****
The woman was taken to the hospital suffering hysterics and shock, but not before Jonah was escorted first. I watched them take Mr Brown to the second ambulance on site, headed straight for the morgue. I didn’t regret shooting him to be honest, I did regret the paperwork. My statement seemed to take forever, and I watched Sabian closely as he gave his to another of the attending officers. Boy did I want to ask him a few questions of my own when I had a chance. Of course I had a few other things to take care of before I could do that, I realised. I cringed and looked away when I saw the familiar car pull up. My boss.
He carried himself like he was made of gold, hoisting himself from the seat of his car and winching up his belt before striding towards me, sunglasses glinting in the full morning light. I had just wrapped up, as he arrived, so took a deep breath and waited to face the music.
“So Samuel.” He started, full of authority, lighting a cigarette and leaning against my car. “Nice day for a drive.”
“Nice day to solve a case.” I bantered back.
“Yeah?” He lifted his shades to stare me in the eye. “How do you figure.”
“The boy’s parents organised for someone to take their child…”
“Why!?” He interrupted.
“They’re delusional. Clearly.” I struggled to keep from snapping at him, and it was transparent. I swallowed my pride this time and tried to remember the proper chain of command, respect. “From their sense of what was wrong with the child, they had him ‘taken’ – by who we have to figure out. It could have even been the husband though, staging an abduction from a public place to divert suspicion. I suspect the body they found in the desert to be, on second analysis, their co-conspirator. Rachael…” He raised his eyebrows at my using her name so I re-enforced. “Rachael comes along, tried to stop it, gets taken as well. While in his control, she and the boy are traumatised, and acting on instinct escape….”
“Good to see you have it all figured out…” He faked, getting more stroppy by the moment. “I have a bit of a mystery of my own actually.”
“Really?” I added, not even trying to cover the cynicism this time.
“Yeah.” He rebutted standing tall and puffing out his chest. “Maybe you could help me with that one too. Seeing as you have this one all tied up, I thought you might have some spare time.” I looked down at my shoes, trying to swallow the condescension. I licked my lips and drew my chin up to show there was no power over me here. He took a draw on his cigarette before continuing. “Gary told me he saw you out having dinner with Jane Doe.”
I started off too defensive. I knew that good for nothing suck up would have blown anything he saw out of proportion. “It wasn’t like that, I was out walking and she happened to be there….”
Before I could finish, he finished for me, forcibly keeping his voice as controlled as possible so as not to be overheard. I suppose I should appreciate that. “So you happened to sit, have a talk, walk her home? I’m hoping the night ended there.”
“Look, nothing happened. I’m telling you….” As the words left me, I knew I had opened myself up.
“Oh you’re telling me….Telling me!” He started ranting. People turned to look. “Let me tell you something Sam.” He lowered his voice. “You are taking time off, and you are volunteering to do that, so I don’t have to explain why my best up and coming has lost his shit over a suspect. Calls to Community Services, visits to witnesses, coming here unsolicited, I've been looking into it and you even got a parking ticket outside her place. You have been asking all kinds of questions, and not the type I would expect you to ask if you were simply trying to solve the robberies and murders.” He looked away from me and took a deep breath before exhaling out, and turning back to face me. “Take a week to get some perspective while we wait for the transfer to come in. You and your new partner can start fresh. Meanwhile you are off the case, Crane and Smith can finish off what needs to be done. And I don’t want you going anywhere near our Jane Doe.”
“She hasn’t done anything wrong.” I protested. Clearly that was an affront, but at least I spoke my mind.
“She killed a bunch of people Sam. Not just killed them – butchered. And if your head wasn’t …..” He trailed off and shook his head at me. “….You would see clear as day that something isn’t right. Your average 20 something, five foot something women don’t do things like that! They just don’t.” He put his glasses back on and relaxed against my car door again.
I noticed Sabian was watching us.
My boss kept going. “She's cute, I get it, she needs rescuing, and you my friend are a rescuer, and it wont do you any favours in this line of work.”
“A rescuer?” I had to keep myself from lying. All the accusations I had from previous girlfriends that I wasn’t attentive enough.
“It's a real thing. Read up on it.” He stood tall and fixed his bet again. “Meantime I am going to go fix this mess up while you go home and fix your mess up. Go home Sam. We’ll see you next week.”
As he strode away into the throng of local police Sabian came up to me.
“Sam…” he started but I stopped him.
“Not here. Meet me at the café across from the library.” I said as I opened the door to my car and climbed in behind the wheel.
“Pino’s.” He clarified, and I nodded, revving up the engine. I wasn’t going to let this drop completely. I wanted to find out what the hell was going on.
Somehow Sabian beat me there. He already had a Cappuccino and pastry.
I sat down opposite Sabian, trying to work him out, and we stared each other down across the table before I broke the silence.
“So what did you tell them about why you were at the house?”
“Only what I saw. I told them I had a bad feeling, went to visit to check the child was alright, heard him screaming, and ran over to see what was going on. When I saw they were trying to hurt him, I broke in and you came in after me.” He told me this so matter-of-factly, I wondered how many times he had spun half truths and lies before. He was an exec consultant though, so pitching things was part of his job.
“Why were you really there?” I challenged, keenly interested in what the answer was going to be.
He hesitated and his eye twitched before he answered me. “Because she asked me to check on him.”
“You do everything she asks then?” There was a pang of irritation that she had asked me, and asked him, only she would only really know he had followed through for her. Had she asked me first? Had she had to ask him because I had said no. Not that I hadn’t done the right thing. It just ate at me.
