Chapter 2
Human world
After reading the obituary Rachel realized that it had changed from the simple heart attack that it had been before to a murder. This had never happened before to any of her other assignments. She called dispatch on her cell phone and was told to report to the head office immediately after her work was done. She got up and went to a secluded spot so no mortal would see her teleport away.
Shinigami world
Rachel arrived at her destination just after the killer left. She managed to collect the cinematic record and send Mrs Harding on her way to heaven. Once that was done she teleported to the main office. The receptionist waved her on in to the office where the man in charge of assignments did his work. "You wanted to see me sir?" She asked.
"Hello Rachel, I am waiting on one other person to be here and then we'll get this meeting started."
As soon as he finished speaking a flurry of red hair materialized in the room. "I'm here!! Sorry to keep you waiting darlings but a lady simply must look her best."
Rachel smiled, she hadn't seen Grell in years and it was always a fun time when she was around.
"Hi Grell! How are William and the kids?" Rachel asked.
"Oh they're doing well! I'm so glad you found that ancient spell book that had the spell that made me a woman and gave all female Reapers able to have children."
The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted the reunion. "While I am happy you two are friends, please let us get on with this meeting. I have an important assignment for the two of you." He indicated the two chairs in front of his desk. "Please have a seat."
When everyone was seated he began the meeting.
Human world
While Rachel was in her meeting the police had just arrived at the scene of the crime. It had been called in by the woman's son who had just got back from the store.
"I just got home and saw my mother on the floor like that. I immediately called 911. I've read enough mystery books to know that you don't mess with the crime scene." The young man may have sounded calm but you could tell by looking at him that he was shaken up from seeing his mom dead on the floor.
Shinigami world
Rachel and Grell walked out of the meeting together. They had been given the assignment to help the human police officers catch the killer. The reason the high council was showing interest in this particular case was because the killer was somehow able to avoid detection by the monitoring system the shinigami dispatch used. Rachel's job was to help the humans while Grell did research on any similar cases in the "Library of Life" where all the written records were kept. Normally Grell hated paperwork, but with a baby on the way she didn't want to do anything dangerous. Or more accurately William didn't want her doing anything dangerous. She couldn't blame him though, it was their first child in over a century.
After getting a bite to eat the two friends went on to their assignments.
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Human world
After going over the crime scene Detective Miles Valentine was frustrated. Other than the forced entry there was nothing immediately obvious about how the murder had happened. He would have to wait until the coroner made his report to have any idea what to look for. He had gotten permission to take a copy of the security camera videos but he was doubtful they would help.
When he got back to the station he went straight to his office to start putting together a case file. He was almost done when he noticed a very attractive woman standing in the doorway with his boss. "Valentine, this is Rachel Shine, she is going to help you on this case." The pair walked into the office and closed the door behind them. "This next part is going to have to remain top secret. Rachel here is a shinigami, or a grim reaper if that makes more sense to you. She and a friend of hers have been given the job to help us find the killer. If this case works out then you two will be made permanent partners. The hard about this will be coming up with logical explanations for any clues she finds in her realm about this case. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the mean time, you two get to know each other and start working on this case." With that parting remark the police chief left the office, leaving the new partners alone.
Miles looked at his new companion, she was tall and slender with short raven colored hair and green eyes. Her skin was a pale white as if she never got much sun. He thought she was beautiful and wondered what she thought about him, he was tall and well muscled with an olive complexion thanks to his Italian family roots. He realized that Rachel had been talking to him and he had missed it. "Sorry! I was just thinking about this case. How is it that you can help?"