Chapter 8:
Calleigh POV-
"So what do we do now?" Percy wondered. We were still sitting in the café, unsure what our next move should be.
I certainly had not been expecting my mother to show up. I haven't seen her in probably 20 years and the last time I did see her, we didn't exactly end on great terms.
Several costumers gave us weird looks as I exchanged the bullets in her gun, but with one flash of my badge they quickly moved on.
"Okay, so somehow we have to clear our names, and solve a case involving a serial-killing monster without letting on to your team that we're all demigods. Yeah, piece of cake," Thalia remarked.
"Can we work on getting our weapons back first?" Clarisse interjected. I rolled my eyes. That's probably the most words she's spoken to me since she got here. Clarisse shrugged like it didn't matter but I knew it did. Clarisse might act tough all the time, but, without her weapons, she was just as vulnerable as the rest of them.
I remember that feeling.
That's part of why I left this world in the first place.
I knew that avoiding that part of my life would catch up to me eventually—I guess you can never really leave what's in your blood. But I had tried pretty damn hard to bury my past.
Soon after, we all piled back into my car and I drove them home. They all organized themselves on the couch and it occurred to me that the first step to solving this case was to making sure I had all of the facts.
"Excuse me. I'm going to make a phone call," I told the kids before going to my bedroom.
I dialed Eric's number.
"Hey, what's up?" he answered by the second ring.
"Do we have any more information of the Rosario and Smith killings," I asked him.
He hesitated, "Why do you ask?"
"Eric, what's wrong?" I asked, sensing something off in his tone of voice.
"There's been another one." He stated, "We're headed their now."
"Where?" I asked him, jumping to my feet. If there's anything I hate, it's feeling useless standing on the sidelines.
"Doesn't matter. You can't leave those kids at home and you can't bring them to a crime scene," he replied.
I said nothing, which he took to be an answer in itself.
"Calleigh, you're not bringing those kids to the crime scene," he chided, "We're still trying to work on their case."
"What if…I thought it would be beneficial to the case to have them there," I insisted.
"Why?" he demanded.
"…I can't tell you," I sighed.
"Why not? Are they involved?" he accused.
"No! Of course not!" I exclaimed. Although, I suppose that's not 100% true.
He sighed, "Calleigh, I really don't think you should bring them. Especially considering we haven't cleared them yet—if we clear them at all."
"They're innocent, Eric," I told him.
"I know you would like to believe they're innocent because they're kids, I would too. But we can't just assume they're innocent unless we have proof. Do you have proof?" he said.
"…None that I can tell you. But I need to bring them to that crime scene," I explained.
"Why? And why can't you tell me?" he demanded.
"I just can't, alright? I need you to trust me. Please," I implored.
"Corner of 7th and 103rd," he stated curtly and then hung up.
'Great. Just perfect,' I thought to myself, 'the last thing I need is Eric mad at me.'
I walked out of my room and into the living room. The kids were still sitting on the couch where I left them, looking bored to death. Not that I could really blame them.
"You guys want to go to a crime scene?"
… … … … … … …
"What can you tell us about these killings?" Annabeth asked when we had loaded back into the car. The kids were more than happy to go check out a crime scene if it meant possibly clearing their names (and curing their boredom).
"Well, we know of two for sure. But it's possible for us to connect it two ten more murders. We started to suspect a serial killer because the bodies were all really gruesome and were either missing body parts and organs or were drained of blood, or both," I explained, "…also, they've all been under twelve years old."
They all got really quiet.
When we arrived at the crime scene, I could see that my team was already set up.
"You guys know you're not allowed to touch anything, right?" I asked them.
They nodded in agreement before we all got out of the car.
"What have we got this time, Walter?" I asked, approaching him as he examined the body.
As I got closer I could see it was a little boy, probably nine years old. The crime scene wasn't pretty. The poor child had been ripped apart and his internal organs had been splayed across the ground.
"More of the same," Walter sighed, "I wish I had some good news."
He looked up and saw the kids behind me.
"Why'd you bring them?" he wondered.
"Don't ask," I mouthed shaking my head.
"Oh my Gods," Annabeth gasped when she saw the little boy and Percy put his arms around her.
Walter gave her a weird look but didn't say anything.
When they walked away, Walter arched an eyebrow at me.
"Weren't you supposed to take them home?" he wondered.
"Yep," was all I said before walking after the kids.
"It could be anything," I heard Annabeth hiss under her breath, "Lots of things eat people," when she saw me approach she said, "Calleigh, you've been on this case longer than us, didn't you have any ideas what's doing this."
In all honesty, I hadn't even considered it to be a monster. I've found that people do enough bad things to each other without throwing Gods and monsters into the mix. I figured that these murders were just like so many others, and that they would eventually be caught and tried and justice would come for all of these parents who have lost their children. But monsters, we can't put a monster on trial. We can't tell the parents that their child was killed by a monster, so now they will spend the rest of their lives hoping for justice that will never come.
That was another thing that had always bothered me so much about living in the demigod world—there's no such thing as justice.
Gods, Titans, Monsters, they all do whatever they want and it's the people on earth who have to deal with the consequences. And worse than that, then they send a group of teenagers to do their dirty work and try to fix everything they screwed up.
I was once one of those teenagers. I thought I had served my time then and barely survived, but now, here I am; drawn into this life once more.
"Calleigh?" Annabeth asked arching an eyebrow.
"Oh sorry," I shook my head, "Just thinking. I haven't put too much thought into it before now, but, given the ages of all of the victims, I'd say our best bet is Lamia."
"Who's that?" Percy asked.
"She was a woman who Hera—no surprise there—cursed to be a monster who devours other people's children. I considered her too, but I was wondering why she didn't…you know…eat the entire child," Annabeth cringed in disgust.
I shook my head, "I don't know. Maybe someone interrupted."
"Calleigh!" Eric called.
"Speaking of interrupting," Thalia muttered under her breath. I gave her a look before turning around to talk with Eric.
"What's up?" I asked him.
"What were you talking with them about?" he asked me.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the "them" in question had moved so they were no longer standing directly behind me (but, you know, still close enough that they could hear what we were talking about).
"Nothing," I told him.
He sighed, "Calleigh, you told me to trust you on this, but how am I supposed to do that if you keep lying to me."
"Because you're my friend. Because you know me, and you've known me for a long time," I exclaimed.
"Which is how I know, that sometimes you get too emotionally invested in these cases, and I know you know that too," he told me.
I sighed. "I do know that. But this time I also know I'm right, and I need you to trust me on that," I told him, setting my hand on his arm.
"Okay," he nodded giving me a small smile before going back over to the rest of the team.
