Ashes of Raging Water: a Completed Angel War Urban Fantasy by Michael J Allen

Author:Michael J Allen [Allen, Michael J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944357405
Publisher: Delirious Scribbles Ink, Inc.

Bradley

Junior assistant coroner Bradley Sky hummed over the corpse on his table.

Bite wounds covered the animal shelter worker delivered that morning. He frowned at the body, sure he’d seen something similar but unable to dig out the memory.

He tapped the mute button on his headset. “Wake up. Desiccation around subject’s bite wounds seems to have deteriorated abnormally fast. Discoloration suggests disease, but no disease I know of works so quickly—certainly not in a body without a functioning circulatory system.”

Bradley frowned at the body. Something about the body felt off, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. “Wound may have been contaminated by animal remains or some pathogen therein.”

The door opened. A very attractive woman in professional attire strolled inside. Her eyes swept the room, taking in everything through oval spectacles.

Well, hello.

Bradley smiled. “Go to sleep.”

“Pardon?” She asked.

He tapped his headset, activating the mute. “Can I help you?”

Her eyes locked on him with an almost physical grip. “I need your report.”

“Sure, which one? Who are you again?”

Her expression darkened, accentuating the faint red highlights in her dark hair. “Detective Foxner, remember? I’m waiting on your examination results from those strange body parts.”

He frowned. “What strange body parts?”

“From the Humane Society,” Foxner said.

He knit his brows together. “From this morning? I haven’t finished yet.”

“No,” she snapped. She visibly relaxed, dug into her case and pushed papers into his face. “No, Doctor. The Howell Mill break in, day before yesterday.”

A spectral thought almost solidified before fleeing. “I don’t remember getting anything from another animal shelter, and I think something like strange bodies from two shelters inside a week would stay with me.”

“Another shelter got broken into?” Foxner asked.

He frowned at her. “Not that I know of, but this guy’s nametag says he works at a no-kill shelter in DeKalb. Time of death is early this morning, but these wounds...I mean look at them. They look weeks along.”

“You probably shouldn’t sound so excited.”

He shrugged. “He’s just meat and a mystery.”

Foxner darkened.

“Hey, they taught us to remain detached.”

“As opposed to giddy?” Foxner asked.

“I love what I do. I get to solve mysteries without criminals shooting at me, and I can’t do too much damage, so my malpractice premiums aren’t as high.” Bradley pointed at the corpse. “This one’s a puzzler. I live for the weird stuff.”

“No doubt.” Foxner tapped the paper. “That is your signature, isn’t it?”

He glanced at the large sweeping strokes. “Huh. I don’t remember signing that, but yeah, that is my signature.”

“Quite the puzzler.”

“Yeah.”

“How can you not remember? It was only a few days ago. You blathered on and on about trolls and movies.”

“Trolls?” Bradley shrugged. “I’m sorry, detective, I just don’t remember.”

Foxner wrinkled her nose. “Blaming the fumes?”

He chuckled. “Give me a minute to check the slabs.”

Bradley opened drawer after drawer, cabinet after cabinet. Something like an itch he couldn’t reach scratched at the back of his recollection, but both his memory and Basement E remained empty of the evidence logged in under his signature. He scratched his head. “I can’t remember signing for any of that, and it isn’t here.

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