"A Nightmare to Remember" by Ryley Breen AKA Shadow Master
email address: rybreen@centris.theberries.ns.ca
Disclaimer: Elisa Maza, Goliath and all other characters associated with
the Gargoyles TV show are the property of Buena Vista Television. Freddy
Krueger and all things associated in the Nightmare on Elm Street
Franchise belong to New Line Cinema or more precisely the creator of
Freddy, Wes Craven. Both these things do not belong to me and I am not
using them for profit or gain at all. This is just for my personal
entertainment and the entertainment of others. So basically all you
lawyers can stop writing up a number to sue me for right now.
Note: This is not a part of my usual universe where Elisa is in exile,
K'Stine is a Lionian-turned-Fey and two of the three Wierd Sisters are
dead. I am just taking a break from that usual duldrom to do some
crossovers I have been eager to do and since no one else seems to have
come up with anything similar I will be the first. Keep in mind though
when you read this that I have only seen 'A Nightmare On Elm Street", "A
Nightmare on Elm Street Part 6: Freddy's Dead" and "Wes Craven's A New
Nightmare" and so I am not exactly an expert on the movie's I will
undoubtedly make a few mistakes and the Freddy in this will lose some
crucial element. Personally I hope that any who read this will try and
write their own Freddy/Gargoyles crossover and do a far better job
because I would really like to read it. Well enough jabbering from me in
the back row, on with the show..............
"A Nightmare To Remember"
123 Washington Drive, Manhattan, 1:15 a.m
"Gotta stay awake, gotta stay awake!" chanted Mike Havender as he continued to pop pills into his mouth and wash them down with a mug of coffee.
This night was by far the hardest for him, for five days straight he had managed to keep himself from falling asleep and handing his soul over to *him* but here on the sixth day he felt his body on the verge of
collapse. Legs like lead and eyes like anvils he had to continually burn himself on the hotplate in front of him to keep himself from nodding off. Sad part was that he had burned his arms to such a degree that the pain was beginning to change into numbness as he burned away the nerves which registered pain. Eventually he was going to have to be more inventive about how he could keep himself awake without burning himself and the alternatives were few. He had tried just about everything he could think of, from drugs to caffeine to pain, and still he was slowly losing ground to his unseen enemy.
Strewn about his apartment were the remnants of his previous attempts to keep himself awake as well as five days worth of mess and dust. He hadn't really been doing much of anything besides trying to stay awake, after all doing stuff would just make him more tired rather than less and he would need all the time he could buy for himself. In the back of his mind he realized that this was probably a futile struggle, that it was only a matter of time before he would nod off and it would all be over for him. After all nothing lasted forever and that included his ability to will himself to stay awake, already his mind was beginning to slow down with fatigue and with that the rest of his body.
Maybe I should just surrender, after all what's the point? he thought to himself gloomily as he gazed down at the mug of coffee that he held in his hand.
Realizing that he was talking crazy he slapped himself a couple of times in the face and went over to his sound system, placed one of his heavy rock CDs in and cranked the volume to it's limit. It would probably wear out his speakers as well as bring the landlord down his throat but he would rather face that overweight bastard than see the scars of *him*. Hitting play he was relieved when the sound and vibrations of the music seemed to give him a slightly higher level of alertness then he had possessed before. He smiled to himself, maybe he could outlast old scarface after all, and with a heave plopped himself back down on his couch where he believed he would spend the next couple of days. Mike flicked on the TV and turned on his Sony Playstation, hoping that this would keep his mind occupied and tell him how drowsy he was based on his performance. Picking up his controller he picked his fighter and went to work kickin' ass and taking names with the computer controlled characters.
This went on for an hour and slowly but surely he could tell that he was getting worse, now he couldn't even get three opponents into the game before he got his butt handed to him. Reaching over he grabbed his pill bottle only to realize that it was empty, empty even though he could have sworn that he had still half a bottle left. Shaking his head he assumed that he had just counted wrong and decided to go out and get another bottle, after all the consequences if he didn't were not at all pleasant. Just then there was an incessant pounding on the door and the familiar cursing of the landlord coming through from the other side. Mike silently cursed his luck and prepared himself for a shouting match and perhaps even a slugfest. Grabbing his welfare check he prepared to hand it over to the landlord in the hopes that not only would it allow him to live here for at least a month but also get the butthead on the other side of the door to leave him alone.
