EIGHT
(12/28/319 1315 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper looked up when Seraphina perched on the corner of his desk. “Can I help you?”
She nodded. “Would you like to get some extra pay?”
He leaned back in his chair. “You know we could always use it. What did you have in mind?”
“I’ve been asked to work security on New Years again. We’d get double overtime from the city. It’s almost a week’s pay for a twelve hour shift.”
“Is that all three of us or just you and me?”
She shrugged. “There’s work enough for all three of us if Glory feels like spending the night pulling security. Since we’re all detectives we wouldn’t have to pull uniformed duty so she might be willing to do it. Glory hates wearing uniforms. She won’t say why but I think it’s because she associates uniforms with funerals. It’s about the only time she puts one on anymore.”
He shrugged. “Anything is possible. Even if she doesn’t want to work New Years, I’m in. We corporals need all the extra pay we can get.”
Seraphina slipped off the desk. “I’ll ask her. Since you’re working it with me I suspect she will too.”
About an hour later Gloria put her hand on his shoulder. “Coop, did you get suckered into working security on New Years Eve?”
“I don’t think I was suckered. This poor corporal can always use the extra pay. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” He put his hand on hers and squeezed gently. “Did you have plans for some party?”
Gloria shook her head. “No, I didn’t. I also didn’t think about the pay disparity between a corporal and lieutenant. You do realize that the money Seraphina and I make is now yours to do with as you want.”
“Yeah, after the bills, the food, the dry cleaning and everything else, what’s left over isn’t any stupendous sum, is it? Your flat is a lot nicer than my old one and we pay for that niceness.” He put his tablet down on the blotter. “Add in the fact that Seraphina and I both need new clothes for work along with the fact that our clothing allowance won’t come due again for another year and I’ve got some fairly compelling reasons to want to work any extra duty I can get.”
Gloria was silent for several seconds. “You’re right,” she said finally. “And as your alpha I need to be doing my part in all of this.” She leaned down and kissed his ear. “You do realize that I have some savings you can use if you want.”
“That’s yours, Gloria. I won’t touch it unless I have no other choice. If you want to roll it into the group money I won’t stop you, but if you want to keep it separate that’s your decision. Even if you do add it to my account, we need to be looking for ways to increase what we have instead of spending everything we’ve got.”
“Is that Irish frugality in action?”
“It’s just common sense. You really don’t make that much and we both know it. But I make about half of what you do and Seraphina’s pay isn’t a whole lot better than mine. Together we won’t starve, but I don’t want to deplete our reserves if we don’t have to.” He chuckled. “At least I’m not a private and forced to hunt pokegirls on the weekend to make ends meet.”
“Privates won’t starve either,” Gloria tugged her hand free. “They just have to live in the barracks and can’t party as much as they’d like.” She ran her fingers through his hair idly once. “I’ll talk to Seraphina and see what we’re going to be doing Saturday.”
***
(12/31/319 1945 London, Blue Continent)
Seraphina changed to her centaur form and Cooper once again marveled as she doubled in size. She caught the look on his face and grinned as she hefted a breast. “And you thought I was large breasted before. It’s hard to believe these get larger than your head, isn’t it?”
Cooper held up the sports bra that was sized for her transformed state and she wriggled into it. “It’s just hard to believe you get so big. I’m just glad you’re not like this in bed.”
She laughed. “Considering I weigh one and a half tonnes I’d be kind of hard on you and the bed both.” He offered her vest and she slipped it on and zipped it up. Into the vest she tucked her badge, a truncheon and a handful of zip cuffs. “My previous tamer was absolutely determined to have sex with me in this form. It never really worked, but I did the honorable thing and made him think he was doing an outstanding job.”
Cooper tried picturing her and a man mating in this form and gave up. “What was the problem?”
“I like touching and being touched during sex, William. You know how much I like to cuddle. Brad had to stand on a ladder and all he could grab was my ass.” She looked down at him and smiled broadly. “Of course, if you intend to tame me in this form, I’m sure you’ll do a much better job.”
