Thursday, December 19, 2013
Simful - Holiday Edition
Sunday, December 15, 2013
30: What Goes Up… – Pt. 3
Victoria stood in front of the porch windows watching Derrick
hard at work in the garden. Anything to keep himself busy after the brush with
death the two experienced a few nights ago. Victoria had been on pins and
needles since she felt the invisible hand around her throat growing tighter and
tighter making it impossible for her to breathe. And Loretta and Derrick were
doing all they could to figure out who was behind the attack at the fairgrounds
and why.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
29: What Goes Up… – Pt. 2
“Try and relax Sweetheart, that pacing isn’t doing any of us
any good.” Loretta spoke calmly as her fingers traced through lines of text
within The Book of Elements. The incident at the light show left both Derrick
and Victoria on edge but even more so filled with questions. The two quickly
got back to the house and Loretta immediately went to work on trying to figure
out what the sign meant and why it was directed at her granddaughter.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
28: What Goes Up… – Pt. 1
Victoria sat aimlessly watching the neighborhood kids
running up and down the street playing games. Everything seemed so innocent and
carefree yet beneath their outward appearance, she began to wonder if any of
them had ties to the supernatural. It could
be anyone, Loretta’s words echoed in her head. A crying child drew her eyes
towards a tiny, orange house on the corner.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
27: My House – Pt. 3
A dizzying blur of red and gold rushed passed her window as
she watched life in the small town go by. The air seemed crisper and she
inhaled with a smile as the sounds of children playing faded behind the speed
of the jeep. Somewhere in the distance a lawn mower roared to life and she
found herself reminiscing of days’ past as a child when she would roll around
in the fresh cut grass. A cool mist of dew splashed on her face from the ending
rain and was quickly dried by the warmth of the sun. Feeling the jeep slowing,
Victoria sighed as she rolled her window up.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
26: My House – Pt. 2
Victoria awoke with the piercing orange sting of sunlight
beaming into her bedroom directly into her eyes. The taste of ripened grapes
lingered on her tongue and she swallowed a few times to erase the flavor but it
didn’t help. The throbbing ache between her temples instantly reminded her of
what she’d done after getting off work and she sat up as she found herself
passed out in her underwear on top of her sheets.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
25: My House – Pt. 1
“Welcome to La Casa de Constantine!” Derrick bowed with a
cheesy grin as he opened the door to allow Victoria inside. Beyond the
mini-lantern lighted pathway she’d walked towards his door tall oaks surrounded
the old mansion bending their branches in a brisk wind. The scent of fresh cut
grass drifted into the door behind her and she could faintly make out the
distant growl of an engine roaring to life behind his property. “You’ve entered
the magical kingdom where elephants fly, chimney sweeps dance and every wish
comes true.”
“That’s Disney Derrick,” Victoria sighed, folding her arms
over her upper body in a protective shield as she waited on him to reveal his
intentions for inviting her over tonight.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
24: Pink Diamond Heist – Pt. 3
“Not the dead guy,” Mike responded matter-of-factly as he dropped a stack of papers on the conference room table in front of Victoria. “That guy you called me about last night, Brad Devereux, he’s connected. I’m talking dinners with Senators, golfing with the mayor even fishing trips with the governor for Christ’s sakes.”
“But ‘connected’ doesn’t mean he’s clean.”
Sunday, October 13, 2013
23: Pink Diamond Heist – Pt. 2
Pacing her living room after another night of the same
dream, Victoria sipped slowly from the cup of Chamomile she’d made for herself
and growled in a low tone that rumbled in her chest. Something was happening to
her that she couldn’t explain and the one person with the answers wasn’t as
forthcoming as she’d hoped he’d be. Fluttering near the patio door moved her
eyes from her hands momentarily and she saw the sleek, black feathers of her
newly claimed pet just outside the sliding glass.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
22: Pink Diamond Heist – Pt. 1
“What do we know?” Mason asked as he sat in on the
debriefing. Mike lifted the clipboard from the table and began reading over the highlighted facts of the case.
“The perpetrators then moved to the display on loan from the National Museum of Ireland. Using a glass cutter, they gained access to the Eyes of Celt and the crown jewels of the old monarch. Once the display was opened, a silent alarm alerted the last remaining guard at the gate who then called the police before heading inside himself to see what was going on.”
“His presence alerted one of the gunmen who immediately
fired upon the guard wounding him in the left shoulder. The guard was able to
locate guards A and B and remove their cuffs. They entered the gunfight where
guard B was shot twice, once in the neck and once in his right cheek. He died
on the scene. Guard A believes he injured one of the perps and a trail of blood
leading to the dock confirms it; the blood didn’t belong to a guard or the fallen perp.”
