A Life for a Life

Jess woke up with her heart pounding and covered in sweat. A glance at the clock showed it was only 4:30 am. With a sigh, Jess threw off her covers and walked to the window, barely registering that the sun was starting to come up, but it was cloudy and still very dark. She could use more sleep, but Jess knew there was no more to be had for her.

She never fell back asleep after the nightmare.

It was one she’d been having for years, off and on, especially when she was stressed. It started in an empty classroom, much like the one she had been in that inspired the nightmare in the first place, where Jess was listening to a lecture from her high school advisor, Jane Roberts. Without trying, Jess could see her advisor’s yellow soul and while she was frantically trying to take notes as the teacher droned on, the yellow soul became brighter and brighter until it burst into fiery flames. The instructor screamed and Jess screamed with her, somehow able to see the woman’s tortured face even as the rest of her was consumed by the fire. Sometimes Jess would wake up right then, at other times her dream-self would rush forward to try to help, but the closer she was, the bigger the flames got. Eventually her advisor would fall to her knees and Jess would know she was dead.

Jess turned away from the window, rubbing her neck as she went to make a large pot of coffee. Memories rose unbidden, of the many real times Jess stayed behind after class to discuss this or that with her advisor and favorite teacher at boarding school. This morning Jess remembered the time when she told Mrs. Roberts about her ability to see the souls of everyone she encountered. Mrs. Roberts was leery, but also curious and asked many questions of Jess that day. About a week later, Mrs. Roberts brought up the discussion again and asked Jess if she had ever tried to use magic directly on another’s soul. Jess declared she never had and Mrs. Roberts suggested a little experiment. She told Jess to lightly touch her soul with magic. Imagining vines as was already normal for her, Jess lightly wrapped it around Mrs. Robert’s yellow soul. The green vines instantly turned red and Mrs. Roberts began screaming. Frightened, Jess pulled her magic back as quickly as she could.

After settling Mrs. Roberts in a chair and apologizing profusely, Jess coaxed what happened out of her. She described it as like being set on fire, not only where the magic touched her directly but over her entire body. There appeared to be no lasting damage but Mrs. Roberts continued to have fear in her eyes. They never spoke of what happened again, but their relationship was never the same after that day.

Jess vowed to never try to touch another soul and joined the WISP police academy straight after graduation. There she met a young warlock who was a few years older than her and near graduating from the academy himself. Being young and inexperienced, she didn’t recognize his controlling and violent side until it was too late. The ugly shades of crimson and orange that streaked his soul finally made sense to her as she fought him off after refusing to go to bed with him when he was drunk. Jess was tall but he was stronger. She did the only thing she could think of. She reached for her magic and tried to rip him away from her, only instead she grabbed his soul. With a much tighter grip than she had used with her teacher, the warlock was immobilized, not even able to scream. But Jess could see the pain in his eyes and the unnatural red color of her magic vines so she knew what happened.

Jess released him, leaving him sobbing and gasping on the floor. He looked up at her with horror in his eyes and she turned and fled. She reported the attack to one of her instructors the next day, and when she told him about her ability to see souls and grab onto them, he too, looked at her with horror. The young warlock was kicked out, but the instructor also never looked at her the same. As far as Jess knew, he never said anything to anyone about what she told him but he also requested a transfer to teach another class. When she finally cornered him and asked why, he told her he wasn’t comfortable with Jess knowing so much about him by just looking at his soul. It was then that Jess decided to keep her abilities a secret from all but a select few.

Trying to shake away the memories, Jess took her time getting ready for the day. She spent her extra time at home poring over every case note and piece of evidence they had collected so far but didn’t come up with any new answers.

Figuring on needing the extra energy, Jess bought a box of donuts from a bakery near her apartment on her way to the office. Plopping the box down on Charlie’s desk caused Charlie to jump and glare at Jess, who grinned for the first time that day.

“Breakfast!” Jess declared, grabbing one of the donuts before sitting at her own desk. She noticed Charlie was also going over the case files but unlike her, looked well kept. Next to her pressed but casual black blouse and gray slacks, without a hair out of place in her long braid and flawless make-up, Jess felt downright disheveled with almost no make-up on and in jeans and a fitted T-shirt. At least they weren’t wrinkled.

Trying not to feel resentful, Jess asked, “Anything new?”

“Not yet. Riley is supposed to start the autopsy on our new victim this morning. All of his clothes and effects were taken to be processed. I’ve asked if I can come by today and touch everything, to see if I can get anything more out of it. The black magic unit is still working on the knife,” Charlie answered, pulling a chocolate éclair out of the bakery box.

“How long have you been here?” Jess asked.

“About an hour. I couldn’t sleep,” Charlie said, giving her a thin smile. Jess sympathized, but couldn’t help the thought that it figured she could look good even without sleep.

“Me neither. Nightmares,” Jess said instead. Charlie grimaced in understanding. This case was getting to both of them.

