9th Circle

by Carolyn McCray; Ben Hopkin

“Help me! Help—” the reverend cried out. Darc ignored him.

  “Fifty compressions per minute,” Darc intoned, thrusting his hands down on the girl’s sternum, compressing her heart, causing the blood to flow. “Get the gradient pressure up to one hundred twenty.”

  “Please, please! Release me!” Still the pastor screamed and pleaded, his entire body gradually turning into a human torch. Darc glanced sideways momentarily as the reverend noticed the scalpel just in front of him. The priest reached for the blade but his fingers missed by millimeters.

  Pumping his arms faster and faster, Darc did everything he could to kick-start the young girl’s heart. “Once the saturation level in the blood reaches over eighty percent, your brain will jump-start.”

  The priest continued to stretch out his hand to grasp the blade. He began to pull himself along the iron bar, his intestines slipping even farther out of the breach in his flesh. His fingers reached the scalpel, but he was unable to grasp it. Screaming in agony, the pastor shoved himself forward one more time…

  Only to have Darc’s foot planted squarely over the blade. He spoke to the priest with no inflection in his tone.

  “Suicide is a sin, remember?”

  Darc kicked the weapon of mercy away, then returned to his compressions, hearing the priest scream behind him.

  “No!”

  Peering down at the form on the table, Darc murmured encouragement to her. “Seven hundred ninety-seven. We’re almost there.”

  One final, gut-wrenching scream from the human torch, and the cleric finally fell silent. Just as the echoes died down, the girl took in a gasping breath.

  “Yes. Yes,” Darc encouraged. “Draw the oxygen in.”

  The girl took another breath, then another, and finally awoke, looking up into Darc’s face. Her eyes were a brilliant blue-green. Darc had not noticed that fact before.

  Beyond the entrance to the cathedral, shouts could be heard calling out. Its timbre and inflection marked the voice as belonging to the captain.

  “Darc! Robi!”

  Darc returned his attention to the little one in front of him. She sat up, her eyes never leaving Darc’s face. Before he knew what was happening, she launched herself into his arms, holding him about the waist, her tiny arms not reaching all the way around. She clutched at him with all her young strength, a fierceness in her that Darc could feel all the way through his jacket. Burrowing her head into Darc’s chest, she snuggled in as tightly as she could.

  And Darc had no idea what to do.

  He sat there, more perplexed than he had ever been before that he could recall. The moment stretched out, with Darc none the wiser. He patted her back awkwardly.

  “I am right here. I will not go anywhere.”

  That was good, but probably not good enough. What else was he to do? Then he remembered Trey’s rule number nineteen. When a chick hugs you, dude, you hug her back. Seriously. Darc hesitated, then reached his arm around the small form huddled against him. The girl relaxed into him, releasing a sigh of contentment.

  And Darc felt a smile spread across his face. It spread and kept spreading.

  This was unusual. Darc had, of course, smiled before, but normally it was a calculated thing, designed to navigate the sticky grey areas of his life. But this felt more like what Trey called a grin.

  Darc was grinning.

  A shaky voice came from the darkness off to the side. “I’m putting that on the calendar, too.”

  It was Trey.

  *

  Well, this was just awesome. Apparently, Trey had missed the whole thing. The bomb was defused, the girl was okay, no one was trying to kill them. The creepy reverend was gone, but there was a smoking corpse impaled over there that hadn’t been there when Trey had been awake.

  Okay, maybe he was okay with the fact that he had slept through it all.

  He walked over to the altar, his steps woozier than he would’ve liked. Gingerly touching his head, Trey winced as he came into contact with the gash there. That would explain the little nappy-poo.

  A bunch of voices, sounding like they were coming right from the entrance, called out.

  “Detective Darcmel!”

  “Darc!”

  “Darcmel!”

  Trey slumped against a nearby pillar, groaning. “How about a ‘Trey’? Or a ‘Keane’? Hell, I’d take a ‘hey, other guy.’ Or ‘how’s the runt?’ Just once, ya know? Something different?” Whatever. To be honest, Trey hadn’t really counted on coming out of this thingy alive, so he was riding pretty high right now.