He laughed. “Right. I’m sure you’ll keep saying that as long as I can’t tell if you’re lying to me.” He laughed again when she tried very hard to look innocent. “That’s what I thought. Brownie, down.” She crouched and he used the handholds sewn into the rear of the vest to climb up onto her back. It wasn’t really comfortable, but if he draped his legs over her equine shoulders he wouldn’t fall off as long as she didn’t jump around too much. “Up.” She rose smoothly. They’d practiced this since she’d joined his harem but it hadn’t been so long that he wasn’t still struck with her innate gracefulness. “Let’s go meet Gloria.”
“Just a second.” Seraphina murmured softly and a soft white glow covered her hooves for a second. Then she trotted off.
“What was that?”
“It’s a spell to allow me to keep traction no matter what surface I walk on. That’ll keep me from slipping if I have to maneuver through a crowd of people with spilled drinks or vomit.”
“That’s pretty useful.”
“I learned it in the Blackguards. Traction is vital on a battlefield and there’s lots of mud and ice out there to slip on.”
“I have a question. Why aren’t you and Gloria still in the Blackguards?”
“The Blackguards insist that all pokegirls have tamers and neither of us wanted to be bonded to new ones before we had time to grieve. It was a hard decision for me, but hindsight shows it was the right one.”
The discussion made him remember something he’d been wondering since reading her file. “Did you ever do missions to other leagues?”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “I’m afraid all of my activity in the Blackguards that’s not in my record is classified. I’m sworn not to discuss it. I hope you can accept that and not try to force the issue.”
“Considering both of my parents and all of my sisters all have the doctor patient privilege to deal with, I’m used to not talking about lots of things. It’s a shame though; I’d have loved to hear about your adventures.”
She snorted. “Adventure is something horrible and exciting that happens to someone else, usually far away. When it happens to you, it’s not called adventure. Then it’s called a colossal disaster. What you want is a nice quiet mission where the bad guys get zapped and you return home with nothing worse than needing to take a long bath and to do laundry. Adventure is when that mission goes balls up and the people around you get hurt.” He couldn’t see it but her tone suggested she was grinning. “When adventure happens right beside you it’s called wet when it splatters on you.”
Cooper was very familiar with gallows humor and ignored it. “I hadn’t thought about it that way. Have you had more adventures or missions?”
She was quiet as she headed for the rendezvous point with Gloria. “Missions,” she finally said. “The BLSF plans things out in exacting detail and we train for every possible contingency. It keeps the body count down when the wheels do come off. But it only took one adventure for me to lose Brad. If that’s what happens on an adventure for me, I’m adventured out.”
“That sounds good to me, too,” he said quietly, “since I just realized I’ve had an adventure and it cost me Rosalind. I wouldn’t want to give you or Gloria up, but,” his voice trailed off.
Seraphina reached back and patted his thigh. “Welcome to the club, William. Nobody wants to be in it, but here we are.”
They were silent for the rest of the trip. Gloria was leaning against a light pole when they arrived. She frowned. “Why the long faces?”
“William just found out he’s in the adventure club.” When the Enchantress looked puzzled, Seraphina just said one word. “Rosalind.”
Gloria’s eyes widened. “Oh.” She gave Cooper a sympathetic smile. “I’m planning for that to be your only adventure.”
“I’m all for that.” He straightened his shoulders and changed the subject. “What’s the plan for tonight?”
“We’re looking for criminals. When we find them, we bust them and turn them over to the uniformed police. New Years is a treasure trove for pickpockets and snatch-and-grab thieves.” Seraphina twisted to look at Cooper. “Last year I helped to bust up a Spark orgy masquerading as a New Years party. That sort of stuff is pretty rare though. Most Spark users set up safe houses and stay as low key as possible. The one we busted had managed to screw up and word about it was spreading up and down the street outside the hotel where it was being held.”
Cooper shuddered. “I used Spark once while I was at university. I was still under the influence when I got home and I almost raped one of the girls in my dorm. I would have if she hadn’t knocked me unconscious with a lamp.” His face twisted at something only he could see. “She’d taken the drug before and forgave me since I didn’t hurt her but it was months before I forgave myself. I swore off of Spark and haven’t done any drugs since then.”
Gloria chuckled. “I hadn’t realized our tamer was a lawbreaker. You might not want to tell that story to our future Officerjenny.”
Cooper shrugged. “The statute of limitations had already passed for both for the drug use and the attack or I wouldn’t have mentioned it. Are you going to ride with me?”
