Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Loves Company ❯ Of Mornings and Malice ( Chapter 8 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Kita and Subu-chan 
It started out as a good morning...
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Police / Mystery | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.23.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 423 | Status: Work In Progress
It started out as a good morning...
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Police / Mystery | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.23.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.9K | Visits: 423 | Status: Work In Progress
Chapter Eight- Of Mornings and Malice
Warnings- Language and innuendo. More gore. Sorry. And to borrow a line from our good friend Hana-chan, ‘the general perversion that is Dee.’
A/N- Sorry for the delay on this chapter. Akita had a bad reaction to the medicine her doctor proscribed for her ulcers. (Yes, she has recently developed ulcers.) Combine that with the bug she was already coming down with and you have her in the hospital for the better part of three days. She was just released the day before yesterday. Needless to say, I haven’t had a lot of time to write, what with running back and forth between the hospital and work and everything else. She’s home now, but on strict bed rest for the next few days. (Hi everyone! I’m very sorry. I promise to help Subu hurry and get the next chapter out as quickly as possible. I’m kind of heavily medicated right now, so anything that slipped through the Beta, you can blame on the eight different bottles of crap now sitting on the dresser. I’m still seeing funny colors when I look at the screen for too long.)
Thanks for the reviews and feedback from all our faithful readers who waited patiently (and not so patiently…Catti…*giggles*) for this chapter. We love you all and thank you for taking the time out of your own assuredly just as busy schedules to read and enjoy our work. Arigato.
They crossed paths at the precinct the next day, as Drake was coming on shift and JJ, looking sleepy-eyed and rumpled, was leaving. JJ caught him by the shirtfront and tugged him into their shared office for a good-morning kiss, a surprise that worked better than espresso as a wake-up call. Drake barely had the presence of mind to kick the door closed so the entire precinct didn’t find out about his switching teams.
When JJ pulled back, it took Drake a full minute to kick his brain into gear. “Uh, wow… That was some hello.”
JJ chuckled and stifled a yawn. “I wanted to make sure you remember we’re supposed to meet for dinner after you get off tonight.”
Drake thumped JJ’s pert nose with a laugh. “Course not. Six-thirty at Mona’s. Same place we eat every other payday.”
JJ giggled tiredly and cuddled against him, for a moment the same off-the wall goofball he’d been when he’d first come to the precinct years ago. Drake sighed. Whatever control JJ had over his hyper side dissolved when he was sleepy. Thought became fact as JJ bounced over to his desk like a four-year-old on a sugar high. He scooped up a neat stack of papers and deposited them in Drake’s arms. “You have to take the statements for the Granger case and Jim said he would be here at noon with the lab results on the last victim and an analysis of the bone found in Miss Merrick’s hand. I copied my notes on the rune patterns for you and the book is in the left-hand bottom drawer of my desk if you need it for reference. Oh, and Ted wanted me to let you know not to forget your promise. What promise?”
Drake sighed. “Breathe, please, JJ. Breathe. I promised Ted I would work a shift for him so he could have that date with Janet.”
“Ooh, she finally agreed to go out with him? Guess I lose the betting pool. I thought she’d keep putting him off for at least another couple of months.”
“The pool’s on hold. Everyone agreed to put it off because she needed a date for her cousin’s wedding. She was desperate. She even asked Ryo and she knows he and Dee are an item. She wouldn’t have asked Ted if Marty hadn’t let it slip that Ted broke up with Melissa again and therefore would be free that Friday to attend.”
JJ giggled again. “Oh, good. That means I still have a chance at winning.”
Drake snorted. “Yeah, yeah. Go home and get some sleep. Don’t forget to set your alarm or you’ll never wake up in time for dinner.”
JJ stuck his tongue out. “I’m not the one who’s chronically late for work, am I? I always remember to set my alarm clock.” JJ frowned and looked contemplatively at his partner. “Hey! I get why she didn’t ask me, cause I’ve made my preferences clear, but why didn’t she ask you?”
“She did. I turned her down.”
JJ’s blue eyes went wide. “Ooh… Really?”
“Yes, really. Why do you…?” That was as far as he got before he was enthusiastically glomped by JJ. Drake reeled back, blushing, as JJ kissed him. “What the…? JJ!”
“Did I ever tell you what a wonderful person you are?”
“Uhm… not especially.”
