Chapter 13 #2
Pascal nodded, and he grabbed his laptop, set it up, and went to work typing notes. “Speculations are fine as long as we’re aware they’re speculations.”
“We’re about to take a sharp left turn,” I warned. “Since I became a hatchling, my purple magic has increased in strength. I was able to hop from one memory to another.”
“That’s not that unusual; if there’s a linked moment of utmost relevance, it can happen to any purple dragon capable of seeing into the past. It was probably just your first time dealing with that situation.”
For a long moment, I stared at him. “Really?”
“Really. Just do your best. I know it can be hard making sense of the images, especially for older events.”
As soon as I scraped together a few spare minutes, I needed to have a long and serious talk to someone about my magic.
If I took the FBI agent’s words at face value, I wasn’t quite like other purple dragons, which might cause me problems in the future.
“All right. It’s not going to be in perfect chronological order, because knowing where I was when using my magic is relevant. ”
“That’s fair, and I’ll make a note of that.”
“Erik took me on a date to a diner in the Pearl Ward last night, and I must have gone somewhere where there was a strong impression, because I saw the body of an ancient girl, not quite a mummy but somehow preserved, being investigated by Madam Merorie. Partially dissected, I guess. Then I got a look deeper into the past at how the girl died. I’m pretty sure she was from Mesopotamia due to the type of buildings. ”
That part was the full truth; the Mesopotamians had had a rather distinctive architecture.
Pascal didn’t need to know I hadn’t learned the where and when through alternative methods.
“Mesopotamia?” He raised a brow. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean Mesopotamia. You know, Gilgamesh? That Mesopotamia. Ur and other cities like it. I saw her near the banks of a river with a city behind her, and I’ve seen sketches of what they thought the cities looked like back then.
” That part was also true, although I hadn’t seen the sketches until after getting home and doing a little research. “There was a flood, and she died.”
There. That way, I could keep the secret of her sickle, and if I had an opportunity to return her—and it—to her homeland, I would.
“I can understand why this is going to the start of the timeline. But where did she get this girl’s body?”
“I’m going to guess the black market overseas, likely for a disgusting amount of money.
” I shrugged, relieved I spoke the truth even while omitting a great deal of what I had seen.
“I’m not sure how Madam Merorie got her matters unless we can find a matching financial transaction in this mess.
But she’s important to note; if her corpse is recovered, she should be returned to her homeland. ”
After a moment, the black dragon nodded. “That will be problematic, but that’s not for you to worry about. Assuming, of course, we can find her.”
“Of course.” I drew in a deep breath. “This is going to come across as very strange, but sometimes, I get an impression of the when, if it’s important.”
“That’s more of a chrome dragon thing, but you have chrome dragons in your heritage, so I can’t say I’m surprised. A useful ability when it does manifest, but good luck getting it to manifest.”
“According to public records, Adam Merorie died in 2035. I think that’s wrong.
A lot of the deaths I viewed in the initial batch of bodies showed his corpse, and I think the nature of the incident in the diner gave me a glimpse at his death.
On May 2, 2034, he fell out of a tree while his mom was grilling, and he died instantly, or so the impression is leading me to believe. ”
Pascal whistled. “That completely changes our timeline for the investigation, and our policy of looking at least a year prior might miss things; he’s registered as having died in the second half of the year, so at least a few months would be missing in our records.”
I gestured to the mass of boxes filling the ballroom. “In good news, the banks have decided against listening to the ‘one year prior’ element; I’m pretty sure this is a complete record of her finances.”
“That’ll prove useful, especially if she had started trafficking people before her son’s death.”
“I would think it costs a lot to keep a manor like she had,” I muttered.
“It does, and she was housing most of her clan without charging them rent as far as we’re aware.
It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s been trafficking people most of her life, and she likely intensified her efforts after her son’s death.
