Raptue Noir: Forbidden Fruit

        I woke up feeling numb. Despite my covers and a warm body laying on top of me , I still felt the icy tonic flowing in my veins. It happened less nowadays, but sometimes plasmids were acting up. You were never a splicer or saw yourself as one until it was too late. I still gathered some respite from the fact that EVE was a necessity for me when a plasmid run out rather than a craving that I had.  I put on coffee and stuck a cigarette in my mouth, lighting it with a flick of my fingers. Feeling the warmth of Incinerate in my fingertips felt good and with a cigarette in my mouth I proceeded to put my clothes on. I was in middle of zipping up my pants when I heard a yawn and a satisfied sigh coming from my bed.

 

        "Good morning Booker." Abigail had her eyes half-open, still sleepy and looked at me, resting her head on her arm. "In a hurry somewhere?"

        "Just woke up early, no reason." I replied. If not for the constant interruptions from outside I could get used to being with her. It was nice to wake up next to someone that you cared about. "I guess there's still work to do as well." I added.

        "Well, that pile of yours isn't getting any smaller." She replied teasingly.

 

        A pile of cases and a pile of papers, I could pick and choose freely from among the ones I still could not solve and those that I wouldn't be able to solve. I had half a mind to actually go out and talk to Flanagan about some of this stuff, see if Pauper's Drop had some new info. He already gave me a job in Arcadia, I thought I could take Abby with me there for a walk or from something at one of those fancy establishments there. The coffee was ready and I poured two cups and handed one to Abby. She sat up in bed and held the hot beverage in her hands, with blanket covering her up, while I took a seat behind my desk.

 

         As I flicked through the files with tepid coffee in my hand I looked at the Angela case. Complete incineration of bodies, evidence and the scene. If someone wanted to get away form a crime, this was the way to go. No leads, no suspects. I actually wanted to put the thing in the bin, it was likely that this would get forgotten quickly, with no evidence or interest to go on. I still had a little girl to find and I had a double trouble of my own.

        "You know, you can always ask me for help. I'm busy but I always have time for you. Besides, you are a great source for my stories." She spoke up and broke me out of my train of thought.  

 

        The phone rang just as I was about to reply to her. I set the coffee on the desk and picked it up.

        "DeWitt, PI. What is it?"

        The voice on the other side was that of security's switchboard. I knew her voice, calling me with everything that Ryan's people couldn't handle. Sometimes it felt like she was the person with all of the world's problems, with her job of relaying the bad news to me.

        "Mister DeWitt? Your presence is requested down at Athena's Glory, apartment six. Sergeant Mast is waiting for you there."

        "Did he say what was up?"  

        "No, only that you come up."

        I put the phone down and stretched, yawning. I finished the coffee in one gulp and put out the cigarette.

        "Ryan's people calling you again?" Abigail asked, putting her coffee away and sitting up.

        "Its the usual, I'll give you the scoop later at Pharaoh's."

        I walked over to her and leaned in for a kiss before walking out. I was starting to like this setup, who knows, maybe having her live with me would be a step forward. Elizabeth was almost out of my mind and I went out to see what new thing did Ryan's folks had trouble with.

 

        Athena's Glory was a class above everything else, being situated next to Olympus Heights, where the gods of Rapture resided. I didn't expect to be let into the inner sanctum of Rapture, if only to clean up their mess. At times I complained about lack of work, but most of the time I was hoping for simple cases,: jealous wives, missing person or a case of industrial espionage, things that would seem more common in Rapture. Nowadays, I was knee-deep in bodies and not sure whom or what I would find hanged upside down or with their blood drained from them. It didn't take a genius to see that for all of Ryan's rhetoric, people were still people, rapture or not.

I already had one job in Athena's, a missing person actually, but that was a dead one for now.  

        In Athena's I passed through the lobby quickly and took the elevator to the first floor where the apartment was located. It was a third door on the right in the corridor and I could see security and technical services already crawling all over the place. The smell of burnt flesh was unmistakable here, just like in Aventine. However, the place itself looked pristine: a well, furnished apartment, dripping with art deco and luxury whenever you stepped. In the living room I found Tom and the coroner, both looking at a burnt body of a woman. Unlike the other corpses, she wasn't completely charred, with her clothing and face still somewhat visible.

       

        "Another Incinerate accident?" I spoke up as I approached them and Tom turned to me. The unhappy expression on his face was permanently glued on by now it seemed,  with lines etching into his clean-shaven face.

        "Accidents imply no foul play, DeWitt, and we know this was no accident." He said.

