“We’re still pursuing several avenues regarding possible suspects. The victims were very active members of society, and the list, I’m afraid, is rather long,” George explained smoothly.
“In other words, you have nothing.” There was a hint of satisfaction in the chief’s voice that made Andi’s dislike of her go up several notches. “May I ask why your famous instinct hasn’t kicked in yet, Detective Hayes?”
“Oh, don’t worry. It’s kicking like crazy. Would be even more so if we could do our work in peace.” The words weren’t outright disrespectful. They were just challenging enough to warrant a reaction. Andi could see Chief Norris gearing up for exactly that when her phone started ringing. One look at the caller ID and she shooed them out with narrowed eyes, her gaze promising she wouldn’t forget what had just happened.
“Saved by the bell,” Andi commented as they walked to their desks to see if either Shireen, Evangeline, or CSI had any news for them.
“She’s escalating.” George threw his keys on the desk. “We have to be careful, Andi. And I think it would be a good idea to start writing things down. Every interaction we have with her.”
“You think it’s that bad?” Andi didn’t like the woman, but he couldn’t believe things had progressed so far. Especially since George had advised him to be more amiable toward her only a few days ago. Had his partner just tried to shield him then, or was this worry about the chief something new? Maybe it would be a good idea to pay a bit more attention in the future, no matter how distracted he got by hisgeschenk. Another thing he knew would be getting worse over the years—while his awareness of his surroundings, his view of the world, would take on even sharper edges, his perception of other humans, especially the social part of them, would deteriorate to the point where he would test the patience of those who knew him to the breaking point, while strangers would simply wish to kill him for his terrible manners. He had seen it all play out with hisOma, and she had had the excuse of old age to afford her a lot of leeway.
George was booting his PC. “Let me say it like this. I’m not sure how much longer her desire to look good to her superiors will outweigh her animosity toward you and, by now, me as well.” Back to the problem at hand.
“I’m sorry you have to put up with this. You had other plans.” It galled Andi to even mention those other plans.
“She asked me to investigate whether you used shady means to solve your cases. You don’t, I reported as such. It’s neither your nor my fault this woman can’t accept the facts. If she doesn’t learn to work with the realities of life, she’s not going to get much further than her current position.”
“I love how you can put everything into perspective.” Andi didn’t try to hide the hint of sarcasm in his voice, knowing full well George would interpret it as aimed at the chief, not his own aspirations. As predicted, his partner laughed.
“It’s a talent.” He peered at his screen. “There’s no news from either Shireen, Evangeline, or CSI.” He reached for his mouse. “I guess we don’t have a reason to stay here any longer. Unless you want to go over the whiteboards again?”
They both glanced at the two white spaces with all the lines and names on them. They were a visual manifestation of how little they had found out while at the same time drowning in information.
“I think the whiteboards can wait till tomorrow. Let’s go to the crime scene.”
George switched his PC off again. “Do you think we should inform Berta?”
“I don’t like to, but we’re going to need one of her ATVs to get to the lake. I checked yesterday, and the ATVs belonging to the PD are all in use today.” Andi would have preferred not having to rely on anybody for their visit of the crime site. Unfortunately, he knew that he stood no chance getting back on foot like when they had found the bodies, and he didn’t want to burden George with hauling him home. Before the Castain case, he would have been able to recuperate on site enough to walk back under his own steam. Now it wasn’t an option any longer. He would count himself lucky if he was conscious after connecting with the arthropods at the lake, depending on how far he had to cast his senses. The whole thing was even more difficult because the crime had happened at night. There were just as many insects about in the dark as during the day, but the social insects, the ones he relied on for providing a time frame, rested during the night, which complicated things. He only hoped the three victims and their killers had made enough racket to disturb them in a way they noted.
“I’ll think of something to keep her from coming with us.” George opened his cell to call Berta. It was a blessedly short talk, and from George’s end of the conversation—“No, that’s no problem at all, don’t feel bad about it. We’re fine going up there alone—”Andi already knew Berta wouldn’t be accompanying them. George ended the call with a grin. “She’s busy somewhere else. There’s an ATV we can use. The keys are in a key safe she gave me the code for. It’s just going to be the two of us.” He waggled his eyebrows in an exaggerated way that had Andi smiling.
“Can’t wait for it.”
They found the key safe and the ATV where Berta had said. George took a few minutes to familiarize himself with the vehicle before he asked Andi to hop on behind him. With an adventurous roar, the ATV started them on their way to the lake. The trail was devoid of people, not uncommon for this time of the year and on a weekday. George’s body was radiating warmth, helping Andi to relax and prepare for his task.
