The Grotesque Corpse - Chapter 3

The Kung Pao Diner & Deli

While Maya pulled her car out of the Municipal Center garage, Sage made a phone call. “Hi, this is Sage Marlowe. I’ll be at the Kung Pao in about ten minutes. Meet me there.” Nine minutes later, Maya pulled into the diner’s parking lot.

Maya and Sage sat in a booth near the front window. The waiter arrived with a broad smile on his face. Maya smiled back. “My friend would like a cup of coffee and I would like my usual.”

“One order of sweet and sour pork fried rice, glass of green tea iced, and coffee double-double. Coming right up.”

Sage watched the old man march off to the kitchen. “I thought he retired.”

“Dad? He quit running the kitchen, but he likes to come in from time to time to help out. He’ll expect me to leave a big tip when we leave.”

Sage was on her second cup of coffee when Officers Baer and Walker arrived. Niome took a seat next to Sage. “You weren’t in the morgue, so I figured the two of you came here.”

Jerome sat next to Maya. “Any chance we could get some coffee?” A few minutes later, Mr. Lee arrived with two black coffees in Styrofoam cups. “What’s this?”

“It’s the cop special,” Mr. Lee replied. “Black coffee to go.” And with that explanation, he made himself scarce.

Sage grabbed a handful of sweetener packets and some non-dairy creamer and passed them to Jerome. “Thanks,” he muttered. “They ought to fire that waiter.”

“They can’t,” Niome replied.

“Why not?”

“He owns the place,” Maya replied. “I suppose you want to know about our hairy corpse.”

“Of course, we want to know about Bigfoot. Is this a one off? Or should we notify animal control?” Niome pried the lid off her coffee and took a sip.

“It’s not Bigfoot or any other large furry unknown. It’s some sort of chimera of unknown origin. It’s best if you and your partner stay out of it.” Maya stabbed a chunk of pineapple and waggled it at Niome as she spoke.

Sage wrapped her fingers around her coffee mug and closed her eyes. Jerome turned his head to address Maya. “Sure, but you’re gonna let the civilian help. Seriously, that don’t make no sense. I mean, look at her.” Sage opened her eyes and turned her head to face him. She reached across the table and touched his hand. For an instant, he saw himself through her eyes. He shivered. “Damn! What the hell was that?”

“In the old days, they called it sorcery. Nowadays, it’s just a parlor trick,” Sage replied. “Promise me that you’ll stay out of it unless I invite you in.”

“It’s that bad?” Niome frowned. Sage nodded. “Fine. We’ll stay out until needed. I still need a coroner’s report to close the file.”

“I’ll have one for you tomorrow morning,” Maya promised.

After the two officers left with their coffee, Sage sighed with relief. Her mood brightened with the arrival of Edgar Carson. “I thought they’d never leave,” he said as he sat next to Maya. Staring across the table at Sage, he said, “Okay, I’m here. What do you want to talk about?”

Smiling at Edgar, Sage replied. “I have a case for you. I need some background information on a man named Scott Casey. Find out where he works, who his friends are, and anything about his family and background. Be discrete.” Sage grabbed his notepad and pen, wrote down an address, then slid the two items back to him. “That ought to be enough information to get you started.”

“I thought you were going to threaten me for stalking you or worse.” He glanced at the information she had jotted on his notepad. “Does this have anything to do with why you were talking to the cops?”

“Yes and no. This is a closed case as far as the cops are concerned. As far as you are concerned, this is just a background check. I know you’ve checked out mine – what there is of it. And I know you still have questions about me. This takes precedence.”

“Yeah, I still can’t figure out how you knew where the girl was. That was just bizarre. Cops had all sorts of people helping them look. You walk in and -boom- they find her, like, within hours.”

“We can talk about that later, after you’ve finished looking into Scott Casey.”

Edgar rose to leave when Maya’s phone rang. “Oh,” he said reaching inside his coat, “I brought the book I borrowed with me.”

“Thanks,” Sage said as she took it from him. Before Maya could say anything about the phone call, Sage smiled. “I know. Time to go see Nana Lee. She’s waiting for me.”

