Shadows May Fall

by Corcoran, Mell

  Akashiro Tahaya Sensei was born on a tropical island in the philippines, known today as Cebu. After the island was liberated from Japanese occupation in 1945, Sensei traveled to Japan and spent two decades in Okinawa where he trained under legendary Karate Masters. Lou tried to find details on how he came to be with the Sanguinostri, whether he was a Steward or what, but she could find nothing. Even when she asked Niko, all he would tell her was at some point, ages ago, Sensei was offered a seat on the Far East Aegis Council. The word was that he declined the position and opted to serve as a trainer while continuing his work to preserve traditional Karate. Lou wasn’t necessarily expecting an old man bent with age and time or anything, and he sure wasn’t six feet of massive. But there was something about him that she found fiercely intense and intimidating. Something she knew would make even Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal pee their pants.

  Liam shoved Dillon ahead and into the dojo while Lou cowered behind Liam. Sensei motioned with his hand for them to come closer then looked them over one by one without saying a word. Awkward was an understatement. Lou felt like she was ten years old and had just been sent to the principal’s office.

  “Give me your car keys.” He demanded. Dillon and Liam looked at each other then dug their keys from their pockets to comply. Sensei looked at Lou, expecting her to hand the keys over as well.

  “He drives.” Lou said as she pointed to Dillon.

  Sensei looked at the clock on the back wall then back at them, drilling holes in their craniums with his intense gaze. “You have ninety minutes to run to the ocean and back. Bring me two fistfuls of sand.” They all looked at each other then back at Sensei as if he were insane. He stared at them with a deadpan expression, then glanced back up at the clock. “You now have eighty-nine minutes.”

  Liam was the first to scramble out the door, Lou scurrying after him and Dillon last. They had no clue how far the beach was, but Liam took a right out the dojo and another right on Manhattan Beach Boulevard. From there he knew it was a straight shot west, and Dillon just followed his lead. They tried to pace themselves to avoid getting caught at traffic stops and conserve energy, but they had to push it to make it in time, especially Lou. She had half the stride the guys did, and her competitive nature would not allow her to come in last. It was just under an eleven mile round trip to the beach and back, and none of them were dressed for a run. Liam had the foresight to change out of his uniform when he left his station and was running in sweats and a t-shirt. Dillon was running in jeans, a decent dress shirt and tactical boots and Lou couldn’t remember what she had on since her mother had shoved her into it on her way out the door that morning. She knew, however, that she was grateful she wasn’t wearing heels, but the moto boots she had on felt like her feet were stuck in molten lead. She had half a mind to rip them off at the next red light.

  Lou had been working out regularly as part of her rehab and had starting running regularly but five miles a few times a week at best. This was going to be tough especially after she and Dillon stuffed their faces at lunch. They had wanted a nap before, this was going to kill them. Getting to the sand seemed like it took an hour since they had no idea how far away they really were. Dillon was especially lost without his SUV’s navigation but when Lou crossed against the red at Valley Drive, she knew it was only a couple more blocks. The beach fog had come in thick so none of them could see the ocean until they were almost on top of it. When Liam and Dillon hit the mouth of the pier they took a hard left and ran down the steps to the beach, scooping as much sand as possible but Dillon saw Lou go flying straight over the railing and keep running for the shore. He hesitated for just a second but refocused. He and his handfuls of sand were headed back to the dojo as fast as he could run. Liam took note of his cousin overshooting the sand but dismissed her and headed after Dillon, backup the boulevard.

  When Lou got to the water, she grabbed handfuls of sand and stuffed as much as she could into the pockets of her jeans. The incoming waves crashed against her legs, almost make her fall over but the chilly waters felt so good as they soaked her boots, she didn’t care. She grabbed two more fists full of sand then hauled ass back to the dojo as fast as she could. Lou almost got hit by a car running another red light, having to stick one hand out onto the car’s hood to protect herself. She lost one fistful of sand so as she resumed running at break-neck speed she dug out another fist full from her pocket. To her amazement, she caught sight of Liam and that made her move even faster. If she could beat him back to the dojo, that would give her serious bragging rights at least until Christmas. Lou did a little spin to avoid stepping on a homeless man perched on the curb then a minor leap to get a lead on her cousin. The sight of her must have flustered him because he hesitated, which gave her all she needed to get a significant lead on him. When she reached the entrance to the dojo, she clamped the handle of the door with her forearms and ripped the thing open. Lou busted inside and tried her very best to not collapse. Dillon was already inside, hunched over gasping for air, sand dribbling out of his clenched fists.