Despite his mental shields being newly enhanced by a long meditation the day before to prepare him for the aftermath of today, Andi already felt the sensual input from the arthropods in the area battering against his mind. The closer they got to the lake, the more he purposefully opened up in the hopes of catching onto something useful, relying on George to help him down from the ATV and keep him from tripping or running into trees and stuff—
The airwas getting colder, sleeping season, less activity, not now, though, now there was more, the dragonflies hunting, mating, getting the next generation underwater, so much going on, the soil so rich with dying leaves, a feast, the larvae getting fat, the wasps already dying, their queen looking for a hiding spot to hibernate, he had to dig deeper, go back in time, difficult, not that many social insects here, time was for blobs, there were blobs here, so often they ignored them mostly, except for the mosquitoes and ticks, they loved the blobs being here, the wasps remembered the night, the noise had disturbed them, now he had the right day, comparing it to what the other insects contributed, flashes of light in the dark, heavy stomping, the sweet smell of sweat, five blobs, three of them swaying, perhaps dying, they could be useful, the other two smaller, limber, more stomping, the splashing of water, three blobs gone, two leaving, the moths tasted female, two women, there was something strange about them, something artificial overlaying almost everything else, he tried to focus harder, moths were so difficult to read, their perception of chemicals so different from other species, no other drugs, just the ketamine, he would now forever know what it looked like, but what was that other thing, just like at the cabin, and the house of the two females, the moths knew it well, it didn’t register for them as prominently as the ketamine, what else was there about the female blobs, the spiders didn’t sense any poison, they wore dark clothes, their sweat was tantalizing for the mosquitoes, they left more silently than they had come, the stress in their scent completely gone, they were tranquil, the moths could taste it like that other thing, the one he couldn’t place, several anthills on their way, it was night, dark, the ants inside their nests, no reference for Andi, he was looking for something else, anything to help them, he needed to think about what he had found out, why was that important, there was no reason to think, just get that fly into the nest, the bark was ideal to hide away during winter, the nest was empty, just a few dying wasps left, the last brood starving in its cells, a dung beetle was rolling its pill through the grass, the dead season was in the air, how did insects know it was the dead season, no, Andi knew that, he knew why a dung beetle’s pills always had the same diameter, the beetle couldn’t know, it just wanted to lay eggs, hunting that butterfly was easy, the dragonfly was standing in the air above the water, the four wings working separately, like a helicopter’s, no, the helicopter worked like the dragonfly’s wings, why was that important, knowledge helped, he had to find a secure place to weave his cocoon—that was important, why, he was safe underneath the surface, the soil warm and dark and nourishing, digging his path, he needed to go back, no, the soil was good here, plenty of dead leaves to feed from, what was that on the females, why did he care, the sap of that plant was delicious, there was a blob in front of him, familiar, important, not as important as the dead bird, no, more important, he was a blob, this blob was… this blob was…. George, this blob was George, his partner, he needed to tell him, had to get back—
Andi grabbed George’s arms and held on to him as hard as he could.
“It’s fine, Andi, everything’s fine. I’m here, hold on to me. Deep breaths, you can do it. I’m here.”
Andi focused on the voice, on George’s voice that was drowning out whatever the insects shared, muted it, he could return to his own body, forget about the feeling of having four wings or no feet at all, getting his own limbs back under control. He didn’t know how long he stood there, clinging to his partner with the desperate need for an anchor. Suddenly, his stomach rebelled against the overtaxing of his entire system, and he stumbled aside, losing everything he had had that day. At his right, a bottle of water appeared. Andi took it to cleanse his mouth of the vile taste before he gulped some of it down. Not too much or he would go back to heaving immediately, a lesson he had learned a long time ago. He took another few minutes to regain his senses before he blindly reached out with his left hand. George took it, helped him up, his arm coming around Andi’s waist to give him additional support. Andi hated being so helpless, couldn’t do anything against the warm feeling spreading in his chest when George gently steered him toward the ATV, murmuring reassurances Andi didn’t catch, making sure Andi was seated comfortably before he got on the vehicle himself, driving them back to the cabin that was Berta’s base. George saw to it that the ATV was parked correctly, the keys back in the key safe, Andi bundled away in the car. He stared outside, trying to make sense of what he had glimpsed. When George sat down behind the steering wheel, Andi was ready to share the gist of the information.
“It was two females, but neither Tamara Portius nor Sophia McHill.” He closed his eyes. “And I’m almost sure it wasn’t Tabitha Clemént and Josephine Garr either.”
“How do you know?”
“No poison. Tamara and Sophia are both botoxed up to their hairline, and the insects didn’t catch anything like that. With Tabitha and Josephine, I’m not entirely sure. Though the image I got from the arthropods in their house doesn’t completely match with what I saw up here.” Andi frowned, remembering the other substance the moths had picked up on.
“Which leaves Theodora Miller.” George drummed a short beat on the steering wheel.
“I’m eighty percent sure it wasn’t her either. As with Tabitha and Josephine, the way the insects in her house perceive her is different from how the ones out here see things, but there were no hints she was one of them.”
“How is it different?” Andi knew George wasn’t just asking out of curiosity but also in the hopes of finding some clues. It never ceased to amaze Andi what his partner could discern, just from the inadequate descriptions he was giving him.
“You already know how I see people as multilayered pictures from the different ways arthropods are aware of their surroundings.”
