Shadows May Fall (19 page)

When Lou got to the water, she grabbed handfuls of sand and stuffed as much as she could into the pockets of her jeans. The incoming waves crashed against her legs, almost make her fall over but the chilly waters felt so good as they soaked her boots, she didn’t care. She grabbed two more fists full of sand then hauled ass back to the dojo as fast as she could. Lou almost got hit by a car running another red light, having to stick one hand out onto the car’s hood to protect herself. She lost one fistful of sand so as she resumed running at break-neck speed she dug out another fist full from her pocket. To her amazement, she caught sight of Liam and that made her move even faster. If she could beat him back to the dojo, that would give her serious bragging rights at least until Christmas. Lou did a little spin to avoid stepping on a homeless man perched on the curb then a minor leap to get a lead on her cousin. The sight of her must have flustered him because he hesitated, which gave her all she needed to get a significant lead on him. When she reached the entrance to the dojo, she clamped the handle of the door with her forearms and ripped the thing open. Lou busted inside and tried her very best to not collapse. Dillon was already inside, hunched over gasping for air, sand dribbling out of his clenched fists.

When Liam finally arrived they had barely a minute to spare. The three stood gasping and wheezing in front of Sensei, waiting for his next instruction.

He started with Liam, held out his hand, palm up. “Give me your sand.” He instructed, and Liam loosened his grip on the little sand he had left, maybe a teaspoon if you were generous. Sensei looked, huffed then dusted his hands off and moved to Dillon.

“Give me your sand.” He instructed and held his palm out. Dil-lon’s sand dust was less than Liam had. Sensei gave him a disapproving look. “Now you.” He turned to Lou without bothering to dust his hands this time. Lou held her fist over his hand and opened it. A clump of wet sand fell into his palm. She repeated the action with her other hand, and another egg sized lump dropped.

It could have been her imagination but for a split second when he looked at her, she thought she saw a grin in his eye. He turned and walked with the wet sand and put it in a small bowl on the reception counter at the front of the dojo. He then walked to the back of the dojo and disappeared behind a curtain and was gone for what seemed like ages. Not that any one of them was complaining. Liam actually dry-heaved twice while he was gone. When Sensei returned, he had something white folded in his hands. It looked like bed sheets, but none of them could tell right off. He walked directly to Lou and ignored the two men.

“Hold out your hands.” He instructed her and she obeyed instantly. “These are your Keigogi. You will come early. Be dressed and standing in your place, right here where you stand now, every other day at seven in the evening, starting next Monday.”

“What about...” Liam was confused, but the Sensei cut him off.

“My instructions were to run to the ocean and come back with two fistfuls of sand.” He looked at Liam and then Dillon. “You both failed to do so.”

“What?” Dillon was furious. “We most certainly...”

“No!” Sensei put his hand up to hush Dillon. “You ran to the beach and took your sand! The little one here was the only one who did as asked and in doing so she was able to hold hers for the trip back. Well, aside from almost being crushed by a car but she had the foresight to fill her pockets, to prepared for any eventuality. She has earned her training.” Lou resisted the extreme urge to do a happy dance as her chest filled with warm and fuzzy pride, but she couldn’t help but wonder how he knew about her almost getting hit by the car. Of course, she was not about to be an idiot and ask him. “While Tallulah begins her training, you two shall face a new trial. We shall see if you will join her sooner, or later. That is all. You may go.”

Lou remembered the way the children had left the mat earlier, so she took a risk and tried to mimic them. “Arigato Gozaimashita.” She thanked him and bowed like the littler girl had earlier. She then took three steps back, bowed again and left out the door where she did her happy dance, right there on the sidewalk.

When Dillon and Liam finally came out of the dojo, Lou was waiting with a devilish grin. They rolled their eyes at just walked past and straight to the cars. She didn’t care they were giving her the numb, she was far too giddy and pleased with herself.

“You drop her off. I’ll stop home, shower and change then meet you at your place.” Liam asked Dillon.

“Sounds like a plan.” Dillon replied. “I’ll pick us up food.”

“Excellent. See ya in a while.” Liam just gave his cousin a dirty look before he got into his car.

“Wow!” Lou chuckled. “You boys are sore losers!” She stood waiting for him to unlock the SUV door so she could get in.

“Not losers.” Dillon opened his door, but not hers. “Just sore.” He got in and started the engine, still not unlocking her door.

“Okay, come on!” Lou slapped the passenger window. “It’s not like I cheated or anything! I could have gotten it wrong too!”

Dillon peered at her a moment then cycled through his music until the speakers started chirping. Lou started drumming on the window to the beat of the music as if that was going to get her in faster. She wasn’t sure what the song was until the chirping stopped and the synthesizers started, and Lou started laughing. He finally opened the door so she could get in and they drove out of Gardena singing at the top of their lungs to A Flock of Seagulls singing their legendary eighties hit “I Ran”. It was very appropriate.

