Page 28 of Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters
Gatling answered before a red-faced Virago could launch into a tirade, “Yeah. We were holding him until the state paranormal unit could pick him up. But DA said we can’t hold him. Jacket has a lawyer. Who knew?”
Vikash strode in front of them, forcing them to stop, but his objective wasn’t to prevent the jacket’s leaving. He offered his hand. “Be careful out there and try to stay out of trouble, Mr. Jacket.”
The jacket made a gesture with one sleeve as if it were crossing its heart. Then it held out the sleeve and met Vikash’s hand in an approximation of a handshake. Kyle walked away, shaking his head, while Vikash stayed to speak to Jeff.
An odd air of anticipation hummed through the squad room that morning, laughs just a bit high-pitched, conversations just a bit hurried. Everyone knew the nature of the river monster by now and waited to hear what would happen. An itch lodged between Kyle’s shoulder blades as several sets of eyes tracked his progress across the room to the lieutenant’s office, where Vikash caught up to him again.
“Don’t stand there looking spooked, Monroe,” Lieutenant Dunfee called from her desk. “Get in here and shut the door.”
She waited, dark fingers drumming on her desk until they’d settled. “I hear we have a suspect. Of sorts.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Kyle cleared his throat. “Of the nonhuman variety.”
Vikash pulled the photograph of the clawed footprint from the file he’d brought in and let Kyle do the explaining, walking through the steps that led them to believe their murderer was a giant snapping turtle.
“Probably immune to bullets, too,” the lieutenant said with a sigh. “All right, gentlemen. You look like you have more for me. Spit it out.”
In fits and starts, Kyle explained about the intersection of his and Vikash’s dubious psychic talents while she leaned back, lips pursed.
“I knew there was a reason I put you two together. But this wasn’t what I had in mind,” she said when he had finished. “Could this happen accidentally? This combination of destructive weirdness?”
Vikash shifted in his chair, obviously uncomfortable. “I don’t…think so, ma’am. Kyle has to be close or in physical contact. If we keep some distance when I’m angry, it won’t happen. I’m not an angry person. Very often.”
“Comforting. Though in the week you’ve been here, we’ve had three separate incidents.”
“I’ve been a bit on edge, ma’am. This isn’t the easiest precinct to transfer into.”
She leaned forward, her expression more sympathetic. “No. I’d imagine not. Was this just a heads-up for me, or are you two leading up to something? Which, if that’s the case, spit it the hell out.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Kyle wanted to put a hand on Vikash’s shoulder, to take his hand, anything to wipe away that half-guilty, unhappy look in his eyes. Since he couldn’t do that, he settled for taking the burden of conversation. “We’d like to propose a sting operation of sorts. Something to draw the turtle monster out so it can be apprehended.”
“You mean you want to set someone up as bait,” she countered in a dry tone.
Impossible to argue that. “Um. Yes. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern in its choice of victims. One male, one female, one couple. But all late at night, on the weekend for whatever bizarre reason, and they all were walking on the Waterworks side of the river, all between Boathouse Row and Spring Garden Street.”
“What I’m struggling with is why this creature doesn’t eat its victims,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “Why would it take people from the bank, kill them and put them back?”
Vikash cleared his throat softly. “Something that Zacchini said. She said it felt malevolent.”
“Wonderful. You think this thing is killing for fun?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Vikash nodded. “It fits the facts.”
“In this department, we have muscle, early-warning systems and even fire power…” Kyle hesitated here until Vikash gave him a little nod. “Between Soren and Virago. Different kinds of firepower, but enough that I think we could split the department into two teams and get this thing off the street. Er, river.”
She fixed them with a level stare for so long Kyle was certain they were about to be tossed out on their ears. “All right. We have a few days. I want this written up, this operation you’re proposing, Monroe. Have it on my desk this afternoon, and I’ll run it by the powers that be. I’ll let you know.”
“Ma’am, if I—”
“Out. I have a sacrifice coming up. You don’t want to be here.”
On that dire warning, Kyle hustled Vikash out of her office, his partner craning his neck to watch her shut her door and pull the heavy black curtains over her windows.
“Kyle?”
“It’s okay. I mean, it is if she does these on schedule. Lieutenant Dunfee is the anti-priestess of an elder god. As I understand it, she has to perform certain rituals to keep the god from manifesting, which would be A Very Bad Thing.”
Vikash sank into his chair at their shared desk slowly.
