To: The Wild Hunt Agency
CC: Officer Erica Wildicast
Summary of Examination of the Waterfront Victims’ Deaths:
While I personally believe the deceased are victims of homicide, I cannot provide proof to sustain that conclusion. I have not been able to establish a reason for any of the deaths, nor for the ‘dissolving’ process that all the bodies underwent. There is nothing in modern medicine, nor in the annuls of the research that I have done, to explain what happened. It’s truly a mystery.
The toxicology screens of the remaining bodily fluids/material show nothing out of the ordinary. The only common denominator I could pinpoint was a massive lack of sodium—hyponatremia.
This would be enough to make the men sick, but not kill them within the timeframe given. Without further evidence, I have chosen to mark these deaths as suspicious, but I cannot label them as homicides.
I stared at the email. “Hyponatremia? A lack of sodium? I didn’t even know that was a thing that could happen.”
“Apparently so. You know that the cops—” Yutani stopped as my phone rang.
I glanced at the caller ID. Erica. “Hello, I thought I’d be hearing from you.”
“Did you get the memo from Alec?”
“Yeah, we’re just looking at it. What does this mean?” I asked. “I’m going to put you on speaker.” I pressed the speaker button. “Go ahead. We’re listening.”
“Given that there is a lack of any direct evidence of homicide, we’ve been notified that we will no longer be investigating these deaths. Not until something definitive crops up. Therefore, while the medical examiner will be dispatched to tend to any more bodies, if the cases present like the ones we’ve had, we won’t be involved. The case is now yours. We’ll be here if you find something.” Erica sounded almost embarrassed.
“I see. Final word?” Wager asked.
“Unfortunately, yes. You know how to contact me,” she added.
“That we do,” I said. “Thank you for letting us know.”
“I’ve sent over all our data that we have on the cases. Talk to you soon,” Erica said.
I pocketed my phone. “Well, we’re on our own. Somebody better tell Herne?—”
“I’ll message him,” Talia said. “But this may actually work to our benefit. We don’t have to watch stepping on the toes of the cops.”
“Talia has a point,” Yutani said. “We can do things our way, and that may expedite matters.”
“What do we tell the families, then? Will the cops notify them?” I asked.
“Yeah, and you’ll probably arrive there afterward. The families will—most likely—pin more hopes on our investigation. That’s a heavy burden,” Wager said. “But it may ensure that they’ll be willing to talk to us, if they think we’re their main hope.”
“Both good and bad. All right, who calls the families to ask about visiting them? I’m not all that good with things like this,” I said.
“I’ll do it,” Herne said as he entered the room. “What’s this about the cops?”
We filled him in on everything that had happened.
“Well, then,” he said. “I suppose I’d better get on this. I’ll do it tomorrow, since I doubt we’ll get them to talk to us today. Let’s hope that we don’t have another murder on our hands before we can wrap this up.” He glanced at the clock. “Go ahead and head out. There’s not much else to do today.”
“I think I’ll stick around and research any cases that might be like this—the police might not have any records, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened somewhere else,” Yutani said.
“I’ll help,” Wager said. He headed after Yutani.
Kipa wrapped his arm around my waist. “Well, first day on the job and we’re already neck-deep. Come on, let’s go home. We can stop for takeout on the way.”
I nodded. I felt unusually quiet. The reality that a serial killer was loose in the city and the cops couldn’t investigate was sobering. Things had been drastically different in Kalevala. Then again, there were far fewer people there. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.
We stopped at our favorite pizza place on the way home, only to find that it had closed and a dry cleaner had taken the spot. But next door, a China Palace franchise had opened up, so we stopped in there and ended up ordering enough food for six. We came out carrying bags of egg rolls, pork fried rice, orange chicken, sweet-and-sour chicken, and potstickers. The car smelled absolutely divine the rest of the way home.
