They had been told that Cuthbert was in this area, but Tim wasn’t so sure, no sign of him yet. Some places there were lots of souls mingling, but here relatively few. One could be alone if one wanted.
A Sioux warrior was spotted in the trees; he looked to be from the 1800’s and was hunting with a bow and arrow. His movements were slow and deliberate. He was going through the motions of tracking a deer. The native glanced at the couple as a deer in the distance was playing along, the animal having learned long ago that he couldn’t be hurt in this spirit world.
Tim pointed, Anita turned and saw the log cabin in the distance. The roof appeared to be covered in moss as they headed toward it, and white smoke was emerging from the chimney. They were able to call Cuthbert with their minds, but he wasn’t answering. Maybe he was sleeping. Since souls were pure energy if felt good to recharge even though it wasn’t necessary. And at times it just felt good to sleep.
As Anita and Tim approached, they saw a brook encircling the house, no visible source for it to be coming from because it was a complete circle. Anita thought the sound of the gurgling water was beautiful and Tim saw small trout swimming around in it. Some things in heaven did seem like magic. One fish jumped out of the water and back in with a splash.
“Cuthbert! Are you in there?” Anita waited for a response, but there wasn’t one. If one got frustrated in heaven, was it still heaven? The beauty of it all was mesmerizing here, and also distracting. Not hard to take one’s mind off one’s task and simply wander in a blissful state.
Tim tried to jump over the water but discovered he couldn’t, and wasn’t able to touch it either. “That is strange. If he is in there, I guess he doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
Several monarch butterflies flew around them, and they heard them say hello, then one of the flying insects said, He’ll be with you momentarily.
“I did not expect that,” said Anita.
Tim nodded and watched as the insects flew into the cabin. “Not real butterflies I think.”
The door of the cabin opened and Cuthbert exited and jumped across the water, and this time he wasn’t wearing his top hat, but he was sporting a blue cloak. “Hello Anita, things are getting more complicated, aren’t they?”
“A little too complicated,” said Tim.
“We were aware that a portal to the dark side had opened, but I closed it. No way to know how many evil spirits have escaped. I gave a dagger to Olivia’s Aunt Stella. It can kill an evil spirit, and if it even touches a dark soul, it will stop it from being able to jump from person to person.”
Anita sighed. “Doesn’t God know everything.”
“No one can question God and his infinite wisdom.”
“If you are from the 1800’s, why don’t you have an accent.”
Cuthbert smiled. “I’ve spent a lot of years talking to and studying many people.”
It was on Anita’s mind for a while now, and so she was going to ask it though she was afraid of the answer. “Cuthbert, is this the beginning of the end? The end of the world I mean.”
“You have many more questions than I have answers.”
“Why don’t you send a brigade of angels?” Tim asked.
“That is not within my ability to accomplish, but I am working on sending more help.”
chapter thirty
DETECTIVE DIALLO WAS STANDING AT THE BOTTOM OF OLIVIA’S BED watching her sleep. He had been there for a while, staring at the glow inside her body, and though not yet a baby it was blessed and would one day be ready for the battle to come. The other side and the mortal world appeared to be getting closer together, and the future was undetermined at best. Diallo hadn’t even been sure if there was life after death and now he was living it.
This was all new to the black detective. Things were so different in spirit form, and he considered that floating around was a little like being drunk. He could feign walking but hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet, no longer any physical legs to move. And that he had talked to Elvis that morning was still on his mind. And having no heartbeat was something he didn’t think he’d ever experience.
Diallo’s passing had been so fast that he hadn’t felt a thing, his soul has slipped from his body like a fried egg out of a new frying pan. The universe was more wondrous than any living soul could imagine. Diallo had already been given permission to come and join the fight though he wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, also wondering how long Olivia had been able to see ghosts. They said it was fortunate that he had ties to Olivia, whatever that meant.
Olivia's eyes opened slowly, and she immediately wondered if she was being watched. Her eyebrows tightened as she sat up and saw Diallo as plain as if he were alive. “Diallo?” Her eyes were so heavy. Am I dreaming? Nope. It was unreal that she was getting accustomed to talking to the dead.
Detective. His voice almost sounded as if he were talking through a tube or something although it was clear enough though not very loud. I had no idea that there was someone in that closet.
Feeling guilty Olivia looked away. “Sorry I couldn’t have reacted faster. Too late for you but that’ll never happen again.”
Not your fault, just one of those things.
“What’s heaven like?”
I couldn’t describe it in a thousand years. Gonna be a beautiful eternity Olivia.
“That’s just a cop-out, Diallo. You can tell me, but you’re not supposed to for some reason. Come on, break the rules.”
He just smiled. Could I describe a sunset over a beautiful meadow if I were blind? It kind of like that. An atheist came to heaven, and they had to put him asleep. Who would have thought that a spirit could be in shock? He was freaking out pretty good. We had a good laugh.
“We?”
Diallo just shrugged.
Olivia sat straight up, and Diallo tried not to notice that she was naked. “Is there a reason for this visitation? Or did you just want to wake me the fuck up? I was deep in a sex dream.”