Should probably just shoot the jerk someday, at least then I might do the world some good before I go. he thought grimly to himself as he began to walk towards the door.
"Lavender!! Turn that stinking music down or I'm throwing you out of here head first!!" the thick voice yelled through the wall.
"Yeah and how are you gonna do that asshole!?" Mike asked sarcastically as he turned the knob and swung the door open.
"Why, by cutting it off your head and tossing it out the window of course!" yelled the man standing before him in the dirty brown fedora.
The last thing Mike saw before the end was a metal glove swinging towards him with metal talons attached to each finger and thumb.
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Elisa Maze's Apartment, 8:30 Am.
"Brrrrrriiiiiinnnnnnngggggg" rang the phone once again as it finally managed to cut through the layers of sleep that covered Elisa while she slept.
"Uhhhh, whoever is on the other end of that phone had better have a damn good reason for waking me up right now" Elisa mumbled as she threw her covers off and made her way into the living room.
It seemed like only minutes ago she was getting into her nightgown and slipping beneath the covers for a well deserved 10 hours sleep before her shift began at six in the evening. It had been a busy night for both her and Matt since they had been involved with a sting operation involving some gun runners that had come over from the land of the rising sun. She and Matt had only been allowed to be a part of it because they had been the ones to discover it in the first place and knew the city better the feds that got sent in to deal with it. So after a five hour stakeout and a one hour firefight they had caught the bad guys and managed to keep a load of military grade weaponry off the street. Believe it or not but it wasn't the actual sting that had made her so eagerly anticipate getting to bed, instead it was the archaic old fossil the people at the F.B.I had sent to supervise the operation was a chauvinistic pig. It had seemed like every five minutes he was making some sort of wisecrack about the way she did things or was throwing around some crude female cop jokes. To his credit he actually did a pretty good job when the time for action
finally came but that didn't mean that she didn't send up a silent prayer of thanks when he finally left.
If this is him wanting to deliver a final parting shot before his trip back to Washington I swear he's going to get a whopping reprimand in his record she thought to herself as she finally reached the phone on it's third ring and picked up the reciever.
"Maza! Who the hell is this!?!?" she asked with a snap hoping that it would be enough to discourage any further calls from this person for the rest of the day.
"Maza it's Chavez and since you've just woken up I'll forget what you just asked." , Captain Maria Chavez of the 23rd prescient replied with a sympathizing undertone in her voice, "Sorry to drag you out of bed Detective but something's gone down that needs to be handled quickly and efficiently so I elected you and your partner for the job."
Elisa had almost screamed in surprise when she had first heard her Captain on the phone and immediately scolded herself for the way she had acted. Hopefully Chavez would do exactly what she said she would and forget about it this time or else she could forget about anything like extra vacation time completely. In her rookie days she might have been tempted to start apologizing profusely for what she had said and how she had said it but decided that it was better to stick to business. Just ask the usual questions about a new assignment and get on it right away before she made any other snappy comments by accident that might cost her.
"What's up?" she asked in a much more alert and professional tone of voice as well as frame of mind.
"Homicide down at 123 Washington drive, bad one from what I have been given so far." , Chavez replied with some hesitance that told Maza that she was holding something back, "Pick up Bluestone and get down there ASAP, we've managed to keep the press from catching wind of this but I don't know how long we can keep it that way."
"Got it Captain we're on our way." Elisa replied as she hung up the phone and hurried to get dressed.
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Approaching 123 Washington Drive, 9:05 a.m
"So did the Captain tell you anything more about this case then she did me?" Matt asked as he looked ahead for some sign that they had reached their destination.
"Not really other than the fact that it needs to be solved as soon as possible" , Elisa replied as she made a turn onto Washington Drive, "Though she did seem a bit disturbed and close mouthed about it, like
something about it had upset her to the point where she didn't even want to think about it."
