Demons Ascension - Where The Magic Happens

[Posted by Ted H]

Whoops, did I miss a week? My bad. I'll make it up with something a little different next meek(maybe)

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[Demons Ascension - Where The Magic Happens]

            "How come I'm the only one in cuffs?" James asked yet again. He had lost count, but he still wanted to know why John was allowed to sit with his hands free while his hands remained bonded behind his back. "Could you just stop, please?" John asked as he leaned back in his chair and looked to the ceiling. James shifted uncomfortably in his chair, it wasn't able to lean back like John's was.
            "So this is where the magic happens, eh?" James asked after a moment "Your desk?"
            John shrugged without looking away from the ceiling. "It's where the paperwork happens," he said.
            "So how much trouble are we in?"
            "Judging by how he was yelling? Not as much as you think?"
            "Really? I thought he was fuming?"
            "I've seen Bradford pissed. He tends to wave his gun around and scream gibberish."
            "So you're saying he was in a good mood?"
            "Well, the fact that he was able to get onto the crime scene before the body cooled off was a plus, despite how it was tapered by the fact that you had practically been dancing around the entire scene."
            "I didn't step in anything."
            "Stephanie's room and the Williams alley were both already gone over with a fine tooth comb by the time I brought you in. No one minded you meddling through then, but the church was going over the line."
            "You brought me in here to help, not sit on the sidelines and backseat drive."
            "How did you know about the church?" John said as he sat up and looked right at James. There was nowhere for James to go. John had all the time in the world and James was handcuffed in the middle of a police station. "I'm just gonna say it straight up," he said "Don't think I'm crazy or anything."
            James checked around himself to make sure no one else would be able to listen in. The station was mostly empty. It was only around 5am but there were a few officers milling about. "I woke up and there was someone in the living room with me," James said.
            "Lyle?" John asked.
            "No not Lyle," James snapped "Someone else. Someone I've never seen before. I don't know how they got in and I don't know how they got out, but we had a conversation going until he abruptly stopped it and told me to head for the church."
            "Can you describe this guy? Maybe he's involved."
            "He's not involved. Not directly. He had particular interest in me stopping whoever is behind the murders."
            "What he look like?"
            "Glowing red eyes, smokers voice, older type."
            "No one I've seen in this investigation. Not that I'll be seeing much more of it anyway."
            "You didn't do anything wrong. Hell, you were trying to chase down the guy responsible while I was off doing what I did."
            "I brought you in here. Bradford made it clear you were my responsibility. So you going through the crime scene before the proper authorities is being placed squarely on my shoulders."
            "Be square with me, what are we looking at when Bradford gets here?"
            "Odds are he'll find any reason he can to get you out of town, and if he doesn't, Chief Monroe will once he gets word about this. I'm probably looking at some sort of discipline too."
            "Is that so?" James asked as he looked around the area "Then we have little time left to figure something new out." John threw his hands onto his desk "What can we possibly do at this point?" he asked.
            "Where's Bradford's area?" James asked as John pointed to a desk across the room. Near the desk was a white board with various things written and pictures taped on. James stood up and walked over to the board. "What do you think you're doing?" John asked as he followed. "This is everything Bradford knows about the murders, huh?" James asked as he looked over the board.
            There was nothing new for James to see from any of the information posted. No motive for the murders and no connection to the two victims. James had been hoping that seeing all the information laid out before him would help him piece together something he wasn't already seeing, but there was nothing to gain.
            On the far right of the board was a map of the area; two places marked as the crime scenes in marker. "Where is the church on this map?" James asked as John asked "Why?"
            "Just please humor me?" James said as he tried to readjust his hands behind his back. The handcuffs were really beginning to hurt his wrists. He tried to ignore the pain as John checked the map for where the church was. James remember Stan pretty much sent them in a straight line from Brittany and Stephanie's house. That couldn't have been by chance.
            "Here," John said as he pointed to where the church was on the map. "Could you get me out of these cuffs?" James asked "It's not like I'd get far if I ran in a building full of cops." A few moments late, James was free and after stretching his arms for a moment, he went up to the map.
            "This is your sister's house," he said pointing to the map, then trailed his finger in a straight line east until he stopped "And this is the church. He then backtracked west on the map halfway, then dropped south until his finger rested on another marked point. "And this is the Williams alley. All three points are perfectly measured. The same distance."
            James then grabbed a pencil and drew three more marks on the map. One directly between the church and the sisters house, and two more, one directly south of the house and church that lined up with the alley. "These could be potential targets," James said as John stared at the map a moment "There might be a pattern. If there is, we can head off the next murder before it happens."
            "Bradford won't buy this," John said "If we're going to bring something to his attention, we need something concrete." James made a face and stared at the map again. "These three points are worth checking out at least," he said but even he knew it was a stretch. The first three were what he needed to be looking at. Their positions made a perfect triangle and that was no accident.
            "The locations are intentional," he said to himself as he traced the triangle on the map with his finger. "The center," he said as he placed his finger there "What is this?" John looked and shrugged. "What would it matter?" he asked. John took a breath. "The one thing that's been bugging Bradford has been the randomness of each location while everything else about the murders have been the same. A home, an alley and now a church? What's the point in these locations except the fact that it's the physical distance they make that's important, not the locations themselves. Those symbols, what direction do you remember them facing?"
            John shrugged. James thought a moment before continuing. "The one in the alley faced directly north. The side of your sister's house that had the symbol? Wasn't it facing southeast? I bet you my life that somewhere on the church facing southwest is another symbol. That means they're all facing towards a central point," he threw his finger to the center point on the map. "It's all part of these rituals. The MO, the symbols, the locations, they're all part of something and whatever this building is, that is the key."
            "Bradford doesn't think they're ritual slayings," John said "He thinks the ritual elements you bring up were staged so they throw the investigation off."
            "So, even if I point everything out to him again," James said "He won't even check out this middle building?" John shook his head.
            "Well then," James said with a smile "I guess it's up to us."
            "No..." John started.
            "Look," James broke in "What do you think Bradford will do with us once he gets here? He's gonna threaten us, and tell us to stay the hell away from the investigation. So unless we bring his something good now..."
            John shook his head as he lowered it "I...I don't know, man. Haven't we done enough?"
            "John," James said as he placed a hand on John's shoulder "You brought me in to this to help solve it. There's only so much I can do by following what the police are doing. Help me run this lead down, otherwise why bother bringing me in?" John bit his lip as he looked up at James.
            "It'll be like the old days," James continued "The police can run their own investigation, while we do our own thing and catch the bad guy." John sighed as he stood up. "You won't take no for an answer, will you?" he said. "We try this one lead," James said "And if it doesn't work out, I promise I'll stay on the sidelines and be good and useless like everyone else wants me to be."
            "I know you're lying about that last part," John said "But fuck it, let's go for it." James smiled as he slapped John on the back. "Sweet! Now let's go before Bradford shows up."