CHAPTER TWO
R owen had no more than finished with the Regency murder, and he was handed another case. The Regency murder was the murder of Jason Meester, the chef at the Regency Hotel, who was murdered by a co-worker who then tried to cover it as an unfortunate workplace accident.
They might have gotten away with it for the fact that Rowen had a skill set that made him privy to private acts and conversations. He discovered who the murderer was and how they did it and then set about proving it. It was tense and fast-paced and, as always, Rowen enjoyed bringing the guilty to justice.
This case, however, was something different. It was more a missing persons case and Rowen wondered why someone with his qualifications would be assigned to such a case. "I know you're a homicide detective and you're seeing this as a basic missing person, but that's not how I read it." His Sergeant explained the case in more detail.
"There are reports of three people missing in the lowlands. It's a rough part of the city, and that would not always raise particular alarms, but this is different. The missing people are not connected to anything illegal; they are average people living in the lowlands for whatever reason. They were all taken from their respective homes in the night, never to be seen again. This has happened over a period of ten days." Rowen started working on the case as soon as the Sergeant began to speak.
"They were last seen entering their homes but never seen leaving?" He asked, and the Sergeant nodded. "They weren't drug users or addicts of any kind?" The Sergeant shook his head. "I see." He said, then added. "You believe they are dead, and you think someone is doing this for kicks." Again, the Sergeant nodded.
"Review the file and get to work." He said as he walked away, leaving Rowen to contemplate the situation. The lowlands were a hell of a place and not somewhere Rowen enjoyed traveling. It was his job, so he would do his best to discover the whereabouts of these people and those responsible for their disappearance. There were no bodies and, according to the files, no blood evidence, so calling it murder was presumptuous.
The lowlands, as they were referred, was populated mostly by paranormal beings. The negative vibe of the area seemed to deter humans although some lived there in the tall tenement building by the stretch of warehouses. Some who lived there simply enjoyed the illicit activity that regularly took place in the lowlands.
Rowen preferred humans because he could understand them and their motives, he could handle humans. He could also pass for humans, no one looked at him oddly or dismissively like the paranormal world tended to do when they recognized him.
His cloaking spell hid him from the supernatural world so the people in the lowlands simply assumed he was human. Still, he worried that one day someone was going to see through him but hopefully that day wasn’t today.
Rowen headed to the lowlands after reading the missing persons files on the three individuals. They were three men all human, of a similar age and all lived in the building referred to as the tenement. One worked part time as a bartender at the Two Track, one was a laborer who worked for various contractors and the last was a student at the Wintersteen Trade school. He was studying welding.
They all knew each other but were not friends. That gave him nothing, but it did give him the location to set up his surveillance. The tenement building was full, and many of those residing there were young men similar to the three who had disappeared. If it was a serial criminal, then chances were they might try again.
The tenement was six stories high, and the three men who had disappeared lived on different floors. The first to disappear was on floor two, the second floor four, and the third lived on floor five. When he arrived in the lowlands, he was immediately notified that a man living at the tenement had been found dead on the sixth floor. He was to meet the officers at the scene. His Sergeant was right; it was now a full-on murder investigation.
Dumas and Reis were patrolling the main street that took in the bars, diners, and a few sketchy businesses when they were notified that a body was discovered on the sixth floor of the tenement building. The same building where three residents had been reported missing.
"There's a body this time, so maybe it will reveal who's responsible for all the disappearances," Reis commented.
"Or it's simply a separate murder," Dumas responded, knowing that murders in the lowlands were more common than they should be. Although the numbers had decreased since Master Hadden started a regular patrol of the area. It would be helpful if the Pittsburgh PD did the same, but they tended to let the people of the lowlands take care of themselves. "Let's check it out. The police are already there, so we'll stay in the background and listen."
The two of them were outside on the sidewalk with the other locals listening as the Detective spoke with a couple of officers. He had already been upstairs and was peppering the officers with questions regarding what they saw when they arrived, who called them, their impression of the scene, etc.
"That's Dalhousie," Reis said, and Dumas had already made that assumption. They split up, one going right and the other left, intent on gathering as much information as they could.
Dumas moved as close to Dalhousie as he could get without drawing attention to himself. The man was not what he’d expected when he was told he was a young upstart detective looking to quickly rise in the ranks and showing considerable skill.
