Alien Rites

by Lynn Hightower

  “David, you want to go to bed, it hurts to look at you.”

  “Don’t look at me.”

  They were interrupted, mercifully, by the slamming of the back door, and a parade of children fresh and clean from their baths, ready for bed and bearing gifts.

  Lisa beckoned to Mattie, who put a box wrapped in gold foil at their feet.

  “Open it.”

  David looked at Rose. “You.”

  She gave the girls her sideways, playful look. David had not seen that look in ages.

  “It’s dirty socks,” Rose said.

  “Pig chow,” David guessed.

  The foil revealed a cardboard box. Rose lifted the top.

  “Because you broke all the dishes,” Kendra said.

  Rose laughed. David peered into the box. Paper plates, plastic cups. He smiled and gave his daughters extra long hugs, but he got the message. Rose herded the girls off to bed.

  Mattie lagged behind. “Daddy. Can you read the story tonight?”

  He wanted to pick her up, but he didn’t have the strength.

  Rose’s voice came in through the screened door, saying Daddy didn’t feel good, so give him an extra kiss and come on.

  She knew the right things to say to make it all better for the children, David thought.

  He missed Teddy. He wanted to talk to her. Sometimes he touched the phone and said her name, but he was kidding, because he had no intention of picking it up. What if he died and never saw her again?

  He had waited too late. He closed his eyes, wishing she would call him, imagining the phone ringing, himself saying hello. But all the time he imagined it, he knew it wasn’t going to happen.

  FORTY-NINE

  He had gone to sleep thinking of Teddy, so when the phone rang, he was sure it was her.

  It was Dispatch.

  “Detective Silver, sorry to disturb you, but we’ve had an emergency call from the home of Angela Nassif. Do you know a young woman named Crystal?”

  David sat up. “Yes.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, the situation is a little … What I know is we’ve got blood trails and a young woman who seems very shocky. She refuses to talk to anybody. She asked for you. We thought—”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Rose propped herself up on one elbow. Her eyes were dark with exhaustion. He wasn’t the only one not sleeping.

  “Want me to drive you in?” she asked.

  She was good, David thought. No questions, just pure practicality.

  “No thanks,” he said.

  The street looked different at night, busy with patrol cars, and an ambulance poised and waiting. The uniforms had cordoned off Angie Nassif’s yard as well as the one next door. David thought about blood trails.

  He sent his car to find a spot farther down the block, walked up to the unmarked car. A woman in sensible shoes turned, looked at him as he clipped his ID to the waistband of his jeans.

  He saw from the ID on her grey blazer that she was Sergeant Courtney.

  “You’re Silver?”

  He nodded.

  “Good of you to come. Look, I know you’re here to talk to this girl, but you better get grounded first. It’s a mess.” She headed for the open front door without a backward glance, and he dutifully followed.

  The first thing he noticed, after the blood, was the sliding glass doors open, curtains torn and pulled away. Moths, drawn by the light and possibly by the smell of blood, had congregated on the ceiling. A pink dress-shoe lay on its side by the couch.

  “You have any idea what happened?” David asked.

  “Obviously from the blood and tissue, somebody was fatally attacked. How exactly … kind of hard to imagine at this point. I’m assuming the attacker used something big and sharp, maybe a machete.” She pointed to the overturned couch, the broken lamp. “There are parts over there.”

  David took a quick look. Saw two toes, still connected, lying next to a blood spattered barbell. The severed edge of the toes was ragged, the flesh torn. Not clean enough for a machete, David thought.

  “God,” he muttered.

  “Yes. Sorry to drag you into this.”

  “It’s okay.” He focused on her face, the nicest thing to look at in this room. She’d be close to retirement, black hair liberally streaked with grey, small half-glasses on her nose. A bit on the thin side, David thought. Worked long hours, skipped meals.

  She moved in an aura of energy and competence he found attractive.

  “Where’s the body?” If Crystal had asked for him, it had to be Angie who was dead.