"Must be a pretty ugly murder to get the Captain worked up that much." Bluestone commented as they came to a stop at the back of the crowd of cop cars in front of 123 Washington drive.
"Well let's go in and take a look ourselves" , Elisa stated with more strength than she actually felt.
"Do we really have to?" Matt asked as he pointed to two beat cops who were currently emptying their stomachs into a storm drain.
Matt had felt on edge from the moment he had first heard the Captain's voice over the phone and now he was downright edgy. The scene was beginning to look hauntingly familiar to him and he didn't like it one bit, mostly because he couldn't for the life of him put a finger as to why it was familiar. He shook it off as merely a reaction to what appeared to be a gruesome murder and followed his partner as they
approached the front of the police 'do not cross' tape. Already there were a few members of the press covering the barrier and all of them were asking questions to anyone who had a badge and looked as though they had been inside the building. That unfortunately was all too easy to deduce since many of the cops looked sick to their stomachs or had a frightened look glued on. Once they ducked under the barrier a police officer moved to stop them but fortunately they were quick to display their badges and superior rank.
"Detective Bluestone and Maza from the 23rd" , he introduced as both of them put their badges back in their pockets, "What's the situation so far?"
"W-well sir we've managed to keep the press back and we're basically just waiting for the medical examiner and you folks to get here" , the officer replied a bit shakily as he rattled off what he could, "Though personally sir if you plan on gin' in there I sincerely hope you haven't eaten recently."
"Why's that?" Elisa asked even though it was painfully obvious.
"Well everyone whose gone in there has either blown chunks in there or out here so I don't think you'll be much different" the officer replied with a note of certainty that Matt found disturbing.
"Well I think I speak for both my partner and I when I say that I think we can handle it" Elisa said she began walking towards the house.
As Matt began to follow he could barely hear the officer mumble "If you say so Detective."
As they walked towards the doors leading to the apartment building he found himself thankful that he hadn't had anything to eat for five hours or so. While he too had confidence in both he and his partner as far as the constitution went he was pretty certain that if over five cops had gotten sick over what was in there that he wasn't going to fare much better. He just hoped that Elisa's stomach was on the empty side as well
or she might very well accidentally contaminate the crime scene with her puke. As they reached the stairs a man in a lab coat ran down and went immediately to an open trash can before bending over and retching.
Normally this would have only mildly bothered him but the fact that the words 'assistant medical examiner' were written on the back of his lab coat made it different. Pushing that aside he tried to keep his mind
objective and on the job at hand he followed Elisa into the building and up the stairs to the door of the apartment where things went down.
The moment he stepped into the apartment he immediately wished he hadn't.
All across the walls from left to right blood was dripping down to the floor, the trail ending with a headless body that was hung from a light fixture in the ceiling. The sight almost made him spew right there but luckily he managed to keep himself in check as he proceeded to examine the apartment to the best of his ability. From what he could tell there weren't any real signs of struggle that he could see which suggested that however the victim died it was probably quick. Walking over to the streak of blood on the wall he noticed that it looked more like a marker type streak rather than the splatter of blood caused by a gunshot or knife attack. Given the fact that the man was headless as well as the quick death factoid it appeared as though the murderer killed the man, chopped off his head and ran the neck across the walls until it ended at the light fixture. That immediately made the killer mentally insane by any standards and prone to gruesome killings rather than the clean ones of thieves or robbers.
Seeing that his partner was already talking to the forensic people over in the kitchen area he left his examination as it was and proceeded to walk over.
Though he hadn't caught the entire question he caught the end as Elisa asked ".....hair fibers or fingerprints?"
"No Detective, not so much as a single follicle or smudge." , the lab guy replied with as he packed his case up, "Whoever did this went to great lengths to keep himself unidentifiable by forensic methods."
Looking to the headless corpse hanging ten feet away Bluestone asked "Any clue as to what was used for the murder weapon?"
"Unfortunately things are not much better there either." , the lab guy replied as he looked at a page on his notepad, "It was a sharp blade roughly two to three inches in length and slightly curved but the
puzzling thing is that a blade of that size should have left some small fragments where it cut into the bone."
