There was an old saying among the dregs of ancient, seafaring society: dead men tell no tales. Dead men could not expose secrets that would rupture the very fabric of their ship's society. They could not destroy the veiled world of the living. Whether it was because of her affinity for pirate documentaries as a kid or the fact that she watched a ton of crimes show, Hecate had learned that the saying was a lie; dead men did tell tales, if someone knew how to listen to them. Hecate was one of those people.
Hecate could read in between the lines of death. She could identify when someone was poisoned, when all of the medical experts thought it was a heart attack. Most of the tricks that criminals tried to use to hide their crimes were not veiled from Hecate. That is what made Hecate so valuable to the Olympians. They always went to her to reveal the truth behind any deaths that they had suspicions about.
Hecate had been helping the Olympians for about fifteen years now. For years, they kept trying to invite her out to social gathering, but that was a little too much for Hecate. She didn't need to be in a large room surrounded by strangers. The Olympians already knew her too much, and she didn't want to actually be friends with them. Seeing them more than once a month was just way too much.
"Male. Eighteen years old. Physically fit. A solid football player and on his way to college. No health problems. No detected mental problems. Yet, he just dropped dead," Hecate said. She stared down at the boy's pale body. He had been dead for two days now, and the Olympians just now found the time to examine him. Hecate wasn't sure why they cared though.
Minerva and Jupiter stood side by side, as they did so many times before. This time was different though. There was a hostile silence between them. Jupiter kept giving Minerva side glances, and Minerva kept staring ahead. It felt like one wrong movement or one wrong word would cause the tension in the room to explode.
Hecate stared down at the body. It was telling her a lot of things, but she had already learned the biggest secret when the body was first brought to her. Hecate passed her examination result towards the two Olympians and was careful to keep her mind full of thoughts about dissecting bodies. She knew that it bothered Minerva, which made it even more fun.
"He matches the description of the second thief from the break in at Vulcan's office. Do you think it is the second thief?" Jupiter asked. Why would a business man like him care about the common folk? He had enough power to take this city in the palm of his hands, but he shared that power with his friends. It was a thin, delicate balance that could not last for much longer.
"I do," Minerva stated. She unfolded a small picture and seemed to compare the face of the man in the picture to the dead man on the table, and since she nodded, it seemed as if the dead man had told her part of the tale. Could Minerva read the thoughts of the dead, like she could the living? What would dead men even think?
"Found him in an alley," a gruff voice interrupted. Hecate glanced up and watched the chief of the police walk into the room. She looked down at the body and tried to find comfort in him. He wasn't bothered by these three people. He had found his own peace. "There was a fired gun in his hands, and a bullet lodged in the wall in front of him. It looks like a mugging go wrong, only if you forget about the fact that his heart just stopped."
"What does the body tell you?" Minerva asked. Her gaze focused on Hecate, as if she knew that the coroner could tell many things from the body. A small smile came to Hecate's face, and she slowly circled around the body. "They stole a valuable AI. Why would they try to rob someone?"
"They're greedy. Open and shut case," Mars commented. Minerva glared at him. "What? They couldn't find a seller, so they decided to mug someone. It's as simple as that. I don't know why you're freaking out."
"If the two managed to sell the AI, they would have been set for life. It makes no sense that they would do anything to jeopardize that," Minerva stated. Hecate took a deep breath. The two of them always argued. Minerva always tried to pitch the idea that she was level headed, but Hecate had seen the two argue enough times to know that it wasn't true.
"We've seen this before," Jupiter interrupted. His fellow Olympians stopped arguing and looked at him. "But, the man responsible for this in the past is now in bars. Hecate, can you cut open the chest and tell us what the heart looks like? Was it dried and blackened?"
"The heart looked normal," Hecate replied. She walked towards a small folder that was next to the body. Her gaze examined the large stitches that covered the body's chest. Did Jupiter not see that pretty fresh wound, or was he just ignoring it because it meant that he wouldn't get what he wanted?
"Cut open the body," Jupiter insisted. Hecate shook her head. She didn't need to be told how to do her job. Jupiter should have known that by now, but he never really paid attention to her. She was just another way for him to control the city and get information.
