At that point, the front doors to the apartment opened, and Trey and Maggie came through, Maggie holding onto Trey while Trey pushed a stroller in front of him. The stroller had an attached car seat, in which Janey figured baby Darcie must be sleeping.
Janey loved the name. It had taken Darc a while to realize she had been named after him, but once he’d made that connection, he’d seemed as pleased as Janey had ever seen him.
Popeye grumbled about it being too cutesy. But then again, he was a teddy bear, so it wasn’t like his opinion counted much.
Janey just let him talk. There was a part of her that was a little sad right now, and listening to him chatter distracted her. Oh, she was happy and relieved, too. But it was time for some stuff to happen that would be hard for her.
So she listened and watched for a bit more.
* * *
Darc felt the threads of logic expanding out all around him. The network continued its job of processing information, but that activity seemed to have been softened. Muted, somehow.
The shoring up of the dark and light supports seemed to have gentled the whole pattern without diminishing its power or impact. And for the first time in a long time, Darc understood the emotional input that originated within himself.
He was happy.
As Maggie and Trey approached, he looked down into the carrier and studied the child who bore an alteration of his name. She was still wrinkled and misshaped from the birthing process, but Darc found a deeper truth underneath.
“She is beautiful,” he told Maggie, and his ex-wife’s mouth hung open in shock.
But only for a moment. She then smiled and reached out a hand to grasp his arm in thanks. There had been love between the two of them. That love still existed.
In fact, it had now expanded. There, within the narrow confines of the sidewalk, were Trey and Maggie and Mala and Carly and Janey and Darc. And little Darcie. All a part of this circle of light and dark. Supporting one another.
They began to walk along, following Maggie and Trey. But before they had gone far, Janey stepped forward, holding her bear in her arms. She seemed to ask Trey a question with her eyes, then step forward toward the baby as he nodded.
Placing her bear down beside the infant, Janey leaned in and whispered.
“His name is Popeye.”
Then she skipped back to where Mala and Darc stood, seemingly oblivious to the tears that had sprung up in both Trey’s and Maggie’s eyes. But Darc’s partner knew Janey too well to make more of the moment than he should. He simply began walking again.
“So,” Janey said in a bright voice as she took Darc’s and Mala’s hands, standing between them. “Can we have Jessalyn over? Because it’s going to be a long time before Cat gets out of the hospital, and then she might have to go to prison.” She paused for a microsecond. “Ooo. Can you adopt her too?”
Janey continued to chatter away as they walked down the path together, the picture of a perfect family. The threads of logic vibrated at that, correcting Darc’s word.
Not perfect.
Beautiful.
Defeated – The wrap up short story to the 2nd Cycle
CHAPTER 1
Darc rushed toward the edge of the pier in the dim light of the evening, dodging around an elderly man standing there. Without pausing, he dove into the water, striking the surface of Puget Sound at just the point where the ripples were still dissipating. The angle with which he entered the Sound assured him that he would place his hands on the fleeing criminal within moments of entering.
The pattern of light played out in front of him, showing him the way forward. And yet, when his hands closed, they closed on nothingness.
That had never happened before.
Groping around under the water, Darc finally opened his eyes. He knew as he did so that the saltwater, while not as high in its saline concentration as what would be found in the ocean, would be enough to sting his eyes and blur his vision.
Nothing.
No, that wasn’t accurate. There was something. It was quite a ways down already and sinking fast. A large stone.
Darc had not seen the criminal strike the water… there had been a large boat in the way… and now the deception became clear. The ripples had been caused by the stone, not a swimmer.
Surfacing, he heard his partner calling out to him from the dock, where Trey stood, Darcie strapped to his belly with a Baby Bjorn. She had been a near-constant attachment for the last few days, as little Darcie seemed determined not to sleep at night. Trey, to help alleviate some of the insomnia stress created in his breastfeeding partner, had volunteered to take Darcie along with him to work.
That might work in abstract theory… actually, according to the strands of colored logic, even that was not true… but certainly the reality was not fully functional. Unless Trey was using the baby to keep from doing things like leaping into the Puget Sound, in which case it was working nicely.
Darc shook the water out of his ear. With that, Trey’s speech crystallized.
“… I don’t see him anywhere.”
That statement, Darc decided, could be the least helpful Trey had ever uttered. And their partnership had included many unhelpful statements over the years.
The man they sought was more intelligent than Darc had anticipated. Over the last week since the death of Captain Merle, Darc and Trey had been working to uproot the Master’s entire network of anarchists. They had been helped in that endeavor by an unexpected ally.
Cat, Mala’s one-time maid of honor and best friend, also secret acolyte of the late Captain Merle. That revelation had shaken Mala’s faith in humanity, and she had not been quite the same since.
Right now, Darc and Trey sought the pilot of the helicopter that had been intended for the escape of the Master as Seattle burned under a drone attack.
The search so far had been less than a success.
* * *
Things felt weird for Janey right now.
It wasn’t just that she’d given Popeye to little Darcie. That had been a big enough deal. Popeye had been her friend through some really rough stuff.
