by Peter Hartz
“Are you sure I am a good choice, sis? I don’t have your touch, experience, anything. And you were the one that built everything. Would the department heads follow my direction?”
She smiled at him. “You have been there every step of the way for the last, what, seven years, since you got back from college after your time in the Marines. Everyone respects you. Your leadership during the China hacker war cemented your role in the company, and proved that you are someone who will do anything to support their people. You are the only real choice I have; the only person that I trust with everything I – WE built.”
“What about Steven?” Dave said, sounding like someone who was looking for reassurance.
“Steven is a good financial guy, but not a very good leader. He just doesn’t get how to treat subordinates with respect. He believes they work for him. You know that your people don’t work for you, but that you work for them. And you have managed somehow to get all your leadership people under you to realize that, and emulate your methods with their people.” She shook her head. “Steven will not advance any further until he realizes that. I sent him off to that seminar on Servant Leadership last year. His only feedback to me when he came back was ‘Well, that was interesting.’ He just didn’t get it.
Allison had stopped perfectly still, and was staring at Michelle in shock, when Michelle turned to look at her. “What is it, Allie?”
“You’re sick? What, cancer?”
“I did have cancer, yes. Now, I doubt it. Giltreas, do I still have it? Or did you erase that, too, along with twenty five years of aging?”
Giltreas looked her in the eye, and saw the wish, the yearning in her, but at the same time, the dread that it might not be true.
“It is true, Michelle. I have healed everything that was wrong with you. You need have no fear of what was before. It is gone from you now.”
Her head tipped forward as her eyes closed, and a tremulous sigh escaped her as her fears for her health were suddenly, and completely, eradicated. Then she looked up at Allison again.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Allison sounded hurt, Michelle realized, and with good reason.
“I told myself I didn’t want you to worry. I suppose that was at least partially true, but I think it was more than that. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to spend every waking minute with me for the remainder of my time. You have your own life. I didn’t want to take you from it.”
“Don’t you think that I would want to make that decision for myself? I don’t work, I volunteer. I could walk away from all of that today and not regret it, if it meant spending all that time with you instead.” The quiet voice conveyed that she was upset without hammering it home.
Michelle gazed at the younger woman, and realized her mistake. She had worked hard at learning never to make decisions for her employees; here, she had done so with a dear member of her family, and her brother’s wife, at that. “I apologize. I wasn’t thinking about how you’d feel about it. I am really sorry I upset you. And you’re right, you deserved the chance to make the decision for yourself about how you spend your time.”
“Well, next time you’re gonna die of something terrible, don’t do it again.” The words were light, but the emotion behind it was anything but, and Michelle pulled Allison close for a one-armed hug for a moment, then sat back on the couch next to her again.
“I promise.” Michelle smiled at her. Then she turned to David.
“You don’t seem very surprised. How long have you known?”
“That you have, or should I say had, cancer? A long time; almost from the beginning. I bullied your doctor when I started to suspect something. He understood what was at stake, and he cares about you, so it didn’t take much arm-twisting.” Then his tone grew serious. “Don’t you ever keep something that serious from me again, young lady. I’m your brother. We are the only family we have left.” He tried to glare at her, but failed.
“Wow, I seem to have made the same mistake twice. Imagine that.” She smiled. “Well, all’s well that ends well, right?”
The tone of voice was both contrite and repressive at the same time – clearly, she wanted to drop the subject.
“I have been thinking about it, and Allison and I will need regular supply runs. I am going to need clothing, too, but that is more problematic, since I don’t have anything that will fit me,” she continued
Delara spoke up. “I shall provide anything you require that I am able. You are my guests. Michelle, Allison, what I have that you need you are welcome to.”
“Thank you, Delara. We will not abuse your generosity.” Allison nodded in agreement.
“But we will also need things for the dogs that you most likely will not have. Kennels for them to stay in, food, dog beds, you know.” Dave nodded. He would get all that, and Giltreas would help him get it here.
Sadie looked up from where she lay on the floor as the conversation turned to her and her canine family members. She stood, and stretched, then shook herself, making the metal tags on her collar clatter, then sat looking up at Michelle. “Hungry. You feed now?”
Allison looked down at Sadie. “I don’t know if I will ever get used to that. It is pretty neat, though. Dave, we left everything for them in the 4Runner. Can you go get it?”
Dave stood, and Giltreas did as well. “Mother, we shall return momentarily.”
Chapter 16
Gnezy slowed the car as he approached the police tape stretched across the street at the corner. The call on the police radio had been vague, but clear enough in one regard: an investigator was needed at an address in the old commercial district downtown.
A uniformed officer lifted the tape as he recognized the senior detective in the city’s homicide division, waving him under. He pulled further down the block to where the rest of the cars were gathered like cows around a watering trough. He looked further down the street, and saw another tape line closing that end of the street, with two cars parked on either side of the street, and the officers out standing guard to prevent anyone from getting too close to the crime scene.
