Chapter One: Blood On The Streets

Part 1

7 of 13 remain

Leo Parsons pulled his car to a stop. He powered down the Firum engine, taking a few more moments to enjoy the song on the radio. It was a Gymson classic, from before he was born. The song’s energetic tones always brought him back to a time when he and his dad would sing along full-bore while working on the car over the weekend. The nostalgia was warm, a comfort that always put him in a good mood. Too bad that was about to be dampened by a murder investigation.

Sure enough, Leo glanced out the window and caught an eager Tolson waving at him. Yeah, he shouldn’t put this off.

With a sigh, he tucked a small notepad in his shirt pocket. He grabbed at the pile of pens in his cupholder, and noted with annoyance that none of them had a cap anymore. Eight partially used pens, and all of them missing their caps. He selected the one with the least amount of bite marks, testing it on the back of a takeout receipt stuffed in the crack of the passenger seat beside him. Satisfied with the squiggles it made, he slid the pen in beside the notepad. Point up–he didn’t need to ruin another shirt.

He grabbed his thermos, Firum ring on the bottom keeping the coffee inside at a comfortable warmth. Taking a long sip, he let out a sigh. The song hadn’t even reached the bridge yet. Maybe he had time? Checking out the window again, he saw Tolson already walking over.

Fine.

Glancing at the glovebox, Leo weighed whether he really needed to carry his gun. Should he be armed? Probably. Did he trust himself to be? The fact he even needed to ask told him the answer was still no. Besides, there were several dozen officers on scene, all armed. He didn’t need to carry today.

He rested his hand on the door handle, then paused. Leo looked down at the armrest. This investigation was probably going to take a while. The last thing he needed was to be jittery. He didn’t really want to bring the pack of Necral Sticks with him, but he tucked them inside a jacket pocket anyway. They weren’t illegal.

The radio cut out as he opened the door and stepped out. Taking another sip of coffee, he shut the door. Then he stretched as Tolson jogged up. The officer’s ears were far too perky for this time of day. Well, really for any time before midday. Even Tolson’s tail was a little fluffed out.

“Morning, detective!”

Leo let out a noise somewhere between a grunt and a sigh. It was time to find words. “Morning, Tolson. What are we looking at today?”

Leo’s eyes traveled up the length of Lortran tower. It was a metal and glass behemoth, ostentatious even by the Thirteen’s standards. Large letters on the roof proclaimed “Lortran” in Electrum lights that could be seen from just about anywhere in the Bulb.

“Oh, it’s a doozy, Leo! The guy was pushed from the 30th floor, desk and all!”

Leo sighed, “‘The guy’ happens to be Lortran Dupall, one of the richest and most influential men in Ciphus. And now he’s dead.”

“Oh, super dead, dude.”

Water splashed around their boots, pooling in the grooves between the metallic panels that made up the street and slowly draining off to be recycled. The air was humid, but held a pleasant scent, something Leo always appreciated about the day after Storm Day.

“Any other casualties?”

A pair of officers deactivated the Electrum barrier around the crime scene, allowing Leo and Tolson through. It reactivated with an electric buzz a moment later. Leo tried not to think about the fact that he was standing on a metal street still dotted with puddles of standing water. These barriers were powered with small batteries, designed to be a simple uncomfortable deterrent to anyone who tried to walk through. Even knowing they were technically safe, he hated the feeling of electricity running around inside his body. It was never pleasant to lose control.

Tolson, for his part, was probably so intrigued by the logistics and spectacle of their victim being launched from the building that Leo doubted he’d considered the possibility of additional victims. Tolson was a great officer, with a genuine heart for serving the public. Fahnina, Tolson was one of the best Snepards Leo knew, but his friend had trouble keeping the jungle in sight for the trees.

Tolson shook his head. “That’s the thing, dude. No other casualties. Same M.O. as the other murders. Lots of people with Electrum burns, a couple with Necral overdoses, and one guy that had to be rescued from an elevator. But the only one who actually died was the big man himself. And man, what a way to go, you know?”

Lortran’s desk laid as a splintered mess in the street, having split into at least four separate pieces. Several feet away from it was a far grislier mess. Lortran’s suit barely contained a heap of grey and white fur stained crimson. The body had several parts at awkward angles, with more than one bone showing. His arms lay broken underneath him. He’d probably succumbed to the instinct to cover his face before hitting the ground. Though from a height like that, it wouldn’t have made any difference.

Leo looked as long as he dared, but turned away when he felt his stomach complain. Standing up, he looked towards the tower. A large number of Lortran’s employees were gathered in front of the building. Some were sitting on the metal steps leading up to it, receiving medical attention from pharmatechs. Others wandered through the wet grass beside the steps, or sat on benches underneath some nearby shade trees. That was a lot of witnesses, and it was still far too early in the morning for talking.

Taking another sip of coffee, Leo’s annoyance grew. He could already feel how light his thermos was. His finger tapped absently against it. Yeah, this was probably going to be a three or even four-tick kind of morning.

“Ready to do some interviews?” Tolson’s chipperness would be inspiring, if it didn’t flood Leo with an irrational anger. They’d known each other forever. Gone into similar fields of work so they could stay close. Even so, it took every bit of restraint Leo could muster not to smack the guy. As it was, his claws still flexed on their own, and he forced the anger to exit his body in a long sigh. It still sounded a bit too much like a growl.

“We can always go up and look at the physical evidence first,” Tolson said, no stranger to Leo’s morning moods.

Leo shook his head. “And make two trips? When I leave that tower, it’s going to be to get lunch. We’ll see what they have to say. But you may have to do most of the talking, so I don’t tear anyone’s fur out.”