        "No ADAM in the body present, no combustion residue form gasoline or other flammable substance, no cigarette or tobacco anywhere in the apartment." Coroner, a tall man in his early forties, slightly balding stood up and spoke up, pulling out a small device with a needle and a reader out of the vic's body.

        "And we know its a vic because this is not not her place." Tom added. "Rebbecca Clifton, 24, worked at Adonis Luxury Resort. This place belongs to one Patrick Sedgewick." He read out of a file he held in his hand.

        "And where is this Sedgewick?" I asked. " If anyone should know anything, it would be him."

        "Sedgewick is missing for over 5 weeks now, no one knows where or how he disappeared." Tom added wearily.

        "No one saw anything? Security at Athena?"

        "These guys wouldn't see a whale if it swam right past their window." Tom replied, his tone getting more tired. "Here's the part that will interest ya. Do you remember Meyer and Hayes? The place was completely burned down but once the renovation crew came in, they knocked out one of the walls and found a shrine."

        This was certainly interesting but sounded tangential. "So the Kashmir singer had a moral side to her too? She hid her bible there and invited people up for prayer?"

        "Not a bible DeWitt, but a small altar, with blood on it. Technical confirmed it was human."

This was getting heavy, but I was still not sure of the connection. "I'm not a biologist, do they know whose blood that is?"

        "No, but we found a similar altar up here too, hidden in an alcove. Look Booker, I could stand here and spoon-feed ya all the things I know, so here, read that and get on it. just be quiet about the altar thing." He finished abruptly. He wasn't looking happy when he thrust the file into my hands so I excused myself and took a little tour around the place.

       

        The altar was a small thing, three feet wide, two feet high and two feet thick, with a small, shallow basin carved into it. It looked like it was made of plaster and the whole thing was stained with crimson liquid. There were plenty of candles and candle stands around it too. It looked like an occult place, made all the more vile by the presence of blood. I noticed a symbol carved in the plaster. It looked like a stylized, handwritten letter h, with a horizontal bar going across the vertical part of the letter. Damn, this was a place where could use my camera, the thing was gathering dust at the office. Maybe I should get in the habit of carrying it with me, I thought to myself. In the meantime I went across the apartment and found a pencil and scratched some notes in the file, as well as drawing the symbol on paper. I wanted to trace it, bu the whole thing was sticky with blood.

       

        Some leads disappear and some come up, like corpses thrown into the water. At first they disappear, sinking to the bottom, covered up by the currents on the surface. But once they start to rot and fill up with gas, they will float to the surface, just like those civvies we saw floating in the Rhine. My cases were not much different, some sinking along with the evidence or leaving no trace, some coming back to the surface once the case turns up again with new evidence and more stink to it than before. Occult rituals involving human sacrifice would cause more stink than Ryan could handle.

 

        Adonis Resort was my first stop. I had to get across the town for that one, it was already past noon by the time I got there. Surprisingly, it still had Atlantic Express connection and I got off at the half-empty station.  Apart from your ordinary range of spa treatments, there you could also get rejuvenation, tonics, whatever money could buy. Maybe Abigail would want to come here, I'm sure she would appreciate the gesture. I shook my head as I passed through the airlock. I was starting to get hung up on the girl, but I didn't forget about the other one, or the fact that I still had some way to go with my cases. But one cannot dispel that quiet hope that starts to build, once things start to look up. At he reception desk all I had to do was to mention Security and Rebecca's name to summon a supervisor. I waited in the foyer for a while, lighting up a cigarette and finishing half of it before the supervisor came in. It was a tall, fair-haired woman, big-boned too. She wasn't the prettiest, with a big nose and thin lips but she had a resolute look on her face as she approached me. I got up from the bench and put out my cigarette.

 

        "I'm Kate O'Malley, the supervisor. I heard you are here about Rebbecca?" Her voice wasn't unpleasant, but she cut straight to the chase.

        I was equally blunt in return. "Booker Dewitt. Yes, she was found earlier today in Athena's Glory. She was incinerated. I wanted to talk to you about her."

        That seemed to deflate her somewhat, as she looked at me with wide eyes.

        "Rebecca is dead? Please come with me."

 

        The supervisor took  me to her office, place no larger than mine, with a similar desk and a chair and a whole lot of filing cabinets around. She sat behind her desk while I took a chair opposite. I begun my questioning.

       

        "Did you know Rebbecca well?"

        "If you are asking me whether I get chummy with the crew, no I don't. But I knew Rebbecca well enough I suppose."  She begun with an annoyed voice.

