Matt was smart enough to keep quiet until they got back into Keegan’s car and left the Supernatural District before he asked the question that had been bothering him since they had arrived. “What exactly are you Keegan? I can’t ever seem to pin you down.”
Keegan eyed the detective out the corner of her eye, “Are you sure you really want to know?”
“I believe that’s why I asked you.” Matt nodded a gestured vaguely for her to continue on.
Quickly weighing the pros and cons of letting a homicide detective, although he was one she trusted her life with up to a certain point, it was better to leave this subject untouched.
“Look, it doesn’t really matter what I am or what I can do.” Keegan ignored the itch of wanting to tell him more. They had worked together on numerous cases, he had given SIU a chance and never spoke ill of them but there was something in the back of her mind that told her not to tell him that she was a necromancer. “All that’s really important is the fact that I’m on your side and I will always be on your side.”
Matt let out a frustrated breath before he nodded to himself. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say Keegan.”
Being a necromancer wasn’t something anyone would willingly share with the world. Not anymore. There were too many negative associations with the word. People had focused on horror stories of the past. Her mentor, Declan Phillips had morphed a respected gift into a curse.
When she was had just turned thirteen her powers started to appear. There weren’t many people you could turn to if your child was a necromancer. People didn’t know how to help these kids, not that there were many. Declan Phillips was the closest necromancer to where she lived at the time and he hadn’t actually lost his mind at the time he taught Keegan how to keep her powers in check. Take the trauma of finding your mentor cutting up a body, the torture of high school, well that’ll uproot a family from the southern states to a place people had no clue who you were.
Keegan still was associated with Declan from time to time. What he did was all over the news and not too soon after word had gotten out that he had an apprentice and that person was Keegan.
It didn’t matter now. Not really. Declan Phillips was currently residing in a maximum security prison because he abused his abilities and used it against the mundane people. He raised the dead, sacrificing the living in the process. He manipulated the will of every human around him and in turn he turned them into brain dead shells. Once he had used his victims up, he did worse. He mutilated their corpses trapping their souls in hollowed out bodies.
Despite the fact that she trained with him, Keegan was nothing like Declan Phillips. She didn’t mutilate the dead or use them in rituals for her own gain. Being a necromancer was a gift. It allowed her to listen to the dead, to communicate with them. In crimes she could hear the way someone died. If it were a violent death she often times could see moments as if they were still-frame.
Even though she could do what Declan did, she chose not to. It didn’t matter that she could raise the dead. If she had a strand of hair, she could control a person’s will and manipulate them to do anything she wanted. Ghosts could become her accomplices waiting on her every command. She could use her power to ward an area, to keep someone out. But she wouldn’t. It wasn’t who she was.
Necromancy was much more than death. It’s the ability to manipulate the essence of life that makes a necromancer so powerful. The will behind that power determines whether someone could remain pure or turn evil.
The rest of the car ride was silent except for the sound of the heater and the bumps beneath the tires. She parked where they had first met up earlier in the evening. They sat in her car in silence before he unlocked his door. With his hand on the handle he shook his head, “You know I could pull your personnel file and find out what you are. It wouldn’t be hard to do with my rank.”
“You could,” Keegan agreed. “But if the thought hadn’t crossed your mind until tonight then do you really need to know?”
“It’s just,” Matt curled his hands into fists before he was shifting on the seat to face her. “I know that Leeroy is a Djinn. Melinda is a werewolf and Gary, bless his geeky soul is a dragon. How that is even possible? I don’t know but I am not going to argue with him about what he is. I’ve seen him when he gets angry but you? No one knows a damn thing about you.”
Keegan turned away from him, staring out the window and at the stone building that was illuminated by gnarled gas lamps. “Just if you do look into my files, don’t tell everyone at the precinct. The SIU gets enough trouble and I don’t need to field anymore jackasses than normal. Okay?”
“I won’t look into your files,” Matt muttered out half-heartedly. “I trust you Keegan. You’re a cop just like the rest of us. If you weren’t they wouldn’t have brought you in to lead the SIU and you wouldn’t hold the rank you do. But you know that you can trust me too. I wouldn’t leave you out to the dogs just because you’re a little bit different than I am.”
“Thanks,” Keegan whispered. “Get some rest. Tomorrow should be eventful if not extremely busy.”
Matt snorted out a laugh. “Yeah you get some rest too, Keegan.”