"I already removed the organs and donated them," Hecate said. She opened the folder and passed out the pictures of the organs. Mars glanced at the pictures but almost seemed to pale. Minerva and Jupiter studied the pictures. "They needed a heart for an emergency surgery, and the boy was a match. He was an organ donor, so I harvested those and sent them off to the lab."
Jupiter examined the picture of the heart for a very long time. Hecate glanced at the picture. The heart looked like a heart. Well, it looked like the kind of heart that belonged to a dead eighteen year old male, not that Jupiter would be able to tell the difference anyway.
"I sent out a request for a toxicology screen," Hecate stated. "This could have happened because of drugs. It could have also been a freak incident. We do live in a town that has people with powers."
"Freak incidents don't stop hearts," Mars commented. He glared at Hecate. The two never got along. For every crime scene that there was, Mars instantly came up with a theory. Half of his theories were correct, and those usually involved a crime scene that a two year old could solve. The other theories were so off the wall that there was no way they could be true. "You know more than you're saying."
"That's enough," Minerva interrupted. She glared at Mars. "Why would the coroner hide anything about the crime?"
"She wants to ruin my perfect record for solving crimes this year," Mars said. Hecate barely resisted the urge to roll her eye. She was the one who helped Mars solve the cases that involved murders or poisonings. Without her, he would just be a big man with a bigger temper and a smaller solve rate.
Before Mars could continue to rant, they heard a phone ring. Jupiter slowly grabbed his phone and frowned. He answered the phone and listened to the person on the other end silently. Mars studied the pictures and glared. Minerva simply studied Hecate. It took a couple of years, but Hecate learned how to blank out her thoughts around Minerva. It was easy to think of nothing when she knew that most of her thoughts would get her in trouble.
Jupiter hung up his phone and took a deep, angry breath. He spoke, "We must go, Hecate. Thank you for the time. Send a copy of your report to me. Mars and Minerva, we need to head to city hall. Someone broke into their last night."
"There's no way that anyone broke in city hall," Mars argued. "The alarms would have gone off, and my officers would have been there in a heartbeat. There is no way that anyone could have gotten past the alarms."
"According to security cameras, someone did walk just in. We have to go and watch the video ourselves to see how," Jupiter stated. He walked towards the door. After a moment, he looked back at them. "Thalia's badge was swiped."
"Thalia was at Frederick's house with Annabeth," Minerva stated. A frown came to her face. "The two should not have gone anywhere. Unless Thalia stopped by city hall on her way home, but why would she do that. What time did she come back home?"
Jupiter shrugged and left the room. Minerva sighed and gave Mars a look. Mars returned the look, and the two finally exited the room. Hecate let out a relieved breath. She hated when people were breathing near her. That was one of the reasons why she preferred the dead.
Hecate pushed the shelf that held the body back into the wall. She locked the door and then slowly pulled off her gloves. After closing the door to the room and locking it, she pulled out her cell phone. Hecate sat down and dialed a number into her phone. She hadn't used it in years, but she remembered it by heart.
"Hello?" a voice asked, after two and half rings. Hecate smiled and looked down the pictures of the organs. Those organs weren't from the boy. In fact, they weren't even from that year. She had taken those pictures about five years ago, when she was helping the Olympians change the narrative of a crime. It was a surprise they did not recognize them.
"You owe me," Hecate said. She carefully placed the pictures back into the file and closed it. She placed it at her desk and looked at her computer. After signing into her computer, she studied the picture of the blackened and dried heart that she had taken from the dead boy's chest.
"If we are keeping track, I believe that you still owe me a few," Letus stated. Hecate smirked and deleted the picture from her computer. The official report would say that it was a heart attack brought on by drug abuse. The community would mourn that football player that couldn't handle the stress that his parents put upon him.
"Why did you do it?" Hecate asked. She leaned back in her chair. Letus and her had known each other since they were kids. It wasn't like Letus to murder anyone in cold blood.
"I was accused of allowing his sick little sister to die," Letus answered. Hecate nodded to herself. She knew that Letus had a strong set of morals and only took a case if he thought the person he was defending was in the moral right. Not many people could see the world the way they did.
