Steel Sapphires and Shattered Emeralds
Chapter 2
Summer rolled on and the sauna-like heat of mid June climbed to the blistering, deadly heat of mid July. It was unusually, brutally hot and Kayleigh was glad for once that she was working nights. People weren’t taking even the most basic of precautions, the evidence seen by the number of bodies on Kayleigh’s table killed by heatstroke and dehydration.
‘Bleedin’ idiots.’ She thought to herself as she put away the most recent body. ‘Bleedin’ idiots the lot of them.’ It wasn’t as if there weren’t enough radio and TV warnings, even she knew of the dangers despite rarely watching TV or listening to the radio, and it wasn’t as though water wasn’t free. It was just laziness and stupidity.
With the amount of work she’d had over the past month she had almost forgotten about Sage, although the dark haired woman still haunted some of her dreams and fantasies, but a cool voice behind her brought all of those memories flooding back to her, and caused her to almost drop her equipment tray again. “Miss Del’Cairn.”
“Merry hell.” Kayleigh cursed quietly as she fought both to balance her tray and keep her hair neutral. She could be professional about meeting Sage again. Would be professional she told herself sternly. Apparently her thoughts took too long and Kayleigh heard Sage clea her throat.
“Kayleigh, are you all right?” came the dispassionate voice behind her. Kayleigh felt the warning tingle at the roots of her hair and continued to fight it as she turned around to face Sage.
“You remembered my name.” She said fairly shocked. Most people stumbled over her surname, calling her ‘Miss Cairn’ or tried to pronounce it ‘Corn’. Most of them also seemed to forget she had a first name at all, but Sage had not only remembered both which was a rarity in itself, but with perfect pronunciation which was unheard of.
“Of course,” came the reply, “I do have perfect recall, remember?” As Sage said that Kayleigh felt herself flush with embarrassment, right up to her hair. Sage had told her that the first time they’d met but Kayleigh had forgotten in the thrill of someone remembering her name. What an idiot Sage must think her.
“Ok, well yeah, anyways,” she babbled, not quite sure how to get herself out of the hole she was rapidly digging for herself. ‘Somebody call in the JCB now and save me the trouble,’ she thought to herself. Sage’s voice once again pulled her focus back.
“Is this the body I’ve been called into see?” Sage asked, pointing their conversation deftly back towards the matter at hand. She gestured towards the body on the table.
“Yeah, it is,” said Kayleigh. “Tragedy when they die so young,” she added softly, taking her place next to the body.
On Kayleigh’s table was another young mutant woman, not the first she’d seen in the last month, but the first to die in suspicious circumstances, and that meant that the XSE were called in to investigate, as with every other suspicious mutant death in the area, if not the world.
“So, did you have to travel far to get here?” Kayleigh asked, as she scrubbed up, having not had the chance to wash her hands before Sage arrived, and preferring an attempt at small talk to the awkward silence that was stretching between them. At least she was trying, she figured.
“A fair way,” Sage answered, watching her preparations intently. “I came in from Valle Soleada.”
“Jesus. That trip must have been right bastard in this heat. Oh shite.” She said, realising that once again she’d sworn in front of her visitor. “Uh, anyways, shall we move on?” she finished awkwardly.
Sage nodded, a slightly amused look on her face. “Lets.”
“Autopsy no 213822. Conducted by LAPD coroner Kayleigh Del’Cairn. Present is Detective Sage of the XSE.” As with the last autopsy Kayleigh left the recorder to hang as she got on with her job.
“Subject is a mutant female of indeterminable descent. Her mutation consists of blue skin, hair, nails and irises and makes determining decent as this stage impossible,”
Kayleigh consulted her notes briefly before continuing. “However her family are all Caucasian so it could be assumed that she too would be, without her mutation.”
“Subject’s name was Annabella Sampson and she was 22 years old. There appears to be no defensive wounds, although the subject appears to have dug her nails into her palm hard enough that they bled. She may have tried to fight, but the lack of other wounds suggests she was incapacitated. Nail scrapings have been sent to trace.”
Kayleigh paused again, fussing with a loose strand of her hair. She took a deep breath before continuing. “Subject shows no signs of rape, but a sexual assault kit has been taken and sent to DNA. Cause of death appears to be strangulation; petechial haemorrhaging and bruises to the neck are consistent with that. The subject also has a split lip and a crushed larynx."
Kayleigh paused again, pursing her lips. “If he hit her, she wasn’t trying to stop him. Sodding little bastard.” It was Kayleigh’s opinion that any man who hit a woman was little, despite physical size. Why else would they feel the need?
She sighed, and continued. “From the angle of the bruising and the subject’s height the attacker is about 5’9’’. No sign of rope or fibres in the wound. In fact, there’s no sign of a rope or any other weapon being used at all.” She started the physical part of the autopsy, narrating as she went.
“Subjects organs…” she trailed off as she removed the lungs. “They’re blue… Sage?” she asked, knowing that this was partly the reason the other woman was with her. “Is this some sort of poison effect I’ve never seen before or are they supposed to be this way?”
Sage appeared to contemplate that for a second, attention turned elsewhere. “The blue colouration is a part of her mutation.”
“Ok then…” Said Kayleigh “The subjects organs appear to be perfectly healthy although blue in colouration, which Detective Sage assures me is part of the mutation. The conclusions are asphyxiation sue to strangulation.”
Kayleigh frowned at this. The first case she’d worked on with Sage had a similar conclusion drawn, had a similar MO and similar victim. She finished laying the body out quickly, stripped off her gloves and headed for her desk. She kept a stack of old notes in the drawer and wanted to check something.
“The attacker is that same height as the one from the last case we worked on together,” came Sage’s voice from beside her. Kayleigh jerked around, coming almost nose-to-nose with the other woman.