Just wanted to see that baby forming in you. Touched by God. Diallo had seen her erotic dream but decided not to mention it. I needed to lose a few pounds Olivia, but this is ridiculous. And he laughed.
Olivia crossed her arms. She thought about saying that his ass was going to be touched by her foot for disturbing the slumber but didn’t. “Why weren’t you at the funeral?”
Too many tears. I need you to get a message to my wife though. I have a shit load of money in the furnace grate.
“What? Where the hell did you get a shit load of money?”
Gambling. Oh, Stella has a dagger, and you need to get it from her and carry it at all times. It’s important.
“A dagger? What are you talking about now?” She had not known about his gambling making her wonder if he had other secrets. Olivia supposed that lots of people did.
Just do it, Detective. Get that dagger and carry it. Don’t make me come back and haunt your ass.
“Yes, yes, get the knife. I’ll tell your wife. Now if there’s nothing else I’d like to get some sleep.”
Diallo nodded. People are talking about you and someone by the name of Anita.
“You mean on the other side.”
Yup.
“What are they saying?”
Can’t say.
Olivia shook her head and then threw the clock at him and broke the mirror on her dresser. He shook his head as he vanished. “Diallo!”
chapter thirty-one
FIVE MINUTES AFTER MIDNIGHT in New York City. A single black butterfly came from on high and danced through the streets, zigzagging in the night air that smelled like oriental food. Was the insect searching for something or someone in particular? It rested on a window sill as it took in the ambiance. There were Korean voices down below.
The butterfly flew past two lovers in an embrace on the corner as colorful lights reflected on them, covering the lovers in a red glow. Did he have his hand up her skirt? The insect lit on her head briefly and then flew off.
The li
ght rain made the streets shiny and reflective from the bright neon lights in an alley in Koreatown in Manhattan. A window opened high above the street, and a woman shouted in Korean for her husband to hurry up with the food. If he took too much longer, there would be no segseu for him, horny or not.
A sturdy looking Korean was standing under a sign that read Chinese Herbs. Wearing a fedora and a trench coat, Dae-Jung stood with his arms crossed waiting for a new supplier to bring him a kilo of cocaine. Some called him scar because of the cut he had beginning at his temple and ending at his chin. Dae-Jung was not one to be trifled with having lost his civility long ago, climbing the ladder of the underworld he would get rid of just about anyone that got in his way. His dead eyes were frightening to most and completely devoid of emotion.
The insect touched down on a nearby fire escape. Its myriad eyes lit up a bright red for a second and then quickly faded. Down below stood Dae-Jung staring at his watch, and he was not at all satisfied with the situation. He had a buyer already waiting for the product, and Dae-Jung had thirty thousand dollars in a satchel in his left hand and a Glock under his coat. He insisted that everyone be on time and when they weren’t it made him suspicious.
If it weren't for Dae-Jung’s uncle, he would shoot the carrier and not pay him a cent, and if he had him standing in the rain much longer, he might kill him anyway. One had to be punctual in this business.
He blinked slowly as his brown eyes scanned the area. “Neo neui-eoss eo!” said Dae-Jung.
Feng was Chinese and just about as skinny as they come; he looked as though a gust of wind would take him away. “Relax, this is New York, of course, I’m late. There was an accident. Do you have it or not?”
Dae-Jung held the satchel and swung it a little. “Where’s the product? I don’t have all fucking night. Better leave early next time, if there is a next time.”
A slight shake of Feng’s head to show his disdain. No one is respectful anymore. Everyone wants to kill everyone. What a fucking life. Feng handed him the package from under his coat, sealed with masking tape. “Relax man, you gonna need a coronary bypass, and I don’t have the equipment.”
Dae-Jung so wanted to shoot him and had to reign in his anger. “We’re gonna weigh it without all that tape.”
“Of course. I have to go. All there, you see.” And with that Feng was gone, a minute later his Corvette was heard peeling away.
Dae-Jung headed up to his apartment and once inside tossed the coke on the table. He took a cold Budweiser out of the fridge and sank it with a mighty belch escaping. He lit a Black Devil brand cigarette that was coffee flavor and took several puffs. The cocaine turned out to be just slightly over one kilo. At least now Dae-Jung could relax a little. He noticed the black butterfly and thought it looked peculiar. At first, he thought it was a moth, but it was a lovely thing whatever the hell it was, shiny like silk.
“What the hell are you?”
The insect landed on the table, and he smashed it with his fist, only it had no effect on it whatsoever. What the hell? And so he gave it a second wallop with the same result. “What the fuck? Was there something in my beer?” Dae-Jung smelled the empty bottle. The insect flew in his face and landed on his left cheek at which point he grabbed it with two fingers and looked at it. It did appear to be a butterfly though it was as black as charcoal. He tried to pull off its wings but couldn’t. Dae-Jung released it but instead of flying off it set down on the back of his hand and began to sink into it, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t stop it.
Dae-Jung’s pupils turned red as he smiled ever so slowly.
chapter thirty-two
A CROWD HAD GATHERED AROUND THE BODY of the African-American on the sidewalk who had been shot three times in the back. They were now behind the yellow police tape as Olivia ducked under it to approach the victim. The city was getting a little too active for her liking. “What do we got?”
