Any Witch Way (Closed)

[hells_fury]

I had gotten the phone call to another crime scene. I was getting more and more use to helping the cops on their cases. Being a Necromancer had a few perks I suppose, but this was something I did to help, not to get paid. I have a job, not a normal job but a job. Helping the cops I did because no matter what committed the crime they still should be punished.


I was more a consultant than anything else. I knew about the supernatural creatures out there, and had a good idea what their attacks would look like. Arriving at the crime scene I could see all the cop cars, and the media was already here. Getting out of the car I checked my pockets making sure my gloves were there along with my measuring tape.


I wore a black pair of jeans, with a black t-shirt that had a scoop neck and a pair of black construction boots. They were easier to keep clean, and if they did get ruined by blood or anything I didn't really mind. Walking up to the tape I met the officer there. “hi I am Jessi Harmen, the supernatural expert.” I spoke simply to the officer. Before allowing me in he went and looked for the Detective in charge of the scene.


Standing there I waited as patiently as I could. Besides working with the cops I also worked raising the dead for people. It was a good job and paid pretty well. Though I am not to thrilled with my boss, but he is a good businessman. Its not to hard when one of the best Necromancer's work for you. Of course I was careful what clients I accepted and which ones I did not. I wouldn't just raise the dead for them to be tortured or things like that. I raised them mostly for legal matters or for the last goodbye's that family hadn't gotten to have.


Looking out over where all the cops were I waited for them to let me in. I am not the most patient person ever, but I do try to behave myself at crime scene’s.

 

[Sean Renaud]

“I hope there’s a reason why you didn’t just bring her in? I don’t want you on my crime scene because you might contaminate it but she’s a professional, as I’m sure you will be one day.” I grumbled at the officer. I hadn’t bothered learning the names of any of the beat cops, I’d only recently moved to Sunridge and just learning the names of everybody in homicide was a bit of a chore. “Well go get her and bring her inside. I’ve heard she’s talented but I doubt she’s good enough to tell us what happened from outside.

My name is Jonathan Barbatoson, and I’m half demon half human. Nobody here in Sunridge knows that and if everything works out properly that will always be the case. Unfortunately that makes my choice of being a police officer a bit problematic, a lot of these people are trained in various skills so I have to keep them at arms length.

When the officer returned I couldn’t quite stop myself from offering a lopsided grin. “Well I must say Ms. Harmen, you aren’t quite what I expected. In fact you’re not at all what I expected.” I put that talented police man’s instinct to work sizing her up in my peripheral as I turned back to the room.

There were four dead, it looked to be a family. Mother, father, son and daughter. They all had runes carved no their hands, foreheads and skulls but not nothing that I recognized. “I’m guessing it’s some kind of ritual but honestly I work a lot better with regular murders.” I casually adjusted my tie and pulled my coat tighter. “We were hoping you could at least point us in the right direction.”

 

[hells_fury]

Finally the officer had returned and lead me inside to the crime scene and the man in charge. Looking around the room before I hear him I glance at him carefully. Being a human and a necromancer came in handy. I could feel the magic in this room someone, had used some pretty powerful and dark magic. Looking back to the man I gave him a nod. “Well Lieutenant Barbatoson, I am the supernatural expert for this Sunridge and the surrounding cites.” I shrugged.

Looking around the room I began examining each body carefully. Slipping on my latex hospital gloves I look up to the Lieutenant. “Is it ok if I touch the bodies, or do you still need to get pictures and what not?” I wasn't sure if he was done with the scene yet. I hadn't worked with him yet. The last guy left on my behalf. I didn't tend to get a long with assholes and I wouldn't try and make up for anything I didn't feel bad about.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"Do what you need to do, the pictures have already be taken. Prints, the only person who hasn't come through personally is our blood splatter analyzer and he doesn't need the bodies. And please call me Jon." I take the moment to walk around the room for a moment envious of the common stock humans. The corpses had only been here for a couple of hours but I could already smell the stench of their deaths.

For a moment I just walked around the room making a final sweep hoping to find something that would stand out to me. Some detail in the room that would tell me why this family had been chosen and what I was going to tell the press.

"I hear your extremely good at your job. That's good, I like working with talented people. Makes life easier. Any crazy stuff I should know?" I glanced over at her then started skimming the book case, other than the Dresden Files it there wasn't anything there that caught my attention. These people seemed to be standard, run of the mill, vanilla variety folks. Not the kind of people who in my experience collected enemies, certainly not the kind who killed children and carved em up.

 

[hells_fury]

I nod to him as I look over the bodies. Going over to the woman I lift up the hand taking a closer look at the marks that was upon her body. Hearing Jon's question I glance up at him. "Well I am a necromancer but everyone knows that." I shrug returning my attention to the victims.

The markings on the body don't really make any sense. There should be an alter, there should be a lot more here then what there is. Standing up I keep my hands at my side careful not to touch anything else. "Are you positive they were killed here?" I ask not because I doubt the police but there were to many pieces missing from the scene.

Looking around the room I can tell these people did not do this or invite whatever had. Of course everyone has their secrets and I would be stupid to assume anything. Standing there I walk around the room. I have to remind myself that these are victims, if I think of them as people or a family I will have more nightmares to add to that never ending list.

