ANGEL BLUE [1]

LEAD 2: hit-list

      “If Dianne Hemming’s body is supposed to be in Woodlawn, then how does the tissue come back as hers?” Sam closes the Tox-Report and pulls up one of the metal chairs, sitting himself next to the blonde haired Joseph.

      “I have no bloody clue,” Snag says.

      “Can you show me Dianne’s ID photo again?” I ask and Snag holds it up to me. A woman in her early twenties with a ponytail of curly red hair stares back at me with fair skin and blue eyes, her face is familiar. “I’ve seen her before,” I tap my fingers against my knees as I try to remember. “I was in the locker room with Banks getting our black shirts because we were going on our break and that girl, Dianne comes in…but she was dressed as a cleaner not a patrol officer.”

      Snag leans forward in his seat, “Did she say anything to you?”

      “Um,” I scowl at my black Vans and bite my lip, “she–she didn’t say anything at first because she saw Banks pull out her licensed revolver from the locker but,” I rubbed my temples, “she uh, she said she was here to clean the floors―some kind of accident with coffee. Banks and I didn’t think much of it at first so we walked off…I don’t think Banks had closed her locker properly.”

      “So Dianne Hemming’s acquired your clothing on her own accord,” Snag mutters.

      “We found in her trachea more pieces of paper that the killer shoved down her throat,” Joseph stands up and beckons me towards two wrinkled pieces of thick cardboard that’d been cleaned of blood. “They make no sense, a bunch of gibberish if you ask me.”     

      The first piece of crumpled cardboard has writing on it from some kind of ballpoint pen since the ink hadn’t bled. I reach for the tweezers and lift it off the glass; the person has horrible writing with mixed capital letters and degrees of pressure. Every four letters, the person would use a capital regardless if it was at the beginning of a sentence or name of an object.

      I nevEr was; Am alWays To be. NO one eVer saW me, noR ever Will. ANd yet I Am the ConfiDence Of all wHo livE and bReathE on thE Earth’S ball. 

      “Snag and I have tried to decipher it, we even turned to Google for answers but none came up,” Joseph says, slightly flustered. “The other piece of paper, however, speaks of mythical creatures in numeric order.” 

      I place the cardboard back down on the glass slide and pick up the second piece of cardboard, frowning slightly. There are twenty numbers, equalling twenty creatures. The first seven are marked off in the same black ink and writing. I turn the lamp towards me and read silently.

      Night Crawlers, Shifters, Vrykokolas, Aries, Kitsune, Sphinx, Baines. There were seven victims including the mysterious Dianne Hemming. Seven creatures were ticked off, is this some kind of witness list or creatures that committed the crimes?

      “I need a map of Manhattan with the seven victims locations,” I demand and lower the paper.

      Joseph fishes out a large map and rolls it out on the steel table, using the guacamole bowl as a weight. He hands me a marker and pulls out the clipboard with the files regarding the previous six victims.

      I pull off the marker’s cap with my teeth and scan my finger for an alley way near Hell’s Kitchen. Snag clarifies that Night Crawlers, otherwise known as people that can move short distances through shadows, live in alley ways―that’s their designated territory. I put a circle around Hell’s Kitchen and move to victim number two.

     Shifters are apparently everywhere according to Snag since they can change shape and appearance almost instantly. The second victim, Blake Donovan’s father, was found in near the dumpsters on West Fourteenth in West Village.