Chapter One
…10 days since disappearance…
Morgause lifted a paper from her desk to view the one below it, and then set it back down just as Myror sat in the seat across from her and looked at her over the desk.
"Find anything?" Morgause asked listlessly. Myror nodded.
"According to almost every teacher this Merlin guy's had in his four years at this college, the guy was a saint. He never got into trouble in class, had near perfect attendance, and was one of the top students at the school. But he was a loner too." Morgause gave him a curious look. "According to the teachers and every student I talked to, Merlin was regarded as the outcast of the school. He had three friends: Guinevere Leodegan, Morgana Pendragon, and Lancelot DuLac. According to them, and half the school, the only people who generally got into arguments or fights with Merlin were the upper class students. The one everyone pointed me to was Morgana's own brother, Arthur Pendragon."
"So we're to investigate the son of the police chief," Morgause commented almost dryly. A tiny grin flashed briefly across her face. "Brilliant."
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Arthur wore a loose, faded blue shirt, a brown leather jacket that didn't close, and dark blue jeans. He was muscled, he was blonde, he had blue eyes. He was a "stud muffin" – so claimed a student named Sophia. Now, sitting across from Morgause and Myror, he looked unfocused and kept spinning the gold ring on his right ring finger absently.
Myror dropped Merlin's file on the table as loudly as he could and Arthur's eyes snapped in to focus on the two cops across from him at the table.
"So, Arthur," Myror began, opening the file to the first page and the picture of Merlin that had been on file with the missing person's report. "Tell us what you know about Merlin Emrys."
Arthur stared right at them as he spoke. His voice was flat. "He was an outcast, the guy who never fit in in school and never will." He glanced away, fiddled with the ring on his right hand, and then looked back at Morgause and Myror.
"That's all?" Morgause asked, her voice implying that he was hiding something.
Arthur sighed. "Look, I may have picked on Merlin, but I'd never kill him."
"And why not?" Myror asked. "I have statements from twenty-three of your teachers and classmates that say you were always talking bad about him and trying to goad him into a fight." He turned the pages of the file until Arthur saw a list of teachers he'd had in the past and people he knew. "Maybe he finally fought back and you fought and fought until you killed him."
Arthur glared at Myror intensely. "I would never," he hissed out. "Merlin saved my life. You think I'd kill someone like that?"
"What do you mean, he saved your life?" Morgause broke in. Arthur's eyes snapped to hers and he softened his look a bit.
"Back in freshman year of high school, Merlin was everybody's punching bag. He was a pacifist, so everyone knew they could do whatever the hell they liked and he'd never fight back. They did it because Merlin claimed he could feel things."
"Feel things?" Myror asked, leaning a bit closer. Arthur nodded but refused to look at the dark man.
"He said he could feel when something bad was going to happen, or something good. He would tell people at school to watch out on their way home, or to avoid the elevators at the school, and stuff like that. He couldn't tell you why, just that it 'felt bad.' It made him a target." Arthur spun the ring on his finger as he continued. "So one day, my friend Cedric tells me him and a bunch of guys from class are going partying tonight and he wants me to come. I say yes. After school, we're all packing into his car when Merlin runs up, out of breath and bent over on the ground, and tells me not to get in the car. He said if I got in the car I would be in danger."
"I thought he was a loon at the time. I think I flushed his head and threw him in dumpsters more often than I blinked. So I went to get in the car and all of a sudden he's holding my jacket like it's the only thing keeping him grounded and begs me, begs me, not to get in the car." Arthur shook his head a bit and let out a breath that was almost a laugh and focused his eyes on the table. "I didn't go." His eyes drifted back up to meet Morgause's. "Turns out, Cedric's car got hit by a semi whose driver fell asleep at the wheel. Everybody died." Arthur shrugged. "Merlin saved my life." His eyes slipped back down to the table and focused on the picture of Merlin there and he turned his ring a bit more.
"Nervous habit?" Myror pointed at the ring and Arthur stopped spinning it and looked down at the ring himself like he'd forgotten it was there.