        "Anything significant about her at work?"

        "I actually wanted to fire her couple of days ago when she disappeared. She's never been a stellar worker, but we actually caught her trying to sneak EVE and other plasmid stuff out of the resort reserves. The little rat's been doing it for month and a half now." She opened a drawer and pulled out a cigarette. I flicked my fingers and lit it for her.

        "Was there anything significant about her?"

        "Significant? Her? Not likely." She sneered. "She's gone to all this trouble to sneak out the stuff, but she never used any of it. I would've thought a mouse like her could have used some dolling up." She took a drag and blew out the smoke.

        "She didn't talk about anything?"

        "As I've already said, I don't have time to make friends with the workers; the place is leaking and I got a whole horde of rich pricks to attend to."

        She definitely looked busy, with a toolbox and a pile of pipes stuffed away in the corner of the office. She seemed the type they used it put on the Rosie the Riveter posters.

        "Do you know where Rebbecca lived?"

        "Sure, I actually sent someone there once to get her here, but they couldn't find her. Here, Its in Apollo Square." She took out a file and on a bit of paper copied the address form worker record.

 

        I thanked O'Malley and left the resort. So far I had 3 vics, arson, theft of tonics and a case of occultism. I was scratching my head as I rode in the tram, trying to piece it together. I also had 3 disparate places and murders happening in a better-off apartments. The "forbidden arts" were a mystery to me, and I had little interest in pseudo cryptic mumbling. I've seen similar nonsense  when we captured some of the German stormtroopers, carrying around engraved knives and double lightning bolt on their uniforms. They always carried talismans and skulls and other things, and that altar reminded me of it. I doubted that there were any fascists in Rapture, but I would need some expertise. As I got out of the metro at Apollo's, I saw people's wary looks followed by rumbling and heavy steps. A small girl in a dress and with a giant needle was followed by a big figure clad in a diving suit. She was the source of ADAM and he was her protector. They appeared on the streets recently, now that splicers and plasmid overdoses became more common, with Ryan on radio explaining it to the public. I dreaded to imagine existence of a person torn from their world completely and set into a role they could not escape, following their "daughter" around.

       

        Thankfully, I didn't have to go far to find Rebecca's place as it was not too far from mine, and I managed to swing by my office to pick up my camera. I was half-expecting to have to break the door to get in, but her flat was open and empty. Little of the city light seeped through the windows, ad the place was eerily quiet. Most of the furniture and personal items were gone, and it had looked like the place was barebones for a while, a thin sheet of dust on the kitchen counter and on the small nightstand that was left behind in an otherwise empty bedroom. I roamed the small flat, hoping for some clues but it seemed that I was hopelessly stuck. I don't know whether I was looking for an empty plasmid syringes or another bloodies sacrificial stone. In the small bathroom I had found my clue at last - some burnt residue in the bathtub, and writing on the wall, done in red. It wasn't blood though, but bright red paint. "Harness the flame, harness the mist", and more weird signs dotted around. I took pictures of it and the rest of the flat and left.

 

        "An occult altar?" Abigail was just as surprised as I was when I saw it, when I told her about Apartment Six and the incinerated bodies. We were sitting in Pharaoh's Fortune, where I agreed to give her the story.  

        "Yeah, and Tom was awfully hush-hush about it".

        "I can imagine. Ryan is a devout atheist," she said, sipping her drink. It was a green cocktail, "Possession" she called it.

        "There's more it." I took a sip of my scotch and opened the file. She sat close to me so I could see her eyes trace the picture on the photograph and of my sketch of the altar.

        "Do you know what any of it could mean?"

        "Those are zodiac symbols Booker. They correspond to planets and portions of the sky. I used to write entries for horoscopes in the paper before Ryan started huffing and puffing about superstitions. I always had a laugh when I saw people read them with serious face."

        "And that symbol?" I pointed to the letter 'h' with the bar above.

        "That stands for planet Saturn." She replied. "Now that I see this, maybe Ryan had a right idea."

        "Rapture of not, you always find a crazy person in the crowd somewhere." I replied. It was different here underwater though, as the crazy ones were slowly turning into a crowd of their own. I looked at my watch, it was getting late. She saw me glancing at my timepiece and smiled slyly.

        "In a hurry somewhere, Mister DeWitt?"

        I flashed a grin of my own. "Well, it is getting late, and I got some leads to follow in Arcadia tomorrow." I thought back at the job given to my be Flanagan. "I thought I might take you there."

