At the Behest of the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

a hint of it. Quite natural really.”
    She looked up at me again but her face was stone.
    “ I don’t help the cops. I used too.”
    “Why not? We’re not bad guys.”
    “Let’s just say I had a run in a few years ago and the case didn’t turn out like I expected.”
    “They said you might be bitter. Did you kno w they eventually ran Peters in on different charges? The guys in the slam knew, though. He was stabbed to death a month after he went into the pen.”
    “Couldn’ t have happened to a better guy.” I stared into space as I remembered the image of his small and broken victims. The oldest had been nine. The youngest--let’s just say I put that out of my memory, and I have seen some wild shit during my very long life.
    “It was before my time on the force.”
    “Tell me what you know. At the very least I may be able to send you in the right direction.” Now that my plans for sleeping all day were ruined, I supposed I could make the best of it. With the lack of leads from the job last night, it was probably in my best interest to earn a few bucks if I could.
    I had to admit that she had my interest. Not many agencies would even admit we exist. Warlocks and witches were a novelty. A Wednesday night news article to be discarded along with the police blotter. Since we went live back in ’93, it is safe to say that we are tolerated at best. The fact that we openly touch the other side and do crazy stuff like zip around on pitchforks is lost on all those nimrods. We don’t fall into their neat little definition of what is the norm.
    Of course , they set this little forgetfulness aside when it comes to taxes.
    “It started a week ago when we found the first body. This is pretty gruesome stuff – uh, are you okay around blood and stuff?”
    “I think I can handle it.” And I thought I could. Then she pulled a brown envelope from an inner pocket and dumped a small stack of photos into her hand. Next she laid seven or eight pictures out on the counter.
    The victims had died in pain and horror. They were not so much ripped open as shredded. One victim was a man around t wenty-five. A big guy that looked liked he could have worked construction. One of his arms was missing and great gashes ran the length of his torso where his guts had been pulled out. Someone had tried to be polite and push the things back in. But ropy masses, like snakes crawling through blood, protruded from his stomach. His throat was missing and I suspected that was only to shut him up when his screams drove the attacker crazy.
    The detective was right. These weren’t knife wounds.
    The next victim was a woman in her sixties. Judging by the wounds on her back, someone or something had flipped her over and torn out her spine. There was a pool of blood around her form. The attacker had pulled her head back and slammed it into the ground. The attacker was very powerful judging by the protruding brain matter. I didn’t think someone dropped from a building would show that much damage.
    The last photo was of a pair of kids , and if they were teens I’d be surprised. A boy and a girl who were probably lovely except their faces were missing. I had seen enough.
    “This wasn’t done by a person.”
    “We know. It’s like a bear or a cougar attacked them.” She paused and took another sip, hand shaking as she set the glass down on the countertop. I couldn’t tell if it was from her addiction or from the pictures. Surely a hardened detective was used to stuff like this. Then again I never got used to it and I worked with the dead.
    “That’s not a bear attack. I wish Doc w asn’t working at the necropolis. I bet he’d know right off.”
    “Sorry? A doctor?”
    “Doc. He’s an old necromancer that works near the cusp. He’s just about the oldest warlock I know. Older even than my teacher Salazar. He’s been studying dead stuff longer than some civilizations have been around.”
    “Think we could get him?”
    “You have a better