Murder Between the Worlds: A Between the Worlds Novel (24 page)

“Human law isn’t like Elven law. Human’s lie, outright, and the court system is… really complicated. Sometimes guilty people are freed because the evidence isn’t strong enough, or because the jury believes the lie instead of the truth.” She tried to explain.

“That is madness. How can any system function in such a way?” Brynneth scoffed.

“In Fairy no one lies, so the truth is a matter of finding the right people and asking the right questions. On Earth it’s about finding evidence that can’t be easily disputed. Magical evidence is a really difficult thing and some courts still don’t accept it. The cops don’t want to rely on me and have it go to court–if it’s a human–and see their whole case get thrown out. They want concrete evidence. The book would have been that.” She winced, “I imagine that they are pretty pissed with me for destroying it.”

“Then why go back in there?” Jess asked

“Because Syndra was my best friend,” she said, feeling tears burning behind her eyes, “and I am going to help catch this guy if I can.”

Both elves nodded, and to her surprise Brynneth rested a hand on her shoulder, squeezing briefly, “I believe that you will, and anything I can do to aid you I shall. Do not hesitate to ask. I will not allow my niece’s killer to escape.”

Allie felt her eyes getting wide, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize Aeyliss was your niece.”

“Indeed. My youngest sister’s daughter. I would do much to see her killer brought to justice.”

“I will do everything I can.” Allie said seriously.

The group reemerged into the living room to find the two human police and the two Elven Guard squared off, arguing over how to proceed. Bleidd was nowhere to be seen, and Allie assumed, like Liz and Jason, he’d had enough of the details and left.

“That’s not how investigations work,” Walters was saying, his face red.

“What he means,” Riordan added, clearly trying to play diplomat, “is that we can’t just go on intuition and guesses when we have evidence that points the other way. We have witnesses who described two people dumping the body, who look a lot like the two who attacked Ms. McCarthy-“

“How is that possible?” Allie blurted out, without thinking. Everyone turned and looked at her with expressions ranging from concern to disdain.

“I mean, I couldn’t give you a description of them, and I thought the video wasn’t clear, how could you know the suspects are the same?”

“Same general height, same cloaks–and that reminds me, if you could get us the video from your store for last night we can probably see them on the parking lot camera,” Riordan said.

Walters, with an effort to speak calmly, continued, “We need to accept that we were going in the wrong direction with this. This guy, or group, isn’t going to be caught with mumbo-jumbo magic. We’ll solve this case with old fashioned police work.”

Now that Allie was back, the elves were watching to see how this would play out and trusting her and synchronicity to carry the argument. Allie was shaking her head, certain to her core that they had been close to the killer already. “This isn’t right. It’s misdirection. Why kill Syn at all when he could have picked any victim?”

“Maybe your involvement is pissing the killer off,” Walters said coldly, “Maybe it was the two who beat you up in your store and they found out you burned the book they wanted and so they killed your best friend in retaliation.”

Allie felt like she’d been punched in the gut, and she struggled not to start crying, knowing that tears would be a sign of surrender. “Maybe you’re right about her dying because of me,” she forced each word out. “Maybe it’s my fault she’s dead, because it should have been me. But that just proves
I’m
right. I wouldn’t be a threat to the killer if I wasn’t.”

Walters gave her a look of grudging admiration, but he wouldn’t give in, “Or maybe it was a message to me and Jim to try to push us off the case or warn us. She was your friend, but this isn’t all about you, no matter what the elves think. Maybe killing a cop was a message to us.”

Allie decided to press her luck, “Did you have any success with the list she gave you?”

Riordan looked at Walters, who shook his head. “So far it’s a dead end. But we’ll keep working on it.”

Allie had a sudden inspiration. “What if I could find the crime scene? Would that give you something for a traditional investigation?”

“That’s impossible,” Walters dismissed the idea immediately.

All the elves looked at her intently. Riordan hesitated before asking “How?”

“I think I saw the place in a, kind of like a dream. I think, maybe, I have enough of a connection to it from that to find it,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. Actually she was hoping that she could use her connection to Syn and the experience of her friend’s death to follow the emotion back like Tharien had said. She just had to figure out how to do it now instead of years from now.

“Can you do this?” Zarethyn asked.

“I’m not positive I can. But I can try,” she answered honestly.

Walters was shaking his head, “We’re relying too much on you already. You shouldn’t even be part of this–you aren’t a cop and your expert advice hasn’t gotten us anywhere.”

“Detective, Aliaine has been essential to our progress to this point.” Zarethyn said flatly.

“Oh I’m sure she’s been essential to you,” Walters sneered, giving Allie a pointed look. “But I don’t see you getting anything substantial done except hanging around here.”

“Don’t insult us Detective,” the Elven Captain said, his tone dangerous.

“I just don’t see her doing anything but being a complication and distraction. And making herself seem important when she shouldn’t be. Now she’s obviously doing a lot more for you than for us…”

“Rick, that’s enough” Riordan said, trying unsuccessfully to shut the other man up.

“…and maybe she’s a great lay, but you’re not focused.”

Walters tried to keep going but he’d pushed the elves too far. Not, Allie thought, by insulting her or even implying they were getting side benefits, but by implying they were derelict in their duty. Elves might be very sensual by nature and have different priorities than humans, but they took duty and obligation very seriously in their own way. Walters was yelling, all the elves had stepped towards him, also speaking; an intimidating site in their armor. Riordan was trying to stay between them, hands up. She couldn’t hear what he was saying but she was sure it was an attempt to calm things down. Finally he grabbed his partner’s arm and more or less pushed him out the door. Luckily for both of them the elves stood their ground.