Shaking my head I walk over to Jon. "I know magic was done here, I can tell, but there are to many variables missing. I suppose whoever or whatever did this could have cleaned up after themselves. Looking at the bodies I would say it was human had it not been for the markings on them. I am thinking another necromancer who practices in voodoo or someone who was trying to raise a demon."

Shaking my head again I sigh. Beyond the markings on the body everything about the scene looks normal, well as normal as you can get for a murder scene. I guess, I have been spending a bit to much time with the cops, I am becoming more and more numb to seeing the mutilations. There were still things that give me nightmares but this was not the worse that I have seen. Of course I am sure that Detective Hernandez would fill Jon in on all my embarrassing moments. Hernandez had been there on my first crime scene and I had puked all over the body. Of course that was four years ago.

 

[Sean Renaud]

“Yes, I had heard you were a necromancer. I’ve never actually met one before, certainly never heard of one with so many people’s respect. Raising the dead is usually thought of as such filthy business.” The moment the words left my mouth I regretted having said them. Telling someone they were disgusting was rarely a way to get into their. . .good graces. What else of hers would I want to get into? Regardless there wasn’t much of a point in trying to apologize. “ was more asking if there were any pet peeves I need to avoid, you know, don’t call me babe. I don’t eat gingerbread anymore, not after my partner apparently upset a young warlock by referring to him as a witch boy.”

Continuing to walk around the scene. “No, I’m not certain the murders all or any of them took place here. I’m no expert on that blood splatter stuff, but I’m not seeing any signs of struggle. The furniture is in place, no signs of forced entry, the neighbors didn’t hear anything, of course I’ve seen cases that were every bit as bizarre though. Tox screens are still out so they may have been drugged, or like you. . .suggested they may have been killed somewhere else and dumped here. Though this would be an odd place to dump bodies. When people do that they usually hide the bodies, if they brought them here, they wanted them to be found and I’m not above saying that’s a frightening prospect. Especially if they were trying to summon a demon.”

It did look similar to some of the summoning rituals I’d seen. I only sensed the faintest bits of energy though so it either failed or whatever they had summoned was already long gone. That was a thought that honestly excited me a bit. It’s been a while since I’ve been in anything that resembled a genuine fight and the prospect of one gave me a pleasant warmth.

“Well, is there anything else you need to observe here? I apologize, they haven’t really told me what you do, only that your valuable resource and they don’t know what they’d do with out you.” So far the impressive part of her was her looks, but given it had only been a few minutes that wasn’t really fair of me and I knew it. It’s just that she wouldn’t be the first pretty face I’d seen invited to the club by a bunch of guys who humored her in the hopes of getting into her pants. Which in her case wouldn’t be an entirely poor endeavor. Either way it was in my best interest to give her a fair chance to prove she wasn’t just a pair of legs.

Besides she was already smarter than most of the others I’d seen in Sunridge before. No wonder so many odd things happen here.

 

[hells_fury]

Looking at Jon I nod and return my attention to the bodies. Somehow the way their were laid seemed off to me. Taking a few steps back I looked over them and sighed. They were in the shape of a triangle but if the murder was trying to build a symbol something was still missing. I was missing something. Going over back to the bodies I knelt down and began to inspect them closely. Focusing on the woman. Looking at her hand I didn't see any jewelry, I checked her ears to see if they were pieced, surely they were and yet no jewelry. I could see the line on her left hand where a wedding ring hand been but nothing was there. “Where is her jewelry and wedding ring?”


I asked to no one in particular. Standing up once again I walked around the living room. There was the presence of power here, I could feel that much but yet it wasn't strong, no ritual had been done here and nothing had been raised or I would feel it. “They were not murdered here, this is all staged.” I said shaking my head as I walked back over to where Jon stood. “The power that I can sense here, its the aftermath, like dragging a smell with you when you return from the outdoors or something. This was not done here. There should be more blood, there should be signs of a struggle.. What about the neighbors, did anyone see anything?”


The pieces were beginning to add up to me, something much stronger than I originally thought had done this. Something that knew how to cover its tracks and get what it wanted. Initially I had thought it could have been human, but as realization began to set in I realized it was not. No whatever this was, was powerful.

 

[Sean Renaud]

“Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed that she was missing her jewelry yet. I think once we realized that this wasn’t just a simple B and E I didn’t ask a lot of questions. Officer, has anything else of value been stolen?” I continued slowly pacing the room as one of the officers rattled off the details. They were still doing a full inventory but no wedding rings had been recovered, the jewelry box was still in place and it didn’t seem that there was anything else stolen. “Well I’ve never known demons or summoners to give a shit about jewelry of any time but you’ve got that look that tells me that you have.”

I sigh. The fact that this was somehow staged was more than a little disturbing. It meant that someone wanted us to find this. It was some kind of message. A distraction, a warning, an invitation. Keeping my power undetectable isn’t usually difficult, humans practically need to be slapped in the face with a wet mop before they notice anything but that didn’t mean that nothing and nobody knew that I was here already.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Pushing my energy back down a forced a quick smile. “We’re still interviewing the neighbors, maybe we’ll get lucky and someone saw something.”

“Sir, the babysitter was the one who called it in, she’s already at the station.”

I didn’t quite catch his name. “Thank you. I don’t know if this is standard procedure but do you want to come along to help with the questioning? I wouldn’t know the first thing to ask about a summoning ritual.” Okay, I would know the first thing. I know how to summon my father but this wasn’t him.