  Sergeant Courtney grimaced. “This way. Trail starts here.”

  The blood glistened wetly on the carpet. David followed the dark line out the sliding doors onto the small patio and into the grass. The blood-soaked mate to the pink shoe had caught in a crack between patio tiles.

  The smears of blood thinned and widened. The grass was torn and scuffed.

  “Dragged?” David asked.

  “Yes. Look at this.”

  The yard was fenced in by an eight-foot wood privacy job. One of the planks had come loose and sagged to one side. Someone or something had forced their way through, splintering the wood. Bits of tissue and blood were clotted on the jagged edges. A snag of material—pink cotton—hung limply from one of the broken slats.

  “Nasty, isn’t it?” Courtney said.

  David followed her to a back gate that hung open. The other side of the fence was bordered with a flower garden, thick with begonias. Humped up against the fence where the wood had broken through was what was left of Angie Nassif.

  She had not changed out of her work clothes—stayed late at the office, perhaps. Both lapels of her pink blazer were slippery and red. She was on her back, cushioned by pink and white blossoms, face up, unfortunately. Her legs were bent and twisted, one foot mangled, and her right wrist ended in a well of blood.

  David wondered where they’d find the hand. Or if they’d find it.

  She had been disemboweled, stomach torn open, ropy coils of intestine spilling over the sides. David asked Courtney for a light, and shined it into the open body cavity.

  He looked up. “Not a machete.”

  “Yeah, it would be clean cuts and these aren’t. This one’s really got me rattled.”

  David switched off the light. “She’s been mauled. Looks like whatever tore her up was feeding. There are … parts missing. Internally. And smears of blood here, around the ribs.”

  Courtney shook her head. “But what—a lion, do you think? Because if so, we need to get people dispatched to catch this thing.”

  David hesitated. He hated interdepartmental secrecy, because it put people at risk.

  “I think it’s a trillopy.”

  “A what?”

  “It’s an Elaki thing.”

  “But—”

  “Smuggled in someway—I don’t know how yet, but I will.”

  “How did—”

  “I’m sorry, Sergeant Courtney. I really don’t have any useful details. I’ve never even seen one of these things. I just know they’re predators and, clearly, dangerous as hell. If you have an Elaki advisor, give him a call. And, this is important, Sergeant—the animal may be infected with a potentially lethal viral bacterial hybrid. For all I know, the corpse may be contaminated. Have your people take precautions.”

  She shook her head. “You look sane.”

  “This is complicated. It’s tangled up with a missing person case that’s turning into a homicide.”

  “Why do I have the distinct feeling you may be in hot water for telling me this?”

  David shrugged. “Your people need to be protected, and they should know what they’re up against. And the water is already as hot as I hope it gets.”

  A shiver went through the sergeant, sudden and involuntary.

  David had only looked at Angie Nassif’s face for a moment or two, but the afterimage stayed in his mind.

  “Crystal,” he said.

  �
��Follow me.”

  FIFTY

  Crystal was upstairs in her room, Sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed. David was reminded of the way Kendra looked in the dentist’s office. Crystal seemed miraculously composed, not necessarily a good sign. There was no color in her face.

  David noticed a backpack peeking out from under the bed. Some of the dresser drawers were partly open. Crystal wore a jacket, sturdy shoes, hair braided back. Dressed for the road, David thought.

  He knew better than to try and touch her. He took a small white chair from behind an imitation French Provincial desk, and pulled it halfway across the room, facing her. Close, but not too close.

  “Hello, Crystal.”

  When she smiled, she looked very young. She put her hands in the pockets of the jacket. It was hot in the room, but she was shocky, she’d be cold.

  “I’m not going to the hospital.”

  He knew the feeling. “They can’t make you.”

  “They’ll try.”

  David looked pointedly at the backpack. “But you’ll be gone by then.”

  She tilted her head. Spoke softly. “Are you going to tell on me?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think you should just take off, Crystal, I don’t think you should be alone, but it’s up to you. Is there anyone you can go to?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Not anyone?”