*

An hour later, Tolson opened the lobby elevator. “You ever think about what we could do if we took Fractal, like as a force?”

Leo shot him a glance as they both entered the elevator. “That might be the dumbest suggestion I’ve ever heard you make.”

“Well, I mean, yeah, but that’s because we’re used to thinking about it like it’s a bad thing.”

Leo knew the truth, but the truth wasn’t something he could share. Not without life-changing consequences. So he stuck to the answer that the Chief had drilled into every officer in the Precinct.

“Because it is a bad thing, dingbat. There’s a whole big list of negative side effects involved. Not to mention, it’s illegal and we’d get fired.”

Tolson pressed the button for the twenty-second floor. The elevator doors closed and the elevator began its ascent. “Ok, Leo, but you took witness statements with me. A Native running around with glowing multicolored eyes, zapping people, blowing stuff up and starting fires? What if the stuff gives you superpowers, and we just never realized because we’re taught drugs equal bad? If I knew that glowy eyes could let me breathe fire, I’d try it.”

“You’re forgetting we did try it, idiot, back in college. We had to call an ambulance because you started having seizures. It gave me the worst migraine too, enough to convince me not to try it a second time.” Except, he had tried it again…but that was his secret to take to his Necral-scented grave.

“Medics use it.”

“Medics use Shimmer because it’s low-concentration medical grade. It gives you no more of an alertness buzz than my coffee.” Suddenly reminded of the thermos in his hand, Leo raised it to his lips. He tipped it back to take a drink, but only got a few drops. He lowered it with a sigh. “But it doesn’t give you magic wizard powers.”

“How else you gonna explain how the Native tore up the place last night?”

 Leo rolled his eyes. “By examining the evidence they left behind and using logic to find the truth behind what happened last night.”

Tolson shrugged and the next few floors passed quietly. Then he grinned. “Bet you lunch it’s magic.”

Leo stared back at his friend. “You’re so stupid sometimes.”

“As you’ve very kindly pointed out repeatedly for our entire elevator date. But I’m chasing away the pain of your negativity by reminding myself that no one in all of Ciphus is grumpier than you in the mornings. I think you just need to be reminded that you’re loved.” Tolson opened his arms, beckoning in with his hands. “Bring it in, buddy.”

Leo regarded the larger man. His friend had already developed a dad bod, despite both of them being mid-20s and single. It didn’t help that Tolson had a good six inches on Leo, even without counting his ears. Leo’s tail flicked the wall of the elevator. “No.”

“Well, if you won’t come to the hug, the hug’s coming to you.”

Leo tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go in an elevator. His friend wrapped him in an embrace, one he eventually returned with a sigh.

“Ok, fine. Maybe I needed that.”

“Everyone does from time to time.”

Leo’s eyes glanced up at the display. He pushed off his friend. “And…that’s enough. We’re almost to our floor.”

“You’re running pretty stressed these days, dude. Your left ear likes to sag and your tail’s always fritzed out at the end. Everything good at home?”

Even just thinking about the stack of untouched mail on his counter, the barren state of his refrigerator, or the unanswered messages on his phone made Leo want to light a Necral stick right here in the elevator. His hands hadn’t stopped jittering since he ran out of coffee. But he’d told Tolson he was going to quit, and he didn’t want to give the man any further cause to worry about him. Ironic that Tolson had just been the one to suggest they try one of the strongest mind-altering drugs on the market in the hope they granted wizard-like super powers.

Leo faked a smile. “Yeah, everything’s same as it’s always been.”

The doors parted with a soft ding, opening to a floor full of officers searching for and categorizing evidence. One of the officers approached, and Leo’s blood pressure spiked. His fist slammed into the button to shut the doors again.

Tolson, however, grabbed the doors with one hand, and pushed Leo out of the elevator with the other. He leaned in and whispered, “You can’t hide from Melissa forever.”

“You know Tolson, that sounds like quitter talk. I can and will hide from Melissa until the day either she or I switch precincts.”

“Dude, you’ve got to talk to her sooner or later.”

“I choose later then,” Leo hissed as she walked up.

“Detective Parsons.” Her voice was cold as Snow Season.  Hard to believe there had ever been a time where it had been warm.

“Detective McKinley.”

Tolson raised his hand, pointing at himself, “Officer Grey.”

Melissa raised an eyebrow at him. The tips of her ears didn’t even reach his shoulders, but she fixed him with such a stare that his whiskers twitched. Tolson was friendly with everyone, even judgmental academy flings. But it was no more possible to dampen Tolson’s mood than it was to get Detective Melissa McKinley to give up a grudge.

She turned her gaze back to Leo. “Surprised to see you up and walking around, Parsons. I thought blood-suckers slept in coffins during the day?” There was no humor to the way her tail sliced the air behind her.

Leo brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Can we not do this today, Melissa?”

“Sure. Fine. I’m not the one who has trouble communicating professionally.” She said the last part with a bit of a snort. Her whiskers twitched as she struggled to keep the snarl from clawing its way onto her face.

Leo bit down the response that came to mind. Things might have been different now if he had been able to do that several years ago. Instead, he let out a sigh and pretended to take a sip of coffee.

Beside him, Tolson cleared his throat. “So—shall we take a look at what happened?”

Melissa’s teeth audibly connected as she also swallowed whatever her first response was. Shaking her head, she let out a sigh, “Yeah, we should get to work.”

“Awesome!” Tolson said, falling in behind her as she started down the hall. “Hey, so where’d that desk on the street come from?”

Leo watched them go, noting the stiffness in Melissa’s form that he seemed to cause with just his mere presence.

She was as pretty as she’d always been, and she was an excellent detective. But that Electrum-train had long-since left the station. Well, more accurately, he’d grounded that train himself.