Fragmentary

by LeAnn Mason

  Dane took a step forward as Jade and I moved toward the dingy brick wall of the building on our left to stand like dejected school children not picked to play with the cool kids.

  Leaning against the roughhewn bricks, I pulled my earbuds from their standby position in my pocket. I figured I could distract myself for a few minutes. Just a few, to try and bring down the pulsing headache that wanted to erupt behind my eyes.

  I pushed the volume up on my earbuds, letting the one inserted speaker do the work of two, carrying me out of the cacophony I was submerged in and away on the light wings of gentle and melodious ivory keys. Piano and violin were the instruments I could most easily relax into. Didn't matter if it was rough and stern or soft and airy; their chords always pierced the fog.

  A nudge from my left brought my attention to Jade who'd taken to holding up the wall next to me. I smiled a little, which she returned with a wry one of her own.

  “Another fun training day, huh?” she asked, a glint in her green eyes.

  I returned her look with a narrowed one of my own. “So it seems. Met Devlin’s brother this morning,” I remarked as I returned to surveilling the area. It looked like an alleyway, albeit a clean one thanks to the rain. There were several dumpsters at regular intervals down the length of the buildings, but they were the only standing obstacles. The giant green bins were full but not overflowing, all the detritus still contained within their putrid depths. I could only imagine the senses overload if one actually had to search them… which I believe we did. Awesome.

  “Earth to Nat.” Jade waved a hand in front of my face, her usual method of regaining my focus if my mind wandered. She employed it often. What could I say? I got lost in my music.

  “Hmmm?” I brought my face back toward my miniature friend, but my attention still roved the exposed elements I could see.

  A sharp sting bit into my arm just below my shoulder, making me wince and hug the radiating flesh. “Ouch!” I glared at my soon-to-be-ex-bestie. “Did you seriously just pinch me?”

  As though a literal soundtrack for the moment, I heard a melodic voice crooning in my ear to pinch me. Jade's ridiculous smile beamed at me too brightly, like headlights in the dead of night. Her thoughts gave her away as she knew they would. She'd heard the tune from my one unseated earphone and decided it would be a fun method of regaining my attention.

  “Brat.”

  “You love me,” she said through the still blinding whiteness of teeth, a teasing lilt to the words. I rolled my eyes and hugged her into my side. She was right. I did love her and wasn’t getting near enough girl time lately. We’d have to schedule some, make time to hang out just us two. She was my best friend, the only one who had any kind of inkling what it was like to be subject to others’ whims, not able to turn off our gifts. It could be torturous in crowds or volatile situations as we'd found out months back with the illusionist.

  Seemed like that case was front and center in many a revelation for the members of our team. We'd all been overwhelmed and tricked by a man who could insert his own visual projections into others’ minds. He'd shown us our weaknesses… and our strengths.

  My reflection dropped the smile from my face. I needed to tell Jade about my other ability. We’d been through too much together; she needed to know. It might become pertinent at some point, maybe.

  “Why is it that everyone seems to know that Devlin had training in mind this morning? He told me we had a call out.” Yes, I was still pouting about this. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t give me some kind of a heads up. He didn’t have to give me details, but it would have been nice to know that I was never really in danger of being squished like a bug on a windshield in the wake of a huge, flipped Primal male.

  Jade shrugged absently as she turned her attention to the body and promptly lost all mirth. Looking at the man lying in front of us, Jade was remembering the other times she’d seen violent death. We’d lost two fellow enforcers in the pursuit of our last suspect. The memory cropped up periodically within each team member’s minds, bringing us back to the sobering reality of the task we had undertaken. Then last week, she’d seen Sasha Jenks’ disfigured corpse.

  Jade was quickly becoming disillusioned. She’d taken this job thinking she’d be making a difference for the people of Minefield. Now she was realizing we weren’t much more than the cleanup crew. There were plenty more instances where we only pointed fingers after something had happened.

  Not only were we responsible for catching people who went rogue in our little community, the safety of the town as a whole also rested on our shoulders. It was a burden we were as yet only partially feeling the weight of. I had a feeling that the longer we called ourselves enforcers, the more that weight would stoop our backs.

  I hated to see Jade’s melancholy and didn’t want to add the revelation of my condition to her disquiet. I took a move from her playbook and shoulder checked her, or rather elbow checked her shoulder. Geez, she’s so short. I rolled my eyes at my thoughts of the obvious. Jade was small, but she never let that stop her. She let people’s perceptions be her fuel. Being told she couldn’t do something only succeeded in lighting a fire under Jade. She’d do it just to prove you wrong.

  It made her predictable.

  “So, decided to give Dane a chance, yeah?” I waggled my eyebrows as her wide green eyes shot to mine at the utterance of my question, making me smirk. It was interesting how alike we were when we really stopped to think about it. We had many of the same responses and mannerisms. I couldn’t help the chuckle at her flustered thoughts and didn’t try to avoid the elbow aimed at my ribs. “C’mon, give me the deets.”

  She huffed and crossed her arms, but her mind, and her eyes, sought out Dane. He was still wandering throughout the alley, trying to use his senses and tracking to find minute leads for the man’s death. “Nothing to tell. I only agreed this week to try this dating thing.”

