by K. C. Sivils
I took a seat in the back and watched as the uniforms, detectives, undercover and desk sergeants all filed in and sat down. Cops are some of the most habitual people in the galaxy, and I always learned a lot about a precinct by just observing my fellow law officers go about their daily routine.
The uniforms, for the most part, looked tired, like they knew no matter how hard they worked at policing their beats, it wasn’t going to make a difference. The undercovers had that crazed look they all get if they’ve been under too long. It’s a confusing job. The lines get too blurred for my liking.
The detectives, now they were a diverse bunch. Some looked quite professional in their demeanor. They’d only made the grade a few years ago and hadn’t become cynical yet. Others had that hard look about them. They’d seen too much on the job and had taken to the bottle, were on the take or had learned when they could take the law into their own hands.
I wasn't on the take and never would be. The bottle? Sometimes it was my best friend. I'd learned the hard way it was a fickle friend that could turn on you in the blink of an eye. Now, taking justice into my own hands? That I was guilty of at times, a pattern of behavior, I couldn't seem to break. It had played a role in my winding up in one hell hole after another with orders to clean the sewer up.
Then there were the brand new, fresh from passing their exam, newly minted Detective Sergeants. They had a lot in common with puppies, followed you everywhere and made messes someone else had to clean up. I spotted the newest of the new come stumbling in and laughed to myself. My new partner had just reported for duty that morning.
Markeson would not pass up the chance to make his new Inspector look bad by assigning a young pup like that one as my partner. My job would be hard enough without having to keep the pup out of trouble, making it even easier to send bad stuff my way.
I listened as Chief O'Brian made a few remarks and turned the morning briefing over to his Captain. Pretty routine as far as I could tell, not that I'd expected to find out what I'd truthfully been sent to clean up at a shift change meeting. Markeson went down the duty roster for the day, making assignments and setting deadlines for updates on current investigations.
“Hit the streets people. Let’s keep our citizens safe and get the bad guys locked up.” With that bit of cliché encouragement, Markeson sent everyone on their way for the day shift.
Markeson cast a dark glance in my direction and gruffly announced, “Sullivan, in my office in five. Josephson, you too.”
The puppy jumped nervously at the mention of his name. Yep. My first partner on Beta Prime.
I ignored the puppy dog who had cast a nervous glance in my direction and made my way to the men’s room. Sure enough, puppy dog followed me in. I turned and glared at him, stopping him in his tracks. He stared nervously at my chest and then looked up at my face, swallowing before he spoke.
"Inspector Sullivan, I'm Detective Sergeant Josephson. I think we're going to be assigned as partners."
“How long have you been a detective,” I grunted.
“Two weeks sir. I just passed my exams.”
“How long on the job?”
“Four years.”
Figures. Wet behind the ears for sure.
“First thing, if we are partners, and you don’t know that we are yet, don’t follow me into the men’s room ever unless I give you some indication I want you to. Are we clear?”
The puppy dog swallowed again. He looked like I’d just kicked him, which of course was the point. I picked a urinal that didn’t smell too bad to relieve myself and watched Josephson out of the corner of my eye. He didn’t leave, just as I’d expected, but at least he didn’t come stand next to me and watch.
I finished up and washed my hands, shaking them dry.
“After you,” I told the puppy dog. He nodded and led the way out of the men’s room toward Captain Markeson’s office. He stopped outside the door and looked at me, uncertain what to do. I sighed and decided to let him get used to what it would be like working with me right off the bat.
I just barged through the closed door and took a seat without Markeson's permission to do either. Josephson followed like the puppy he is and shut the door behind him, apparently fearful of the reaction he'd receive from his Captain.
“Sullivan, what did I tell you about knocking?” Markeson growled.
“Yeah, it’s this thing you do when a door is closed, often locked, and you want whoever may be inside to open the door.”
“It’s also the thing you do before you come barging into a superior’s office. Do you understand Sullivan? Are we going to have a problem?”
"Look, you said you wanted to see Josephson and me. We're here, just like you asked."
Markeson gave me the evil eye, a faint sheen appearing on his pretty boy face. He ran his hand through his hair and thought about making an issue out of my testing his boundaries.
"Knock in the future," he ordered before looking down at the files on his desk. He acted like he was reading something and making a decision. I knew better. Before I had set foot on Beta Prime, the decision was made to saddle me with the rookie.
He looked up and smiled. It was the smile of a predator looking at wounded prey left behind by the herd. “Among your many duties you’ll have here Inspector, I’m going to have you mentor our newest Sergeant Detective. I see you’ve met Josephson.”
“So, this is my partner then?”
“For now.”
“Anything else?”
Markeson frowned. The meeting was not going quite as he'd planned.
“Yeah, Josephson, spend today taking the Inspector around town. Show him the ropes. Tomorrow, I’ll assign the two of you some casework. Now go.”
Markeson looked down at the computer screen on his desk, dismissing us. I stood up and opened the door for the puppy to follow me. He shut it politely behind him and hurried to catch up to me.
"I'm honored to be your partner, Inspector. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from you," the puppy announced eagerly.