"You mean there isn't?!" he said with a little bit of surprise showing in his voice.
"Not so much as a sliver Detective Bluestone and believe me I looked everywhere." the lab guy replied with certainty.
Just then it something occurred to him and he asked "Where's the head?"
To that the lab guy seemed to go white as a sheet as well as a little ill but all he did was point in the direction of the stove and then immediately ran for the door. Not seeing the full significance of this
both he and Elisa walked towards the stove to see what had so badly shaken a person who saw and examined dead bodies for a living. Looking at the stove neither of them saw anything out of the ordinary, a large pot on a stove that was made in the last five years or so and quite clean, so without hesitation they continued foreword. Both of them looked at the stove and tried to find some clue as to what the medical examiner had wanted them to see with regards to the missing head. Then his eyes came back to the large pot that was resting on the stove burner with lid slightly ajar and immediately his stomach lurched at the possibility being presented to him right there. Looking to his partner and hoping that she would volunteer he was disappointed and so with great reluctance reached out to lid while mentally wishing that someone else was doing this. Gathering up the last bit of his courage he firmly grasped the lid's handle and lifted it off and soon after looked inside the pot.
He immediately wished he had never gotten out of bed that morning as well as received perfect justification to run out of the room to exhume his last meal.
There, apparently boiled for a period of time in it's own juices, was the head of one Mike Havender.
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23rd Precient House, 10:15 a.m
"Ohhhh, I hope I never see anything like that again as long as I live!" Matt declared with a groan as he fought to keep his stomach steady.
"That makes two of us." Elisa said in agreement since her stomach wasn't much better at that moment.
Both of them had emptied their stomachs outside after they had seen what had happened to Mike Havender's head and had avoided any course of action that required them to go back into the victim's apartment. The initial examination of the crime scene was completed by ten and anything else they would have to wait for since it would take the lab boys a while to sift through. Now walking towards the Captain's office Elisa almost wished she could just forget about this case and go back to bed but sadly she had a job to do. Besides with what she had seen at the crime scene she doubted that she would be getting any sleep any time soon so as confidently as she could she stepped up to the door of the Captain's office and knocked.
"Come in." came the Captain's voice from the other side.
Opening the door both she and Matt Bluestone walked in and sat down in the chairs in front of the Captain's desk. At the moment Chavez was looking over some police report and was not paying either her or Matt much attention which for the moment she didn't mind since it bought her stomach some time to ease up. Taking a moment to look around the room she saw several other files strewn about on shelves and in boxes causing her to wonder just what it was the Captain was doing. Looking back to Maria Elisa watched as Chavez closed the folder and place it inside her desk, she made a mental note of which drawer the file had gone into. It was probably nothing but if the Captain did know more than she was telling
that folder may hold a piece of the puzzle. With the Chavez's gaze now on her she shifted back into cop mode and prepared to rattle off the facts of the case, hoping that remembering those things weren't going to upset her stomach like the real deal had.
"So Detectives, what exactly do we have on our hands here?" Captain Chavez asked with professional interest and seemingly something extra.
"Basically Cap we have one nasty sicko on our hands" , Elisa replied with a frown as she recalled the facts, "I don't think there's a cop on the force that wouldn't be putting their constitution to the test by looking at that crime scene.
"That bad huh?" Chavez asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, according to the forensic team the perp used a blade weapon no longer than three inches long and basically kept slicing until the victim's head came off." , Matt replied as he rattled off the facts
written on his notepad, "Exact time of death is uncertain but judging by the condition of the body it is fairly obvious that it was not a .... quick end."
"Witnesses?" Chavez asked in an effort to change the topic.
"None, the victim was discovered about 7:30 a.m when the landlord came up to tell Mr. Havender to turn down his stereo system." , Elisa replied as she recalled what the portly man said when asked about the victim, "Also it seemed that Mike Havender was heavy into drugs, particularly stimulants, since just about anywhere in the room you could see a bag or bottle of it around."
"One of his dealers getting mad at him?" asked the Captain.
