Secrets and Lies

"Angry," Emma practically growled through gritted teeth. "More than anger. Rage. White hot fury."

The seer's right hand clenched into a fist, tight enough her knuckles turned white as she continued, "This isn't normal. It's murderous. The anger's intense, but not the loud boisterous kind. Quiet, focused, calculating. This is the anger that drives a man to murder."

A moment later she slumped as the tension suddenly seemed to leave her body. Her right hand relaxed enough that I could see the gold wedding ring she was using as a focus object. The teen let out a sigh that was half sob, "Anger's gone, replaced by despair. Sadness. Sorrow. Loss. Regret."

"Resolve," she added firmly as she straightened up again, while her hand closed tightly around the gold ring. "Circling back around to anger again, fed by frustration. Plotting. Planning. Preparation. Ice cold determination. Confidence, assurance. Knowledge of what must be done."

Emma's jaw set as her body seemed to tense again, but only for a moment. Then she relaxed and her voice took on a dull, neutral tone. "Full on rage again, but this time it's masked, hidden. Cold, calculating, but also dull? Emotions burned out, burned away. Nothing left but a calm knowledge of what is to come and what cannot be avoided."

"Like a mantra," she added with a frown. "Idiots and fools, the lot of them. Thou shalt not suffer a fool to live."

At that point the girl seemed to collapse, but both Phoebe and I were close enough we managed to catch her before she hit the floor. The wedding ring slipped from her fingers though, bounced once, then rolled underneath the big boardroom table.

"Something set this guy off," Emma mumbled weakly as Feebs and I lowered her onto a chair. "I don't know yet if it's supernatural, but something made him so angry he murdered his entire family."

She sighed as she slumped a little lower, and both Phoebe and I ended up keeping our hands on her to make sure she didn't fall off the chair. Then she half-whispered, "After that it turned his grief into even more rage. And sent him here, to try and wipe out his coworkers too."

General Walcott frowned for a moment then shook his head, "I only worked with Shaw for about a week, but he very much did not strike me as someone prone to bouts of anger. Let alone murderous rage. And interviewing his coworkers yesterday, the consensus was the man didn't have a single malicious bone in his body."

"Is she going to be alright?" Lieutenant Yates added, as she gave Emma a worried look.

I was watching our seer too, but I was pretty sure the only thing wrong with her was exhaustion. So I suggested, "I think Miss Rhys needs a break, if you don't mind? She's been going non-stop, I don't think she's had a chance to get any sleep since yesterday."

"She could probably use some refreshments too," Phoebe added. "Maybe someone could bring her something to drink? And eat?"

Walcott looked to Yates and said, "See to it please, lieutenant."

"Will you three be ok for now?" he added as he looked back at us again.

"Aye," Feebs nodded. "We'll be fine."

With that the general excused himself and headed out one door, while Lt. Yates and the soldier who'd been with her left via the other exit. Both doors swung shut on their own, leaving the three of us alone for now. I kept by Emma's side just in case, while Phoebe crouched down under the table to collect Dr. Shaw's wedding ring. Then she carefully tucked it back into the evidence bag, which in turn went back into the plastic bin it came from.

There was now a second bin on the table next to the first, and alongside that was a long narrow cardboard evidence box. Yates and the private had brought those in while Emma was doing her thing. She hadn't been able to glean anything from Shaw's watch, and the cross was a dud too. It wasn't until she tried the plain gold wedding band that things really took off.

Feebs and I ended up sitting down to either side of Emma, so we could both keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't fall or hurt herself. We stayed quiet though, until Yates returned about ten minutes later with some refreshments from the hospital's cafe. She was carrying a tray which held three extra-large take-away coffee cups, and some paper plates containing a small assortment of both sweet and savoury baked goods. Yates was followed by the enlisted man, who brought us a half dozen bottles of spring water. All that was left on the boardroom table, then the two soldiers took their leave again.

