Hashtag Murder

by brett hicks

  I felt the ink as it rose from my flesh, and I watched as three birds of prey soared out of my body, all black and green like the tattoos had been. Alive, and furious with the man directing the gale at me.

  Twenty-Seven:

  The crow screeched in fury as they launched themselves at Raphael. His minions launched themselves at Sorcha, Reline, and I in the next instant.

  Before the crow would collide with Raphael, it slammed into something invisible, just feet ahead of him. Suddenly, the extreme thrum of thrills I had been feeling were quelled all at once. Raphael’s eyes widened as he saw a bloody man with a serrated blade appear ahead of him. He had used the deepest shadows to mask himself, and yet my body had sensed him.

  Sorcha twirled ahead of me, cutting off one of the advancing goons. Reline slammed into another, tackling him into the wall like a proper linebacker from the US.

  I pushed my shock back, and I snap kicked as one goon came into reach. I caught him in the inner thigh, and he staggered back, and I dropped my right fist onto his face, feeling the crunch of his nose on my knuckles.

  Raphael was suddenly on me, and I barely evaded his greased-lightning strikes. He was a master of the arts; he was not a minor scumbag like his men. He moved like he had spent lifetimes in monasteries, studying under the most devout warrior monks. We danced the warrior’s dance of the arts. Blow after blow was blocked and deflected. Neither of us gave way, nor exposed our defense to the other.

  I could only remember one man who could push me into such a violent state of martial arts chess. He was nothing like that monster, yet he could only be comparable to that selfsame monster.

  He snap-punched and low kicked with both his right-side limbs, and I shifted in, closing the gap. His eyes seemed to widen.

  “Interesting, you don’t fight how I would expect a tiny little girl to.”

  He licked his lips in a lustful expression, and I cringed inwardly. He was not unattractive, but something about being on the wrong side of the law made him greasy and disgusting to me. Despite his tanned complexion and his buzzed black hair and his sinful looking deep purple eyes or the fact that he was six-foot tall.

  I knew what he meant. Almost no small woman would be confident enough to shift herself deep into the reach of a towering male opponent. Raphael closed in around me, like a grizzly trying to wrap its prey in his grasp.

  I spun low and to the outer left side, since his right foot was just about to land now. My foot swung around as I ducked beneath his outer left flank. I caught his anchored left leg, and I swept him, and he tumbled to the ground like a collapsed dummy.

  Even as he hit the ground, and I heard the air leaving his body, he was already roaring out in laughter. His men halted, and only a few moments later, as the threat died back, the crow, the raven, and the hawk turned back into ink and they let loose one final screech of victory, then they flew back into my right shoulder.

  The room was filling with more goons showing up to inspect the disturbance. There had to be a dozen of them total. I eyed them, while never taking an eye off Raphael. The new wave of meatheads were ready to pounce.

  “Don’t ye dare touch her! She has won my respect, fair in battle! I will gouge out the eyes of the man who looks on this little vixen with anything short of respect!”

  Raphael said, surprising me, and most of his goons. I looked down at him, focusing my attention on the one man who could present a threat to me at this moment.

  Raphael vanished into a puff of smoke, and then he was the darkness. He swirled back into existence just in front of me. My tattoos were eerily silent, no rattling or vibration. This told me I felt no perceived threat, but that did not make me fool enough to believe them outright!

  “Well fought, for one so young, your mastery of the physical arts is impressive. In our world, might makes right.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him defiantly.

  “Considering the theatrics, you just performed, you could have evaded the sweep.”

  I said, and Raphael laughed, throwing his head back in hearty amusement.

  “Fair-play to ya little sister! I could, aye, but what’s the fun in bringing shadows to a karate fight, eh?”

  I frowned slightly.

  “Are you a criminal scumbag, or a bloody boy scout?”

  Raphael shrugged and said, “Can’t a guy be both? I have scruples. While I am not always inside your bright white lines called the human law, I am a fair and just being as according to the laws of our world, little sister.”

