Chapter 23: Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Tom shook his head to clear his thoughts. After all of his experience, he was not the type of person to jump at shadows. There were things out there that wanted to kill him, monsters even. Something had killed Jeffrey, but it hit him when he was alone, so surrounded by people Tom was safe.

Unbidden, Tom took a small step toward him. A discordant note, a sense of unease, a premonition, a sense of wrongness gnawed at the edge of his perception. The world was wrong. Unnatural… and it wasn’t how pale Jeffrey was.

“Listen to me.” A loud voice demanded. 

Tom looked at the skinny black teenager, or maybe technically a young adult who was insisting everyone listened to him. 

“No one goes near him. The scene has already been disturbed enough. I get the first responder but this other crap.” The man was pointing at the various other footsteps that had come later.

“I told you the ground was perfectly smooth.” Tom studied the girl, talking. She was young with a body that was mid to high teens, and he suspected that had been her actual age when they had all been shuffled into the trial. Seventeen, eighteen and then ten years at least by herself since then. She was probably worse off than he was. The poor girl.

“Like here.” She continued and pointed at a section of dirt that had not been disturbed. It looked fluffy like recently ploughed earth in perfect soil, but flat. “The entire patch was like that.” 

The outspoken black man spun to look at her. “Why were you out here, anyway?”

The girl looked offended. “Who put you in charge?” 

“No one, but I used to be a cop, and I’ve worked a few crime scenes before.”

Tom’s opinion of the cop immediately went downhill. The body he was looking at was not biologically at peak strength. The cop had made himself younger initially, despite the reduction of capacity that would probably cause. Sure, it was only a rank or so, but every advantage might matter. 

“Oh.” The anger seemed to melt out of her. 

A kid, Tom reminded himself. She was probably conditioned to respect authority and hadn’t the life lessons to correct that attitude. In earth life, she had never been exposed to the corrupt side of the police. Poor girl.

She looked earnestly at the cop her cheeks reddening. “I had to go to do my business, and I wanted to get away from everyone else.”

The cop studied her. “Weren’t you afraid of the wasps?”

She shook her head. “I got a small amount of experience yesterday.” Her hand fumbled at the chain around her neck and after some shifting the heavy scarf away, she pulled out the end of a necklace with an orange crystal pendent. “It’s an insect repellent charm. More than enough to deflect a couple of wasps per second. It’s probably no good during daylight and would definitely be useless if they swarmed.” She shuddered. “Like what happened when the dome went down but at night…” 

“Bob,” a woman with an axe and shield over her shoulder said. “Lots of us got one.” She fished out her version.

The girl who had found the body straightened in response to the unexpected support. “They’re not great. We couldn’t use it to approach a hive whether it is night or day, but in a safe area, when it’s dark.” She shrugged defiantly. “Good enough to keep me alive.”

The cop, Bob, nodded. “And you’re certain all the surrounding dirt was smooth?”

The girl looked worried. Her fingers clutched the magic pendant. “There was only a bit of light, and I saw the shadow ground. It looked like a body and I instinctively created lights. I recognise Jeffery and I sort of saw his face and then my pendant activated, and I realised the light… and I… I shouldn’t have… but.”

“You killed the light?” Michael asked kindly.

“Yes. I think I screamed to get attention and then I remembered first aid… but… I only did a couple of sessions during PE at school and that was.”

“A long time ago.” Michael supplied and Bob the cop glared at the healer who was ‘interfering’ with his witness. Michael, of course ignored him. “Take a few deep breaths and calm down.”

She did as instructed. “I knelt down to help.” She continued after gathering herself. “Find his pulse, but there was nothing there.” Fresh tears were running down her face to overlay the old tear tracks that were already there. “I put my ear right next to his mouth to hear or feel breathing. And there was no air movement no sound. He was…”

The air around Tom was crackling as insects attracted by the noise and light flew in to investigate and immediately targeted him.

