Kira Malone Chronicles: Vol 1 (Slaughter USA) Read online

  "Have you seen anything so far that references an incense smell on the body? I mean, that's pretty weird, right? You'd think that would come up somewhere in one of these, if these people actually knew what they were talking about. I'm still on the fence about that, though."

  Andy frowned, flipping through the photocopied pages he'd already done before setting them aside. "Not yet, but we'll have more luck reading them thoroughly back at the hotel. We can send them to Noni as well, she can start cataloging them for us. Might make things easier once we have a directory up that can be searched for things like that. Got a strange case? Plug in some crap to the spreadsheet and see what it pinpoints. Monster hunting has gone tech."

  Kira couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up. She didn't much consider spreadsheets 'tech', but Andy loved his organization on them. He had spreadsheets for Ominous Omens for pretty much everything. Whenever he started on a new one, all the crew pretty much groaned, knowing they'd be given copies and expected to understand what he'd thought was so simple. It never was. Still, the idea of a central database they could use when things came up was intriguing.

  "Perhaps we can look at some kind of a private server or something, that we can set up as a blog-style format, like Wordpress. If we make it searchable and keep it behind password protection and encrypted, it should work for us, eventually. We'd be able to quickly search for details. It'd be a big help." In the long run, yes. Right now? Not so much.

  Chapter Nine

  Sitting at the table in the hotel room, she and Andy split up the work. Since he hadn't been in Stefano's study, he took over looking through the photos to see if he spotted anything she may have missed. That left her to peruse the photocopies for any information they might be able to find.

  She was stuck on the smell of incense for some reason. It seemed important to her, like a detail that should make sense but didn't. She'd smelled it at the second house as well, just underneath the stench of badly burned hair. Two times wasn't a coincidence, at least not in her world. She just had to find something to pin it on, a way to make it fit the details of the case as they knew them, and find some creature that could cause it. There had to be one somewhere.

  "Hey, Kira? Did you happen to look at the bookshelves in either place? We may have missed something pretty significant." At Andy's tone, Kira glanced up, spotting his eyes glued to something on his laptop. Standing, she moved around to peer over his shoulder, stomach seeming to drop at the two images sitting side by side. One was from Stefano's office. The other, from the professor's study. Both held a wooden picture frame, with gilded gold edges.

  The matching frames weren't what had caught his attention, though. It was the twin photos held within them. Four men, arms around each other's shoulders, stood side by side, grinning at the camera in the shot. They were in front of a tent, likely out camping somewhere, but there was no real way to figure out the location with just trees and a brilliant blue sky behind them.

  Two of the faces were immediately noticeable. They belonged to their victims. They had found their connection... a friendship, at least a good enough one that they'd gone camping together at least once, and both kept the photo within sight when they worked. That wasn't something you did if you didn't have a relationship with the person in the photo with you. Two friends, killed the same horrible way.

  Now, they had a much bigger problem at hand. Who were the other two men in the photo and did this mean those two were in danger as well? Scrubbing a tired hand over her face, Kira focused on the images as Andy zoomed in further. She couldn't remember seeing their photos anywhere else. Neither had been at the scene of the second attack, as she and Andy had gotten there fairly quick after it'd been broadcast over the news.

  "Alright, here's what we're going to do. Send me one of those photos. You take the Archaeology Institute. Look through their faculty and staff and see if you can find photos of their teams in the field, possibly. Maybe they met there. I'll tackle Boston University, check out their faculty, staff, alumni, contributors. Whatever I can find. I'll try to isolate the faces as well, see if I can use image search. Never know, it might bring us to a social media page or something where it was posted. We could get lucky."

  Kira figured it was worth a try. If they'd been good friends, perhaps one or more of them had an online presence, especially if their fields required one. The photo might have been posted for a look at a vacation or their hobbies, and the other men had been tagged or commented on it.

  It was something to check, anyway. If their hunch was correct, those two men may well be in danger too. They were looking for a connection between two victims and had found a possible link to four. They couldn't treat this as unimportant. Part of the reason she'd turned her back on her own university studies was to save lives, to protect everyone else from the monsters that lurked in the dark as best she could.

  It was a solemn oath she'd made to herself after surviving relatively intact and one she refused to break. If there was any way to find these men, she'd do it, and at least warn them that something was coming for them. They may not believe her, but that was alright. At least she'd know where the creature was headed.

  Hours later, they were forced to admit defeat. The men weren't associates from the institute, nor were they co-workers from the university. None seemed to have much of a web presence at all, save for Stefan having a professional profile on the institute website. Both had hit dead ends.

  The sense of urgency was strong. Considering two of their group were now dead, it didn't look good for the two living members. "Call Mrs. Sardoza. Ask if she knows who they are. We've got to catch a break at some point. Until then? Let's track a ghost."

