61- Evidence Detail

"Snide little bitch," Harlowe grumbled as he tossed the envelope containing the signed contract onto his desk.

"Are you really that surprised by her attitude?" Folsten asked as she sat on the edge of his desk. "She doesn't trust you, and for good reason. Which is why I think it's best if you left her to me."

"I couldn't agree more; but therein lies the challenge," he motioned out the office door and across the room of desks to where Mazurka stood speaking to Kavak and several others. "He's the one with access, and as his partner and lead in this case, I can't ignore her entirely."

"No, but you can keep your distance. I can handle Ms. Vershinin. She won't be an issue. I'll get her into the MET and make sure she fulfills her end of the agreement."

"And if you catch a hint that something is off?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Sir," Folsten replied with a hint of a smirk. "She will do what's been contracted for, and so will the members of the MET. At least, that's how I'll see it."

"Good. I'm glad we understand each other, Folsten."

"Of course, we do. She's a practitioner; whether she wants to admit to it or not, isn't our problem. She belongs in the care of the MET before she ends up doing damage. Your partner's compromised when it comes to her by his feelings. I suggest you give him something else to focus on."

"I'm certain I have just the thing for that right here," Harlowe remarked as he picked up a file and handed it to her. "I think this could occupy both him and his new friend for a next while."

"What is this?" she asked as she opened the cover.

"Paperwork on today's search and seizures. I'm putting them on Kenneth Ogilvy's case. It will take them days to go over everything we found, and with his fascinations as they are, he will be more focused on this than anything else. It should keep him out of your hair until after she finishes her job. Then, whatever happens, that's her problem. Our job is to stop whatever the hell that thing is. Kara-something, I think they took to calling it. Like babysitting a bunch of damn children. If we happen to find out how that thing got here while we are trying to put an end to it, I'll consider it a bonus."

Folsten nodded as she returned the file to his desk. "I'll see what I can come up with, as far as theories go, once I have the girl in the MET and start learning what I can from Phaedra."

"I'd appreciate it. Would hate my token to go to waste for a girl that isn't worth the expense," Harlowe remarked as he stood form his desk.

"Don't worry Renford, I'm sure I will make all this effort worth something."

Harlowe locked eyes to Folsten for a moment wanting to gage her, but those fawn orbs were just as mysterious to him as they day they had met. Normally, he didn't like being manipulated so blatantly, and if they weren't on the same page, he may have even been offended, but she was sending him all sorts of signals, and more than a few that he hadn't received in a long time.

Clearing his throat, he moved to the door and waved his hand in the air. "Mazurka, Kavak. Office, now."

The men quickly made their way into the office as he sat back at his desk.

"Folsten, Harlowe, what's up?" Mazurka asked moving to his desk and taking a seat, as Harlowe tossed the file onto the top of it.

"Your new assignment. You and Kavak need to go over every last shred of evidence obtained from the SS warrant this morning at Ogilvy's residence. I want to know how far he went with his, extracurricular activities. This is about protecting Quayleigh, so I expect the two of you to treat this as an immediate threat. I want to know everything that bastard knew about her, and I want to make sure that none of it will ever find its way to the Magistrate."

"You got it," Mazurka replied as he picked up the file.

"Good, Ogilvy's is in evidence two. I'll check in with you in a couple of hours," Harlowe replied.

"What are you hoping we find, Harlowe?" Kavak questioned as he narrowed his eyes and rubbed at his chin.

"If Quayleigh was the intended target that night, I want to know if this idiot knew. I want a reason he and his four morons were in that alleyway that late at night, and I want to know if he's connected to any of the stalker rings we've busted in the past, a new one, or if he was a loner. I also want to know if she was lying about knowing who he was and what he was doing. And anything else you can tell me that's relevant to this case! Any other questions?" Harlowe fumed as he stared up at Kavak.

"No, we're all good. Thank you for clarifying," Kavak replied as he lifted his hands in surrender.

"Alright, we'll be in the evidence room," Mazurka said as he left the room with Kavak in tow.

"Be more careful around Kavak," Folsten warned Harlowe quietly. "He pays more attention that you think."

"I noticed, but I think leaving Yechiel on his own is an even larger mistake. The kids young, but he's driven. Left on his own, he could get reckless. Start pushing in directions he shouldn't go, for answers that aren't his to know. I have no doubt Kavak will keep him from doing anything too stupid."

"I hope you're right about that."

Mazurka opened the cover of the file as he walked down the hallway to retrieve the code for the door. Punching in the number, the door released, and he turned on the light as he entered into the evidence room with Kavak directly behind him. Closing the door, he tossed the file onto the empty table.

"What the hell do you think this is about?" Mazurka asked as he looked around the room.

"If I had to guess, it is because he wants us both to keep out of his way," Kavak replied as he picked up the file. "When was the last time you were on evidence detail?"

