Book 4 - The Hardest Temptation Sneak Peak!
Book 4
A dead body in the park was not the weirdest thing to happen that day. Death was pretty commonplace in Theo’s work so the strange conversation he had in a church after finding the body was far more interesting. A beautiful woman went out of her way to ignore him, then refused to cooperate with his very real investigation into the dead body in the park. He had introduced himself as an agent of the FBI and yet she had stared through him like he was made of glass. No amount of charm or humor could shake her and in the end, he had conceded that she was not going to be of any help at that moment. Though, she did agree to answer one question. He asked for her name.
Theo stuffed his hands into his pockets as he finished the security dance at the front of the Javits Federal Building where he worked. He headed up to his floor and sat at his desk. He was there half a second, looking over the spotless, little used surface before hopping back up on his feet and back to the elevator to get to the coroner’s office in the basement. He was eager to get the autopsy results on his Unidentified Person. Something about the whole situation was off, he couldn’t name what it was. It was a feeling mostly. His impression of the woman he interviewed—Rebekka, she had said with the oddest accent—had been that she was most certainly involved with their person.
His gut was also telling him that there was more here than simple murder and body disposal. The murder part was clear enough, there were stab wounds through the guy’s chest that couldn’t be self-inflicted. Eyeballing the scene suggested it was a long blade, probably a thin sword of some kind, and the clean line meant it was excessively sharp. Sharper than he’d ever seen at the renaissance fair or LARP gathering.
Theo loved a good puzzle or mystery. A challenge. He swept into the lower offices that housed the coroner and scooped up a Rubix cube that Lenny Harris often left on the counter. He began to twist it absently.
“Hey, Lenny, how was Julie’s recital?”
Lenny looked up, his owl frames sliding to the end of a short round nose, grinning that awkward kind of smile that suggested he didn’t know how to react when someone was kind to him. “Oh, it was lovely. She was brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.”
“Next time you’ll have to get me an extra ticket, I’d love to see her play.”
Lenny nodded, nearly dropping the tool in his hands. He was poised over the work table, the Unidentified Person laid out before him. It was cold and very white in that room, with a smell that was off-putting in a way that any living creature would have an instinctual reaction to, though Lenny was one of the few who did not seem to mind. Theo glanced at the body and felt that pull of curiosity again. That itch that was trying to tell him something was weird about this case. Lenny continued, “She would love that, really. She’s the best flautist in the seventh grade.”
Theo smiled as he completed the cube and set it down again. His hands returned to his pockets. “So, what’cha got here?”
“Strange,” Lenny began. “Strange.” He nodded a few times.
Theo glanced at the open report on the counter and read through the notes while he prompted, “Strange how?”
“Well, we thought his fingers had been dipped in cement or something similar, but I’m having the damnedest time finding the seam between stone and flesh. It’s almost like they’re indistinguishable. And I ran the substance through a bunch of tests and it’s like no substance I’ve heard of. I’ve got my assistant running some more tests, but it’s very strange.”
Theo nodded, taking in his own observations along with Lenny’s recounting. “Cause of death?”
“Stab to the chest, as suspected. Several wounds that pierced here and here.”
“And any information? He looked First Nations, but we were hoping for age, height, weight. We could run it
through the system to see if a missing person matches the description.”
Lenny frowned. “That’s the strangest bit, actually.”
Theo raised his brows. “Stranger than stone fingers?”
“Well, now that’s also pretty strange. But this has it beat, I think.”
Once again, there was a long pause that broke lesser men who’d lose their patience with the friendly coroner. Theowas blessed with patience. All the patience. He could wait all day and smile the whole time. Life was lived in the between moments. He learned some amazing things by just waiting it out. “It must be pretty outrageous to contend with stone fingers.”
“We can’t pinpoint an age. I mean, visually, he looks…twenty? No older than thirties, I’d say. But all the tests are coming back wonky.”
“How so?”
“Well, for one, the first test we did dated this guy about six centuries old.”
Theo hesitated. “Possibly preserved?” Though six hundred years was a long time to hold a body and then suddenly decide to bury it.
Lenny’s eyes sparkled and Theo could see there was a puzzle that this man was enjoying as well. “That’s the thing, time of death is one hundred percent four days ago. Not even preserving or freezing the body would preserve it that well. Even with the best chemicals and processes, there are still signs of when the death took place. There’s still a degree of damage and wear put on the body while remaining intact, but there’s nothing. Plus, preservation leaves behind clues and there’s not a one here that I can find. And I’m very thorough.”
“What have the other tests come back with?”
“Same thing,” Lenny said, “Varying degrees of very, very old.”
“That is interesting,” Theo agreed. He began to leave, his suspicion sparking another interesting fact that had been nagging at him. “Keep me posted and tell Julie congrats on the concert.”
Theo made his way to his desk and edited the file for the case, typing up his notes and printing it. Donovan had been primary, but Theo knew that Donovan had recently started a home renovation and would be happy to pass this one off. Theo just needed a signature from his supervisor. He headed for Makin’s office and knocked.
George Makin was his direct supervisor and in charge of a lot of agents. And he was hiding something. Something that, Theo couldn’t help but suspect, was otherworldly. Theo wasn’t fantastical. He was very much a fact-based person, but he was open-minded and the facts were continually pointing in directions practical reasoning couldn’t explain. There were thousands of unexplained phenomena in this miraculous world. He would not rule out the supernatural completely. He ruled nothing out completely. Though, being known as the agent who thought the suspect was a vampire or ghost would never go over well, it thankfully never came to that. He always found a flesh-and-blood mortal suspect. His supervisor, however, was like an itch on the back of his neck. Theo couldn’t shake theidea that not only was he hiding some sort of fantastical secret but that he was not here to help humanity in any way.
“Enter,” Makin’s gruff voice signaled and Theo opened the door.
“Evening, sir. Just hoping I could get your signature on this.” He set down the file, hoping that Makin would be too busy to bother reading it over or ask any questions.
The office was, for lack of a better descriptor, eerie. It always put Theo in mind of old Hollywood monster movies. If this room had a score it would be Dark Ambience. Theo could never place if it was the lighting or the lack of color or solely the work of the presence on the other side of the desk.
George Makin looked, to the world, like a normal person. Dark short hair. Tall and lean. A pale complexion, like he avoided the sun instead of just being lighter, and the proper assortment of human features. Eyes, nose, mouth, etc.
What put Theo off was more of an…aura. Though he didn’t claim to see colors around people, this man exuded some sort of creepy, mystical sensation that couldn’t be explained. Fog should be rolling out from under his desk. A raven should be crowing in the corner.
Makin took the file and began to read. Theo glanced around, not sure where to rest his eyes. There were very few personal touches in the office, but that could be said of Theo, as well. Theo kept all his suspicions and ill feelings quiet. It wasn’t the sort of thing one whispered around the office. He might not have even cared so much, except that all his instincts were screaming that the man was malevolent.
“I thought this was Donovan’s case?” Makin said, squinting at the print.
Damn. “Donovan’s got a lot going on right now and I don’t mind the extra work.”
Makin huffed but proceeded to sign. He handed over the file without looking up and Theo thanked him as he backed away and shut the door. He took a breath. It was like he was finally warm again. He finished his busy work for the day, sent emails, chatted with some colleagues, and handed a birthday card to the custodian on his way out for the night.
It was a nice night. His hands settled in his pockets and he forwent a taxi for a walk back to his apartment.