She didn’t need empathy to feel the tension in the air, and she realized that the task force falling apart like this could only benefit the killer–and maybe that, ultimately was the point of killing Syndra in particular. She spoke into the wake left by the human police, “This is bad.”

The elves turned and looked at her, and she shook her head. Zarethyn was clearly still piqued, “We will not tolerate being spoken to that way. That detective oversteps himself.”

“That detective is a bigot,” Allie said, feeling tired, “but divisions now aren’t going to help us.”

“We do not need them.” Natarien said curtly before turning to his Captain. “I will go and observe the uniformed officers.”

Allie disagreed, but instead of arguing said, “What officers?”

“There are uniformed officers in Officer Lyons’ room, checking for any evidence that might relate to her death.” Zarethyn said, more kindly. Allie felt herself automatically flinch at the idea of strangers going through Syndra’s things, and Jess came over to stand with her, pulling her against his chest as he had when they’d first heard the news. This time though she allowed herself to be embraced, wrapping her own arms around him and resting her head against his chest. The sound of his heartbeat, even through the armor, was reassuring on a visceral level and she was suddenly glad that the Elven Guard were there and that they were what they were. It was a disturbing feeling though, for someone who had always been wary of what the Guard represented and who was determined not to get pulled into Elven culture. She realized that in the last week her life had changed so radically that she almost didn’t recognize it.

“If I can find the site of the murders, I need to. That will help give the police the evidence they want, and it’ll give you a place to start hunting for the killer.” Allie said.

“I’m afraid we don’t need to look for him,” Jess said gravely. “I believe he is stalking you. If we protect you he will come to us.”

“Or he’ll just keep killing everyone I care about, until I wish I was dead,” she said. Jess tensed, and she swallowed hard, fighting tears. “No, I need to start fighting back, and this is the only way I know how.”

Zarethyn nodded. “How can we help?”

                 *******************************

They had been driving around for hours already, down all the main roads and side roads of the town, working their way out into the old farm lands at the outskirts. Allie sat in the back seat of one of the Guard vehicles, with her eyes closed trying to focus on the energy of the dream-vision and Syndra, without getting overwhelmed by her own emotions. It was a tedious process, but they were making progress.

They had tried starting at the store, which had also given her time to grab the surveillance video the police wanted and stick up a rough sign on the door apologizing to her customers for the shutdown. After getting that done she’d been unable to get any kind of emotional feel from the area, which seemed very odd to her. Frustrated she had suggested they drop off the video at the police station and afterwards Jess had come up with the idea of driving around letting her act like an antennae trying to tune in on the energy. At first it had seemed equally futile but to her surprise as they drove she realized that by focusing on where she felt uncomfortable she could slowly feel her way towards what they were looking for. It was a slow method, but the closer they eventually got to the site the stronger the discomfort grew, until she was sure she could actually feel a tingle of the pain and fear she remembered from the dream.

When she told them to take a left onto one of the old farm roads she knew they were nearly there. Her stomach knotted and she felt her fists clenching, “Slow down, we’re almost there.”

The car slowed and she felt the energy surge, along with something else, something she couldn’t quite describe.

“Stop.”

“Here?” Natarien asked, uncertainly, “There is nothing but empty fields.”

“I know, pull the car over and park.” Allie said, then added, “Please.”

As soon as the car rolled to a stop she was jumping out, leaving the two Elven Guard to catch up. She stood for a moment getting her bearings; there was nothing in sight but old wooden fencing running along the road, and long stretches of empty fields. She hopped the fence and landed easily in the grass on the other side.

This field was being reclaimed by the woods now, but looked like it had still been in use within the last few decades. The grass was high and heavy bushes were everywhere but the largest trees were young birch, with a few saplings of oak and maple mixed in.

She began making her way into the brush at a slight angle to the road only to have Jess grab her wrist and force her to stop. She was going to complain until she realized both of the armored Guard had their swords drawn. When he spoke, Jess’s voice was low, “We can feel something here as well, Allie. You have done enough in leading us this far; let us call for reinforcements now and fall back until they arrive.”

She wanted desperately to argue– she could feel the emotional trail she had been following pulling her forward into the tree line across the field–but one look at the odd, disturbed look on both the elves’ faces convinced her not to argue. “Okay. If that’s what you think is best.”

Jess looked relieved and she realized he had expected her to argue.
You have no idea how much I want to argue,
she thought,
but one or the other of you would probably just pick me up and carry me back to the car anyway. So I’ll behave.

Feeling like she was failing somehow, she turned and went back to the road. All three retreated to the car, where Jess used his Guard-issued cell phone to call the Outpost, and then at Allie’s urging the human detectives as well.
I really should get a cell phone,
she thought idly as they waited for everyone else to arrive,
but I’d probably lose it in the first day. Or break it.

The Elven contingent showed up first, and to her extreme annoyance Jessilaen made her sit in the car, while he got out to talk with Zarethyn and the others. She counted 5 cars, which meant that at least they were taking her seriously. Now if only the human police could be as accommodating.

Will you listen to yourself, Allie,
she thought suddenly embarrassed.
What has gotten into me? Before all this started I didn’t think there was anything special or important about me at all, and now I’m sitting here feeling resentful that I’m not right in the middle of the action. I get one boyfriend and someone calls me an expert in something and all of a sudden I have delusions of grandeur.
It was a humbling thought and she settled down into her seat trying to get some perspective.