It was another minute or two before the smell of food got Emma moving, then she slowly pulled herself upright. She helped herself to one of the coffees and a hot filled morning roll. It was a few more minutes though before she was ready to talk again. In the meantime Phoebe and I took the other two coffees.

"Sorry about all the attitude this morning," Emma finally mumbled, before taking another sip of her coffee. "I guess hunger and lack of sleep makes me irritable enough, some of my old self starts to leak out."

I shook my head, "It's fine. No need to apologize to us."

"I wouldn't bother apologizing to the general either," Phoebe added. "His people definitely screwed up, what with all the mistakes and confusion."

The goth teen grimaced, "Yeah. It makes me wonder though, if Trillium might be right? That maybe it was intentional, someone made it seem like an accident while deliberately contaminating the evidence?"

My eyes flicked over at the two plastic bins and the long cardboard evidence box at the far end of the table, then I shrugged. "It's certainly possible. And I hate to say it, but that sounds like a better option than our military being utterly incompetent."

Phoebe snorted as she tried to suppress a laugh. Then after a gulp of her drink she asked our seer, "D'you think you'll get anything else from all this stuff? When you're ready to give it another shot, I mean?"

"There's always a chance," Emma replied softly. "And bad as this coffee is, it's definitely helping. Almost as much as the food."

She punctuated that thought by finishing her morning roll, then reached out and grabbed an empire biscuit. She quietly munched on that for a while, in between sips of her drink.

After a few moments I looked to Emma and asked, "That stuff you said about hell... Was that something to do with Miss Talbot?"

"Yeah," the girl sighed. Her voice was a soft guilty whisper as she continued, "Gareth and I were in on it together. We believed all the Brotherhood crap, we hated to see the organization fall. When Owen said he'd made a deal with the girl who brought it all down we thought he was a traitor and a sell-out, that he'd betrayed us and everything we stood for."

She continued softly, "We made our move at the very first meeting. When Cindy showed up Gareth put a nine millimetre slug into the back of her head. Meanwhile I neutralized Owen with a paralysis spell. The plan was to kill both him and Alys, but Cindy popped back up and yanked the two of us into some alternate dimension before we could do it."

"It looked like a log cabin," she said with a shudder, "Except the front door opened, and right outside was literally Hell itself. Cindy knew Gareth was just another field operative, he was good but he didn't have any unique skills. And he was going to kill Alys in cold blood. For that Cindy cast him into Hell. Then she told me I was useful, because of my Sight. So I was given a choice. Join Gareth in Hell, or accept an 'attitude adjustment' and get a second chance."

A cold heavy weight settled in my gut as I listened to her story. When she was finished I gulped, "Did she tell you what that meant? I mean, did you know up front what she was going to do to you?"

"Yes," Emma nodded slowly. She drained the last of her coffee before elaborating, "Ontop of being an evil violent arsehole I also used to be a misogynist transmisic prick. So Cindy said I'd be learning a little humility, by becoming something I scorned. So yeah, I knew up front what she was offering, what she was threatening to do to me. I chose it anyways, and haven't looked back."

It took Phoebe and I a few seconds to process that, and in the meantime Emma helped herself to another biscuit.

"I'm glad you got the choice," Feebs finally commented. "It might not mean much, but I'm glad it wasn't forced on you."

The goth teen glanced at my parter then shrugged, "I suppose. Bottom line is I've changed a lot as a person. Some might even say I'm completely different now? So I'm not sure that it's relevant anymore. I remember my old life, I remember being him, but I haven't been like that since the end of August. Honestly it's hard to explain."

"I just meant compared to my own predicament," the redhead responded.

Emma nodded, "I know that Phoebe. And while I'm sorry you didn't get a choice, I'm glad you didn't face the same options I did."

"And for what it's worth," she added, "Speaking as a seer and all that nonsense, I can tell you're still the same person you've always been. All that's really changed for you is your aura shines a little brighter these days. Before you went to Yorkshire there was something weighing you down or holding you back. You seemed brighter when you came back from the moores, and now it feels like you keep getting happier every time I see you."