“Well you are! You’re sweet and wonderful and sexy and handsome and nice and … and…”
“Enough…!” Drake raised his hands in surrender, laughing at JJ’s sincere if somewhat confused spiel. “You! Go home and get some sleep. I’m not putting up with you at dinner if you’re still acting like this.”
JJ mock-pouted but relented after a long moment. “Meanie. I’ll see you at dinner.” He stole another swift kiss before heading out the door.
Drake settled down to look at the paperwork JJ had handed him. Concentrating, he never heard the door open until Dee cheerfully bellowed, “Morning, Drake!”
“Does your volume control have a down button?” Drake asked as he accepted the cup of coffee the other man offered him.
“Nope. But Ryo knows how to find the up button well enough.” Dee chuckled as he draped himself bonelessly over one of the hard plastic chairs.
Drake scowled into his (black - yuck) coffee and set it aside. “TMI, man. T - M - I!”
Dee just chuckled ruthlessly and smirked at him. “But it looks like things are going better in your little corner of things. Or did you get attacked by an oversized mosquito on your way to work?”
Drake glanced down and saw that his collar had skewed to one side - probably when JJ had pounced on him - and the hickey JJ had left on his throat was clearly visible. Flushing, he straightened out his collar. “None of your business.”
Dee raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, hey! We’re all good here. This is me, remember? If you’re shagging your partner, it’s not like I’m going to say anything about it. That’s your business. How are things going, by the way?”
Drake scowled at Dee, knowing that he was still red. “With the case or the love life you have no business knowing anything about?”
Dee laughed merrily. “Nice comeback, Drake, my man! Honestly, though, everything’s okay?”
Dee’s green eyes were full of very real concern and Drake’s ire vanished like it had never been. In spite of the anger and jealously he had felt, Dee was still one of his oldest friends. “Yeah…yeah, I think so. It’s just weird, y’know?”
Dee chuckled. “That it is. The weirdness factor being doubled by the fact that it’s JJ you’re boinking, but hey…” He leaned forward. “I’m asking if you’re okay. Trust me, I know the whole suddenly being attracted to someone of the same gender can throw you for a loop. It did me, once upon a long time ago. And Ryo… well, you know how long it took Ryo to come to terms with it.”
Drake nodded solemnly. Sometimes it seemed like the whole damned department had known about Ryo and Dee’s ups and downs. But maybe that was just him. He’d been able to track the process of their relationship by JJ’s mood. Happy and hyper equaled trouble between Dee and his partner; moody and sulky meant that Ryo and Dee were getting along a little too well for JJ’s tastes. And of course, not to forget, JJ crying into Drake’s shirt whenever Dee rejected him.
Drake sighed. “I’m still adjusting. It’s hard.”
Dee snorted. “JJ can make it harder, no?” His gaze pointedly dropped to a location below Drake’s belt and Drake scowled even as he turned another shade of red. He’d never blushed so much in his entire damned life.
“Dammit, Dee!”
“Sorry.” Dee grinned at him unrepentantly. “I can’t help it. But I’m glad you’re okay - y’know - with everything. If you need anything, advice or something, just ask… Ryo, that is.”
Drake unbent enough to chuckle. “Yeah, yeah. Speaking of which, why don’t you go annoy him so I can get some real work done?”
Dee scowled at him good-naturedly and left, probably to do just that. Drake sorted through the stack of papers and glanced at his watch. Uh-oh, time to go get those statements if I plan on being done when Jim gets here with the lab results.
*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -*
Drake pushed away the last of his suddenly far-less-appealing sandwich as he blinked at Jim. “Repeat that last part for me?”
Jim Campbell stared down into the depths of his coffee mug, looking far more haggard than Drake had ever seen him before. “I think you heard me the first time, Parker.”
“I’m wishing I didn’t.” Drake muttered, feeling the beginnings of the same nausea he’d felt that fateful night. “I’m hoping it was just an auditory hallucination.”
“Wish it were.” Jim swirled the black liquid in his cup and then set it down with a thump. “Ms. Rodenburg was approximately five months pregnant when she was killed. In addition to her right index finger being severed, her uterus was cut open and the fetus removed. Neither finger nor fetus have been found at the crime scene.”
Drake swallowed thickly. “I hate to say it, but that’s probably because our perp took them with. I have no idea what he wants w-with an unborn child, but safe to say, he noticed that one of his runes was missing and wanted a replacement.”