  Chapter Ten

  Who'd have thought you'd find ghost hunting equipment at the local hardware store? Well, okay, technically it wasn't for ghosts, it was for electrical work. Schematics. Either way, Home Depot had an EMF meter at a price that made Kira balk, and Andy just shrugged and added it to the cart. A bag of rock salt, and a few feet of cut cast-iron soil pipes and they'd managed to find their supplies.

  Surprisingly, most creature lore said they didn't like iron. Perhaps it was something to do with the makeup of the metal itself or how it was cast... Kira had no clue, but the pipes would serve them well for the cost if they kept coming up against monsters in this world. Salt had been used for purification for centuries in civilizations and tribes all over the world, so salt being used to cleanse and repel spirits in mythology wasn't a stretch of the imagination.

  Loading their purchases into the van, they took the time in the parking lot to separate the rock salt into the individual baggies they'd bought. It took forever, but lugging around a 25lb bag of salt wasn't the ideal scenario. Creating smaller packages that could be tossed into a bag or pocket was the best idea, and ensured they could have plenty on hand if needed once they found the entity they were looking for.

  The pipes were too big to easily hide, but it couldn't be helped. After a bit of thinking, Andy realized they fit perfectly into the bag that held the tripod legs for the cameras. It'd look odd carrying just the bag without a camera along with it, but not as odd as walking around with three foot lengths of iron pipe. She'd settle for not being as noticeable. Or arrested. Not being arrested seemed a good goal, in her opinion.

  "So, we're going to drive to Stefano's house. Sweet talk Mrs. Sardoza into letting us in again, with a tripod bag but no camera visible. Scan the study for any electromagnetic disturbances, see if we rile something up. And then what? Throw salt at it and whack the incorporeal beastie with a stick? This is a terrible, horrible, incredibly foolish idea, Andy. But, what the hell. Let’s do it and see what happens. We've done worse."

  Andy nodded, the edges of his lips curling in a half grin. "We've done worse on far less intel. At least this time, since we're after a ghost, I won't have to jump on its back to prevent it from attacking you. I really don't appreciate being thrown across the room by grody, stanky monsters. It hurts, Kira. And Tide don't get
the smell out."

  She patted his arm before hopping into the passenger seat. "Look at it this way, if we really learned from our mistakes, I'd be a freaking genius by now. I'm not, so we're likely going to keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Good news, after a while, I've heard your skin toughens up, and you won't even feel it anymore. Something to look forward to."

  He scoffed as he put the car in reverse, heading through the parking lot to get back onto the main road. "That's not a comforting thought, Kira. You're the motivational speaker from Hell, literally. Telling people the burning sensation they feel as their flesh melts from their bones is just a slight sunburn and to apply some aloe."

  Despite the situation, she found herself laughing along with him. He could always make her smile, and that's why she loved him so much. He was like the big brother she never had and hadn't realized she wanted.

  Pulling up to the house, they spotted Mrs. Sardoza waiting on the porch, purse in hand. She was heading to church and then to the store, which was perfect. It let them move around the house unimpeded, without having to explain what they were doing and why. After verifying that she didn't know who the other men were in the photo and that she hadn't moved anything in the room before they'd gotten there the first time, Andy helped her down the steps to her car and waved her off before coming back to Kira's side, key in hand.

  "She said to tuck this under the welcome mat if we leave before she gets back, and to just lock up. Alarm code is 4391 if we want to set that for her before locking the door. She wrote it on my hand, seemed to think I'd forget it too easily." Andy held out his hand, almost like he wanted verification that he did, in fact, have the alarm code written on his skin in permanent marker.

  Shaking her head, Kira headed inside, knowing he'd follow. Once the door shut behind them, she bent to pull the EMF meter from her bookbag, tucking a few bags of rock salt into her pockets. Just in case. Selecting one of the thinner iron lengths of pipe for herself, she just shrugged. They probably looked quite silly, but if this worked? It'd be worth it.

  Taking the stairs slowly, Kira followed behind Andy, who was sweeping with the EMF meter she'd handed to him. Kira herself held a small compass. Since it was affected by magnetic fields, if the EMF meter detected a spike, the compass would go the extra mile, and be able to pinpoint for them what direction the energy signature was actually coming from. She'd read about it on some online forum and had tested it herself using a radio. Sure enough, the compass followed the path of the radio as she'd moved it around the table.

  If the meter found anything, they'd use the compass to pinpoint what they were looking for. Kira was fairly certain it was one of the artifacts at this point. There was nothing else that could draw an entity here, except his resting place being disturbed due to archaeology teams. The person that kept the items would be the one the spirit likely blamed as that's where the spirit would be tethered to. At least, that was her theory.

  Hearing Andy's sharp inhale as well as a beeping from the meter, Kira peeked around his shoulder to see the levels. There actually was a sharp rise once they stepped into the study itself. Not a drastic change enough to cause someone to be sick or queasy from the ambient EMF, but enough that it made a difference.

