by A. J. Mayall
Ullery coughed. “Language, Mr. Basseri.”
Basseri threw his arms up, eliciting a sharp cry from the bandaged man as the motion pulled on his barely closed wounds. “I want to know how they got on my system. This is a setup. O’Halloran has people in the police, they must have done this…”
Ewert entered the judge’s chambers, “Sorry for being late, gentlemen,” he said, closing the door. He pulled himself into the nearest chair and peered over the desk, a wry grin on his face.
Basseri looked to his lawyer, then to Ewert. “Is it too late to make a plea bargain? I’ll turn on Bellacino and O’Halloran.”
“We’re a bit beyond that, sir. I can make a call and see what can come of it, but you need to tell me what you know first.”
Basseri winced as he shoved Northcott away, looking desperate. His whole body seemed to ache from dealing with the third-degree burns on his body.
“Okay, okay.” he said, trying to not let tears well up, both from pride and also having salt on the wounds would be excruciating.
Northcott paused as his phone buzzed. As he looked at it, he blinked.
“Mr. Basseri, I believe you’ll want to see this.”
“What now, you idiot?!” he snapped, and swiped the phone from his lawyer’s hand. His eyes fell across the message, scrolling through it, and he smiled wide enough to break his scabs, causing the bandages around his lips to start turning crimson.
“Yeah. Let’s talk.”
“So, who do you think will be up next, you or me?” Suzette asked Phoenix as they re-entered the courtroom. Ewert and Northcott had Basseri signing documents at the D.A’s table, Phoenix stopped short.
“Something’s happened,” he muttered as he narrowed his gaze, taking his seat. He gave Suzette and then Gemini a side glance, as they found an empty bench near the front this time. As one, they sat, Phoenix keeping his eyes on Basseri, the recently bloodstained bandages giving him the appearance of a burned harlequin.
Ullery emerged from his chambers, a passive expression on his normally overtly positive face. His normal cheerful disposition tended to put those around him at unease, so the more down-to-business image both shocked and soothed McGee. He took his seat and tapped his gavel a few times to quell any murmuring conversation in the audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen, after re-examination of the evidence, Mr. Dominic Basseri has entered a last-minute plea bargain. However, I do with to say with the extreme nature of his crimes, the result is the same as if he had not. I wish to commend Mr. Basseri in his decision to assist in other cases. We have decided that Dominic Basseri will serve a sentence no shorter than seventy-five years, with his first opportunity for parole in thirty years.”
Silence filled the room; the Bastard had been brought down. Throughout the benches had been past victims, those curious about the case, a few members of independent media as the major stations had been barred from the courtroom. Phoenix looked over to Suzette, who teared up and smiled. She clasped his hand.
“We beat him. Son of a bitch, we got you,” she said under her breath, on the verge of nervous laughter. She turned and met his gaze, squeezing his hand harder. There was a look of finality in the moment, of complete achievement.
Phoenix smiled weakly at her, wondering if this would mean the end of their relationship. He had met her while investigating the man; Basseri had held her captive. He knew how well she held a grudge. Without the prospect of having the hunt for the Bastard on the horizon, would she no longer need to stick around?
She had Jack and they seemed to be hitting it off well, although he was certain Suzette was trying to tell him something about it. Maybe Jack was a replacement for him, and as Phoenix held his friend’s hand, he squeezed back. He wanted her to be happy, above anything else. If it meant her leaving, so be it.
They shared a gaze and Gemini soon peeked over from the other side of Suzette.
“I’d suggest a congratulatory meal, but we just ate so,” he paused looking to Guess, who swiped through her phone, verifying his busy schedule, “maybe later in the week?”
Guess nodded. “Saturday night you have free, sir; I’ll work on reservations.”
Phoenix watched as Basseri turned to stare at the five of them, and he swore the Bastard smiled under those bandages. He was led out in handcuffs and shackles, Phoenix glaring at him until the man disappeared through the side door and it was closed.