"Possible but not likely. According to his neighbors he was a pretty normal average teen up until six days ago." , Matt stated as he turned the page on his pad, "Had a job at a local electronics store but wound up being fired two days ago when his employer caught him popping some drugs into his mouth."
"Same thing from his neighbors, they never had any trouble with him up until recently and then it was only his unsettling appearance." , Elisa commented as she called on her photographic memory, "According to an elderly woman across the hall he had apparently been going without sleep for several days."
"What?" Chavez asked as her eyes seemed to widen in shock for a moment before settling back down into their normal calm look.
Filing that away as yet another anomaly Elisa replied "According to the examiner there were also several burns that seem to have been self-inflicted and when you add the drugs as well as the loud music it
becomes obvious that this guy did not want to fall asleep."
This seemed to only increase the tension on the Captain's face and led Elisa to wonder just what her supervisor knew about all of this but most of all why was she keeping it a secret. She had known the Captain from the moment she had been posted at the prescient, had seen her rise through the ranks a bit until she became the prescient Captain but had never quite seen her react like this. She was being reluctant, almost secretive about just how much she knew about this case and how she felt about it. That concerned Elisa because for as long as they had known each other they had been pretty honest with each other. Still for all she knew there could be nothing wrong and Maria could simply be trying herself to piece together
the parts of this mystery. After all she and Matt were currently trying to piece things together and weren't feeling at all calm about it so maybe Chavez was feeling likewise.
"I'm gonna check on a few sources I have back at the Bureau to see if anything similar has happened elsewhere." Matt stated as he placed his notepad back into his trenchcoat pocket.
"As for me I'm gonna check around town to check on the usual snitches and low level scum bags to see if they've heard anything" Elisa declared as she got out of her seat and began to move towards the door.
"Just try to keep this low profile detectives, I don't want this getting out to the press." warned the Captain as she fixed two of her finest with a serious stare.
"Sure thing Cap!" Bluestone yelled as the door swung shut.
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It was starting again!
She thought that she had finally gotten rid of it years ago when she had left Springwood behind with all the things associated with it. She may not have actually experienced what had been going on there but she had heard the stories and she was pretty sure she could trust the sources. It was pretty unbelievable but all had taken was hearing the stories about the mutilated teenage bodies and the word 'nightmares' for her to pack up her things and leave. No matter the assurances by relatives who lived there or the ridicule of friends who taunted her because they thought that they thought she was acting like a child. In a way she felt ashamed by what she had done, deserting them just to save her own hide, part of her wished she had stayed and stood with them in those final hours.
Unfortunately she had been too afraid to stay.
Now it was starting again, here in this new life she had made for herself, leaving her to make the same choice she had been asked to make years ago.
What could she do?
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Central Park, Belvadere Castle, Noon
Despite what had happened earlier in the day the park still seemed peaceful and normal(well as peaceful as things can get with the odd mugger). You could hardly tell that a meeting was about to take place between two members of a super secret society that had existed for untold centuries. You certainly couldn't tell that the man sitting on the park bench across from the lake was one of them, he looked perfectly normal. Then again that was one of the things that the Illuminati prided itself on, being able to move around undetected and unnoticed while so called 'professionals' were easily spotted by those with the eyes for it. Looking at the man in the suit and trenchcoat you would just think that the young red haired guy was a business executive spending a portion of his lunch break in the park. In truth he was waiting for his one contact in the Illuminati to show up.
C'mon Hacker! You said you'd be here at noon! Bluestone thought to himself as he casually scanned the passerby's for a sign of his former partner.
Fifteen minutes passed with nothing to show for it and he was just about ready to leave when the sound of footsteps alerted him that someone was coming up behind him. Smiling he knew instantly who it was so now all that was left was to decide what he would do to greet this previously undetected person. Should it be something theatric like getting up and spinning around to face his unwanted shadow or should it be something a little more subtle.
Finally he decided and without moving a muscle he said "Took you long enough."
"Had to make sure that no one else was watching us." a man's voice stated as he came closer.
"Oh c'mon Hacker, you don't seriously think that I'd hire someone to spy on our little meeting do you?" asked Bluestone sarcastically as he looked up to see his partner in the tweed hat standing next to him.