“Right now, I’d have to say yes. She was right, he was in danger.” Sabian took a long drink of coffee before relaxing back in his chair. He looked almost too comfortable for this kind of conversation. He knew something I didn’t, or maybe was overcompensating for something that was making him really nervous.
“Maybe she’s in on it.” I threw out to try and get him out of his comfort zone. ”Maybe she knew he was in danger because they coordinated with her.” I was grasping at straws now and knew it, but I played it well enough.
“I don’t think so.” He wore a look, like he was seeing straight through me and for the first time in a long time, I felt like I wasn’t the one at the interview table who knew the most. I inched in my seat.
“What’s your relationship?” I pushed further, ignoring his comment
“I owe her. I want to see her have some resolution.” His face relaxed a little and looked less cocky. It made me want to hit him less. Just.
“That’s all?”
“That’s all. Why do you ask?” He was smirking now and it simultaneously made me angry as well as nervous. I felt like a school child caught doing something taboo.
“I want to know for the case.” I lied.
“Thought you got unceremoniously kicked off the case Sam.” The way he said my name reeked of arrogance. Damn. I got pulled up was my immedia
te thought, but I didn’t blink, didn’t give ground.
“I still need to understand what is going on here.” I admitted.
“I can appreciate that.” He uttered before leaning across the table. He looked at me as though searching for something, hoping for something.. ”What if I told you….I thought I knew a little about what’s happening.”
“What do you think you know?” I pressed again.
“I think Rachael is involved with a religious organisation called Asatru. Her duty was to protect this child, but she can’t quite remember what happened.” It was a huge jump, but maybe he knew more than I did.
“Tell me about Asatru.” I asked.
“They are an old order of pagan origins. They have a code of conduct, of honor, and extreme factions have representatives they send out on …missions….I guess.” A nasty feeling grew inside me again.
“To protect people?” I asked trying not to sound incredulous.
“To uphold the values.” He said as if it explained everything.
“Oh good, because what you were saying was making complete sense.” My defensiveness got the most of me.
“Don’t pretend everything you have seen makes sense.” He replied to me, clearly irritated, but still trying to gain my favour.
“There are a few things….” I conceded, pausing to buy me time to consider what to tell him, but I figured it was worthwhile sharing. “They found a body outside a collapsed mine that fits the description of where Rachael seems to remember coming away from after she was taken. A man’s body, beaten with a rock on the head, several lacerations and contusions….”
“And…?”Sabian asked
“The body dated as over 200 years old. Which is impossible of course.” I wanted to see what he could make of that. I expected a stunned reaction, a confused expression. All I got was an acknowledging nod. I considered that Sabian may not be the whole box of cookies.
“So you see, there is more to this situation. The body, the parents wanting to kill off the boy, Rachael’s reactions, her unexplained strength, the possessions…” He sighed as he trailed off, looking across the street as he considered what was going on.
My brain paused for a moment taking in what I had heard. “Wait. Did you say ‘the possessions’?”
His attention came back to me. “The people on the tape of the van, twisting and jerking like that. I saw the same thing when those men broke in and she fought them.”
“Why possessions?” I asked carefully.
“I think it’s a faction working against good.” He reacted to my prolonged silence by explaining further. “For every thing that is good, there is an evil.”
“You are beginning to sound like our friend Robert Brown.” I cautioned him, not really expecting him to take it on board now.
“Bear with me.” Sabian instructed, and I let him go, hoping there would be a truth in what he was going to say I could explore. “In every mythological construct, every culture, there are good and bad beings. And there are creatures like demons, ghosts, or wraiths…”
“I’ve never heard of Wraith.” I interjected.
“It’s just a term to describe ghost like beings, there is very little lore about them, but what there is seems to indicate that they are the disembodied spirits of people who used to practice black magic, and when they die, they don’t move on…just continue to exist, but with more power and voracity than just a plain spirit.”
“Of course.” I said, trying to keep a straight face.
Sabian leaned in. “I think Rachael has been given a task to be a guardian, or protector, and that these things, let’s call them Wraiths in the absence of any further evidence, and taking over bodies of people around her to try and take her out.”
I took a deep breath. “You think they are taking over bodies.”
“Explains why none of the people on the abduction tape knew why they had done those things. Why ordinary people would do something like that.”
I leaned forward to meet his eye level. “Are you serious. You are, aren’t you? Listen. Sabian. I’m going to give you some advice. Get some help, and don’t see Rachael again. Let her live her life, piece back what she can now she has some leads from the tape. Leave her be.” I got up to walk away, but as I did he called after me.
“No one in the town the boy lived in recognises her do they? No one knows who she is, do they Sam.”
I took a few steps back and slammed my hand on the table. “You need to stay away from her. She needs to get her head straight, not be confused with crap like this. Back off.” He seemed unphased and leaned into me.
“How do you know what she needs. You can’t even see what’s right in front of you. I wouldn’t have told you this if I didn’t know you want to help, just like I do. She likes you, probably for good reason, but I don’t think she trusts you. That’s probably for a good reason too.”
I decided to walk away before I did something I would regret. If I was going to get into trouble it wouldn’t be for causing a scene here. It would be for something worthwhile. Maybe James was on to something after all – acting on instinct, acting on what you know to be true, not just what the rule book said. I was going to see her myself, talk her into sense about Sabian, and stand up and take what I wanted in the meantime.