Caroline didn’t mind when Lou had called her and asked if she could
look into any Jane Does that had come in over the past month. The sad thing was there were far too many of them. Peter Carpesh had offered to stay late and help her, so that had made things go a little faster. Fortunately, Deirdre Love had signed a release for the lab that Spank Me productions used for mandatory HIV testing. In California, all pornography studios were required by law to conduct testing on a regular basis. The release allowed Caroline to use the most recent sample the lab had on file for Hunny Trainer as an exemplar. They were running samples for all their Jane Does against that to see if Hunny had been hidden in a freezer all this time. Caroline knew that Lou thought so, but Caroline couldn’t believe that someone could just go missing and be forgotten as if they never existed. She found herself saying a silent prayer that they wouldn’t find a match. But according to Lou, that probably meant that Hunny could be their femme fatal. Caroline wasn’t sure which option would be worse.

While they sat and waited for preliminary results, Carpesh and Caroline played Words with Friends while they discussed the various sources for Scopolamine. Caroline had confirmed to Lou earlier that all three of their male victims had indeed been drugged with Scopolamine but that they were running further test to try and pin down a source. Caroline and Carpesh had a bet on which would come in first, the breakdown on the Scopolamine or a DNA match. Caroline was rooting for the Scopolamine.

“Will you be going to the meeting with our Principate this weekend?” Carpesh asked after playing the word ‘zingiest’ for over a hundred points.

“How can that be a word?” Caroline shouted.

“It is!” Carpesh insisted. “Look it up! As in, the tangerine had the zingiest taste of all the citrus.” He smiled with satisfaction.

“Whatever.” Caroline resigned the game, what with her now being over two hundred points behind. “Yes, I am going. Since I am the senior agent in this office.” She said smugly. Carpesh had been the only Sanguinostri agent in the Coroner’s office until Caroline had been indoctrinated. Given she was a senior medical examiner, that gave her seniority. Peter took out a little notebook and jotted something down. “Are you keeping track of how many games you win against me?” She asked with an indignant tone.

“Purely for my own knowledge.” He smiled at her. “And I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you are the primary now. It was utterly nerve-wracking to be the only one around here to keep track of things! You are a such a welcomed relief.”

It irked Caroline to no end that Carpesh was completely unflappable to her relentless teasing, but he could faint at the sight of his own shadow. There was something wrong with him; she was sure of it. She often thought that he might suffer from a mild case of Asperger’s Syndrome but then if he did, she would feel terrible about giving him a hard time at every opportunity.

“Glad I come in handy for ya.” Caroline snarked but then a ding from her computer indicated an incoming email. She spun around to see it was the one she was waiting for. “The Scopolamine results.”

She informed Carpesh.

He dug into his wallet and pulled out a crisp one-hundred dollar bill then laid it on her desk. “They find an origin?” He asked her.

“Wow. This isn’t pharmaceutical stuff.” She read on further. “This was extracted from Brugmansia sanguinea.”

“Bloody Angel’s Trumpet?” Carpesh asked as he got a chill up his spine.

“It’s just a coincidence, Peter.” Caroline wondered if she was trying to convince him or herself. “There are tons of things in the universe that use the Latin sanguin variation. Take exsanguination for example. I shouldn’t need to be telling you this.”

“I didn’t ask you to.” He pointed out. “I was only going to say that I thought it was extinct in the wild so how could someone be using it?”

“Oh.” She suddenly felt silly. “Sara at the lab said she’s sent the report to her top botanist for evaluation. That will take a little while so let’s not jump to any conclusions.” When she looked over her shoulder, Peter was typing away at his computer. “What are you doing?”

“Well just because something is listed as extinct in the wild, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” He squinted at his screen. “Right.”

“What?” Caroline asked.

“It grows prolifically in Columbia, including nature preserves and botanical gardens.” He confirmed. “You and I both know how much finds it’s way up here from Columbia by illegal means.”

“Yeah but isn’t there a less complicated way of subduing victims?” Caroline found it extremely peculiar. “I mean you can mix up a batch of Rohypnol in a high school chemistry lab. Why go to all that trouble for something like this?”

“That is something better left to the Detectives.” Peter sighed just as his email chimed. “Oh dear.”

“What is it?” Caroline asked.

“We have a match.” He informed her.

“On the DNA?” Caroline jumped from her seat and looked over his shoulder. “Jane Doe 32020120435 is Hunny Trainer.”