That tracks. Excellent catch, and it might be a critical breakthrough in building this case. ”
One could only hope. As the FBI agent hadn’t vocalized a complaint regarding my statements thus far, I considered everything I had witnessed—and the things I had gleaned from the newspapers.
“In reality, we have three different cases here, I think. First, we have the trafficking. Second, we have the murders and kidnappings of people for Madam Merorie attempting to resurrect Adam. Third, we have her clan’s other necromantic dealings in the form of the attacks on pilgrims and brothel workers.
I don’t know if this is the case, but I feel that may have been a distraction or a way to learn more necromancy so Madam Merorie could bring her son back from the grave. ”
I would leave the woman’s husband out of it, although I had no doubt she would have brought him back after raising Adam from the dead.
“It’s as good a theory as I’ve heard yet, although it will definitely complicate our investigation.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume they are different but related investigations.
Let’s start with the boy and his mother’s attempt to resurrect him; while the trafficking case is important, if she amplified her efforts to traffic people to pay for her efforts, working that angle may, rather accidentally, lead us straight to the traffickers.
” After a moment of tapping at his tablet, he turned the screen to show me a software program designed to help investigators with their work.
“This is the FBI version of the digital boards the police tend to use. Our version has a tablet edition and can be imported to most digital boards, and we also have broader access to various databases. While you introduce me to the elements of the case, I’ll be loading the information into my software.
Then I can export a version for local law enforcement, which you can use at the station. ”
The desire to be like Pascal if I ever grew up almost got the better of me. Rather than moan and groan about how FBI agents always made out like bandits, I reviewed my tablet for notes on the case, including the statements from the spirits I hadn’t personally interviewed.
“The oldest victims we have record of are a mother and son. The son was aged three, the mother aged twenty-seven. They disappeared two days after Adam Merorie’s death.
” The spreadsheet told the tale of at least three hundred children kidnapped and killed along with other family members, most often the mother, although there were at least ten instances of the father and grandparents also being murdered.
The fathers and grandfathers, according to the spirits, had been drained of life through necromancy, sometimes at the hands of Madam Merorie, sometimes by some other member of her twisted clan.
As a general rule, she waited at least two to three days before striking again, although she sometimes waited several months. “I am guessing the gaps are either victims we don’t know about, her trafficking activities, or time she spent researching new methods of trying to resurrect her child.”
The whole thing left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.
Pascal sighed, and after a few moments, he nodded. “That’s probable. Still, this is fantastic work. Walk me through how you got so many spirits to cooperate—without haunting anybody. This might help future investigations.”
“I went to Death Mile with a Scrabble board, sat down, and asked the ghosts questions. I guess I gave them a way to communicate without needing to haunt me. But I went in expecting it. So far, I haven’t had any symptoms. But the departed are also a great deal more active than I expected.
I hadn’t known ghosts could really manifest like that. ”
“They don’t, not usually. And these ghosts can be photographed. This is the second verifiable time ghosts could be caught on camera.”
Huh. I hadn’t heard about that part. “Does being able to take their photos help?”
“It does, because they’re clear enough we can run their images through our facial recognition scanners.
That is something the FBI started once we got the first images.
We haven’t actually notified the police here that we were able to get information.
This is going to close a lot of cold cases from across the entire nation. ”
“The victims aren’t all from Dragon Heights then, are they?”
“They aren’t. And at least one of the hits is of a victim we thought had been taken by a trafficking ring.”
I regarded the black dragon through narrowed eyes. “At least one trafficking ring might have traded victims with Madam Merorie?”
“That is my current thought, but it isn’t proven.
If it is the case, though, it might let us solve a lot of old cases and possibly track down the rings.
The smart rings will change their operations, but once we crack the bank accounts of traffickers, even of old cases, we can often track down where they went. ”
“The money trail can be followed from bank to bank?”
“Exactly, and when they have a solid methodology, they don’t change their accounts until there’s evidence they need to. Some operations get lazy and fail to launder the money, too. We have a solid chance of bringing her associates down if we can crack this case.”