The cop did not look perturbed. Instead, while being careful to avoid interfering with the crime scene he circumvented it till he could put a comforting hand on the young girl. To all of them gathered it was a strange scene. Seeing this tall skinny kid behaving in such a mature manner, even the way his face transformed into an empathetic, encouraging look, was weird coming from that body. “Can you tell me what position the body was in?” 

She turned to look. “Well, his arms were more spread out.”

“Is it possible to show me?”

The girl awkwardly demonstrated the apparent posture. She put her arms to her side and then the forearms out at a 45° angle then spread her fingers as far as they could.

“The fingers were definitely outspread?” Bob asked.

Everyone looked at the body. One fist was now closed.

“Yes.”

“It can happen when a body’s disturbed.” Michael told Bob. “It’s rare, but not unknown.” 

Bob nodded. “Legs?” 

She looked. “Umm, like they are now?” She didn’t sound certain.

“Anything else, no matter how? Small?”

“Yes! There was a funny smell. A bit like burnt incense.”

“Now this question might be traumatic, but was the body warm?”

A thoughtful expression went across her face, and then she shook her head. “No. If anything, I would describe it as cold. Maybe colder than the outside temperature.”

“If you think of something else, come see me.”

“I will.”

Bob almost like a politician spun around to make eye contact with the entire crowd. “I’ll make a promise to everyone here. I’m going to find whoever or whatever did this. I swear and I’ll bring them to justice. Jeffrey was one of the best of us. The person or creature that did this is an enemy of humanity and I’m coming for them.”

“Hear, hear.” Tiny, the giant who had come in as number three rumbled. 

There was the sound of crackling around Tom as over thirty of the wasps simultaneously swooped down to attack him. Everyone looked at him in horror.

“We should breakup. The light and noise are attracting the wasps.” Tiny rumbled.

No shit sherlock, Tom thought, but didn’t say anything.

Michael saw his fist clench and threw a wink. “Good point. If you’re unnecessary to Bob’s investigation return to the shelter. We don’t want to heal people unnecessarily.”

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The group broke apart as everyone not directly involved broke away to head to safety. 

“This is a cluster fuck.” The cop muttered under his breath. “No way to interview people separately. Crime scenes compromised.” The cop kicked the ground in annoyance.

Then the cop’s eyes locked on to Tom’s. “Useless. We’ll start with you.”

Inside, Tom bristled. Bob had no right to call him that name. The fucker had been number seventy, chosen a non-optimal body. Wore good quality armour and carried an enchanted bow while being rank nine. He had invested absolutely everything in immediate gratification. 

“My name is Tom.”

Bob looked taken back. “Um, Tom. Where were you?”

“He was…” Michael started.

“It’s ok,” Tom said, interrupted the doctor. “I don’t mind answering the question. I have been breaking hives and planned to continue to dawn, but ran into a complication.”

“What?”

Tom turned and looked at the woman who had spoken. He recognised her as the mage leader.

“The wasps stopped being vulnerable to lightning.”

There were sharp intakes of breath and a couple of mumbled curses. 

“That’s terrible.” the mage leader stuttered. “Does that mean we’re in Tr… Tr… Troub…trouble?” 

Tom shook his head. “No, I have a workaround, but it’ll go slower.” He switched his attention back to Bob. “I can also vouch for Evelyn. Michael, Harry, Sven and Thor. They’ve been with me the whole time. Providing support for the last couple of hours.”

Michael cleared his throat. “Not quite true. Thor had to do a number two and disappeared for about 15 minutes while you were smashing down one of the hives.” Michael shrugged. “Given what the lava and wasps have done to all of our digestive systems, that isn’t at all suspicious. But for your investigation, Bob, it’s important that you have all the information. Thor does not have an airtight alibi.”

“I appreciate that.” Bob said before turning back to Tom. “We don’t know when the murder was yet. It might have been hours ago. How about before then?”