Keegan was sipping on a cup of hot chocolate when Leeroy made his way to his desk. His gate was slower than usual and his eyes were fogged over with exhaustion from the previous night’s information crawl. She watched him as he dug through his bag and tossed manila folders haphazardly onto his desk not really caring where they landed. Finally one flew across the space separating their desks and slid across the papers Keegan had been studying.
“What’s up?” Keegan set her mug down and flipped through the file. It was full of his hand written notes along with a few photos that spilled out of the folder. “It looks like someone had an eventful night.”
“Mason Mills, the jackass extraordinaire was said to have a few run-ins with the Barr’s about a year ago and then things changed between them. Really, the relationship they had varied from witness to witness. I didn’t know who to listen to because some people said he wasn’t friendly with either of them and others said that he was their best friend. About a year ago at Hudson’s, that bar on North Decatour? Mason let things get a little physical between himself and Cody. Mason almost ended up with more than a broken arm and nose. It wasn’t anything a full moon wouldn’t fix so there weren’t any actual hospital reports or documentation of the event but it’s well known that Cody Barr came out on top when they squabbled. I figure if there’s anyone we need to be checking into, he’s probably going to be our guy. At least if town gossip has any root of truth to it. The thing is everything is so two faced. While some interpreted the event as hostile a few witnesses said things just got a little out of hand between friends.”
Keegan raised a brow at the frustration Leeroy was projecting across the room at her. “And what are the locals down in the supernatural district saying about him? You know, besides the fighting? What are the good things that have been said about him?”
“Most of it was he’s an a*shole who needs to be taught a lesson but when I got a particular chatty Fairy I learned a little bit more about what makes this guy tick.” Leeroy moved to start making coffee. “She said early on he was all for blood purity and just seeing mixed couples like the Barrs pissed him off. Then within the last year or so, he straightened his act up. Even Diyo allowed him back into his club.”
“On one hand we have a supernatural Hitler in the making and on the other we have a reformed man.” Keegan mused out loud before trying to figure out what exactly Leeroy had gotten up to last night. She grinned when she spotted the tell-tale bruise of an exciting night just underneath the collar of his shirt. “This Fairy, did she happen to tell you anything else or did you two just have fun last night?”
“Well,” Leeroy turned and rested against the counter with a pleased grin stretching across his lips. “They say the pixie dust always made for great sex. I guess they weren’t lying.”
Keegan snorted out a laugh. “Really?”
“She looked like she was an innocent, vanilla girl. But her? Oh hell, I thought I was going to die of dehydration.”
“Going to see her again?” Keegan highlighted a few important details that Leeroy got out of people talking about Mason Mills.
“Probably, she’s the first girl who didn’t care I was a Djinn.” Leeroy shrugged before he set about doctoring his coffee just how he liked it. Sugar and Tabasco. “She wasn’t afraid of my hands. Anyways, Mason Mills gets around apparently. He makes rounds around the district and most people just stay away from him because they don’t know what to expect from the guy.”
“Everyone except Cody and Alice Barr,” Gary interjected as he hopped the last few steps of the stairwell and landed smoothly in the basement heading straight for coffee. “Apparently he and Alice were the two who got Mills banned from Diyo’s and a few other less than reputable places in the district under the claim that someone needed to show him not all supernaturals were animals. I can’t say I fault Cody’s logic because Mills was a bit of a monster. But here’s the thing, Mills cleaned up. It took some time but he isn’t the dictator in training that everyone was afraid of.”
Gary didn’t bother with any other flavoring except the Tabasco sauce before he chugged the coffee straight down and started making another cup full. “I headed to The Cave last night to see what they thought about the Barr’s death. Hamilton won’t allow any were into his place ever since Mason tried to start something with the rest of us. Apparently there were too many hormones flying around so he keeps it dragons only.”
“And you guys didn’t dragon-out and burn him to ashes?” Keegan teased Gary.
“If I didn’t want to go to prison for lighting the rest of the district on fire I would have volunteered to turn the jerk to ashes. But alas,” Gary sighed, “I never actually met the man. I have a boss who is demanding enough that I’d rather go home and play a round of WOW and hit the sack rather than go out for a beer.”
“You are just a geek with no life.” Melinda commented as she flopped down in the chair behind her desk. She looked over at Keegan, “I guess they’ve told you about Mason Mills?”
“Yup.” Keegan nodded. “What I would like to know is why I heard it from them first and not from you? He’s in your pack.”
