by Hadena James
There was also a tarped over pool. It caught my attention because it was definitely swimming season. Most people didn’t keep a tarp over their pool in the summer, especially since there wasn’t a tree around. There was a gazebo type thing that extended over part of the pool, creating a shaded area where one could swim.
“His wife drowned in that pool,” Xavier said to me.
“It smells weird,” I told him.
“All I smell is heat and salt,” he answered.
“A lot of salt,” I told him.
“You’re right,” he frowned. “I do smell salt and lots of it. Too much for the desert that is sand.”
Xavier walked over to the pool and pulled back the tarp. I joined him. We stared into the pool that wasn’t filled with water. Instead, a mixture of salts of varying colors sparkled in the sun.
“Who fills a pool with salt?” I asked Xavier.
“Someone making mummies,” Xavier answered, he was staring at a patch in the salt. It appeared slightly darker than the others. My eyes searched over it and realized that it wasn’t just darker in color, it appeared to have stuff in it. The salts had absorbed something. I had a feeling I knew what the something was.
“We need some techs,” I told Xavier.
“Yes, we do,” Xavier answered. He went back into the house. When he returned to the side of the pool, he had the rest of our team, including Michael and several crime scene techs. Michael’s hands were still red and swollen, his knuckles looked like they would burst if he tried to bend them.
“When did you get here?” I asked.
“Shortly after your incident in the basement. I had to have someone escort me here. This cactus thing really hurts,” Michael held his hands.
“Teddy Bear Cactus,” one of the techs said.
“Yep,” Xavier answered.
“They look fuzzy, but they hurt like hell,” the tech responded. “I’ve been there too.”
“What are we looking for?” Another tech asked.
“Dead bodies,” I answered. “There are discolored spots where the salts have absorbed stuff. My guess, it’s leftover bodily fluids.”
“That’s gross,” Michael said.
“Who fills a swimming pool with salt?” Gabriel asked.
“We had that conversation,” Xavier said.
“Xavier said it belonged to someone making mummies,” I said.
The techs went to work with small scoop. Each scoop was put into a bucket to be sifted and analyzed later. With six techs working and each scoop capable of holding about two cups of salt, I quickly realized it was going to take forever to empty the pool. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one. Xavier disappeared back into the house.
“Where’s he going?” Michael asked.
“Hopefully, to get chairs and cold drinks and sunscreen,” I said.
Xavier returned an hour later with a cooler, several camping chairs, and several bottles of sunscreen. I began slathering myself up. Each time one of the techs took a moment, I walked over with a cold water bottle from the cooler. They were always thankful.
After three hours, we had removed about seven inches of salt. The techs were replaced with different techs. Also, more of them showed up. They all still wore the strange white plastic jump suits that must have made it feel like it was three million degrees.
Another three hours and a new round of techs appeared. The techs that had been working gratefully got up from the pool and walked into the house. The sun was starting to set. Another seven or so inches had been removed from the inside of the pool and it had reached the point where piles had started. The piles were salt that was too clumped together to move when the salt layer was lowered. A sinking feeling filled my stomach, there were eighteen piles.
“I brought dinner,” a voice that sent chills down my spine said from behind me.
“I thought you were headed back home, Blake,” Gabriel said.
“I thought so too,” Malachi answered. “Turns out, I’ve been assigned to babysit the FBI techs you are using today.”
“Wow, shooting a monkey really got you in deep shit,” Michael said.
“Technically, it was an ape and yes, it did,” Malachi came into view. He held several boxes of pizza in his hands. A man in a suit with him, who I could only describe as a flunky and in worse trouble with the FBI than Malachi, held a plastic folding table. The flunky unfolded the table, Malachi set down the boxes of pizza and plastic bags. “Wait, would you prefer to eat somewhere else?”
“Nope, I’m already starting to enjoy the sunset,” Lucas said.
“I’m starved,” I answered, trying to remember when I had eaten lunch. My head told me it had been a while.
“We’ve got a long night ahead of us,” Xavier said. “Once they start pulling the bodies from the salts, we will have to start cataloging all of them.”
“Are those the piles?” Malachi asked as he opened a couple of the boxes.
“Yes,” Gabriel said. “Despite my lack of forensic or medical knowledge, I know that salt will stick to a decomposing body and retard decomp.”
“A man of hidden depths,” I said.
“I actually have quite a bit of chemistry knowledge. Not like you, but enough to get me by,” Gabriel took a slice of meat lover’s pizza and started eating.
“Kyle Summers died from exposure to toxic fumes,” Malachi handed me two slices of vegetarian pizza. “I don’t remember the exact compound names, but it was complicated by his intake of alcohol. His blood alcohol level was 0.12 percent, well over the legal limit.”
I stared at Malachi. He was lying and I knew it. I didn’t know whether to call him on it or not. I had a great memory, Malachi had a perfect memory, if he had heard the names of the compounds that killed Kyle Summers, he remembered them. For whatever reason, he was keeping that information to himself. I really wanted to ask him about it.
“Created by the mixing of cleaning supplies?” Xavier asked.
“That’s the guess,” Malachi answered.
