Eldritch Exorcist 179. The expert

Filip and Rey slowly ca closer, as if approaching a wild beast rather than a cri scene. Filip bent down to see the victim's face, but the sight made him frown. He had checked the company’s board of directors, but he didn’t recognize this man. Looking to the side, he gave Jim a questioning look.

“It’s worse inside. This is just Vaugler’s lawyer.”

“How much worse can it be?” Filip asked before turning to Rey.

He was about to ask the man his opinion, but stopped. While Filip was mainly focused on the body, Rey was looking at the many runes drawn in blood on the floor around it.

“What do you think?” he asked Rey.

“I don’t know. But… I think we might be in over our heads on this one.”

Filip nodded lightly before turning to the other two still in the corridor. Josh was trying to take a peek inside while Lan stood farther away, her back still turned to them.

“I’ll do the inspection first and call for you once we’re finished. No need for you to look at this,” he said, and the two nodded, clearly relieved.

“You want to stay?” he asked Rey.

“Yeah.”

Filip set his phone to record as he began his work.

“The first victim is Henry Lisman. Age fifty-four, white male, about five ten, skinny. He’s wearing dark blue suit pants and patent-leather shoes. His upper clothing seems to have been stripped, leaving his torso naked. His body was clearly positioned in front of the doors to Vaugler’s main office. He was left kneeling in a praying position, his hands most likely glued together. The skin on his back appears to have been…” Filip looked at the scene in front of him, looking for the word to describe what he was seeing. “The killer lifted two large swaths of skin from his back and nailed them to the door, creating sothing like wings behind the man. The left wing is still nailed, while the right has been released so that the door can be opened. The mutilation was inflicted postmortem and is not what killed him. An incision was made in his chest right under the ribs, removing the man’s heart. Many markings have been cut into the body, while around it, many similar shapes have been drawn in blood at random—” Filip continued, moving around the body, but Rey cut in.

“Not at random.”

“Sorry?” Filip asked, taken out of his flow.

“They aren’t random. All the bigger ones are evenly spaced. I think they follow so pattern.”

Filip took another look at the body, then nodded.

“There seems to be so sort of pattern, as my colleague suggested, yet not one obvious to the naked eye. The UNSUB drew all of them by hand, but if it’s the man we think it is, I doubt there is any hope for prints or DNA. And finally, a single puncture wound is visible at the back of the head, which is also most likely what killed him.”

He paused and saved the recording, finally wincing lightly at the sight. Yet that wince slowly morphed into a frown as he turned toward Jim.

“What ti did he die?” he asked.

“Around midnight. Both he and Vaugler.”

“What were they doing in the office that late? Was there a eting?”

“Yeah.” Jim sighed before explaining. “Look. You didn’t hear it from , but… there were so rumors about the CEO’s late-night…” He paused, looking for the correct word. “Sessions. Apparently, his lawyer is—was connected, and would use said connections to provide entertainnt.”

“So wait. You have a witness?” Rey exclaid, but Filip didn’t look happy about the revelation at all, a knowing look on his face.

“Yes, we most likely do.”

“You aren’t looking for her? We can spin a prostitute into so secretary or whatever. We can get around the Penal Law.”

“Penal Law, maybe. Child labor laws, not so much.”

“Oh fuck.” Rey winced at the realization. “Vaugler doesn’t want you to find the witness,” he finished, earning a nod from Jim.

“Yep. Good old ‘investigate the cri, but not too deeply.’”

“Or we’ll call the governor, your work, your wife, and your dog. Fuck . I’m not sure I want to take that one off your hands, Jim,” Filip said.

“You promised.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Filip confird.

Then they both went into the office behind the door ‘protected’ by the lawyer. It was sothing between a eting room and an office. There was a small bar to the side with expensive bottles of alcohol on display and a few crystal glasses. In front of them stood a long table with comfortable-looking chairs on either side and one larger chair at the end. The place had large windows all around, most likely offering a beautiful view of the city, but now they were covered with curtains.

And on that long table sat the victim.

“Ufff,” Filip groaned, seeing the body. “I guess we know who the main target was, huh?”

“Yeah,” he heard Rey say from behind him.

Taking a deep breath, Filip once again began recording his observations.

“The second body is Mr. Vaugler. A white man, thirty-six, around six feet tall. He’s completely naked and, much like the previous victim, his body is clearly staged. He appears to have been castrated by a sharp tool. His eyes were gouged out and…” Filip took a deep breath before continuing. “And replaced by his own testicles. The rest of his body is covered in markings cut into the skin, mainly over the arms and torso. A circular incision has been made around the upper part of the head. The section of skull created through the cut has been lifted, and the brain has been removed.”

Filip then took a step to the side where a bloodied trash can stood. He bent over, taking a look inside it.

“Both the brain and the eyes have been discarded in the trash. Aside from the wounds, there are even more markings drawn in blood. The body itself sits in the middle of what this ti appears to be a… magic circle? Made up of regularly spaced runes, this one much more obvious to the eye. And finally, a single puncture wound at the back of the skull.”