“She said something about bad signs and black magic.” The two women slid out of the booth and traveled through the diner’s kitchen. Exiting out the back, they climbed a flight of iron stairs to a second-floor fire door that stood ajar. Inside the hallway were a few empty lunch trays waiting for someone to return them to the kitchen.

The door to Nana Lee’s room was open. The heavy scent of sandalwood wafted out into the hallway. Inside the room, Nana had already set out a pot of jasmine tea for the three of them. In front of her on the table was a pile of twenty-four rectangular bamboo sticks; a stripe of black paint bisected half of them. She waived her hand beckoning the two to come sit with her. She poured two cups of tea while they sat down. She offered them a puff of her cigarette, but they waved her off. “I left them so you could see for yourself.” She began to slowly peel the pile apart, placing the sticks into ordered groups revealing two distinct hexagrams. Nana Lee regularly consulted the Yijing before venturing out. She didn’t need to consult the text to know what the signs meant.

Maya glanced at her watch and noted the time. “Thank you for the tea, Grandmother. I need to get back to work.”

“Go then, Sūnnǚ. The Shenlong and I still have much to discuss,” Nana Lee waved her away.

Maya looked at Sage, who smiled and nodded. “You have that report to write about the bear that was shot this morning. I need that file closed.”

“What about Animal Control?”

“Call them. Tell them you want to keep the animal for a necropsy. They won’t object.”

Nana Lee watched her granddaughter retreat. She took a sip of her tea then a drag on her cigarette. Sage knew better than to break Nana Lee’s silences without permission. There was the clatter of someone gathering dishes out in the hall, followed by the sound of a screen door slamming shut. Nana Lee turned to face her guest and nodded her head. “You have a question for me, yes?”

“I have a chimera with the head of a bear, the body of an ape, and the feet of a rabbit. Are these in any way tied to the Chinese calendar or zodiac?”

Nana Lee gathered up the pile of sticks in front of her and placed them into the bamboo cylinder. “The rabbit, yes. And the monkey, maybe. But the bear,” she paused and scrunched up her face before shaking her head, “no, there is no bear.”

“That’s what I thought. I’ll have to look elsewhere.”

The Grotesque Corpse - Chapter 2

The Fairview Municipal Center

Sage Marlowe heard the gunshots just before entering the alley. The man with the gun was shaking where he stood, the gun dangling from his trigger finger. On the ground in front of him was something grotesque, covered in fur, and bleeding out on the pavement. Sage pulled out her cell phone and called Maya Lee.

“I have a situation.” Sage slowly approached the man with the gun and took it from him. “There’s been a shooting. The victim is bleeding out as we speak. The gunslinger is in shock, fortunately.” Sage encouraged the shooter to sit down while she turned her attention to the injured beast. It snarled at her at first. The shot had gone through the beast’s ribcage puncturing a lung and nicking a pulmonary artery. There was nothing that Sage could do to save it. She settled for keeping it calm while it died.

While she knelt beside the strange beast, a patrol car slowly inched down the alley and stopped a few feet away. Officer Niome Baer stepped out of the car casting a large shadow. “Care to fill me in?” she asked.

“Medical Examiner has been called. She’s on her way. Tell your partner to back the patrol car up and clear the alley.” Sage made a note of the time on her phone. “Guy sitting against the back wall shot it with that.” She pointed to the handgun laying on the pavement. “I should probably get lost.”

“You should stay.”

“I didn’t see the shooting. I heard it.”

“You messed with the crime scene, and we’ll probably need your help to identify the victim.”

“Seriously? What if it’s just a poor unfortunate with a bad case of hirsutism?”

“With pointed hairy ears and a snout?” Niome used her baton to turn the victim’s head. “And what about the perp? He looks traumatized. We might need you to get past his trauma. You do still do hypnosis?”

“That would be Maya’s schtick. I just do magic.” Sage sat down next to the man at the wall. She slowly moved her hand toward him, eventually grasping his hand. She closed her eyes and waited.

