by Lesley Davis
He flipped the knife over in his hand with a swift move and was about to throw it when a hand appeared and very gently removed the weapon from him. Lucas looked over his shoulder, his eyes widening.
“You have wings,” he whispered.
“And they are not for the taking,” Eli told him as he carefully handed the knife over to Rafe for safekeeping. “Your time here is done.”
“But I need her.” Lucas stared at Eli, then whipped his head around to look accusingly at Ashley. “I always lose out to you.”
“No, Lucas. This time you win. You get to spend eternity with our father. Be sure to tell him hi from me.”
Eli restrained Lucas’s hands with his own and called Ashley forward. “Touch him. Draw forth his demon, then the angels can come and take care of him. Until they are certain he’s unredeemable they won’t interfere.”
Ashley slipped from Rafe’s hold and took a tentative step forward. “Could I heal him?”
“I fear he’s beyond what your power can do.”
Ashley placed her hand on Lucas’s chest and gasped as if burned. Rafe took a step forward, but was kept back by Eli’s silent command.
“What do you sense, Ashley?” Eli asked.
“That there’s very little human left inside him.”
“Then he’s ours for the taking. Only someone with a pure heart could have seen into the human soul and found it missing.”
Ashley stepped back and into Rafe’s arms, her body visibly shivering. Rafe held on to her tightly, sensing her pain at all that had transpired. Eli looked up and Rafe followed his line of sight. “Finally, backup,” she said gratefully.
“She has a pure heart?” Spit dripped from the sharp needle-pointed teeth that erupted from Lucas’s mouth. He snapped at her like an animal. “I should have ripped their fucking hearts out too!”
Two angels descended from the sky and took hold of Lucas’s arms. Being this close, Rafe got to witness Lucas’s demon soul being forcibly removed from his human body. It was as if the angels skinned him alive. A snarling, demonic creature was dragged free from the human form. Lucas now sported cloven feet and his eyes burned with the brightness of sulfur ablaze. His human body slumped to the ground intact and the Spear of Light clattered beside it. In a flash, the angels disappeared and Lucas was gone with them.
Rafe looked at the body on the ground. “So what is this we’re left with?”
“Lucas Thorpe’s human shell.” Eli retrieved the Spear from beside it. “I would suggest you leave now and expect a call much later. We’ll deal with this from here.”
Rafe held out a hand to still Eli’s activity. “You can’t make him disappear. The families of those women need closure. I want a killer caught.”
“And so you shall have it, Rafe,” Eli said. “He’ll leave a suicide note and everything to close this case to your satisfaction.”
“What about his mother?” Rafe was worried she would incriminate Ashley, and she wasn’t going to stand for that. She couldn’t have Ashley in any way implicated in her case.
“She’s being dealt with. The rerouting of the brain can be used for many things, Rafe Douglas. She won’t remember her son’s father or anything, or anyone for that matter, connected to him. She’ll be as much an innocent victim as the women her son killed.”
Rafe considered Eli closely. “You mean to tell me you could have wiped out memories while you were messing in my head?”
“I didn’t have cause to. I was merely turning down the lights for you.”
Rafe felt Ashley shift at her side. “I’m taking Ashley home with me. You know where to find her.”
“You’ll be called to a scene back here in the morning, Detective. I figure you could do with some rest before you bring this investigation to a close.” Eli held out his hand for the knife and Rafe grudgingly handed the murder weapon over.
“Don’t lose that,” she ordered. Eli favored her with a look that made her feel decidedly uncomfortable. Rafe tugged Ashley aside. “Come on. We need to get you home. You’ve had more than enough fun for tonight.” Ashley didn’t make a protest as she was guided out of the garden with Rafe’s hand on her arm.
“Oh, Rafe? You forgot this.” Eli held out the Spear of Light to her. He pressed the tiny button and it reverted back to its innocuous pen guise.
Rafe wouldn’t take it. “I don’t need it.”