“No, I’m not. Considering the crowds I suspect I’ll stay behind you while Seraphina pushes through the revelers. Sometimes a person on foot can slip through the crowd faster than little miss armored transport.” She patted the Rapitaur on the shoulder. “If you see anything, let me know and we’ll get the bad guy.” She flashed a smile at Cooper. “And clinging to you while Brownie bounces after someone is a good way to fall off and get stomped on by those wheel trims she uses for feet.”
“They’re hooves,” Seraphina glared briefly at Gloria. “And you stay out from under me since your ribs would stick to them and your fat ass would slow me down. Uh, sorry, Cooper.”
“Fat? Fat?” Gloria’s eyes smoldered. “I’ll show you fat the next time we spar.”
Seraphina snickered. “You don’t have to wait. I’ll see it when you get undressed tonight.”
“Stop it!” Cooper’s voice cracked like a whip. Gloria stared at him while, beneath him, Seraphina’s body jumped in surprise. “Or you two will be spending time together in the guest bed. One more spat like this tonight and I’m sleeping alone for a while.”
“I’m sorry, Coop.” Gloria looked at the Rapitaur. “And I’m sorry I started this. You didn’t deserve the insult and I apologize.”
Seraphina nodded. “And I’m sorry I took offense, Glory.”
Cooper frowned. “That sounds suspiciously like you two rehearsed apologizing.”
Gloria flashed a smile. “That’s because we did. You’re right to stop us from sniping at each other here and we know you want us to apologize, so we figured out how to do it in such a way that hopefully you’ll be satisfied without having to drag it out.” Her eyes turned serious. “But understand that we know we’re not supposed to fight and sniping is a harmless way to vent stress that we’ve been doing for years. I hope that you’ll allow us this in private. If you don’t at least understand that it’ll take a while for us to stop.”
Cooper thought about it for a moment before nodding. “I can usually put up with it in private. Just be warned that when I feel your friendly insults have gotten out of hand then I’ll go somewhere else so I don’t have to listen to it. At that point I won’t appreciate you two following me so you have an audience to your one-upmanship.”
“That’s fair enough.”
His lips thinned. “I’m glad you agree, but it wasn’t really something I was going to debate with you.”
She blinked at his tone. “Sorry.”
“That’s ok, Gloria. Now let’s get to work.”
***
(12/31/319 2210 London, Blue Continent)
Seraphina lunged so abruptly that Cooper had to cling desperately to the straps or be thrown. She held up a squirming Eva by the neck and grinned. “Caught me a pickpocket, I did.”
“I am not!”
“Liar. She just nicked something off of the blonde with the blue blouse. She’s still got it in her hand.”
Gloria slipped past her and tapped a woman on the shoulder. “You there, hold on a moment.” She motioned and Seraphina lowered the Eva. “I’m police. You hold still or I’ll add resisting arrest to the charges you’re facing.” The Eva froze and Gloria grabbed her hand. “Open it.”
The Eva did so, revealing an ornate bracelet. She gave the woman a guileless smile as the woman gasped and checked her wrist. “Miss, you dropped this and I was just trying to give it back to you.”
Gloria retrieved the bracelet and handed it to the woman. “You’ll hear that a lot. Let me see your identification and you can be on your way. If we need to, someone will contact you later.” The woman held up her I.D. card and Gloria made sure it was visible in the recording view of the camera button on the throat of her cloak. “Thank you. Enjoy your New Years.” She turned back to the Eva as the woman headed off. The Enchantress touched her throat mike. “Central, I’ve got a pickpocket for processing. It’s a pokegirl not a human.”
Millie’s crisp voice sounded in her earpiece. “Uniforms are on the way, lieutenant. They should be there in three minutes.”
Gloria quickly searched the Eva’s simple dress before putting her in handcuffs. “Nothing. Either that was her first theft this evening or she’s handing off what she gets to a partner.” She motioned to Seraphina and the Rapitaur grabbed the Eva roughly by the shoulder.
The Eva winced. “I didn’t steal anything! You’ve got this all wrong, officer!”