“I’ve been smashing hives for the last twenty-two hours. There’s never been less than a team of five providing support. What else can I say?”

“Do you know who was in your support group?”

Tom shook his head. Just like with Thor it wasn’t possible for him to track who was there the whole time. “I can guess. Everlyn kept me company except for about five hours from an hour before sunset. Michael had a couple of breaks during the day and maybe an hour off around midnight.”

Michael shook his head. “No, I was with you for the entire night.”

“Harry crashed at a similar time to Everlyn and didn’t come back too well later. Sven was doing two hours on and two off.”

Michael started chuckling to himself. “Stop digging yourself into a hole. Apart from Everlyn you’re totally wrong.” He met Bob’s eye. “Interview us separately and you’ll get accurate descriptions. Tom’s been almost a robot for the last eighteen hours, so it shouldn’t be surprising that he wasn’t keeping track of his support team.”

“Fine.” Bob said finally. “I’ve got to narrow down when Jeffery died. Maybe when he left the tent.” The cop tapped his feet thoughtfully. “I think the best thing we can do is push every through the interrogations. Do it one by one and build up a timeline. I think we insist everyone stay in the shelter and then summon them out here to interview individually. Use… I mean Tom obviously stays with me to provide insect protection.”

“This is too important to not take lightly. Tom’s dead on his feet. Don’t worry.” Michael said hurriedly at Bob’s worried look. “The system keeps enmity mojo going while sleeping. After all, if you hate someone more than life what better time is there to kill them than when they are asleep?” Michael laughed weakly. “What I’m more concerned about,” he continued with intense seriousness. “Is restricting information appropriately. We need as many people as possible over the details. If it’s just you the killer might target you and then we’ll be back at square one.”

“He won’t get me.” Bob promised. “I’m one of the strongest here.”

Tom even exhausted was impressed by the neutral face that Michael managed to keep.

“But I understand the point you’re making. We also don’t want the working group to large because we’ll step on each other’s toes and it’ll also give too many opportunities for the killer to get in.”

“Killer?” Tom asked confused.

“The assumption is that it’s a human.”

“That doesn’t make any senses.” Tom protested. He shut up when Michael’s hand landed on his shoulder.

“If it’s a monster, we’ll find out, but for planning we assume the worse.” Michael told him quietly.

“But we’re all on the same side.”

Bob shook his head. “You’re too trusting Tom. As I said we want a small group to prevent infiltration. Why don’t we put a team of five together? My only proviso is that I do the first round of interviews without interruptions. After that, you guys can ask anything you think’s relevant.”

“That’s fine.” Tom said yawning. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the energy to push further. “But I have to crash soon.” 

“Go for it,” Bob interrupted. “Tom’s not one of the five.”

“We should get someone who can cancel sound to sit in. That way, we can position closer to the main tent and then Tom can protect us and them.”

“Good idea,” Bob replied, agreeing with Michael. “Can you organise that and I’ll…” Bob’s strong hands were supporting his elbow sufficiently that he didn’t fall over. “I’ll organise a place for Tom to sleep.”

Tom was not sure whether or not Michael had responded to the name. Everything was too disorientated. His entire world was swaying. He knew that his body was crashing now that the crisis was over with. There was activity around him. Bob guided his steps. Everlyn was there briefly, placing down a sleeping mat and pillow for him. 

Sven sat next to him and forced him to eat more fried larvae and while all that happened, he listened to the snatches of conversation. It was hard to hear because of the sound distortions, but fragments slipped through.

‘There was the clear patch of dirt.’

‘That’s not normal rigor mortis.’

‘There was a smell at the start, but it’s gone now. It was burnt fragrant smoke.’

‘The guards on watch were knocked out. We don’t know how.’

As he was drifting off, Everlyn returned and a sun cloth was set up over his face. He waved it away. A bit of sun would be nice and it was not like he needed to worry about either cancer or sun burn. 

Sleep claimed him.

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