“That Jane Doe was my call.” Peter stated then took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I remember her vividly. Copious amounts of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines in her system. There was scarring to her fingertips which suggested crack pipe burns from prolonged use. She was found in a storm drain with a noose around her neck, the other end of the rope tied off at the top rung. By all indications, it was a transient who committed suicide.” Carpesh put his glasses back on and swallowed hard. “There is a well documented homeless camp up the storm drain from that location. Her prints were not in the system nor was there any missing persons report that fit her description.” He sighed heavily. “My job is simply to determine the cause of death, and everything supported that. I am not a detective.”

“Sometimes we need to do a little detecting.” Caroline told him, but in a kind tone, not accusatory. “Where is the file?” Carpesh went to get the file while Caroline texted Lou that her hunch had been right. Hunny trainer had indeed been sitting in the morgue for three weeks.

“The call came in Tuesday morning, March twentieth. I determined that the woman had hung herself thirty to thirty-six hours prior to her discovery.” Peter told her as he handed her the file.

“We had heavy rains around that time too so I would concur with that estimate.” Caroline wanted to see photos of the actual scene. “From your vivid memory, tell me what you remember about the scene?”

“I arrived at the scene and noted the storm drain with the cover pulled off and set aside on the sidewalk.” Peter closed his eyes to recall the scene better. “Because the rope had been secured to the first rung, right underneath the manhole cover, her body obstructed any access from that point of entry. There wasn’t enough room to lower a ladder without possibly disrupting the body or compromising any evidence. We had to come in from the other end of the block, through the drain tunnel.”

“Do you know if the cover was in place when she hung herself?” Caroline asked.

“I would assume so.” Peter thought for a moment. “Someone would have noticed if it hadn’t been, don’t you think? But that would be in the responding officer’s reports for certain. When I arrived, the access tunnel was open with the cover off to the side. I looked down and saw the woman hanging. The responding officers were excellent in my opinion. They knew not to try and make entry from above her, so they cleared the way from the opposite end of the block. I had my waders on since there was a good foot and a half of runoff from the rains in the drain still. There are photos that I took of the body immediately upon my reaching her.”

“There are?” Caroline flipped through the file and found the pictures at the very back. “Perfect.”

She looked them over carefully. The first depicted a full frame of Hunny Trainer hanging from the steel ladder that was bolted to the side of the drain wall. Her feet were dangling with water coming up to just below her knees. This confirmed Carpesh’s estimate of the depth of the water. The water marks on her dress looked like the level had been only a few inches higher at its peak, but there were another several inches of wicking up the skirt. Caroline took a moment to really look at Hunny and realized she wasn’t wearing a dress, but a nightgown. A peasant style nightgown that a little girl might wear. Not exactly the kind of thing a porn star would wear let alone a homeless transient navigating their way through underground tunnels. It instantly bothered her that Carpesh didn’t find that suspicious. Caroline flipped directly to the autopsy photos and zeroed in on the ones that showed the ligature marks from the rope around her neck, back and front. It was a classic bruising mark in the signature ‘V’ shape that occurs on hanging victims. Caroline had examined many bodies where the victim had been strangled first, then staged to look like they hung themselves. There would be an underlying bruise mark that would negate the possibility of suicide by hanging. This was not the case here. After scanning the rest of the autopsy findings, Caroline had to concede that she would have come to the same conclusion as Peter Carpesh. It still reeked of something fishy to her, and she needed to send Peter home so that she could speak freely about all of it when Lou finally called in.

“There were no signs of struggle or anything to indicate that this was something other than suicide.” Carpesh reiterated. “That coupled with her toxicology results, stomach contents, the overall condition of the body, it all added up to homeless drug abuser committing suicide.”

“Stomach contents?” Caroline looked back at the report.

“Yes, she had canned beans and malt liquor that had been consumed about two hours before death.” Peter remembered off the top of his head. “Her hygiene was that of someone who had been on the streets for some time without bathing. Matted hair, head and body lice, significant bacteria and fecal residue.”

“Right!” Caroline interrupted him. “I get the gist.” Caroline put the file back together. “I am going to make a copy of this for my records. You can head out now.”

Peter seemed a little surprised. “Are you sure?” He asked. “I am happy to stay and relay all this to the Principate.”

“If she needs your account, I am sure she’ll be in touch.” Caroline assured him. “I agree with this being a suicide. There are just a few things I want to verify with the officers’ reports for my own edification. That will have to wait until tomorrow anyway.”

“Very well.” Peter got up and gathered his things while Caroline made copies of the file. When she was finished, she handed his original back and he put it away for safe keeping. “Please do not hesitate to call if you require anything of me before the morning.”

“Of course.” Caroline smiled softly.

“Then, goodnight Doctor Devereaux.” He said his farewell and headed for the door.