Gloria snorted and muttered, creating a small glowing sphere hanging in midair. She touched it with a finger and moved to hover just in front of the Eva’s right eye. “Now if you lie to me again, that will shoot into your eye and out through the back of your head.” The Eva gasped and her eyes crossed as she tried to focus on the tiny orb. “Were you or were you not stealing from that woman?” The Eva looked away without answering, shuddering as the tiny sphere tracked with her eye. Gloria grabbed her head and jerked it around so the Eva had to meet her gaze. “I asked you a question. Answer me or that will kill you.”
“Yes, I was stealing from that human.” The Eva glared at Gloria.
“What is your name?” Gloria poked the Eva between the breasts. “And who is your accomplice?”
“I am not telling you,” the Eva spat. “Do what you will to me, lackey.”
Cooper frowned. “I think she might be an unseen, Gloria.” The unseen were unregistered aware pokegirls or pokegirls with a light feral state who tried to live in society without being noticed. It was a small but constant problem in larger cities. The leading theory about them was that they were leftovers from Sadie Pokens who were escaping from their tamer but didn’t necessarily want a new one. So they’d enjoy the event and purposefully hide themselves until after the free capture period was over. Then they’d scavenge a living from the city they were in, seeking out tamings just enough to avoid going feral if they weren’t already. Usually they’d join in tamings happening in parks and slip away leaving a tamer thinking he’d cuckolded some other tamer. Some of them joined groups of other unseen pokegirls and tamed with them to remain aware. Like this one, unseen pokegirls often drifted into petty crime. “You are going to be arrested and you are going to be punished for your crime. If you are hiding other pokegirls or kits that are dependent on you for a living, you’d better tell us so we can take them into custody and make sure they’re taken care of. Otherwise they’re going to starve and nobody wants that.”
The Eva spat in his direction. “If you don’t want them to starve, then let me go.”
“It doesn’t work that way.” Cooper looked up when a uniformed human and his Umbrea pushed through the crowd. He showed his badge to the pair. “I’m Corporal Cooper. This Eva is under arrest for pick pocketing. I think she’s unseen and has family around somewhere.” Out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed Gloria motioning and the glowing sphere disappearing.
The officer nodded. “Has she been pokeballed yet?” When Cooper shook his head, he waved the Umbrea forward.
The Dark type stalked forward and stopped in front of the Eva. “If you fight the pokeball and win, that’s resisting arrest and to make sure you don’t do that twice I will beat you unconscious.” She tapped a steel truncheon hanging from her belt, “with this. I will enjoy the entire experience. You will not.” She leaned forward aggressively, invading the Eva’s personal space until they were nose to nose. “So you tell me now if you’re going to fight the pokeball and we can skip straight to the beating.”
The Eva shook her head wildly and strained against the cuffs as she attempted to back away from the Umbrea. “I’m not going to fight! I’m not going to fight!”
“Good.” The Umbrea sounded disappointed as she produced a pokeball from her belt and touched it to the Eva’s stomach. The prisoner vanished without a struggle. She looked over the three detectives. “Whose cuffs are on her?’
“Mine,” Gloria replied. “You can have the credit for the collar.”
“Since we’re doing the paperwork,” the human replied acidly, “that’s only fair.”
The Umbrea waited briefly to let the Eva acclimate inside the pokeball before releasing the prisoner and quickly swapping out her cuffs for Gloria’s. Then she returned the Eva once more. “You said she was unseen, sir?”
“I think she is.”
The Dark type’s ears flicked eagerly. “We’ve got a processing station a few blocks away and we’ll rush her there so the duty psychic can mine her brain for information. If we’re fast enough and she is unseen maybe we can get the whole nest before they realize something’s wrong and move.”
“That would be the best thing for the poor sods,” Seraphina muttered. She nodded to the two uniformed officers. “Good evening, you two.”
The man smiled at her. “Congratulations on the promotion, sergeant.” He and the Umbrea headed quickly towards the west and the processing station.
Gloria patted Cooper on the knee. “How are you doing?” When he raised an eyebrow, she smiled softly. “You look kind of uncomfortable up there.”
“Brownie is actually pretty easy to ride this way. She almost threw me when she grabbed the pickpocket, but that just means I should be paying more attention to her.”
“That’s right,” Seraphina grinned at Gloria. “He needs to pay more attention to me.”
Gloria patted her on the shoulder. “Fine, he can pay attention to you during the entire day and me during the night.” Seraphina scowled and the Enchantress smiled serenely at her.
