A/N: Thanks for the reviews, keep it up. Let me know what you think of the next chapter.
Chapter 2 - The Truth is Out There…
As they drove to the precinct in silence, Jake suddenly turned and parked in front of a coffee shop. Sara raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"I need some breakfast and coffee and I'm sure you need some too." Jake explained as they entered the building, which was almost empty, except for a cook, a waitress and a lone customer sitting by the far wall.
Jake picked an empty booth and watched as Sara sat down opposite of him.
Sara looked at Jake as he ordered breakfast for both of them. From the corner of her eye, she saw the waitress smile at her and turn back to the counter to give the cook their orders.
"So, what do you think about this case?" Jake asked, idly playing with the menu.
Sara shrugged. "I don't know yet." She replied, looking at the few people passing by outside.
None of them spoke when the waitress returned with two plates in her hand, which she set down on the table. She returned to her place behind the counter after throwing a "enjoy your breakfast" over her shoulder.
Sara watched as Jake started with his breakfast and thought about the vision she had earlier while visiting the crime scene. The vision had shown her that there had been three people that night: one of them was dead, the murderer had lost his arm and the third unknown had disappeared again. The Blade had shown her everything, except where the head had gone to after the killer had finished his work. Troubled, she looked down at her forgotten breakfast.
With a final thought of her vision, she lifted her fork to start her breakfast, but found she had lost her appetite and wasn't hungry anymore. Jake however, was nearly finished with his breakfast when she looked up again.
She took a few bites anyway, before pushing the plate aside and picking up her coffee. "I'm not really hungry." She said, feeling she had to tell Jake at least something.
Jake nodded and standing up, he headed towards the young waitress to pay.
When Sara and Jake reached the station an hour later and entered their office, Sara found a small note sitting on her desk. Picking it up, she read the words on the piece of paper.
"What does it say?" Jake asked, dropping in his chair.
"It's from Vicky, telling me to come down as soon as I can. She found something interesting on the body we investigated this morning." Sara replied, not taking her eyes from the note.
When she did look up, Jake was already waiting near the door. Together, they walked towards the elevator, where Jake hit the button with his fist. Using force seemed the only way to get the elevator to work, which was a thing Jake had learned on his first day when he had been waiting for the thing to show up for nearly fifteen minutes, before someone showed him the way
It didn't take them long to reach the morgue, where Vicky was already waiting for them. She had been waiting near one of the examination tables, where the victim of this morning was resting.
"What did you find?" Sara asked, glancing at the covered body as she made her way over to the woman.
Vicky led them to the table and uncovered the corpse.
"Something you might be familiar with." Vicky said to Sara. "Remember the Rialto? Some of the men there were killed with a sword, remember?" When Sara nodded, she continued. "While this one was killed differently, the wounds were made with a blade similar to the one used in the Rialto. It was the same kind of metal."
Sara looked at the wounds of the corpse in front of her. "And the arm? Do you know anything about that yet?"
Vicky nodded. "I was working on the arm before you came in, it's in storage." She said, making her way over to a storage locker. Pulling it open, the three were met with the smell of decomposing flesh. Before them lay nothing more than bone and a few pieces of flesh. The bone was covered in maggots, eating away the last flesh on the bone.
"What the…" Jake spoke, taking a few steps backwards. "What happened?"
"I-I don't know. This isn't supposed to happen." Vicky replied, closing the container again.
Sara dug in her pocket. "It's a good thing we have fingerprints." She said, holding up the fingerprints Jake took earlier. She handed them to Vicky. "Have them compared to the other hand."
"You think it's not his arm?" Jake asked, pointing at the dead body lying motionless on the table.
"I have a feeling, Jake. It tells me that something wasn't right at the crime scene this morning." Sara replied as she made her way to the door. "Do they know who it was yet?" she asked, turning around again.
"Yeah, they made an ID from the other fingerprints. The file is on your desk right about now." Vicky replied. "I'll tell them to hurry up with these." She held up the small sheet with fingerprints. "Hey Sara?"
The homicide detective turned around again.
"I didn't tell anyone else about the link to the Rialto. Thought you should be the first to know, with what happened to Danny…" She left the rest of the sentence unfinished, but all three living occupants of the room knew what she meant.
Sara nodded. "Thanks Vick, I appreciate it." She said, before she disappeared through the door.
Jake took one last look in the direction of the storing freezers, before following his partner back upstairs. He caught up with her at the elevator, where she was waiting for him. As they stood in the wagon, no one said a word. Both times when Jake glanced at Sara, she was looking at the floor, deep in thought, or so it seemed to Jake.
Inside, Sara was in turmoil. The vision had shown her the killer had a sword, but it couldn't have been the Witchblade. She glanced at the bracelet, lying silent on her wrist, before resuming her train of thoughts again. Irons had said there was only one of the Witchblade, hadn't he? She wasn't so sure anymore. What if there were others? Others like her? How would the Witchblade know who was its real Wielder and who was the Pretender? Was she a Pretender?
She blinked.
'Woah, where had that come from?' she thought.
