Don't Read in the Closet: Volume Four (102 page)

resembled the color of a pond glittering in the midday sunlight. He cut

a commanding figure with his dark military length hair, strong jaw

and aquiline nose, but it was his piercing blue eyes the color of lapis

lazuli that cut right through a person that left the most lasting

impression. None of the men on his team wanted that gaze finding

them when Hisaki was angry; it wasn’t a pleasant place to be and

could make the most stalwart men shake in their boots.

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The other three Flames wore metallic red for fire, metallic amber

for earth and metallic white for air. Hisaki didn’t have many dealings

with them, so he was never deeply involved in their lives. Once they

all finished training and took on their own teams they became too

busy to keep up any significant relationships with each other.

Right now, Hisaki was involved with the hardest case he’d been

assigned in the six years he’d been active after his training. There was

no evidence left behind at the scenes, there were no witnesses so far,

and the weapons they were using were untraceable so far. Hisaki

knew there had to be a common denominator; he just had to find it

soon.

Miguel, Hisaki’s second in command, called for Hisaki to come

into the parents’ bedroom. He held up a sheet of paper, it looked to

Hisaki to be a letter, the look on his face hopeful. “Look at this…”

Miguel handed the sheet over, “It’s a letter from Galactic Services.”

Hisaki frowned down at the name on the bottom of the letter,

“Didn’t the other families have similar letters? Were they from the

same worker? If so, we might have found the common link between

all the victims, Miguel.”

“I’ll head back to the office right now and check the evidence.”

Miguel stood and took a small black cylinder from his utility belt.

Hisaki stepped back a few feet and watched as Miguel flashed and

disappeared. By Hisaki’s next breath Miguel would be back in their

office the next solar system over.

“Okay everyone…let’s start wrapping things up here. Make sure

you have some good 4-D plasma renderings and deliver them to my

office as soon as possible.” Hisaki instructed the techs as he made his

way out of the dwelling. “Marissa…” he called the most junior

member of his five man team, “Stay here until they’re done and make

sure everything makes it back to my office as soon as they are

finished.”

“Yes sir,” She saluted smartly before taking up a post next to the

entry door where everything in the room could be observed.

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Hisaki sighed and rolled his eyes, “How many times do I have to

tell you that you don’t have to be so formal?”

One corner of her mouth turned up in a smirk, “Just one more sir.”

He snorted as he walked away and called over his shoulder,

“That’s what you always say missy!” He could hear her low husky

laughter following him down the hallway. He could understand when

the other men talked about how the sound of it stirred things low in

their bellies, but he never felt it himself. One of the other two

remaining team members, Pearson, had told him once that if he ever

felt something like that himself, he should go after the person with a

single-minded intensity because it was probably his soul mate.

Hisaki scoffed at the idea, he didn’t think he even had a soul much

less a soul mate. Could a being created in a laboratory and born from

a pod have a soul? Hisaki didn’t think so. Besides, he had more

important things to do than to go looking for something as elusive as

love, it was worse than trying to catch criminals.

****

tropical planet of Ipthoris situated at the apex of the five main solar

systems. The GS, as Galactic Services was widely referred to, was

centrally located to investigate allegations of abuse across the galaxy.

The majority of their caseloads were dealing with children, but they

did have divisions dedicated to elderly abuse and domestic violence as

well.

Graven Moore was one of the most recent hires in the children’s

division having only worked there for three years so far. His looks

were average, short brown hair, straight nose, narrow jaw and green

eyes. He was average height and weight for the typical adult male. He

dressed to blend in, not to stand out. There was nothing in his

demeanor or attitude to make him memorable. Even with all that

normalcy he was still known among his coworkers.

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Graven heard his name being called and looked around for the

source. Macey, the full time daylight receptionist was waving at him

from a few desks away as she made her way towards him with

seeming haste. He was trying to figure out why she hadn’t just paged

him or called his direct line when she rushed up to him breathing

heavily, Macey was not a light woman. “Macey, is there something I

can do for you?”

“Graven, honey, there is a NOVA agent here looking for you.”

She leaned closer and Graven could smell the hint of peppermint on

her breath from the gum she was continuously chewing as she

breathed her next words across his face. “He’s a Flame.”

Graven’s eyes widened in surprise, “There’s a Flame here looking

for me? But why?”

“If you’ll give me a few moments of your time I’ll tell you why

I’m looking for you.” A deep honey thickened voice spilled into the

room from behind Macey.

Macey turned quickly and glared at the Flame, “I told you to wait

in the lobby.”

Graven rushed to defuse what could possibly turn into a bad

situation. Macey became very prissy and prickly when her orders

weren’t followed. “It’s fine Macey, thank you. I don’t mind talking

with the agent.”