“I have a feeling this isn’t quite over yet…” he said to Suzette as they stood as a group. He put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn and regard him pleasantly. She had a warm smile and eyes still moistened from tears.
“What’s up, McGee?”
“You go back with Jack, I’ll fly. I want to catch up with Ullery first.”
“Suit yourself, Red.” She chuckled and hugged him tightly. “We got him. We fucking got him. And he’s going to fucking die in prison.”
He hugged her back. “I’ll see you back at the office, okay?” He held her at arm’s length by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “I just want to check a few things.”
She nodded and ran after Jack, slinging an arm over his shoulders, pulling him down a bit.
Phoenix turned, looking to Northcott and Ewert, nodding to the both of them, scowling at the taller man, though. He stood at a respectable distance from the judge’s bench. He gave Ullery a polite wave, who only returned it with a disturbingly happy smile. Phoenix secretly wished the man would stop being so chipper.
“Mr. McGee, how goes business?” he asked, checking paperwork in front of him, peeking up every few seconds with his rictus smile.
“After this, I’m sure it’ll pick up. I was kind of focused on finding the Bentons these past few weeks.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll be seeing your usual mainstay of insurance and worker’s compensation fakers soon enough. You’re one of the best there is at that, you know that, right?”
“It’s kind of meat and potatoes, though; stakeouts and record-keeping. After all this, I wonder if I should focus more on missing persons, or bounty hunting.”
“Someone has to do the small work, McGee. You get it done fast and efficiently, not to mention I do love it when you bring in slawdogs,” he said, expectantly.
Phoenix laughed. “Sorry, I already had a few for lunch, no more today.”
Ullery laughed, “Bah! What good are you, then?” He grinned, those thin lips showing just a bit too much gum, those teeth almost needle-like.
Phoenix inhaled, keeping an eye on Northcott as he closed his briefcase and stormed out of the courtroom. Ewert had a set of wheels on the side of his and an extending handle allowed him to pull it behind him like a piece of luggage. Northcott held the door open for him in professional courtesy.
“Ullery, I gotta ask, what happened during the recess?”
“You know I can’t discuss the details.”
“Give me a hint? Pretty please? Sugar and cherries on top?”
“Phoenix, let this drop. I know you and Basseri have a history, but you have other cases to worry about, right? Maxwell? Bellacino? O’Halloran?”
“Come on, we all know Bellacino and O’Halloran were set up. Okay, yes, they need to go to jail for calling the hits, and I’ll help do that in a heartbeat. Basseri, if he’s turning evidence, he’s going to make it look like they set him up, just for his appeals.”
“Unsure how he can appeal after pleading guilty…”
“Leave it to Northcott to find a way. That man puts more twists on case law than a pretzel factory.”
“Let me know if you need anything, Phoenix. However, I do have other cases to see to today, and you have cases to prepare for,” Ullery said as he stood, offering Phoenix a handshake before returning to his chambers.
As he headed out of the courtroom, he felt that pang of being pulled toward something. He shook off the sensation, telling himself it was a ripple from Basseri’s conviction. In the past, when he felt the ripples of important moments in his life, t
here were always aftershocks. It made sense, a strong one before coming to court, and one as he was leaving.
Outside the Temple of Hades, the warm, dry desert air hit his face. He stepped off to the side of the main walkways and lifted his arms over his head, palms facing outward. As he lifted into the air, he brought his hands down and began his ascent into the sky.
Minutes later, he was outside his loft, waving a hand to make the locks come undone. He called downstairs a few minutes later, hearing the jingle of keys in the downstairs door.
“Hey, Suzette, is Jack still with you?”
“Yeah, you got back fast!” she called up. “Everything go okay?”
“Just had to ask Ullery a few things. Do I have any messages on the official line?”
“Let me see.”
A few moments passed, Phoenix setting Bouncer back at his spot between the pillows on the bed, having toppled over from where he had been sat last time.