  She was trying to act like he didn’t affect her, but I knew differently. I knew exactly what he did to her. It was one of those things I wished I didn’t have to be privy to. I gave her my I’ll-nod-like-I-believe-you look before turning my attention back toward the members of our team not currently holding up the building we leaned against. Devlin looked about ready to head our direction, and Dane was nearly back from the mouth of the alley.

  “Newbies, we’ll split up. Nat, you're with Holden. Jade, with Dane. And Steve? You're with me.” Dev smiled cruelly at Boat Shoes. Those two went together like water and electricity. Sparks were bound to fly, but seeing as Dane didn't understand much about Steve and I was the only one who could “talk” with Holden, the pairs made sense. Where had he come from? Come to think of it, where had he been? He wasn’t here a moment ago. It had been only Jade and me. I shouldn’t complain though. I'd take Holden over Steve any day.

  I gave myself a mental pep talk about keeping on point as I removed my earbud from its place of comfort in my ear and tucked the tangle away in my pocket, ready for use at a moment’s notice. But apparently, now it was back to being professionals. Boo!

  We’ll compromise the scene if we all move around without direction. Dane will see if his senses can pick up anything, though with the rain, I doubt he’ll get much. Dev—

  “The rain affects Dane’s tracking ability?”

  Very much. Most of our usable evidence and clues have likely washed away. That includes anything that Dane’s tracking ability could lock onto. Definitely no concentrated scents unless any got trapped on the underside of the body.

  Holden pointed at a drainage grate in the middle of the alley that I hadn’t noticed before. Wow, I am a freaking brilliant observer. I huffed a disgusted breath. Sloppy. I was sloppy so far on this first shot out the gate.

  Stop, Holden lifted my face with a finger under my chin. This is your first time on something like this; the point is to teach you. You’re not expected to know it all right now.

  I rolled my eyes. “While it is true that this is my first murder scene, i
t is not true that I am not expected to know basic observation skills.”

  He conceded my point a bit guiltily. I knew he was trying to placate me, but I didn’t want that. I wanted the truth and the ability to make mistakes. To learn from them. “So, first thing to really take in the scene is to plant yourself in the middle and just look.” I mumbled the training mantra. It was Devlin’s advice. How best to notice what was out of place for what you were looking at.

  What points to murder? Holden asked a very professional tone to his question. I was glad he wasn’t pushing me, at least not in a personal capacity. I was all for the professional urgings however, especially because they were few and far between from my silent and broody boyfriend.

  The playful side of Holden was reserved for me. No one else would hear it though he used overt gestures at times when he just couldn’t contain himself. I just got the added bonus of his baritone voice penetrating directly into my skull, making me feel warmer than I wanted to admit to anyone.

  I continued my assessment of the body, allowing my eyes to just see. I pointed to the victim’s right arm. “That’s a hard break. Maybe from a struggle?”

  Could it have been an accident? Self-inflicted, maybe?

  I looked around the alley, cataloguing what little occupied the space. “Not for anyone other than a Sage.” I pointed at the dingy dumpsters. “I don’t see a Primal or even a ninny throwing themselves against anything here.” I gestured around the alley with flippant hands. “Not with enough force to cause a break like that, and I see no obvious weapon.”

  Good. What else do you notice? Anything fatal? A wrist break is hardly life ending.

  Holden’s questions made me want to get closer, really look at the man. The quickly escalating banjo tune tunneling through my eardrums urging me forward. I hadn’t realized I’d taken a step toward the victim until I felt a large hand engulf my biceps, stopping my unconscious forward momentum. Effectively shaken from my trance, I looked back at Holden. Cerulean eyes trapped me in a different type of spell, one not born of morbid or professional curiosity but of attraction. Of the warm fuzzies.

  I looked back toward the hapless victim and away from the all too immersive pools of smoldering blue intently begging me to succumb to their depths.

  Clearing my throat, I continued my visual report, what I could deliver from this range anyway. Most of his person looked untainted, and my previous thought of being able to mistake the man for sleeping resurfaced. To be fair, one was a more permanent state of the other.

  “His head doesn’t look right,” I mused aloud.

  What do you mean? Holden prodded, nudging me gently to the intellectual finish line.

  “I’m not exactly sure.” I squinted at the corpse like that would magically enhance my sight and I’d know what was off. I shrugged, frustrated. “It just looks… off.”

  Well, you are right. The angle of the chin and the rotation of the head on the neck—

  He pointed and waved his extended finger in the general vicinity of the man’s head and shoulders, broken.

  Broken. The man’s neck was broken. I couldn’t imagine how to go about doing that. I know that movies made it seem like all it took was a quick twist to break a neck, but I knew it wasn’t that easy. To sever the spinal column of such a big man? That would take a lot of force.

  That was definitely intentional. This man was murdered.

  CHAPTER 20

  MY EYES FIXED ON the man. Murdered. I mean I had assumed, but knowing? Dissecting what was before me in a clinical way, coming to a logical conclusion as to what I saw? Morbid. I never would’ve thought that I’d be here, in the thick of problems I’d never really known to exist in our little penitentiary town. This was my rude awakening. My safe little bubble had burst when we encountered the illusionist a couple months back. Back when I was only concerned with being exiled.

