Murder in Misery (Spook Squad) Read online

  She could already feel death beckoning from the corners of the room. As soon as they whisked the child from the room death followed Connor to where ever he was going. One of the worst things about being a necromancer was finding a victim on the edge of the living and the dying. It was even worse finding a baby, who had not had the chance to experience life give in to the bliss that death offered.

  “I didn’t,” Keegan rolled her lips together, trying to stave off the tears, “Certain supernatural species have been known to sacrifice everything in order to save their children. The way he was curled up meant one of two things. He was trying to protect himself or he was protecting someone he loved. He wouldn’t have left his neck exposed like that if he was protecting himself, not if he and the woman had been together very long. The question is, why did they die and who or what did Connor need to be protected from?”

  After submitting her clothes from the crime scene into evidence and changing into a spare set she kept in her locker Keegan couldn’t manage to sit still. She paced the square footage of the basement underneath the police headquarters that housed the SIU, Supernatural Investigative Unit. There were only four desks, and as many file cabinets but the amount of book cases housing materials on supernatural beings lined each wall of the room. She hadn’t quite settled down behind her desk before her cell phone was ringing and the Captain was requesting conference with her and Detective Hollis. She trudged up to the third floor. The door was open and Matt was already sitting in one of the chairs in silence staring at his hands as they waited for her.

  She knocked out of respect before stepping into the room.

  “Close the door Detective.” Captain Perry directed her to sit. As soon as she sat down Keegan knew that Connor hadn’t made it. She had never seen Matt look so hollow before. His normally bright eyes were dark brown, his skin had turned ashen and it seemed like he was about to puke.

  “This case is going to require both of your departments to work together and to do so efficiently. I don’t want to hear about any squabbles between your men. I know the history between the SIU and homicide. You don’t get alone and you don’t trust each other. In all honesty, you can’t stand each other. I don’t care what your issues are. They don’t matter anymore. For the sake of this case, you need to get over it and work together. Because what we have here isn’t just a supernatural that was killed and it wasn’t just a human. Do you understand what I’m saying? We’ve got two separate groups in this community who are going to be blaming each other for the death of each of the victims. There are going to be people who target the Supernatural District and there are going to be supernturals who turn into vigilantes. I’m not having it. You understand?”

  Keegan nodded, “Yes sir.”

  “Yes sir.” Matt echoed.

  “Good,” the Captain set his hands down flat on his desk before standing, “I know you two get along most of the time but I don’t think I need to reiterate why it is so important that the departments work together fully. Do I?”

  “No sir,” Matt stood up, “If that’s all we’ll get back to work.”

  “See that you do,” The Captain nodded before gesturing them out of the office. They walked down the hallway and to the stairs in silence. Once the door to the stairwell closed, Matt placed a hand on Keegan’s arm. “Connor didn’t make it.”

  Keegan nodded. “None of us knew he was there. You couldn’t see him and Doc Biggerson and the techs didn’t move the bodies because they didn’t think he was there. You did what you could, calling units in to help search for him.”

  “One of us should have known, one of us should have checked rather than assumed. Maybe then he’d be alive.” Matt shrugged before heading down the stairs, “I’ve got men talking with their friends, seeing if we can get any leads. Call if you get anything?”

  “Same to you.” Keegan nodded and waited a few beats before following behind him. She passed through the bullpen to get to the basement stairs. She ignored the dark looks she got before disappearing to a relative safety that the basement offered.

  Settling behind her desk, Keegan read the quick and dirty e-mail Biggerson had sent her and let out a harsh breath. Deep wounds along the neck and chest were what caused Connor to pass. Without more information and until she could get the autopsy on all three victims started, she wouldn’t know what kind of animal caused the trauma, blah, blah, blah.

