"Hello, I'm Agent Lilly Webb. I understand that you are the medical examiner? Would you like to go over the body with me and then we can get it loaded up?"
Briar eyed Lilly up and down with pursed lips before looking past her toward Artaxias. "Briar will do," she said in a clipped tone. Her knuckles were white around the case she carried in both hands. She looked like she was ready to use it as a weapon. "You're the new weapons expert from DC, aren't you?" she asked, moving very cautiously toward the body. The woman looked like she'd come out of her skin if someone so much as cleared their throat right then.
"Briar, are you okay? You look like you are ready to come out of your skin, are you sure that you are going to be okay?" Lilly asked the woman softly. "I don't want you to be afraid. I really don't. I would never let anyone hurt you."
"You can't protect everyone, Agent," she said before shooting one more look toward the Veil. Then she crouched down with the body between her and the Veil. "We have a male Caucasian humanoid in appearance," she reported as she uncovered the body. "Clawed across the chest, abdomen, and face. Unknown instrument used." She lifted his left arm. "Tattoo on left inner arm, scrapes on knuckles, and blood under the nails." She looked to one of her techs, "Bag the hands," she ordered, standing and moving around toward the guy's head.
Lilly frowned and reached out a gloved hand to the marks on the chest of the body. "Look at this." She had moved so that she was on the opposite side of the body, so that she was between Briar and the Veil. "Do you have a light? Maybe tweezers and a baggie? I see something metallic here." She pointed to the mark. "I think that this was made to look like a wolf did the damage."
"Or something from under the claws," Briar said in a tight tone. The tweezers were held out as a light clicked on. She also held open a baggie for the sample Lilly had spotted. "No conclusions can be made until the autopsy is completed."
Pulling the metal from the body, Lilly frowned and moved the piece from side to side and shook her head. "This wasn't under someone's claws." She dropped it into the baggie and said, "That's, what? An inch long? It looks as if it is razor sharp as well. How odd."
"Then it probably isn't from a weapon." Briar lifted it up and frowned. "No weapon I know of would ever shatter or splinter like this. I've seen the tips of blades snap off on bones, but that's about it." She shook her head. "We'll have to wait until the lab boys can run the analysis." Standing, she pulled out her camera and took a couple pictures of the body. "All right." She waved in the coroner assistants. "Load him up gently."
Lilly took the baggie and sat back on her haunches, her mind working through this. "I'm a weapons maker," she explained to Briar and lifted the piece of metal to the moon. "It was a weapon," she whispered and her eyes went wide. "Oh shit," she whispered with a gasp. "I've seen it, too." She rose to her feet. "Can I take this with me? Please?"
"Wait!" She grabbed a clipboard. Snagging the sample back, she took a photo, made an entry, and then handed everything over. "Sign for it. And if it's not in the lab by this time tomorrow, you'll have a lot of explaining to do. Either that or a report on my desk in the same timeframe."
"Don't worry. I can do it. I just want to look at it under the scope in my lab, and then I will bring it to your office, I swear." She had a hunch, and if she was right, that meant that there was a human out there with a claw hand and killing. Wonderful. Just fucking wonderful.
"All right." Briar nodded slowly. She moved back about twenty paces as the assistants got in to move the body.
Artaxias appeared just next to her shoulder a moment later. "What do you have?" he asked quietly. Reaching around, he lifted her hand, the one holding the baggie up higher, and leaned over to look at it.
"Honestly?" she asked and looked up at him. "A few years back, there was a ring of humans that created weapons to mimic the claws and fangs of Vhampires and Luhpynes," she whispered. "And if that is the case, we are in for a shitstorm of trouble," she told him quietly. "It's like the KKK so many years ago, only so very much worse. They are really, really horrible. This will be very bad if this is the case. If this metal is what I think that it is, we are going to have a world of hurt."
"And if it's not?" he asked, turning his head to look at her. "Don't jump to conclusions, Lilly. That's a damned fine way to get everything blown out of proportion. I don't like the idea this could be a revival of something of the past, but if it is, we'll deal with it. Let's get the evidence so we can present it clearly and concisely to the captain. From there, we can panic and do whatever else it is you humans like to do with impending doom and gloom."
"I really and truly hope that I'm wrong," she admitted. "I pray that I'm wrong. I'm trying not to jump to conclusions, but in the meantime we need to work with what we have. We need to try to figure out what this metal is, and we need to see if I can rework this into what I think it is. If I can, then we know that I'm right, but if I can't, then I'm thankfully wrong."
"I hope you are," he said quietly. "I really, really hope you are, Lilly."
Chapter Four
Artaxias hadn't said much after that. They'd waited until the body had been loaded, the last photos taken and evidence collected. Then they'd gone back to the AEDA offices. Briar and the body had gone to the morgue. She and her fragment, with Ax on her heels, had gone to her new territory. Then he'd found a spot to sit, watch, and wait. But never once did he say anything. No. He knew as well as she did there wasn't anything to say until her worst fears were confirmed, or, God, she so hoped she was wrong, proven incorrect.
Lilly finally looked up and turned the screen so that Artaxias could see what she was seeing. "See the markings here?" She had magnified the metal so that she could see it as closely as possible. "This mark here, it's a signature," she told him softly and rubbed the back of her neck, a nervous gesture on her part. "It's a human signature"-she pulled open another file-"that matches this one," she whispered. "And as you can see, they are a hate group." A group that wanted the Veil to be destroyed, wanted somehow and someway to "free the planet of the fucking aliens' or something like that."
Moving in closer to her, he leaned over to look at the monitor. "Well, there's our evidence this is more than what it first appeared." He did not sound happy. "Print it all off. We need to get copies to Briar, and then we need to go see the captain. We should see where she's at on the autopsy as well, since she should likely sit in."
"You should take this to the captain and I will deal with Briar. She's"-she frowned-"she's been hurt, you can see it in every move she makes. I think that it would be best if I sat in on the autopsy, and can vid it to you if you would like."
"If she's not done, yeah, link me in," he nodded, taking a copy of the file from her. "But if she's done and has enough results, have her come up to the office. I'll sit well away from her and the door so she has a clear shot at the exit." Artaxias touched her cheek. "I know she was hurt." He'd been the one to tell her about it. "I also know there's more there than what happened. A lot more. But that's not my mystery to solve." He pressed a kiss to her temple. "See you in a bit."
"That sounds good to me." She rubbed her cheek to his, much like a cat would, and sighed happily. "I like the way that feels," she confessed. "We will talk later. Go and do what you need to do so that we can meet halfway. I look forward to seeing you again."
"I programmed our numbers into your phone," he told her as he drew back. "Don't ask when." He shot her a crooked grin that had her blinking. One of his fingers trailed over her cheek and down her throat lightly. "Shoot me a text if you're coming up or if we're videoing it. I'll be with the Cap, either way."
A full-body shiver raced down Lilly's spine and she nodded. Licking her suddenly dry lips, she looked up at him and smiled. "I look forward to anything and everything that we can figure out together. For now." She nodded. "I will vid the autopsy, hopefully Briar will talk to me, and maybe it will help her to feel better to talk to someone that is new and gives a fresh perspective on life." One could hope, at least.