  Something about the way he said that, was freaking me out! I much prefer him to just outright threaten to hurt me, then to call me blood-kin!

  “Does this mean you don’t know who is killing these women? Were you honest with us the first time we asked?”

  Raphael gave me a firm gaze worthy of a school headmaster.

  “I don’t lie when it comes to dead girls. Sorcha, obnoxious as she may be, knows that I am on the level about such matters. Otherwise, why come to me at all? Why not set traps and lay in wait for me at the next scene? After all, there are ways to catch shadows, if one is resourceful and determined.”

  Sorcha had her stylish boot pressed against the throat of her downed dirtbag. She rolled her eyes and nodded to me in confirmation.

  “It’s as he says, I did not come here spoiling fer a fight. Raphael might not agree with my belief of the letter of the law, but he will never butcher young lasses.”

  “No, I just like to fuck them.”

  Raphael put in, and I grumbled, “Ok, and now we are back to EW!”

  I reached into my tight jeans, and I plucked out one of my new detective cards. I slowly handed it over to Raphael, who was just feet ahead of me now.

  “Will you call, if you learn something? I will not lie to you, this murderer is baffling us. They are not obvious in what they are, and they are brazen. I am not too proud to ask for your help. I just want the murders to stop, before all of Dublin is drug out into the glare of the light of discovery.”

  I saw the grim looks of all the shadow-aligned men in the room. Raphael took the card, and he casually shrugged one shoulder again.

  “If I so happen to stumble on something, I will call ye. Besides, you’re so much feistier than the alternatives.”

  He cut his gaze to Sorcha, who was simmering at him again. I needed to know what their history was, and why they seemed to be in full feud. Part of me suspected she came here, just to get to punch out her frustration, with these shadow people.

  “I would like that very much, since all leads are highly appreciated by all guards.”

  I said carefully, so I did not give him the benefit of a favor, even a small one.

  “Sure, you come on by any time you want, Detective. We put the matches on and make a mean assortment of food every week. We could always use more beautiful women around.”

  Sorcha rolled her eyes at Raphael, and she studied the dilapidated state of the place.

  “This place needs a damn exorcism. Not a woman’s touch.”

  She said, and I felt in that moment as if someone had struck me with lightning from the heavens. The lights went on, and I suddenly realized what could emulate a shadow-aligned, but not be one.

  “Raphael, are possessed humans technically similar to shadow-aligned in the way they behave magically?”

  I looked at him with a no-bullshit expression, and his eyes widened, and the purple swirled deeply.

  “Aye, just like us in most ways, besides being fecking daft as all hells!”

  Sorcha frowned and shook her head.

  “No way a possessed person could have gone unnoticed long enough for it to build to such a powerful being. They are madder than a hatter, they are noticed and caught quickly. They do not keep the high-functioning intellect we are seeing.”

  I stared at her, and I remembered the cunning of my father.

  “You’re wrong, because I have seen it before. I just cannot believe I was stupid enough not to think of it! This fits the evidenc
e we are seeing! After witnessing real shadow magic, it is nothing as barbaric and sinister as the traces I found at that scene.”

  “That is quite the leap in deductive reasoning.”

  Reline put in, and Raphael seemed to be thoughtful, and he was looking off into the distance.

  “I have not seen it in ages, but there are some who slip by undetected. They grow into a sinister plague, and they become as powerful as the ancient shadow lords. My father once told me, that the possessed were our greatest threat not the fae courts. I had thought him mad at the time. After all, it was the fae who always encroached on our lands and threatened our people. However, if this is as she says, then he could have been right. My old man was not known for being wrong.”

  Raphael said, his voice dropping slightly as he thought of a long-dead father.

  “If that’s the case, then why is he killing now? Why suddenly announce himself to the world?”

  My mind flashed back to the caged beast snarling and snapping at me. The crazed lunatic that attacked his massive void pits for eyes, and his disconnection to reality. He was likened to an infinite maw of madness and insanity.