"So, his sister died, and you successfully defended the person who was deemed guilty for it," Hecate stated. "Why do they always blame the lawyer?"
"He said that I didn't agree to give his little sister a life saving treatment," Letus stated. Hecate frowned and looked back towards the file that held everything the Olympians would see about the boy's murder. "I am no doctor, but he acted like I was."
"Sounds like he was confused. It explains why he wanted to steal that AI. It could have paid for his little sister's treatment," Hecate said. "Why would he accuse a lawyer of refusing the treatment? Did he think the hospital consulted you?"
"He called me a Doctor Lewis," Letus stated. Hecate hummed to herself and typed into her computer. She saw a picture of this Doctor Lewis pop up, and unless Letus had become Irish and two feet shorter, they weren't the same person. "It seemed like he was remembering me as someone else, like his memory was altered."
Hecate's fingers froze on the keyboard. She took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. Hecate spoke, "I see. I'll keep the Olympians off of your trail."
"I know," Letus stated. Hecate brought her finger to the end call button. "Do you feel it in the air, Hecate?"
"Like everything is changing for the worst?" Hecate asked. Letus made a noise of confirmation. "I do. You visited Pluto, didn't you? How is he?"
"The same," Letus answered. "The Titans broke out of Tartarus, but they did not break Pluto out as well. Two of their numbers were not taken back to the prison. Mnemosyne has disappeared off of the face of the earth, until now. They think that Tethys is dead. Were you ever given the body?"
"It was never retrieved," Hecate stated. "Just like the body of Praetor. They never found them in the water, even after Neptune looked. You know how those waters are though."
"I also know how the Titans are. From what I have seen and been told, their plan did not make any sense. Do you know anything else about it?" Letus questioned.
"They broke out and took city hall. It backfired, and Kronos panicked. He killed a kid and kicked the body off of the bridge," Hecate answered. As she spoke, she typed into her laptop and pulled up one of the few articles about it. The video of the broadcast had been taken off of the internet and was only available on Iris' website. That woman was going to be a thorn in the Olympian's side. "It does not sound like the Titans that we knew."
"Pluto thinks the same. He thinks there is more to the story and wants to investigate more if I am successful with his appeal," Letus said. He sighed tiredly, as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. To some people, he did. "I will keep you informed."
"I'll keep an eye out for more opportunities to pay you back," Hecate said. She hung up her phone and scrolled through the website. Upon finding the video, she watched as the poor girl was shot right in the skull by Kronos. It was clean, smooth, and in an execution style. Then, the Titan kicked the body of Praetor off of the edge.
The part that intrigued Hecate was when Kronos had whispered in Tethys' ear. What had he been saying? Tethys seemed confused by the words, but she had still taken a bullet for her leader. To pay his companion back, Kronos shoved her off of a bridge and seemingly to her death. As far as Hecate knew, Tethys didn't have any powers, but what if she did? The Titans were all about using trickery to disguise their plans
Tethys' husband could control water. What if his wife could as well? And, Kronos had the upper hand on that bridge. Even if he was surrounded by cops, he still had Jupiter and Thalia Grace in the palm of his hand. Why did he surrender? None of it made sense to Hecate, and she didn't know why the Olympians had dropped the case so quickly. Were they trying to ignore their failures and move on? Did they actually know more than they were letting on and keeping it hidden?
Hecate played through the videos a few more times, but it wasn't speaking to her. She had watched her fair share of murders caught on a security camera, and the corpse always spoke to her. This video was the exception though. Hecate narrowed her eyes and slowly stood. Dead men always told her their tales, but what if they weren't actually dead?
If Hecate told anyone, they would call her crazy, but Hecate knew all about trickery. She knew how the Titans liked to play their games and to use all kinds of tricks and mindgames. Hecate watched the video one last time. Everything was so clean and so precise. Hecate grabbed her phone and dialed another number. She lifted her phone to her mouth and spoke, "I think it's time we got the gang back together. Something big is about to go down, and the Titans are in the middle of it."