Erica nodded. “Yeah, and we’d better figure this out soon, or it’s going to blow wide open in the media and we’ll have a shitshow on our hands. The mayor’s managing to keep it quiet, but we’re barely a week in since the first one.” She motioned for us to follow her into the bathroom.
The bathroom was oddly clean, for a public restroom, including the urinals. But what I saw near the sinks stopped me cold. A body, or rather, part of a body. It was another man, but his legs from the thighs down were gone, and—again—a giant pool of clear slime puddled around his lower torso.
“Cripes, that’s bad,” I said. A briny scent filled the air, like saltwater and seaweed. “Do your notes say that it smelled like this near all the bodies you found?”
Erica frowned. “I don’t know. I wasn’t on the scene for most of them. I thought it was just because we’re on the waterfront.” She pulled out her phone and began filming the body.
Wager approached, staying back just far enough so that he wouldn’t disturb the remains. “No, that smell is coming from…I think this slime. Has the medical examiner been able to analyze it yet?”
Once again, Erica shook her head. “I don’t know, to be honest.”
“Do you notice something?” Kipa asked. “There’s no blood. No sign of what killed him. He looks as if he’s sleeping. And where his legs should be—there isn’t any blood. It’s all just clear.”
“You’re right,” I said. “What about the other cases? Any blood?”
“I don’t think so There wasn’t much left by the time the medical examiner got to them,” Varis said.
“Anything unusual on the pier here?” I asked.
Varis shook his head. “I scouted the perimeter, but there doesn’t seem to be anything outside the ordinary. We have to talk to everybody out there, to see who—if anyone—saw anything.”
“Who reported the body?” I asked.
“Security guard. He was making his rounds, and that includes checking inside the restrooms every hour.” Varis shifted uncomfortably. “So, if he’s telling the truth, then this has to have happened in full daylight, within the past…” He glanced at his watch. “The guard said he checked the restroom at two PM. It’s three-thirty now, and we got here about ten minutes ago. We were just getting back to our patrol car when the call came in. Since we were already down here, dispatch sent us.”
I turned back to the corpse, trying to observe the process without losing my lunch.
It was difficult to watch the man as he, for lack of a better word, melted. The process seemed to have started from the feet and was working its way upward. The man’s shoes were in the middle of the slime, and the legs of his pants were slack, with no more flesh to hold them up. As we watched, the material around his pelvis seemed to just deflate.
“I know some creatures—some goblins and a few others—do this when they die, but so far, I don’t think any humans do. There—his wallet just fell out of his pants pocket.” I pointed toward the black leather trifold. “Any chance we can grab it without causing a problem? I’d like to find out who it is.”
“The medical examiner would throw a fit. He’s not the most congenial of people,” Erica said.
“Here comes Alec now,” Varis said. “He’s the new medical examiner. He’ll answer your questions, but don’t be surprised if he acts like you’re an inconvenience. I think he prefers hanging out with the dead—and I’m not talking undead—more than the living.”
We waited as a man, looking to be in his mid-forties, joined us. The expression on his face was unreadable, but he gave us all a look as though we were walking obstacles. He was followed by two technicians, who silently stood to the side.
Erica continued to video the body as it dissolved, and Alec scowled at her, but said nothing.
“Excuse me,” I said. “You’re the medical examiner? Dr. …?”
“Dr. Leache,” he said. “Excuse me, I need to examine the victim.” He started to brush by, but I reached out and lightly touched him on the arm.
“We’re from the Wild Hunt Agency, and we’ve been asked by the mayor to look into this string of killings. If you could answer some questions for us, it would be helpful.”
I kept my voice steady. I figured that he’d probably brush me off, given I didn’t look the part of an investigator, but it was worth a try. On the other hand, I might not seem as imposing as Kipa and Wager. Men like Alec too often had more brains than social awareness, and a number of them seemed to make up for their awkwardness with a blustery attitude toward other men.
Alec stared at me for a moment, then—an irritated look in his eyes—asked, “What do you need to know?”
“For one thing, have you had the chance to analyze whatever that slime is?”
Alec slowly nodded. “Yes, actually. It seems to be all that makes up a human body, in gel form. I have no idea how it happens or why it happens. But if you were to turn a human into a jellyfish, keeping all the elements that make up the human body, that’s what you’d be left with.”
I grimaced. “Okay, so it’s basically just human gelatin that hasn’t hardened?”
“You could say that. All the minerals are there, the cells that make up the blood…though none of the water. As I said, we’ve never come across this before, so we have no idea how the transformation happens.”
“None of the water?” Wager said.