“What was the take?”
“The perps got away with a small fortune with just one
item,” Victoria responded and slid a picture in front of her captain of the
stolen jewel. “The Heart of Bríd, also known as Bríghid – the most famous
female saint of Ireland. The 73-carat pink diamond is one of the world’s most illustrious
and worth an estimated $13 million.”
“Do we have any information or possible leads on who these
men were?”
“Not yet. But from the way they seemed organized we believe
they were possibly hired by an outside benefactor who had interest in obtaining
the jewel either for resale or a private collection. We’re looking into known
jewel thieves as well as art collectors who would have interest in the gem.”
Mike looked down at the clipboard clutched within his hands and ran his thumb
over the top name on the piece of paper slipped into the holder. “Baker, Clive Baker.”
“The cat burglar?” Mason asked leaning forward. “He’s doing
a dime at Rikers for the 2009 Bell’s Crossing home invasions. Why is his name on
that list?”
“Because his daughter is in the game and seems to be taking
pointers from dear old dad,” Victoria offered.
“Sounds like a promising lead,” Mason groaned and pulled up
from his seat. “Get started on this. The Chief is already taking it from the
Mayor by Ireland officials which means I’m not sleeping well these days. I like
sleep. So I assured him I had my two best detectives on it and that you would
have results promptly. Get this thing solved!”
“Great, sounds like a long night ahead of us,” Victoria grumbled and stretched against the table.
“Chinese?”
“Mmm Chicken Lo Mein please. Oh and get an order of the
Wonton too!” Victoria started down to her desk to grab the remaining files and
stopped as she saw her older sister Lynn approaching from the break room.
With a smile in her direction she greeted her, cautiously
accepting the hug she threw around her shoulders with a pat on her back. “Um,
hey Lynn, this is a surprise.”
“I know! I should have called but this was something that
needed a face-to-face.” Almost instantly Victoria tensed and drew in a sharp
breath.
Her fingers slipped over the file in her hand as her
thoughts turned to the worst as years as a homicide detective taught her. “What
is it? What’s wrong? Is Mom…?”
“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that,” Lynn quickly waved her off
casually. “Mom just called and told me you wanted some old photo albums or
something and since I was passing through town heading to New York for a book signing,
she asked that I drop them off to you.”
Victoria exhaled in aggravation as her sister dropped the
books to the desk. “Geez Lynn! Next time start with that instead! I’m a
homicide detective for crying out loud. You never visit here! And in the middle
of the night, it scared the crap out of me!”
“I’m sorry, ok? Relax. Mom just wanted to make sure you got
these and like I said I should have called. But anyway, you have them now and I
gotta run. I have a late meeting with my publisher in an hour and I don’t want to miss the
teleconference.” She gave her baby sister a quick kiss on the cheek and started
for the exit. “I love you! See you later!”
“Yeah,” Victoria frowned and looked down at the stack of
books. At Derrick’s constant hassling she’d called her Mom concerning the
closed room at the cabin to ask her about their possible underworld connection.
And although her mother hadn’t directly answered any of the thousands of
questions she threw her way, Victoria got the idea she knew more than she was
telling her.
Thinking quickly Victoria redirected the conversation away from the cabin and the witchcraft to put her mother at ease again before starting a conversation about her grandmother; someone she hadn’t seen since she was ten. It had become her goal to find her.
Tucking the albums under her desk for now, she scooped up
the files on the possible suspects and started up to meet Mike again. With a
sigh she took her seat and dove into the paperwork. “10 minutes the food should
be here,” Mike spoke as he joined her again. “Let’s see how much we can get
through before then.”
Hours passed and they were no closer to narrowing down the suspect list than they were when the crime first started. With a clock looming over their heads they knew they would need to go balls to the wall if they wanted to have something tangible to take to the Captain.
“I can’t watch this
again,” Victoria sighed and rubbed her eyes wearily as Mike hit the rewind on
the video of the robbery. “We’ve seen it over a dozen times now and nothing new
has popped out at me.”
“Yeah, my eyes feel like they are ready to fall out of the
socket and run away. The only thing I noticed is how precise these guys were.
Every single event was synchronized and timed right down to the second. Step
one, enter through docks and take out guards A and B, deploy gas – three
minutes. Step two, round up the hostages into the ladies bathroom, third floor
– four minutes. It took six minutes to get the glass cover removed from the
display case on the second floor which alerted the front gate guard who came in
guns blazing two minutes later. Fifteen minutes to perfect the heist and two people
dead.”