“What compounds?” Xavier asked.
“I don’t know,” Malachi answered.
“Because you didn’t look at the report or listen to them tell you or because you didn’t care enough to remember?” Xavier asked.
“They didn’t tell me and I didn’t read the report, it was only a prelim report and I didn’t want the information stuck in my head for eternity. He mixed bleach and drain cleaner and several other caustic chemicals, they created toxic fumes, he inhaled them in massive quantities and drank heavily, causing a reaction that killed him. I’ll the leave the exact details for you,” Malachi answered.
“Well, thanks for the pizza,” Xavier nodded at him. “It was about time to start searching for food. Your timing was impeccable.”
“I’ve always had good timing,” Malachi smiled at him. Whatever situation might have been brewing disappeared. We ate pizza, talked about things other than death, and kept giving bottles of water to the hard working techs. Lucas was right, the sunset was beautiful from our vantage point and the irony wasn’t lost on me when a small silver streak of light was created upon the horizon.
By dawn, all the salts had been removed from the pool. So had the eighteen bodies in different states of mummification. The local officer that had gotten in Gabriel’s face the day before had disappeared, tail tucked between his leg. The techs were all exhausted as they kept changing shifts every three hours. Just before dawn, the crew that had originally started on the pool was back.
Malachi had been there all night. He had also minded his manners and not pissed anyone off. This was nothing short of miraculous from Malachi, who had a tendency to piss people off just by being around.
“Back to the hotel to get some sleep,” Gabriel stood up as the last body was removed from the pool. “Autopsies can wait until tomorrow.”
Twenty-Seven
Thankfully, I didn’t dream that day of dead bodies, artwork or mummies. If I dreamed of anything, I didn’t remember it, making me think
I didn’t dream. I awoke as darkness was descending upon the Vegas skyline. I opened the curtains in my hotel room for the first time. We were located on the tenth floor of a nice hotel. We had moved again since we didn’t have the threat of injuries or spending the day in the heat with dead bodies that would make us smell.
It had been Gabriel’s decision to move us closer to the Strip. He had plans to let everyone relax. My idea of relaxing included a shower, room service and my e-reader. I still had a book about cannibals to finish and when I finished that, there was a book on sexual thriller killers to read.
Outside my window, the city was alive. The lights danced and twinkled and seared my eyes. The people scurried around on the streets below. I called room service and ordered a salad and a cheeseburger. As the food arrived and filled my nostrils, I was reminded of the time I had met Gabriel, sitting in the morgue in Chicago, eating a cheeseburger and a salad and staring at iron maidens looking for a maker’s mark.
Now, I stared out my window at a city full of lights and people and considered it torture of a different type. We had found our killer and he had eluded justice by poisoning himself by accident. As sick as it sounded, at least when we killed them in the line of duty, I felt that some sort of justice had been served. Kyle Summers had escaped justice by dying of stupidity. It reminded me of the shirt he had been wearing; the T-shirt with the comment about needing to eliminate stupid people from the gene pool. Fittingly, he had died wearing that shirt.
After we left, he must have gone into the basement to clean up his killing room. His mixture of caustic chemicals had burned his lungs, caused the mucus membranes to dry up and eventually, his brain had suffered from the toxic fumes. He had been in trouble anyway, the autopsy showed signs of brain damage from repeated exposure to methyl mercury and other mercury toxins given off as mercury evaporated. In a few years, he would have had holes starting to form in his brain. He would have started having hallucinations and signs of mental illness. He probably would have been caught at that point, as his brain deteriorated and dementia set in. He would have gotten away with being locked inside an asylum instead of The Fortress.
There were also signs that his killings had started long before his wife had died. They had searched his attic and found a photo album full of faces that now belonged to the dead. The first twenty or so photos had even showed Kyle Summers and his deceased wife, Mindy, posing with dead bodies. Those bodies had not been turned into art, Lucas suggested they had started as a serial killing duo and sexual sadists.
She had eluded justice as well. Lucas was planning to call home when he woke up and tell Trevor to remove the painting from their bedroom wall and do something with it before he returned. If he never saw another piece of artwork by Kyle Summers it would be too soon. I understood, for years the two men might have been staring at the last moments of a woman who was dying a slow, painful death. I wouldn’t have wanted the painting in my house either. I had told Lucas to make sure that Trevor understood that.
We had three or four days left in Las Vegas. I intended to spend most of them in my room, away from the sights, sounds and smells of the city. The mummy expert was coming back to help Xavier with the bodies from the pool and Kyle Summers’ brother was being interviewed about places important to Kyle. It turned out the Racetrack Playa had been the place he had lost his virginity. Any places deemed important were going to be thoroughly searched by the FBI crime scene techs.
There was a knock on my door. With a wistful look, I abandoned my cheeseburger and went to the door. The peephole revealed a surprise. Malachi Blake stood at my door instead of a more expected US Marshal from my team. I considered not opening the door and telling him to go away. He held up a Mountain Dew to the peep hole and I caved, opening the door.
