Lilly's Torment(7)

"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.