He'd expected cocky with an unpleasant attitude, and he expected tall and large. For whatever reason, such a mover and shaker had struck him as having to be large. The man who stood a few feet from him did not appear to be any of those things and was definitely not large or tall. He listened closely and took time to allow the officers to explain themselves without cutting them off or talking over them.
His eyes were what struck Dumas at first. They were the most beautiful shade of green, a radiant, shining sage green. He caught his eyes once and quickly moved away cutting off the contact as soon as he realized that he was staring at the him.
Dalhousie was attentive, and his special awareness was sharp. He glanced toward Dumas once more, but Dumas did not engage. Dalhousie saw everything and still listened intently to every word that was spoken to him. Dumas wanted to observe the room and get a look at the remains. He could move fast and silently, so he stepped away from the group and stole away upstairs.
Reis recognized Dumas' intent and covered for him by bringing attention to himself and moving away from the building, drawing their eyes to his movements without making a spectacle. Dumas was in the apartment in seconds, taking in the aura and impressions and getting a sense of the man who lived there. The body had been removed, but the essence was still visible to Dumas.
This wasn't a conventional killing. It was supernatural. The markers were everywhere. The body was emaciated, drained of all fluid and form, and according to what he'd heard downstairs, the man had been seen alive and well an hour previous to being found in this condition. Something took everything from him, every ounce of life and force, and did it in under an hour.
He heard someone approaching, so he cloaked his appearance and slipped out, meeting Reis outside. "What did you find?" Reis inquired.
“It was supernatural. Something inhuman killed that guy.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know the scent was strong and yet scattered and frayed. It was impossible to read but its presence was unmistakable.” Dumas continued to watch Detective Dalhousie from a distance as he spoke to everyone gathering information that could lead him to the killer.
As a human, Dalhousie would not last ten seconds with this killer, so it was paramount that the Pittsburgh police did not get too close to whatever it was that was happening in the lowlands. The Detective was focused and diligent. If necessary, there may need to be a vampire intervention taking him off the case and replacing him with someone less skilled at their job.
"Humans cannot discover the cause of this death. Even if they don't admit it, they will have the knowledge, and that is unacceptable." They remained on the edges of the scene for the rest of the night, and come morning after the bulk of the police presence had left, they returned to the apartment together this time. Dumas wanted Reis' impression of the space.
"Wow, this is messed up." Reis enunciated each word clearly as he moved around the room, careful not to disturb anything. "It's powerful whatever it is, and there is magic involved." He looked up at Dumas. They left the apartment and then gained entrance to the apartments belonging to the missing people, and they found the same. The essence was weaker, but it was the same mix of supernatural and magic.
“They must not have had time to dispose of the last body. Someone or something interrupted them.” Dumas made the assumption, and Reis nodded.
"I heard one of the humans out front tell the detective that the man who had been killed, Jason Turner, had been invited to dinner and didn't show, so his friend went to check on him." Reis then added. "He said there was a strange odor of sulfur in the apartment that dissipated quickly." That made the situation so much worse. Dumas knew the implications of sulfur, and Reis responded to his sudden expression of dread.
“What does it mean?” He asked.
"Influences of the underworld. The magic they have tapped is immoral and depraved demonic, which should have been obvious to me by the act of violence committed." Dumas indicated it was time to leave as he could hear people waking and moving about the building. He and Reis would report their findings to Josef, who would not be happy with the news of more evil on the rise in Pittsburgh.
Rowen spent most of the night investigating the murder in the lowlands. It was far from routine and pointed towards a paranormal killer. That fact was made all the clearer by Master Hadden’s men showing up at the crime scene.
One was a vampire, but he could not determine the species of the other although he gave an aura of shifter. He wasn’t a wolf or bear, but he was big and menacing. He was dressed like all Hadden men very refined, cut and formidable everything about him and his companion spoke of dominance.
They hadn’t seen through Rowen’s cloaking enchantment so that was a positive for now anyway but if he were around them for any sustained period of time the large one would probably see through him. There was just something about the big man that spoke of potency and intension. He could probably dance around the vampire for a while, but the shifter was another story.
"So, what did you find?" His Sergeant met him at his desk as soon as he arrived. He didn't care that Rowen had worked all night and had just walked in; he wanted a report, and he wanted it now. Rowen gave him a quick rundown of what he encountered at the tenement building and what the people in the area had to say.