Lifting his eyes back to Myror's and giving a charming smile, Arthur said, "Not in the least. Never done it before in my life." He kept his left index finger and thumb on the ring on his right ring finger, but never spun it again.
"So," Morgause asked after a long pause. "When was the last time you saw Merlin?"
"Friday at school," Arthur stated simply. Myror opened his mouth and Arthur spoke, "I was at work all afternoon, and then I went home. Alone. I don't have the best alibi, I know, but I didn't kill him."
Morgause noted the way Arthur's voice shifted on the word 'kill' but kindly ignored it. "If you didn't kill Merlin Emrys, then who did?"
Arthur shrugged. He shut his eyes for a moment and then they shot open again. "Actually, and this is probably the longest shot anyone's ever taken, but Cedric's dad….I got called in back in ninth because everyone thought I'd known about the semi and had let it happen, which is stupid by the way. Well I told the cops that I only didn't go because Merlin told me not to, because he felt it. Cedric's dad, Cornelius, overheard me and said he'd get even with Merlin if it killed him." He shook his head. "But that was….eight years ago now almost."
"Revenge knows no bounds," Myror murmured and stood up. "Thank you for your time. We'll call you if we have any more questions."
"Alright," Arthur agreed. "Lemme know what you find." He gave them both pointed looks that held ulterior, but not harmful, motives and shook their hands before he was released.
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….11 days since disappearance….
A twitchy man hurried through the building, up the elevator, and into Morgause's office just as she was standing up from her desk.
"Morgause," he called in a raspy voice. She looked up at him emotionlessly. "I brought the autopsy results."
"Thank you, Jonas. I'll take that." She grabbed it from his outstretched hand as she walked past him and out to the car where Myror was waiting.
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The house they came to in the search for Cornelius Sigan was quaint but large and open. Sculptures were all over the yard along the sides of the house but the front yard was overgrown. It was like two different houses were put together: a nicely kept house with statuary all over and a house that no one had lived in for years.
Morgause pushed right through the tall grass of the yard while Myror tried moving it out of his way as he followed her. She got to the front door, waited until Myror was up there with her, and then knocked. Myror was trying to brush the grass off his shirt and Morgause gave him an exasperated look.
"You're a man," she whispered harshly. "Deal with it. It's just grass."
The front door opened abruptly and both investigators turned quickly to face the man in the doorway. "Who is it? What do you want?" he asked grumpily.
He had black hair that dangled down greasily to his shoulders and was slowly turning grey. His face was a bit sunken in with a salt and pepper mustache that hid his top lip from view. He looked like the walking dead.
"Excuse us," Morgause greeted him. "I'm Detective La Fey, and this is Detective Lester. Are you Cornelius Sigan?" He nodded jerkily. "We'd like to talk to you about Merlin Emrys."
"Who?" Cornelius asked, then gasped. "Oh yea, that snot nosed brat my son went to school with. What about him?"
"He's dead sir," Myror explained. "We'd like you to tell us anything you know about the day he disappeared, about eleven days ago."
"Eleven days a…..sir, I haven't left this house in six years. How should I know what happened eleven days ago?" he asked snidely.
"Six years?" Morgause repeated.
"Yes. Six years. Now leave me alone. I have a statue to finish," he grumbled and shut the door in their faces.
"Are you telling me that he carved all the statues around the house?" Myror asked after a moment.
Morgause gave a minute shrug. "I suppose. He was covered in clay dust…didn't you notice?" she asked with a tint of smugness to her voice. Myror glowered and simply followed her off the porch and back through the grass to the car. "We'll keep an eye on him anyway, see if he's telling the truth about being a hermit."
"Now where do we look?" Myror asked as he started up the car. Morgause opened the autopsy report Jonas had handed her and ran her eyes up and down the page super fast.
"Well, according to the autopsy report, Merlin's body was dumped in the river and floated down to the rocks and onto shore. He wasn't dumped in the rocks. He was also dead before he hit the water." She narrowed her eyes at the print before her. "There seems to be a bit of confusion because….the cause of death is uncertain. His injuries insinuate that he was hit by a car, but also that he may have been bludgeoned to death with something sharp and pointed."