        "I would like that actually. The editor is running me ragged and seeing you once a week is not my idea of having a steady man."

 

        Abigail spent second consecutive night at my place and the morning saw us depart to our tasks. I promised her to see her later at the entrance to Arcadia, which gave me ample time to see to the florist job and see if there are more clues about Meyer. After seeing Elizabeth's performance that other night, I completely lost my head and forgot about him. But now that the case turned up again, I would have the opportunity to speak to Julie Langford, who ran the place for Ryan. The entry alone cost me 30 dollars, and the cashier looked at me for a while before letting me in. Flanagan was right, this was no place for him. And neither it was for me, since I couldn't fit neither here, nor in Pauper's. The sight of greenery and the smell of air that did not come from recycling did relax me however. I knew I would be itching for a smoke later on, but for now I breathed in deeply.

        I found myself in the Glens, an idyllic setting full of lush plants and leisurely pairs or families strolling from one part of the park to another. I was looking for the route to Langford's lab, when I felt a lithe hand on my shoulder that then slid to wrap around my arm.  

        "Well hello there Mister DeWitt." Elizabeth voice filled my ears as she appeared next to me, in her blouse and dark skirt. "Fancy seeing you here."

        "What you doing here?" I was puzzled but not unpleasantly so.    

        "I could ask you the same thing." she replied.

        "I've got a case and I have some things to check out with Professor Langford."

        Her red lips curled into a smile. "I'm all ears."

       

By the time we were at Arcadia's Research Center, Elizabeth knew all about my case, listening to me without interruptions or questions. While telling her of my findings, my attention was on security in the place. I wanted  to take pictures of security setup, but that in itself was suspicious and the cameras watching the place and sentry points did make me wonder if the admission price was the only thing that Flanagan was worried about when giving this to me.

 

        Professor Langford agreed to see me, although she did not look happy or fully attentive when Elizabeth and I found ourselves in her office. We had to wait for her for some time and we got to have a good look at her office. Elizabeth seemed especially curious about the lab equipment she had there.

        "How can I help, you Mister DeWitt?" We were seated at her desk, place stuffed with papers.

        "I wanted to ask about one of your people, James Meyer. He was one of your associates here."

        "Its been a while since we've actually buried him, Mister DeWitt." She replied. "But yes, he worked here and its been a terrible thing what happened to him." The bespectacled scientist didn't sound sincere.

        "I've been meaning to ask about his job, anything worrying or out of norm before he died?" I carried on regardless, while Elizabeth listened to the exchange with quiet amusement.

        "It was his job to take care of trees and manage the chlorophyll. He was a bright boy, but by the end he got clumsy and kept losing all the chemicals, not to add all those thieving morons. Please." She sneered. "I'm sure he wasn't losing the stuff, but its not easy to find a replacement for a botanist down here, so I was reluctant to let him go before they found him dead.

         "Thieves?" I got curious, because soon enough I was to become one of them.

        "A bunch of splicing weirdos hiding in the grotto and other holes around Arcadia. I wish Ryan would send someone to clean this up but all he wants to see is money and can't spare a security team, since you are here." Langford was itching to leave and get back to work it appeared, as she launched her angry tirades at me. It seemed that the pressure in Rapture grew and even the more important ones were feeling it.

        "I think thats all, Professor, thank you," I was rushing to be out of there too, with a little bit more info to go on.

 

As we walked out of the lab, Elizabeth pulled a small vial seemingly out of nowhere and handed it to me.

        "What is that?"

        This? Its a floral plant booster, with chlorophyll enricher. Langford's own formula."

        I was speechless. "What? H-How did you...?"

        "Just call it a small favor from me. For the drink I owed you." She said with a mischievous grin. "And since we are in Arcadia, how about we go for a walk?"

        I thought about Abigail but for some reason, I could not say no to her as she looked at me with her azure eyes. It went beyond mere attraction, as I felt the same compelling urge that I felt when she was stuck in my dreams, nameless. Besides, it was still early, I thought to myself like a greedy chump, I would manage them both. I didn't want to toss the coin just yet.

        "Sure, lead the way."  

        She smiled as she wrapped her hands around my arm. "Great. Lets go to the Tea Garden, I love that place."

        "This might sound far, fetched Booker, but I think all of the dead people belonged to a cult, and the stolen plasmids were used in rituals." Elizabeth spoke up as we strolled towards the Tea Garden.

        "Is it that obvious?" I wondered if this girl didn't have some strange power, she seemingly appeared everywhere and had a solution for everything. Part of her charm I suppose.

