Mystery's Choice (Vengeance Of The Fallen Book 1) (15 page)

Sam was honestly beginning to think he was battling something other than a human maniac. Never before had he had such trouble getting just one clue, just one something to give him a direction to go in. He didn’t know where to go, what to do, and every day he didn’t solve this one; another child could die. He already saw the faces of those who had, every time he closed his eyes. Five young, beautiful girls had died with a sickening smile on their faces, naked and reeking of blood and urine. A mother had been murdered to get to her child, and the knowledge had stolen the child’s mind, and endangered her unborn baby’s life. Yet there was not one clue as to who they were. No fingerprints, no murder weapon, no witnesses, no nothing.

Sam buried his face in his hands and prayed for help.

“Sam.”

“Yeah.”  Sam stood and walked over to the coffee machine. “Look, Calabrese, if you’re going to give me grief about the damn coffee, you can just kiss my grits.”  Sam took a sip of coffee and fought to hide a grimace. “Yummy.”

“Jeffries if the stuff had legs it would run from itself.”  Naomi walked to the sink to dump her coffee and made a face as it slugged out of the mug. Felicity and Mary Kate snickered, hiding it behind their hands when Sam glared in their general direction.

“I learned the first day, to bring my own coffee with me in the morning.”  Mary Kate said as she poured coffee out of a thermos.

“I will pay you cash money for a cup.”  Naomi looked at her hopefully.

“No money needed. Hand me your mug. Felicity you want some?  Sam?”

“Oh bless you!”  Naomi held the mug with both hands as if she were afraid it was going to run away.

“Sure, I’ll take some.”  Felicity handed her partner a mug.

Sam decided to swallow his pride and passed his mug to Mary Kate. She smiled and they all sat down to study their individual notes one more time.

Naomi looked up at her partner, as she yawned. She rubbed her eyes and stretched.

“Is the baby sick again?”

“She’s teething.”  She yawned again. “Somehow in the fifteen years between them, Herb and I forgot how rough babies are.”

“They’re awfully cute though.”  Mary Kate commented.

Sam went around the desk to massage Naomi’s tight shoulders. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“No problem. This case is getting to me too.”

They all looked up when the lieutenant came out of his office. His face was red.

“Okay everybody, listen up.”  He sat on Sam’s desk. “First, I just found out the reason Forrest and D’Angelo didn’t report in this morning is because Forrest ate his gun last night. D’Angelo has been with the widow all night.”  He looked around the room at the tired faces of his detectives, tears filled some of their eyes, and he felt beat. “The other bad news is after careful consideration, the mayor’s office has urged the chief to disband the task force, since it hasn’t had any success at solving these crimes. And since there have been no new murders, I’m sure the mayor is hoping people will forget between now and election time the police couldn’t solve these murders.”

“They can’t do that?  Don’t they see?  Less police investigation is exactly what these bastards want!”  Sam pushed some papers off Naomi’s desk onto the floor.

“They can and they did.”  Lt. Kessler took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. “I fought. I lost. Jefferies and Calabrese you will be the remaining team working this. I got him to give us a month. After you’ve produced nothing new or there hasn’t been another murder, you move on to other cases. If there is another murder or you guys break the case, we get the task force back.”

“He’s crazy!”  Sam huffed and started pacing. “The city’s finest have been working this case, we’ve been working 16- hour days. How’s one team supposed to accomplish anything? Why doesn’t he call in the feds if he thinks we are not doing enough?”

“He’s a politician, he cares about how he looks, not about murdered girls. Feds mean that the police force that he is in essence in charge of cannot protect the city without help from the F.B.I. And if you two do manage to solve the case all on your own, he’ll take credit for having left you on the case and come out smelling like a rose.”

“He winds up smelling all right.”  Sam walked to the door. “I’ll transfer the call, the next time one of the dead girl’s parents calls wanting to know if we have anything.”  He stalked out, slamming the door behind him.

“You guys have been awfully quiet.”

“Sam said everything I had to say.”  Mary Kate said as she gathered her notes.

“I have nothing to say. My words wouldn’t change anything, so, I will keep them and my thoughts to myself.”  Felicity said as she gathered her notes and turned off her computer.

“I think the brass is wrong, but I don’t think the task force was making any progress either. I think we should admit defeat and turn the whole thing over to the Feds, not narrow the investigative team down to two overworked, stressed detectives.”  Naomi stood and went to the door. “But I guess Sam and I are all those girls have got.”  She quietly closed the door behind her.

Kessler went back in his office and watched as the other two detectives cleaned off their space and went out the door. He put his head down on his desk; it was going to be another lovely day.

Thirty miles away in the aerie, Cain smiled in the half-light of his ritual chamber. He knew they couldn’t solve anything and before the game was through he’d send their souls home to his father. They had pitted themselves against the Master and they would lose, all of them. Cain was cleaning house! He had already pushed one of them to blow his own head off. And he had plans for the others, big plans.

