Chapter 2

The office

The drive back to the city was not pleasant but in the end, Lin made her way to the regional KEP HQ. She decided to grab a bite at a diner nearby first. The offices on her floor are desolate since there are not many resources spent on solving crimes for the sinless. Except for the latest fifth victim the others were sinless prostitutes working independently. Lin remembers KEP inspector Skalnic asking her why she took the job in the first place and telling her it was a waste of time.

(Flashback) "The press will not cover this story. No one wants to know about dead prostitutes. If they do write about it, it will be about the killer and the number of bodies, not the actual victims. No one cares if there is a killer on the loose since there are plenty of triad homicides in the city, especially in Kowloon. There is simply no glory in this case. You should stick with more rewarding cases like me and aim for a promotion."

Despite knowing Skalnic is right, Lin felt she needed to take the case, personally knowing a couple of sinless through her old charity days has softened her heart. So having sympathy for the vulnerable meta-humans of society is not unusual for her. They deserve some real justice too, not just street justice by shadowrunners or whatnot if they are lucky.

Entering the offices she spots Holden working at the computer terminal at his desk. He looks at Lin surprised.

"Why did you take so long getting here?"

"I went to the diner… by the way what are you up to?"

"I started the report. I figured you were too pooped to do it"

"You know Holden? You do have your moments… Anything I can do to help with the report?"

"Actually yes. I need Pauline's preliminary report to help me out. I am not going down there. The troll might lock me up in one of her morgue drawers and leave me there for all I know. I also need the pictures of the crime scene that you took."

"Oh I almost forgot, is everything ok with your girlfriend?"

"Oh yeah. Forget about it. she knows now it is a big misunderstanding. But, just don't answer my office calls again please"

"Well ok. Here is the camera, see you again later" The morgue is on the lower floors so Lin made her way to the elevator when the doors opened, it was her favorite KEP afro elf Terrance who stepped out.

"Agent Caihong."

"Officer Scammel"

"Pauline Little wants to see you. She is waiting at the morgue"

"Good, I was just about heading down there. Are you gonna take a breather?"

"Yeah. it is the damn weather, it's depressing as hell. I need to gather more energy before I go back out there " Said Terrance as he stretched his arms around and yawned.

"Are you still on patrol?"

"Unfuckingfortunatelly yeah"

"Well… hang in there."

"I will try."

Entering the morgue Lin could smell the antiseptic and an uncomfortable aura emanating from the corpse, it was on the table with a cover only showing the head and shoulders. On the walls, she could see X-ray pictures and boards with meta-human anatomies. The room was dimly lit with a low-hanging lamp.

"Hey Pauline! Be careful with the corpse I am getting different bad vibes compared to the one at the crime scene."

"Thanks, I will"

"So did you get that preliminary work done yet?"

"As a matter of fact, I am not quite finished but it will do… You will need our mage consultant's input for the rest so I suggest you go to him. I have done enough to brief you if you have the time"

"For you. Always"

"The victim's blood reveals a high level of alcohol and I have also found traces of Rohypnol also known as the date rape drug. This is why there is no apparent struggle throughout the assault."

"I see, then how did it all start?"

"The Assault started at the entrance. Where she was beaten. She probably fell on the spot where you found the blood. She was later carried into the living room where the killer ripped off her clothes and beat her again. The victim was definitely unconscious at this point. He let her bleed on the floor until he got enough blood to write the Enochian magical symbols you found using the luminol. After the ritual, the killer cleaned off the symbols probably knowing that we would find them. He hung his coat on the hook and later dragged the victim by the hair along the hallway corridor. He finally brought her into the bathroom. The cause of death is drowning as he held her underwater until death ensued. She was killed before the mutilation. She was stabbed nine times from under the sternum to the lower abdomen… So what are you thinking?"

"I think that the mutilation is unusual, it was not part of the killer's MO with the previous four victims, they were found beaten and drowned. Not like this…"

"Do you think he will change his MO in the near future?"

"No I don't think so, drowning seems to be the late stages of the ritual and focus to appease a spirit. That stage of the assault seems to be important to him. This stabbing business seems to be from something else and I believe if we knew what it was, we could catch this shaman son of a bitch. He also covered the face of the fourth and this victim. This strongly suggests he knew the last two victims. I will ask Holden to correlate the last two victims with info on what we can find... So what about you? Did you find anything interesting?"