“I have a question.” Cooper frowned briefly when Gloria looked back up at him. “Were you really going to kill her if she lied again?”
Gloria flashed a grin. “That was just a light ball, Coop. But the threat gave her something to think about instead of having her lie to me continuously. They’ll do that if you give them half a chance.” She looked around and pointed. “I think we should go this way for a while.”
***
(12/31/319 2315 London, Blue Continent)
The chant came from up ahead somewhere. “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Without waiting for instructions, Seraphina began gently but insistently forcing her way through the crowd in the direction of the chanting. Gloria immediately grabbed her tail and was towed along in her wake. Cooper scanned ahead as they moved, looking for the problem while Seraphina focused on the people around them, muttering into her microphone as she moved.
A pokegirl fight in this crush of people had the potential to become a scene of carnage and Cooper’s heart quailed at the prospect. He leaned forward. “Can Gloria fly?”
“Yeah,” Seraphina replied. “And if the crowd’s blood is up, flying overhead just makes you a target for everyone with a ranged technique or weapon. If you order her up there, it could be to her death. Millicent says that she’s vectoring teams in as support but we’re still the closest and you’re in charge.”
He shook his head. “Then my one order is that Gloria is in charge. You two have much more experience than I do in this.”
“Good call, sir,” Seraphina glanced over her shoulder at him and gave a quick nod of approval. “Glory, the boss says you’re the boss.”
“I always say he’s intelligent. Get me close to what’s going on and report.”
“I’m on it.”
Cooper carefully stood up on Seraphina’s back to give him more visibility, clinging to her shoulders for balance. Her back was so broad, however that it was like standing on the deck of ship and surprisingly stable. A minute or so later the situation came into view. “There are two girls fighting up ahead in a large open area in the middle of the crowd. Both are armed with wooden swords and the girls look identical.” He scanned the pair. “They’re both Ronin. It looks like we’ve got a couple of drunken sisters deciding to settle some issue between them. I don’t see anyone hurt, but it’s hard to tell.”
“But you can see all of the combatants?”
“I can.”
“Give me your hand.” Cooper reached down to Gloria and she traced a design in his palm. For an instant he felt dizzy. “Ok, stand back up and I want you to focus all of your attention on the fighters. Don’t look at the crowd or anything else. And do not think about me or Seraphina. You’re going to be the guide.”
He was afraid to look away from the fight. “Guide?”
Seraphina reached behind her and grabbed his calves to hold him steady on her back. “Glory’s busy casting right now. You’re going to be the targeting mechanism for her spell, whatever it is. It’ll be perfectly safe as long as your attention doesn’t wander.”
“Brownie,” Cooper growled between gritted teeth as he focused on the two pokegirls fighting in a slow blur due to their enhanced speed, “shut up.”
“Sorry,” she muttered and fell silent.
As he stared at the battling Ronin, he noticed two dark brown forms move out of the crowd. They reminded him of nothing more than foxes from some of his history books except that they were solid colored brown. As he looked at them, they slowed slightly and paused looking around. Cries of surprise from the crowd sounded as they saw the creatures. “Focus, William!” Gloria smacked him on the ankle. He turned his eyes back to the two Ronin. Instantly the brown creatures turned and loped towards them. At the last minute they accelerated until they were blurs and split up, one heading towards each Ronin.
They slammed into the Ronin from behind and Cooper’s eyes went wide when they lost form and flowed over each pokegirl like a water balloon splashing upon impact, becoming a sticky mass that clung to each Ronin, binding their arms and legs together. Strands leapt from each struggling pokegirl towards the other, meeting halfway between them. They touched and contracted, pulling the two pokegirls together into a single mass.
“I love my tar fox spell,” Gloria gloated. “You can relax now, Coop. Sera, get us to the prisoners.”
The Rapitaur went back to shoving their way through the crowd. “Police!” Seraphina bellowed. “Make a hole!”
Cooper clung to Seraphina’s shoulders so he could keep standing and looked round alertly as they moved. Once they broke into the clearing he dropped to the ground so that Seraphina and Gloria could immobilize the still struggling pair of Ronin while he stood sentry. Sometimes bystanders objected to the interruption of their fun or friends of the suspects would try to intervene.