Sergeant Henry Johnson of the NYPD watched as the Detective approached. “A young male is deceased after a report of shots fired, looks like three bullets struck him in the back, one into the area of his heart by the look of it. Driver’s license identifies him as William Carter, twenty-one years old, and guess what, today’s his birthday. A wallet was beside him with several hundred dollars still in it, must be personal. We bagged it for you.”
Dae-Jung was in the crowd watching, a slight smile seemingly glued to his face.
Olivia shook her head. “Killed on his birthday, lovely.”
“He would have stopped a war from happening twenty-seven years from now,” Dae-Jung mumbled to himself. “Not anymore, not anymore.”
“Do you have your camera on you Seargent? If you do turn quickly and take several shots of the crowd and email them to me would you?” Olivia knelt down as the Sergeant did as she requested, and several in the crowd appeared displeased by the camera flashes. “Help me turn him over I want to see if he has a gun in his hand.”
As two officers obliged the Detective, they were shocked by the result, the victim was holding his own heart in his right hand. “Someone’s cut his heart out.” What the hell is this? A gang hit? Or is this the work of some twisted killer? No way to get fingerprints from this scene, too much traffic. Or is this something supernatural?
Someone giggled from the crowd making Olivia stand and stare. The sickos are out tonight. How was someone able to cut this guy’s heart out in such a public place, and why take such a risk?
Police were now wading into the crowd and talking to people, but no one seemed to have seen anything. Probably not smart to admit anything with so many other people around to hear in any case. No one was admitting to having seen a damn thing. Olivia would check for any cameras that might be pointing in this direction or that could see passers by, but she imaged demons would pick the perfect spot and time. As she looked at the victim’s young face, it again hit her that it was his birthday, that he had come into the world and was taken out of it on the same date. And was that significant or just a ha ha from the other side?
The next afternoon Olivia had discovered that the one camera that was pointing in the general area of the crime scene hadn’t been working for almost a month, such instruments were useless if they weren’t maintained. In fact, it had been struck by lightning. In this new world of things that go bump in the night, Olivia wondered if it was just an act of nature or something that had been arranged by the dark side? If they were able to see into the future, the Detective wondered how far a reach they had, and how much they were able to interfere? Free will was all well and good, but if the dark side was running interference, then it wasn’t exactly free will.
The photos of the crowd at the scene showed many faces, but unfortunately, no one stuck out. If anyone saw that the man’s heart had been in his hand, it hadn’t made front page news, at least not yet. The Detective hoped that this was an aberration and that there wouldn’t be more of these sick murders, but this might indeed be the beginning of a sequence of events. And what the hell was she supposed to do if this was a supernatural thing?
Detective Leonard Hall was almost six and a half feet tall, and he got noticed wherever he went. He had black hair and big blue eyes that women could just about drown in, and he knew it. Leonard entered Olivia’s office and slapped an address on her desk. “Got another one. This is the address and I’ll meet you there. Eat my dust Detective.”
Olivia looked up at him from her desk. It was his way of saying that he wanted to race but she couldn’t care less about that. “Another what?”
“Another victim, a woman this time, holding her own heart in her hand.”
“Oh shit. Already?”
Less than a half hour later Brown was walking through the alley where the body was lying. The woman had been shot in the head, and like the other, her heart had been cut out, and it was quite the hack job. No surgeon had accomplished it of that they were sure.
Even in the light of day the alley was dark and had several dumpsters. There was also a fai
r amount of litter on the ground, not a great crime scene to process. If they could find the blade from the other crime scene, they might get something off of it, DNA would be a good start, fingerprints even better. No ID on the victim this time, a female in her thirties by the look of her. Hadn’t even received the autopsy from the other one though the cause of death wasn’t likely to hold any surprises.
Anita appeared. “These are no ordinary murders, Olivia. At least one demon that we know of has come through a portal. You did get the dagger?”
“No damn it, I forgot about it.”
Leonard looked over at Olivia as he had been shining a light under a dumpster. “Olivia, are you talking to yourself? Might be time for another vacation.”
Olivia stood akimbo as she scanned the alley, lots of fire escapes but nothing too unusual, and no cameras. There was going to be a hell of a lot of people to talk to, would be nice if someone saw the killing from their window. “Never mind who I’m talking to just find me that damn knife. This is gonna be a PR nightmare.” She bent and picked up the deceased woman’s hand, and her pink nails looked pretty clean, but she would take scrapings from them nonetheless.
The ghost shook her head at another life taken too soon. “Better get that dagger.”
Olivia stood up annoyed and whispered. “Don’t you ghosts have any avenging angels up there? If you do, you need to send them down here ASAP.”
Anita shrugged and could only imagine how frustrated the Detective was getting. “Every time I go back to heaven, I really don’t feel like coming back here, but I know it’s important. So much carnage here.”
“Take me with you.” Olivia wasn’t serious though she was curious about heaven. Digging through the garbage was not a fun part of the job. It was the part that she hated the most, and at times she even had nightmares about this part of the job.
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