Jess smiled to herself slightly, noting the time as she moved
around the shop cleaning off her instruments. 'If nothing else comes
up,' she thought to herself optimistically, 'I might be able to get
over to Sisterhood Bookstore and pick up my new orders.'
Jess' relationship with the lesbian feminist bookstore was an
odd one, at best. Her very presence seemed to offend a certain type of
woman, with her running a tattoo parlor of all things. But there was
also a part of the community she was well known in, the people she had
helped in one way or another, and they stood up for her.
And caught right in the middle was her new friend, Alice
Sinclare. The black haired manager of the bookstore was doing her best
to moderate between the two groups, and more than once Jess had
actually offered to stop going to the store itself.
Alice's eyes had flashed, "They don't have the right to
exclude you, Jess. And there is no way I'm going to let them!"
'For such a feminine girl,' Jess thought, 'she can sure be
fierce.' Another reason Jess liked going there was seeing Alice
herself, but that wasn't something she wanted to think about too much.
'We're making friends,' she reminded herself, 'that's all.'
The bell at the front of the shop rang out, and Jess looked up
curiously. With one look at the woman looking around her nervously,
and she knew that her evening was shot. The redhead was tall, her off
the rack blue suit broken in and comfortable. She searched the place
with green eyes, studying everything and recording it all for later.
Under one arm there was a noticeable bulge, and Jess knew she was
carrying a concealed weapon.
"Is there something I can do for you officer?" Jess asked as
she walked up to her, "I can assure you my licenses and permits are
all up to date."
"How did you know I was a police officer?" the woman blinked.
"I didn't know for certain until you just confirmed it," Jess
said dryly, "but looking at you there are plenty of signs."
From a back pocket she pulled out a wallet, flipping it open
to reveal her identification and gold badge. "Alex Conner," she said
as she slid her wallet away, "and I didn't come out here to hassle
you, Mrs. Drake."
"Then why did you come, Mrs. Conner?" Jess didn't make it easy
for her.
The clearly uncomfortable Alex took a deep breath, pushing
back her short hair nervously. "I called the coroner, Dr. Delafield,
about an odd murder I'm dealing with," she explained quietly, "and she
referred me to you."
Jess had to fight the urge to swear. She had met Dr. Katherine
Delafield while chasing a black sorceress, and together they had been
able to stop her, barely. Jess had heard from her once or twice since
then, offering assistance when a case actually involved the occult.
This, however, was the first time Katherine had actually referred
someone to her.
"And what, exactly, did the good doctor tell you about me?"
Jess asked, wondering what Katherine could have told the woman.
"Just that you're an expert on certain kinds of ritual
tattooing," Alex answered, "and that you're skills could be important
to my case."
Jess saw the look on the woman's face and realized she was
completely out of her depth. "What's so unusual?" she asked curiously.
"The victims have all been..." Alex hesitated, "skinned."
Jess closed her eyes, not even wanting to think of the kinds
of things that might have needed to do that. "All right," she opened
her eyes to meet the officer's, "I'll help."
"Thank you," Alex looked relieved.
Jess closed up the shop, only stopping to take a moment to
activate the defenses before she left. The two women climbed into an
unmarked police car, and in moments were rushing downtown. "So where
are we headed?" Jess asked Alex curiously.
"The morgue," Alex said crisply, "that's where the bodies are
being stored." She hesitated, giving Jess a glance, "You're not quite
what I expected."
"In other words," Jess smiled slightly, "since Dr. Delafield
comes across as a Victorian lady in a lab coat, how could she know a
dyke in leather?"
Alex blushed, "Well, yes."
Jess chuckled softly, "To be honest, I think the good Doctor
Delafield would rather she didn't know me, but I have been quite handy
to her in closing cases she wouldn't otherwise."
"I see," Alex murmured.
A few minutes of silence later they pulled into police
headquarters. The two strode inside, Alex leading the way. Jess felt
the eyes of a few officers on her, recognizing a few that she gave
chilly smiles to. The men shifted uncomfortably, many quickly finding
other things they needed to do in other parts of the building.
"What's that all about?" Alex whispered to her softly as the
two of them climbed into the elevator down to the morgue.
"My shop's in the bad part of town, remember?" Jess smiled, "A
few officers tried to shake the hookers out there down for protection
money a few months ago."
"And?" Alex blinked.
Jess smiled dangerously, "I convinced them not to."
The elevator doors opened, and the two of them made their way
down the hall towards the morgue. "And how did you manage that?" Alex
asked weakly.
"You really don't want to know," Jess smiled as she pushed the
morgue doors open.
Katherine Delafield got up out from behind her desk and walked
over to the two of them. Taking in the mildly pale Alex she shot a
glare at Jess, "Kindly do not pick on our police officers, please. I'm
certain this is difficult enough for her."
Jess just ignored that comment, "So where is the body?"
Katherine made an irritated noise in her throat as she turned
to lead them over to the stainless steel shelves where the bodies were
stacked, waiting. she grasped a drawer and then pulled it out in one
smooth motion.
Alex made a choking sound, but Jess calmly studied the body
laying there. 'Raw meat,' was the word that came to mind looking at
it, the skin stripped off the entire corpse. It was male only by the
overall shape, no hair left either. The eye sockets were empty as
well, the eyes removed carefully. Across what was left of the mouth
Jess noticed stitches holding it shut.
"Did you do that?" Jess gestured to the stitches.
Katherine gave her a 'Do you think I'm nuts?' look. The
Coroner slipped on latex gloves with a snap before picking up a
scalpel, cutting the string. Carefully she eased the lips apart,
revealing that the teeth had all been removed also with surgical
precision.
"We can't even identify most of the bodies," Alex said
bitterly, "the only one we have was through a lucky break."
Before Jess could ask Katherine explained, "Seems a female
victim had implants done. We traced the serial numbers back, but she
seems to be a dead end."
"Could you..?" Jess said to Katherine softly, giving Alex a
look. The coroner quickly made an excuse to get the young officer out,
then returned to Jess' side.
"I swear she was relieved to get away from here," Katherine
muttered.
Jess held her hands above the body, chanting softly. In a few
moments a tracework of glowing red marks criss-crossed the body, a
deeper glow coming from the eye sockets and mouth. "This is where it
cut him," Jess murmured, "and it removed the eyes and teeth
magically."
"Do you know what it was?" Katherine asked her even as she
quickly sketched the pattern of marks onto a notepad.
"Not exactly," Jess admitted, "I do know it was a skinwalker."
"Skinwalker?" Katherine echoed.
"An inhuman demon," Jess explained to her grimly, "that
disguises itself by hiding within a human's stolen skin. The problem
is, the demon's evil taint wears out the skins, and it has to replace
them pretty often."
"If this thing looks human," Katherine looked at the body
grimly, "how do we catch it?"
"You don't," Jess said simply. She smiled a dangerous little
smile, "I do."
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