He finally paused the recording and turned to Rey.

“Anything to add?”

The policeman looked more closely at the body.

“There is so bruising around the wounds.”

“Fuck ,” Filip said, then clicked the recorder on again. “The wounds appear to have been made while the victim was still alive, aside from the cut around the head,” he finished.

The two examined the corpse and the surroundings, but nothing ca up, or rather, nothing that wasn’t part of the spectacle left for them. Finally, the two hurriedly went back out of the room, returning to Lan and Josh.

“How is it?” Lan asked once they approached.

“Not good. In thirty years of chasing murderers, you see so stuff, but this...”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Really? Never seen anything more brutal?” Josh asked, frowning.

“I’ve seen more brutal things. Whenever children would get involved, it would be much worse. But I’ve never seen a show like that. We had so psychopaths staging their kills, leaving flowers, taking organs out, but here… here it’s like looking at a sculptor’s work.”

“So why do you think he escalated?” Rey asked.

“Maybe it’s the victim’s identity?” Lan proposed.

“He went after traffickers before,” Josh observed, but Lan shook her head.

“Yeah, but never their clients. Maybe he walked in during the act and got angry?”

“Doesn’t look like anger,” Rey said. “And he brought nails, for fuck’s sake. This was prepared. How did he even get into the office? There should be so security, right?” Rey finally asked Jim.

“All caras turned off when Vaugler arrived with his lawyer. The building has underground parking. All security after that point was Vaugler’s. They knew what they were doing. It was just a late-night eting with his lawyer.”

“Fucking idiot covered for the killer by accident. But still.”

“The guards didn’t see shit. The elevator goes straight from the parking to the office. There is no breach, no destroyed door. But Vaugler didn’t give us full access yet, sooo…”

“Yeah, they’re wiping anything incriminating as we speak.” Filip chuckled.

Silence descended over the four as Filip’s eyes slowly drifted to Josh.

“I’m sorry to ask this of you, but…”

“Yeah,” Josh nodded. “I’ll do it.”

He nodded at Rey, who got behind the wheelchair and pushed the boy toward the cri scene.

Josh winced at the sight, going pale and green, but just as Rey was about to take him back, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes again. He stared at the scene for a couple of seconds until his breath cald. Only then did Josh close his eyes again, entering the trance.

But this ti, things didn’t go as usual.

“Aaaagh!” he scread, opening his eyes again.

His trances had never gone this violently, so Rey didn’t catch him in ti as the boy fell out of the wheelchair, thrown by a powerful convulsion. Rey got down to help the boy, but another scream reached his ears.

“Oh my god!” Lan shouted.

Then the sound of a door moving reached his ears. Looking up, he saw the lawyer stand up, blood still seeping from the chest wound, his eyes milky white, the flap of skin still nailed to the door pulling on the wood as he moved.

The creature stood up and tried to walk toward them, the sight made even more horrifying by a red glow emanating from the blood-drawn runes around it.

Josh tried crawling away as the rest froze in terror. The reanimated corpse tried to get closer to them, but Rey was faster. As the others stood frozen in sheer terror, Rey’s hand went to the handgun by his belt, and in one smooth motion he pulled the weapon and fired right between the eyes of the creature.

Only for the bullet to ricochet off an invisible wall.

“Filip!” Rey shouted as the man finally sobered up, going for his weapon.

The enemy scread a gurgling scream and moved forward, now toward the two policen, with a sound of the nailed skin tearing.

Filip moved back, shooting yet barely hitting the target. Rey, on the other hand, stayed rooted in place and, taking aim, unloaded the whole magazine between the creature's eyes. And as its bloodied hands almost closed on his throat, the shield shattered, and his last bullet landed between the creature's eyes, blowing its brain out.

The body went down like a puppet with its strings cut.

“What… what the…” Jim said, then turned to Rey. “You killed him,” he said. “You just shot a man.”

“I didn’t,” Rey said, eyes still on the body. “You could almost see his spine through that chest wound. No way he was alive.”

“He just stood up!” Jim scread.

“Yeah,” Filip said, swallowing hard. “He did. Jim, there’s no way he was alive. You know it.”

Jim looked at Filip, panic on his face.

“How the fuck do I explain that bullet wound?” he groaned, still panicking.

“We’ll explain it for you,” Filip told him. “I’ll write the report. Don’t worry.” He lifted his hand before Jim could protest. “You won’t get in trouble. I’ll say we got in on our own, thanks to the turned-off security. Go, Jim. Leave this to us. That was the plan, right?”

Jim nodded after a mont of thought. He was still in shock, which Filip used to his advantage as he moved the man out of the cri scene, leaving only the four.

“So what now?” Rey asked, holstering his gun and going to help Josh back into the wheelchair, his eyes still on the dead man.

“Now we report what just happened as we saw it and leave it to others,” Filip said, suddenly looking really tired, as he stopped trying to control his expression.

