“Admit I’m pure?”
“Say what you want.”
“Well, since you’ve admitted it, let me tell you—you have nothing to worry about. Half of them are cooperative. They’ll get the job done. The other half are not at all cooperative, their souls as black as mine is pure as the virgin snow. Just being near them will taint you. Best be wary.”
“The way you talk, I can never tell what you actually mean.”
“I mean everything. This is a charitable warning! If you desire a long life, at any rate. How large is your pension?”
“I’m not staying here that long.”
Miseria sighed dramatically.
“Then we’ll be stuck waiting for the next doomed detective? Deary me. More unfortunate sacrifices.”
“They’re spinning in their graves.”
“Warning number two—anger is bad for your health. You should smile more!”
She put both index fingers to the corners of her mouth, pulling them upward. Behind her, the elevator arrived, and the doors opened.
And who’s the one damaging my health? he thought, lining up beside her.
One of the Lifetaker’s hideouts was in the Sixth Ward, south of Dillo, in a middle-class residential neighborhood. It was inside an abandoned elementary school. There were signs labeling it as private property, no trespassing, and the grass had been left unmowed. Once brightly colored playground equipment was now rusted and stained, with dirt plastered to it.
The morning dew dampening the hems of his trousers, Rogue cut through the grass and stepped inside the school building. Already, he caught the stench of death.
That’s more than one or two.
There were eight classrooms, and all of them stank.
“Going in.”
He reached for the first door. It was rusty and took him a minute to deal with. They spotted the corpse before he got the door fully open.
A skeleton. Practically all the body’s flesh was gone.
It was bound hand and foot to a folding chair, head down. The stench of rot wafted from it. Flies clustered around the few remaining scraps of flesh. The stench was like a punch to the nose as he stepped through the door.
“My, my. Quite a welcome party,” Miseria said, whistling.
Rogue wondered if the Lifetaker expected them to find these bodies. Like the backstreet, this place might be a trap.
He picked his way through the class and saw the blackboard behind the podium. On it was a gate sigil in chalk. The Lifetaker was making good use of the existing facilities.
“A practical son of a bitch,” he muttered.
“Or a stingy one,” Miseria answered. “Let’s move on.”
Each class had more bodies. Not an unusual sight in his line of work, but it still put a frown on his face. It was like the perp had dumped his trash here.
Each classroom had another gate. And there were dampening spells on the walls and windows—no matter how loud someone screamed there, no one outside would ever hear a thing. That alone proved the murders had happened there.
Once they toured the classrooms and stepped outside, he started getting texts from the other witches. More bodies and gates. Nothing else was out of the ordinary, so they were headed back to the precinct.
Miseria peered over his shoulder.
“Then we should head back ourselves. We did find something, after all.”
“Something unpleasant.”
A witch in his passenger seat—and a rotating roster of ’em. He wouldn’t have even imagined the concept before coming to the Sixth Precinct. Something like that could never happen. But here he was, their new toy. As he laughed at himself, they left the elementary school.
They drove for a while, then Miseria said, “I have something important to tell you.”
“What?” he said, looking askance.
“Finding the lairs and gates is arguably progress. But to get us here, you’ve been burning rubber.”
“Yeah, well, detectives don’t get to sit still.”
“Hmm. Rogue, you of all people should be aware of what you lack.”
“Huh?”
Miseria put a finger to her chin for emphasis.
“Well, if you haven’t, you haven’t. So be it.”
“Wait, did you…?” Rogue felt his palms sweating on the wheel. “Are you up to something again?”
“That’s such uncharitable phrasing. I am not up to anything. Nothing major anyway.”
Miseria wagged the finger in front of her face with a sinister smile.
“It’s almost noon. We’re rapidly running out of the carbs necessary for sustaining life. Burning through those means our brains are barely functioning. Rogue, this is an active threat. There’s a café over there. Pull in.”
He glanced at it, ran through what Miseria had said, and concluded that the concern wasn’t real. The café sign vanished behind them.
“Or we could try that burger joint. An adult male requires approximately two thousand two hundred calories a day. You can brute-force what you’ve lost with a burger and a shake.”
The burger joint sign vanished behind them.
He could feel a vein throbbing in his forehead. It was starting to hurt. When Miseria started talking about what donuts were made of, he lost it.
“Can you not just wait? Are you a child?!”
“I’m an adult. I told you, I’m one thousand two hundred years old. But the longer you live, the more unbearable some things become. You’ll understand one day.”
“Don’t try and make it sound deep!”
One hand on the wheel, he shoved the other in the glove compartment, pulled out a packet of gum, and threw it at Miseria.
“Chew on that! And don’t waste our time.”
“Rogue, this is mint. That doesn’t qualify as sweet.”
“Shut up!”
As he roared, he saw a familiar nun by the side of the road. She was talking to another, older nun. Was there a problem? He pulled over to scope it out.
