Odd Cases

“This is Dr. Lawrence. Why are you calling the Quartz Institute?” a man asked as my hold finally ended.

“What happened to Dr. Gionelli?” I asked. I always spoke to the head of diagnostics. We had a rapport.

“He’s dead,” Lawrence said, “Or maybe just missing. I don’t know how that’s legally determined.”

I trusted that he was on vacation or something and opted to stop asking questions.

“Do you know how a pyrokinetic could die by fire? Or more accurately what you’d need to put in a fire to suffocate a pyrokinetic.”

“What revenge are you planning?” Dr. Lawrence asked, disgusted.

“No, it’s already happened. I’m just investigating for his ghost. He wants to know how he died.”

The next few moments on the phone were silent.

“If he died by suffocation, it was most likely from fumes, though whatever helped start the fire could have sped up the process. How are you able to talk to ghosts?”

That question was expected.

“I’m a spirit mage, but it takes a lot of patience to deal with. Maybe you’ll come see me once you’re done here.”

“And how come you knew Dr. Gionelli?”

“You already asked your question in payment. You’ll hear from me soon enough. Goodbye Dr. Lawrence.”

So I had to find what started the fire, and to do that, I had to find out who started the fire. I whispered an apology Cho probably wouldn’t hear, though I didn’t particularly care.

I called the shop as Chase drove me to the crime scene. I found him at the coroner’s office and he offered. Apparently Zach gave him the address.

“Meet me,” I told Romeo before he could give his usual line.

“Of course, Master.”

I cringed, but Romeo hung up the phone, and a moment later he was in the back seat of Chase’s car, which made Chase pull over.

“What the hell!”

“This is a power-town,” I said, “This can’t be the scariest thing you’ve dealt with all day.”

“Do you know this man?” he asked.

“You can call me Romeo,” Romeo offered a hand, “I assure you I mean no harm, unless Juliet commands it.”

“He’s a pain in my ass, but he can read people, which is beneficial for interviews.”

“I thought we were just checking the crime scene,” Chase said.

“We are,” I admitted, “But we’re not going to be subtle, so I want to be prepared should an opportunity arise.”

Chase grumbled a few things before returning the car to the road so we reach our destination.

“So what’s the deal with you two?” Chase asked.

“I am bound to serve Ms. Emery, and in return she has offered to help me return home.”

“I’ve seen how this ends,” Chase said, “I hope you like it here.”

“That’s how he tells it,” I said, ignoring his comment on my competence, “I offered awhile ago to assist him in returning home, or at least no longer being bound to this thing,” I tugged at the bracelet around my wrist. “It’s like his body doesn’t exist until whatever sentence put him in this is over. I think the servant thing is just because he was afraid of disappearing.”

“I manage the shop and assist in cases,” Romeo added, “She even gives me walking around money to pretend I am still corporeal.”

“Nice, nice,” Chase said, checked out of the conversation.

He stopped a few yards away from the burned building. It was impressive how the fire didn’t seem to go past it somehow.

“My compliments to the fire department,” I said as we stepped out toward it.

Once we got there, we stood around awkwardly. You don’t really want to be the first person to examine a crime scene without permission.

“Do you really think my cousin missed anything?” Chase asked.

I shook my head.

“Zach’s thorough. He caught plenty. I just want to know if there’s something for me to see.”

I checked to make sure my consultant card was in the front pocket of my poncho before walking through the tape and standing in the middle of the building.

“What’s going on?” Chase asked.

I spun around, checking the sun.

“Spirits have strange hours,” I explained, “They’re generally nocturnal, especially around midnight, true midnight, but at high noon, true noon—”

“Why do you keep specifying that it has to be the true version?” Chase interrupted.

“Because before trains became so prominent, time was based on the sun and moon wherever you stood. You need each respectively at its zenith for true noon or midnight.

“At true noon,” I continued, “Spirits can affect people at their place of death. They just don’t usually notice because there’s plenty else going wrong.”

Chase nodded.

“So something’s going to happen to give you an insight on the case in a few minutes?” Chase asked.

“Correct.”

Before anything else, I searched my person until a pixie popped out of somewhere. She looked like a smaller version of me, but with shorter hair and militaristic uniform.