"Stow it. You'll learn a lot, most of it not in the book. As to being glad we're partners? I leave that decision up to you when it hits the fan."
“Hits the fan? Sir? I don’t understand.”
“Get us a hover car from the pool. Meet me out front. School starts now.”
CHAPTER TEN
I DID MY BEST TO IGNORE Detective Josephson’s haphazard driving as we toured the city. I focused my attention on the map of the city displayed on my tablet.
“So Capital City is basically just a wheel with spokes?”
"Yes, sir. Getting from one part of the city to another is straightforward. The Space Port and Shuttle Port is the hub. The four main routes run in the four points of the compass. Secondary main routes bisect those, and concentric rings connect all the radial roads."
It was a well-thought design. But Josephson, bless his inexperienced heart didn't see both sides of the equation.
“Yeah, easy to get around Josephson, move goods, people, all that good stuff. It’s also easy for criminals to get away quick.”
“Oh. I never thought of it that way sir,” Josephson replied.
Static came from the squad car’s radio speakers.
“All units, body found. Officer down. Repeat. Officer down.”
“Dispatch, this is Detective Inspector Thomas Sullivan in Unit 148. What are the coordinates?”
I repeated the coordinates to Josephson as fast as the dispatcher could rattle them off, bracing myself as the young detective’s driving became more harrowing due to his increased speed.
“It’s close by,” Josephson announced. “Right inside our precinct line.”
I nodded in silence, taking note of the fact.
I PAUSED AT THE ENTRANCE of the alley to gather myself. It wasn't going to be pretty. I could see the blood splatter patterns on one side of the alley wall. The body covered with a crime scene tarp. The forensics unit had already arrived and was starting to process the scene. I had to t
ake a deep breath and hold it. Had to calm myself down, remind myself it wasn’t her. It couldn’t be her. I had buried her.
Josephson went barreling past me with his usual youthful misguided enthusiasm. Nobody should be in a hurry to see a dead body. I’d have to drill that into him.
I watched him kneel and lift the tarp and stare. He gently lowered the tarp back down and stood up. It was no surprise to me when he suddenly turned and took several quick steps away from the body and vomited, spewing the partially digested contents of his breakfast and several cups of lousy coffee up, most of it landing on his pants legs and shoes.
“Just great,” I muttered aloud. “Now I have to smell that the rest of the day.”
Josephson stumbled toward me, shock in his eyes.
“Detective, I know her,” he mumbled. “She’s a beat cop in the 49th. Names Grace, Grace Joleson. I took her out for beers a couple of times. Oh, God. Sullivan, he butchered her.”
Josephson started to hyperventilate, just what I did not need at the moment. I grabbed him by the collar of his coat and pulled him close, real close.
"Don't see her. See the crime scene. Process the crime scene. You can cry later. You can puke when the shift is over. Be a cop right now! Do your job!"
He stared back into my eyes, the real one and the cybernetic one. He’d gotten my message.
“You want to catch the piece of crap that did this, button up the emotions. Deal with them later. I need you here, now. You know her, I don’t. You know this place, I don’t. No detail is too small. You understand? Don’t see her! See the crime scene. Process the crime scene!”
I let go of him and walked away. I felt bad for him, but I had an even worse feeling for this victim, and the next victim, whoever it would be.
I lifted the tarp, and I knew. A predator had done this.
HE THOUGHT THE KILL would satisfy his need for the hunt for a time. It only intensified his desire to find the special one. The slender female he had spotted earlier. She would be a special one. One to be savored, treasured. He needed to take his time with her.
The cop had been interesting. For once the prey had put up a fight. Of course, he had not been able to enjoy her, take his time as he wanted. But the fight, the struggle had been interesting. She had scratched him, tearing deep into the exposed flesh on his left forearm.
At first, he'd been enraged and lost control for a brief moment, damaging the prey without thought or design. The female prey's cries of rage had forced him to end the hunt too quickly for his liking, leaving only time to leave his brand to claim her and add some finishing touches to his work. Remembering his flesh complete with DNA was under her fingernails, he'd taken her hand.
The hand fascinated him now. When he had time and could find the right person, he would have the hand stuffed and mounted, like a hunting trophy kept by hunters of mere, boring wild game. Until then, he planned to keep it in the sealed container he placed it in and then stored in the freezer in his private room at home.
Perhaps he should change his hunting style he thought. Marking his prey with his brand was a nice signature, a way to keep an official score. Taking a trophy for display though, that was a nice touch. Yes, he decided. It was time to modify his hunting routine. From now on, he would take a trophy, a symbol of the hunt, the sacrifice of the life of the prey animal and the pride of the hunter in making the kill.
“WHO CAUGHT THE CASE?”
“The new guy chief, Inspector Sullivan and that rookie D, Josephson.”
“That will be all sergeant,” O’Brian replied, nodding for the desk sergeant to shut the door behind her as she left.
Chief O’Brian mulled the news. The mayor of Capital City and the governor of Beta Prime would be breathing down his neck the instant they caught wind of the murder. Reaching down to the bottom right drawer of his desk, he opened it and withdrew the cliché drinking glass and bottle of cheap whiskey.