"Anyways I'm feeling better now so we should probably get back to work," the teen changed the subject before Feebs could respond. With that she got to her feet and headed back to the plastic bins then popped open the second one to see what was inside.

Phoebe's cheeks were red but if anything she seemed relieved that the conversation had suddenly ended, so I decided not to ask Emma to clarify those last few comments. Instead I picked up the clipboard I was looking at earlier, to continue reviewing the evidence list.

"That long box will be the gun," I stated after spotting the relevant notes. "One of the reasons the death toll was so low here yesterday, compared to the church two weeks ago. The doctor used an antique shotgun. Break-action, double barrel, so only two shots between reloads."

Emma glanced at the longer box before focusing on the plastic bin again, "The gun's a family heirloom, but apart from that I'm not getting any strong feelings from it."

"And he didn't use that on his family," she added. "He poisoned them. I think the shotgun's incidental, a means to an end. The point wasn't to shoot people, it was to kill. By any means possible. Poison was the most efficient for his family, but wouldn't have worked as well here."

Feebs glanced at me and commented sarcastically, "Well that's not disturbing in any way."

I nodded quietly before looking back at the clipboard again, to see if anything else stood out. And sure enough something did. I frowned at it, then dug my phone out of my purse and called up the big file Grace sent us a few days earlier. It took me a few minutes to dig through the various reports, but I eventually found what I was looking for.

After another couple seconds scanning through the list of personal effects found on Corporal MacDonald's body I finally spotted it. Then I looked to Emma and suggested, "My gut's telling me we should have a closer look at the bracelet, if you haven't already."

"What bracelet?" Phoebe asked. "What's it look like? And what's the significance?"

Emma added, "I haven't seen it yet but I'll let you know when I do."

I responded, "The report describes it as 'Bracelet, beaded, polished glass or stone composition. Removed from suspect's right wrist.' And it stood out because I saw almost the exact same thing in MacDonald's file."

"It didn't seem odd to me at the time," I continued with a frown, "But in retrospect it feels a bit off that a strong tough career military man would be wearing a piece of jewelry like that. Now seeing a nearly identical description of jewelry on the wrist of another man in a very different walk of life? It feels like too much of a coincidence to ignore, especially on an Anomaly-related case..."

My voice trailed off and I shook my head. I knew it was unscientific, but call it intuition or a gut feeling, something told me it was important.

Feebs pointed out, "It might be a local thing? Both men were from Inverness, it could be part of some local fundraiser or something."

"Maybe," I nodded. "If that's the case though, it should be fairly easy to rule it out."

"What about the boy's file? Was he wearing a similar bracelet?" my partner asked.

I shook my head as I looked at my phone again, "I don't remember seeing it on Gordon's file, but it's easy enough to double-check."

While I was doing that Emma announced, "There's no bracelet here. It's missing."

"That's immediately suspicious," I stated as I glanced at the clipboard again. "It was logged this morning, it should have been in the same bag as the wedding ring and wristwatch."

Phoebe's shoulders slumped and she sighed, "Serves me right for doubting our detective's instincts."

I rolled my eyes then looked back at my phone again as I suggested, "Maybe you could go find Walcott? Tell him we might be onto something."

"Aye," she nodded then turned and headed out of the boardroom.

About fifteen minutes later the three of us were seated on one side of the boardroom table, while General Walcott and Lieutenant Yates sat across from us. Dr. Shaw's belongings were all back in the bins again, and the clipboard with the evidence lists was on the table in front of me.

"So?" the general asked. "What have you found?"

I shook my head, "It's what we didn't find that we're most interested in. Both Emma and I cross-referenced everything against the inventory list. There's a bracelet missing."

Walcott frowned, "Something valuable? You think someone stole it?"

"Not valuable," Phoebe responded. "Potentially dangerous though, if it's what we think it is."

I took over again, after reviewing a few notes on my phone. "When David MacDonald's body was brought here for autopsy on October fourth, Dr. Shaw removed a bracelet from the corporal's right wrist. It was described in his report as being made of glass or stone beads, coloured black, grey, white, and red. The bracelet was put with the rest of MacDonald's belongings, which were eventually returned to his family."

