by K Hanson
Ultimately, it didn’t matter. I was here to investigate the death of Amari, along with evidence of what had happened between that and her eventual resurrection.
I had never been to Fort Lorraine before, but I could see why it had gotten the name, even if it wasn’t quite a true fortress. They had used the vehicles from an old car dealership and the supplies from a home improvement store to assemble a massive wall around the perimeter. The eastern part of its boundaries stretched along the top of the interstate. The only access point on that side of the settlement was a single bridge over the highway. I crossed the overpass and approached the front gates, which consisted of two garage doors turned sideways between cinder block walls.
Behind the walls, two wooden guard towers looked over the settlement, with a pair of guards on each, leaning against the railings and chatting.
They tensed as I neared them. They didn’t quite aim their guns at me, but they did keep them pointed in my general direction. One guard, who had a heavy beard, dangled a cigarette from his lips.
I waved up to the guards at the gate. “Hi, can I speak with your head guard, please?”
The bearded guard removed his cigarette from his lips and flicked it off the bridge to the highway below.
“Why should she talk to you?” he asked in a rough voice.
“I need to talk to her about one of your residents that went missing.”
“Fine,” he said with a shrug. “We’ll see if she’ll agree.”
I paced as he climbed out of his tower and chatted with someone on the other side. The sideways garage doors clanked open, and the guards waved me inside. I stepped through as it opened, but another similar gate still stood in my way.
A woman with dark hair in a tight bun waited for me. “Welcome to Fort Lorraine. Before we can let you in, we have some questions.”
I shrugged with one shoulder. “Go ahead.”
“What brings you here?”
“I’m investigating an attempted murder that happened inside your walls.”
“Murder?” She glanced up at her guards, a scowl of confusion on her face. “What murder?”
“Did you know a woman named Amari?” I asked.
She stepped back, her eyes widened slightly. “I know her, yes. Is she…?”
“Dead? Well, that’s a complicated answer. She’s alive, but she was the victim. I’m looking into what happened.”
The woman ran her hand over her hair, disturbing the bun bunched at the back of her head. “I’m sorry. I feel like I failed somehow. Her housemates had reported her missing, but there wasn’t much we could do without a trail to follow.”
“Look, she’s alive, and she made it out. That’s what matters. I was a detective, so I know how it goes when you feel like you didn’t do the job you hoped to do. But the best we can do is learn and move on.”
The woman nodded. “You were a detective?”
Slowly, to avoid drawing unnecessary hostility, I pulled my badge from where it still rested in my jacket pocket and turned it toward her.
“Good to see another former uniform,” she said. “I was highway patrol when things went to shit.”
“That how you ended up in charge of security here?”
She nodded. “Mind if I tag along for your investigation?”
“Don’t see why not.” I shrugged. “Besides, it’s your home, after all.”
“Where are we going?”
“Come with me,” I said. “Hey, err, I don’t think I got your name.”
“Catherine,” she said.
She followed me as I traced the steps that Amari had given me before I’d left Cathedral Hill. She had been killed in the space between a couple of buildings in a strip mall.
Catherine kept up with my brisk pace as we hiked our way around the lake that sat in the middle of the settlement. Lake was a bit generous; it was more of a large pond. An incomplete hotel sat at the northern shore where we walked, while an abandoned office building sat along the southwestern edge. Back before the darkness hit, it would have been a nice place to work and go for a stroll when it was warm out.
We reached the strip mall, where one set of windows revealed rows of treadmills and weight machines inside a gym. Next door, the pink cake logo of a cupcake shop stood out in the darkness.
I led Catherine around the corner into a small alley between the northern and southern sections of the strip mall.
A dark bloodstain spread over the ground while droplets had splattered and dried all over the alley wall. I was pretty confident I’d just found the crime scene.
Over my shoulder, Catherine gasped. “You said Amari survived this? I’ve seen murder scenes that were cleaner.”
“I said she was alive now. She didn’t exactly survive.”
“What do you mean? She didn’t survive, but is alive? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know. And that’s what I’m trying to figure out. Mind if I have a moment with the scene?”
She chewed on her lip, then stepped back toward the entrance to the alley and leaned against the wall.
“Go ahead.” She stared down at the ground and rubbed the base of her neck, clearly trying to work through everything.
I turned back to the scene. I had to agree with Catherine. The amount of blood that had hit the wall and ground was gruesome. The spatter on the wall was likely from the initial cut to Amari’s neck. A slice to an artery on that part of the body could produce quite the spray. Then the large bloodstain darkened the area where Amari had fallen, with a dried stream leading to a drain in the ground.
A trail of bloody drag marks led away from the pool.
They had definitely moved the body. I followed the trail, but the blood faded away as it went around the corner. They had let her bleed enough in the alley that she had nearly run out by the time they moved her.
It was strange to think of Amari, standing healthy and alive, while looking at the place where she had died. I’d experienced pain, but nothing on the level she must have felt. I had to feel for her. The trauma she would carry with her would be tough to deal with. How she had kept from panicking yet, I didn’t know. Maybe she had in private after she had woken up in the enslaver camp. I couldn’t blame her.