He got out and stretched, looking up at the three-story brick building that had once been a small factory. He had no idea what the building had been built for originally, but it looked all of its one hundred plus years old. The rest of the buildings up and down the street were similar. Most had been converted to house business offices. He reached back into the car to grab his coffee, then thought better of it, leaving the now-cold drink where it was.
He turned and walked towards the steps, pulling his coat aside to show the badge clipped to his belt at the uniformed officer standing guard at the door.
She nodded unhappily at him, and led him inside, talking to him as she went. “It looks like the basement housed an illegal brothel.”
“Why do you think it is a brothel?” He asked as he indicated that she should lead him into the building.
“The officer who arrived here first discovered a number of young women in rooms locked from the outside. The rooms contain only a bed and a chamber pot.” He grimaced and nodded in agreement.
“That does seem to fit with a brothel. Are the victims, the girls, still here? And why was a homicide investigator called in?” he asked, as they went through a doorway that led to a staircase heading down.
She glanced at him as she turned the corner onto the stairs, and he saw in the light coming from the overhead fluorescent fixture that her face was a green that seemed more pronounced than the light could account for.
“The victims, the girls, were all transported to hospital. Most were hysterical, but some were catatonic. As to why you were called in, I think you should look for yourself.” Her tone of voice was not something usually used with a person of Gnezy’s rank and seniority, but he ignored the lack of respect when he realized that she was close to losing control of herself. He merely grunted and followed her down the twenty or so steps until they turned the corner and found themselves in a lobby that was probably fiv
e meters by eight meters, with a modern, solid steel door mounted in the wall at the end to the left, along with a video camera and phone. The door was open at the moment, and another officer stood there, a pasty sheen covering his complexion and the evidence of his lost lunch speckling his once-spotless uniform pants and shoes.
The doorway opened to a small enclosed area with another door opposite the first. Four video surveillance cameras were mounted in each of the corners near the ceiling. It was obvious from the construction of the room that this was a man-trap security room, designed to contain anyone who got past the first door. Usually only one door would be opened at any given moment, controlling access to what was beyond the second door. Both were propped open now, though, and the police officer pointed wordlessly down the hallway before turning resolutely back to look towards the exit, clearly turning his back to what was down there in an effort to not think about it.
Gnezy walked down the wide hallway, taking in the windowless doors set at regular intervals, some of which were opened, others closed. None of the purported occupants were in sight, however, and he continued on towards the opposite end of the hall.
As he got closer, the first thing he noticed was that there was no door in the doorway. The second thing he noticed was that the doorway had been smashed open as if a raging bull had run through it. The shattered remnants of the door frame and the door itself lay scattered across the floor to the far wall. But as he stepped around the remains of the breakfast the officer at the other end of the hallway had deposited on the floor and into the room, the fate of the door was not what caught his attention and pulled at the bitter coffee in his gut.
The room was a gory mess straight out of one of those American horror films that his daughter loved to watch with her friends. The room looked as if a bomb had gone off, throwing parts of the unfortunate occupants everywhere. Ripped and torn chunks of human remains were strewn everywhere, and blood covered everything in sight. Even the ceiling, he realized as he looked the room over, trying, with some success, to keep his suddenly unruly stomach under control.
Taking in the furnishings, he realized that it was a kitchen, with appliances and counters on the right wall and opposite wall, and a table and chairs set up to the left.
He couldn’t tell how many people had started out in the room at first. Then a gruesome thought came to him, and he counted four heads. Looking across the room, he saw another door that opened to a set of stairs leading upwards, and bloody foot prints leading out that way. Whomever, or whatever, had done this had fled that way, he realized. Then the overwhelming stench of guts, blood and flesh began to overcome him, and he stepped back into the hallway.
The smell wasn’t much better there, but it lessened enough to let him look around, and he noticed that one of the opened doors part way back down the hall was barely hanging on its hinges. He walked back and looked into the room, and found another body, this one in only marginally better shape than the remains in the kitchen behind him. He pulled out his flashlight, and looked the body over, noting the injuries that had killed the big man.
The story written in the carnage in front of him seemed to indicate that the man had been ripped apart by a huge animal – possibly a tiger or a bear. That made him pause and he looked around the room.
There was no evidence that the room had housed a wild animal of the sort that could have done this, but there was something of interest on the floor in front of the bed.
He pulled out a pair of surgical gloves, and held up the remnants of what looked like clothing. A teen girl, he decided. The clothing had been slashed and ripped up into an unusable state, probably by the poor dead soul on the floor in front of the bed.
What had happened at first seemed obvious enough to him. The man had taken liberties with a teenage girl, probably a kidnap victim. But he was interrupted while he was still in the room, and met his probably well-deserved end. Gnezy went through the pockets of the pants, and found another piece of the puzzle.