Scott Casey was walking down the alley toward the back door of his apartment building when he heard a noise behind him. Living in a rough neighborhood, he had bought a handgun for protection. He turned around when he heard a growl. He had drawn his gun. Bracing to fire, he shouted a warning. “Stop or I’ll shoot!” The creature took a step toward him and Scott pulled the trigger. Everything turned surreal.

Scott swore the creature spoke to him. It said a single word, “why?” Then the strange woman showed up and the world slowed down. He could hear his heart pounding. The woman took the dangling gun out of his hand and sat him down. She tended to whatever it was that he shot. He wondered if she had called the police, but they showed up too quickly. “It must have been someone else,” he thought.

Sage released Scott’s hand when Maya arrived with her van. She helped Maya load the deceased into the back of the van. Niome helped Scott to his feet after bagging his gun. After the van left, she called her partner to come pick them up.

The municipal building was a large complex consisting of the police station, the medical examiner’s office and county morgue, and the county health department. Maya drove her van into the garage of the county morgue. The ride from the alleyway had been full of silence while Maya ran through the litany of questions that she wanted to ask Sage. Sage spent the ride weaving together the two sets of images that she had garnered from both shooter and victim. The victim’s images were troublesome, both human and savage beast engaged in a fight for control.

As they unloaded the corpse, Maya asked her first question. “What are we dealing with here?”

“I have no idea,” Sage droned.

“You touched it before it died. You must have gleaned something from it,” Maya insisted.

“I haven’t made sense of it yet.” Sage helped Maya place the corpse on a gurney. “It’s all muddled.” The two women pulled the gurney down the hall to Autopsy. “Maybe the autopsy results will help.”

“Am I... am I un... under arrest?” Scott stammered from the back seat of the patrol car.

“No, Mr. Casey,” Officer Baer responded through the metal grid separating the rear seats from the front. “We’re merely taking you in to make a formal statement. If you’d like to call your lawyer first, we can wait.”

As her partner backed the car out into traffic, he asked, “Do I want to know?”

“Not really.” Niome didn’t want to drag her new partner into it.

“Another weird one?” He laughed. “You do seem to catch the weird cases, don’t you?” Officer Jerome Walker was familiar with her reputation for attracting strange cases. He glanced back at the man fidgeting in the back seat. “What did this guy do?”

“He shot a big furry monster.”

“You’re joking,” Walker replied incredulously.

“Honestly, Jerome, I wish I were.” The drive to the police station was quiet. Walker pulled the car into the discharge lane and Niome escorted Mr. Casey to an interview room and waited for her partner to arrive.

As rigor mortis had not yet set in, Maya and Sage arranged the body for the scanner. Maya had no desire to go poking around blindly with a scalpel. Doctor Maya Lee had talked the municipality into purchasing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner for the Medical Examiner’s Office. This would enable the ME to look for abnormalities in the body of a deceased person without cutting the body open. It also would appease those who objected to an invasive autopsy on religious grounds.

“The subject measures approximately two point four seven meters from head to foot. Weight is approximately one thousand kilograms. Subject has a coat of thick agouti fur ranging in color from pale yellow to dark brown. Fur is noticeably absent around the eyes and ears. Eyes are sepia. The pointed ears do not have lobes. The long hairy forelimbs end in pale yellow hands, and I’m using that term liberally, which have thick leathery digits that end in claw-like nails. The feet resemble that of a rabbit or more accurately that of a Hobbit as the bottom of the feet do not have fur.”

After completing her narration, Maya and Sage transferred the corpse onto the sample platform. “How long is this going to take?” Sage asked.

“An hour or two,” Maya finished setting up the scanner. She walked over to where Sage stood. “I take it you have to be somewhere.” Maya pushed Sage through the double doors of the autopsy room out into the hallway. “Go.”

On the walk over to the police station, Sage added Maya’s visual autopsy to her mental notebook. She tried to relax and center her emotional focus. Police stations were a cauldron of anxiety peppered with a dash of rage. She braced herself and walked down the hallway to the interview room where Scott Casey sat nervously drumming his fingers on the steel table. He stopped drumming and placed his palms on the tabletop. “Who are you?” he demanded. Sage smiled wanly, took a seat near the wall, and waited.