"Can't be too careful these days Matthew, especially in our line of work." , Martin replied as he casually took a seat next to his ex-partner, "So what did you drag me down here to the park for? Not that
I mind but the higher ups tend to frown on unnecessarily long lunch breaks."
"Just got handed a new case this morning and was wondering what you knew about it?" Matt said as he carefully prepared how he was going to lay down the facts.
"Depends on what type of case it is." Hacker said vaguely as he carefully looked around the park.
"Homicide, bloody one too. Decapitation, blood smeared on the walls in an unusual way and victim's head being boiled on the stove." Bluestone declared with a look that showed that he was still trying to get the image out of his mind.
"So? This world is full of kooks that like to cut people up!" Agent Hacker exclaimed making it clear he was beginning to think it was a waste of time coming here.
"Yeah well what kind of kook leaves no signs of entry or exit, no fingerprints, no fibers, no traceable item at all and can finish his job without alerting the victim's neighbors?" Matt asked with confidence that
for once he had the info rather than Hacker.
"Most likely a pro with some military background and a serious headcase" , Hacker replied with growing patience and interest, "As for the neighbors not hearing maybe be simply tranqed the victim before cutting him up."
"Not likely seeing as this victim kept himself pumped up on stimulants for almost a week." , Bluestone stated with a hidden smile as he saw Martin's expression, "His apartment was littered with pills and medications designed to keep him alert and awake so it would have to be a tranquilizer dart with enough sedative to take down a rhino for it to work."
At that it was clear that Hacker was stumped as far as a response went and his irritation at being called down here was almost gone.
"The reason I called you is because this case reminded me of something I heard about during my early days in the Bureau." , Matt stated as he watched Agent Hacker's expressions carefully, "Something about extreme sleep deprivation in teens and some sort of slasher killer."
The moment that Matt had mentioned 'Sleep Deprivation' Hacker seemed to pale slightly and suddenly became very interested in his hat once he took it off. This automatically set off a multitude of alarm bells in
Bluestone's mind and far more than he expected he would be hearing during this conversation with Hacker. Finally it seemed as though Martin had managed to regain his composure somewhat, even though a slightly haunted look remained in his eyes.
"I-I am afraid I'll have to get back to you on that Matthew." , Hacker said with a slight stutter as he got up from the bench and quickly put his hat back on, "Still if you want my advice I think you should follow
the victim's lead for the next little while."
Before Bluestone could say anything Hacker immediately strode away and eventually disappeared from sight leaving one puzzled and more than a little worried former F.B.I agent. After all this was the man who was a regular errand boy for the most secretive and unknown society ever to exist in the history of mankind, a job which surely exposed him to unusual and even painful things. To see Hacker go white as a sheet at the mention of a common medical problem seemed downright laughable and yet he had seen it with his own eyes. That of course led him to the most obvious question crawling around in his mind and he was pretty sure his current partner was asking herself the same thing.
What does this all mean?
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23rd Prescient, Squad Room, 2:15 p.m.
Two and a half hours of grilling every street punk, snitch and low level gangster that I know of and I have zip to show for it! Elisa thought as she entered the squad room and headed over to her desk.
Looking over at Matt's desk she could see that he was already working on his end of the case with a vengeance by working on the computer. She couldn't exactly see what was on the screen but she bet that it was probably some crime report with him trying to find an M.O match with their perp. Funny thing was she doubted that he would find anything, after all she had been working around here for close to ten years and she had never heard of anything as horrifying as this case. As she got closer though she could see that the screen was definitely not displaying a case file or criminal record. She deduced this through various means, the way Bluestone's eyes seemed to be glued to the screen, the rapid scrolling down with the mouse and the fact that there were several colors were present on the screen that wouldn't be caught dead on an official police document. Moving past her desk she moved around to see just what was intriguing her partner so much and she was disappointedly accurate in her deduction because on the screen was a search engine. Then down below the search engine's emblem was a list of possibilities with percentages next to them ranging from 67% all the way to 75%.