  When Liam finally arrived they had barely a minute to spare. The three stood gasping and wheezing in front of Sensei, waiting for his next instruction.

  He started with Liam, held out his hand, palm up. “Give me your sand.” He instructed, and Liam loosened his grip on the little sand he had left, maybe a teaspoon if you were generous. Sensei looked, huffed then dusted his hands off and moved to Dillon.

  “Give me your sand.” He instructed and held his palm out. Dil-lon’s sand dust was less than Liam had. Sensei gave him a disapproving look. “Now you.” He turned to Lou without bothering to dust his hands this time. Lou held her fist over his hand and opened it. A clump of wet sand fell into his palm. She repeated the action with her other hand, and another egg sized lump dropped.

  It could have been her imagination but for a split second when he looked at her, she thought she saw a grin in his eye. He turned and walked with the wet sand and put it in a small bowl on the reception counter at the front of the dojo. He then walked to the back of the dojo and disappeared behind a curtain and was gone for what seemed like ages. Not that any one of them was complaining. Liam actually dry-heaved twice while he was gone. When Sensei returned, he had something white folded in his hands. It looked like bed sheets, but none of them could tell right off. He walked directly to Lou and ignored the two men.

  “Hold out your hands.” He instructed her and she obeyed instantly. “These are your Keigogi. You will come early. Be dressed and standing in your place, right here where you stand now, every other day at seven in the evening, starting next Monday.”

  “What about...” Liam was confused, but the Sensei cut him off.

  “My instructions were to run to the ocean and come back with two fistfuls of sand.” He looked at Liam and then Dillon. “You both failed to do so.”

  “What?” Dillon was furious. “We most certainly...”

  “No!” Sensei put his hand up to hush Dillon. “You ran to the beach and took your sand! The little one here was the only one who did as asked and in doing so she was able to hold hers for the trip back. Well, aside from almost being crushed by a car but she had the foresight to fill her pockets, to prepared for any eventuality. She has earned her training.” Lou resisted the extreme urge to do a happy dance as her chest filled with warm and fuzzy pride, but she couldn’t help but wonder how he knew about her almost getting hit by the car. Of course, she was not about to be an idiot and ask him. “While Tallulah begins her training, you two shall face a new trial. We shall see if you will join her sooner, or later. That is all. You may go.”

  Lou remembered the way the children had left the mat earlier, so she took a risk and tried to mimic them. “Arigato Gozaimashita.” She thanked him and bowed like the littler girl had earlier. She then took three steps back, bowed again and left out the door where she did her happy dance, right there on the sidewalk.

  When Dillon and Liam finally c
ame out of the dojo, Lou was waiting with a devilish grin. They rolled their eyes at just walked past and straight to the cars. She didn’t care they were giving her the numb, she was far too giddy and pleased with herself.

  “You drop her off. I’ll stop home, shower and change then meet you at your place.” Liam asked Dillon.

  “Sounds like a plan.” Dillon replied. “I’ll pick us up food.”

  “Excellent. See ya in a while.” Liam just gave his cousin a dirty look before he got into his car.

  “Wow!” Lou chuckled. “You boys are sore losers!” She stood waiting for him to unlock the SUV door so she could get in.

  “Not losers.” Dillon opened his door, but not hers. “Just sore.” He got in and started the engine, still not unlocking her door.

  “Okay, come on!” Lou slapped the passenger window. “It’s not like I cheated or anything! I could have gotten it wrong too!”