  “No sir.”

  “I could put you up for a while. I live on a farm, you could help me with the animals. I’ve got a pig, a dog and a cat, a cow that eats candy.”

  She smiled, but it was a no. Her face went soft and sweet while she’d thought about the animals. She could have been a happy child, David thought, if she’d had the chance.

  “I’ve been on the road before, Mr. Silver. I know how to handle myself. I know where all the right shelters are.”

  “Crystal, there are people who will help you.”

  She gave him a look that was wise, old, and knowing. “I’ve been part of that system all my life. It’s a hard way to live and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

  David reached into his pocket, pulled out a magnetic card he kept for emergencies. “Free credit. Unattached, payable to bearer. Don’t lose it.”

  She took it with a grateful look, made it disappear inside the jacket. “Thank you.”

  They were quiet while she contemplated the floor.

  “I have a lot of important stuff to tell you.”

  “Can you talk now?”

  “Now or never.” Her voice went softer, and very flat. “Angie worked late tonight, so I fixed supper. I set the table and was cooking micro-meals. I was busy, so she … she took the bearfox outside to do its business. I was afraid of it, so she always took care of it.”

  “Bearfox?”

  “I forget what it’s really called. She got it from the Elaki.”

  David could swear she was telling the truth. Could Angie Nassif really be so stupid? “Are you talking about a trillopy?”

  “Yeah, that’s it.”

  “You kept it here?”

  “Angie did. She got it one night, a few days ago. It was going to be evidence to clear Annie Trey.” Crystal looked David in the eye. “Annie didn’t kill that baby, it got sick. Angie said the bearfox … the trillopy, would prove it, because the animal carried the sickness.” Her eyes widened. “They were going to take Jenny away from her mother. The motion thing was already in effect, so Angie said she had to cut corners and work real fast. The teddy bear thing didn’t turn out, and Angie was real disappointed. But the bear was worth a lot of money. She was going to sell it and quit her job and we were going away to be safe.” Crystal bit her lip. “Sometimes I think there’s nowhere safe in this world.”

  “Crystal—”

  She shook her head. “Angie was real worried about this thing with Annie, and didn’t want to leave till it was settled. She quit sleeping, just worried worried worried. Then one night she goes out and comes back with this trillopy thing. She said it was trained to be a pet and wouldn’t hurt us if we were careful. I was scared of it. But Angie would pet it, and it licked her hand.”

  David had a sudden image of Angie’s wrist, smeared with blood.

  “I was in the kitchen when I heard her start screaming. She sounded mad and real scared. I ran to the living room. The sliding glass door was open, and there was another one in the yard.”

  “Another trillopy?”

  Crystal nodded.

  “And this one wasn’t a pet,” David said.

  Crystal stared at the floor. “It was real big, the other one. It wasn’t acting like any animal I ever saw before. I think it came for the female. It … I think the female may have been in season. Like dogs?”

  David nodded at her to continue. He had no idea.

  “That’s kind of how it was acting.” Her face was pinking up. At least it had color. “Angie had ours on a chain, and she … she wouldn’t let it go. She tried to drag it back in. She was so … stubborn.”

  Stupid, David would have said, but didn’t. He waited for Crystal to tear up and break down. She didn’t. Her face, if possible, went blander and her voice was a monotone, with no emotion in it.

  “Then the big one went for her. I think she knew then, she’d done a dumb thing. She screamed for me to run. She got back inside, but the big one was mad, it came in with her, and I don’t think she even knew that she still had the chain on the little one. I kept yelling at her, drop the leash, drop the leash. But then … then it got her. So I ran away.” Crystal wrapped her arms around her chest. “I thought it would come get me. I heard it. Her screaming and crying and making bubbles in her throat.”

  “There was nothing you could do, Crystal. You handled yourself very well.”

  She shrugged. “I threw the coffeepot at it and it didn’t hardly notice. I had to run away. No use us both being dead.”