"Matt I doubt the killer has his own web page and is going to post his list of victims on his bulletin board" Elisa said sarcastically as she casually scanned the list of links.
"Ha, Ha, Ha, very funny Elisa! I'm trying to find some newspaper columns with similar stories about slasher killers" , Matt replied with a slight grin of humor as he continued to scroll down, "and in particular small town newspapers. I'm sure there was a string of murders just like this one in some small town somewhere but I can't for the life of me remember what the town was called."
"Did you find anything out from your sources back at the bureau?" she asked as Matt clicked on a link.
"Not exactly. I had a meeting with my old partner Hacker but he wasn't much help in terms of answers but the look he had on his face was enough to worry me." Matt replied with his eyes never leaving the screen.
"What do you mean?" she asked with curiosity.
"I told him the basic facts about the case but the minute he heard about the extreme sleep deprivation he got a pit pale and had that strange look in his eyes." Matt replied as he frowned at a disappointing link.
"You think maybe he knew something?" Elisa asked with eyebrow raised as she considered what her partner had just pointed out.
"Possibly but whatever it is I doubt that we'll be able to force anything out of him, he spends most of his time probably keeping secrets just like this one out of the hands of normal folk just like us" Matt
replied with a slight grin as his U.F.O fixated mind tried to picture Hacker in that 'Men In Black' movie.
"Maybe I can get something more out of Xanatos tonight when I go to see the guys, he tends to be more lenient when it comes to information." she said with a smile on her face that made it clear that her method of asking was going to be sneaky.
"In other words you're goin' to lay the guilt trip on him about owing the clan?" Bluestone asked knowingly with a sly smile that stated he already knew the answer.
"Of course." , Elisa said quite plainly as if it were the most normal and common thing for her to do, "I'm also going to ask the guys if they would keep an eye on the area where Havender was killed, just in case the killer decides to kill someone else in that neighborhood."
"Good idea. Tomorrow I'll check with some of Mike's friends and see if they knew of anyone who might have a reason to kill him like this." stated Matt as he continued to flip through the sites displayed on the screen.
Suddenly the phone on his desk rang and with a casual extension of his arm he picked up the reciever and said "Bluestone."
"Detective? This is Dr. Sato down in forensics, I've just finished the autopsy on the victim Mike Havender and I found something rather interesting." stated the voice of the good doctor over the phone.
"Like what?" Bluestone asked as he shifted his attention away from the computer screen.
"Well, I'd rather not say anything over the phone, you never know which member of the press might be listening in." , Dr. Sato replied with caution, "Besides you'll have to see the results yourself to believe
them."
"Alright, Maza and I will be down in a few minutes. Goodbye." Bluestone stated with curiosity as he hung up the phone.
"What was that all about?" Elisa asked as she looked at Matt's thoughtful expression with a puzzled one of her own.
"That was Doc Sato down in forensics. He said he had something interesting about Havender's autopsy to show us but refused to disclose any details over the phone." , Matt replied as he shut down the computer
and grabbed his trenchcoat, "Asked us to come down there and see for ourselves what he found."
"Well then lets go and see what the good doctor has to show us." declared Elisa as she turned and started heading to the lab.
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23rd Prescient, Forensics' Lab, 2:40 p.m.
"Okay Dr. Sato, what do you have for us?" asked Matt as he followed Elisa into the bastion of forensic medicine that was the 23rd Precient's Lab.
"Well when the body had been brought in I had gone straight ahead and began the autopsy." , Doc Sato said as he guided them over to the examination table in the center of the room, "As you know that entails finding out how the subject died, when he died, what drugs were in his system and so on. I was able to narrow down the time of death to roughly 2:15 a.m. but when I tried to find what weapon was used I came upon something rather startling."
Once they reached the examination table Doctor Sato carefully drew back the sheet that was draped over the body, just enough to expose the neck. Elisa reflexively looked away from the gore on the table but forced herself to look back since Sato's findings could prove crucial. In truth she didn't know the Doc all that well, aside from a few odd trips down to the lab during her career the closest she had gotten to meeting him was seeing his signature on the lab reports. Looking at him now she immediately pictured him as being a grandfather, with his glasses and sparse cropping of white hair he fit the image perfectly. From what she
could remember he had been with the prescient for almost twenty-five years and roughly thirteen as head of the forensics department. Some of the beat cops would make wise cracks about how he seldom left the lab and how behind in the times he was but she had never really found such jokes funny.
