by A. J. Locke
Agencies like ours competed to be the ones the police called when there was a ghost-related crime to solve, but Andrew had elevated Affairs of the Dead to the point where we got the call more often than our competitors did. Our stats for taking down ghost beasties, helping ghost clients, and rounding up fugitive ghosts were better than the rest.
Andrew handed the file to Micah. “The body is still at the scene, and the police are holding it down until you two get there. Gather ghost energy and start tracking down the beastie. I’ve already arranged for the body to be brought to the morgue.”
“Any identification on the victim?” Micah asked.
“Not yet,” Andrew replied. “Since the murder falls under our jurisdiction, the police aren’t allowed to search the body or the apartment. You two might be able to ID the victim, or leave it up to forensics.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” I said, giving Andrew a mock salute, which made Micah frown and Andrew shake his head.
Micah and I left, and Micah’s long strides soon had him several feet ahead of me. It was almost like he didn’t want to be near me. How strange. I caught up to him.
“So partner, your car or mine?” I said, putting as much friendliness as I could into my voice. Micah didn’t reply. I sighed. “So you plan on doing this the hard way? I didn’t volunteer for this. Andrew stuck me with you at his own discretion, but maybe if you told him you hated the very air I breathe, he’d inconvenience someone else and make them work with you.”
We were back at Micah’s cubicle, and he started gathering his things. He put his shoulder holster on and slipped a rune-bulleted gun in either side. He went for holsters, and I just shoved my gun down the small of my back.
“We’re taking my car, and this is my investigation, so don’t get in my way.” He started heading out of the suite, so I had to run and grab my bag then catch up to him.
Boy, this was going to be an awesome day. We had a murder scene to peruse; a ghost beastie to track down; and all the while, I’d get to bask in Micah’s I-hate-Selene-for-no-real-reason attitude. Then I would get to go home and help a ghost track down his stolen body. Some girls had all the fun.
Chapter Eight
The directions to the crime scene were in the folder, but Micah didn’t share them with me, nor did he care to partake in any conversation I tried to start. So all in all, we had a very awkward drive, though eventually, I’d been able to figure out that we were heading to Washington Heights.
Since Micah didn’t want to speak, I had only my own inner monologue to entertain myself with. The last time I had been in a car with Micah was when we were in a cab being taken back to his apartment while we drunkenly slobbered all over each other. I glanced at Micah, wondering if that memory was resurfacing for him too.
I’d jabbed at his performance that night a couple days ago when he was being unbearable, but if I was honest, he’d done it all right. The alcohol had made me unbalanced and clumsy, but Micah’s hold on me had been firm, his kisses varying between deep and passionate and soft and tender. He hadn’t made the whole thing about him. It hadn’t been a bad night, but it had been the catalyst for the type of relationship we had now.
I bet deep down, Micah was totally in love with me and was just doing his best to convince me otherwise. I almost laughed out loud at that thought and had to turn it into an awkward-sounding cough, which caused Micah to give me a sidelong glance. The thought had just been too funny. Men didn’t fall in love with me; I had never worked hard enough to earn anyone’s love.
After about a half-hour drive, Micah parked and started walking away, and I was again left to catch up to him. He was really working my nerves, but I was going to try to push past that and focus on what we came here to do. Police officers clustered around an apartment building halfway down the block, and when I caught up to Micah, I let him do all the talking since being in charge seemed to mean so much to him. After checking our badges, they allowed us through and told us which apartment we needed to go to.
We walked up four floors, and Micah had a brief conversation with the two officers posted at the door before we headed into the apartment. My gaze immediately landed on the body lying askew in the middle of the floor between the living room and the kitchen. I steeled myself for the horror. I had seen the handiwork of ghost beasties many times, but that didn’t mean it got any easier. A massacred body was never something you got used to seeing.
Micah walked to one end of the body, and I stood at the other end. After we exchanged a brief glance we looked down. The woman was lying on her back and her hair was obscuring her face, but I frowned because I got the feeling that I knew who this was.
The cause of death was immediately apparent; her chest was covered in deep, garish wounds. Some of them looked as though the beastie had been trying to dig her insides out. Bile rose in my throat. I wanted to take a steadying breath, but the air was tainted with the stench of death, and I didn’t want to pull any more of that into my lungs than was necessary. Time to do a closer inspection.
The feeling of familiarity still nagged at me. I pulled on a pair of gloves and knelt down near the woman’s head. Micah had already gloved up and was sorting through his bag of runes.
“What are you doing?” Micah said sharply. I looked up at him with my hand stretched halfway toward the body.
“Inspecting,” I said. “That’s what we came here to do, right? I want to see her face.”
He stared at me a moment longer, then went back to his runes. I really hoped whatever had crawled up his butt and died would eventually find its release, because Micah could really use a big dose of unclench. I refocused on the body and carefully brushed the woman’s hair away from her face until I could see enough of her features to make my eyes widen. I gasped and sat back on my heels. Micah looked at me again.
“What?” he demanded. “Do you recognize her?”
I slowly moved my eyes from the woman’s face to Micah’s. “Yes,” I said, my voice sounding shaky. “It’s Leslie.”