  “It was Angie’s mistake and it killed her.”

  Crystal nudged the backpack with the back of her heel and looked up at David. “I know why, though. She was so scared about Annie Trey. She felt really guilty.”

  David frowned. “Why guilty?”

  “I never could really figure that out.”

  “Do you know who made the complaint about Annie? Who got the investigation started?”

  “Oh, yeah. Because that’s why Angie was so worried. Because it was Luke Cochran.”

  David didn’t move or say a word. Luke Cochran? Something here he didn’t want to know. Something he didn’t want to face.

  Crystal kept talking. “She said he used her, and he used Annie, and it was really bad what he did, and she was going to see about it.” Crystal leaned toward him, almost touching. “She didn’t want Annie and her little girl getting chewed up in the system. And, Mr. Silver, I want to ask you please not to let that happen. I saw that little girl’s picture in the paper. She’s soft. Not like me. It would be really bad for her, really bad.”

  Crystal’s eyes were tearless. David knew that the minute his back was turned she would be lost to the streets of the city. And all he could think of was that she was soft, too.

  It came to him that she might be infected, and he could not let her go.

  FIFTY-ONE

  David did not know what he was running on—adrenaline, anger, general contrariness. Sifter Chuck was home. There were lights shining from the second floor, and the pulse of loud music.

  David beat on the door a second time, this go-round with his fists.

  There were lights on all over Elaki-Town, a good sign. Very few Elaki out, but the ones he saw gave him long looks. He understood now what Miriam had meant when she said the crowd was quiet but pulsing with rage.

  He stepped away from the shuttered doorway, looked in the gutter for loose gravel. He found a chunk of asphalt and chucked it into the well-lit window.

  “Sifter! Open up.”

  The asphalt connected, and glass shattered. He hadn’t meant to throw it quite so hard.

 
Sifter Chuck appeared at the window.

  “Sifter. It’s Silver.”

  The Elaki disappeared. Lights came on downstairs, and the door opened. Sifter slid partway out, belly rigid.

  “Isss drunken, stupid, or naive beyond belief?”

  “How about pissed as hell.”

  Sifter pushed the door wide. “Get you in, and keep the voices down.”

  David scooted in. The music was loud. Antique bears displayed on the wall wobbled along with the bass.

  “There are questions that become urgent for a late-night fool risk?”

  David leaned against the wall. “I’m tired, you understand me? I feel like hell, and I am out of patience with you. Listen up and no bullshit.”

  The Elaki began to sway.

  “Be still and turn down that music. No, stay, we don’t have time. Look. I know there are trillopys in the city. You understand I’m not guessing, I know. My guess is they were smuggled in with your bears, because the bears are lousy with dead bacteria and the trillopys are diseased. Two of them are loose. We’ve had one victim already, torn to pieces. Now we’ve got the animals running around spreading this virus. Talk to me now, or I’ll throw you to the Feds. God knows what they’ll do to you, but your teddy bear days will be over, and you’ll never find the elusive Pez.”

  “What be the wants?”

  “Where are the trillopys? How many are there?”

  Sifter considered him, going still in the mode of serious Elaki agitation. “Have car?”

  “Yes.”

  “Please to transport.

  “Okay. But my head hurts. Don’t even think about turning on the radio.”

  FIFTY-TWO

  The Reilly hotel had the most beautiful pool David had ever seen, though the Elaki would most certainly refuse to use it. The pool was a leftover from the old days when the hotel catered to humans, and it was still maintained with the kind of reverential and meticulous care engendered by limitless funds.

  David stared through the slatted wood fence. The water moved gently in the darkness, lit from the sides, ripples like a web of wrinkles skimming the restless turquoise surface. Fig trees lined the square white tiles up and down the sides of the pool. Even at night, the white umbrellas were open. They looked more like frilly feminine parasols than poolside umbrellas. In the afternoon they would shade the bamboo chairs and tables that were grouped attractively by the water.