chord in Niko. Words failed him, and he stared at her for a long moment, unclear on how to proceed.

  “Thank you, Dr. Aspen,” Cobalt said for him. “We cannot fully express our gratitude. Can you tell us what you’ve found in your autopsy of the body?”

  Aspen looked up at Cobalt, as though just now seeing him. Her eyes ghosted over with confusion followed by excitement. “You’re back! When did you return?” she asked, then glancing over to Starla and Coral, she got caught in another moment of mixed emotion. When he
r eyes landed on Coral, she swayed slightly, a light flickering in her irises and her lips parting. “Oh…are you a Selkie as well?”

  Coral crossed her arms. “What’s it to you?”

  Aspen took that to be an answer in the affirmative. “Wonderful! You have different colouring to the other Selkies I’ve been acquainted with,” Aspen said somewhat to herself. She adjusted her glasses, lowering them from her face to see more clearly at a distance. “I was under the impression all Selkies had white or blond hair, but yours is black. Fascinating. Is this a rarity?”

  Coral seemed not to know what to make of Aspen. She froze, blank-faced, until she finally seemed to decide Aspen was essentially harmless and answered, “I do have white hair. I dye mine.” She pulled at the roots of her hair, flattening them to show under the light. They reflected differently, and Niko saw the lightness of her roots for the first time. They were pale enough they might be translucent, which he thought was why it was difficult to tell. “Squid ink,” she explained with a shrug.

  “Fascinating,” Aspen said again.

  “Doctor?” Cobalt asked, pressing her for her attention. Aspen looked back at him, blinked a moment, then seemed to return to herself.

  “Right! The autopsy, of course!” With a little flail of her hands, she flipped through the file. “It was a struggle to sort through and categorize each different wound and cause, given the sheer volume of assaults on the body. Whoever did this was determined and methodical. They certainly did their research.”

  Niko moved to her side, looking down to the file she was reviewing. “How do you mean?” he asked, seeing the diagram she’d made of the body with indications for every different kind of torture applied and the resulting effects on the victim. He understood these things independently, but he didn’t see how it translated to research and method.