"Not much except a picture among the discarded clothes belonging to the victim and according to the evidence you found we know the killer has black hair if it was he who hung his coat on the nail. It might have been a sinless hobo for all we know but it doesn't matter, we can use the hair for DNA comparison and put the potential criminal at the scene of the crime. I've sent the fibers to the KEP lab to see if they can find anything unique or unusual about them."

"I have been meaning to ask you… Did you call him?"

"Call? Oh… no I didn't I just do not have the courage to do it yet. Can we not talk about it now?"

"Sure but promise me that you will call him"

"Ok ok, I promise."

"Well then I am out of here"

"Don't forget my beautifully handwritten preliminary report." Said Pauline as she pointed at the table near the corpse and later turned around and worked with something else. After taking the papers and handing them over to Holden she made her way to the car and drove to the mage consultant adept store nearby. The store had a smell of burnt incense along with Buddhist decor and a statue of Buddha in one corner. making her way past the counter into the next room it was contrasted with Enochian symbol writings on the work desk and a computer terminal where Lin saw the monk working. It is surprising that this Buddhist practitioner is one of the few experts in the region on Western Renaissance occult magic.

"Hello Bai, looking over the new pictures of the crime scene?"

"Ah yes, I just got them from Holden… considering this is the third case where the bodies of the victims were found at the ritual site. I have been able to compare the crime scenes and get a better picture of what we are dealing with."

"So what do we have? You have yet to report anything so we are pretty much in the dark and with little to no clues."

"As suspected we are dealing with a shaman but he is using hermetic blood magic in his rituals to appease a certain spirit or demonic entity. I would not be surprised if more resources will be poured into this as I report my findings."

"Yes, this would put the killer on the map and have the news stirred up at this rate. Blood magic gives me the creeps."

"It appears the corpse is used as a vessel to summon a spirit or demon but without a proper talk with the killer, I can not know why or the motives behind the rituals…"

"Good job keep me updated…" Lin's phone buzzed. It was Pauline.

"Yeah hello?"

"Hi, Sweetie. am I bothering you?"

"No, not at all I am with magic consultant Bai about the case."

"I decided to get it over with and called him"

"Oh about Carter?"

"Yes. I need to talk"

"I will be right there, where are you"

"I am still at work. just come down to the morgue. I still have a little work to do before we can go for the day."

"Ok I see you soon"

The drive back to the morgue was uneventful and soon Lin found herself there but something felt amiss, the astral signature felt toxic and unbearable even. Entering the room the corpse was on the floor burnt up to a crisp. Pauline entered the room shortly after.

"Sweetie, what the hell are you doing?"

"Me, I thought you…"

"Oh my god. Go and look at the security cameras"

Lin made a run for it, entered the security room nearby, and looked at the cameras. She saw an unfamiliar spirit in the gárage making its way out. "shit" as she ran towards the garage to take the vehicle to follow it. the spirit transformed itself and started to hover away at fast speeds before turning a few blocks. and running up the fire escape. Lin exited the vehicle and pulled out her Ares predator pistol and took aim at the spirit. Screw it never works anyways. She thought as she followed in hot pursuit with a gun in one hand. Climbing the fire escape she made her way to the top followed by a ladder to the roof where the spirit went out of sight. Once on top Lin aimed again and started to wave around the gun looking for the spirit. Out of nowhere the spirit moved and became visible as it attacked her on the side. A shot was fired as she fell out and hanged by the edge. The spirit stopped the assault and ran away. Lin pulled herself up in the rain and was a bit shaken. She made her way back to the KEP HQ morgue.

"Hey…"

"Hey… are you ok. What happened?"

"Yeah, I ok. I ran after the spirit and it got away"

"Well, the important thing is you are okay"

"So what happened on your end?"

"I never thought that my lab would become a crime scene. The spirit possessed the dead body and it started burning up slowly from inside out. We are gonna need a shaman to make sense of this summoning and for further analysis of what happened here."

"Do the others know?"

"Yes… I called upstairs and Roman answered. I told him what I know. He is expecting you and didn't sound too happy."

"I can imagine… Hey about him?"

"Forget it it can wait"

"Are you sure? Tate can wait"

"Really, sweetie it's ok. Go"

"Ok, going upstairs to deal with Roman"

"Good, meanwhile I fix the mess down here. I tell you if anything turns up"