“Well, do you want to go check out the clothes first? We can get it out of the way...” Jess began as John walked by, grabbing one of the donuts and mumbling a good morning to them. He turned on his computer and sat with his back to them while it logged on.

“Everything okay, John?” Jess asked.

“Fine,” came the short reply. He didn’t turn around. Jess opened her shields and saw the purple edge around his aura was darker and bigger than before. Something was clearly causing him extreme stress.

“John, if there’s anything you need help with, you know all you have to do is ask,” Jess offered. Charlie looked up from the file she was reading and glanced between them, eyebrows raised in question. John sighed.

“Yeah, I know Jess. Thanks, but I’ve got this. I’ll let you know if I need you.” He turned briefly towards her before getting to work on his computer. Jess let it go, but only because solving her own case was so important right now with a new murder victim.

Jess and Charlie made their way to evidence, located in a special area of Seattle’s normal evidence lock up and processing laboratory. The special part involved a lot of magic safety precautions so the techs could perform the usual forensic tests but also use spellwork to study any witchcraft that may have been used in the crime. Most of the techs had skills similar to Charlie’s that made them experts at reading objects, magical or otherwise.

They signed in and were escorted to the laboratory where the latest victim’s clothes were already laid out on a table. The tech processing them introduced himself as Sam and said he was expecting them. He handed Charlie a pair of gloves while Jess stayed back a respectful distance. This wasn’t her skill area and she was ruefully aware that Charlie had provided them with the most information on this case when it came to utilizing their magic so far. Guess that was what partners were for.

Sam and Jess watched as Charlie carefully handled the pants, a white collared shirt and undershirt, the suit jacket, both shoes, and a tie. She was muttering under her breath something that sounded to Jess like a prayer or chant, though she couldn’t quite make out the words. Charlie straightened and the muttering ceased.

“He was a warlock who worked for a small law firm. He had a special affinity for numbers that won him several high paying lawsuits and so he was considered a rising star in the industry. He was even getting job offers from other firms. There was one in particular that he was considering. He was so excited to tell his wife about it and planned a special evening out as a surprise for her. She’ll be devastated at his death.” Charlie was rambling, tears in her eyes.

“Charlie, focus. There’s nothing you can do for him now. Don’t let yourself go too deep,” Jess said, placing a firm grip on Charlie’s shoulders. Charlie took a deep breath and nodded.

“I’m sorry, Jess. There’s still a lot of dark magic attached to the suit so I had to try to reach through it. It pulled me into all of his emotions.”

“It’s okay. Keep going. Can you tell us anything about the crime itself?”

“Yes, it wasn’t planned this time. An opportunity arose and the killer took it. They were both alone in a parking lot, at a store, I think. The killer hit him in the head with a baseball bat he had in his car and shoved him in the trunk. I don’t think the victim ever regained consciousness—the blow to the head almost killed him—so I don’t get much more after that. Just the same sense of desperation from the killer I sensed at the Mary Linker scene.”

“I see. Okay, that’s good. That gives us a few things to work with,” Jess said.

“Like what?” Sam, the tech, asked with interest.

“Like he had a baseball bat just there in his car. He’s never used that before in any of the murders so it might be related to his normal life. Maybe he’s in a league or coaches or something. Also, the victim was at a store. We can check with his wife about the usual places he went to or look at credit card statements to see if he already did his shopping that day. It could not only give us an exact time of the kidnapping but tell us where our killer likes to shop. Every little clue can help us narrow down our suspects.”

“There was a wallet, wasn’t there?” Charlie asked. “Can I see that too? Do we have an I.D.?”

“Yeah,” Sam answered, turning around and picking up a man’s billfold inside a clear evidence bag.

“His name was Marcos Gabriel. I heard his wife called 911 when he didn’t come home last night and since we had the wallet, police already knew he was dead. They had to tell her and someone went over to talk to her more in person.” Sam slipped the wallet out of the bag and handed it to Charlie.

She held the wallet silently for a moment before handing it back to him. Her shoulders slumped.

“I get more personal info about Marcos, but nothing I think is helpful for this case,” Charlie said. They thanked Sam for his help and he promised to let them know as soon as he had any more forensic information for them.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Jess asked Charlie, “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not, but I will be. It’s just, Marcos Gabriel’s wife is pregnant,” Charlie said sadly. “She gave him that wallet only a week ago with the pregnancy test inside as a surprise. They had been trying for a while and both of them were so happy.”

“Damn it,” Jess swore. “I’m sorry, Charlie, that you had to feel all that.”

“It’s fine. This is part of the job, right?” Charlie tried to sound matter-of-fact but failed.

“That part of the job sucks!” Jess said with vehemence. It made Charlie smile, however briefly. They made their way back to the pen, where a plucky redhead was sitting on Charlie’s desk. Charlie’s face broke out in a real smile.