Officers Baer and Walker arrived around five minutes later with four bags of takeout from a nearby burger joint. Niome handed a bag to Sage. “I figured you’d be here by now. It’s your favorite – bacon cheeseburger.” She turned to her partner, “Jerome, hand me that lime cola.” She passed it on to Sage. After handing off the rest of the bags, she sat at the table. “We already took a statement. We want you to look it over before he signs it. It should be here in a few minutes.” She bit into her burger. Sage pulled a few curly fries out of her bag. It was bad enough that a private investigator was on her case. Now, Niome wanted to read in her partner. A knock on the door drew everyone’s attention.

A uniformed officer stepped into the room and offered a clipboard to Niome. Niome passed the clipboard to Sage. Sage took her time reading through the statement and reread it before handing it back. “It’s fine. He didn’t leave anything out. Let him sign it and send him home. I need to get back to the morgue.”

As Sage opened the door, Niome asked, “How long until the autopsy results are ready?”

“Maya said it would take at least an hour,” Sage replied before closing the door behind her. She hurried back to the deathly quiet of the morgue. As she entered the building, she could hear the hum of the MRI scanner. It stopped when she was halfway down the hallway. As she pushed through the double doors, she saw Maya building a three-dimensional representation of the specimen on the fifty-five-inch monitor. “I thought you said this would take an hour or more.”

“I may have overestimated the time, just in case you were asked by the police. They did ask, didn’t they?”

Sage nodded and took a seat. “Shouldn’t we put our hairy corpse on ice?”

“He’ll be fine for a couple of hours.” Maya picked up the microphone and began dictating notes. “The creature’s skull resembles that of a common black bear minus the pronounced canines. From the neck down, the creature’s skeleton resembles that of chimpanzee. The legs and arms are those of a hominid. The feet are large and structured like rabbit feet as mentioned previously. The internal organs include larger lungs and heart than that of a human. Pelvis is that of a male, confirmed further by the presence of a ten-centimeter long baculum.”

“Excuse me, a what?”

“A baculum. It’s a penis bone. You know, like a dog.” Maya went back to her dictation. “Cause of death was massive trauma from blood loss caused by a bullet passing through the anterior rib cage and nicking the pericardiophrenic artery before exiting through the posterior ribs. The scan shows a second bullet lodged in the gluteus maximus, possibly a ricochet. I won’t know until I extract the bullet.” Maya paused to take a deep breath before continuing. “The specimen has an unusually large brain for a bear equal in size to a human brain. The rest of the internal organs appear to be normal for a gorilla. The arm-length to leg length ratio is one to one consistent with that of a biped. The hands are leathery with clubbed fingers and claw-like nails. As noted earlier, the feet resemble those of a rabbit – a very, very large rabbit.” Maya turned off the recorder. “I get the feeling that I’m repeating myself. Maybe I should put Bigfoot away. It’s lunch time anyway. Have you eaten?”

“Niome gave me a burger and fries, but I could use a cup of coffee.”

The Grotesque Corpse - Chapter 1

The Gryphon Occult Library

Sage Marlowe wore her heart on a gold chain around her neck. Every so often, she would dig it out from beneath her shirt collar and fondle it while glancing around the library.

Edgar Carson had been watching her. He had been coming to the library to browse the books for the past two weeks. He closed the book that he had been reading and walked over to the library desk.

“Are you ready to check out a book?”

“No, but I do have a question...”

Before he could finish, the librarian interrupted. “You really don’t want to ask that question.”

“I don’t?” Edgar placed the book that he had been reading on the counter. “Then, I’d like to check out this book.”

Sage looked at the title before scanning the book out. “I need your driver’s license.”

Edgar reached into his pocket, retrieved his wallet, dug out the card, and handed it to her. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask for a credit card.”

Sage placed the license into a scanner, copying the information into the computer, before handing it back to her. “Three weeks. Loan times are based on the number of pages in the book. And we always get them back. We know where you live.”