  Dillon peered at her a moment then cycled through his music until the speakers started chirping. Lou started drumming on the window to the beat of the music as if that was going to get her in faster. She wasn’t sure what the song was until the chirping stopped and the synthesizers started, and Lou started laughing. He finally opened the door so she could get in and they drove out of Gardena singing at the top of their lungs to A Flock of Seagulls singing their legendary eighties hit “I Ran”. It was very appropriate.

  Caroline didn’t mind when Lou had called her and asked if she could look into any Jane Does that had come in over the past month. The sad thing was there were far too many of them. Peter Carpesh had offered to stay late and help her, so that had made things go a little faster. Fortunately, Deirdre Love had signed a release for the lab that Spank Me productions used for mandatory HIV testing. In California, all pornography studios were required by law to conduct testing on a regular basis. The release allowed Caroline to use the most recent sample the lab had on file for Hunny Trainer as an exemplar. They were running samples for all their Jane Does against that to see if Hunny had been hidden in a freezer all this time. Caroline knew that Lou thought so, but Caroline couldn’t believe that someone could just go missing and be forgotten as if they never existed. She found herself saying a silent prayer that they wouldn’t find a match. But according to Lou, that probably meant that Hunny could be their femme fatal. Caroline wasn’t sure which option would be worse.

  While they sat and waited for preliminary results, Carpesh and Caroline played Words with Friends while they discussed the various sources for Scopolamine. Caroline had confirmed to Lou earlier that all three of their male victims had indeed been drugged with Scopolamine but that they were running further test to try and pin down a source. Caroline and Carpesh had a bet on which would come in first, the breakdown on the Scopolamine or a DNA match. Caroline was rooting for the Scopolamine.

  “Will you be going to the meeting with our Principate this weekend?” Carpesh asked after playing the word ‘zingiest’ for over a hundred points.

  “How can that be a word?” Caroline shouted.

  “It is!” Carpesh insisted. “Look it up! As in, the tangerine had the zingiest taste of all the citrus.” He smiled with satisfaction.

  “Whatever.” Caroline resigned the game, what with her now being over two hundred points behind. “Yes, I am going. Since I am the senior agent in this office.” She said smugly. Carpesh had been the only Sanguinostri agent in the Coroner’s office until Caroline had been indoctrinated. Given she was a senior medical examiner, that gave her seniority. Peter took out a little notebook and jotted something down. “Are you keeping track of how many games you win against me?” She asked with an indignant tone.

  “Purely for my own knowledge.” He smiled at her. “And I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you are the primary now. It was utterly nerve-wracking to be the only one around here to keep track of things! You are a such a welcomed relief.”

  It irked Caroline to no end that Carpesh was completely unflappable to her relentless teasing, but he could faint at the sight of his own shadow. There was something wrong with him; she was sure of it. She often thought that he might suffer from a mild case of Asperger’s Syndrome but then if he did, she would feel terrible about giving him a hard time at every opportunity.

  “Glad I come in handy for ya.” Caroline snarked but then a ding from her computer indicated an incoming email. She spun around to see it was the one she was waiting for. “The Scopolamine results.”

  She informed Carpesh.

  He dug into his wallet and pulled out a crisp one-hundred dollar bill then laid it on her desk. “They find an origin?” He asked her.

  “Wow. This isn’t pharmaceutical stuff.” She read on further. “This was extracted from Brugmansia sanguinea.”

  “Bloody Angel’s Trumpet?” Carpesh asked as he got a chill up his spine.

  “It’s just a coincidence, Peter.” Caroline wondered if she was trying to convince him or herself. “There are tons of things in the universe that use the Latin sanguin variation. Take exsanguination for example. I shouldn’t need to be telling you this.”

  “I didn’t ask you to.” He pointed out. “I was only going to say that I thought it was extinct in the wild so how could someone be using it?”

  “Oh.” She suddenly felt silly. “Sara at the lab said she’s sent the report to her top botanist for evaluation. That will take a little while so let’s not jump to any conclusions.” When she looked over her shoulder, Peter was typing away at his computer. “What are you doing?”

  “Well just because something is listed as extinct in the wild, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” He squinted at his screen. “Right.”

  “What?” Caroline asked.

  “It grows prolifically in Columbia, including nature preserves and botanical gardens.” He confirmed. “You and I both know how much finds it’s way up here from Columbia by illegal means.”