"As you can see here on what's left of the spinal column there are several grooves in the bone area showing that the killer hacked at this area numerous times before the head was finally severed." , Doctor Sato explained as he indicated with his pen the grooves in the bone, "As you saw in my initial report the weapon was perhaps five inches or so in length and curved like a hawk's talon. The interesting part is when I tried to obtain the trace samples of the blade from the wound itself."
"What did you find?" Elisa asked as she looked at the doctor thankfully rather than at the corpse.
"Absolutely nothing." replied Sato with a slight smile that said he was enjoying seeing the looks on their faces.
"What!?" exclaimed Matt who looked like a movie gore that had just been told the shocker ending to a movie.
"I found not a single microscopic sliver of metal anywhere in or around the neck area." , Sato replied as he passed them and went to the computer sitting on a table next to the wall, "I went all the way up to
magnification 1200 and found not a trace of any debris that might have been left by the murder weapon."
"Is it possible that the murder weapon simply left no fragments behind?" , Elisa asked with skepticism as she imagined what Matt was probably thinking, "I mean what your implying his that somehow the victim was decapitated by the air or something just as nuts."
"I know how you feel Detective Maza but I am telling you the truth." , Sato replied as he left the computer and stood face to face with her, "As for your first question I would say that it is impossible for a bladed weapon to do this kind of damage and not leave some trace of itself behind. As for what this means I haven't the foggiest idea, I can honestly say that I haven't come across anything like this in all my years as a forensic specialist."
That didn't make Elisa any happier but it was enough for her to stop badgering the Doctor about his findings. A million thoughts swirled around her mind as she tried to figure out what this meant for her and
the millions of other people in this city. A killer who left no traceable sign of his presence lying around, a weapon that was sharp enough to severe a human head from it's body and the fact that they also had no
idea who or what this killer was. What really concerned her was the fact that this case was leaning towards the paranormal or magical as far as it's origins went and that meant trouble for everyone including the clan.
Filing these thoughts away for when she met with Goliath tonight she returned her attention to Doctor Sato.
"You find anything else out about the victim, anything unusual?" she asked with calm curiosity.
"You mean aside from the extreme sleep deprivation, the burns on his arms and the fact that he was filled with enough stimulants to keep the average human awake for 24 hours?" , Dr. Sato asked as he tried to inject some humor into these mundane proceedings, "Well the only thing that did catch my eye a bit was the surprising absence of residual electrical activity in the body. Even after death the body's nervous system does give off slight surges of neurons and electrons for hours after the patient has already passed on. When I examined Mike Havender's body there wasn't enough of an electrical charge to make a pen light work."
That only set off even more warning bells in her head and she was pretty sure that the same was happening in Matt's head. This entire case was taking a serious turn for the wacky and she did not like it one little bit. Hopefully when she related the facts to the clan Goliath or Hudson might be able to shed some light on the subject. After all if this was some sort of supernatural killer who better to ask about it then beings who up until a little while ago were considered to be myths themselves. Add that to the fact they had the trickster Puck with them and hopefully they could put the skidds on this sicko's reign of terror before too many people wound up like poor Mike Havender.
"Well thanks for the facts Dr. Sato. If you find anything else out be sure to give us a call." said Matt as he interpreted Elisa's silence as their cue to leave.
"I most certainly will Detectives and I wish you luck in catching this depraved soul." Dr. Sato declared as he watched both Detectives walk out of the room.
Once they were out of hearing distance from the lab Matt asked "Well partner, you want to tell me what's cooking in that head of yours or do I have to guess?"
"I was just thinking that this is turning out to be an even weirder case then I thought it would be." , Elisa replied as she looked ahead to the approaching stairs, "I just hope that the guys will know something more than we do or more people are going to wind up like Mike Havender."
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