        "Well, those zodiac signs are more than mere coincidence, since those signs also symbolize pagan gods of old. The altars relate to Saturn, Roman god of agriculture. Arcadia is a s good place as any for worship of such a god."

        "The incinerations... They must have been slipping and got offed for it."

        "And what better way to go than in a burnt sacrifice?" She replied, a little too cheerily for the subject.

        "What about the blood? We have no vics, no stolen blood, nothing."

        "Maybe they are there, but you haven't found them yet. All the clues usually are revealed at the end, aren't they?" Mysterious was one thing, but this was getting cryptic.Come to think of it, It was hard to distinguish one from the other when it came to this svelte brunette.

        "The answer will be in those grotto's that Langford mentioned. We should check'em out." I was ready to go there, but she held me in place with her delicate hold on my arm and led me down her path.

        "We can make way though the garden. There's no rush."

 

        She led me down the paved path among the trees and water, with the place growing closer its bright sign of a big teapot. Despite the idyllic nature of the place, I could not help but dread it a little somehow, its implied purpose obvious to all who entered it. If Rapture ever had a lover's lane, this was it. It felt a little sappy when we finally crossed the entrance and strolled through surprisingly empty park. We were off the main path now, in a more secluded area among the streams and trees of the main park. We had bushes around us and the ground underneath was covered with the carpet of short, lush grass. She led me with her hand in mine, the thimble now warm from our touch.

        "You know Booker, there's more to me than meets the eye." She said suddenly.

        "Apart from you appearing out of thin air?" I replied teasingly.

        "Apart from that, yes." She replied with a grin. "When you told me of those two people incinerated, you went to Kashmir to ask about Angela, didn't you?"

        I swallowed, unsure how to answer. She set her trap. "Yeah, I did. Later that evening."

        Her eyes glinted when she heard my reply. "Shame you didn't come to speak to me after my song. It would have been a lovely night, had I known you were there. Or maybe you did..." She knew I was there on that, without me telling her about it. Who that girl was and what she wanted nagged me ever since I got her name. I was also falling into a trap, hopelessly and blindly.

        She let go of my hand and looked at me, batting her eyes, her carmine lips in a seductive half-smile.

        "Care to wait for a moment, Mister DeWitt?"

Then she turned her back to me and started walking slowly, her hips swaying from side to side, unbuttoning her shirt. I stood there, stunned and unresponsive. She continued her walk until she disappeared behind a bush. It mustn't have been long before I heard her call out to me.

        "Booker? Booker!"

 

        I followed the sound of her voice and went deeper into the secluded spot. There she was, spread out on the grass, her clothes all scattered around her. She laid there on the ground like on a sofa, her legs together, her hands both stretched out above her, her face radiant and seductive, shade of a bashful blush on her cheeks. I must have looked like an oaf, staring at her with my mouth half open and eyes wide.

        "Whats wrong Mister Dewitt? Do you like what you see?" Her voice was tempting, inviting. I was drinking in the sight of her naked, her white, supple skin, the two mounds on her chest, lovely shaped and enticing like fruit on a tree to be grabbed. Her graceful legs, smooth thighs and round hips, waiting expectantly to be touched.

 

        I did not toss a coin when I chose there and then. I knew I would lock that memory away, trying to forget what happened later. The place, the moment and her, it was a combination that was both intoxicating and forbidden, as if tiny, hidden part of me screamed against it, and it wasn't the thought of Abigail that had me resisting. But when you are in the spur of the moment, teased and urged on by the woman of your dreams, well, you can hardly stop yourself. When Abigail came to me, willing, I welcomed her, but Elizabeth was like a drug, a hypo of ADAM for a splicer; constantly on my mind, constantly out of reach and constantly yearning for more. I think she knew when it happened and took full pleasure out of that fact. She toyed with me, and now she had me. I don't think she knew about Abby, but she didn't have to know for it to be my mistake.

 

        I barely got out of my clothes when I was upon her, my hands roaming on her body, my mouth at hers. She tasted like sweet nectar, my mouth tasting that forbidden fruit. She closed her arms around me and enjoyed my touch, as she moaned with satisfaction. My hand was at her hip, circling around and gripping the soft skin hungrily, while I moved on to taste her breasts. She giggled as I moved my tongue across her skin, kissing her nipple and caressing the breast with my hand and she buried her hands in my hair. I just couldn't get enough of her body, touching, pinching, gripping and indulging in her frame. I went to kiss her again and my hand went to her thigh, running down when she pulled up her leg and rested it on my shoulder. I broke the kiss and took her leg in my hands, kissing her calf and going towards her ankle. Her foot was about the most delicate and soft things I've seen and as I kissed her ankle and then the foot, she started giggling, but didn't withdraw.