  Finally, the police officers, joined by EMTs, rushed in, passing right by Trey, zeroing in on Darc and the girl. Well, that was just rude.

  “Yeah, never mind me. Just a near-death experience here.”

  Trey watched as Darc tried to keep close to Janey. This was a new one. Apparently, it was just a night for firsts for his partner. Trey couldn’t be more proud.

  But Darc got bumped and shoved off to the side while the EMTs checked to make certain she was okay. The captain stepped forward, placing a hand on Darc’s shoulder.

  “Take a step back, Darcmel.”

  “But I need—” Darc began.

  “We all need to get out of here and let the bomb squad clean up.”

  “Fine, but I’m going with her.”

  An officious-looking woman in a pantsuit that she had somehow kept from getting smudged down here stepped forward, placing herself in between Trey’s partner and Janey. She had a clipboard and a pinched-looking face that didn’t seem capable of smiling.

  “I’m Dorothy Lanker from DCFS. I have Dr. Charan’s notes here.” She tapped her clipboard with her pen. “There’s going to be some sorting out to do.”

  “But—” Darc tried to interject.

  “Until then, the child goes into protective care.”

  Ms. Lanker stalked over to the altar and scooped up Janey in her available arm. Janey squirmed and wriggled in the woman’s arms, stretching her arms out for Darc. Darc did what he could to follow, but the captain grabbed his arm, holding him back.

  Darc pled, actually pled, with their boss. “I promised that I wouldn’t leave her.”

  “Look, Child Services’ panties are in a bunch right now. We’ll smooth the paperwork out over the next week.” The captain’s tone was funereal, as always, but firm.

  “No.” Darc was not letting this thing go. “She needs me—”

  “I don’t want to get into a pissing match with the state.” Captain Merle’s tone sharpened. “Stand down.”

  Trey moved forward to hold Darc back. This was a new one. He’d held his partner back from doing a lot of things before, but never something emotionally connected. There was part of Trey that felt like he was betraying the best thing he’d ever seen in Darc. But he still had to do it. Trey spoke into his partner’s ear as Janey was moved farther away, her arms still straining for her detective.

  “Darc, dude, you’ve got to let it go. You mess things up now, you may never have another chance. Come on. Think, dude.”

  And then, from close to the entrance of the church, a voice called out. A young voice. A little girl’s voice.

  “Darc!”

  It was Janey.

  Just like that, Darc was out of Trey’s grasp and next to the girl faster than Trey could blink. But the detective didn’t try to grab for her or rip her out of the social worker’s arms. He just held out her ratted teddy bear, placing it gently in her arms. He bent down to her eye level and looked at her intently.

  “The mongoose. Remember the mongoose.”

  The chick from DCFS had a look on her face like Darc was speaking Chinese. Which maybe wasn’t so far from the truth, although Trey had a little inkling of what his partner might be talking about. But Janey totally got it. She smiled one of the most radiant smiles Trey had ever seen, clutched the bear to her heart, and snuggled right down.

  Trey moved to Darc’s side, patting his shoulder. “The high road, Darc. The high road.” He had never be
en more proud to be this guy’s partner. Truly.

  His cell phone rang in his pocket. “Milkshake.” He tried to ignore it. Darc spoke without looking at him.

  “You know how she hates it when she goes through to voice mail.”

  “Darc, I am so—”

  “Just answer it.” Darc’s tone was steady. There was no anger there. Maybe a touch of remorse, but no bitterness.

  Trey started to answer the phone, but then felt his knees go out from under him. He felt Darc catch him before he hit the ground. Again. This was becoming a pattern.

  “Okay,” Trey croaked. “I think I’ll take that medical attention now…”

  The way out of the Underground proved to be a lot easier than their trip down, except for the fact that Trey’s knees kept giving out on him. One of the officers had some sort of schematic that he consulted, and almost before Trey knew what was going on, he had partially walked, partially been carried out to the surface through an old-fashioned candy shop.