  Scanning with the compass held flat in her palm, Kira walked in slow circles, watching the needle curiously. It spun lazily, deviating from its north position every time she walked towards the right side of the room. Away from the fireplace then, and closer to the desk. Taking the hint, Kira edged closer, realizing quickly that the desk was the focal point. As she began to move her hand slowly from the ground upwards, she was even able to sort out the general area of drawers.

  "Whatever was drawing the energy, it was in one of these three drawers on the left side of the desk, if you're sitting behind it. I can't really narrow it down much more than that, they're the thinner drawers on this side, so this is as good as we're going to get. How cool, though! They're empty now, but I took photos of everything in the desk. With any luck? That means I snapped a photo of something out of place."

  It still didn't explain the second victim though. What did something here have to do with another dead body? Where did the items in this drawer go if Mrs. Sardoza hadn't cleaned in here? She wasn't sure, but tracking down at least one cause may very well help them to find the other. If they could manage to stop this small rampage before anyone else was hurt, all the better.

  Chapter Eleven

  Back at the hotel, Kira and Andy pored over the photos she'd taken of the desk contents. Each drawer was analyzed before being cast aside once they realized it wasn't the drawer they needed. Reaching the three in question, they pulled up photos from the professor's study as well. If they could pinpoint something that may have been in both rooms that would narrow their search considerably.

  As Andy flipped between them, Kira blinked, reaching out a hand to stop him. "Wait! Go back a few. No, the one before that. There!" Staring at the photo, she had the sneaking suspicion that she'd seen the item before. The rounded coin was darkened with age, the edges blunted like it'd been struck repeatedly to form the circular shape.

  She thought she'd recognized it as a Roman coin, after many trips to the museums with her dad as a kid, but looking at it again more closely, it didn't seem to fit. While it looked like the goddess Nike or Athena on the face, it didn't look like it was created the same way the old coins had been when she'd seen them in the Roman collections as a child.

  "I think the Professor had a coin like this. I assumed it was part of his economic lessons since it was with a book on world economies. See if you can find the picture of the box on the bottom of the bookcase. I took a picture of what was in there. I think it might be the same damn coin."

  As Andy scrolled through the photos, Kira's stomach twisted. She knew without even looking that it had to be the same coin. There was simply no other explanation. How had it gotten from victim one to victim two? Did Mrs. Sardoza send the box on after Stefano's death? If so, why didn't she mention it? Had victim number 2 come to the house and taken it?

  Attention turned back to the screen, Kira's face paled as she got confirmation of what she already suspected. The coins were exactly the same. The patina, the edging, even the score marks on the edges where they'd been hammered into shape all lined up. The coin was their tether. Who had it now?

  "Good catch, Kir. What do you want to do? We should go back to the professor's home, see if we can find it there. At least then we can get rid of it safely, maybe rebury it or something. He obviously took it from one of his digs and didn't realize he was disturbing anything. Maybe knowing they were friends, Mrs. Sardoza sent it on to Stefan's friend. She did say she hadn't cleaned before we got there, we didn't ask her if she cleaned after we were done."

  He was right. They hadn't actually asked if she had cleaned up anything after they'd been through the house and left. It was completely possible she did know the first friend in the photo and had sent a few things to him if she knew Stefano had been collecting them for that purpose. She may not truly know the others, especially if they were older friendships and hadn't talked much in the last few years, as friendships tended to do when people got older.

  "Yeah, let's go see if we can find it. His sister probably didn't go through much, she didn't seem to want to be there at all. Can't blame her, really. If she hasn't gotten around to cleaning the house out, we might get lucky. If not, maybe we can convince her to talk to us, to look at the photo, see if she knows the other two."

  She did look closer to their age than the elderly housekeeper., possibly even a few years younger than the man on the faculty website. Younger sisters tended to want to hang out with their older brothers and their friends, even after being rebuked constantly. Being a tomboy much of her life, she'd heard her male friends complaining about it as a teen every time they'd had to figure out a way to ditch a sibling. It wasn't a stretch of the imagination to think she might recognize the other two if she'd agree to talk to th
em.

  They got her phone number from a neighbor after asking who they needed to contact to gain access. She was one of those busybody types, all too eager to find more gossip under the guise of helping. After explaining they were working on a story for a college station that wouldn't be aired here, she seemed to lose interest and wandered away, thankfully.

  Deanna, the sister, didn't seem all that enthused to hear from them, but agreed to meet at the house to allow them entrance for fifteen minutes only after they'd said there may be an item connected to their research there. It'd be one less thing she'd have to sort. Leaving Andy with her to ask about the photo, Kira hurried into the house where she dug around for the box she'd seen, and the coin.

  She couldn't find it. Even after checking every drawer in the desk and in the nooks and crannies of the bookshelf in case it'd fallen, she still didn't see it. Artifacts just didn't get up and walk away. The box itself was right where she'd left it, but the coin wasn't inside. Scowling, she picked up the book that had been with it, shaking it to see if the ancient currency had somehow got lodged inside. What fell out was a piece of letterhead from the Archaeological Institute, dated a few weeks before Stefano's death.