  Keegan did the only thing she could do at this point. She worked. It was the only answer with how to process what had happened. She needed start at the beginning, to go over everything in her head again. There had to be a reason for someone to want this family dead and to go as far as they did. A heavy book dropping against a desk had Keegan snapping her head up and out of her thoughts. She watched as Leeroy Thompson settled in at his desk with his feet propped up and proceeded to watch her.

  “What?” Keegan ignored the probing eyes and tried to play nonchalant but it didn’t work. Not with someone like Leeroy. Part of being Djinn meant knowing what was on a person’s mind along with what their deepest desires were.

  “I heard about what happened at the crime scene earlier. With you finding the kid still alive and then he died before they even got him to the hospital.” Leeroy tapped quiet rhythms out on legs. “Tough.”

  “Yeah,” Keegan shrugged. “It’s just hard seeing a kid so messed and hoping that he is going to make it through but he doesn’t.”

  “The only thing you can do now is find that child’s murderer. You have all of us with you on that front. We have your back even if we’re working other cases. No one is going to leave that family’s murder unsolved.” Leeroy leaned back in his chair offering the only comfort the Djinn knew how to for her. He pushed passed the moment and focused on what they needed to be working on and what they needed to find out.

  “What did you get from the scene?” Leeroy pulled his feet down from the top of his desk and rested his elbows there instead. “What did you hear? What did you see? You had to pick up on something while you were there.”

  Slouching into the chair behind her own desk she let out a sigh. She took in the bluish tinge of Leeroy’s skin and how he appeared ready for a fight. She wasn’t the only one on edge with having to work a family’s murder and work with homicide.

  Focusing back on task, Keegan shook her head clear of cobwebs before answering Leeroy. “There was so much panic and pain. Most of what I caught was an overwhelming, jumbled mess. Scenes that violent make it hard to decipher the echoes.”

  “What did you hear?” Leeroy prompted again. One of the things being a necromancer allowed Keegan was the ability to hear and sometimes catch glimpses of the course of a death, if the death left a strong enough imprint on the scene.

  Leeroy had a yellow notepad sitting on his desk and pen poised to write. “What was one of the last things you heard? There was more than just feeling and hearing their emotions. There is something there that you can work off of. There always is.”

  “Glass,” Keegan looked up at the ceiling trying to remember everything, “Breaking and crunching glass. It almost sounded like someone had been walking over it in a pair of heavy boots.

  “So it wasn’t someone who entered the house as a shifter. They broke in as a human.” Keegan thought out loud.

  “Did you see the broken glass?” Leeroy questioned her. “Anywhere in the house or were you hearing old things?”

  “It was the eastern most window located in the downstairs entertainment area,” Keegan supplied as she walked the crime scene again in her mind. “There was a mess of glass trickling towards the stairway and then everything became chaotic. There were gouges on the stairway carpet. Kind of like what you would see after a cat goes at the carpet on stairs but only a lot bigger.”

  “So they shifted.” Leeroy went back to his note taking. “They entered as a human and then they shifted. So what does that suggest to you?”

  “Either they knew they were in trouble or they knew the only way to gain the upper hand
was to shift before Alice did.” Keegan offered.

  “So we know there was a reason behind this. The entrance and the path of the killer would suggest that they knew what or who they were going for.” Leeroy scratched at his forehead. “And no one is thinking robbery gone wrong? Hollis and Cassidy are just going with straight up murder?”

  “The crime scene doesn’t indicate that robbery was a motive. Nothing seemed out of place, valuables wise. Everything was tucked away tight and neat until you got to where the shifter changed form.” Keegan hummed under her breath in thought. “Not to mention that both Alice and Cody were found in the nursery. They were fighting together to protect their son, Connor.”

  Keegan rubbed the heels of her hands against her eyes. “It just, why bother with killing Connor? He is barely out of his crib. What harm could he have done?”

  Leeroy rolled his pen across the desk from one hand to another. “Maybe they were after Connor? But I’m not seeing what they thought was so special about him. He’s a half-breed supernatural, if that. The supernatural genes might not have even been dominate, there’s not telling for sure until puberty right?”