  Trey found himself perched in the back of an ambulance, getting medical attention from one of the paramedics. He had called Maggie back as soon as he’d gotten a clear signal, and was now doing his best to reassure her.

  “No, babe. I’m totally fine.” He placed a hand over the mouthpiece of his cell and spoke to the EMT. “Right? I’m fine, right?”

  “Looks like a mild concussion.”

  Reassured, he spoke back into the phone. “Yeah, I’m good. I’ll call you when they release me.” He flipped the phone closed. Off in the distance, he could see the back of Darc’s head, walking off into the darkness. Captain Merle tried to get his partner’s attention.

  “Darc!”

  But he was long gone. The captain peered over at Trey, his eyebrow cocking a bit.

  “Hey,” Trey waved him off. “Don’t look at me. I’m not running after him this time.”

  “Where the hell is he going?”

  “Dude,” Trey replied, realizing this was probably the only time he’d ever get to call his boss “dude” and get away with it. “I wouldn’t have the slightest idea.”

  The captain gave him a look that plainly said he didn’t buy it in the slightest, but then looked at the bandages on Trey’s head and just said, “We’ll debrief you at the hospital.”

  As Captain Merle stormed off, Trey let his head sink back as he lay down in the gurney. These things were a lot more comfortable than he might’ve thought. He started to close his eyes, then thought of something. Something important.

  “Hey!” he called out to the medic. “How about one of those pain shots?”

  The EMT rolled his eyes but went to go grab a syringe. At least it would be a comfy ride to the hospital.

  *

  She had Popeye. The bad man was gone. And she was remembering the mongoose like the tall man had told her to. She was safe.

  But she was still scared. And sad. Really sad. Now that everything was okay again, nothing was okay. Mommy was gone. Daddy was gone. The pretty lady was gone. This other lady was not so pretty.

  The tall man was gone.

  She had called out to him. It was hard, but she had said his name. She said it, and he came. He came and gave her back her Popeye. Popeye was glad to be here with her. He said so. He was also acting kinda like a know-it-all or something because he had helped the tall man beat the bad guy. He was pretty proud of that, and there was no way he was going to let her forget it. Daddy called that “being uppity.”

  It was scary here. Not so so scary as the bad place with the bad man, but more scary than the monster-behind-the-bookcase kind of scary. She didn’t know this place. Nothing looked right. It didn’t smell right, either.

  She hugged Popeye tighter even though he was already complaining. He was what Daddy always used to call a whiner. She told him to hush, then whispered the tall man’s name.

  “Darc.”

  It made her feel better. It was a lot like when she would draw the badges around herself. She didn’t have any crayons or markers here, and when the not-so-pretty lady had finally figured out what she meant when she was pretending to draw, the lady just said that it was too late and it was time to go to bed.

  She didn’t like that lady so much.

  There was a noise. A thump and a scrape over there where the window was. She felt the thump-thump of her heart. It was going fast. She made it go slow again, like she had done in the bad place.

  She needed to know what was happening over there, but Popeye wouldn’t go to check it out. He was such a chicken.

  And then there was someone by her bed. She could hear the breathing. She didn’t want to open her eyes up to see who it was, but she did it anyway. Sometimes you had to do things you didn’t like. Daddy said that.

  But when she opened her eyes, she was happy. Super-duper happy.

  The person beside the bed was the tall man.

  Darc.

  He was drawing a badge around the bed, making a big circle around her and Popeye. He looked up at her and smiled. It was a nice smile.

  “It’s all right. I’m here, Janey.”

  That was the first time he had said her name. Not her real name, she knew that. But that girl wasn’t really her anymore. That girl had a mommy and a daddy and lived in a big new house.

  She was Janey now. And Janey still had Popeye. And she had Darc.

  Darc lay down by the side of the bed inside the badge and propped his head on his arm to watch over her. Janey smiled and snuggled down in her bed, feeling safer than she had in a long time.

  And then she went right to sleep.