Suzette called up, “Just Linville, he was curious if you could visit him on site. He said he could use your expertise.”
“That means he’s got a computer setup he can’t hack.”
Jack called up, “Well, I know he’s still working the back end of the Bellacino and O’Halloran cases. It’s likely the thing Basseri built.
“Okay, so the Room of Light, it’s being taken apart, right?”
Suzette called up, “Later today, according to Linville. You want to see it killed, don’t you?”
“It’s wrong, Suzette. It was. It was built…wrong. I can’t put my finger on it. You know how people reacted to Frankenstein’s monster?”
“Yeah, they saw it as an abomination.”
“That’s how it feels to me. It was born wrong.”
“Phoenix, it’s a machine.”
“It fed on their suffering, Suzette. Somewhere in it, there was something evil.”
“Basseri built it, and Maxwell maintained it. That isn’t evil enough for you?”
He shook his head, before seeing his own phone blinking; the call from earlier today. Justin had probably called to wish him good luck on the case. He’d been a mess of nerves, and rude not to answer. He quickly swiped the device into its phone mode and returned the call.
“Bailey, how’s it going?”
There was a hushed whisper on the other end of the phone. “Phoenix, you remember how you said you wanted me to call you if those bodies came in?”
Phoenix turned pale. “Yeah. But I found them like a week ago.”
“But I wasn’t allowed to look at the data. Dude, this case has rocked the department to the core. Anyone with a connection to you has been reassigned away.”
“What are you talking about? Linville called me to help him out.”
“Yeah, let me save you a trip. He’s been taken off the case, happened about an hour ago.”
“By who? Who the hell made the call to take him off the case?”
“City Hall.”
Phoenix sat back up. “Okay, weird, but understandable. I humiliated The Pack, and then I got them red-handed on three counts of murder along with all the other bits of corruption. I’m pretty sure I’m not a popular name around there right now.”
“Phoenix, you don’t understand. The third body, the John Doe? It’s missing.”
CHAPTER 22
“How do you lose a body, Justin?” Phoenix hissed into the phone.
“I don’t, buddy. The guys who’ve been assigned to this, I don’t even know them,” Bailey replied.
“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry, but this whole thing has been taking its toll on me.”
“That’s not the worst of it. You gotta keep this quiet. I shouldn’t know this.”
Phoenix paused; there was genuine fear in his friend’s voice. “Bailey, you know I got your back, what’s going on?”
“I looked at the reports on the Bentons. Heck, I did my own autopsy after these schmucks came through to do theirs…”
“And…?”
“The bodies weren’t in the right condition. It wasn’t natural.”
“You mean like something Omnus or Stygus?” he blurted out.
“How do I put this? Organs age predictably, but these bodies? It’s like they never used their organs. Margaret still had her hymen intact.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I know, I’ve seen the video. The people you taped, the bodies I have…genetically, they match, but this ain’t them. There’s something going on.”
Phoenix paused and licked his dry lips before speaking. “Thank you, Justin.”
“You can’t tell anyone, not even Suzette, Okay?”
“I promise.”
“Promise me!”
“I said I promise!” he snapped. “Sorry, I just got back from Basseri’s hearing, but I might stop in to help with the device. I’m not supposed to know Linville’s been taken off, after all. If I know him, he’ll be fighting losing a big case for a few hours.”
“Okay, you be safe, all right?”
“You too, bud.”
“Talk to you later, Phoenix.”
“You as well, don’t be a stranger.” He paused. “Bailey, thank you.”
“No problem. I got to go, though.”
Phoenix clicked off the phone and looked at it, trying to puzzle out what the hell was going on. He hugged Bouncer once and kissed his plastic nose.
“I gotta go be a stupid, buddy.”
He descended the steps, finding Jack helping Suzette into a long jacket. He smiled and patted her on the shoulder.
“Hey buddy, what’s going on? You two just got back.”