“Goodnight Doctor Carpesh.” Caroline’s soft smile gave way to worry as soon as Peter left the office. She took a seat at her desk and went over the copies of his report again. She had no real reason to suspect anything was off, except the nightgown, lack of shoes and her own knowledge of who the girl was. Still, Caroline knew there was something to it. She knew for a fact that Lou would think so too.

Niko woke before
dawn after a very odd dream. His special gift was his ability to see things yet to happen by way of his dreams. They were few and far between, but this one had no discernible shape or form to it. It was more the overwhelming feeling that stirred him. The sensation of being engulfed in darkness and the inability to move. When he finally was able to get out of bed, he had no desire to try to fall back asleep. Instead, he geared up and headed out for a run. He had hours before he needed to get ready for his meeting at the ICC, and he was sure the frigid pre-dawn air would clear his head.

The Hague was shrouded in darkness and the clouds that blanketed the city made it feel silent and completely still. Niko hadn’t passed a soul when he exited the hotel. Even the doorman was absent at that hour. The distant song of a night bird and the faint hum of the current in the canal was all that was perceptible as Niko stretched and prepared for his run. It was a rare and peaceful moment in a normally bustling town. After a final twist and bend, he headed south on Smidswater then veered left over the bridge to swing back along the opposite side of the canal onto Nieuwe Uitleg. The old street lamps were still on and gave the path a romantic glow as he rounded the bend and headed towards the Malieveld.

Perhaps it was the excessive food from the night before or the stillness of the clouds that had lulled Niko into a false sense of security, but when he crossed Jan Evertstraat, he never saw the blow coming. He heard the distinctive clang fill his ears and realized he had been struck. As he fell to the ground, his body automatically went into defensive mode with a surge of adrenaline that shot through him, negating any pain he might have felt. When his body finally made contact with the pavement, he rolled left as fast as he could and sprang to his feet in a defensive posture.

Niko didn’t have a fight or flight instinct, only fight. He tried to get a fix on his attacker through his blurred vision. In the darkness, he could only make out one shadow that was moving toward him, so he unleashed on that as his target. He ducked and tucked, launching his fist into what he perceived to be his enemy’s torso and was rewarded with the sound of cracking ribs and a wince. That was all the confirmation he needed as he calculated in a nano-second the revised position of his adversary and wound his body up like a slingshot, hurling his foot into what he hoped was their head. Another crack and a groan, bingo. As things slowed in Niko’s mind, he caught another shadow approaching on his right. He bounced backward several steps and readied himself for the second assailant only to hear the sound of a pop, and then the sting and the immediate jolt of what he knew to be the barbs of a taser. Then came the twelve-hundred volts. He knew his body would be locked up momentarily, and that was going to be extremely inconvenient. After running through his options in the half split second that he had, he tossed his body up and back which sent him falling into the canal. It was his only option to buy himself time until he could pull the barbs out and his fall helped him accomplish that. He regained control of his body just as he hit bottom so he used that to his advantage and swam as hard as he could for the nearest bridge while staying as submerged as possible. In the four seconds it took him to reach the nearest opening in the canal wall, he had come to the determination that whoever was attacking him had no clue who they were dealing with. As he surfaced within the narrow archway, he kept completely still and listened carefully. An assault of this nature on a normal human being would have incapacitated them instantly with the first blow. Mix in the twelve-hundred volts, a couple joules and a nose dive into water, your typical guy would be toast for sure. By the sound of footfalls moving away, Niko knew his attackers assumed he was an average Joe. Fortunately for Niko, he was anything but. He took his time regaining his bearings and adjusting to the dark again though it was getting lighter with each passing moment. He could see the crossing at Maliestraat, so he took several deep breaths before going under again, then pushed himself off and swam as deep below the surface as he could toward his next point of cover. He surfaced quietly under the arch and listened carefully for anyone in pursuit. Two seconds passed, then five. Nothing. Now he needed to figure out how to get back to the hotel under cover as fast as possible. He could see the parking kiosk up the canal and on the right. That was his landmark for the narrow path that would open up just across the street from the hotel. He waited a bit longer, listening carefully. Silence. He knew that once he made his way for the kiosk, he was wide open. He needed to make it out of the canal, through Jagerstraat and into the hotel as fast as he could. Three deep breaths, under the surface he went one last time. If the sound of exploding water when Niko erupted from the canal and lunged over the side didn’t alert his pursuers to his survival, the squish and sloshing sound of his shoes and clothing surely would have. It echoed with an exaggerated sucking sound as he ran through Jagerstraat. He looked only briefly as he sprinted left towards the front of the hotel, but he saw no one. He flung his body into the gilded revolving door and dashed behind the front desk, parking himself on the floor before he took stock of his surroundings. The young woman that was working behind the desk just stared down at him aghast.