“Thank you,” I took the bottle and walked into the room, leaving Malachi to let himself in and shut the door behind him. Most people would not feel comfortable turning their back on Malachi, I didn’t have a problem with it. I had shot him once and he had yet to take revenge except in the form of making me attend family functions with him.
“I hear you’re staying in town for a few days,” Malachi said, the door shutting quietly behind him.
“Yep, have a few loose ends to tie up and Gabriel is giving everyone some down time away from home. I think it is to give Trevor time to get rid of the Summers’ painting he and Lucas own,” I sat back down at my dinner.
“I was going to take you to dinner, but I see I’m too late for that.”
“I’ve already agreed to go to your father’s wedding, what else do you want?”
“Why do you always assume that I want something?”
“Because you do.”
“Not this time, Aislinn Cain,” Malachi sat in one of the chairs and leaned it back. “I want nothing from you this time.”
“What do you want me to get from someone else?”
“Nothing. Dinner was to celebrate. Since I did a good job of supervising the techs and assisting the Marshals, they have reinstated me at the Bureau as a VCU member.”
“Congrats,” I said, biting into my cheeseburger. “Glad to know they aren’t going to keep punishing you for killing an attacking chimpanzee.”
“I saved lives and this was my reward,” Malachi shrugged.
“So, when do you return to KC?”
“Tomorrow. Still going with me to my father’s wedding?”
“Yep, I’m done with this case and we should have a week or so before we have to start another one. We’ve been working more than they like lately.”
“Crime fighters and superheroes never sleep,” Malachi smiled.
“I am neither and I like to sleep,” I said.
“You have the nose of a bloodhound. I think you’re a superhero.”
“Thanks,” I grinned. Coming from Malachi, it was an incredible compliment.
“Deranged, but then all superheroes are deranged, so you fit right in,” Malachi smiled back.
“Done?” I asked.
“Yep. I’ll pick you up on Saturday,” Malachi stood and left. I didn’t enjoy weddings, however, I would go to this one. Bob was a nice guy and his relationship with Malachi was stiff to say the least. It was almost formal. Malachi’s disconnect was just that great. I was more attached to Bob than his own son. His cologne continued to linger in the air and I made a mental note to tell him not to wear it to the wedding.
I finished the cheeseburger and salad and set the tray and dishes in the hallway before I locked myself back into my room. The city was still trying to tempt me to join it. The flashing lights screamed at me to come join the fun. I considered it. The hotel we were in had a casino, but I figured a casino was another rung of Dante’s version of hell that only I would truly understand. The others might enjoy them, but not me.
Personally, my e-reader and the soft noises of my hotel room were good enough. My house would have been better, but since that didn’t appear to be an option, I’d tough it out in the hotel room. I booted the e-reader and before I could open the book, there was another knock on my door. Sighing, I got up and checked the peep hole. The eye that stared back was more what I expected. I recognized the deep blue iris with the almost midnight blue ring around it.
“I see Malachi’s been up,” Lucas said as I opened the door.
“Yep. I keep thinking that I’ll be able to curl up with my e-reader and finish my book on cannibalism and it just isn’t working.”
“Ah, why read about cannibalism when you can come party with us,” he gave me a wolfish grin and stepped into my room.
“Uh, why would I want to go party with you and the rest of the misfits?” I asked, making sure to fill my voice with suspicion.
“It would be fun. You know that thing you rarely have. We are invading the hotel pool tonight and drinking heavily. Or at least, Xavier and Michael are drinking heavily. Gabriel and I will be drinking in moderation. You can have soda.”
“I have soda here and I didn’t pack a bathing suit sinc
e we were working.” In my head I added that I also hadn’t packed a wrap to go around a bathing suit.
“So, I guess it’s a good thing Trevor packed you a suit in my suitcase along with a wrap that goes around your legs and a wrap that goes around your shoulders and a swim skirt, whatever the hell that is,” Lucas sat down in the chair Malachi had vacated. It creaked under his weight.
“Remind me to mark Trevor off my Christmas card list,” I said.
“That would work, if Trevor didn’t send out your Christmas cards,” Lucas said. “Face it, Aislinn, you have no excuse not to visit the pool and enjoy a little night time air. The moon will be good for you. The fresh air will be even better and our company will just be the icing on the cake.”
“I don’t like cake,” I told him.
“Honey, there are a lot of things you don’t like. However, you had a great time swimming at Gabriel’s, none of us have seen you that happy in ages. So, if you don’t come willingly, I’m here to kidnap you and take you to the pool using force.”
“You know what, I actually have something I need to do,” I said.
“What?” Lucas asked.
“Just something,” I told him, holding out my hands. He slipped me a set of car keys.
“I’d feel better if you told me,” Lucas said.
“I’ll be fine, not even close to anywhere dangerous or with flashy lights,” I left Lucas in my hotel.
The drive was slow, but easy. The GPS worked great in the SUV. It navigated me away from Las Vegas Boulevard and into seedier areas. My phone beeped; the text message said my phone had just been located. I smiled.
I pulled into one of the few parking spots in the lot. The building didn’t look any better at night than it had in the daylight. A few men and women milled around outside. My watch said it was nine p.m., I hoped they were still here.