  “Yeah but isn’t there a less complicated way of subduing victims?” Caroline found it extremely peculiar. “I mean you can mix up a batch of Rohypnol in a high school chemistry lab. Why go to all that trouble for something like this?”

  “That is something better left to the Detectives.” Peter sighed just as his email chimed. “Oh dear.”

  “What is it?” Caroline asked.

  “We have a match.” He informed her.

  “On the DNA?” Caroline jumped from her seat and looked over his shoulder. “Jane Doe 32020120435 is Hunny Trainer.”

  “That Jane Doe was my call.” Peter stated then took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I remember her vividly. Copious amounts of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines in her system. There was scarring to her fingertips which suggested crack pipe burns from prolonged use. She was found in a storm drain with a noose around her neck, the other end of the rope tied off at the top rung. By all indications, it was a transient who committed suicide.” Carpesh put his glasses back on and swallowed hard. “There is a well documented homeless camp up the storm drain from that location. Her prints were not in the system nor was there any missing persons report that fit her description.” He sighed heavily. “My job is simply to determine the cause of death, and everything supported that. I am not a detective.”

  “Sometimes we need to do a little detecting.” Caroline told him, but in a kind tone, not accusatory. “Where is the file?” Carpesh went to get the file while Caroline texted Lou that her hunch had been right. Hunny trainer had indeed been sitting in the morgue for three weeks.

  “The call came in Tuesday morning, March twentieth. I determined that the woman had hung herself thirty to thirty-six hours prior to her discovery.” Peter told her as he handed her the file.

  “We had heavy rains around that time too so I would concur with that estimate.” Caroline wanted to see photos of the actual scene. “From your vivid memory, tell me what you remember about the scene?”

  “I arrived at the scene and noted the st
orm drain with the cover pulled off and set aside on the sidewalk.” Peter closed his eyes to recall the scene better. “Because the rope had been secured to the first rung, right underneath the manhole cover, her body obstructed any access from that point of entry. There wasn’t enough room to lower a ladder without possibly disrupting the body or compromising any evidence. We had to come in from the other end of the block, through the drain tunnel.”

  “Do you know if the cover was in place when she hung herself?” Caroline asked.

  “I would assume so.” Peter thought for a moment. “Someone would have noticed if it hadn’t been, don’t you think? But that would be in the responding officer’s reports for certain. When I arrived, the access tunnel was open with the cover off to the side. I looked down and saw the woman hanging. The responding officers were excellent in my opinion. They knew not to try and make entry from above her, so they cleared the way from the opposite end of the block. I had my waders on since there was a good foot and a half of runoff from the rains in the drain still. There are photos that I took of the body immediately upon my reaching her.”

  “There are?” Caroline flipped through the file and found the pictures at the very back. “Perfect.”

  She looked them over carefully. The first depicted a full frame of Hunny Trainer hanging from the steel ladder that was bolted to the side of the drain wall. Her feet were dangling with water coming up to just below her knees. This confirmed Carpesh’s estimate of the depth of the water. The water marks on her dress looked like the level had been only a few inches higher at its peak, but there were another several inches of wicking up the skirt. Caroline took a moment to really look at Hunny and realized she wasn’t wearing a dress, but a nightgown. A peasant style nightgown that a little girl might wear. Not exactly the kind of thing a porn star would wear let alone a homeless transient navigating their way through underground tunnels. It instantly bothered her that Carpesh didn’t find that suspicious. Caroline flipped directly to the autopsy photos and zeroed in on the ones that showed the ligature marks from the rope around her neck, back and front. It was a classic bruising mark in the signature ‘V’ shape that occurs on hanging victims. Caroline had examined many bodies where the victim had been strangled first, then staged to look like they hung themselves. There would be an underlying bruise mark that would negate the possibility of suicide by hanging. This was not the case here. After scanning the rest of the autopsy findings, Caroline had to concede that she would have come to the same conclusion as Peter Carpesh. It still reeked of something fishy to her, and she needed to send Peter home so that she could speak freely about all of it when Lou finally called in.