  “Unless both parents were the same supernatural, most children don’t exhibit supernatural abilities until they hit puberty.” Keegan answered and then gestured for Leeroy to finish his line of thought.

  “So there isn’t anything obvious about Connor. So what’s so special about the Barr family that someone wanted to kill them for?”

  “There in lies our main problem, Leeroy. We don’t have a clue as to why they were killed,” Keegan shrugged. “Maybe Doc Biggerson will find something in her examinations or maybe there’s something going on in the community that we don’t know about yet? Until we figure it out we are grasping at straws here. It’s looking more and more like we’re going to have to double up on the canvassing the area to see if we get anything from the neighbors or from family friends.”

  “Nothing’s going on in the shifter community, believe me. With Melinda we’d know if there was something crazy happening. They might not like having a wolf on the Spook Squad but she wouldn’t fail to warn us something was about to go down. Even if they aren’t wolves, there is always some subconscious way that every shifter just knows that something big is about to happen.”

  “Well I guess that answers my question.” Detective Hollis was standing against the last step of the stairs with his arms crossed loosely over his chest.

  Keegan spun in her chair to get a better look at him. He had changed his clothes and shoes also. Khakis and a polo tee shirt suited him far better than the suit did. Maybe it was the amount of skin left exposed and the messy hair that appealed to her. Keegan shook her head clear of the stray thoughts. “What question?”

  “If you knew if anything was going on in your part of the world that could possibly give my guys any kind of lead or clue on where to begin.” Matt sat down at an empty desk and rested his elbows on his knees as he looked at Keegan and Leeroy.

  Leeroy and Keegan shared a look, one that said it wouldn’t take either of them long to dig up what was happening in their world. There were only a few places that were branded specifically to supernatural beings and they both had an all access card.

  “We’ll get Melinda and Gary in on it. So hopefully we will have something for you by the morning.” Keegan offered.

  “The morning isn’t good enough Morne!” Detective Hollis sprung up and out of his chair in frustration. “There is a kid who was killed because his mom and dad couldn’t do enough to protect him. We don’t have time to make good with the locals or wait until the morning to find out what is going on here. I need info. I need some place to start and I need it now!”

  Leeroy stood slowly from his chair. His eyes had turned a darker shade of green, the color of his eyes rimmed red. His skin had grown a darker blue. Keegan could see the way his muscles tensed from the threat of Detective Hollis’ outburst. Keegan pushed out of her own chair and placed a hand on Leeroy’s arm before facing Matt. “You might want to slow your roll there detective. You forget the people you’re dealing with aren’t exactly human. We don’t take kindly to people coming into our house and acting like you just did.”

  Matt turned towards Keegan wondering what he had just done. Keegan shook her head and let out a deprecating laugh. “You just threatened a Djinn Hollis.”

  “Not only that,” Gary breezed in as he readjusted his thick black framed glasses and almost tripped over the untied laces of his converse. “You basically said, ‘I want to be alpha and I’ll fight you for it’. Don’t you read any of the material we give you guys on how to interact with Supes?”

  “No, why should they? We only come out on full moons.” Melinda snorted. “And if you want any information then you’ll have to wait until the morning, Detective Hollis. We each have our informants and if you want us to use them then you have to allow us to question them in the right time frame. Which for most supernaturals, would be the night time. And you might want to apologize to Leeroy before he rips your throat out or turns your brain to mush with only his fingertips.”

  Matt ran a hand through his hair, messing the short black spikes even further. “I’m sorry man. It’s just this case, it is that bad. Whenever a kid gets involved, I just,” He shook his head. “I don’t do well with cases like this.”

  “Whatever.” Leeroy shrugged his shoulders the red ring slowly disappearing from view and his skin fading from the darker blue to the light blue. “Just know we aren’t your lap dogs. For every case you turn to us for help and we solve it. You should realize the importance of us being here to aide you rather than be yelled at.”