  EPILOGUE

  Trey knew it was a dream. And that was okay. Because this dream was filled with talking animals. Three bunnies, four squirrels, and a beaver, to be precise.

  The beaver, whose name was Tesla, for some weird reason, was trying to get Trey to join him and the rest of the furry creatures on their trip. They were headed to a land where the rocks were soft and edible and tasted of cotton candy and bacon. And in his dream, that sounded glorious. Perfection.

  Trey had no desire to wake from this dream, although the talk of the bacon did make him realize that at some point he would need to get up, if only to be able to consume his breakfast meats. Trey did love his breakfast meats.

  But for now, he was content to follow behind Tesla and his motley crew of cutesies. One of the rabbits, a plump fellow named Jack, was complaining about his wife and kids and how they never gave him a moment to himself. Having hundreds of offspring would do that to a guy, but Trey thought it impolite to offer unasked-for advice, especially in a dream.

  There was some sort of a sound that didn’t quite seem to fit in with the fuzzy landscape around him. Trey figured it was probably not part of the dream, so it was best to just ignore it. The smell of frying sausage would be sure to wake him up when it was really time to get up, right?

  Besides, Roxie, a spitfire little squirrel, was jabbering at him, and it took every bit of his concentration to understand what the hell she was talking about. Squirrels. They were almost as bad as seagulls. But they did have nice tails.

  And then Trey felt a presence above him. He glanced up, but there was nothing there. Once more, it was pretty clear this wasn’t part of the dream.

  He tried to ignore it, but his newfound cuddly friends faded. Still, Trey squeezed his eyes shut more tightly.

  Like he’d been thrown out of a slingshot, Trey awakened, his eyes snapping open to find…

  Darc standing over him.

  No, just no. Trey closed his eyes again. This had to be a bad dream. A nightmare, really. But he could feel the sulking presence leaning over him, studying him. Then Trey remembered where in the hell he was.

  Maggie’s apartment.

  Crap.

  Trey opened his eyes, tilting his head to find Maggie sleeping. That would not do. He’d just gotten her settled down from the whole “not only did I almost die, but Darc knows about us” talk. He went to get out of the bed, when he noticed another figure stan
ding next to Darc. A small figure. A figure with her little hand in Darc’s.

  “Janey?” he hissed, then instantly regretted it. Maggie stirred as Trey slipped from the bed.

  He put both hands on Darc’s chest and backed him out of the room. Once the bedroom door was shut and they were safely in the living room, Trey demanded, “What in the hell do you think—”

  “Together,” Darc interrupted. “We—”

  “No!” Trey barked. “There is no we with you and Janey. Dude, do you realize what you have done? You’ve kidnapped a ward of the state.”

  Darc’s features clouded. “She came freely.”

  How was he going to explain to Mr. Super Brainiac that it just didn’t work that way? Maybe, just maybe, if he could get Janey back to the group home before morning roll call, they could avoid the massive browbeating from the captain that loomed on the horizon.

  “Look it,” Trey said, “Let me get a jacket and—”

  “She’s alive,” Darc said.

  His partner and his weird segues. Trey nodded to Janey. “Yeah, even I can tell that.”

  “No,” Darc said. “Not her.”

  Whether it was the head trauma or the sleep deprivation, Trey just wasn’t getting it. “What ‘her’?”

  “Mala,” Darc stated. “She is alive.”

  Afterword

  Thank you very much for going on this adventure with Darc and Trey. Hopefully you enjoyed reading about their case as much as we enjoyed writing it.

  If you did enjoy 9th Circle, we'd love to ask you a favor and go back to Amazon and leave a review. We indie authors live and die by our reviews!

  We’d also like to enlist your help. If you find any, and we mean any typos, spelling errors or anything funky, please contact us directly at authormccray@aol.com. Even though this book has gone through a gazillion edits, we are all only human and your input is greatly appreciated!

  Looking for other great mysteries? Be on the watch for 7th Sin, the sequel to 9th Circle, it should be out in March. Can't wait until then? Check out the next section for more mystery/thrillers from Carolyn and Ben!

  Other Works by Carolyn McCray