  “He’s broken or snapped in some way. I have seen it before. They can seem normal, then suddenly they are vicious beasts slaved to their primal impulses.”

  Sorcha looked at me wanting to quiz me further on the source of my experience. Reline did as well, but she hid it a little better.

  “So, how are you going to track this beast?”

  Raphael asked me. I frowned and looked at him, and he gave me a brilliant smile.

  “Hey, this lad has been casting unwanted heat on my people. You think me or the boys will let that slide?”

  Sorcha muttered, “Thug with a heart of gold, my arse.”

  Raphael interjected, “Hey, we can spend all night talking about that firm fairy ass of yours later.”

  He winked at her, and she fumed at him.

  “We need to go back to the station and comb through every inch of the CCTV, again.”

  I told them, and Reline raised her hand and said, “Um, honey, how do you expect us to see anything new? We have scrubbed that CCTV thoroughly.”

  I reluctantly added, “Because, now I know what I need to be looking for.”

  I knew a few of their most telling hallmarks, including their eyes. I had not been looking for possession in the footage before now. I had just been looking for dodgy or someone with a bloody knife.

  “But we’ve alibied out everyone at the hotel.”

  I wiggled my hand side-to-side.

  “Only because we were looking for a human killer in the beginning. When looking for a sup alibi, it would have to be ironclad at the exact time of the death or it is flimsy.”

  I felt a surge of adrenaline; I knew in my heart that I was onto something. It was not just my personal demons I was hoping to catch. It also explained the sudden nightmares, why I was so haunted by the past again.

  Twenty-Eight:

  Having an epiphany was a bit like having sex, until the light comes out and you’ve been at it all night long. And, at least you have something pleasurable to take away from the evening when you are through shagging.

  As it stood now, I had no more leads than I had the day before, save that I now had a strong hunch what type of sup I was looking for. The CCTV was decent, but the camera coverage was hardly panned properly for looking for flashes of black eyes. Hell, there were hundreds of times throughout the night I could have sworn I saw tricks of the light play in eyes, but all of them were just that, tricks of light.

  I was a fuming mess when Jimmy came in and saw me frazzled and overly caffeinated in my station.

  “Bloody hell girl, did ye sleep here all night?!”

  He asked, and I looked up at him irritably.

  “What is this mythical sleep ye speak of, and where might a girl go to find it?”

  I sassed at him, and Jimmy snorted and sat a bag down on the table, and beside it a tall cup of hot steaming goodness.

  “Bought us each a couple wagon wheels and take away cups. You like that fancy arse espresso with mocha, yeah?”

  I nipped at my bottom lip and I could almost feel the drool forming in my mouth now.

  “I might like it every now and again.”

  I said, playing it cool, but that did not stop me from snatching up his offerings. I was smiling on the inside, but I was smart enough to know better than to let Jimmy see that. Blokes are far too cocky as it is, so best not to feed into their massive egos.

  “Well, fer a girl who only likes it every now and again, ye snatched up my offering with great hastiness.”

  Jimmy said, his smile was just self-satisfied enough to irk me. I gave him the irritable I-want-to-sleep-but-I-am-stuck-here-reviewing-videos look. Even if some of that bit was lost in translation, I hoped the evil glare might do the trick.

  “Careful, yer dancing with flames Detective.”

  I said, and I narrowed my eyes on him. There was something in his alpha-male gaze that made me want to either kill him or ride him where I sat. I resisted both urges, but I still felt the full brunt of both. My damn hormones needed to be dealt with.

  Jimmy pulled over his chair and he sat down right beside me without further preamble.

  “So, what do we have here?”

  I grumbled as I took a long sip of the steaming hot mocha and espresso. I managed not to moan, but only just with the final dregs of my waning will.

  “It occurred to me that our killer had just slipped into the crowd and appears to have an alibi, but what if they did so right after the murder? It would explain how we had missed them all this time. It would also explain how all the businesses we visited had never spotted a man fleeing the scene. The psycho we’re looking for stayed put.”