No. That wasn’t what was bugging her the most.
What was really chapping her hide was the fact that now she was supposed to talk to everyone. Okay, so yes. Most of the time, she really enjoyed it.
A lot.
But there were times when she really wished she could go back to not speaking. Right now was one of them.
“What was it like?” Jessalyn insisted. “You have to tell me.”
They were talking about Father John, and what had happened to Janey in the Seattle Underground. It wasn’t a part of Janey’s life she wanted to go back to all that much, but Jess was her friend. Her best friend.
And, depending on what happened to Cat, her mom, Jess could end up being Janey’s adoptive sister. That was a strange idea. Janey’d gone from being an only child to having two sisters in the space of just a couple of months.
Oh, right. Jess had asked her a question. Janey was supposed to answer.
“Sorry,” she said. “Sometimes I forget.”
“Forget?” Jess asked, surprised. “How could you forget what happened to you down there?”
“No,” Janey corrected her. “I forget to talk.”
Jess raised her eyebrow and giggled, then her face sobered. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I can tell you don’t want to talk about this.”
And then the colored bands of light in Janey’s mind traced something in Jess’s face and a result shimmered in the dark part of her head. Janey could see why Jess was asking the questions about what Janey went through.
She wanted to know how to deal with something that was impossible to deal with.
So, instead of answering, Janey reached out and gave her best friend a hug.
It was the only thing she could do, really.
* * *
Another freaking dead end.
Trey passed by an old man who appeared to be talking to
the harbormaster of Bell Harbor Marina, and shifted to move out of their way. The harbormaster was someone they would probably need to talk to, see if maybe there was surveillance set up on the pier. They might get lucky.
The old guy… well, it looked like, as bad as Trey’s day was going, this guy had it worse. Gout, maybe? Or a bad hip?
Getting old sucked. Trey was pretty determined he was never going to do it. Although the idea of being that guy who yelled at kids to get off his lawn had some definite appeal.
At least something was going right in his life. Trey shifted Darcie in her baby holder. The reverse baby backpack was great, but man, did it chafe. Probably didn’t help that Trey’s ribs still hadn’t healed from when the Chief of Ds had decided to play punching bag with his ribcage.
Whatever. It hurt, but it wasn’t that bad. He was more worried about the baby carrier itself. Trey knew it was a good idea and all, but sometimes, he wondered if he just looked like a schmuck. Then he would look down and see Darcie’s precious little face, and he stopped caring.
Parenthood. Totally screwed with you. Trey hadn’t put product in his hair as he went out this morning. That was the first time that had happened in… well, ever. And when he’d realized it about a half hour ago, he hadn’t even cared.
Much.
“I think I see where he could’ve gone, Darc,” he called out to his partner as the bald detective swam in to the dock. “There’s a boat here with a ton of scuba gear in it. Everything except an oxygen tank.”
The only way the suspect would have been able to fool Darc is if he had tossed in the stone, then hidden in the boat. And he clearly wasn’t on the boat right at the moment. Which meant…
It meant that he must have slipped into the water right around the time Trey had arrived at the dock. Probably waited until Trey had his back turned and was talking to Darc. How had Trey missed that?
As Darc climbed out of the water, droplets flinging themselves from his dripping body. How did the bald detective even manage to make jumping into the Sound in his clothes look cool? Totally not fair.
The harbormaster came in close. “There’s no swimming here,” he stated, his tone challenging. “Don’t make me call the cops.”
Trey flashed his badge and the man blanched.
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Stick around,” Trey said. “We might need your help.”
The man nodded, still appearing awed by the badge. But before Trey could get more specific with his request for help, Darc began speaking.
“Call the Coast Guard and the precinct. We need boats patrolling the Sound and units parked at every point of egress.”
“For the entire Sound?” Trey asked before he could think better of it.
That was a lot of points to cover. But Darc just stared at him with that look. The one that went right down to Trey’s balls and squeezed. Okay, maybe that metaphor was a little on the freaky side, but that’s what it felt like.
Trey fished out his cell phone to make the call. Who knew? Maybe it would work.
* * *
Mala shifted around in the seat of her car. The seatbelt hit her right at the point where her collarbone had been snapped in two. It ached like betrayal.
Her best friend Cat had been the one who had broken it.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the incision from her surgery still bothered her. Not that she was about to let anyone else know that. The second Darc caught wind of any problem, Mala would be benched without so much as a discussion.
Glancing to her right, she eyed Carly, making sure the sharp-eyed teenager hadn’t noticed anything. Carly had turned out to be a complete tyrant of a home-care nurse, forcing Mala to take her medicine and rest far more than was necessary.
That wasn’t completely fair. Carly had taken care of her, even more than Janey.
Janey, who had now found her voice and seemed to be going through some strange transition. At times, she wouldn’t say anything for hours. But once she started, it was like she couldn’t control herself. Last night, Mala had needed to force march her adoptive daughter to bed after she’d waxed poetic on the show MythBusters and its place in pop culture.