"So he was beaten to death….and was in a car wreck?" Myror asked. "I can't wait to figure this one out."
Morgause nodded absently and sat reading more of the report while Myror drove back to the office. A minute later she shut the file and stared out the front window of the car. "Myror, go check the river. Walk from the ocean, upstream. See if you can find where the body was dumped."
"And what are you going to do?" he asked suspiciously.
Morgause rolled her eyes. "I'm making a house call." There was a brief pause where she realized Myror was still confused. "I'm going to his mother's house to see what I can find out there."
Myror pulled to a stop outside the office and let Morgause get out. She would drive her own car to Ealdor and back. Just before she shut the door, Morgause gave Myror an encouraging look.
"You can check Merlin's house when you're done with the river, if you'd like. Or I'll do it when I get back."
"I'll do it," Myror assured her with a grin. Then she shut the door and headed for her own car.
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Myror sighed as he walked. He'd been walking for five miles now, with no sign of foul play on this side of the river. He had men searching the other side and they'd offered him some help too, but Myror had the best eyes of anyone on staff and he didn't need any assistance. But at the moment he was beginning to hate his job. The river ran through the whole city, well over twenty miles. He couldn't possibly search all of that today, and if he waited until tomorrow the evidence could be gone. Heck, it could be gone already!
He stopped abruptly and stared at the ground five feet in front of him. Blood. There was a patch of blood in the grass. He pulled out his walkie talkie. "This is Detective Lester on the east side of the river. I've found something. I need someone over here to take a kit down to forensics."
A moment later the affirmative came and he bent down and opened his kit next to the blood. Myror lifted the camera around his neck and took several different snap shots of the blood pool and noted how he thought the body had lain. Then he pulled on a pair of gloves and took some of the grass with blood on it and some samples without the grass and put them both in the kit. He followed the blood patch and looked up. The river was pretty much in a large ditch, with hills on both sides leading up to the street. On this side of the river, on the grassy hill leading up to the street, Myror saw crunched down grass and traces of blood.
"Hit by a car…," he murmured to himself and quickly scaled the short hill to the sidewalk at the top.
There were black tire tracks skidding over the sidewalk in a 'v' shape. The car came up onto the sidewalk, and turned as it pulled back off. Myror knelt down and opened his kit again to take a sample of what appeared to be blood on the edge of the sidewalk closest to the river. He also noted the glass and plastic fragments and….red paint chips flaked across the sidewalk. He pulled the camera up again and documented his findings in picture and lead and then collected the evidence in their own individual baggies.
As he heard some of his teammates coming closer, Myror glanced out over the road and saw what could have been glass and plastic shards out across the road, no doubt having fallen off the car after it pulled away and drove off. But it seemed they'd been run over a few times and were in minute pieces by now.
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Morgause parked her car, and was about to get out when her cell phone rang. Checking the caller ID she answered with a swift, "La Fey here. What'd you find, Myror?"
"Blood, and lots of it," Myror said confidently. "Our perp is obviously a novice if they didn't even try to clean up the mess they made. We're lucky it hasn't rained between then and now or it may have all washed away….Anyway. I found blood next to the river about six miles from where the body finally settled. Up the embankment I found shards of plastic, glass, paint chips, and tire tracks from the car that hit him."
"So we're certain it was a car then?" Morgause clarified.
Myror let out an affirmative noise. "Yea. And this wasn't a side swipe. This person was aiming for the vic. The plastic is from a headlight busting open, and the glass is most likely from a side mirror. We weren't able to trace the tire tracks to any specific car model, but we know it was red and has probably been taken in for repairs recently to cover up the damage. I've already called in for a list of all the red cars to go to repair shops in the past two weeks from every repair shop in the city."
"Good job, Lester," Morgause congratulated in a slightly teasing way. "I've just arrived outside the mother's house, so I'll talk to you more later. Bye."
"Bye."
Morgause snapped her phone shut and stuck it in her bag before slipping out of the car and walking up the little pathway to the front door of Merlin's mother's house. She was about to knock on the door when a voice called out to her, rather rudely too.
