The team—dressed out in sky blue booties, just in case this was a paranormal case—took pictures and gathered trace evidence, including a knife that FireWind found on the floor. Half an hour later, Rettell carefully unwrapped the body, exposing the short silk-and-lace nightgown the body wore. And her legs and arms.
“No Boot impressions,” I said over the connection to HQ. “No signs of torture.”
Over the connection we heard Rettell say, “Left wrist cut. Blood spatter indicates this is self-inflicted. Recommend this case be returned to local PD and we go home.”
“Recommendation accepted,” FireWind said over the mics. “And I believe that the on-duty OIC will hear a few words from me about trying to dump this case on PsyLED.”
The on-duty OIC was the highest-ranking officer in charge. The locals had called in PsyLED without doing due diligence. I’d hate to be that officer.
Occam said, “We’re off, then.” He ended the connection with HQ and looked at me.
Before he had a chance to say anything my cell rang. It was a number that I had earmarked for Ming of Glass. I showed Occam the cell and said, “Uhhh.”
Occam called HQ right back, told JoJo what was happening, and said, “Okay, Ingram. Answer the number associated with Ming of Glass.”
I answered and said, “Special Agent Ingram of PsyLED Unit Eighteen.”
“Cai,” Ming’s voice moaned. “My Cai is missing. They took him. Who will bring him back to me?”
“When did Cai go missing?” I asked.
“The fiiire,” she said, drawing the two words out like a dirge. “The fire. The fires of hell and of my enemies.” She continued in the same vein and, while I hated to be rude to the MOC, I said good-bye and ended the conversation.
“Tracking Cai’s cell phone,” Tandy said from HQ.
“Dyson. How did you get access to his cell phone?” FireWind asked, his tone sharp.
“You really want to know, boss?” Tandy asked.
A sigh came over the connection. “No, Dyson. I don’t,” FireWind said.
“His cell is on, and I’m inside it. He’s…He’s screaming.”
“Are you okay, Dyson?” Rick asked. Tandy’s empathic sensitivity made him acutely responsive to the pain and fear of others, even over the phone.
“Negative on that,” he said, his breath coming too fast. “Worse, Soul is there. I hear her. And she’s in human form. I know because she’s screaming too.”
“Can you patch it through?”
Audio came over Occam’s laptop speakers. A man and a woman. Soul was screaming. How bad did torture have to be to make an arcenciel scream?
Still sounding breathless, terrified, Tandy said, “The weather is wreaking havoc everywhere, but I have a general location of the cell’s signal. It’ll take time to narrow it down, but we already know it’s miles away from the location of the current active team, in weather that would strand Santa.”
LaFleur said, “HQ. Did the footage from the security system at Ming’s before and during the fire tell us anything about Cai?”
“Nothing we didn’t know or guess. Figures dressed in black swarmed the place, armed with swords and guns. Ming’s people fought back. At least one Molotov cocktail was thrown, and it was enough to activate the sprinkler system. Then it appears some type of curse was launched that shut down the sprinklers, and the place burned to the ground. More or less. If Cai was taken during the attack, we have no footage showing it.”
FireWind said, “Give us what you have on Cai’s signal location.”
“In the general vicinity of the cell tower near Marble City.”
FireWind nearly growled, “Which side of the river?”
“I can’t tell yet,” Tandy said.
There were lot of rivers and reservoirs in Knoxville, all of which had been dammed up to make lakes and create hydroelectric power. Getting from one side to the other of any of the rivers and lakes meant rerouting delays if you didn’t plan way ahead. Which we couldn’t. With ice on the roads, driving would be treacherous.
“Occam. Ingram,” FireWind said. “That appears to be nearer you. It will take us forever to get to Soul.”