  Jimmy seemed to think about it for a moment and he frowned deeply.

  “Then how the hell did he elude detection? He would have been swimming in her blood.”

  I shook my head in a wide gesture.

  “That is not true. He could have stood just out of the splatter pattern or he could have had a change of clothes here already. I have not explained it fully yet, but I am certain that the murderer is in this hotel after the murder. I will figure out all the why’s and how’s after I have the bastard in custody.”

  Jimmy grunted as he took a sip of his hot milky tea. He looked back at the cameras.

  “So, what have ye discovered so far?”

  I nodded to the camera.

  “I have about a dozen males who are out of all frames for the murder period. I am not at all certain about which one is the killer yet, but I am convinced that this is the lead we need to chase down.”

  He seemed to consider it for a long moment as he sipped on his tea. His eyes held the comprehension of my logic, and I could see a kindled curiosity.

  “What’s your plan?”

  I bit my lip and batted my lashes. I gave him what passed for a coy look with me.

  “Way, mister McDonnell, I will go on a series of speed dates.”

  I said with a mischievous smile on my face. Sorcha happened by, and she squealed like a lunatic on my behalf and she launched herself onto my neck.

  “I so don’t know what this is about, but I am gonna dress you and make-up you until you look like a Proper lady!”

  She said, still in a squeaky tone, and half the station floor was staring at us like we were daft. Considering I now had a fairy hanging from my neck, I suppose I looked like I was barkin’ mad.

  “What is that ungodly noise!?”

  Harry Templeton roared out in a savage ursine growl. Everyone snapped their heads back to their work and tried to look as small as possible. Sorcha waved slyly at him and she finally stood back on her own support. I noticed that my tattoos never moved or simmered under my flesh when she was near me. They barely moved around Jimmy, so I was seeing how they appeared to “think” for themselves, and they seemed to be defensive even when I was oblivious to the surrounding dangers
.

  “How about we all get back to proper police work, like catching proper criminals, yeah?!”

  He roared, but a lot of his bite seemed to be lost once his ire was directed at the fairy princess who just gave him big doe eyes. Every time I saw them interact, I just wanted to scream for details about their heated attraction that has yet to be ignited with the fires of their passion joining.

  I refused to apply that same logic to my own strange situation, because Jimmy was far too smug right now! I was just going to bide my time, then steal his delicious wagon wheel out from under his nose, when he least expected it!

  “Boss, tell this bloody woman that she will not go on a date with every suspect in our bleeding books!”

  Jimmy fumed, and Harry arched his brow high imperially.

  “Why, that’s not such a bad plan, such as it is. Take this little, DS with ye. She seems overly excited to help anyhow.”

  Harry grumbled to me, and I nodded deftly. Sorcha made a victory peace sign with her fingers and she stuck out her tongue at Jimmy. Jimmy growled in a feral sounding manner. I felt heat deep in my belly at the primal sound, something about it seemed to work me up. I had never seen what exactly he was, but the sound of his inner beast just seemed to turn me even more wanton of desires I refused to acknowledge.

  Harry removed the verbal foot from his ass, just before that last statement. A hyper Sorcha was a frustratingly vindictive thing, if you taunted her. She was still every ounce the fairy prankster, even with her royal blood. Harry seemed to be well acquainted with her silly side, and he knew when and how to tiptoe around it as needed. Though, the thought of such a large male creeping around the tiny girl, amused me to no end! Talk all they want about being the ones in charge, men were slaves to our every whim, if they fancied women in the least!

  “Detective be careful and keep well within reach of yer backup. Don’t drive our boy too damn crazy, yeah?!”

  Harry told me, and I grinned and nodded to him.

  “Yes boss, only drive him half crazy, check.”

  The ursine snorted and shook his large fury head. He walked off and absently scratched his neck as he muttered choice lines about females in the workplace. Sorcha eyed him as he moved out of sight.