"Last year," Mazurka replied as he made his way over to the stack of boxes. "As much as I don't believe Harlowe's reasoning behind this, I can't argue with the possibilities that we may find out something. I just don't believe for a moment that it is going to have anything to do with our case. It was only ever speculation that Quayleigh was a target, since we thought the killer was a practitioner, but seeing that Karakaram, there is no way that thing was ever human, and he knows it. It also drives home the point that however it is choosing its victims, to us, I don't think it will ever be more than random. You heard what it said, it talks like we're food."

"I agree. But has it actually consumed a human?" Kavak's eyes wondered as he stroked his goatee. "We know it kills, but not how it does it. It looked as if it bit into her, but the body showed no visible wounds, just that look of terror. So, what did it eat?"

"Their souls," Mazurka stated as he looked at him.

This conversation was venturing into territory he didn't want to visit. He trusted Kavak to a point, but this was getting close to the line of what he felt he could share without telling him about Quayleigh and her eye.

"That sounded more like a fact, then a guess."

"Yeah, well, that's how I meant it," Mazurka said as he rested his palm against his face and slowly shook his head. "That thing, it's eating the very life out of people. Their souls, their energy, what makes them, them. Whatever you want to call it, it took something from Schneider and commented on it's flavor."

"But it didn't eat the physical body."

"Not this one, but who's to say it hasn't eaten others and that's why the bodies haven't been found?"

"A valid possibility, but why eat some and not others? Either way we look at it, humans can't live like that. Nothing about its behavior is human like. Its speech patterns, eating habits, they are all entirely alien to what one would expect from a transfigured human. Even if the ritual had gone wrong, from my understanding, it wouldn't have changed the basic makeup of human requirements, like eating. And to stay hidden as it does with no use of any magic? That is impossible for anything of this world to do. But that also makes me wonder what its purpose truly is. As hostile as it seems, there may be more to it."

"Hostile as it seems? I don't know, randomly hunting and killing people seems pretty damn hostile to me," Mazurka remarked as he threw his hands up, before rubbing down the length of his face, and pressing in against the bridge of his nose.

"True, but do our actions towards ants not seem hostile to the ants? My point is that we don't know what its intentions are, and until we do, it seems almost tragic to insist that this potentially unknown lifeform be killed off, when perhaps we could find a peaceful way for it to live. It's clearly intelligent, perhaps it can be reasoned with."

"Are you suggesting we try to make friends with it?" he asked as he lowered his hands and rested back against the table.

"Perhaps I am," Kavak replied with a bright grin. "Who knows, it may end up being more trustworthy than you expect."

"Right. Well, when you find it, let me know how that goes," Mazurka replied chuckling.

"I am glad you can see the humor in this my friend, but to a certain extent, I am being serious. We know nothing and to make assumptions could be dangerous. I don't trust the position we are in, and I think it would be wise for us to pay closer attention."

"You got that feeling to, then?"

"Yes, I did."

"Good. I was worried I was going to have to go this alone in the end," Mazurka said as he took a deep breath.

"You truly believe he's going to betray Quayleigh?"

"In a heartbeat. Folsten too. The entire thing at the restaurant felt as off as this. I didn't buy the entire show he put on, telling everyone to go back to work the way he did. There were at least six officers there that I didn't recognize before the SS and I never saw them after the second operation either. They never would have been at Dixie's unless he had called them in. I think he had the entire thing planned from the start, and only called it off because she called him out on his shit."

"Even so, we have no proof of misdeeds. For now, I think we shouldn't poke that particular bear. Let's focus on the task at hand, and see what we can come up with," Kavak remarked as he opened the folder and began to look down the long list of numbers and corresponding descriptions.

"Agreed, and there is a lot of stuff to go through. I think we should start with the laptop and computer."

"According to this, the laptop is in box six, and the computer is already in Syke's lab."

Mazurka looked down the face of the stacked boxes, easily identifying box six. Pulling it out from the bottom of the pile, he brought it over to the evidence table and removed the lid. Putting on clean gloves, Mazurka and Kavak began to empty the box, piece by piece, matching the numbers on the evidence bags to the list in the folder, ensuring that nothing was missing, misplaced, or uncatalogued.

"That's everything," Kavak remarked as he looked into the empty box. "Properly accounted for."

"Good. Why don't you take the laptop to Skye while I start laying out whatever is in these files," Mazurka suggested as he handed the laptop to him.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," he replied as he took the computer from Mazurka and left the room.

With Kavak now gone, he piled the evidence bags back into the box, except for the ones that each contained an individual file folder. Opening up the first bag, he pulled the file out and set it onto the table, the label reading, 'QVH'.

"Please don't be what I think this is," he said as he opened the file and immediately looked away in disgust. "Dammit! Dammit. Why her? What did she ever do to deserve this?" He sighed and shook his head as he began to lay out the pictures, and the handwritten explanations of when and where they had been taken, along with his personal thoughts about each one, on lined notebook paper. All were of Quayleigh, and it was more than obvious that not one, had been taken with her permission.