“Look for anything good, Vi.”

Vi gave a salute before speeding down into the rubble. Pixies aren’t quite people. They’re a piece of oneself that you turn into a little helper. I’ve had Vi for over half a century.

I scoured the ruin for where the body was found and stood there, awkwardly, opening myself up to the influence of William Cho.

I felt warm, likely from the sun beating down on me. Then I felt something build up in my lungs as I fell down coughing.

I put a hand out to stop Chase running toward me. Romeo pulled him back.

Between the heaving, I smelled something, something sweet, something like—

“Are those cookies?” Chase asked, pulling me out of the trance.

“What is your friend doing at a crime scene?” a woman with a slight drawl asked.

“Oh she’s a consultant, searching for crime things,” Chase said.

I offered the card as I walked over, this time climbing below the tape. I just didn’t have the energy to walk through it after that all happened.

“This says your name is Juliet,” the woman with the cookies said.

“Yeah?”

She looked right where my pocket was, and I remembered the writing.

“I got this at a thrift shop. The pocket’s convenient.”

I grabbed the card back.

“Did you know who lived here?” Romeo asked.

“I live next door, actually. Bill and Shelley, lovely couple, looked forward to a wedding invitation someday.”

“Bill lived with someone?” I asked.

“Yes, his girlfriend, Shelley. They were both powered, same type too.”

“His girlfriend was also a pyrokinetic?” Chase asked.

“If that’s what that fire stuff is called, yeah. They helped when my oven stopped working, said they needed their cookie fix.”

“Great.” Something seemed off, like she was hiding something.

“Any idea where we could find the girlfriend?” Chase asked.

“They hosted a fire freaks anonymous thing sometimes, when they were between locations or something. Living matchsticks or something.”

“We’ll check it out,” Chase said, pulling me away.

“There’s more there,” I told him as I tried to pull away. Instead he moved faster than I could perceive so we were back at the car. The neighbor kept watching us as we got into the vehicle, stopping when Romeo got into the backseat.

“Why do you have a car if you can move that fast?” I asked.

“I like driving, and it’s not my car.”

“What?”

“Living Lighters: Support for Those with Fire Abilities” met in some sort of religious building. I didn’t bother checking the sign, and couldn’t find too many symbols inside.

I presented my card to the person who tried to greet us as we stepped in, explaining I wanted to talk to Shelley. They directed me to a blond woman at the front of the room, directing a painting exercise of some sort. I stopped Chase from interrupting the lesson, barely pulling him out of the room.

“Why?” Chase asked.

“The woman’s got a dead boyfriend to worry about, do you really want to interrupt her painting class?”

“Maybe not. It’s probably a calming exercise given the demographic.”

I nodded.

“It is,” Romeo confirmed, “You two stepping into the room and coming back out stressed them out even more.”

“Great, stressed out pyrokinetics, good work,” a dangerous voice to hear said behind us.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Ali as we noticed her behind us.

Alicia “Ali” Chase is a half-latina woman about a head taller than I am. Her heritage shows in the sheer volume of her hair and olive undertones in her otherwise white skin. She did not look happy at this moment.

“I’m following a lead,” she explained, “Cho’s neighbor called us about our consultant, said we should share more information, since she didn’t know Cho was living with his girlfriend.”

“Good work, detective,” Chase said.

“You’re not even on thin ice, Hilger. I should arrest you both for interfering with an investigation.”

“Do you really want us to stop?” I asked, “You know I can find out a lot more than you guys can.”

“‘A ghost said it’ isn’t admissible in court, Emery.”

It wasn’t good when Ali used my surname. She considered me family.

“Listen, I just needed to get to where he died, so I could have a better idea of what happened and a more clear idea of what killed him. I didn’t plan on finding out about the girlfriend, but I wasn’t going to ignore a lead.”

“So you know how he died, and you can move on.”

“No,” I explained, “You see I know it was suffocation, but I don’t know what interfered with his breathing, so I’m talking to the girlfriend to get an idea of what in their house could have caused the problem.”

“Are you implying she killed him?”

“No!” I shook my head, “Of course not. Romeo, what’s her emotional state right now?”