"Copper!"
Morgause turned to her right to see a man wearing baggy, khaki pants and no shirt but a full fur coat and trail standing on the porch next door. She noted a thin, spider web like scar that went from his forehead, down through his right eye, to his chin and his almost fully gray beard. He looked vulgar and Morgause held back a grimace, if only for appearances. "Yes?"
"You here to finally take care of the blaspheming bastard son of hers now?" he sneered.
Morgause ignored him fully and turned back to the door. She knocked four times in rapid succession and then waited. About thirty seconds later, a sweet looking middle aged woman answered the door. Her hair was just beginning to gray and still held most of its light brown color. Her eyes were blue and she looked a bit tired but generally happy. In her hands was a dish towel, indicating that she'd just been doing housework.
"Hello there," she greeted upon seeing the officer on her doorstep. "Can I help you?"
Morgause took a deep breath. She didn't want to hurt this woman, but she was going to. "Hunith Emrys?"
"Yes."
"I'm here concerning your son, Merlin Emrys."
Hunith looked confused and a bit concerned at that. "Really? Well…what's happened? Is he in trouble or something?"
Morgause paused for a moment and closed her eyes as she took another breath and let it out again, quietly. Then she opened her eyes again and said, softly, "I'm afraid he's dead, ma'am."
Hunith froze and all color left her face. "What?" she breathed out.
"His body was found two days ago, on Mountain Beach. He'd been dead for more than a week." Morgause shook her head slightly. "I'm so sorry."
Hunith stood shock still for a few more moments and then collapsed to the ground, holding the door frame for support, with tears cascading down her cheeks. Morgause knelt next to her and placed a hand on Hunith's shoulder. "My….," she gasped out and let out a short, loud sob. "My baby boy…"
"Hey." Morgause and Hunith both looked up and saw a boy, Merlin's age, standing just off the porch looking scandalized. "What's going on?"
"Will…," Hunith gasped out and reached out to him. Will hurried up the two steps to the porch and knelt next to Hunith so she could pull him into a hug. "Oh William….," Hunith sobbed out as she clutched him tightly for dear life.
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Myror parked outside a quaint little house just outside of the slums of Camelot. It looked cozy. He walked swiftly to the front door and rapped his knuckles against it a few times. Moments later, an old man with white hair wearing a brown jacket and pants with a blue shirt and a funny eyebrow opened the door.
"Oh, hello," he greeted sullenly. "Come on in."
Myror had phoned in advanced saying he'd be by to look through Merlin's things and find out why someone would kill him. His uncle, a man named Gaius, had immediately accepted and told him to come over as soon as he wanted.
"The one at the end is Merlin's," Gaius told him, pointing down a short hallway with three doors. If he had to guess, Myror would say one was Merlin's room, one was Gaius's room, and one was the toilet.
"Thank you. I'll yell if I need anything," he told the old man before opening Merlin's bedroom door and shuffling inside.
It was smaller than he'd expected. Maybe ten feet by ten feet. Most of the room was taken up by Merlin's bed and a desk with a laptop on it. Merlin's school things were scattered across his bed, indicating he'd been studying at some point. The room was clean: all the dirty clothes were in a hamper hanging on the back of the bedroom door, all the clean clothes were put away, any gadgets he had or toys were where they belonged.
"How does someone like this get into Camelot University?" Myror wondered softly to himself. He shrugged. "Must be a scholarship student."
He went through Merlin's school things but found nothing more than notes for some science and math classes. He checked the pockets of the jeans in the dirty clothes hamper and found three pennies and a receipt for a place he'd never heard of called Classic Café for a $7.15 sandwich dated two weeks ago. There was a photo album under the bed but Myror only looked at the first few pages once he realized they were all of Merlin's mother and his hometown of Ealdor. On the desk, he reached for the laptop but stopped short. Under the computer was a black notebook. He moved the computer and lifted the notebook.
'A Catalog of All Feelings' was written on the front of the pure black book in white out. Myror opened the book and began to read.