  How many “accidents” or incidents attributed to being flipped were actually far more sinister in nature?

  Holden and I meandered near those still gawking at the alley mouth, using our covert skills to see if there were any things seemingly out of place. We quietly surveyed the people in the vicinity, making sure I was close enough to hear thoughts.

  There was a lot of curiosity, a little shock. A Sage who had been walking by was radiating disgust. He was above gawking at an alley, especially when it also held a Primal body that would soon join the rot and decay he lay amidst. Though to know its contents he had to have ventured a peek.

  Ugh. I really loathed that superior attitude that so many Enhanced seemed to wear like a badge. An entitlement. An excuse to treat others different from them as “less.” I wondered how they didn’t see the hypocrisy in that thought. How could they hate the NEs for segregating us if they then turned around and looked down upon another group?

  I’d never understand how people could be so hateful, so blind, and so whiny. It seemed to me that complaining was just a way of life for some, and they’d find anything to satisfy that need. Like an addict searching for a fix. The fix being someone to look down upon. I really hoped that one day we would see the folly in these beliefs.

  Unity would be our savior. What was the saying? United we stand, divided we fall.

  Holden and my leisurely stroll down gawker-alley proved ultimately fruitless. While there were a few people whose actions or mannerisms came across as questionable, none were thinking of the scene in a way that would cause us to look closer. The exercise a dud.

  Flashing lights from the road were just visible through pockets of rubberneckers. No sounds accompanied the colors though as there was no emergency. No one in need of saving.

  Moments later, we were joined by the rest of the team and pushing our way back out of the cordoned area.

  “The coroner's team is here. They'll take the body and let us know what they find.” Devlin said before swaggering past us to speak quietly with the uniformed enforcers who were keeping an eye on everything while we worked. He told them that while we were done for the moment, the area mustn't be breached until our team gave the go ahead. He moved closer to Holden and said in a low voice, “Why don’t you stay behind and keep an eye on things?” With a nod, and a wink in my direction Holden slipped away to quietly infiltrate the crowd.

  Back at the SUV, the rest of us piled into our respective seats and sat in silent contemplation for the short ride back to the CP. Some thought about the current case and issues while others – namely Steve – thought about less pertinent things. The overall mood was sober. The death of a community member, at any time, was hard. Knowing that death was precipitated by another of our townsfolk? Disparaging. The second in a week? Devastating.

  While I had seen the result of violence through my father's connection to the Emergency Room, I never understood it. Never really thought about what it took to actually inflict such acts on another. I was starting to now. This position as an enforcer was quickly removing the rose tint from my glasses, taking what little sheen I had found in our internment. It seemed I wasn't the only one with this revelation. Jade was having a hard time reconciling her emotions, and even Steve was affected though you'd never know by his outward appearance.

  That man truly was Sage through and through. I guess growing up under the tutelage of someone like Councilman Davidson would have that effect though. Steve never had a chance. I still didn't understand his being on the team. I mean, his telekinetic abilities were definitely impressive, but with him being the son of the most influential man in Minefield? A man whose loyalty lay in whatever would get him ahead with the ninnies who held his leash?

  He seemed to me like a spy. A plant. A mole sent into the trenches to find out the weaknesses and chinks of the unit. I hadn't yet glimpsed anything nefarious, but his mind was murky. Steve definitely wasn't with us out of the goodness of his heart. No noble calling for that one. Mental grumblings I'd picked up on painted a picture of a son pushed into a position by his overbearing and influential father. But I didn't know the end game. Wh
y had Councilman Davidson pushed his son into this team? What did it mean for us?

  The lurching of our recently rehabbed mass transport vehicle brought me out of my contemplation. The ancient steel van had been a casualty of our standoff with the rogue illusionist a couple months back. A rude awakening of what we Sages had signed up for by becoming a part of this elite enforcer team. Luckily we had some awesomely skilled mechanics and metalworkers. Super strength and flame manipulation definitely came in handy.

  A shiver wracked my body as I remembered the van's hide being pelted with gunfire, glass littering our bodies, cutting Sage and Primal indiscriminately. Before I realized, we were back at Sam’s, the team emerging from the confines, the crunching of gravel accompanying our departure.

  Sam’s Gym – or rather, the back half of Sam's – was the site of our team's command post. Odd, I know. Who would put the information hub of the 'elite enforcement team’ in the same building as a revved up training facility? Apparently, Commander James. Though honestly, I'm not sure how much say he had in the matter. The ninnies ran our lives even if they weren't an active part of them.

  Once we were all settled in at the conference table, Steve brought over photographs that he’d taken at the scene. The photos were so many that they easily covered the middle of the long table. Some showed large areas of the alley as a whole, some of the victim and immediate area. Still others were quite obscure at first look, but apparently there were some specific things Steve took note of at the scene.

  I was seated next to Jade, inspecting various photos, when Commander James cleared his throat and rose from his place at the head of the table.