“Well, it’s not like we’re going to be open the rest of the day, so I thought I’d run a few errands and have dinner with Jack. We have a few things to discuss,” Suzette said, smiling toward the officer. She squeezed his hand to the point Phoenix saw the werewolf wince slightly.
“You two have fun, I suppose,” Phoenix said, leaning on the bookshelf with the coffee machine.
“Yeah, I’ll call you later, okay, Phoenix?”
He watched them leave, hand in hand, turning to look at the empty desk.
“Have a great time,” he said to himself, McGee Investigations seeming emptier than usual. He got another echo of importance in his mind, shaking his head.
Phoenix soared over the groundbreakers of Rouge Mal, looking down their length at the traffic zipping around, rising quickly above the cliff level traffic of the vertical city. In the distance, he kept the mental checkpoint of where the building Basseri had kept the people, zooming toward it, hearing the snap of his jacket in the wind behind him. It was a deafening ripple as he flew with all his anger, all his rage at his failures in the case. He dipped down, once he saw a clear path toward the river, skimming for the exact location of the blue house on Adobe Rd.
He heard Linville verbally assault another man before he could even see him. There was something downright glorious in the volume he could produce when cornered.
“I don’t give a good goddamn what you say, Franklin, you are not getting your hands on this case. You have bigger fish to fry.”
“Sir, this comes from on high. I’m just the messenger on this one.”
“I don’t care how much ‘on high’ this is coming from, it’s a conflict of interest; your damn Packmates held those people here, and now you’re leading the case?!” Linville shook his head. “Oh no, Dorian, thanks for the message, but go back to the chief and tell him his head’s up his ass if he thinks this is a good idea.”
“All I know is he was told from on high as well, sir. I wasn’t privy to what Maxwell was doing. Had I known, I would have spoken up!”
Phoenix landed behind Dorian, quiet as a thought on the edge of consciousness. He paused to watch Linville get in the officer’s face.
“You’re Missing Persons and this is a murder case; you wanna work homicide, go put in a transfer request.”
“I don’t want this case, sir! I’ve had enough of it all. I got enough with cleaning Sa
m’s bullshit on a Pack level, now I’m literally going to be involved on the case that got him into this mess?!”
Phoenix coughed. “Sorry to bother you, gentlemen…”
He chuckled, but soon regretted it as Dorian, upon hearing Phoenix’s voice, shifted into his lycanthrope form and grabbed the detective by the collar.
“Franklin! Put him down, now!” Linville screamed. Phoenix held his hands up, that trademark smirk inches away from the powerful jaws of the werewolf.
“I was invited here by Linville. I’m on retainer.” He arched his neck to look over Dorian’s left shoulder. “Am I on the clock?”
“I’ll put in the requisition when I return. Dorian, down. Now.”
Dorian growled and set the detective down. “Yes, sir.” He closed his eyes and began to shift down, rebuttoning his now too-loose uniform.
“Phoenix, with me. Dorian, you have a message to send to the chief. I’m taking over this one, got it? Go back to your Pack.”
Dorian walked off toward his car. Linville slapped Phoenix in a friendly manner between the shoulder blades before pushing him toward the machine.
“Get in there, be like old times.”
Phoenix remembered how the building was set up. Everything from that day stuck in his mind like a splinter. He continued into the dark lower level of the building. The cube sat there silently, ever the cage, even after he had forcibly ripped the top off the damn thing. He approached the machine, feeling flashes in his mind, building ever stronger.
“Let me guess, security system?”
“You’re cheaper than the cyber unit, and they have a lower success rate,” Linville mused. “We need to learn as much about it as we can.”
“Wasn’t this AGI equipment? Or at least in design? I mean, I’m sure they’ll help you crack their code.”
“Some blonde number came through here before with something she called a Skeleton Key, supposed to work on all AGI computers, not compatible. Apparently, Basseri has a security system she can’t crack. She spent a good ten minutes trying to hook that thing up to her fliptop; zip, zilch, nada and a whole truckload of diddly-squat came from it.
“Here I go, then.”