But she had kept her head up and kept moving forward ever since I had found her. Perhaps she was just running from her feelings.
I took another glance around the alley. I wasn’t going to find anything else here, at least for now. I had to learn more about the night Amari disappeared, which meant asking questions.
“Well, Catherine, can you go ask your guards and anyone else you can think of if they had any visitors within the last week or so that stand out in their mind? Anyone suspicious? I think we’re looking for two or three people. I know what one of them looks like, but not the others. He was a bald man who wore way too much awful cologne or body spray.” I wrinkled my nose at the memory of the pungent smell.
“Sure, I can ask around. Anything else you need from me?”
“Do you know where Amari lived? I’m going to ask her friends if they noticed anything that night. Maybe they can recall something that will help. Also, which food store would she have used?”
“Ah, Amari and her friends live in that house, just across the road, a couple of houses in on the left.” She pointed at a dark gray home a short distance away. “The food store she was probably going to is in this old bar.” She pointed at a small building on a corner.
“Great, thank you. Let’s meet back here when we’re both done.”
With a nod, she set off. I started toward the house in the opposite direction.
When I reached the front door, I rapped three times. Some movement sounded from inside, and then the lock clicked. The door opened a crack, and a woman peered out at me with dark blue eyes, her face framed by wavy golden hair that went down to her shoulders.
“Hello?” She narrowed her eyes. She still had a chain connecting to the doorframe. Smart.
“Hi,” I said
with the warmest smile I could summon. “I’m a friend of Amari’s.”
Her brow furrowed through the gap in the door. “Amari isn’t here.” Her voice sank with sadness. “And I don’t know you.”
She glanced at me, and then away, as her frown deepened. She started to push the door shut, but I blocked it with my foot.
“I know. And you don’t have to open the door if you don’t want to. I understand that I’m a stranger knocking on your door. But I want to let you know that Amari is safe. I found her, and she’s with people I trust. My name is Isabella Espinoza. I was a detective before the darkness came.”
I held up my badge and ID for her to see. Her face relaxed, though she still didn’t meet my eyes.
“Amari’s safe?” Relief flooded her voice. She opened the door an inch more. “Can I see her?”
“Hopefully soon, but she’s in another settlement right now. Once we get things figured out, I’ll make sure she gets home safe.”
“So you found Amari. What can I do to help you?”
“She doesn’t recall much about the night she disappeared. I was hoping you might be able to fill in some gaps about what led up to her disappearance. Any detail you can remember could help find the people who were responsible.”
She looked down at the ground, thinking. “For sure, I’ll definitely help with anything I can. Why don’t you come in?”
She unhooked the chain and pulled the door open. As soon as I stepped inside, she shut the door, replaced the chain, and locked it.
Inside, warm lantern light lit a landing with beige walls and a brown linoleum floor. A short staircase with tan carpet led down, and another went up.
“Come on up. My name is Sarah. I’ll get the others.” She led me upstairs to a comfortable living room with a couch and a couple of reclining chairs. A broad window looked out over the front lawn.
I stood near one of the chairs, taking in the room. Lanterns flickered along the walls. A dining room with a small table adjoined the living room. A shelf of pictures lined one of the walls, with photos featuring several college-aged people. One on the end had fireworks in the background and featured Amari and Sarah kissing. So, they were more than just housemates, it seemed.
Sarah returned with another young woman and a man.
“This is Nate and Kimmy,” said Sarah.
I recognized them from the pictures on the wall. Kimmy had a round face framed by straight black hair. Nate had an arrow-like nose and short sandy hair.
“Nice to meet you both.” I waved and gave them the warmest smile I could. “I’m Isabella.”
“Please, sit down,” Sarah said.
I perched myself on one of the chairs while the three of them all sat on the couch.
Kimmy grabbed one of the couch pillows and held it on her lap.
“Okay, as I told Sarah,” I said. I shifted in my seat as I pulled my notebook from my back pocket, and then flipped it open. “I’m looking into the night Amari disappeared. According to her, she was leaving to go pick up food when she was attacked. Is that right?”
“Yes,” Sarah said. “We were almost out of food, and she volunteered to go get it for us.”
“Good. Was there anything unusual about that night? Did Amari act any differently, or did you see anything out of the ordinary?”
All three of them paused and glanced at each other. Sarah shook her head while Kimmy shrugged. Nate scrunched his face in thought but didn’t say anything.
“Nothing?” I cocked my head, then shrugged. “Okay, that’s fine. Now, I know that one of the people involved was a big bald man who smelled like he bathed in body spray. Have any of you seen, or smelled, anyone like that?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Nate said.
Sarah and Kimmy both shook their heads, and then Kimmy froze.