Her use of “we” made Edgar raise an eyebrow. He had not seen anyone else working in the occult library.

“And by ‘we’, I mean me. I’ll see you in three weeks, if not sooner.”

Edgar had been visiting the Library since his last case. He was certain that the librarian lived above the library in one of four apartments in the two upper floors. He hadn’t checked out which apartment was hers, but he knew it had to be one of them. She rarely left the building. As he walked to his car, he glanced at the book that he had checked out. It was a compendium of dragon myths. He shook his head. “Why did I pick out a book on dragons?” he muttered aloud.

It was late when the last customer left the Gryphon Occult Library. Edgar had waited in his car pretending to read the book that he had checked out earlier. He watched as the librarian locked the door, closed the blinds, and turned out the light. He waited for her to leave the library and head upstairs. She didn’t. His curiosity was seriously piqued.

Sage Marlowe had questions of her own. She called up the file on The Compendium of Legendary Dragons and printed out the image of the driver’s license. She looked up his address on the computer. It was a mixed-use building situated on a ley line, just as the library was. She was having second thoughts about not letting him ask his question. It might have led to an interesting conversation.

Sage pulled a second copy of The Compendium of Legendary Dragons off the shelf and placed its spine over the printout of the license. She spread apart the covers letting the pages fall aside randomly. Sage smiled as she ran her hand over the illustration on the page. Although drawn in the style of a woodcut, the colors were vivid. The green and gold of the dragon’s twisted body, coupled with the reds and purples of the maiden’s dress, lent a surreal quality to the depiction.

THE DRAGONET’S TALE

Once upon a time, in a kingdom by the sea, there lived a fair maiden. As she and her father were returning from a trip to a neighboring kingdom, a dragon soared high overhead. Suddenly, the dragon swooped down toward the royal party and grabbed one of the King’s colors. Fearing for his daughter’s safety, King Owain ordered the beast killed. A bowman took aim and brought the dragon down with an arrow. Curious about the dragon, young Olwen dismounted and ran to where it fell. Unafraid, she approached the small dragon, pulled out the arrow, and wrapped one of her scarves around the wounded leg. On her father’s orders, a guard pulled her away and took aim at the beast. Olwen stood between the bowman and the dragonet. After Olwen pled for the dragon’s life, the King relented and left the beast to recover.

Years later, the young dragon soared down the mountain toward the small kingdom by the sea. He landed on the rocky shore and assumed the shape of a young man clad in peasant garb. He searched the village of Tref Glanmôr for Olwen, often stopping to make an inquiry. “I’m looking for Olwen, daughter of My Liege. Have you seen her? Do you know where I might find her?”

Most of the villagers laughed at him, told him to hobble off somewhere else, or ignored him. An old man sitting outside his house felt sorry for the young man with the limp. “My Liege, you say? That’d likely be King Owain. Olwen would be the Princess.” He pointed his walking stick up the hillside. “They live in the castle up there. It’s a long hike. Let me give you a waterskin and a bit of bread for the journey.” The old man went inside his house and returned with the bread and water. “I’d come with you, but as you can see, I don’t walk as well as I used to.” He leaned in and winked, “Good luck, young man. I hope you find what you are looking for.”

A third of the way up the hillside, a farmer with a wagonful of food for the castle overtook him on the road. “Young man,” the farmer shouted, “I’ll give you a ride to the castle if you’ll agree to help me unload when we arrive.”

“Not only will I agree, kind sir, but I shall actually help you.” Dylan hobbled over to the wagon and climbed aboard. After arriving at the castle, Dylan kept his word and carried the baskets of food into the kitchen pantry. Unbeknownst to the farmer, a snake had crawled into one of the baskets. Dylan grabbed the snake mid-strike at it attacked one of the kitchen maids. He carried the struggling snake outside and hissed at it, “go away or I shall serve you to the kitchen staff.” It slithered away quickly toward the castle gate. Impressed by his quickness, the cook asked Dylan to stay on at the castle. It was an offer he could not refuse if he expected to find Princess Olwen.