"Cause of death?" He asked, and Rowen had to tell him and tried to do it without making it sound like a crazed vampire had killed the man. It was difficult, but his Sergeant was human and needed practical, believable answers to his questions.
"His body was drained of all fluids." He said and left it there. The coroner would put it into more detail, and with that thought in mind, he wondered how the Hadden Coven was going to deal with it. Such a report could be damaging, but that was the Coven’s problem. His problem was solving the case without betraying the paranormal world.
"Any obvious marks on the body?" The Sergeant asked him.
“None that I could see, sir.”
"Keep me informed and complete your report before you go home. We need to find this killer and put him away before the city starts to react. Three missing and one dead, all in the same building is not good."
"Yes, sir." He thought about the odd scents present in the apartment and the acrid smell of sulfur that the man who found him had described. Rowen's people were well-versed in the forces of magic and also in the effects of evil. The odor of sulfur was disturbing in that it pointed to a demonic influence. The magic was basic, but the overtone was severe and based on the diabolic.
Dumas and Reis met with Josef and explained, as best they could, what was going on in the lowlands. He did not look happy at all and asked Dumas to continue to shadow the Detective. "The presence of the supernatural is going to be hard to contain, but it must be done." He made himself very clear. "This must stop immediately; whoever is behind these deaths needs to be found. The other missing people, probably deceased, need to be located and dealt with before the police find them."
He paused and looked at both Dumas and Reis with eyes that bored to the bone. “Desperate time equals desperate measures you have permission to do whatever you have to do in order to resolve this without exposure.”
“Yes, sir.” Dumas responded as did Reis.
"Reis, join Micheal's team and bring them up to speed on the murders. Find the killer or killers." Josef stated and then turned to Dumas.
“Like I said, stick close to Det. Dalhousie and the police presence in the area. Grant and Iker will keep us informed of their progress.” Dumas nodded his agreement and understanding.
“I’ll inform the Master of the situation in the lowlands and if he has further orders, I will let you know.” Before dismissing them he drove home once more that they needed to bring an end to this threat, and they needed to keep the human authorities out of it. “Now go get some rest and something to eat you both have long days ahead of you.”
Dumas fully understood the seriousness of this incident and swore to do everything in his power to destroy this threat. Reis made the same pledge and added that he interfered with the phones of people present last evening. “They will have nothing to post today other than their own oral renderings of the scene.”
“Good job Reis.” Dumas patted him on the back.
"I also cleared the memories of those who had stood too close to the Detective and may have overheard information and those who had given statements. I know the Master has rules around touching the minds of others, but in this instance, I was pretty sure clearing was the way to go." Reis was a thorough man, and Dumas appreciated him very much. "I don't know if they were a threat, but I didn't want to take the chance."
“Follow your instincts on this one. It’s better to do more than not enough.” Dumas offered.
“That’s what I figured. But honestly, I tried to get at the Detective's mind too just to slow him down a little, but I wasn't successful." That was interesting.
“You couldn’t clear his mind, or you couldn’t even touch his mind?” Dumas asked for clarity.
"I could not get inside his head. I thought perhaps it was because I was using a shotgun approach and getting as many as I could mentally reach while trying to remain unnoticed." Reis gave a possible explanation, but Dumas had the feeling there was more to it than that.
“How close were you able to get to the detective?”
"At one point, I was about six feet from him on the left. Why?"
“Did you get any sense of him . . . were you able to read him at all?” Dumas was overcome with a sense of there being more to the Detective than met the eye. He wasn’t sure where this was coming from but the entire picture last night of him at the scene with the potential witnesses was strange and oddly charged. Dumas waited as Reis searched for a suitable response.
"I couldn't get into his mind. There was something preventing me, but I can't tell you what it was. It was a resistance of sorts, and I didn't try again because he moved to the other side of the parking area to speak with the crowd gathered there. I couldn't get close to him after that." Reis was not sure what he encountered. "I could access the minds of the humans around him, but for some reason, I couldn't get into his head."
Honestly, there could be a reason for it, such as magic residue from the crime scene still clinging to Dalhousie or someone in the crowd with a cloaking spell around them, and it may have affected the Detective. But with that said, Dumas wanted to know for sure what was ailing Det. Dalhousie. He wanted a clear picture of the man who could be their undoing.