Doppelganger Danger: Blue Moon Investigations Sacramento by Alex Gates & steve higgs

Author:Alex Gates & steve higgs [Gates, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-24T16:00:00+00:00

Up and Vanished. Thursday, April 28th, 0914hrs.

The Verdin’s lived about ten minutes from my office. Miette’s mother had asked me to hurry, sounding rather frightened on the phone. So, in response, I had rushed out of the office, not even bothering to pour myself a fresh cup of coffee from the carafe. Some things could wait, believe it or not.

I pulled up to their house, double checking the street address with what the woman had shared with me. They matched.

As I stepped out of my car and looked over the vehicle’s roof at the home, I saw the front door wide open.

Please. Hurry.

Was I too late?

Without assessing my surroundings, I sprinted to the front door, skidding to a halt as I came into the entryway.

Three yards inside the house, right in the hall, sat an empty wheelchair. Lying before it, sprawled across the ground like a rug, rested an old woman. I first noticed that she only had one foot. Then I noticed the blood. It was wet, still trickling from her body, forming a halo of death around her facedown head.

My vision tunneled, pulsing in and out. One second, the woman lay dead in her home, the next, Aaron Brooks lay dead on the asphalt. I gasped for air, breathing through a straw—fast and shallow, on the edge of panic. My legs wobbled, and I backpedaled out of the house. The fresh, warm air sucked me outside, pulled me into the yard, where I collapsed to my knees. The grass blades scratched against my bare arms as I bowed forward, resting my face on the cool ground.

Breathe, I thought. Breathe. Get a hold of yourself and breathe.

Slowly, the fresh air and the cool ground and my controlled breaths worked together to calm my nerves. I’m not sure how much time passed, but I regained my poise and risked raising my head, climbing to my feet, stepping toward the house once again.

With my newfound alertness and knowing what to expect when I entered the home, I reverted into police mode.

While still working in law enforcement, I had trained on active perception and alertness, completing drills that helped me assess a situation, locate the present danger, and figure out the best way to deescalate any issues without violence. The practice didn’t always work—in fact, it rarely did. Too many officers feel fear, and they act on fear, same as too many perpetrators feel fear, and they, too, act on that fear. The instinct to survive is sharp and demanding.

Still, I had gone through the training, and I fell into the response. Reflexively, I reached for my hip, where I once carried the gun that stole the life of a young man. My fingers grasped mostly air and a little fabric from my clothing. I didn’t have any weapons on me. I hadn’t even bothered to rummage through my handy-dandy paranormal bag to grab pepper spray or a Taser.

However, I had my phone on me. I dialed Fred.

“Hey, boss.”

“Call 9-1-1 and report an emergency to the address I’m at.

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