Graven got his first good look at the Flame when Macey stepped

aside to let him pass. He stood and held out his hand to the agent

before offering him a seat in the chair on the other side of his desk.

Graven noticed that there wasn’t too much difference in their heights,

the Flame was about an inch taller than his own five foot ten inches,

but he was more solid through the chest and shoulders.

Graven was filled with nerves suddenly as he tried to smile and

project a calm competent air. The moment his green eyes locked with

the Flame’s blue eyes his smile faltered and he lost his breath, he felt

something tighten painfully in his chest and there was a matching

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tightness lower down that Graven didn’t want to dwell on at that

moment, since the look in the agent’s piercing blue eyes was not

exactly friendly.

“Please, have a seat agent…”

“Aio Hisaki, Blue Flame.” The agent stated his name and status

cooly.

Graven cleared his throat nervously; it was obvious that the agent

wasn’t going to be kind. “Yes…well, umm…Agent Hisaki please

have a seat. Can I get you something to drink?”

“No.”

Hisaki sat in the offered chair and waited silently. Initially he’d

been taken off guard by how unassuming Graven Moore seemed to

be. The man was utterly normal in every way, except for the arresting

emerald eyes that darted around the room. Hisaki wanted to get to the

meat of the matter, so he froze Mr. Moore with his steady coldness

and waited for the telltale cracks that come from the pressure.

So far Mr. Moore was reacting like any normal citizen would to

the sudden presence of a Flame. It was time to shake him up a bit.

“Mr. Moore, there have been several abductions of children over the

past several months and in each of the cases we can only find one link

between all the victims.”

Hisaki watched as Moore blinked slowly and a myriad of thoughts

and emotions crossed his face. Hisaki briefly noted that even though

Moore’s face was average it was extremely expressive. Everything the

man was feeling was written there clearly for Hisaki to read. Moore’s

brow furrowed as he tried to understand what this had to do with him

and his eyes filled with sadness at the mention of the missing children.

Hisaki wondered if that sadness was a result of knowing what had

happened to those children personally or was just because he cared for

children.

“Wh-what…” Moore cleared his throat and tried again. “What is

the link and what does it have to do with why you’re here?”

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Hisaki leaned forward, looming even though he was seated. “The

link, Mr. Moore, is you. Every one of the families has had some

dealings with you for various reasons over the past three years. Can

you explain that to me?”

Graven stared into those cold blue depths for a moment before

looking away again. He felt as if he would develop emotional frostbite

if he kept eye contact for too long. He also felt as if the Flame could

see into his soul and reveal all of his secrets and weaknesses. That was

the last thing Graven wanted to happen.

He wondered if he should confide in the Flame. He’d suspected

something was going on with his cases for a while, but he hadn’t

known what to do about it since he was severely lacking in evidence

to support his suspicions. He was afraid that voicing his thoughts

would make the Flame suspect him even more.

It was about six months earlier that Graven noticed some of his

files had been tampered with. Papers were either out of place or

missing altogether and that wasn’t something Graven would do since

he was compulsive about having everything in order. It was a good

thing he was, though, since his compulsivity was the reason he was

able to catch the inconsistencies and the fact that he religiously made

and maintained back up files for all his cases was the only reason he

had proof of the tampering. But even with proof something had been

done there was no one to point the finger at for blame, so it came right

back to no evidence, or rather not enough evidence.

Graven decided it would be better to keep his suspicions to

himself for the time being. “I’m sorry, I feel terrible that the families

I’ve worked with are suffering, but I really do not know why it is

happening or why they are all my cases.”

Hisaki stood and reached into the inner pocket of his uniform

shirt. “That’s really too bad.” He pulled out a folded sheet of paper,

“This is a subpoena for all of your files, paper and digital, and your

hard drive. It covers your office as well as your home. Some of my

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men are at your home right now collecting your personal computer

and any files you might have there.”

“Bu-but I…this is…why…” The blood drained from Graven’s

face and he stood up too quickly as two large dangerous looking men

stepped into his work space. His head spun and he stumbled away

from the men’s presence to stand in the hallway, nauseous and dizzy.

Graven watched helplessly as the men ransacked his workspace to

find everything they were looking for. He’d never felt so alone in his

life, even after Macey came up and wrapped her arm around his waist.

She was a tall woman so Graven was able to rest his head on her

shoulder as he watched.

“It’s going to be okay sugar, you’ll see.” Macey tried to soothe

Graven.

“I’m scared, Macey, somehow I know I’m going to take the fall

for this even though I didn’t do anything.”

****

the subpoenaed files and found the other two team members who’d

gone to Moore’s apartment already there. They hadn’t found anything

in Moore’s personal belongings that was work related.

Hisaki sat at one of the state of the art computer centers in their