“Well we know guard B was killed by one of the armed perpetrators in the shootout on the first floor. What I believe and what forensics is confirming now is that the gunman we found on the back docks was murdered by a member of his team. The question is why?”
“Greed; the less people left standing the more money the
surviving members of the team can line their pockets with. It also reduces the
chance of getting caught if one of them starts talking.”
“But then that begs the questions are they all going to kill
one another now to increase that amount or was this particular team member shot
for a reason beyond greed?”
“You mean a hit?”
Victoria nodded and slid a picture of the gunman’s body
towards him to analyze. “He was shot point blank range in the back of the head
once and two more rounds to the chest once his body hit the ground; that’s a
professional double tap. IAFIS still has not been able to ID him through
prints, his dental work is nowhere to be found and he has no unique identifiers
on his body such as tattoos or childhood scars. Technically, this man doesn’t
exist.”
“Normal means of identification are useless, you should call
your buddy in on this one then.”
“Cole?”
Mike nodded as he stood from his seat, rearranging the papers in the manila folder in front of him. “He has access to the FBI’s facial recognition software. Maybe he would be able to get a hit off the vic’s face and put a name to him. At this point that’s our only hope.”
“You’re right. I’ll give him a call…tomorrow morning,” Victoria
groaned as she looked at the time on the clock above the door. It was ten
minutes past one a.m. and her only thought was getting home and passing out. “See
you bright and early partner.”
Dropping her bags and the books of pictures on her kitchen counter, Victoria poured herself a glass of water and removed her shoes allowing the cool tiled floor to bring her to life. The hot water of her shower was a nice welcomed experience and her eyes drifted closed as she let the soothing waters pour over her body. “Normal means of identification are useless,” she repeated Mike’s words. Something about the way he said it sparked a notion in her and she instantly turned off the shower and dried quickly.
Hastily dressing in her night garments, she took the stairs
two at a time and hurried into her garage and the items she’d removed from her
family’s cabin in Cedar Grove. “Come on I know you’re in here somewhere,” she
growled tossing the books around the box before finally uncovering the one she
browsed before. “Ah-ha!”
She closed her garage down and started back to the house. A fast moving black object fluttered in front of her and she jumped back as he agitatedly flapped his wings in her face. “Vex, what’s your problem?” He floated over her for a moment before joining her in the den where she promptly turned to the page that had her attention on the drive back from the cabin.
“What do you think about testing something Vex? Just a little magic just to see if I have it in me.” She walked into the kitchen to gather the herbs the spell required and pulled a pot from beneath her sink.
Reading the list a few times she exhaled, turned the stove
on to boil and started reading. “Here goes nothing.”
“Halls of Echoes, Halls of Light
make visible what’s hidden; bring them to sight
reveal secrets unveiled so that I may see
things as they truly should be.”
make visible what’s hidden; bring them to sight
reveal secrets unveiled so that I may see
things as they truly should be.”
The pot boiled over, fizzled on the surface of the stove and
evaporated quickly. Victoria backed away and with a disgruntled frown closed
the book and turned towards Vex sitting on the counter behind her. “Well that
was a bust. I guess I need to work on my magic to get these things right?”
Heading upstairs to finally get some shut eye, she placed
the book on her dresser, opened her bedroom window for Vex and turned off the
lights. The chilly gust of wind that blew through the glass hit her like a ton
of bricks and she instantly dove into the bed beneath the covers. The
temperature seemed to drop even lower and as she shivered, she could see her
breath in front of her face.
Preparing herself to get up and shut the window again,
Victoria paused in her tracks as a shadowy visage appeared behind her in the
mirror. She gasped and quickly turned to look behind her but found nothing.
“Ok, that was not my imagination,” she spoke in a light tremble and back
pedaled from the bed. Her body met with the cool wooden surface of the bedroom
wall and shaky fingers fumbled around to find the light switch.
But before Victoria had a chance to flip them on, the ghostly form of a man reappeared again in front of her and her eyes widened in shock as she looked him over. “Ok this cannot be happening.” Vex flew over towards her and in a manner of protection, circled over her head waiting to see what the man’s intentions would be.
He opened his mouth to speak, and as he did a shrill and eerie sound escaped his lips. Victoria’s hands went over her ears quickly and she pressed herself deeper into the wall. When finally the noise ceased she looked up and the man, who now appeared corporeal, smiled warmly as he spoke two words. “Brad Devereux.” And just as smoothly as it had appeared, the apparition vanished and with it the cold that had overcome her.
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