"Looking at selfies on Gordon MacDonald's social media feed," I continued, "It seems like the bracelet ended up on his wrist around the twentieth of November. It was probably still there when Gordon's body ended up in front of Dr. Shaw for autopsy on December sixteenth. Except it wasn't mentioned in any of Shaw's reports in the boy's file."

Feebs took it from there, "The bracelet didn't turn up again until this morning, when it was removed from Dr. Shaw's wrist and catalogued by someone named Don Murray. The bracelet allegedly went into the evidence bag alongside Shaw's watch, crucifix, and wedding ring. However it wasn't there when his belongings came here for Emma to inspect."

"You were there general," the goth teen finally spoke up. "You saw me examine the evidence bag, there was no bracelet in there. And nothing else here has any trace of magic or the supernatural. If this case is Anomaly-related then right now the only thing we have to go on is that missing bracelet."

Walcott obviously got the message. He looked to Yates and ordered, "Find this Murray fellow and bring him here immediately. We need to know what he did with the missing evidence."

The lieutenant hurried out of the meeting room, then the general focused on Emma again.

"Miss Rhys I'm curious about something," he stated. "With your supernatural talents, is it possible for you to ascertain if an individual has been affected by this thing? Or put it another way, can you to confirm that someone hasn't been corrupted or contaminated?"

Our seer sighed and shook her head, "No. Not at the moment, not with any degree of certainty."

"I can usually tell if someone's actively under the effects of magic or something supernatural," she elaborated. "And sometimes I'm able to detect traces of such for a short time after the influence has ended. But considering we don't even know yet exactly what's behind this, there's no way for me to conclusively state whether someone's been compromised or not."

Phoebe chimed in, "That's one of the reasons we need to find this bracelet. We'll be able to tell if there's any kind of supernatural traces on it. And if so, that ought to give Emma something she can watch for if we're looking at suspects later."

Walcott frowned as he considered that. Then he asked, "What about me? Can you verify that I haven't been affected? And what of Lieutenant Yates?"

"As far as I can tell you're clean," Emma replied. "I can't see any trace of magic or the supernatural on you. Same with the lieutenant."

The general nodded, "Very good. The two men who apprehended Shaw have been held under guard as a precautionary measure, incase whatever happened to him passed on to them. Would you be able to vet them as well? What of the rest of my staff?"

Emma shrugged, "Sure. I'll need to spend a minute or two with everyone you want me to check. I don't need to talk with them, just being in the same room's good enough. But there's not much point of that until we know for sure what we're dealing with that I should be looking for. Otherwise I can't do any more than I've already said."

"Understood," Walcott responded.

It looked like he had something else to say, but he held off as Lt. Yates returned at that point, accompanied by man dressed in pale blue hospital scrubs. He was a smaller man, no taller than Yates, and lightly built. I'd guess his age to be mid-thirties, and he had short light brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin, and was clean-shaved.

"General Walcott," the lieutenant began, "This is Dr. Donald Murray. He's part of the staff here, and was one of Dr. Shaw's coworkers."

From the look on his face it was clear Murray had no idea why the general wanted to see him. He glanced around at all of us then said, "I was assisting Dr. Reeves with the autopsy, but we just finished up a few minutes ago. What did you want to talk to me about?"

Walcott got straight to the point, "You inventoried Shaw's personal effects this morning. One of his belongings didn't make it into the evidence bag. Where's the bracelet Murray, what did you do with it?"

The doctor shook his head, "All I did was take notes. Your Dr. Reeves was worried about contaminating Malcolm's possessions, so he did all the work. I just wrote down what Reeves said."

"I'm pretty sure he put everything into one of those boxes," Murray added as he gestured to the plastic bins on the end of the table.

As soon as the general heard that he looked at our seer and demanded, "What about Reeves?"

"Sorry," Emma shook her head. "I wasn't around him long enough to get a read."