“How did you know what I was going to check, I hadn’t even put voice to my suspicions. And I could’ve worked that out for myself, eventually.” Kayleigh snapped, slightly put out that once again Sage was stepping on her toes. Even if it was her job.
“I can analyse things in a split second that it would take you 20 minutes to work out. It’s my job to do so,” replied Sage, echoing Kayleigh’s thoughts. “And as for knowing what you were going to check, it’s also my gift to watch, analyse and read people.”
Kayleigh was slightly taken aback by not only the words Sage said but also the way she said them. She sounded almost, lonely, and for once very human. Kayleigh was surprised to get so much insight into her and decided to put aside her irritation and try some small talk, to try and draw her out further.
“So, did your partner come with you this time?” she asked, figuring it was best to start on something neutral as she bagged and labelled various pieces of evidence from the autopsy.
“Yes. Lucas is talking to the detectives who found the body, the same as last time. He gets on better with them than I do.” Sage seemed to come out of her shell a little. “Do you get on well with your co-workers here?”
“They’re an ok bunch, if all brains and no body. The only bodies I get so see are down here on my table.” Kayleigh processed what she’d said for a second. She winced visibly and looked at Sage, who looked mildly embarrassed for her. ‘Ok’ Kayleigh thought, ‘memo to self; way too early for bad humour.’ She felt her hair shift towards embarrassment and winced again. Just great.
“I take it the samples will be with us in about the same amount of time as before?” Sage asked, once again pushing the conversation back to the job at hand. Kayleigh sighed inwardly. Her saviour.
“It shouldn’t take any more time, no, but it depends on how many other cases we get,” she knew Sage knew this but felt better for adding it. “So Sage, do you reckon it is the same killer as before?”
“Ask me that when we meet again,” Sage returned cryptically, gathering up the notes and getting ready to leave.
“You mean if, right?” Sounding slightly worried at this comment Kayleigh turned from her work to face the departing woman.
“Hopefully. Goodbye Miss Del’Cairn,” Sage slipped back into formality and professionalism.
“Goodbye Detective Sage.” Kayleigh replied, responding to the formality that Sage was using with her, and watched as once again the beautiful detective walked out of her life
Three weeks later Kayleigh was looking at a distressingly familiar scene in her morgue. On her table another mutant female, and in her doorway Sage. She shook her head as she scrubbed up, distress mingling with fear to colour her hair an odd dark grey shade without her even noticing. Taking a deep breath she asked a question she was dreading the answer to. “It’s a fucking serial, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Sage’s answer was simple and coolly delivered, but it chilled Kayleigh to the bone.
“Fuck. So this isn’t the last one then?” Kayleigh was so distressed at the thought of a serial killer running loose in her city she didn’t even notice that she had sworn out loud again.
“No.” Sage said simply. “It probably isn’t.”
“Lets get this over and done with then. The sooner we’re done here the sooner you’ll have the information to catch the guy.” Kayleigh walked over to her table and started the recording. “Autopsy No. 213987.”
From there the autopsy went pretty much as it had before. Caucasian, mutant, no sign of a struggle, no sign of rape, strangulation with no sign of a weapon as cause of death. The only differences were that not only did the victim have a split lip, she also had a black eye and bruising on the cheek and her age was 27, a lot older than the previous two.
In this case, the mutation was also incredibly minor- the woman’s eyes were all pupil and iris, with no whites. Sage hadn’t been able to determine what, if any abilities it gave her.
“Measurements confirm that the killer was the same height as before. The methods are identical. It is definitely a serial.” Sage said, confirming what she had said at the beginning of the autopsy.
“He’s getting worse.” Kayleigh pointed out, motioning to the bruises on the woman’s face. Yet again, there had been no sign that she’d tried to defend herself. The thought of a serial killer targeting young mutant women had scared her, but not so much as the thought that he was escalating.
“Yes, he’s getting to enjoy himself more and he’s gotten the hang of his methods.” Sage’s voice cut through Kayleigh’s thoughts. “The last anyone saw of her she was walking out of a shopping centre car park. It was broad daylight and no one saw a thing.”
This news shook Kayleigh even more. The last two killings had been at night, when the areas had been all but deserted. “Not really surprising, considering she’s visibly a mutant. Half those people probably wouldn’t tell you even if they had seen a bleedin’ thing.” Kayleigh’s hair shot through with scarlet.
“You’d be surprised,” Sage chastised her.
“Not really.” Kayleigh countered angrily, before pulling herself together. “I’m sorry,” she apologised. “It’s just that these cased have got me riled up. And I’m not good with strangling cases at the best of times.”
“It’s ok, I understand.” There was a hint of a something in Sage’s voice, but Kayleigh wasn’t entirely sure what it was. “Normal procedure for the evidence?”
“Aye.” She sagged slightly. “Catch this bastard Sage.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Although it was her last case of the evening Kayleigh dragged out going home. It wasn’t that she was scared, she told herself. It’s just that she had paperwork to get finished and she didn’t want to take it home.
She was skittish as she walked home, taking her normal leisurely route at twice its normal speed. In fact, she was so absorbed was she in her surroundings that she didn’t notice the loose paving slab until she’d tripped over it.
“Shite, you bastard thing!” she hissed as her hair flashed the pure electric blue of pain. As she gathered herself up she noticed a man, about 5’9’’ish, start to move in her direction. Heart pounding she continued on her way, chiding herself for being paranoid whilst still keeping an eye out for the man behind her.
As he turned the same corner as her for the 5th time she began to speed up, and by the 6th corner she was running, frantic to get home, to get to safety. Throwing herself into her apartment and bolting the door behind her she collapsed in front of it, tears trickling down her face.