The morning seemed to drag on, feeling as if hours had passed. When in reality only 40 minutes went by. Raven had finished updating various reports and Henry spent the morning working on his own reports with occasional glances and smirks Raven’s way. Shortly afterwards the Captain came out of his office with some news and called a meeting, and to make sure Raven attended this one the man kept him chained to his desk and held the meeting there.
“Just got a call from the mayor. He’s assigning some new recruits to our division. They should be here within the week.”
“Recruits?” Raven propped his feet on his desk as he sipped from his 3rd cup of coffee for the day, “What use are they going to be?”
“C’mon Black. You remember being a newbie.”
Henry smirked around his straw as he leaned on his desk. Raven looked around to give him a glare.
“That was a long time ago.”
“Shut it the both of you.” The Captain pinned them both with a glare and continued with his news, feeling as if a teacher with a couple of rowdy kids, “They’ll be sending 3 detectives from homicide and a new desk clerk. Detectives Andrew Rodrequiz, Anthony Conwell and Lucy DuBall and a Malvina Mave.”
“Mave? They’re sending us another mage?”
The Captain huffed as he stuffed his papers under his arm pointing a finger at Raven, “Yes. Ms. Dunsworth is still your partner. Ms. Mave will be coming in to handle paperwork and minuscule items. You will be treating them both with respect.” Raven mumbled a ‘yeah yeah’ as he took another sip of his drink and the Captain turned to Henry, “Keep an eye on this idiot. Make sure he treats his co-workers with respect.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
Raven shot Henry another glare as he mockingly saluted the Captain. Captain shook his head as he walked back to his office but stopped remembering one last thing, “Oh, Tanks!”
“What?” Henry swiveled around in his chair as he played with the straw, rolling it between his fingers.
“DuBall is your new partner.”
With that the Captain opened his office door to another shrilling phone, muttering as he went in. Henry could only stare as the door closed and turned around in his seat.
“You hear dat! I’m gettin’ a new partn’r!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I wond’r if sh’ll be predy?”
“Oh I’m sure she’ll be ‘purdy’.”
Raven bit his tongue to keep from laughing as a paper ball bounced off his head, “Mock me all you want. I’m gettin’ lucky.”
Raven strained to keep from rolling his eyes as Henry bounded up and went to get himself a snack from the break room. As the room falls quiet, or what passes as quiet in the morning rush of New York, Raven pulled out a pack and quickly lit a cigarette as he pulled a file into his lap.
“You know those things are bad for you. Why do you smoke anyways?”
Coffee spilled on his shirt as he jumped in his chair. He cursed under his breath as he pushed the file out of harm’s way and grabbed some paper napkins from his desk, dabbing at the stain. His eyes found Claire standing with her hands behind her as she tried not to laugh. He hated to admit it but she did look better than before.
“You know, for a detective, you’re pretty jumpy.”
Getting as much as the coffee out of his shirt as he possibly could he leaned back in his chair glaring up at Claire, “For a mage you’re pretty crude.”
“Crude? How am I crude?”
Claire crossed her arms as she leaned against his desk. Raven pointedly ignored her as he brought up James Bron’s file on the computer projection.
“You purposely pop up out of nowhere when no one around here’s even used to that sort of thing.”
She raised an eyebrow as she continued to watch him, “Well, how can people get used to me popping up like that if I never do it?”
“Then don’t do it.”
Raven turned from his computer to glare at Claire and she met his with one of her own. Before she could say a retort though his computer pinged indicating a video call. He turned his full attention to the computer meaning to answer the call when he noticed that Claire has not moved. He pointedly stared at her trying to get her to move but she barely budged. She only stared at him with an innocent smile. Raven gave up and answered the call. The coroner from the county office appeared as she shuffled papers on her desk. She looked frantic as she tried to sort all the papers while she waited for the call to be answered. Raven cleared his throat causing the young coroner to jump.
“Oh h-hi. Are you Detective Black, working on James Bron’s case?”
“Yes I am.”
“He has a partner!”
Raven sent a murderous look at Claire as she shouted off-screen. The little coroner straightens her glasses as she tried to find the source of the shout. Raven turned the projection panel slightly away from Claire as he commanded the coroner’s attention.
“Who are you?”
“O-Oh yes,” the young girl cleared her throat as her nerves got to her, “My name’s Tessa, Tessa Mills. I’m the medical examiner who took over Bron’s case. I’m calling because I found some new evidence not previously discovered.”