“I—I am not part of the church,” Catherine was protesting.
“Then why are you wearing a habit?” the other woman said.
“This is my, um, identity? I’m……………a Saint.”
“Saint?! Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Uhhhh?”
Unable to watch, Rogue rolled his window down and called out, “Hey!” Catherine spun around, startled. “Sorry, she just likes dressing up. Not trying to convince anyone she’s with the church. Can you let her off the hook?”
The woman grumbled but went away. There was a church nearby—she must work there.
“Th-thank you…,” Catherine said, climbing into the back seat. She looked exhausted. “I was looking at empty houses and bumped into her on the way out…”
“What a nightmare! We must get you some chocolate to make up for it. Rogue.”
“Don’t have any,” he snapped. He looked at Catherine. “You find anything?”
“There was a gate on the floor. What about your end?”
“Same. With bodies.”
“It was so gross. Catherine, you should have come.”
“You are incorrigible,” Catherine said, reaching up and yanking Miseria’s earlobe. “Why do you always have to be mean?”
“Rogue, Catherine is attacking me.” He ignored her. “She’s pulling my ear! It hurts! Why must I be subjected to this? I haven’t the faintest idea!”
“I warned you! You have a lecture coming! This is it!” Catherine yelled.
“No, this is merely corporal punishment. If you are a Saint, you should defeat me with logic.”
“If I let you speak, you’ll hurt my feelings!”
“Incidentally, you’re stronger than you look. I’m actually crying.”
“Let the tears flow! Sob into your sleeve!”
“My, my, such a twisted mind. Today may be my last day alive.”
He balefully watched Miseria shrug.
So dumb.
“Rogue, you are betraying me! You swore you would come to my rescue!” Miseria wailed.
“Don’t remember doing that.”
“Well, once she’s torn my ear off, you’re going to have to live with that regret. I imagine it’ll take its toll on your sleep.”
“Your ear isn’t coming off, and even if it does, I’ll sleep like a baby.”
“You’ll have bad dreams. Nightmares of my torture!”
“Sounds like a good dream to me.”
“Cruel! Heartless! You would abandon a weeping maiden?” Miseria cried, but Rogue felt absolutely nothing.
They could see the Sixth Precinct now. Having realized ear pulling was getting her nowhere, Catherine was now grinding her knuckles against Miseria’s forehead. Miseria vainly tried to elicit sympathy, toying with Catherine. The futile squabble continued until the car stopped. It was out of his hands.
Wondering what was wrong with them, Rogue shook his head.
Still, the witches had done good work.
They’d found weapons at the Lifetaker’s lairs. Destroyed sigils set as traps and made it possible for personnel from other divisions to cover the rest. Even the trap that had worked so well on Catherine proved no obstacle to the witches now that they were motivated. His phone was lighting up with photos of the scenes.
Meanwhile, the street gang’s graffiti attack was effectively disrupting the gate network. Someone believed to be the Lifetaker was beginning to appear on city cameras—because they were forced to get around on foot. Literally.
They had golden eyes.
The one distinctive feature Catherine had identified. Eyewitness reports were coming in from across the city—not just the cameras. Rogue felt sure it would not be long before the crook was under arrest, in jail, and on the receiving end of his fist.
Lying on a bed in the nap room, he threw a punch at the ceiling. There was a knock at the door. That was unusual. The witches usually spent the night in their private chambers, and none had ever visited the nap room before. Rogue sat up in bed.
“Come in.”
“Er, pardon me…”
It was Catherine.
“Whatcha need?”
“Er, um…” She stopped in the doorway, fidgeting.
“Take a seat,” he said, exasperated.
“Uh, okay.”
She settled down on a cushion a few steps away from Rogue.
“So? What?”
“Um, well…”
Catherine’s brows drooped. Her mouth flapped, and her eyes wandered. She’d come to him but seemed reluctant to speak. He waited patiently.
“……Oh! Good work today! I hear you made a lot of progress!” Catherine finally said.
“Mm-hmm.”
“That’s nice! I mean it…”
“Right.”
“……” He shot her a look, and she blinked rapidly—anxiously. “Er, um! Sorry I didn’t warn you about Miseria. Testing you… That’s not right!”
“Under the bridge. The upside is we’re making good progress.”
Catherine groaned.
“You have something to say or not? ’Cause I need to get some sleep.”
That got to her.
“I do! I have something!”
Catherine realized how loud her voice got and blushed.
“……I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
Not like anyone else is sleeping here. Rogue and Rico were the only nonwitches in this precinct.
Catherine’s gaze dropped to her hands.
“……Why did you become a detective?”
He wondered where that had come from. He looked her over, but there was no smile on her face. She was staring him right in the eye.
“Why do you wanna know?”
“……You came to my rescue. There was no good reason for you to do that, but you did. I’ve never been able to save anyone, but if I can, I’d like to make your wish come true.”