The Wicked Ones

1. Weekend plans get ruined by homicide

Blythe stretched, her back against the desk chair. At least half a dozen of her vertebraes cracked in sync, it shouldn't have been surprising since she'd been hunched over her computer all morning to finish writing her report. God, she hated those. She loved her job but the reports made her want to throw her mug across the room. At least she was done now, she'd closed all her cases for the week. Friday was over and she was going to take her first full week-end of the month. She snapped her laptop shut, letting a sense of apathy take over.

"Heyyyyy..... Lizzy. Eliza. Elisabeth. My little Betsy. How are you doing."

Benjamin's head appeared in the door frame. He stood in all the glory of his meter 90. His dark brown dreadlocks had been brought up in a large bun at the top of his head; his jaw was clenched tightly. The man wore an apologetical smile which, alongside the overuse of nicknames made the woman understand she wouldn't like what was coming next. 

"Spit it beanstalk."

"Jesus, captain cinnamon roll, no need to be this snappy." Benji walked in and slowly closed the door behind him, he held a case file in his left hand. "I may or may not be here to tell you your weekend plans are ruined."

"Oh come on," she threw her hands up in the air, "it's the first time in months I've asked for days off. Couldn't the Captain lay off me for a while ?"

"Don't shoot the messenger Lis, they have a murder, three streets down, young man, seems normal in all aspects and yet somehow got hated enough to get his throat slit. Captain thinks something is off about the case and doesn't trust anyone else to take care of it, he says you have the best instinct and asked for you by name."

"He's just trying to butter me up so I'll take it."

Her friend sat down on the chair opposite hers, across the desk, and threw his legs carelessly over the armrests. As he set the file in front of her he raised an eyebrow.

"You're gonna take the case aren't you ? I can already see the gears turning in that crazy little mind of yours. The only reason you would have to say no is if you had serious plan. Which you usually don't have unless... Oh let me guess, are you seeing that little intel buddy of yours? Mr What's-his-name Morningstar ?"

"Feet off the chair Benji. I'm taking the case."

"There you go! Look at that! Aren't you just thrilled, you're spending the weekend with me, the best friend you could ever wish for and we're gonna solve a murder! How could anything be better."

"I could be home reading a book."

"My dear you are such a killjoy. So. Where to?"

"Crime scene. I want to see it first hand."

The two took Benjamin's car to the apartment complex the body had been found in and stopped for a few seconds at the threshold. The detective checked her phone for the time. Considering she had about a half hour to scan the crime scene before she had to join Asterin for lunch, she really hoped it wasn't as graphic as Benji had described during the car ride because she intended to have a good meal. She walked inside the apartment building, a powerful wave of stench hit her, everything in this room reeked of cadaver. Something tug at her heartstrings when she realised the smell no longer bothered her, it seemed losing a part of your human empathy came with the job, at least it had for her. The man laid on the floor, limbs sprawled all over the beige linoleum like an old rag doll, something that was no longer truly human. There was dried blood on his hands and on the carpet on which he lay. And, of course, there was a large gash at his throat. He'd been sliced open at the neck like an animal sent to slaughter. This wasn't just the murder of a man, it was the sacrifice of a beast. Elisabeth knelt next to the body, she looked to her left, where Benjamin usually stood, to get a second opinion but her friend wasn't there. She turned around and saw he was still at the threshold, looking quite nauseous.

"Are you okay Benji?"

"Yeah sorry. It's been a while since I've been to the crime scene, I forgot."

She nodded and went back to observing the body. The man was in his early twenties, pale like a vampire and bags under his eyes large enough to be called suitcases. She could tell there wasn't much muscle to cover his bones under the clothes, even alive he would have looked like a dead man. She studied his clothes, his posture, his bone structure, the state of his skin and eyes. The detective grabbed some latex gloves out of her pocket and put them on before carefully shifting the man's head. Needle scar. Had he been drugged ? That would explain the lack of defensive wounds. Slowly she shifted the body around until he lay on his stomach. As she had expected there was an empty syringe under him.

"Drug addict. No doubt. But that one shot was not voluntary."

She stood back and walked to the wall opposite the body. Someone had written something over the white paint, the black letters had smudged and left a trail that dripped down to the floor.

Blessed be the dead who can no longer be Wicked.

"What kind of sicko does that after killing someone."

"I don't know Benji. Either it's a random act to throw us off, it's some sort of cultist or we haven't heard the last of that murderer."

She took a look around the room. The Captain was right something was off. This wasn't just your average homicide. It could have been. But it wasn't.

"I'll let you take a look around the apartment Benji, I have to go. Call me when forensics has finished the full sweep.