Ukrainian currency, not Georgian. The girl was not from around here. He wondered where she was now, and if the creature that had killed the man had carried her off. There was certainly enough blood in here as well for a second victim, he guessed. Not that he was any good at that. Better leave that to the techs that would be coming to document the scene.
He stepped carefully back out of the room, making sure not to step on any ‘evidence’ on the floor, just as the first of the crime scene techs came through the door.
“Senior Investigator. What do we have here? Smells bad enough. Dead body?” The man’s face was grim and serious, and Gnezy appreciated the professionalism the man showed.
“There is a dead body in this room here, and four more in the kitchen at the end of the hall. Also, there are bloody footsteps heading up the back staircase at the other end of the kitchen. I would like to get images of the footprints from that trail as soon as possible.”
“Certainly. Any guesses as to who did this?”
Gnezy snorted. “More like what. The kitchen is a mess, but it looks like it started in here. The body in this room seems to have been attacked by a tiger or a bear or something big, strong, and very angry. Whatever it is, I am fairly convinced that it is not here now, though. We will need someone to open every door down here, and see if the first sweep missed anyone. I will coordinate with the officer in charge upstairs while the rest of your team gets here and gets to work.”
The technician’s eyes got wide at the thought that a wild animal was the perpetrator, and he swallowed. He had noticed the uniformed patrolman he saw earlier that had obviously vomited on himself, but had thought that the man simply had a weak stomach. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
“How bad is the kitchen?”
“It is worse than any nightmare on this Earth. If I was a religious man, I might compare it to hell.”
◆◆◆
Gnezy retraced his steps back up to the ground level, and found the senior officer on the scene.
“Has anyone looked in the alley behind the building? It looks like whoever did this went out that way.”
The officer nodded. “We secured the alley, but haven’t let anyone go back there yet. I can have someone take you around to it. The building next door has a hallway that runs straight back there.”
“Good. I will take a look, and then come back around to here.”
The senior officer waved one of his subordinates over, and directed him to take the investigator around back.
The back of the building housing the horrors within looked almost normal to Gnezy’s eyes, until he looked closer. Bloody footprints led down the short stairway from the back door, skipping some in hurried flight, and led away from the back door to the center of the enclosed alley between the industrial buildings, where they turned and ran away from the building. While he would have expected the footsteps to have less blood the further away from the scene, these seemed to leave just as much behind, if not more. Additionally, there were drops of blood in between and all around the footsteps, and it made Gnezy suddenly realize that the body running away had to be covered in blood, and it had dripped off as they fled. As the feet left blood behind, more flowed down off the body to replenish what was behind on the pavement.
The steps seemed to get further apart, probably because the body was running and gaining speed, he thought to himself, when they abruptly ended. Did the body get into a car? Or something else? That wouldn’t explain why the blood drops continued without the footprints, though. Then he bent over and looked at the footprints in front of him. And noticed something else.
“What do you see, Senior Inspector?” The younger officer spoke up when he saw the suddenly intense evaluation the Inspector was giving to the footsteps.
Gnezy straightened up, and turned to the officer, waving him forward to look for himself.
“Tell me what you see.” He always took the chance to mentor others, but this time he wanted to see if his thoughts were validated, as well.
�
��Hmmm.” The younger man looked closer at the bloody print in front of him. “No shoes or boots. This person was barefoot. The feet are somewhat strangely shaped, too. And, what is this in front of the toes of the print? What are those? Gouges in the pavement?”
“Yes, indeed they are. What does that say to you?”
Zenadine straightened up, a shocked expression on his face. “Claws?” he asked incredulously.
“I would agree with you if it was not so preposterous. What kind of man runs around barefoot, and has claws that can cut into asphalt like that?” The Senior Inspector was at a loss for words.
Zenadine realized that the question was rhetorical, and remained silent as they both stared at the impossible evidence in front of them both that should not exist.
The senior officer from around front of the building found them that way moments later, and approached the two men. “Senior Inspector? There is someone from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry out front. He would like to speak with you.” Then he glanced down at the prints himself.
“Hmmm. Barefoot. Wait, are those claw marks?”
Chapter 17
After bringing up the duffle bags and packs that were in the 4Runner, Dave made a mental list of what he needed to bring back right away for Allison and Michelle, and a second list of what they would want on a regular basis. Queen Delara assured them that most of their needs would be taken care of – food, a place to sleep, clothing if they wanted it. Michelle took her up on the offer of clothing, since nothing she had would fit her anymore. Allison wanted her own clothes, and some other things, such as books to read, some clothing to work out in, and a few other things.
Michelle put down food for Sadie and Abby, and Allison did the same for Max. Delara watched in happy amusement as the dogs did some tricks for the after-meal treat they all received. She was amazed the hand signals that Sadie responded to, and had to try it herself. Abby knew some hand signals as well, though not as many. Max, on the other hand, knew several, and even knew a few tricks that Sadie didn’t.