“But there might come a day when you do.”
“I already have a job, Eli. I’m a cop, not a demon hunter.”
“But you could be both. You could help Ashley should the need arise again.”
“It won’t.” Rafe tried to ignore the soft laughter she could feel shaking Ashley’s body.
“This is Chicago, Detective, remember? Demon Central? You might want to take the gift offered you,” Ashley said. “They’re not given out lightly.”
“But I don’t want to fight any more demons. Haven’t I fulfilled my quota for this lifetime?” Rafe knew she was close to whining but didn’t really care.
Eli pushed the pen into her hand. “Just keep it beside you anyway. I’m sure it will make a nice writing implement if you choose to just keep it that way.” He shooed them out of the garden, leaving Rafe wondering just what he was going to set up where Lucas Thorpe’s body was concerned. She risked a look back over her shoulder. Ashley’s hand caught her chin and directed her eyes forward again.
“Let Eli sort it. Your job is done for now. Let’s go get some sleep before you’re called out again to deal with whatever he has set up.”
Rafe took Ashley back to her car, settled her in, and hurried around to get in herself. “Does Eli stage many crime scenes?”
Ashley laid her head against the headrest and closed her eyes. “Only the ones involving demons.”
“How do you feel?” Rafe could see the strain of the night’s events on Ashley’s face.
“I’ve just watched the last tangible link I had to family be ripped away from me. For the second time now, seeing as the first reports of his death were a little erroneous. You just don’t expect him to be killing in your name when you finally do meet up after all that.”
“It doesn’t seem fair he gets what he’s always wanted.”
“But he has to be in hell to get it. And something tells me Dad won’t be too happy to see his only son dropped into the pit to spend eternity with him labeled a murderer.”
“Will your dad know that Lucas tried to kill you?”
Ashley smiled humorlessly. “Oh believe me, he’ll know exactly what put Lucas in hell.”
Rafe pondered this a moment. “I can’t see it being a happy reunion for them. In fact, it does seem rather fitting, now that I think about it.”
“You should always be careful what you wish for. One man’s idea of heaven is another man’s hell.”
*
It was a call from Dean that finally roused Rafe from her sleep. She had been sprawled out on the couch with Ashley wrapped in her arms and Trinity curled around them. Dean wasted no time once Rafe answered her cell.
“The stakeout was a complete and utter bust, but we’ve just gotten a call in. A body has been found.”
Disoriented from her slumber, Rafe feared the worst and spoke before her brain kicked into gear. “Another woman?”
“No, it’s a male. They think it might be Thorpe. I’m on my way to pick you up.”
Rafe managed to untangle herself from Ashley’s hold without waking her. She covered her up with a blanket, tucking her in tenderly. Trinity moved to take up Rafe’s spot. “Watch over her, please.” Rafe fussed at the cat, who yawned, revealing sharp white teeth and a very pink tongue. The cat kneaded at the blanket, then managed to cover herself in it. Rafe could hear the steady purring start up again. “Make yourself comfy, why don’t you, Trin.”
Rafe grabbed her jacket and was out waiting on the sidewalk when Dean pulled up in his car. He handed her a coffee the second she got into the passenger seat.
“You’ll need this. It�
��s frosty this morning. I know the weather has been getting steadily cooler, but I swear I’ve seen snow in some places as I’ve driven through. That’s freaky even for us. There’s been no mention of a snowfall on the weather reports all week.”
Rafe sipped her coffee gratefully and rummaged in the paper sack Dean had dumped in her lap. “Coffee and doughnuts?”
“I figured you hadn’t eaten, and I’m still buzzing from all the caffeine I drank on the stakeout. I need something to soak it all up.”
“You said it’s a male body. What makes you think it’s Thorpe?”
