Chapter Ten
The doors opened as Seamus, Cassandra, Mark and Peter walked into the room and Jessie was standing next to the metal table.
"Hey, Doc," Mark said while they walked toward the metal table and Jessie slightly smiled at Peter.
"Did you find something?" Peter asked as she nodded and moved the sheet covering the body on the metal table. Peter noticed that Doctor Bennett's body had been sewn shut and his leg and arm had been reattached as Jessie removed the metal pointer from her pocket.
"As you can see, the wound patterns are the same as the other two victims, but it was what I found in chest cavity that is why I wanted to see you," Jessie said while pointing the metal pointer at Peter and Peter nodded his head.
"And that is?" Peter asked as he placed his hands behind his back and slightly leaned forward. Jessie wiggled a finger at him as they walked to the counter and Peter saw something lying in a glass container. Walking closer, Peter and Mark stood next to Jessie when Peter looked down and saw what looked like fur lying in the water bath. Placing the metal pointer into her pocket, Jessie picked up a clamp when she used the clamp to pick up what was in the glass container and placed whatever it was on the towel sitting on the counter. Handing Peter a pair of rubber gloves, she spread out whatever it was on the towel and Peter placed the rubber gloves on.
"It looks like a drown cat," Mark said as Peter looked down at what was on the towel and slid a finger under the wet hair, lifting whatever it was off the towel. Looking at the wet hair, Peter spread out the hair when his eyes widened and Jessie gave him a confused look.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked.
"Yeah, this is one of mine," Peter said softly.
"What do you mean it's one of yours?" she asked with a confused look on her face.
"Do you really think this is my real hair?" Peter asked with a slight smile on his face then placed the wet wig back on the towel. Jessie watched while Peter removed the wig, sideburns, moustache, goatee and eyebrow ring and placed everything on the counter. Ruffling his hair with his fingers, Peter smiled at her and Jessie softly smiled back.
"No offense, but I like you without all that," Jessie said and Peter softly laughed.
"Let me get this straight. This is one of your wigs" Mark asked while Peter turned to look at him and rolled his eyes.
"Before you say anything, I didn't do this!" Peter said as he folded his arms over his chest and glared at Mark.
"But that's your wig!"
"It's one of my old ones! You can tell because this one is shorter than the one I wear now!" Peter said, placing the wigs side by side. The wet wig was a few inches shorter than the dry wig and Peter placed his hands on the counter. "See?"
"Where did you find this?" Cassandra asked.
"It was in the chest cavity. At first I thought someone shoved a cat into his chest," Jessie said and Peter softly laughed.
"What I don't get is why is someone placing things like my flyer, a piece of my banner and one of my old wigs into the victims' bodies?" Peter asked and felt Mark glaring at him.
"Why are you?" Mark asked.
"Fuck off," Peter snarled then looked at the wet wig and blinked his eyes a few times. Moving his hand over the wet wig, he could barely feel energy coming off the wet wig then moved to the metal table and looked at the body. Moving his hand over the body, he felt more of the energy coming off the body and flexed his fingers. "What the hell is this thing?"
"You tell me," Mark said as he walked to the metal table and Peter turned, locking eyes with him.
"Just so we're clear. I…DON'T…KNOW!" Peter said while making his mouth wide with each word and his eyes slightly bugged out. Sighing, he turned to look back at Jessie and she was handing Cassandra the dry wig, the moustache, sideburns, the eyebrow ring and the goatee then placed the wet wig in a plastic bag. "Is there anything else you wanted to show me?"
"No, that was it," Jessie said as he nodded and headed for the door. Seamus was standing next to the door when he stepped out of Peter's way and Peter left the room. He opened the door as he wiggled a finger at Cassandra and she smiled, shrugged her shoulders and went to catch up with him.
"Meet you back at the precinct! I want to see the security video you got from the doctor's house!" Peter's voice said as the doors closed and a low growl came from Mark's throat.
Jessie watched while Mark balled his hands into fists and he and Seamus left the room, the doors slamming into the walls as they left. Sighing with a hint of a smile on her face, Jessie walked back to the metal table when she picking up the chart and went back to work.
The doors to the squad room opened when Peter and Cassandra walked inside and Mark and Seamus followed them while Peter walked to the dry board. After he had placed the wig, moustache, sideburns, goatee and eyebrow ring back on, Peter stood in front of the dry board and titled his head to one side. Looking at the flyer, the piece of fabric and the photos of Henry Altman and Gordon Lester, Peter placed his hands behind his back and sighed as he tried to figure out what was going on. He noticed that there was now a photo of Andrew Bennett and removed the plastic bag from the pocket of his leather coat. Walking to the desk, he picked up a pen then walked to the dry board and opened the plastic bag, removing the wig with the pen. Looking around, he found some tape as he used the tape to secure the wig to the dry board then stood back, folding his arms over his chest as he looked at the dry board.