Gloria waved her badge in front of the Ronin. “I’m Detective Gloria and you two are under arrest for fighting outside of a practice field. What are your names?”
Seraphina had turned to face the edge of the crowd as a Samurai shoved her way through the dispersing collection of people and stopped near the prisoners. Disgust was in her voice as she spoke. “The one with the shorter hair is Erin and the other is Terri. They’re both fourteen and still pokekits. I’m Wendy and I’m their mother.” Both of the kits hung their heads as she glared at them. “What did these idiots do?”
“They were brawling in public in the middle of a crowd.” Cooper picked up one of the swords. “With these.”
The Samurai clenched her fists. “So, you were using your shinai on each other outside of an arena and among the helpless? You will be fortunate if your father wishes you back.” She folded her arms. “Right now I’m not certain I do.” She turned to Cooper as the girls went white. “How bad is it, officer?”
“It’s Detective Cooper, actually. Considering that they could have hurt a lot of people with their fighting, the league has made all combat inside the city of London and outside of an arena a pretty serious crime. The fact that they’re kits isn’t going to do much to reduce the charges. They could be confiscated and level fived.” One of the kits burst into tears. The other looked too terrified to move.
The Samurai swallowed hard and suddenly looked far older than her years. “Can anything be done, sir?”
Cooper shot Gloria a questioning glance and she shrugged. “It’s up to you, at least until the first Officerjenny shows up. After that she’ll enforce the law impartially.”
Cooper looked at the crying kit and decided. Children were children regardless of whether they were human or kit. “You better understand that at their next birthday they will be of legal age and then the full weight of the law will fall on them. Until then you had better keep a firmer grip on your children. My report will show that they have been released into the custody of their parents and that will settle this incident since nobody got hurt and there was no property damage,” he met her gaze as her eyes lit up with hope, “but I will write a report of the incident and if they have another one the league will probably send all of your children, human and kit, to someplace where they can receive more structured guidance in their lives.” Wendy went chalk white as he continued remorselessly. “Just as the behavior of a harem reflects on the suitability of a tamer, the behavior of a kit reflects on her parents. Be warned, Wendy, the next time you are unlikely to be so fortunate as to have a policeman like me deciding their fate. An Officerjenny would be issuing you a receipt for them as confiscated property right now.”
The Samurai bowed to him and then turned a glare on her daughters that made them visibly shrink under the fury in her eyes. “These two will be lucky to be let out of the house before they go to tamers,” she pronounced in a tone of doom.
“Gloria, cut them loose. Seraphina, cancel the backup before they get here.” He turned back to Wendy as the brown stuff quickly evaporated. “I need to see your ID.” After she showed him her card and he was sure the information had been recorded, he nodded towards her children. “It’ll be better if you take your girls and go before an Officerjenny shows up and tries to countermand my decision.”
“Thank you, Corporal Cooper. My family is in your debt.” Wendy quickly gathered up her two suddenly compliant children and hustled them off.
Cooper watched them go for a moment. “Gloria, I’ve never heard of the tar fox spell but that was pretty useful.”
“Thanks, it’s one of my own inventions. It’s not really tar so much as a super strong materialized ectoplasm that takes on semi sentient form and personality. So far I haven’t found a pokegirl who can tear her way out of it and if you try to cut it the stuff sticks to your weapon and engulfs you anyway. I based it off of an old legend from an Indigo culture called Cherokee about a tar wolf and a rabbit who was stealing water.”
“William?” Seraphina dropped a heavy yet gentle hand on his shoulder. “I want to thank you for letting those kits go. It’s always hard to break up a family and anyone second guessing your decision will wonder why you didn’t arrest the kits for breaking a pretty serious law.”
“I know they will.” He slipped out of her hand and pointed at the ground. “Down, Brownie.” Once he was settled on her back, he patted her and she rose to her feet. “I didn’t want to arrest kits either, Brownie. I also considered whether or not we were ready to fight the Samurai for her kids and decided that the risk to us and onlookers was just too great. If I get overruled and someone has to arrest the kits it won’t be us that has to do the deed and they can take a tactical team for when things go badly, which they will. Samurai tend to value their kids more than their own lives and trying to take Wendy’s children will be an extremely hazardous undertaking.” He flashed a grin at Gloria. “After all, if Gloria loses another tamer she most likely will be drummed out of the BLSF and I certainly don’t want the Met to lose such a competent police pokegirl.”
