Lieutenant Mills was catching up on some long overdue paperwork when Captain Irving called her to accompany him to the scene of a recent murder. The distraction was both welcome and a royal irritant, as she seriously needed to catch up on the paperwork but the very nature of the task made it doomed to failure. She was pretty sure that paperwork bred out of nothing in some arcane process that could save hundreds of dying and endangered species if only humans could work out how to replicate it. As it was, she was starting to suspect that it wasn't the horsemen, Moloc, or any supernatural event that would herald the End of Days, but paperwork reaching some sort of critical mass and burying the Witnesses.

"Where's Crane?" Irving asked as they strode fast out to his vehicle.

"Out at the cabin," Mills replied. "I had paperwork and the last thing I need doing that are his rants about the price of food or that fact that I buy water distracting me."

Irving blinked. "Yeah, I can see how that would be distracting. Hopefully we won't need him for this one. It might be just a case of drug related violence."

"That would be a relief."

Glancing at her as they headed out to the site Irving grimaced and said "Never thought I would be happy about a bit of everyday crime."

"Welcome to my life, Sir," Mills replied.

Twenty minutes later and neither one of the officers was happy. The body was spread eagled on the floor; blood not sprayed around like from an arterial bleed or pooled beneath it, but rather spread out around the body in a series of deliberate symbols. More symbols were carved into the corpse's flesh, all the more visible for the person's clothes had been taken off and were neatly folded in another room. The person had been male; though there was a portion missing that had all of the attending officers grimacing in horrified sympathy.

Irving hoped that had been done after the poor bastard was killed.

"So what have we got?" Irving asked Mills after she had taken pictures on her phone from all angles.

"Might be Egyptian," Mills replied. "I've seen something similar to those symbols before. I'll take it to Crane when we're done here. He's more familiar with this sort of thing."

"Great. Egyptian." Irving sighed and glared at his Lieutenant. "You two find out what's going on and how to stop it. I'll work out how I'm going to explain this to the Mayor."

"Yes Sir." Mills was not sure at that point which one of them had the worse job.

After checking with a few of the technicians on scene Mills got a ride back to the station, then picked up her own car and drove out to Corbin's cabin. It was late afternoon, only a couple of hours to sundown when she pulled up. She strode up to the porch and let herself in, knocking but getting no reply. The inside was silent and she instinctively knew Crane was not in the cabin. Frowning, noting that there were signs he had been in the cabin recently, she moved towards the back door and out onto the back porch. What she saw down on the lawn had her drawing her pistol without even thinking about it.

"Crane! What happened? Are you alright?"

He was standing at the big wood-slab work bench, a fire burning in the fire ring not too far away. Crane's arms were covered in blood and he was shirtless, his front covered with spots of it. He took in her expression, her drawn weapon, and looked confused.

"Leftenant, good evening. I am quite well, thank you. You seem alarmed whatever is the matter?"

Mills felt her eyebrows rise sharply. "You're covered in blood! What the hell happened here?"

"Ah," Crane managed to look both sheepish and pleased with himself all at once which was quite a feat for any normal person but for Crane quite easy. "That. Well, last night I spent some time in research on that which we encountered in the woods and unfortunately my searches bore no answers to the questions I had, and so quite vexed I resolved that I should take some exercise to clear my head and renew concentration. Noticing that the good Sherriff kept stock of some fabulous hunting arms and knowing the deplorable pricing for such staples as meat at your 'supper-market' I determined that I should serve both purposes if I were to go hunting. My hunt yielded far more satisfying result than my research and I have spent most of the day butchering the prime deer I brought down," and now he grimaced down at himself and added "With more enthusiasm than skill, I fear. However, a haunch is over on yonder spit and has been roasting since early morning. Tonight, Miss Mills, we shall dine like kings."

Holstering her pistol Mills shook her head. "Okay. So you're gonna put all of this in the freezer?"

"Indeed. There should be ample to sufficiently see to my needs for most of the winter, if I can acquire other staples and perhaps bag a few birds to add to the cache," Crane replied, turning to complete the final cuts he was making and bagging up the meat. "Now, what brings you here Leftenant? Has something else gone awry?

"As usual," Mills said with a sigh and sat on the stairs. "There's been another murder. Victim was found in the middle of a bunch of symbols, with more carved into his body. He'd also… well; he was mutilated in other ways too."

Crane shot her an intent look. "In what other way?"

"How about you get cleaned up, we eat and then go over gruesome corpses? I didn't get lunch and I think we should eat while we can."

"As you say. Evil does unfortunately not make allowances for those most basic of human needs." Crane's wry agreement held a hint of sarcasm that made her smile.

Hours later both Crane and the Lieutenant had eaten more than was perhaps good for them, particularly in light of the gruesome pictures that they were now studying on the laptop. Thankfully, neither Witness was given to faintness when it came to the sight of bloody and horrific wounds; a fact that Crane gave was both appalled by and thankful for in equal measure.

"It's not pretty," the Lieutenant warned as she worked to bring the picture up.

"I can quite assure you, Miss Mills, that I have seen horrors upon the battlefield that have had the unfortunate result of hardening me to… Oh dear Lord," Crane swallowed convulsively as the 'other ways' the victim had been mutilated in came to light. "That poor unfortunate."

"It might help to know that… that particular wound was done after death," the Lieutenant said.

"There is some comfort in that," Crane acknowledged with a glance showing his gratitude. He turned his attention once more to the markings on body and surroundings, his keen intellect becoming apparent in the sudden stillness of form and intent stare. The Lieutenant relaxed back, knowing by now when to give her partner quiet and peace to make whatever connections had to be made.

"This was a ritual death," Crane said after not too much time had passed. "These symbols here are Egyptian, connected to the Dead, though the exact meaning is unknown to me. I will tell you this; whoever this is was not an unwilling victim, Leftenant, but a willing sacrifice for whatever dark ritual his death has fuelled. He was bled dry deliberately, so that none of the blood and thus the power was lost to the ritual. Quite possibly he was drugged though I would hazard a guess that he was not completely insensate at the time that the rite was performed."

The Lieutenant grimaced. "Great. Any idea where we could get more information on this ritual and what it was for? We need to know if there are going to be others."

"You are quite correct, and I believe that Miss Byrnes may be of assistance in this. I noted several items of Egyptian origin within her home during our sojourn there."

"Great so we go out there and..." Whatever the Lieutenant was about to say was interrupted by her mobile telephone, causing her to scowl and Crane knowingly and pull it from her belt. "Mills."

"Yes, Sir," she listened intently, giving Crane another meaningful glance as she heard the news from her Captain. After only a few moments she hung up and turned grave dark eyes up to her fellow Witness.

"We better move fast. Another victim like this has just been found."