“The lady who found it works at the Garden of Eden, the same place the last woman was found killed. She recognized Thorpe when she found the body this morning. According to her, he used to hang around the garden. She said he was creepy, kept saying something about how he was going to take the garden back for the snake.” Dean pulled away from the curb and turned onto the main road. “She reckoned he was just another drunk looking to bunk down on the bench in there. But seeing as he mostly kept out of her way, she didn’t feel the need to get the police involved. She found him this morning when she came to see what damage had been done to her patch with all our feet trampling through the scene. She figured if she came in early enough she could slip under the tape and just have a look. She found more than she bargained for.” He cast Rafe a critical look. “You don’t look any more rested.”
Rafe purposely kept her eyes forward. She didn’t dare meet his concerned gaze. “I’m rested enough. I was working out the strategy for our interrogation, but I didn’t expect you to tell me he wasn’t going to talk…indefinitely.”
“I froze my ass off watching his house in the hope he would slink back there to hide. Instead, the sneaky bastard was back at the last scene leaving us another dead body.”
Rafe was thankful that this time she was driven directly to the scene. She was tired of having to park blocks away and sneak in like a member of the special ops squad. The previous crime scene tape was still in place, but there was a heavy presence of officers guarding the area. Rafe followed Dean, curious as to what she would find left behind by Eli. There was something strange about stepping onto a murder scene where you’d already seen the murder happen hours ago but had yet to see it staged. She forced herself to remain professional and not look around for any signs of angels watching.
Lucas Thorpe lay in a smattering of snow. He was spread out on his back, eyes wide open staring sightless at the sky above. Rafe stepped toward him. His wrists had been cut and the blood was spread out above his head and down to his sides. For a moment, the significance escaped her, but when it registered she hastily stifled a snort of laughter. She coughed to cover it.
“You okay there, Rafe?” Dean asked, putting a hand on her arm.
“I’m fine. Must have swallowed a snowflake.” She walked around the body to make sure she was seeing what she thought. “Am I the only one to see a snow angel here?”
Dean’s head whipped up at her then back down at the body. “Fuck, you’re right.”
Dr. Alan picked his way across the light snow to join them. “Makes a change for one of these to do the right thing and take himself out.”
“Saves taxpayers too.” She knelt beside the body. “So what do you think, Doc? He slit his wrists, then lay down to make a snow angel?”
“I’ve seen stranger things, Rafe, but I’d say that pretty much sums it up. He left a note stabbed to a tree with a huge knife that I would guess was the one he used.”
Rafe looked over to where he pointed. Sure enough, there was a piece of paper with a message scrawled upon it. It was held in place by the murder weapon he had brandished at her and Ashley earlier.
“That really is a big fucking knife.” Dean padded over to retrieve the evidence. Jim Pope was already on hand with his camera documenting the scene so Dean could remove both the knife and the note.
Dr. Alan edged over to Rafe and bumped her gently from her musings. “I…I checked him for you.”
“Checked him for what?”
Dr. Alan brushed at his forehead. “Horns. If ever there was one I’d expect to have them, it would be this guy.”
Rafe couldn’t agree more. “Any sign?”
Dr. Alan shook his head. “Not on my initial examination, but I’ll take great pleasure in sawing open his skull to take a deeper look.”
“Keep me posted on your findings, horns or not.”
Dr. Alan nodded, then edged closer still. “Do you want to bring your PI friend down to see this body?”
“I don’t think there’ll be any need for her to do that. Ms. Scott’s involvement is finished now that the killer is dead. This case is mercifully closed.”
“Did she help your case, Rafe?”
“I don’t think we could have solved it without her.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
Rafe studied the photographs taken at Lucas Thorpe’s suicide scene and laughed silently at the irony on display. You got your wings after all, Lucas, laid out in the snow and painted with your own blood this time.
Dean stood beside her all but breathing down her neck.
“Damn creepy, if you ask me,” he said.
“I want to know why he killed himself.” Alona enlarged the photo and Lucas Thorpe’s dead eyes stared out at them. “I mean, he seemed to be a man on a mission.”