“Just because we share the same alpha doesn’t mean that I know everything that’s going on, Keegan. Part of our job here at SIU is to be the neutral party. People don’t gossip with the wolf who works for the SIU.” Melinda shrugged. “Plus Mason wouldn’t have been friendly to me even if I had met him since I’m considered a half-breed. He wasn’t the greatest fan of those who aren’t completely wolf, up until recently. But I did make a list of a few people you might want to check out because they fall in line with Mills’ pervious ideas of what an ideal supernatural should be.”
Keegan took the proffered paper and sighed. Five more wolves added to the list that they would need to check out. “Anyone see if maybe there was anyone or anything else that Cody or Alice Barr got into trouble with or could have possibly gotten mixed up in?”
“All of Cody’s troubles lay with people who were like Mason Mills once upon a time.” Gary answered. “Everyone else claimed the guy got along with everyone and everything under the rainbow. He didn’t even pick fights when he had a little too much to drink. He just didn’t particularly like the radicals.”
“That only leaves us with Alice. Homicide has probably already checked out her friends but they haven’t sent anything to us so someone needs to check her out. Maybe someone was after her instead of coming after Cody. She was put through a bit more pain than Cody was before she died.” Melinda offered as a suggestion before turning the table and asking her own question. “Did we get the autopsy results in or are we still waiting on them?”
“We are still waiting,” Keegan supplied. “We’ll probably get Doc Biggerson’s reports this evening or tomorrow morning. Are there any volunteers to go bother Detective Hollis to see if his people have anything yet?”
Leeroy sent Keegan a sly grin. “I heard you spent most of the night with him at Diyo’s. So why can’t you bother him?”
“That would be because Diyo’s bothered him so much he wanted to know what I was and how I got to head the Spook Squad. Apparently I appear pretty human.” Keegan rested her hand in her hands before she gave up on giving her self a pity party and read over Gary and Melinda’s notes.
“Please tell me you lied to him?” Melinda had booted up her computer and began clicking away at her keyboard, probably shooting an e-mail to the ME trying to bypass bothering with homicide.
“Nope.” Keegan grimaced at the hiss that Gary let out. “I didn’t tell him anything. He mentioned that he had the authority to look into my personnel files if he wanted to.”
“So we should expect a witch hunt soon? Because I’m not seeing this going any other way but bad.” Gary sat down in the chair across from her desk and propped his head on the corner of it. His eyes twitched to the slits of orange before they morphed back to the hazel eyes of a human. “Should I barricade the door way and wait to burn the priests to ashes?”
Keegan let the laughter bubble up from her chest and escape. She ruffled Gary’s already messed hair. “The fact that you would be willing to do that for me makes me feel a little bit safer.”
“I’d do anything for family,” Gary huffed out. “Plus if you were really scared you’d snap your fingers and make Leeroy fight them off.”
“She wouldn’t dare.” Leeroy absently commented.
“I don’t know, Keegan can be pretty dastardly if she wanted, just saying.” Melinda cracked a grin. Her computer let out a beep indicating she had received an e-mail. “Doc Biggerson finished Cody’s autopsy and she’s going to start on Alice’s after lunch. She said and I quote, ‘If Keegan wants the damn reports so badly she damn well knows where to find me and she can damn well march her ass over to get them’. Also we, not just Keegan, are invited to sit in on Alice’s autopsy if we feel so inclined.”
“Until then we’re working Alice’s angle. There’s not much time before the autopsy to check in on Mason Mills. I want to have plenty of time to get to know him. So let’s see if we can come up with anything good with her. Who wants to ride along with me to Misery Real Estate?” Keegan picked up her bag and her keys. Gary was already throwing his messenger bag over his shoulder and heading towards the stairs. “You two, keep working on Cody Barr’s prior mishaps with Mason. Leeroy check out those other wolves see if they have any pops on their records especially any assaults or anything that can be linked to a hate crime. Melinda if you could stay on your end of things, keep digging on issues that might cause something this drastic to happen that would be great.”
“Not a problem boss.” Melinda saluted Keegan as she focused back on the monitor in front of her.
“We need to speak with their parents at some point. They’ve been notified but I doubt they’ve been spoken to in length.” Keegan added as a parting shot as she headed up the stairs and to the main lobby of the precinct. “Melinda check with detectives Cassidy and Hollis to see if they’ve already taken care of that and if not we need to get on that.”
“Adding it to the list.” Melinda shooed Keegan and Gary out of the office not needing anymore tasks added to her list. “Stop being lazy boss. Go and get some work done.”