Mapping the Shadows by Becky Black

Author:Becky Black
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBT; Futuristic; Science Fiction; Suspense
Publisher: Loose Id LLC
Published: 2015-01-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Ash and Kitty stared at him, frozen. “The crime scene?” Ash eventually repeated, slowly.

“Where you were shot and…” Gabe trailed off. They knew what he meant. “I’d go on my own, but I don’t know if I could find it, and…” Frankly he’d be scared shitless to go alone. The chamber where it had happened was deep in the Central Core.

“Why do you need to see it?” Ash asked when Gabe didn’t finish. He sipped his coffee, apparently casual again, but Gabe could see the strain around his eyes.

“I want to have all the information. I feel like there’s a hole in my knowledge. I’ve read all the reports, seen the pictures, but I’ve never seen the place.”

“I haven’t been back there since that day,” Ash said. “I’m not sure I can…find it again.”

“How to get there is in the police reports,” Gabe said. “I’ve got those. We just have to stay on that route.”

There was silence. They knew the route he meant. The one Ash had taken out of there, the one the other cops had traced by following the trail of blood.

“I’ve never been there,” Kitty said in a quiet voice. She put a half-eaten doughnut down.

“You don’t have to come,” Gabe said quickly, “if it would be too…difficult for you.”

And how difficult would it be for Ash? He sat looking over the rim of his coffee cup with a thousand-yard stare.

“No, I’ll come,” Kitty said. “I can deal with it. Maybe…it will be good for me. Closure.”

“Ash?” If Ash said no, then this little picnic was a nonstarter. Gabe needed Ash there. Ash was both victim and eyewitness. “It’s possible we’ll find something useful,” he said, by way of persuasion. “The police report indicates a pretty sloppy bit of crime-scene investigation. I guess they thought it was clear-cut. Maybe we can find something they missed.”

“Okay.” Ash finished his coffee and tossed the cup down on the table. It toppled on its side and rolled to a stop by the doughnut box. “Then what are we waiting for?”

“‘If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / it were done quickly,’” Gabe said and bit into a doughnut. He held it in his mouth while he grabbed his satchel. The other two looked at him funny. “What?” he asked around the doughnut, then took it out and muttered, “Philistines.”

“Kitty,” Ash said. “If you’re coming, bring your piece.”

“Right.” She went back into her office and came out a few minutes later, clipping a holster to her belt. At Gabe’s look, she gave a shrug. “I was a cop, even if I was a backroom forensics officer. I had firearms training. Of course, I never had to draw on anyone.”

“She keeps up her target practice, though,” Ash said.

“Yep. There’s nothing like blasting shit at the firing range after a rough day in the office.”

“Got a spare I could borrow?” Gabe asked.

“You ever fired a gun?” Ash asked.

“No, but how hard can it be?”

Ash snorted. “Right. You stick with your pen, Mr.

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