The Enchantress grinned back. “I suppose the fact that you’ll be dead at that point never really factored into your decision.”
“Why, I don’t think it did, but you’re right. I need to remember that.” He nudged Seraphina’s shoulders with his heels. “Let’s go.”
***
(01/02/320 0945 London, Blue Continent)
Seraphina opened a new window in her tablet and pulled some recently arrived reports into it. The forensic toxicology reports on the murdered were still pending and she didn’t expect those for another few weeks. While she was new as a detective, she’d been studying for the position and doing ride alongs whenever she could, and so she knew that the different samples of blood, tissue, urine and other bodily fluids in a corpse took a while to process. Add the fact that multiple blood samples were taken from various parts of the body since the concentration of a drug found in the femoral artery, for example, could differ widely from that found in the heart or brain.
Popular vid dramas often had the results back almost immediately, that that was only possible when the magic of script writing was involved. It was true that in the real world magic use in forensics was a growing field of study, but the results still had to be verified using scientific methods until confidence in the results grew stronger and that could take years.
So the toxicology results on the bodies hadn’t come in yet. But the blood work taken from Bianca and the scene where she’d been attacked had been processed and that’s what Seraphina was looking at. Samples had been taken from Bianca at the pokegirl center as well as of just about every blood drop that had been found at the scene of her attack. Every one of them had to be tested just in case one of them came from the killer and not Bianca. Unfortunately all of them were from the Supe-Bra Genius and none were contaminated by other blood. Still, they had been processed as per procedure and the reports sent to the investigating team.
The reports listed a summary of what had been found in each sample as well as the amounts of anything discovered. Appended to the report at the very end were the printouts from each chemical assay that had been run. Seraphina decided to look at those first. The big spike for the presence of paraspray was expected and Seraphina used processing software to screen it out while she looked for anything unusual. She spent some time matching up peaks with the various chemicals listed in the summaries and finally started stacking the printouts in her display and masking everything that they all had in common.
The resulting graph had lots of flat where commonalities were removed and a handful of areas where things varied between samples. Seraphina focused on those and worked through the differences.
An hour later she got up and got herself some tea, thought about it and made cups for Gloria and William. She dropped them off and retrieved her tablet from her desk before she sat down beside Cooper. “Glory, I’ve got something strange and I want to get an expert opinion.” She smiled at Cooper. “And I want you to see just how smart I am in case it is important.”
He grinned slightly. “You’ve got brains to go with the beauty?”
Gloria rolled her eyes. “Everyone does, Coop. It’s all about how much they use their brains that matters. While normally I’d insult my harem sister at this point, I’ll just say that her brain has worn off more of the shiny than some I know. Having said that, what is it, Sera?”
The Rapitaur handed over her tablet. “I’ve been looking at Bianca’s blood work. There’s something odd in some of them and I wanted you take a look at it. I highlighted the pertinent sections.”
Gloria examined the display carefully. “It looks like crap that got scraped up with the samples in question. It happens sometimes.”
“That’s what I thought first,” Seraphina replied. “But if you pull up and look at the map of the scene and match it with the samples with that odd spike in it, you’ll see that it is only present in the samples of Bianca’s blood that were collected at the scene, but it’s present in all of them. Considering the splatter on the floor, walls and even the trashcans, whatever this is, it is either in her blood when it’s outside her body and not inside or someone painted the entire area with this stuff before she was attacked there.” She shrugged when Gloria gave her a puzzled look and accessed the scene photo mosaic. “I even thought that maybe the weapon had been coated with whatever it is, but it isn’t present on any of the swabs of the cuts. And the lab can’t identify whatever it is, so it’s not in the standard database which means it isn’t the usual garbage found at an outdoor murder scene.”
Gloria frowned. “It’s probably nothing, but go ahead and request the lab retest all of the samples and run the chemical composition against every database they’ve got. Considering what’s going on, I’m sure the major will sign off on the expense.” She handed the tablet back. “And who knows, you might have found something important.”
***
William Cooper
Gloria - Enchantress
Seraphina – Rapitaur