"Right, so we have three victims and the only thing that connects them to each other is…me," Peter sighed as he started seeing why Mark was suspecting him of the killings, but he had never met Henry Altman or Andrew Bennett.
"So you do admit that you're controlling that thing," Mark said softly as he walked closer and stood next to Peter.
"No, I'm just saying that the only connection to these three killing is me. Someone is either trying to send me a message or is framing me. It is true that I do tend to piss people off, but this is more than being pissed off at me. Someone's really out to get me," Peter said then turned and looked at Seamus sitting at the desk. "Do you have the video from the doctor's house?"
"Yes, and we also have the client list from the lawyer and the list of those participating at the Showdown. Still waiting on the list of the doctor's patients," Seamus said as Peter nodded and walked to the desk, sitting down on the chair. Peter looked at the screen while Seamus typed on the keyboard when the screen went blank then the security video started. Peter watched the video as Andrew Bennett went about his daily business when Peter saw something appearing in the corner and Seamus showed him which button pause the video. "Check this out."
Mark and Cassandra walked to the desk when Mark leaned over the back of the chair and looked at the screen. Peter pushed the pause button as a large, black shadow appeared in the corner of the room then took form of something inhuman and Mark's eyes widened. The creature stood ten feet in height and the creature slowly moved toward Doctor Bennett.
On the sides of the head of the creature were two ridged ears that came to a point at the top and the ear on the right had a nick taken out of it. Several boney lumps went from the top to the bottom of the creature's head and boney ridges covered the two, bulging eyes. The nose was pushed up and the creature opened its mouth, showing three rows of sharp teeth. A thick neck rested on a muscular torso and a stub of a tail sat above the perfectly shaped bottom. Four, muscular arms stuck out of the torso and the large hands had four fingers and a thumb with long talons curved toward the palm of each hand and the hands were bent almost into fists. Two muscular legs held up the creature and the creature was standing on the balls of its two feet. Sharp talons bent in on the four toes on each foot and what appeared to be bone covered the creature's genitals.
"Shit," Peter sighed as he sat back in the chair and folded his arms over his chest. "We're not dealing with vampires. We're dealing with demons."
"And that's a demon?" Seamus asked, looking at the screen.
"Yep," Peter said while popping the "p" and titled his head to one side. "What sort of demon, I don't know. If I had my demoncrom, I could look it up,"
They looked at the screen when the creature charged at Doctor Bennett and before Doctor Bennett could scream, the creature dived on him. Seamus closed his eyes as the others watched the creature tearing Doctor Bennett apart and Peter tapped Seamus on the shoulder.
"You can look now," Peter said and a blush turned Seamus' face bright red. Mark had turned the video off as Seamus opened his eyes and Peter nudged him with his elbow. Shrugging, Seamus got up as he walked to where the coffee machine was and Peter sighed, blinking his eyes a few times.
"What is a demoncrom?" Mark asked when Seamus walked back with two mugs of coffee and handed one of the coffee mugs to Cassandra then other coffee mug to Peter and Peter sipped on the coffee.
"It is my book of demons. The thing is it's back at my place in Vegas," Peter said as Seamus came back with two more mugs of coffee and sat on the chair next to him.
"So there's no way you can tell us what that thing was?" Seamus asked, sipping on the coffee. Suddenly the squad room was a buzz when Peter looked at the police officers pointing their guns at something behind him and turned the chair around. Boe was standing near the dry board as Peter smiled, patted his leg and the tiger slowly walked to him, sitting down next to the chair.
"Put your guns down. He's harmless," Peter said while stroking the top of the tiger's head and Mark gave him a slightly stunned look.
"Ok, where did that come from?" Seamus asked as Boe sniffed his leg and Seamus slowly moved his hand toward the tiger's head. Peter nodded as Seamus stroked the soft fur and Boe softly purred.
"If I told you, he'd put me in a cell," Peter said while pointing his thumb toward Mark and Mark glared at him. Peter gently turned Boe's head toward him then placed his hands on either side of the tiger's head and Peter softly smiled. "Ok, I need you to go to the library and bring me the red book on the middle table. Understand?"
Boe sneezed while nodding its head as they watched the tiger walking away then vanished and Mark's eyes went wide. Peter sighed as he sat back in the chair and folded his arms over his chest.
"You summoned that thing, didn't you?" Mark asked while balling his hands into fists and Peter arched his eyebrow, slightly smiling at him.
"No, I didn't summon Boe. Boe comes and goes as he pleases," Peter said when something poked Seamus in the back and Seamus turned, seeing Boe behind him. In the tiger's mouth was a book with a red cover and the tiger moved by him and placed the book on Peter's lap. Patting the top of the tiger's head, Peter sat up straighter in the chair and opened the book. "Now, let's find out what the hell that thing was."