Jim glared at the plastic evidence bag, the white bone inside a silent, mocking accusation that they hadn’t managed to find the killer yet. Drake felt the same way. “What did you get from the bone?”
“It predates the murders that fit the pattern by at least six months. I ran a search on all unsolved murders in that time frame and found one in Albany that comes disturbingly close to the pattern. A Jane Doe, between fifteen and twenty years of age was fished out of a storm drain when residents started complaining about the smell. She had been dead about two weeks and had died from what they thought was a brutal stab wound to the abdomen.”
“Another disembowelment.” Drake interrupted grimly.
“That’s my thought, though by that time she’d been in the water for nearly two weeks and a lot of forensic evidence was lost. But all her fingers were missing. Does that fit?”
“Unfortunately, all too well.” Drake scowled down at the bone. “Please tell me you got something from that thing.”
“Not as much as we hoped. Most everything was contaminated by the victim’s blood. We did, however, manage to get a partial fingerprint off of the end of the joint that does not match Miss Merrick’s. But as little as we got, the damned thing could match half the print records in New York.”
Drake sighed. “Damn. I was really hoping for a break in this case. This sonuvabitch has killed at least nine girls that we know of and probably a few others that we don’t.”
Jim sighed, his happy-go-lucky attitude buried under the weight of exhaustion and the same despair Drake felt every time he heard another body had been found. “To tell you the truth, I was more than hoping for a break in the case myself. This is one of the messiest and most high-profile murder case that either of our stations have had in a while.”
Drake scowled. “Tell me about it. The badger bent my ear this morning when I got back from taking some statements for another case. The press got wind of the kidnapping and linked it to the few murders that we didn’t manage to keep under wraps. It’ll turn into a media circus if we’re not careful.”
Jim took another swallow of his lukewarm coffee. “How’s Marty? I heard that one of the missing girls is his.”
Drake sighed. “Yeah. His second daughter, Stephanie, was one of the girls our nutjob took. Marty is really taking it hard. Chief pulled him off the case, and frankly, off work altogether, at least until something happens. Franklin and Mertz are assigned to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn’t do something drastic, y’know?”
“And Richmond?”
“Raising all sorts of hell. He wants out of protective custody in the worst way, especially now that his girl’s gone missing. Dee and Ryo are getting real sick of babysitting duty. So are the other four guys that they split shifts with. Richmond has been giving them all hell. They had to forcibly take a cell phone that his son had managed to sneak in away from him.” Drake shoved his fingers through his messy hair. “Things are not going any better on that end than they are on ours.”
*---------------------------------------------------- -------*
Drake sighed as he finally headed for the restaurant where he had promised to meet JJ. After Jim had left, he’d again gone through the files on all the murdered girls, trying to find a single link beyond their ages. Nothing. The most recent, Antoinette Rodenburg, had run away from home six months ago with a young man her parents had hated. Her Lothario had not killed her, not unless he came back from the grave to do so. He’d died in a drive-by shooting less than a month ago.
He was still mulling things over when the radio on the dash crackled for attention. “All units in the vicinity of Government, we have a report of screams from one of the condemned buildings. Any unit nearby, please respond.” Dispatch continued with the address.
Drake sighed. Just his luck. He was less than a block from the address of the disturbance. He mentally begged JJ’s forgiveness and responded to the dispatcher.
“Copy, Two-One-Seven. I’ve got another unit headed your way too. ETA, ten minutes.”
“Copy that, Dispatch.”
Drake parked illegally next to a fire hydrant in front of the building and checked the safety on his gun before he got out of the car. The street was relatively quiet, most of this area slated for demolition and renovation. The building in question was a former office building, sunlight gleaming off the windows that hadn’t already been busted out. There was no sign that anyone but squatters had been here recently. But that didn’t lessen the danger.
Drake was on edge as he crossed the clear space between the chain-link fence and the building, feeling like he was being watched. He should wait for backup, but he had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. When he reached the long-ago broken door, the smell that hit him made him swallow hard. He would never forget this smell again so long as he lived. Fresh blood and the taint of ruptured bowels… Gripping his gun tightly, he shouted into the darkness of the building. “NYPD!”
A faint sound answered him. It sounded like the soft mew of a frightened cat. Drake flicked his flashlight around the cavernous lobby, the beam flickering off long-since broken statuary and shattered slabs of marble. It reflected wetly off a pool of scarlet and the two still figures sprawled there.