        I moved my mouth across her ankle again and started approaching the thigh, but this time I didn't stop. Elizabeth still made pleased sounds and as I got closer to her, I could see her chest rise and fall faster ever so slightly. She was giddy with anticipation as I moved closer and my excitement rose too, full and ready. As I got closer, she buried her hands in my hair again and I gave her few experimental licks. She was sweet there too, and smell of her body intoxicated me further in my lustful state. She was already glistening at her nether lips and expecting me there. She bit her lip and moaned at my ministrations for a moment before I withdrew and leaned on top of her, pressing my body against hers. I looked into her blue eyes, looking at me and calling me. I could feel her quiver ever so slightly as I entered her and I felt the blissful warmth of her inside. I kissed her again and set into a rhythm, while she wrapped her legs around mine, with her arms under mine and met each thrust with her hips. My hands were wrapped around her and I could hear heavy breathing and moans in my ear as leaned over her.

        She then leaned in an nibbled at my ear softly, still breathing deeply, with her chest rising and falling faster now. When I felt her teeth and tongue on my earlobe, I went deeper, each thrust full and complete as it met her hips. Her moans were mixed with squeals now and I felt her nails on my back as she dug into my flesh with a tense grip. I ran my mouth across her neck for a moment but my head was empty, wanting only to fill her. I was close now as I increased my pace. That set her off and I felt her body tense up and tremble, her inside clamping down on me and pulsating. I groaned hard and pushed myself into her as much as I could as I climaxed, with her legs now wrapped around my hips and holding me there.

        We laid there for a moment, unmoving, wrapped in each other as she slowly removed her legs and I slid off her. I laid next to her when she leaned in for a deep kiss, caressing my face with her slender hands and then put her head on my chest, pressing her body close to mine, her full chest now pressed to my side. I looked at her, covered in a thin sheet of sweat, glistening as the light from the reflectors bounced off her, her eyes still shining and I couldn't think of a more beautiful sight. I returned the affection as I wrapped my arm around her as we laid there on the soft grass.

               

        We dressed up after some time as our bodies cooled off. What just transpired still didn't fully register in my consciousness, but I satiated my inner hunger, that unspecified longing that waited to be resolved. First thing to come to my mind as the lustful daze left was the thought of the cultists and my investigation. Man has to have priorities after all, and I all but fulfilled mine.

       

        "Langford said They are hiding in the grotto." Elizabeth stated as we moved out of the Tea Garden.

        "And where would that be?"

        "There's a waterfall, among the rolling hills part of the park, if the printed guide is to be believed. It should be there."

        "Doesn't sound awfully smart to hide there, unless they are trying to hide in plain sight."

        "Or know people who know people," she added.

 

It didn't took long to find the grotto, and inside we saw scattered EVE hypos marked with Adonis Resort symbols, empty vials with Langford's chemicals and yet another burnt body.

        "I wonder if Tom's gonna clean this up." I said to myself while taking pictures of the place.

        "Wherever the other cultists are, they won't be staying around for us or the security to arrive."

 

The damn job was nearly over and I had little else to do here. Unless coroner conjured up new leads, I was hoping to be done with the occult for now. All I had in my head for now was the blue-eyed woman that occupied my dreams near constantly. She seemed to occupy my life too.

        The security and technical arrived as Elizabeth and I were leaving Arcadia. I saw Mast approach me, and he looked rather unhappy.

        "I will give you further details later if you want DeWitt, once we have the place cleaned up and analyzed. But don't you go blabbing about it to that paper friend of yours. She keeps giving us grief over all the crap that you solve for us and Ryan would hate having rumors like these spread." He was snappy when angry, but wordy when stressed.

        "Sure, I will check it out later." I replied. I kept my notes and photos though, I wasn't gonna let Ryan's boys put this away in some room to gather dust.

 

        "Well, I will see you around Booker." Elizabeth said, now that were were at the metro station.

        "Any place where I can meet you?" I was getting hopeful but I felt it was wasted effort.

        "I will find you first." She replied and planted a kiss on my cheek. It was an innocent thing, unlike what we did not long before, but it was a sweet thing nonetheless.

        Only when she left and I looked at my watch I remembered that I was to see Abigail in Arcadia some couple of hours ago.