He didn’t immediately get it.
“Leslie Bianchi,” I continued. “Larry’s wife.”
Micah’s eyes grew as wide as mine, and he looked at Leslie’s face. “Larry’s wife,” he repeated. “Damn.”
“I saw her just the other day,” I said, shaking my head. I looked around the apartment, needing to not look at her body for a moment. It was hard enough to have to deal with brutally murdered people; it was even harder when it was someone I was acquainted with.
Micah moved faster to get his runes ready, and as I continued to stare anywhere but at the body, I suddenly realized something.
“She was killed inside her apartment,” I said.
“Captain obvious wins a prize,” Micah muttered.
“Hey wiseass, when was the last time you heard about a ghost monster seeking someone out in their home to kill them?”
Micah paused and looked at me, frowning now. Ghost monsters were nonsensical. They were just enraged beasts that barreled through the streets, destroying anything and anyone they came across until they were brought down. They didn’t have the ability to be calculating about their actions. Therefore, it seemed strange that a ghost monster had ended up inside this apartment to kill Leslie.
“Maybe it manifested inside her apartment,” Micah said.
“I guess that’s plausible,” I said. “The ghost could have been hiding here, manifested here, then killed Leslie, but…” I looked around again.
“But?” Micah prompted.
“Ghost monsters are usually about all-out destruction,” I said. “Don’t you think if a beastie really manifested here, it would have not only killed Leslie but also gone on a rampage through the building, leaving a lot of collateral damage in its wake? Her apartment is neat. No overturned tables or ripped-up sofas, no walls barreled through, no neighbors killed. Hell, the building is still standing.”
Micah was quiet for a moment as he thought it through. “When I spoke to the officers outside, they said th
ey hadn’t received any calls about a beastie sighting. If a ghost monster had been through here, then it should be out there on the rampage.”
“Something isn’t right,” I said.
“I’m going to scan the body to see what I can detect. Give me some room.”
I stood and took a few steps back, then watched as Micah moved a rune stone he’d activated over the body. The stone would pick up any ghost energy left behind by the beastie, and we’d be able to use that energy to track it. Oftentimes, the rune wasn’t necessary since the beasties and their loud, public rampaging led us to them, but if the beastie was fast enough to put a lot of distance between us, then having a lock on it through the rune was helpful. After a few minutes, Micah stopped and looked at me.
“The stone detected ghost energy,” he said. “But not as much as I would expect to find on a body that’s been murdered by a ghost monster.” He concentrated on the stone for a few moments. “And it’s not trying to lead me anywhere.”
“What the hell?” I knelt down by Leslie’s body again. “Are you sure you did it right?”
He gave me a withering look. “I know how to do my job,” he said. “The stone absorbed all the ghost energy there was. It’s not enough to help us track the beastie.”
“Well, we’re in a pickle,” I said. “We—” I cut myself off when something caught my eye, and I shuffled closer to where Leslie’s thrown-out arm lay.
I pulled out a few strands of hair that had been snagged in her long acrylic nails. It was blonde, but Leslie’s hair was brown. Why did she have blonde hair tangled in her nails?
The unfair thing about ghost monsters (other than the fact that they were murderous beasts) was that you had no defenses against them unless armed with a rune gun, and if you weren’t a necromancer, you couldn’t physically touch them. That meant that Leslie wouldn’t have been able to snatch hair from the monster. I showed Micah the hair and relayed my thoughts.
“So the hair belongs to someone she dealt with before the attack,” he said, though it didn’t sound like he believed his own inference.
I got out an evidence bag and put the hair in. “Maybe. But it would still be worth our while to have forensics see if they can figure out whose head it was snatched from.”
He didn’t disagree with me, marvel at that. I stood and looked around the apartment.
“We have a victim who appears to have been killed by a beastie, and there’s ghost energy clinging to the body, but it’s a small amount. We also found tangible evidence, and the scene doesn’t reflect the fact that a ghost monster was here.” I paced in circles as I spoke.
“That about sums it up,” Micah said. “Let’s finish up here so we can get the body and the hair back to forensics.”
“Maybe the dead witches will be able to do something with the ghost energy you were able to glean,” I said. “Or the beastie will pop up somewhere.”
Micah and I searched the apartment but didn’t find anything more we could deem as evidence. Then we oversaw the bagging of the body when the team from the morgue showed up. The fifth and sixth floor of our office building was dedicated to our forensics team, so Micah and I wouldn’t have to go far if we wanted to examine the body again.
I didn’t particularly want to see Leslie’s corpse again though. The fact that I knew her and had recently seen her left a slightly sicker feeling in my stomach than I usually left crime scenes with.
After we wrapped up, Micah and I headed back to the office. Once we entered the suite, we both stopped because we caught sight of Larry talking to a couple of necromancers halfway across the room.
“Someone has to tell him,” I said. “Who should do it?”
“Not it,” we said at the said time. I smiled, and the corner of Micah’s lip twitched upward. Had I really almost pulled a smile out of Mr. Frosty?
“I have to get the rune stone to the dead witches and report what we found out to Andrew,” Micah said. “So Larry is all yours.”