“Wait, I actually think I maybe saw someone like that.” She leaned forward. “He was walking around the neighborhood. He wasn’t from our settlement, at least not that I recognized. We get newcomers sometimes, so I didn’t think much of it. And he wasn’t acting suspicious. But maybe he was up to something.”
I lifted my chin. “Did you see anyone with him?”
She clutched the pillow closer to her chest, her face scrunched. “Maybe. At one point, he had a couple of people with him. One of them, I didn’t get a look at him. But the other had three scars across his cheek, as if something had scratched him. He had a rough beard, too.”
I jotted that down in my notebook, though I’d remember it well enough without it.
“Perfect. That should help,” I said. “Did Amari often cut through that alley as a shortcut?”
“We all did, sometimes,” Nate said with a shrug. “Then we don’t have to walk all the way around the strip mall to get food.”
“Have people been attacked there before?”
“No, never,” Sarah said. “Not that I’ve heard, at least.”
“How long did you wait until you reported her missing?” I asked
“A couple of hours,” Sarah said. “Usually it’s a trip that only takes half an hour or so. Sometimes she stops to chat with the shop owner for a while, but not super long. When she didn’t come back, we got worried and let the guards know. I was up all night waiting for her, and she never came home.” Her voice trailed off with a sad whimper.
That matched up with what Catherine had told me. Good.
“Okay, well, I don’t think I need anything more from all of you.” I stood and slid my notebook into my pocket. “If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know. And if you remember anything, tell Catherine, and I’m sure she can get it to me.”
Sarah showed me the way out, and I hurried back to the crime scene.
I stared at the alley a while longer, hoping for inspiration that never came, until Catherine came back.
“I questioned my guards who were on duty that night,” Catherine said, “and they said they saw a few newcomers come through a couple of nights before Amari’s death…disappearance. I’m not sure what to call it now. We log the arrivals of all newcomers, along with some details of their appearance. One of them matched what you told me about a bald guy. He came in with a couple of others. One had scars across his cheek, though they didn’t write a good description of the third.”
So old Scarface was friends with Amari’s “uncle.” I had a lead that might still be alive.
“Amari’s friends saw the scarred guy, too,” I said.
Catherine nodded. “Now that I think of it, we logged their departures, too. But the scarred man wasn’t on that departure manifest.”
“You think he’s still here?” I asked.
“That, or he snuck out somehow, but I don’t know why he would do that. It’s not like the guards were looking out for him.” Catherine gazed at the wall visible across the lake. “Besides, who would climb that if they didn’t have to?”
I let out half a laugh. “Good point.”
“Do you need anything else here?” Catherine asked.
“No, I’m just going to think for a bit.”
“If you need anything, you know where to find me.” Catherine walked away, leaving me alone in the alley, and the blood across the ground and walls.
A stood for a moment, soaking in the atmosphere of the crime scene with everything I had learned.
If I were the murderers, what would my next move be after killing Amari prior to resurrecting her? They probably didn’t do that in the alley. Blood streaks and a couple of muddy footprints trailed down the alley, but they faded away before they could lead me anywhere. And the scarred man hadn’t left Fort Lorraine. If I could figure out where he was, that might reveal the Necromancer and how he had learned to cheat death.
Footsteps approached from behind, along with someone trying to breathe quietly. They were trying to be sneaky. I didn’t face them. If they were trying to ambush me, I wanted them to think they had the element of surprise.
“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” asked a rough voic
e behind me.
I whirled around. From the shadows at the end of the alley, a man stared at me, with three scars across his face.
CHAPTER 9
The man with the scars, who was also one of Amari’s murderers, stared at me with the sneer of a predator. The three scars on his right cheek stood out as they carved parallel paths through the stubble on his jaw. His hand rested on the handle of a large knife in its sheath on his belt at his right hip.
He clearly hadn’t left the settlement.
“I asked you what the fuck you’re doing here,” he said.
“Just enjoying the view of a blood-splattered alley,” I replied. “You?”
“I know what you’re doing. I am giving you a chance to play nice and tell me. I’ve watched as you’ve been looking around this alley, asking questions, poking your nose into my friends’ business.”
He stalked closer to me, a swagger in his steps.
I wasn’t going to be intimidated by this asshole. Maybe I could get something out of him.
“You were there that night. When Amari died.”
The corners of his mouth twitched into a smile before they fell into the sneer again.
“What of it? From what I hear, she’s up and about again, though it certainly took a while. All of our previous attempts failed. I’m curious to learn why she’s different.”
Our. That confirmed he worked with the Necromancer on bringing her back.
“What do you mean by ‘previous attempts?’ And different how?” I asked.
“You never mind that. We know someone’s been helping her. Must be you.”
“Yup, just me.” He didn’t need to know anyone else was involved. “If you and your friends brought her back, how did you lose her? What did you do with her after you killed her?”
“After we administered the treatment, and it seemed like she wasn’t responding to it, we dumped her over the wall where nobody would find her. Though, we didn’t account for those enslavers. But I will pay you very well to take me to her. It will be much easier than retrieving her by force.”