  “Look,” Keegan rolled her eyes at the thought of what she was about to offer to Hollis. “You want an inside look into the world of Supernaturals and why something like this might have happened? And why we have to wait until later tonight to start our end of the canvassing? I’ll let you ride along with me tonight when I hit up a few contacts and see what I can figure out for you guys.”

  “Uh,” Gary pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “You really think that is the greatest idea Keegs? I mean, no offense dude, but he’s human. Like one hundred percent smelly human.”

  “I don’t smell.” Matt instinctively brushed his nose against the shoulder of his shirt and sniffed.

  “You do.” Melinda grinned, her canines extended and her eyes turned a bright blue to tease. “But that’s okay. You smell delicious.”

  “Oh god.” Keegan smacked her hand to her forehead. “Matt, you want in on tonight? Then you will meet me here at eleven. The rest of you, I’ve made copies of notes of the crime scene and the impression I got from it. You know where to go from there.”

  “You got it boss.” Gary mock saluted her before disappearing behind his desk and calling up the document.

  “Suck up.” Melinda muttered under her breath but followed suit.

  Leeroy spun around in his chair with a grin trying to lighten the mood. “So Keegs? How’d dinner with your Mom last night go?”

  Keegan let out a loud groan, thankful for the subject change but not the subject it was changed to. “My mother threatened to withhold food unless I spoke to my brother and sisters again.”

  Gary peered over the top of his monitor at her and scratched absently at the stubble on his chin. “So let me guess, you won’t be eating home cooked meals for a while?”

  “The relationship with your family is that bad Morne?” Matt interjected and Melinda snorted.

  “It’s not bad, per se.” Keegan shrugged, “It’s just virtually nonexistent.”

  “And you’re the person we get to help us with public relations in the SIU?” Matt rolled his eyes. “Brilliant.”

  “Shut it Hollis.” Keegan tossed out playfully. “Be here tonight at ten or I am leaving with out you.”

  “My watch is synced up and ready to go.” Matt grinned at the smirk he got out of Keegan.

  Keegan was sitting outside the front of Misery PD. The
entire building was fitting to the town’s name. The lamp posts were almost gothic looking with the curls and spikes while the main building was a dark gray stone. Plaques of former officers who had passed in the line of duty were etched into the walls.

  “I figured you would just ditch me.” Matt said in greeting as he jogged up the steps towards Keegan. She eyed his outfit. It was appropriate enough for where they were going. Dark jeans, a black button down rolled up at the sleeves. She could spot some kind of ink curling out from under the collar of his shirt.

  She wasn’t dressed much differently. She had donned a pair of jeans, a black tank top. Her usual hidden, St. Benedict pendant was left exposed. The cold air wasn’t a factor in what she was wearing. It was the fact the more skin you showed, the more powerful your scent was. As a supernatural that was the most important thing in identifying a potential ally or an enemy while you exuded your own power.

  “I said you could come along.” Keegan kicked off of the wall she was leaning against and led him towards her car.

  “You’re not cold?” Matt asked as he settled into the passenger side and clicked his seatbelt in place.

  “Freezing but once we get to where we are going,” Keegan looked over her shoulder to make sure she was clear to pull on the street, “how cold or hot I get won’t matter. What I need is for other Supernaturals to know I’m one of them and if they mess with me they aren’t going to be the one walking out of Diyo’s.”

  “Okay…” Matt let the statement stand as he watched the scenery change from bright city lights into the occasional blip of light and the dank forms of run down and abandoned buildings. He could tell when they moved from the human side of Misery and into the Supernatural District. There were more people walking along the sidewalks despite the lack of street lights. Every once in a while, if he glanced out the corner of his eye, he’d catch the unnaturally bright flare of supernatural eyes.

  “What you did earlier,” Keegan started, “With Leeroy? You really have to be careful about that. If he hadn’t been so in control we might not have been able to stop him from doing anything to you.”