Shimmer *The Seattle Superheroes*

Chapter Twelve: Crimes and Confessions

Nash pointed to a group of people in blue who were being directed by three individuals wearing suits. "That'll be the ISDA."

They turned and walked towards the group. As they approached, a suit-wearing woman took notice of them and greeted them.

"Hello," she said, pushing a piece of hair that had escaped her bun back behind her ear. "I am Agent Maddie Holmes. I was told you would be here."

"Yes," Shimmer said. "Where is the body?"

Agent Maddie Holmes looked mildly offended by Shimmer's abrupt dismissal, but pointed behind her nonetheless. "Our people are looking into the site."

Shimmer began walking to the cluster of people.

"Miss!" the agent called behind her. "You can't go too close, or you will disrupt the evidence."

Shimmer glanced over her shoulder. "If you didn't want me to look, why did they send us? To chat?" she said, and continued on her way. Pushing through the crowd, she caught sight of the scene, and even her woe-hardened stomach clenched uncomfortably. Most of the people present stayed at least seven feet away, forming a circle around the unfortunate centerpiece, while a few blue-clothed figures darted in and out of the area. Shimmer herself stopped six feet away—a distance she judged as safe—and was soon joined by Nash. Both stared at the empty shell of a man in front of them in silence for a few minutes.

"Getting anything?" Shimmer asked.

"Not really. There are too many people around."

"Well then," Shimmer sighed. "I guess we wait."

"I'm starting to wish we had stopped to see Rena first."

Shimmer smiled slightly, glancing at a nearby light pole. "What do you want?"

"Took them long enough," Shimmer muttered when she, Nash and Cane were informed that the specialists were done and that they could now approach the site.

"Thirty four minutes and sixteen seconds, to be precise," Nash told her with a grin.

For the past thirty four minutes and sixteen seconds, Shimmer and Nash had been standing six feet away from the park bench that had been covered in a piece of black plastic only minutes after they had arrived. Truth be told, Shimmer was glad for it. The sight beneath the plastic was... grisly, to say the least. Those thirty four minutes were made bearable by Shimmer's constant 'zapping,' as Nash termed it, across the city to bring back coffee and muffins for Nash, and later Cane, as they all tried to forget about what was under the plastic until the time came that they had to think about it.

That time had now come, and Shimmer accepted the pair of white plastic gloves being handed to her by some unknown blue suited man. A faint snapping noise came as she put the gloves on.

"Let's take a look," Shimmer said, stepping into the de facto circle. "Shall we?"

She and Nash carefully pulled back the plastic, and the three of them got to work. Their investigation took under twenty minutes, but that time was enough to make Shimmer feel uncomfortable in a way she had never before felt. Cane filled any silent spaces of time with morbid jokes while Nash stood back slightly, his face drawn into a constant look of confusion, anger, and sadness.

Both men were somewhat surprised when, while they were unable to look at the blood-soaked corpse for more than a few seconds, Shimmer covered her face in a blank mask, void of all emotions—even the sarcasm often found in her arched, red brows—and began carefully poking and prodding the body. For seventeen minutes (and twenty nine seconds, as Nash would later inform them), Shimmer applied herself to the task at hand, using some knowledge that she knew where had come from, and some she didn't.