Drake felt his heart stop as he recognized, where it wasn’t covered in crimson gore, the nut-brown skin on the nearest figure.
“Oh, god. Stephanie…”
Warnings- Language and innuendo. More gore. Sorry. And to borrow a line from our good friend Hana-chan, ‘the general perversion that is Dee.’
A/N- Sorry for the delay on this chapter. Akita had a bad reaction to the medicine her doctor proscribed for her ulcers. (Yes, she has recently developed ulcers.) Combine that with the bug she was already coming down with and you have her in the hospital for the better part of three days. She was just released the day before yesterday. Needless to say, I haven’t had a lot of time to write, what with running back and forth between the hospital and work and everything else. She’s home now, but on strict bed rest for the next few days. (Hi everyone! I’m very sorry. I promise to help Subu hurry and get the next chapter out as quickly as possible. I’m kind of heavily medicated right now, so anything that slipped through the Beta, you can blame on the eight different bottles of crap now sitting on the dresser. I’m still seeing funny colors when I look at the screen for too long.)
Thanks for the reviews and feedback from all our faithful readers who waited patiently (and not so patiently…Catti…*giggles*) for this chapter. We love you all and thank you for taking the time out of your own assuredly just as busy schedules to read and enjoy our work. Arigato.
They crossed paths at the precinct the next day, as Drake was coming on shift and JJ, looking sleepy-eyed and rumpled, was leaving. JJ caught him by the shirtfront and tugged him into their shared office for a good-morning kiss, a surprise that worked better than espresso as a wake-up call. Drake barely had the presence of mind to kick the door closed so the entire precinct didn’t find out about his switching teams.
When JJ pulled back, it took Drake a full minute to kick his brain into gear. “Uh, wow… That was some hello.”
JJ chuckled and stifled a yawn. “I wanted to make sure you remember we’re supposed to meet for dinner after you get off tonight.”
Drake thumped JJ’s pert nose with a laugh. “Course not. Six-thirty at Mona’s. Same place we eat every other payday.”
JJ giggled tiredly and cuddled against him, for a moment the same off-the wall goofball he’d been when he’d first come to the precinct years ago. Drake sighed. Whatever control JJ had over his hyper side dissolved when he was sleepy. Thought became fact as JJ bounced over to his desk like a four-year-old on a sugar high. He scooped up a neat stack of papers and deposited them in Drake’s arms. “You have to take the statements for the Granger case and Jim said he would be here at noon with the lab results on the last victim and an analysis of the bone found in Miss Merrick’s hand. I copied my notes on the rune patterns for you and the book is in the left-hand bottom drawer of my desk if you need it for reference. Oh, and Ted wanted me to let you know not to forget your promise. What promise?”
Drake sighed. “Breathe, please, JJ. Breathe. I promised Ted I would work a shift for him so he could have that date with Janet.”
“Ooh, she finally agreed to go out with him? Guess I lose the betting pool. I thought she’d keep putting him off for at least another couple of months.”
“The pool’s on hold. Everyone agreed to put it off because she needed a date for her cousin’s wedding. She was desperate. She even asked Ryo and she knows he and Dee are an item. She wouldn’t have asked Ted if Marty hadn’t let it slip that Ted broke up with Melissa again and therefore would be free that Friday to attend.”
JJ giggled again. “Oh, good. That means I still have a chance at winning.”
Drake snorted. “Yeah, yeah. Go home and get some sleep. Don’t forget to set your alarm or you’ll never wake up in time for dinner.”
JJ stuck his tongue out. “I’m not the one who’s chronically late for work, am I? I always remember to set my alarm clock.” JJ frowned and looked contemplatively at his partner. “Hey! I get why she didn’t ask me, cause I’ve made my preferences clear, but why didn’t she ask you?”
“She did. I turned her down.”
JJ’s blue eyes went wide. “Ooh… Really?”
“Yes, really. Why do you…?” That was as far as he got before he was enthusiastically glomped by JJ. Drake reeled back, blushing, as JJ kissed him. “What the…? JJ!”
“Did I ever tell you what a wonderful person you are?”
“Uhm… not especially.”
“Well you are! You’re sweet and wonderful and sexy and handsome and nice and … and…”
“Enough…!” Drake raised his hands in surrender, laughing at JJ’s sincere if somewhat confused spiel. “You! Go home and get some sleep. I’m not putting up with you at dinner if you’re still acting like this.”