“What?” Lan exclaid.

“Look,” Filip began. “That body just stood up. You saw the blood glow, right?” he asked, looking at them, actually waiting for confirmation. “Dwayne didn’t want anything ‘weird’ in the reports. I imagine there might be people looking for ‘weird’ cases then. I say we report it as it happened and stop here. This… this fucking thing is beyond our grasp.”

“We can’t just leave it like that,” Lan protested.

“I...” Filip began searching for words. “Rey might be right. This is soone with a gift. Josh, you were in danger there. If not for Rey, we don’t know what that creature might have done…”

“You never gave up that easily,” Josh said, clearly weirded out by Filip’s sudden change. “I’m fine.”

“I know the price of failing, Josh. There are so people you can’t let outsmart you,” Filip said, looking ahead with an unfocused gaze. Rey noticed his shaking hands and how surprisingly fragile the man looked. “I… Thirty years in the force.” He swallowed hard. “I thought I knew every trick in the book. But how do you chase soone who can reanimate corpses? Do you know what that ans? All the bodies we had could have been staged, staged by themselves. Our entire fucking cri scenes could have walked in from so other place. They had only one wound at the back of the head. They could have walked the streets for hours. We can’t deal with a case like that. We can’t risk it.”

The four stood in silence, looking at the complex arcane patterns drawn on the floor, which were slowly losing their glow. Filip’s words rang true. They didn’t have the equipnt to deal with this. Filip felt a sting of guilt as he looked at Josh deflate. He had taken the kid in, promising to train him, to one day help him chase his own case, but now he was giving up in front of him. He wanted to say sothing to the young man, to lift his mood, but Rey was the first one to speak up.

“I… This might sound crazy, but… I know soone who can.”

“What?”

“I know a mage,” Rey finally said, growing awkward at the words once he said them out loud. “I don’t know what deal he might want, or if my contact still works. And I’m not sure what kind of person he is… But I know he uses magic. I saw it.”

“Explain,” Filip said, looking at Rey with a frown.

“Sam,” Q’Shar said slowly, looking at the man, who was putting on a dark blue robe taken from the singularity. “When I said that we might need to interfere with the investigation, to throw a wrench into it, I ant normally. Leave fake evidence, destroy the existing evidence, hell, if there was soone fitting your criteria, even get rid of them.”

“Mhm. Yes,” Sam confird, letting his staff unravel into his hand.

“What I didn’t an,” Q’Shar continued in a slow voice, pronouncing each word as if speaking to a child, “what I didn’t an was for you to insert yourself into the investigation like a fucking psychopath!” the cat shouted.

“Well, shit, my friend, you should have specified. I have trouble socializing, you know.”

“You…” The cat was about to blow up, but then took a deep breath. “What’s even the point?”

“Well, it was a long shot but… We need an empath if we’re to deal with singularities in the future.”

“And helping him catch you is helping how?”

“Look.” Sam stopped adjusting his ensemble. “I don’t know much about training an empath, but I know symbolism and auras. The guy needs guidance, and I need to get a feel for him. What better way than preparing training exercises around sothing he already does? I can steer the investigation off course. I can also maybe get Peter involved, get him moving. Also, I think the FBI's arcane unit will join after my little trick. You wanted an in with them, right?”

“Right,” Q’Shar groaned. “But what if the empath reads your aura and recognizes you?”

“He won’t do that easily. And if he does, well, then that ans he’s ready to work as an empath.”

“And you’ll go to jail.”

“Since when do empath readings hold up in court?”

“They don’t.” Q’Shar sighed. “You’re not completely wrong. But still, that can backfire within the FBI.”

“Fine.” Sam relented. “At least let get a read on the empath, steer the investigation away if he’s not worth the risk. Okay?”

Q’Shar looked at Sam for a few seconds before finally relenting. “Fine.”

Sam nodded happily. “If you want an in, I can always introduce you as my talking familiar.”

“You can go fuck yourself.”

Sam shrugged, finally happy with his getup.

“Why are you going dressed like that?” Q’Shar asked, looking at Sam’s full wizard ensemble.

“What do you an, why? They expect a wizard, right? Good first impressions count.”

“I’m not sure you’re capable of those.”

“Very funny.” Sam rolled his eyes before getting into his car.

The drive to a massive building in the nicer part of town took barely an hour thanks to the streets being empty at night, even more so in recent tis. Since everything was closed, they had just decided to et on the street near the cri scene.

“Didn’t think I’d get your call,” Sam greeted as Rey approached his car.

“Yeah. I didn’t think I’d ever call you either.”

Sam nodded and got out of the car, going to shake Rey’s hand. The policeman looked him in the eye for a few seconds before sighing. “Let be clear. I’m not sure about your involvent, but the case could use a… specialist.”

“Don’t worry,” Sam replied with a smile. “With my help, you’ll get the bad guy in no ti. I’m sure.”