Speaking of Janey…
She sat in the back, her arm touching Jessalyn’s. The two had been inseparable since Cat had been incarcerated. Mala’s promise to Cat to take care of her daughter had included unexpected consequences, but at least this one was positive. The friendship between Janey and Jess was stronger than ever.
“Are you going to let us help investigate?” Janey asked, and Jess’s head popped up. Apparently, this was an important topic.
“You know how I feel about unnecessary risk,” Mala answered.
The truth was, Mala didn’t mind Janey being a part of this one. It wasn’t likely to spiral out of control. But there had been so many examples of crime scenes’ volatility, that Mala didn’t feel great about including Jess.
She’d just found out her mother was a criminal who was responsible for the death of more than one victim. That kind of event was going to put a damper on a young girl’s life.
They pulled up to the pier, and a large woman approached, dressed in a police officer’s uniform. She held up a beefy hand, forcing Mala to bring the car to a halt.
“No one past this point, ma’am,” the officer said, her voice about as masculine as her look. “The whole of the pier has been cordoned off.”
Mala pulled out her ID. “That’s what I’m here for.”
The cop’s face colored, and Mala felt her heart go out to this mannish woman. The blush had exposed a series of white pockmarks all along her cheeks, extending down to her neckline.
“So sorry, Dr. Charan,” she said and waved their car on.
Mala chastised herself for her earlier thought. It possessed no fairness. Why could a man get away with a face scarred by acne without looking any the worse for it? And yet Mala’s first response for that woman had been pity.
As she parked at the edge of the pier and stepped out of the car, Trey and Darc were rushing toward her. Trey was doing what he could to keep Darcie from bouncing around too much in the baby backpack he was wearing… was it still a backpack if you wore it on the front?… and his face showed tension.
“Cops picked up a guy matching Cat’s description less than a mile away,” Trey gushed. “They’re taking him to the precinct building now.”
Mala sighed and turned around. It would be nice to be involved in the chase, for once. Some excitement, a little bit of action. Although this did mean that she wouldn’t have to make a divisive decision about taking Jess to a crime scene for a while longer.
Somehow, right now, the payoff didn’t seem worth it.
CHAPTER 2
Janey stared through the one-way mirror at the man in the interrogation chair. Darc stood next to her, but instead of watching the man they’d captured, he seemed to be watching… well, her.
The suspect did look like the man Cat had described, but then again, so did a lot of people. Not tall, not short. Not thin, not fat. Muscular without being too buff.
If she hadn’t known how much Cat regretted all that she’d done, Janey would have said that Jess’s mom was trying to make things harder for them. It was like she had described the most boring person on the planet.
The bands of logic wove around that thought, reaching out to the man. They spoke of the danger inherent in blandness. Bland didn’t get noticed. Bland could do whatever it wanted.
But while Janey understood what they said, she couldn’t make the colored streams of light attach themselves to this specific one. Like there was something covering the man that refused to let anything touch it.
Without warning, the man stood up and pounded his fists on the table. He stared right into the mirror, and it almost appeared that he was looking Janey right in the face.
“It was me! I did it! Just arrest me already!”
Still the threads of logic would not attach themselves. Janey turned to look at Darc, and he rai
sed an eyebrow.
“You do not think it is he,” he stated.
Janey shook her head, forgetting for a moment that she could speak. Clearing her throat, she forced her mouth to open. Forced her vocal cords to engage.
“No. I don’t.”
“Neither do I,” came the response.
Then Trey burst into the observation room. “It’s not him. Well, it could be him, but if it is, then there’s more than…” He trailed off, looking closer at both of their faces. “You already knew. How did…?” A quick shake of his head. “Never mind. Seriously, I don’t know why I even bother.”
“What happened?” Janey asked.
Trey grimaced. “Harbormaster from earlier. Found another body.”
But there was something weird about the way he said it. And the way he was looking at Janey right now.
“I don’t know if she should come,” he stated after a moment.
Darc pushed past Trey. “She will accompany us.”
Trey sighed. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
They hurried out, following the hallway that would lead them to the parking lot. Janey had to almost run to keep up with the larger men. Moving up beside Trey, she reached out to touch his arm.
“What is it you’re worried about?”
Trey flashed her a look. It was a quick glance, but it seemed to be troubled. And if Trey, who had seen so much, was troubled… That didn’t seem like a good thing. He took a deep breath and then spoke.
“It’s bad.”
* * *
Mala stared at the body laid out on the pier, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. It had taken all of two seconds for her to send Janey back to the car to join Jess.
This was so beyond anything a little girl should ever see. Even with all that Janey had experienced in her young life, this was too much.
The body had been gutted like a fish.
The knife appeared to have entered just above the clavicle, and the killer had sawn through the ribcage. The cut continued, raw and brutal, all the way down to the pelvic bone. The viscera had been scooped out and arranged all around the body in a strange pattern that somehow seemed familiar to Mala.
The 2nd Cycle of the Darc Murders Omnibus (the acclaimed series from #1 Police Procedural and Hard Boiled authors Carolyn McCray and Ben Hopkin) Page 70