“I think us closing in on him tipped his hand. He had to have come to the realization he wouldn’t be able to spread his wings in a cell on death row.”
“He was an angel maker.” Dean picked up the painting that they had kept on display in the office.
Rafe found the artwork curiously beautiful in its rendition of a fallen angel seeking to return to former glories. Yet it was equally disturbing knowing it had been used for deadly inspiration. She was of two minds whether to have it valued by her brother for its artistry or to set fire to it. She hoped it got lost somewhere in the evidence locker and would remain forever unseen.
“So all along he was delusional and killing women because he thought they were angels and he could steal their wings.” Alona held the bagged suicide note in her grasp. “Explains the ripping open of their backs.” She waved the note at Rafe. “Have you spoken to Ashley about this?”
Rafe nodded. “I called her from the scene. She said she’d drop by later.”
“Was this anything to do with the occult?” Dean turned the picture in his hands to another angle. “Because this picture depicts a weird way of looking at the world.”
It’s truer than you’ll ever know. “That painting isn’t much different from the religious frescoes you find in certain cultures. Everything is angels and demons. I think the only occult thing we’ll find is that he was chased by his own set of demons.”
“Well, his mother was no use whatsoever. She couldn’t shed any further light on him at all.” Dean put the painting down in exasperation. “She was a weird one too. Just kept on about how she had to raise him all on her own.”
“I told you her view of the world was pretty much observed from the bottom of a whiskey bottle.” Rafe wondered how much Eli had removed from Marion’s memory. She marveled at how easy it could have been for him to have done the same to her. Would I want to forget Armitage and that alley? Rafe fingered her scar reflectively. It brought Ashley to me; I want to remember it all.
“It was strange how she kept assuring me he was a good boy and how much he looked after his mother. It was obvious he hadn’t been home for a while.”
“Some kids can do no wrong in their mother’s eyes,” Rafe said.
Alona patted her computer. “Well, I for one was just glad we had the data stream up and running and his previous brushes with the cops were documented here.”
Rafe was pleased with that good fortune. Thorpe’s previous dealings with the police had given them the basis to build their case on and pursue him before he killed again. “Guess all this tech just made itself invaluable,” she teased Alona. “And we’re only just startin
g. Imagine what we can find out when all the DDUs are set up around the country. We’ll have information at our fingertips within hours instead of days or weeks.”
“Without the interference of jurisdiction rearing its ugly head,” Dean said.
“That was the final hurdle. Law enforcement officers do tend to clutch their territory to their chests like a precious commodity. With these units we can open up the world of investigation.” She caught Alona checking her watch for the second time. “Got a date, Officer Wilson?”
Laughing, Alona shook her head. “No. I’m making sure you make your appointment with Detective Powell so she can break the case on tonight’s news.”
Rafe waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll go see her shortly and she can go tell the city how wonderful we are and that they can all sleep soundly in their beds for another night.”
“She’ll be surprised to get you instead of me.”
Rafe shot Alona a sly glance. “I’m sure she’ll find another way to get you alone.” Rafe gathered up her files and patted Alona on her shoulder as she walked past her. “I’ll be back in a little while. Just need to go feed the media its sound bites for the evening.”
“Paint us in a good light,” Dean called after her.
“Of course I will. We chased down the bad guy and cornered him until his only way out was to take his own life. Case closed; the city rejoices. Justice is seen to be served.”
“And Thorpe can rot in hell,” Dean added.
No truer words had been spoken.
*
Rafe wasn’t surprised that Ashley came into the office much later in the day. Dean was down in the morgue trying to speed up Dr. Alan’s autopsy report and Alona was out getting food since none of them had eaten for hours. When Ashley’s blond head appeared around the office door, Rafe’s pulse soared at the sight of her.
“Hey,” she called, suddenly aware that the screen behind her displayed the photos of Lucas Thorpe’s suicide scene. She wanted to wipe the screen clean or at least reduce the size of the photos that were boldly emblazoned for all to see.