“Terrified by our presence.”

“Not a great answer,” I admitted, “But what I’m implying is that maybe it was completely an accident, and Bill just doesn’t want to admit he accidentally killed himself by setting some nasty fumes on fire.”

Ali’s look was critical.

“Fine, but tell me what you get from the girlfriend.”

“Of course,” Chase said. I nodded. Ali left us.

“You wanted to talk to me—was that Detective Chase?” Shelley asked. Shelley looked fairly average. Her blond hair was a little bit streaky from sunlight, and her presence was unsure.

“Yeah, just checking in on us,” I handed her the card, “I’m Juliet Emery, a consultant with the DSR, and I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Sure you are,” Shelley scoffed, “What do you want to know?”

“Did you keep anything particularly flammable in your home?”

Shelley took a moment to process the ask.

“Are you asking if I used something to kill my boyfriend?”

“No! I just want to know if there was something he could have accidentally burned while he was alone. I heard you were out when the fire happened.”

“I was on a trip to help my sister, but I keep my paint supplies in a storage unit. We disconnected our gas lines too,” she made a small flame on her index finger, “We’re not stupid enough to make blowing up our house a legit possibility, at least not more than anyone else.”

We nodded. That broke my theory. I took note of Shelley once again. Romeo said she was terrified of us, and she certainly held herself nervously. She wore baggy clothes at the moment, and had moved her hands so they calmly covered her stomach.

“Is Bill the father?” Chase asked before I could bring the subject up more tactfully.

“What?” Shelley asked.

“She’s genuinely confused,” Romeo confirmed.

“You saying I’m pregnant?”

“He is,” I said, throwing my theory out the window and Chase under the bus, “Did Bill have anyone other than you? Your neighbor seemed close to the two of you.”

“Eve?” Shelley asked, “Yeah, she’s lonely, but her cookies are okay. Bill was estranged from his family. They weren’t thrilled about having a superhuman child, you know?”

I nodded.

“Do they live near the area?”

Shelley shook her head.

“I don’t think they even know our address. I’ve never met them though. His brother’s a hedge fund manager, and that’s all I’ve got.”

I wrote it down.

“You should consider getting a test,” I said, “Better to know sooner rather than later.”

Shelley nodded.

“The brother’s up north, I know that much, and I will check, thanks.”

“One more thing,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“Were you and Bill on good terms when you left the house.”

Shelley burst into tears. That wasn’t good.

“Our last conversation was a fight, and I don’t even fucking remember what it was about.”

I wasn’t convinced that she didn’t know.

I immediately disliked Cho’s brother. I tend to dislike brothers, probably my fault for having two I can only have nostalgia for now.

“Yeah, I heard,” Richard Cho said when we mentioned his brother’s passing, “Gas leak or something, right?”

“No,” I said, “They disconnected the gas lines to prevent that possibility.”

“He’s a they now?” Richard asked.

“He and his girlfriend are,” Chase said, “Along with Bill Jr. coming soon.”

Bill Jr. made Cho spit a little bit of his drink back into the cup.

“His girlfriend’s pregnant?”

“Yep,” Chase said. Personally I wasn’t convinced anymore.

“You and your brother didn’t get along, or so I’ve heard.”

Richard rolled his eyes.

“Do siblings ever get along?”

“Yes,” I said.

“As long as neither of them are assholes,” Chase said.

“No,” Romeo said.

Richard shook his head.

“Bill was a problem as a kid. I wasn’t. We stopped talking after he moved out. He stopped talking to any of us.”

“With a description like that, why would he ever leave you guys.” Chase said.

“Are you insulting him because you regret never reaching out, or because you’re justifying what you did to him?” I asked.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying you’re going out of your way to put a dead man down. In my experience, putting down someone you’re close to is a sign you’re feeling bad about something. Your estranged brother is dead, and maybe you wish he wasn’t so estranged, or worse, you’re happy he’s gone and not around to blot your family.”

“I barely knew the man,” Richard said.

“That’s probably why you don’t care as much. You should consider talking to Shelley Carin before you have no idea where your nephew is.”

“How do I know she didn’t kill my brother?”

“Why should you care?” I asked, “You barely knew the man.”