Desiring to marry her off, King Owain held a grand reception where the surrounding kingdoms could present their eligible sons for consideration. The King hoped that one of the young royals would attract her attention. Wanting to outshine the other guests and win her favor, Dylan attended the ball wearing a coat of green and gold. He quickly won the King’s favor with his polite affability, but the Princess seemed indifferent to his presence. Nevertheless, he persisted in his attempts to gain her attention. It wasn’t until he refused to accept a challenge from another suitor that she turned her head. “I have nothing to prove to you. Unless the Princess commands such a challenge, I see no need to participate in such childish behavior.”

“Then you admit to being a coward?” Prince Bran taunted.

“Better to be thought a coward than to be proved a fool.”

The rival suitor removed one of his gloves and slapped Dylan in the face. “You shall face me on the morrow with swords. I shall prove myself the better man then.”

The young dragon smiled. “You shall prove yourself the fool, you mean.” He turned to the Princess, “Milady, I have no desire to shed blood to prove my worthiness. If you do not see me tomorrow, then you shall not ever see me.” He bowed to the King, “I take my leave now, my liege.”

The following morning, Bran appeared in the courtyard dressed in heavy armor ready to duel with Dylan. Dylan had gone back to wearing his servant garb and tending to Olwen’s needs while she and her father watched from the courtyard balcony. The day turned brutally hot. Dylan brought cool water to King Owain and Princess Olwen, while Bran began to bake inside the armor. As midday approached, Bran began to wobble until he eventually collapsed. Dylan rushed forward to remove his fallen foe’s helmet and squeeze some water into his parched mouth.

King Owain recognized Dylan as the charming prince from the ball, but said nothing to his daughter. “I have made a decision.” He stood up and faced the attendees. “My daughter shows no interest in any suitor. Thus, I have chosen for her. I shall send her to Cadarnle Mynydd to wed the Dragon Prince. I shall send her maidservant to attend to her needs during the journey. She shall be unguarded save for a trusted man chosen to accompany her.”

Later, as the Princess made preparations for her journey, King Owain called Dylan to the throne room. “I know who you are, young Dragon. Your limp gave you away. I was impressed by your kindness. When you accompany my daughter tomorrow, you shall wear my colors dressed as a guard.”

“My liege, I had planned to leave at nightfall.”

“My child cherishes kindness of spirit above all else. You have garnered her attention as you have gained my trust. She will brood for much of the journey, but she will come to her senses one way or another.”

And so, it was that the band of three left the castle in the morning. The climb up to Cadarnle Mynydd would take several days, becoming more hazardous as they approached the dragon stronghold. They spent their first night at a wayside inn near the edge of the kingdom. Olwen and her maidservant shared a room in the inn, while Dylan spent the night with the horses in the barn keeping a watchful eye on the place where his beloved slept. The night passed without incident. The following day’s journey would take them through a forest. Dylan kept close to Olwen as they made their way through the woods. Emerging into a large clearing, they paused to rest the horses and eat some bread that Dylan had brought with him from the inn. At the edge of the forest, they made camp for the night. While the others slept, Dylan removed the King’s colors, leaving them in a neat pile topped by his helmet and sword at the edge of the camp. He resumed his dragon form and flew on ahead to procure safe passage for the trip through the hazardous mountain passages.

In the early morning hours, a small dragon swooped down the mountainside and landed not far from the encampment. Olwen met him wielding the sword that he had left behind. “I’m not afraid of you,” she shouted at the dragon. “Come no closer.” The dragon lowered its head and shifted its form to that of a young man. “Who are you?” she demanded.

He approached the camp slowly with his hands raised. “I intend you no harm,” he stepped slowly into the light of the campfire.

“It’s you,” she gasped, lowering the tip of the sword. He stepped toward her. She backed away, raising the sword again. “What have you done with my guard?”

“Nothing, my lady. I am he, as commanded by King Owain, who rides by your side.” Pulling her scarf from inside his sleeve, he continued. “I am also he whose life you spared many years ago.”