He walked away, and I scowled after him for a moment before sighing and looking at Larry again. Might as well go share the bad news and get it over with. I walked over to him.
“Hey, Larry, can I have a word with you?”
“Anything for you, doll face,” he said.
I rolled my eyes as I walked us back over to my cubicle, where it was a little quieter. I really wished someone would teach Larry to speak like he was part of this decade. He’d only been thirty-eight when he died, for crying out loud. I leaned against my desk and turned to him, folding my arms over my chest and realizing this was the first time I had to tell a ghost that one of his surviving loved ones had died. What a bizarre reversal.
“So, what can I do you for, angel?” Larry said, which made me realize I’d just been standing there without speaking. I cleared my throat and stood up a little straighter.
“Well, I have some bad news for you,” I said. “Bet you didn’t think a ghost could get bad news, right?” I gave a breezy laugh. Okay, pull it together, just tell him and get it over with.
Larry looked at me a little oddly, like he was on his way to wondering if I had lost my mind. Better spill the beans before he got to that point.
“Your wife is dead,” I blurted, then I cringed because I hadn’t planned just to say it like that. I was going to attempt to cushion the blow somehow.
Larry didn’t speak. He just stood there, his expression frozen.
“I’m sorry,” I said, releasing a breath. “I just came from a crime scene, and Leslie was the victim. It seems to have been done by a ghost monster.”
“Seems?” Larry said sharply.
“I mean, it was a ghost monster,” I amended.
Micah and I may have questions about what we’d found, but I wasn’t going to share our uncertainties with Larry. I at least knew sharing details about an investigation with a ghost client was a no-no.
“I’m really sorry, Larry,” I said. “We’ll hunt down the beastie and take care of it, don’t worry.”
“Leslie is dead,” Larry said. I couldn’t really decipher the emotion in his voice. He was quiet for a few moments, staring at the floor or around the office and frowning as though he was thinking.
I stood there, twisted my fingers around, and waited him out. Guess everyone reacted to bad news in their own way. I was thankful he hadn’t started wailing and making a scene though.
“But you know, maybe this is a good thing,” I said, because the silence was beginning to get awkward. “Maybe her ghost will stick around, and you can see her for a while, though hopefully her unfinished business won’t be a laundry list like yours. Or if her ghost doesn’t manifest, then she’ll be waiting for you on the other side for whenever you’re finally ready to go.” I shut up because I was rambling.
Larry nodded, then gave me a tight smile. “Thank you for telling me, Selene. If you’ll excuse me.”
He walked away, and I watched him go, wondering if he was just in shock and the reality of what I’d told him would catch up to him later. I shrugged. My work was done. If Larry wanted to come back and talk about it sometime…I sure hoped he talked to someone else. I wasn’t good at the hand-holding thing.
I sat down at my desk and made some notes on the case. Micah was the lead, but I still wanted to get some of my thoughts down because I had a feeling this case was going to be more complicated than the usual ghost monster hunt. Micah came over a few minutes later.
“I briefed Andrew on the investigation,” he said. I paused in my typing and turned to him. “Leslie’s body is in the morgue, and forensics has the hair you pulled from her nails. They’re a little backed up, so they aren’t going to have the results for maybe a couple of days. Did you talk to Larry?”
“I did,” I said. “Seemed like he was in shock. Thanks for sticking me with the dirty work.”
“You’re my sidekick; it’s your job to do the dirty work.” He headed back to his cubicle, but his parting words didn’t have the bite they usually did.
M
aybe I was wearing him down. I tended to have that effect on people, though not usually in a positive way.
Since I had been taken off track and retrieve for the time being (hallelujah!) that meant I could leave work while the sun was still up, though I deflated when I remembered that I had an anxious ghost waiting for me to track down his body. I had planned to relax for the rest of the night, eat junk food, and watch movies, but you know, running around the city with Ethan in pursuit of his stolen body could be fun too.
Chapter Nine
Ethan was Mr. Chatty as soon as I walked through the door, but I ignored him as I went about my routine, starting with feeding Luna, then taking a shower. Ethan was so absorbed in pestering me about tracking his body that I had to make him aware I was about to take my clothes off, which meant he had to float back through my bedroom door and pester me from the other side. After I changed, I ordered Chinese food and took Luna for her walk. Ethan came along but seemed to have realized that I was going to go about my business before his, so he walked silently alongside Luna and me, looking pouty.
Once we were back home and I was happily eating my greasy dinner, I decided to pay some attention to Ethan.
“I’m going to do the ritual tonight,” I said. “You don’t have to harass me about it, you know.”
“Sorry,” he said, looking down at his lap. He was sitting on the sofa next to me. “I just want to be myself again. I can’t stand the fact that someone is walking around in my body. My friends and family must be wondering about me, because I for damn sure don’t think whoever is in my body has been keeping up appearances that he’s me. I just want to get back to my life.”
“Do you want me to call your family and tell them anything?”
“No,” he said immediately, which surprised me a little. “I don’t want them to know what happened to me.”
“Well I wasn’t suggesting telling them the truth,” I said. “But I’m sure they’re worried about you.”