The only one he could still not claim victory over, was his child. She was an unknown, and Cain hated unknowns. Her devotion to the mortal doctor was strong. Her faith was slowly eroding. Time was running thin; soon the Master would demand her death. And Cain would reluctantly comply. Killing their child would wound Cain, but it might just destroy Raevanne. He would just have to step up the pressure and bring their child home. Cain sighed heavily and the hellhound at his feet sighed with him.

Blood.

It ran down the cold, stone walls. Mystery covered her ears to block out the screams, which echoed through the fetid air. She gasped as the heat from the hot earthen floor singed her bare feet. Her own screams pierced the air when she stumbled over still-smoking charred bones. Everywhere around her Cain’s deep, gravelly voice called her name.

Moving.

She had to keep moving or the smelly little beasts would drag her back and play with her in their playroom.

“Just come home and the dreams will stop. I promise.”  Cain’s voice soothed its way over her chapped, parched skin.

“No!”  Mystery screamed and continued to run.

The walls began to close in around her and she could feel the beasts snapping at her heels.

She woke up with the screams trapped in her throat. She looked around the room in a panic. She was alone in the room with Seth. She looked at his back and wished she could talk to him, let him know how hard she was fighting. She felt if she extended herself even that much, she would lose and if she lost he would lose. Mystery silently rocked herself back to sleep.

Seth stared at Mystery; she looked like a skeletal statue with a protruding belly. She only ate what he made her eat. She was slowly slipping away. The nightmares continued he knew, because she thrashed about in her sleep, but she hadn’t uttered a word in six months. Felicity and Mary Kate said she did not respond in any way to him being gone for the three days while he and Ryan closed out their parents’ estate or when he went back for the funerals. She had just stared off into space or at something inside only she could see.

Crossing the room, Seth kissed her pale, cold cheek; she continued to stare straight ahead. He grabbed his keys and left. Seth knew time was running out. Whatever was after Mystery would soon go after their child. So, he started his car and drove to the library, he would research cults, find information on these Roodmasi, he would fight for both of them.

He looked through the microfiche of previous editions of the LA Times, finding articles about the mysterious Roodmasi. They were credited with several violent crimes, of course, no one had been arrested and there had been no witnesses to any of the crimes. Next he browsed through all the books the library had on occult crime. It was there he came across a situation similar to theirs. A woman had been having dreams of people in cloaks doing horrible things; only to find out they were memories of her childhood. She had run away when she was four and the cult had been looking for her the entire time. Apparently when they found her they sent her dreams of her life with them. Eventually they approached her. The woman had found the courage with help from the police to bring the cult down. They had been responsible for over 40 deaths in the area.

If these people came after Mystery, she would be helpless to stop them from taking her. She needed around the clock protection. Seth realized he needed help or he was going to come home someday and find her missing. With that thought roaring through his head, he gathered his books, checked them out and headed home.

He pulled into the driveway and got his books, he went inside to check on Mystery. When he entered their bedroom, she wasn’t in the chair. He went to the bathroom door and found her lying on the floor. Blood was pooling under her. Seth ran back to the phone and dialed for help. He went back into the bathroom and picked Mystery up. When he laid her on the bed, he noticed she was wet as well as bloody. He looked into her eyes and they were full of pain. Seth placed his hand on her belly and felt it as her body contracted hard.

“Oh God!  Baby!  Why didn’t you call for help?”  He kissed her sweaty forehead. “The ambulance will be here soon, hang on.”

Seth heard the sirens as the ambulance pulled up in front of the house. He went out to greet them.

“She’s upstairs, she’s in labor. She’s catatonic, when I got back from running errands she was lying on the bathroom floor, I don’t know how long she has been in labor.”

The paramedics placed her on a gurney and prepared to take her down the stairs. Seth followed behind them.

“How far along is she sir?”

“28 weeks.”

“Does she have any medical conditions or allergies we should know about?”  They put the gurney in the back of the ambulance and climbed in, Seth followed.

“She’s catatonic. No allergies at all.”

“Okay.”  The ambulance backed out of the driveway.

Seth took Mystery’s cold hand in his and blew on it. He stroked her hair and murmured comforting words to her. She didn’t respond to it at all.

Seth was convinced Mystery was going to die very soon. The doctors said she was having a particularly hard labor and she hadn’t uttered a sound. No screams, no moans, no pleas, nothing. She just stared off into space and waited. Seth sank down the wall and began to cry, she would die, because she had given up.

Mystery fought her way past all the voices echoing in her head. She would live and she would triumph. She had to for her son. He was about to come into the world and she wouldn’t allow her father to get him. So she fought, and as her son came into the world, so did she. Mystery screamed as she thrust her son into the doctor’s waiting arms. She turned dry eyes to Seth and motioned him forth; she folded him in her arms as he wept.

THE

LEGACY

Open yourself and ride

On a wave of pleasure.

Abandon is your only guide

To the ancient treasure.

Belial will meet you at the door

To take away your inhibitions

Lovingly he’ll show you what’s in store

At the hands of his minions.