“Why did you not tell me?”

“I dared not speak of it as a servant in your kingdom. I had hoped to impress you at the Royal Gala.”

Olwen tossed Dylan’s sword onto the pile of his royal garb and rushed toward him, knocking him to the ground and falling on top of him. “Marry me,” she murmured.

“Your father has already given his blessing.”

Upon their return, King Owain announced her betrothal to Prince Dylan and a royal wedding followed. The couple cemented the peace between Cadarnle Mynydd and Tref Glanmôr for generations to come.

THE END

“Such a pity that it’s a bad translation, don’t you think?”

Edgar Carson had entered the closed library through a back door and has crept up behind Sage. He had been careful to make as little noise as possible, but his presence hadn’t escaped her notice. “What is?” he replied.

“The Dragonet’s Tale. From the book you checked out.”

“Oh,” Edgar reached for the book and looked over the illustration. “I’d hadn’t been paying much attention to it.”

Sage retrieved the book. “You already checked out a copy. One per patron.” She walked the book over to the shelf and slid it carefully in place. “Why are you back? Obviously not to return the borrowed book.”

“Your back door was open.”

“Yes, I know. I’m expecting company.”

“Anyone I know?” Edgar started shifting his weight from foot to foot.

Sage smiled. “You’ll have to decide that for yourself.” She shut down the computer and the desk lamp. He followed her into the back room where a tall woman was busy examining a box of newly arrived books. Edgar closed the door behind him and stared at the woman’s long black hair as it swished about her waist. Sage walked over to the desk and embraced her warmly.

The woman whispered into Sage’s ear, “I see that you brought me a snack.”

Sage whispered back, “He’s not on the menu.”

“Pity, he looks delicious,” the Asian female hissed.

“Who’s your friend?” Edgar stepped toward the two women.

The pale Asian approached Edgar, extending her left arm, exposing the back of her hand to him. “Maya Lee,” she said with a wide smile.

“Edgar Carson,” he replied wrapping his fingers around hers and gently shaking her arm.

“You don’t get out much, do you, Edgar?”

“Pardon?”

“Nevermind.” Maya turned back to Sage. “Do you have what I came for?”

“Yes. It wasn’t easy to find. But I was able to convince the possessor of the item to part with it. He and his fellow Goths had no idea what they had in their possession. You really need to guard your memoirs more carefully.”

“Memoirs?” Edgar’s eyes widened.

“The diary was stolen,” Maya replied, “by someone that I made the mistake of trusting. I asked Sage to recover it for me. She’s a whiz at finding lost objects.”

“She’s a wizard?” Edgar’s brow narrowed.

“No, she’s just really good at finding things.” Maya set the book in her hand down on the desk.

“Oh,” he replied sinking into a nearby chair. Edgar tapped his temple a few times. “You wouldn’t happen to be Doctor Maya Lee from the Medical Examiner’s Office, would you?”

“That would be a yes,” Sage answered from behind the desk.

“You’re the private investigator from the Langley kidnapping, aren’t you?” Maya leaned against the desk.

“Yes,” he straightened up, “and your friend is the woman who led police to the kidnap victim.”

“Like I said,” Maya laughed, “Sage has a talent for finding things.”

Sage handed a shipping envelope to Maya. “I hope you don’t mind that I read it. I slept through that particular century.”

Maya laughed. “I’d be worried if you hadn’t.”

“Century?” Edgar rose out of the chair. “Ah, that’s a joke, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Edgar,” Maya winked at Sage. “You don’t mind if I call you Edgar, do you?” Maya walked over to Edgar and extended her hand. When he took it, she pulled him in close and hissed, “Go home Edgar. It’s been a long day and you are tired. Tomorrow, you’ll read the book you borrowed and then return it to the library.”

“Yes, you’re right. It has been a long day. I should go home. I’ll see you tomorrow, Ms. Marlowe.” He hurried out the back door.

“You should have asked him to leave sooner. He’ll be full of questions tomorrow,” Sage sighed.

Maya smiled. “Yes, but you won’t be here.”