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"How?"
"All evidence points to a car crash," Morgause said simply.
Hunith glanced up with a little frown. "My boy never drove anywhere. How-"
"No, I'm sorry." Morgause shook her head. "What I meant was…someone hit him with a car, purposefully, and then dumped his body in White River."
"So he was murdered," William snapped as he came out of the kitchen with a cup of warm tea for Hunith to drink. She was a wreck, but understandably so. "You're tellin' me my best mate was murdered."
Morgause nodded. "We're still investigating, though. We're not sure who-"
"It's that bastard Pendragon!" Will shouted without warning, startling Morgause into silence.
"Will," Hunith tried quietly, sounding as tired as time itself, and Will shut up and watched her. Hunith gave him a disapproving look and then lifted her eyes to see Morgause. "I don't understand why anyone would hurt my boy…He tried to be nice to everyone….He was so nice…" She lifted the tea to her lips as more tears began to fall and sipped it lightly. "Good tea."
Morgause looked at the mantel over the small fireplace and pointed at one of Merlin at Christmas time. "When was this taken?" she asked, hoping to cheer the woman up just a tad.
Hunith gave a little smile. "Two years ago," she said softly. "He was twenty years old, and so proud of it…" She stood up, bringing her tea with her, and gently touched the picture with a shaking hand. "He…He always came home for Christmas, and Spring Break…and any time he had off at all…" Tears were slipping down her face again. "He bought me this angel necklace," she said, indicating the silver angel around her neck. "I bought him that shirt, and the chain for the ring around his neck." He wore a nice, button down black shirt and black dress slacks with a gold chain holding a gold ring around his neck. "He was always so kind to me….he always thought of everyone else first…"
Morgause waited a moment. "Well, that's what his friends and teachers said too, that he was a nice kid. But, like his friend here," she nodded to Will as Hunith made her way back to the coffee table, "everyone who knew him in Camelot thinks Arthur Pendragon's behind it."
Glass shattered when Hunith's grip slipped and the tea cup hit the table below. "Oh!" she gasped, jumping back as Will quickly grabbed a towel and began soaking up the tea and collecting the shards. Hunith made sure Will was alright before looking back at Morgause. "That's ridiculous, detective," she said in response to her statement. "I don't think Arthur would ever do something so vile. He's a nice boy too."
Morgause was about to question how Hunith knew Arthur Pendragon when Will scowled and forcefully threw the shards of tea cup into the garbage can. "He bloody well could have done it!" He turned his scowl on the two ladies now. "I wouldn't put it past him."
"Will!" Hunith exclaimed disapprovingly. "He would never, and you know it!"
"Excuse me," Morgause interjected, "but why do you believe he would never kill Merlin?"
Hunith seemed shocked that Morgause was still there and took a moment to collect herself. Then she gave a slightly sheepish smile. "I think you should ask that of Arthur."
Morgause left the Emrys house that afternoon with a bit more information than she arrived with, and wondered just what the connection was between Arthur, Merlin, Will, and Hunith. She was driving back to the interstate highway when her phone rang. It was Myror Lester.
"La Fey here."
"So I got a list of all the red cars brought in in the past two weeks, right? Well guess what?" Myror challenged her.
"Just tell me, Myror," Morgause demanded with no heat. "I just finished telling a mother her only son is dead. I'm not really in the mood."
"You sound tired," Myror commented dryly. "But whatever. The point is, five red cars were taken in for repairs since Merlin Emrys's disappearance, and only one of them for damage to a headlight and rearview mirror. And the best part? It belongs to the one and only Arthur Pendragon."
Morgause narrowed her eyes. "I'll look into that myself. Merlin's mother seems adamant that Arthur Pendragon would never hurt her son."
"His mother knows Arthur Pendragron?" Myror asked, his shock clear in his voice.
"I know. I'm looking into that too. I'll talk more when I'm back in town."
"Alright. See you then. I found something interesting in a journal in the guy's room, but I'll tell you about it later. Bye"
They both hung up and Morgause pulled onto the interstate. Four hours and she'd be back in Camelot.
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