“Kelly!” Charlie rushed over to the redhead, who grinned as she stood up and gave Charlie a hug.

“Hey Char, how’s it going?” the woman asked, standing back with her arms outstretched to give Charlie a once-over. She frowned, though Charlie was still trying to put on a happy face.

“Things that bad, huh?” Apparently she knew Charlie well.

“It’s been a rough couple of days,” Charlie admitted. “But here, come meet the best part. This is my new partner, Jess Baker.” Smiling, Jess took Kelly’s hand.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kelly Simmons.”

“Kelly, the necromancer from New York, Kelly?” Jess asked, looking from one woman to the other. Kelly looked like she was in her mid-forties, relatively short and slightly overweight, wearing jeans, a loose T-shirt, and sneakers. She could have been anyone’s wife or mother, not a trace of goth or anything else Jess might have expected from someone who communicates with the dead all the time.

“That’s the one, though I was actually in Las Vegas with some friends before now. When Charlie called and asked me about raising the dead, I thought it was worth it to cut that trip a little short and come up here to see what the hell was going on.”

“Well, we can use all the help we can get,” Jess replied with a wince, remembering what Charlie said about Marcus Gabriel downstairs and his poor widow with a baby on the way. As Charlie began filling her in on what the Librarian told them, Matt walked in and joined them. Charlie introduced Kelly to the detective and they all sat around the desks as she also told Matt her impressions from the victim’s personal effects.

“So, to recap, we now have five victims and the last two were killed within a day of each other. He’s getting desperate, grabbing anyone with magic who presents an opportunity. You guys think he’s trying to bring back a loved one from the dead, this mysterious ‘her,’ based on the magic Charlie’s felt. And he’s following the rituals of the old Witch Queen to do it?” Matt reviewed for them all, ticking off his points with his fingers.

“Something like that, yeah,” Jess affirmed.

“That’s some messed up shit,” Matt complained. Jess shrugged. He was right.

“So now what do you guys do?” Kelly asked with interest.

“We work the evidence we do have,” Jess answered. She told them about the leads Charlie got from the recent victim’s clothing.

“We also need to learn as much as we can about the Witch Queen and any clues to where her book may have wound up. Plus, we haven’t finished looking at cold cases. Chloe told us people have been going missing on the streets over the last six months. If we can confirm for sure that is when all this started, maybe we can pinpoint roughly when the woman he’s trying to bring back died.”

“But she could have died from anything,” Kelly objected.

“Yeah, you see the problem,” Jess noted wryly.

“Well, it sounds like you guys have a lot of paper-pushing to get to. There’s not much I can do to help with that since I’m not a cop, but I would like to wander around the city a bit. I can already feel something, like the dead are trying to talk to me but are just out of reach. Maybe if I get closer to it, I’ll get some more answers for you,” Kelly offered.

“We can get someone to drive you. Someone who can take you to the areas we found the bodies or anywhere else you think might be helpful. Cemeteries maybe?” Jess suggested uncertainly. Kelly chuckled but nodded.

“Yeah, a cemetery might help me get a little closer to the boundary between life and death, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anyone there will know anything. Still, it’s something to try if I run out of other options,” Kelly said as she got up from her chair. Charlie stood up also and gave her a tight hug.

“Be careful out there,” Charlie told her. Jess assigned an inspector to chauffeur Kelly around, leaving the rest of them to divide up the leads and get to work. Matt took up residence at a spare desk and stayed for the day, each of them occasionally calling out new information.

By five o’clock, they had accumulated a lot of paper that might eventually be helpful, but so far was too vague to help them narrow down suspects to a single person. After the intense business of the past few days, they decided it would be worth it to call it an early night and come back better rested tomorrow.

So far, Kelly had only sent a few text messages keeping Charlie updated on where she was but didn’t have anything new for them. Charlie promised to let Jess and Matt know if she found anything noteworthy. As they were packing up, Matt cleared his throat.

“Um, Charlie, I know you don’t have a car yet. Would you like a ride home? We can stop to grab a bite somewhere on the way if you’d like.” Charlie threw a panicked look at Jess, but Jess smiled and waved her hands in a go-ahead gesture. Charlie narrowed her eyes at her before turning back to Matt.

“That sounds nice. Thanks, Matt.” They said their goodbyes to Jess, Charlie’s a little sarcastic, which only made Jess smile wider. She figured a little dinner never hurt anybody.

Jess stopped at a deli on her way home for her own dinner and wearily climbed the stairs to her apartment. Cookie greeted her with enthusiasm, having not seen much of her over the last two days. Cracker let himself be subjected to a few scratches behind the ear before prancing back to his window and ignoring her for the rest of the night. Jess took that to mean he missed her too.

Jess took the opportunity of her free night to wash a load of laundry, but otherwise spent the evening cuddling with Cookie and watching TV, paying little attention to what was on. Her thoughts were consumed with the case, but she didn’t come up with any new answers and went to bed early.