JJ mock-pouted but relented after a long moment. “Meanie. I’ll see you at dinner.” He stole another swift kiss before heading out the door.
Drake settled down to look at the paperwork JJ had handed him. Concentrating, he never heard the door open until Dee cheerfully bellowed, “Morning, Drake!”
“Does your volume control have a down button?” Drake asked as he accepted the cup of coffee the other man offered him.
“Nope. But Ryo knows how to find the up button well enough.” Dee chuckled as he draped himself bonelessly over one of the hard plastic chairs.
Drake scowled into his (black - yuck) coffee and set it aside. “TMI, man. T - M - I!”
Dee just chuckled ruthlessly and smirked at him. “But it looks like things are going better in your little corner of things. Or did you get attacked by an oversized mosquito on your way to work?”
Drake glanced down and saw that his collar had skewed to one side - probably when JJ had pounced on him - and the hickey JJ had left on his throat was clearly visible. Flushing, he straightened out his collar. “None of your business.”
Dee raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, hey! We’re all good here. This is me, remember? If you’re shagging your partner, it’s not like I’m going to say anything about it. That’s your business. How are things going, by the way?”
Drake scowled at Dee, knowing that he was still red. “With the case or the love life you have no business knowing anything about?”
Dee laughed merrily. “Nice comeback, Drake, my man! Honestly, though, everything’s okay?”
Dee’s green eyes were full of very real concern and Drake’s ire vanished like it had never been. In spite of the anger and jealously he had felt, Dee was still one of his oldest friends. “Yeah…yeah, I think so. It’s just weird, y’know?”
Dee chuckled. “That it is. The weirdness factor being doubled by the fact that it’s JJ you’re boinking, but hey…” He leaned forward. “I’m asking if you’re okay. Trust me, I know the whole suddenly being attracted to someone of the same gender can throw you for a loop. It did me, once upon a long time ago. And Ryo… well, you know how long it took Ryo to come to terms with it.”
Drake nodded solemnly. Sometimes it seemed like the whole damned department had known about Ryo and Dee’s ups and downs. But maybe that was just him. He’d been able to track the process of their relationship by JJ’s mood. Happy and hyper equaled trouble between Dee and his partner; moody and sulky meant that Ryo and Dee were getting along a little too well for JJ’s tastes. And of course, not to forget, JJ crying into Drake’s shirt whenever Dee rejected him.
Drake sighed. “I’m still adjusting. It’s hard.”
Dee snorted. “JJ can make it harder, no?” His gaze pointedly dropped to a location below Drake’s belt and Drake scowled even as he turned another shade of red. He’d never blushed so much in his entire damned life.
“Dammit, Dee!”
“Sorry.” Dee grinned at him unrepentantly. “I can’t help it. But I’m glad you’re okay - y’know - with everything. If you need anything, advice or something, just ask… Ryo, that is.”
Drake unbent enough to chuckle. “Yeah, yeah. Speaking of which, why don’t you go annoy him so I can get some real work done?”
Dee scowled at him good-naturedly and left, probably to do just that. Drake sorted through the stack of papers and glanced at his watch. Uh-oh, time to go get those statements if I plan on being done when Jim gets here with the lab results.
*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -*
Drake pushed away the last of his suddenly far-less-appealing sandwich as he blinked at Jim. “Repeat that last part for me?”
Jim Campbell stared down into the depths of his coffee mug, looking far more haggard than Drake had ever seen him before. “I think you heard me the first time, Parker.”
“I’m wishing I didn’t.” Drake muttered, feeling the beginnings of the same nausea he’d felt that fateful night. “I’m hoping it was just an auditory hallucination.”
“Wish it were.” Jim swirled the black liquid in his cup and then set it down with a thump. “Ms. Rodenburg was approximately five months pregnant when she was killed. In addition to her right index finger being severed, her uterus was cut open and the fetus removed. Neither finger nor fetus have been found at the crime scene.”
Drake swallowed thickly. “I hate to say it, but that’s probably because our perp took them with. I have no idea what he wants w-with an unborn child, but safe to say, he noticed that one of his runes was missing and wanted a replacement.”
Jim glared at the plastic evidence bag, the white bone inside a silent, mocking accusation that they hadn’t managed to find the killer yet. Drake felt the same way. “What did you get from the bone?”