He sat up straight as excitement hummed his blood, “What evidence?”
Tessa opened a file and read her findings as Claire listened in, “I reexamined the body and found a small puncture at the back of the skull. Forensic analysis hasn’t come back yet but I was able to detect small traces of a magic signature.”
“Magic?”
Claire leaned over, pushing Raven out of the way as she came in full view of the computer. Tessa immediately knew who Claire was and became stunned as she looked upon the mage.
“What was the signature?”
Tessa’s jaw worked as she tried to speak and finally shook herself out of it, “I’m not sure. The signature was minuet. The readings couldn’t give me much, but it did confirm it was of the Wave Energy family.”
“Wave Energy?”
Claire sat back as her mind rolled. Raven watched as he saw her mind race and waved a hand to get her attention.
“What’s ‘Wave Energy’?”
She blinked as she turned to Raven, “It’s a form of magic. All magic is broken into categories and families based on the elements and what elements the magic uses. That’s why knowing the magic signature is so important because from that we can find out what type of magic and even what spell was used, like a fingerprint. Wave Energy consists of the form of magic dealing with waves, radio waves, microwaves, things of that nature.”
“Yes, exactly.”
Tessa beamed at Claire as she tapped her chin thinking. She turned back to the computer questioning Tessa, “You said it was found at a puncture wound at the back of the skull right? Is there any way to tell if the brain was intact before the body was burned?”
Tessa tilted her head as the idea formed, “Yes but, it will take a while to run the necessary tests.”
“Let us know, thanks.”
Tessa nodded as she blinked off. Claire continued to sit on Raven’s desk corner as she thought. Raven waited as she gathered her thoughts together expecting her to share her ideas. When his patience ran thin he again waved his hand in her face to get her attention.
“Wanna share?”
Claire smirked as she shared her thoughts, “The burning was a cover up. Whatever was used that created the wound at the back of the head is what killed him and the burning was to hide that evidence.”
“But why burn? Why use ice to burn the body?”
Claire thought as her eyes searched the room, finally shrugging her shoulders, “I have no idea.”
“Ok,” Raven sat up in his chair, crossing his arms on the desk, “How’d the Wave Energy thing kill him?”
She pulled her leg up as she got comfortable on his desk, “Well just about anything wave like can fry the brain, but if we can find out what specific wave was used, it could bring us closer to the killer.”
Raven waved a hand at the projection, “Tessa just said the samples were minuet. Can we hope of getting such detailed analysis from such a small sample?”
“No I guess not,” still holding her ankle, her other hand rubbed the back of her head, not surprisingly the same place where the puncture wound was found on James Bron. Suddenly she snapped her fingers as she got an idea, “Maybe we can go through the artifact. If we find out what specific artifact was used, we can find the wielder who may or may not be the killer right?”
Raven leaned back against his chair nodding his head, impressed, “But we don’t know what artifact was used yet. Have you heard back from your doctor friend yet?”
“No, not yet.”
Henry stepped through the door, munching on some chocolate chip cookies when he stopped at the scene before him. There was Claire and Raven, conversing like real partners, and from the sounds of things, they had made some headway. Henry bit his cheek to keep from smiling as he walked up to the two.
“Hey Claire! Didn’t h’er ya come in.”
Claire turned a bright smile to Henry like he was an old friend, “Hey Henry. I just dropped in.”
“Yeah literally,” Raven mumbled as a pit in his gut burned. He blamed it on too much coffee.
Henry stopped before the two and offered a cookie which only Claire took, “How’s da case goin’?”
Raven caught him up as he reached for his coffee, “Turns out the burning was to cover up the evidence of the real murder. Tessa, the ME, is running some more tests to find out.”
“Hmph, sounds heavy.”
Crumbs showered down his shirt as he munched on another cookie. He absently brushed it off as Claire stifled a laugh. Suddenly Raven’s computer pinged again indicating another video call. Claire and Henry leaned over eager to eavesdrop as Raven answered.
Tessa appeared once more looking slightly breathless this time, “Detective Black! I’m glad I caught you.”
“What is it?”
“The results just came back. There were traces of a material at the puncture wound. It was Zinc. And the tests show that the brain was indeed intact at the time of the burning.”
Raven was glad for more good news but raised an eyebrow when he saw Claire’s eyes light up.
“I know what it is.”
Comments (0)
See all