He poured two fingers of the cheap rotgut into the glass and sealed the bottle. He tossed back the alcohol and winced as it burned on its way down to his stomach. O’Brien quickly replaced the glass and bottle in their hiding place in the drawer and shut it. As the burning, warming sensation spread from his belly, O'Brian made a decision.
One he hoped would not come back to haunt him.
He picked up his comm piece, thumbed through his contact numbers and selected both Mayor Xue and Governor Rankin.
“Might as well beat everyone to the punch and maybe get out ahead of this thing,” he muttered to nobody but himself.
O’Brian listened intently as both politicians picked up almost simultaneously.
“I have bad news. There’s been another killing. A beat cop this time from the 49th, attractive blonde officer."
O’Brian let the two politicians vent. He’d learned long ago it served no purpose to let facts get in the way with these two. Better to just let them get their rants out of their systems before pressing for a decision.
Exhausted from exploding, the two politicians finally fell silent. Mayor Xue resumed first, nervously asking a simple, but critical question.
“Who caught the case?”
“That new Inspector the two of you forced on me, Sullivan. He’s got a rookie D for his partner, a kid named Josephson.”
"Good, good. Either way, it will work out for us," Mayor Xue commented, almost pleased the murder had taken place.
“Yes,” Governor Rankin chimed in. “If he’s as good a detective as he’s cracked up to be, this Sullivan will catch this monster. If not, he was damaged goods before he arrived. We can carry on as we planned. We’ll pin this on him along with everything else we had planned to burn him with. Keep me informed. I want hourly updates.”
No sooner had Rankin disconnected, than Xue had to get in his two cents as well, “I better be kept in the loop as well. I don’t want any surprises on this one. If this monster is starting up again, I’ve got to stay in front, keep my constituents from getting unsettled. Oh, and O’Brian, I don’t care what Rankin says. If this doesn’t get resolved soon, it won’t be just Sullivan who goes down.”
Ears ringing from the rebuke, O’Brian sat his comm piece down.
“This job is not worth this,” he said softly, calculating in his mind again how many years he had left before he could retire.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MOVING THROUGH THE crowd unnoticed, he picked his target. With a glance to his partner, he indicated the mark and the play. Nodding in recognition, his partner hurried along on the other side of the street, putting distance between the target and him. Once far enough ahead, the partner crossed over, hurrying in between hover cars.
The thief smiled briefly, watching his partner make her way toward the target, the unsuspecting mark. She stopped and looked about as if lost.
“Momma,” she cried out in panic.
Pausing at the sound of child's cries, the mark leaned over to talk to the girl to calm the frightened child. The thief relieved the mark of his wallet, watch and identity papers as he walked by, smiling at the ease of the pull.
The smile vanished as quickly as it appeared as an iron grip took hold of his tattered shirt collar and worn jacket, jerking him backward while lifting him up in the air. With ease, the mark turned Toby to face him. Few things frightened Toby, but the look in the man in the black coat with the strange collar sent a quick shiver down his spine.
Slowly, the man lowered Toby to the ground. He did not loosen his grip. Toby noticed Anna’s wrist was firmly in the man’s grasp as well.
“I believe you have some things that belong to me,” the man said calmly without menace.
“No, I don’t think so sir.”
“So, we’re going to add lying to the list of sins this morning are we?”
“Sins? Sir, I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Toby replied innocently enough, unsure what to think about the mark that obviously was not the fool he’d taken him to be.
“How many of you are working
this part of town this morning?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean,” Toby lied.
The man sighed, growing tired quickly of the lies.
"Are you and this young lady, your partner in crime, hungry? If you return my watch, identity papers and my wallet, I'll treat you to a hot breakfast."
“Toby,” Anna pleaded, making a face.
“Oh, wait, sir, did you drop these?” Toby volunteered, producing the man’s property.
“No, you took them while your partner here tried to distract me. By the way, I felt you lift the watch and the wallet. The identity papers were smooth enough though. You aren’t as good as you think Toby.”
Anna stuck her tongue out at Toby. “See, you aren’t as good as you think you are.”
“Shut up Anna,” Toby snapped back.
“Well, come on. At least the two of you will get a hot meal out of this disaster.”
The man in black did not loosen his grip on either of the pickpockets, quickly marching them up to Joe's. Toby and Anna both gasped as the warm air struck them when the door opened. As soon as he entered, the man marched them to the far corner where he promptly deposited the two thieves, one on each side of the booth. Reaching behind him, he pulled a chair across from an adjacent table and sat at the end of the booth, effectively trapping the pair.
“You know our names,” Anna chimed. “What’s yours?”
“Father Nathan,” the man in black replied.
A waitress appeared, greeting the man in black with a smile. Evidently, the smile was only for the man as a scowl quickly replaced it when she saw the two youths.
“Father Nathan, are you sure you want to eat with these two? They’re nothing more than common pickpockets.”
“Who better to share my breakfast with? Three American Earth Breakfasts, scrambled. One cup of coffee and two hot chocolates.”