“It predates the murders that fit the pattern by at least six months. I ran a search on all unsolved murders in that time frame and found one in Albany that comes disturbingly close to the pattern. A Jane Doe, between fifteen and twenty years of age was fished out of a storm drain when residents started complaining about the smell. She had been dead about two weeks and had died from what they thought was a brutal stab wound to the abdomen.”
“Another disembowelment.” Drake interrupted grimly.
“That’s my thought, though by that time she’d been in the water for nearly two weeks and a lot of forensic evidence was lost. But all her fingers were missing. Does that fit?”
“Unfortunately, all too well.” Drake scowled down at the bone. “Please tell me you got something from that thing.”
“Not as much as we hoped. Most everything was contaminated by the victim’s blood. We did, however, manage to get a partial fingerprint off of the end of the joint that does not match Miss Merrick’s. But as little as we got, the damned thing could match half the print records in New York.”
Drake sighed. “Damn. I was really hoping for a break in this case. This sonuvabitch has killed at least nine girls that we know of and probably a few others that we don’t.”
Jim sighed, his happy-go-lucky attitude buried under the weight of exhaustion and the same despair Drake felt every time he heard another body had been found. “To tell you the truth, I was more than hoping for a break in the case myself. This is one of the messiest and most high-profile murder case that either of our stations have had in a while.”
Drake scowled. “Tell me about it. The badger bent my ear this morning when I got back from taking some statements for another case. The press got wind of the kidnapping and linked it to the few murders that we didn’t manage to keep under wraps. It’ll turn into a media circus if we’re not careful.”
Jim took another swallow of his lukewarm coffee. “How’s Marty? I heard that one of the missing girls is his.”
Drake sighed. “Yeah. His second daughter, Stephanie, was one of the girls our nutjob took. Marty is really taking it hard. Chief pulled him off the case, and frankly, off work altogether, at least until something happens. Franklin and Mertz are assigned to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn’t do something drastic, y’know?”
“And Richmond?”
“Raising all sorts of hell. He wants out of protective custody in the worst way, especially now that his girl’s gone missing. Dee and Ryo are getting real sick of babysitting duty. So are the other four guys that they split shifts with. Richmond has been giving them all hell. They had to forcibly take a cell phone that his son had managed to sneak in away from him.” Drake shoved his fingers through his messy hair. “Things are not going any better on that end than they are on ours.”
*---------------------------------------------------- -------*
Drake sighed as he finally headed for the restaurant where he had promised to meet JJ. After Jim had left, he’d again gone through the files on all the murdered girls, trying to find a single link beyond their ages. Nothing. The most recent, Antoinette Rodenburg, had run away from home six months ago with a young man her parents had hated. Her Lothario had not killed her, not unless he came back from the grave to do so. He’d died in a drive-by shooting less than a month ago.
He was still mulling things over when the radio on the dash crackled for attention. “All units in the vicinity of Government, we have a report of screams from one of the condemned buildings. Any unit nearby, please respond.” Dispatch continued with the address.
Drake sighed. Just his luck. He was less than a block from the address of the disturbance. He mentally begged JJ’s forgiveness and responded to the dispatcher.
“Copy, Two-One-Seven. I’ve got another unit headed your way too. ETA, ten minutes.”
“Copy that, Dispatch.”
Drake parked illegally next to a fire hydrant in front of the building and checked the safety on his gun before he got out of the car. The street was relatively quiet, most of this area slated for demolition and renovation. The building in question was a former office building, sunlight gleaming off the windows that hadn’t already been busted out. There was no sign that anyone but squatters had been here recently. But that didn’t lessen the danger.
Drake was on edge as he crossed the clear space between the chain-link fence and the building, feeling like he was being watched. He should wait for backup, but he had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. When he reached the long-ago broken door, the smell that hit him made him swallow hard. He would never forget this smell again so long as he lived. Fresh blood and the taint of ruptured bowels… Gripping his gun tightly, he shouted into the darkness of the building. “NYPD!”
A faint sound answered him. It sounded like the soft mew of a frightened cat. Drake flicked his flashlight around the cavernous lobby, the beam flickering off long-since broken statuary and shattered slabs of marble. It reflected wetly off a pool of scarlet and the two still figures sprawled there.
Drake felt his heart stop as he recognized, where it wasn’t covered in crimson gore, the nut-brown skin on the nearest figure.
“Oh, god. Stephanie…”