She was brought out of her reverie when Jake's hand descended on her shoulder.
"Pez, you all right?" came his soft voice from her left. She looked up at him, then at the door, which stood open, waiting until they had gotten out of the elevator. Looking back at her partner, she nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks Jake." She said, moving towards the quietness of her office, followed by a silent Jake. She could feel his eyes in her back as he walked behind her.
Entering her office, she picked up the file Vicky had told her about. Opening it, she briefly glanced at its contents. Pausing at the picture of the victim, she stared at it for a moment. She had seen the same man in her vision now a few hours ago. Closing her eyes for a moment, she tossed the folder back on her desk and sat down. When she opened them again, Jake was looking at her from across their desks, the folder in his hands.
"Why doesn't it surprise me that he was a member of some sick sect? I bet he told his friends he was going to leave them and they killed him to keep it quiet." Jake said, following her movement from earlier by tossing the file back on his desk. He started reciting what he had read moments earlier.
"Jack Morson. Got no relatives, never married, led a quiet live. Has no religion other than his sect, no job either. He did have a roof above his head, though." He looked at Sara. "What do you say, check it out?"
They found the street rather easily, even if it wasn't in one of New York's better places. Finding the apartment was another story. Eventually, they found the man that owned the building and who knew Jack Morson personally. He led them to the upper floor of a building that had once been a warehouse used for storing all kinds of things.
"Sure, I knew him. Jack was a quiet man; I'm sure he has never harmed a fly in his entire life. Don't know about his friends though. Not that they weren't quiet, but they were strange. Always whispering, things like that." The landlord told them when they asked what kind of man Jack had been. "I haven't seen them for about three or four weeks now. Jack told me he was planning on moving, leaving town. Thought he might try to find a place up north, in Canada."
Jake nodded as he took notes, while Sara looked around in the dark attic room. "What do you know about his job?" He asked, once the man had turned silent.
"I don't really know if he had a job. I mean, he never left this place, except to get groceries, things like that. He always had money though, 'cause he never paid his rent one day late. That's about all I can tell you about Jack. Do you know who killed him yet?" The man asked as he watched Jake write down what he had told him about the victim.
Jake shook his head. "No sir, but we're hoping we'll catch him soon."
This seemed to be enough for the man, because he left them alone to search the apartment. Jake walked towards Sara, who sat hunched in a darkened corner of the bedroom.
"Did you find something?" He asked as he looked over her shoulder.
She held up a crude drawing of a dragon of some kind for him to see. "Maybe it means something." She said as she bagged the piece of paper. Looking around her for another moment, she got up and walked towards the door, followed by Jake, who was looking in all directions for anything his partner might've missed.
Once they were driving back towards the precinct, Sara read through the file again, hoping to find something linking slaughtered man to the Witchblade or to her findings. Not finding anything, she tossed the file with the evidence bag on the dashboard and rubbed her eyes.
Jake glanced sideways once he was sure she was looking outside. "You're sure you're okay?" He asked, glancing back and forth between her and the road. "You look tired or..."
She turned her head. "Or what?" she asked.
"I don't know… disturbed or something." He finished; his eyes fixed on the road once more.
"I'm okay." She replied, before looking back outside again.
Neither of them spoke another word until they reached the police station. When they got out of the car and walked towards the door, Sara turned around and stopped Jake.
"I think I know someone who could help us with this drawing," she held up the evidence bag for Jake to see, "so I'm going to pay him a visit. If you could check with Vicky and see if she knows something more about our headless friend yet, I'll be back before you know it." She spoke and opened the door while Jake nodded his agreement.
When Sara entered their office, she did a double take when she noticed Danny sitting in his old chair. Reaching for her helmet, she spoke to him. "I know it's hard to forget you're dead, but you can't tell me you miss it this much."
Danny smiled in return. "It was a nice chair… I think mine is more comfortable than yours is. One thing I don't miss is the coffee." He replied, while eyeing Jake's empty coffee mug. He looked at her again. "So, are you getting any further with the case?" He asked, getting up to stand in front of her.
"No, which is probably why you are here…" she replied cautiously. "Would you mind explaining your advice from this morning? Because I listen and watched what this thing," She motioned at the bracelet, "is telling me and it hasn't helped me so far." When she noticed a few cops were looking up in her direction, she lowered her voice. "Surely, there are some more wise ancient words following the things you said this morning."
Danny seemed to think for a moment, before smiling at her. "No, not really. Let's say that the key word of today is dead, as in being dead, dying, non-living. You'll get the picture soon enough." He sighed. "But, if you need wise words, I'll think of something."
He turned towards the door. "Past, Present and Future will decide about Fate once the stars are ordered." Then, his form started to fade, leaving Sara to stare at an empty hallway.
She raised her eyebrows. "Danny, you're full of crap." She spoke to the empty air, before leaving for the exit. "Wise words, my ass." She muttered.
Sorry, no cliffhanger today. Please let me know what you think of the latest chapter by clicking on the button below. I promise I'll try to upload more soon. As soon as I get the chance to kill my muse.