Lacey's Luhpynes(3)

Chapter Three




Shooting her a look, Zhubin frowned and then glanced around, "Uh,  there's no one else here," he said quietly. Turning the computer to face  her he started the vehicle, "And I'm also pretty sure I told you where  we were going." Shaking his head he pulled out of the spot and got up to  street level before looking her way again. "You sure you're feeling  okay, Agent Rose?"

"Yep, just a bit of a headache." Lacey tried to replay the previous  conversation and said, "McKinney Warehouses, had a bit of a brain-fried  moment." She was fucking losing it and she knew it. She was slowly  forgetting everything that she should do and should know because of  these men. No, she really couldn't blame them. It wasn't their fault  that she had the hots for them, at all.

Nodding, he shot her one more look before his focus was fully on the  road. The ride was silent to the warehouse district. Pulling in, Zhubin  parked where the rest of the vehicles sat, their lights flashing an odd  blue glow on everything. Climbing out, he looked to her, waiting for her  to join him and precede him as always. Lifting the crime scene tape for  her he ducked under and followed slightly to her left, half a foot  behind.

Entering the warehouse he stopped with her and looked around, inhaling  deep. A low growl rumbled from him. Shaking his head when she looked at  him he took the booties one of the officers handed over and slipped them  over his boots. Pulling out a pair of gloves he tugged them on and  headed for one side of the warehouse, knowing she'd take the other. They  would each work a side, switch and then meet to discuss.                       
       
           



       

Lacey's eyes caught everything. Lifting a gloved finger, she raised her  mini cam and snapped images. The fur caught in the loose boards of the  wall and then the blood that was captured as well. Using flags she  marked the areas and made sure that the CSUs would bag the fur and  hopefully get a DNA match if there were follicles still attached.

Without speaking to Zhubin, she moved to the other side of the warehouse  as he moved to her side. She looked and caught a couple additional  images before meeting back with him in the middle, passing him her mini  cam as she did so. "What are you thinking happened?"

Scrolling through the images after plugging her cam into his datapad he  sighed. "Nothing good," he muttered. Tipping his head, he led her over  to a spot on the floor, "Tell me what you see?" he asked. When she  looked around and then shook her head he pointed up on the wall, nearly  twenty feet in the air, "Now what do you see?" he asked of the very  clear pawprint in blood on the wall.

"Son of a bitch," she muttered. "How could he or she have gotten up  there? You guys can't fly can you? So how the hell could that print have  gotten all the way up there?" She moved closer to the wall and added,  "I found tufts of hair ten feet that way." She pointed. "And if you look  the dust looks like it's been disturbed, but in an arc more of a  straight line."

Looking around, he waved her over to a spot before throwing another look  around. Crouching, he leapt straight into the air onto a girder nearly  thirty feet up. Balancing there he lifted a brow before dropping  straight back down. "That"-he pointed to the print-"is nothing more than  a push-off point. What is bothering me, I don't see one other print  leading up to it, not one. If you look at the floor all around the  bodies there are boot prints but not a single paw print. Besides, if it  was an actual push-off point, why isn't it smeared? Blood is slick,  that's metal, it would have smeared no matter how a Luhpyne hit that  wall. But it's perfect, completely clear." Zhubin shook his head.

"Unless the print was made with a body part," Lacey whispered in horror.  "Vhampires can hover in the air, right? I know we have several on the  task force. Ask one to come in and take a bloody glove up and make a  print. It's the only thing that I can think of and if that is the case  we have one hell of a freaking case on our hands." One that would cause  ripples in every aspect of society.

"Only other problem is I can smell Luhpyne in here and Vhampire as well  as something else. I don't know what it is, it's being clouded by the  blood which is annoying." Cracking his neck he looked around. "Let's go  and see what the ME has found since she's been here. I'd like to get the  scene clear and then look around some more."

"Sounds good. Maybe once we have the scene clear and the blood cleared  up you will be able to use your sniffer and find something else,  something that will help us out here." Closing her small data pad she  placed it in her jacket pocket and looked at him. "You okay, Zhubin? You  are looking a little wolfy at the moment." His eyes were glowing, his  hands were curled and the claws were clearly visible.

He closed his eyes and a moment later, when they opened, they were back  to normal. "Fine," he said before spinning on a heel and moving toward  the ME. "For future, note the term ‘wolfy' is considered highly  derogatory by my people. What do you have, doc?" he asked, stopping a  few feet from the woman.

"We have six casualties, possibly another given what the officer has  been letting me know from the hospital." She looked at them. "Agent  Rose." She tipped her head to her. "Two non-human, I'm guessing from  what I can see with a visual is they are likely Spirytes. The other four  are humans. Of the three that went to the hospital, two are human and  the third is Spiryte. He's the one that may not make it through surgery  given the extent of his injuries."

She bent and lifted the edge of a tarp. "All their hands were removed.  Cleanly and post mortem from what I can determine here on site. Looks  like a sharp single-bladed tool with some weight. Again, can't be  positive until I do the autopsies. Obviously without the hands and  corresponding wrists we will need to go old school and use dental  records to identify the humans. The Spirytes, if they truly are Spiryte,  will be a little harder to identify as I'll have to contact their  embassy and get permission to access the records."

She didn't even look to Zhubin or ask for his assistance in that but  continued on. "From what I can determine and from body positions, they  were all surprised. Two were hit in the back, unknown weapon at this  time. The other four turned and were hit by the same unknown weapon. The  three that are in hospital were likely on the fringes of this meet and  were running. One was by the door where you came in and the other two  were near a fire exit at the back."                       
       
           



       

"From the hits, do you think we have one unsub or multiples?" Everyone  hit differently, it was a signature in and of itself because no two  people held a weapon the same way or hit the same way. It was unique to  each person. "Why would so many have been gathered here, of all places?  There are much more secure and safe areas in which to meet, even if it  were for some nefarious purpose there would be a better place to meet  than here," she asked, to herself more than anyone else.

"I would, at a guess and the autopsy will confirm, I would guess three,  perhaps four. As to why they gathered here"-she straightened and waved  in her people-"that is up to you, Agent Rose, to discover. I will have  the preliminary autopsy sent to your datapad by morning but this will  take a bit of time to sort out so it will be at least a day or two  before I can give you anything more. All right, lads, nice and gentle  with them. They have a story to tell us and we need to respect that."  Stepping away from them she moved over to another body.

"Thoughts?" Zhubin looked to Lacey.

"Honestly?" Lacey looked up at him and at his nod said, "One thing that  Spirytes are really, very good at is creating new identities for people.  Some of them have the tech to replace the receivers behind the ears as  well as the chips in the arms. If I had to guess I would say that the  Lhupines that were here were trying to get away from something. I don't  know why I think that, but those are my thoughts on it."

Nodding, he folded his arms over his chest and looked around. "Once they  have the bodies out of here we need to work this from the start. See if  we can figure out anything else, because I have to admit, something  feels off to me. Let's take a look at the personal effects before the  lab boys take everything back. Might be a clue there."

She nodded and when they were alone she looked up, "I wasn't trying to  be offensive. How long have we been partners, Zhubin? I've said that to  you before. I've called you ‘wolfy' before and you have never taken  offense. I swear I wasn't trying to be mean or rude or anything like  that, just letting you know so that we didn't scare off another tech."