SAGN Chapter Fifteen The Lambs
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SAGN: Chapter Two-Pantra free porn video
Chapter Two: Pantra
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Lieutenant Clayton intercepted them both on the way to their desks the
next morning. He could see her zeroing in on the two of them like a
falcon stooping on a pair of rabbits. Her being here like this
immediately told him that something had dropped into his investigation
that was important enough that it made the lieutenant have someone call
her the moment that his foot crossed the precinct threshold. Jim had
intended to be here early so he could sneak in a quick briefing with the
detectives taking over their outstanding cases. He figured that they
would have no problem getting up to speed with just his case file notes,
but he still wanted to have a face to face with them before they had to
pick up the slack this assignment made necessary. It was just the
respectful thing to do he reckoned. This time it was him handing it off,
next time it would be someone else and he liked to keep his colleagues
in the loop.
He wasn't going to take too long with that though. There were a couple
of angles he had thought of with the Barnes case on the way in that he
wanted to bounce off of Mitch when he saw him. Jim normally came in a
bit early anyway, especially with the way that missing person's cases
had multiplied over the last few weeks. He was supposed to be in by
eight for his shift to start. Yesterday had actually been a fluke with
him not coming in as early and even with that habit he found Mitch was
usually meeting him on the way into the precinct.
"That can't be good," Mitch stage whispered to Jim as they walked up to
their boss.
"Not necessarily," Jim whispered back. "Something might have shaken
loose and she's here to give us the heads up."
"I really don't think so, Jim and you don't either," He said. "She's got
her worried face on and that's never a good sign."
"I hear you two were here kind of late last night," she said
conversationally as the two men walked up to her and came to a stop in
front of her. "So do you have anything good to tell me?" she asked.
"Not yet, Lieutenant," Jim answered, "but we should be getting the
preliminary lab work back shortly and then we might have something a
little more positive for you this afternoon. There are a couple of
things I think that Mitch and I should check out right away this
morning."
"I didn't expect you to have much this soon. That would be too easy and
that just doesn't happen," she said looking over the two men
"No it doesn't ma'am," Jim agreed.
Lt. Clayton handed him the file she was holding. "Bad news Jim," she
said. "Another missing person's case. There's a strong possibility that
it could be connected to this one. Same area. Almost the same street in
fact. And based on the preliminary they're telling me I really think you
should bring Singh into this investigation right now."
Jim inhaled slowly and then exhaled. "Is that an order ma'am?"
"No, just a very strongly worded suggestion. From what I have for you
about this new case I'm pretty sure you'll agree with me it would
probably end up involving him soon enough and he might as well be in on
it from the start. The connection on this case dropping in our laps like
this is no accident and my gut tells me he should be with you on this."
"Is he expecting us then?" Mitch asked her.
"Probably, but I'll let him know anyway that you'll be on your way to
brief him and to bring him up to speed."
"Yes, ma'am," Jim said managing to keep the minor irritation he felt
about having Singh foisted on them out of his voice.
"Keep me posted Jim. This one already looks like a stinking gutter
ball," she said and started to walk away.
A stinking gutter ball was the last thing that Jim wanted on his hands.
That was precinct slang for an absolute loser of a case that would go
nowhere and before it ended up against the rail it was guaranteed to
splash crap all over everyone involved no matter what it was that they
did to prevent it.
Jim walked through the desks to his and Mitch's in the corner of the
room sat down at his desk and opened up the new case file. Mitch had
gone off to get some coffee for them both as soon as the lieutenant
finished with them. By the time he had returned Jim was already getting
up. Mitch handed him a cup and surprisingly to Jim they actually had
drawn a fresh batch this time.
"Let's go get Singh and bring him up to speed," he said taking a
grateful sip.
"That's a first; usually you don't care that much for him," Mitch said.
"Still don't, but take a look at the address of the latest missing
person," Jim replied.
Mitch flipped through to the report itself."
"212 Magnolia Street. That's practically around the corner Jim," he
remarked.
"It is literally around the corner, Mitch. It's almost directly behind
Barnes's house, barely a street over. And more important we may have a
lead; there was a witness nearby when it happened."
"Let's go see Singh then," Mitch said following Jim out of the office.
As they walked down the hallway from the detective's communal office Jim
mentally girded himself for what would be coming when they brought Singh
into the loop. As they made their way to the end of the hall he told
Mitch that they would have to beg off of briefing the other detectives
on the handoff cases. This new development took priority and with Singh
in play there wouldn't be all that much time for them now.
Armin Singh was an oddity in the department. His office was on the same
floor as Jim and Mitch, but it was off to one side on the far end of the
hallway. It wasn't that he was an odd person in and of himself. It was
that what he did was odd. Jim had worked with him before and he had a
reputation in the department as a competent investigator and good cop as
well. Personally Jim could see himself liking the guy. He was a friendly
sort. What made him uncomfortable to Jim was right up on the small brass
plate under his name on the door.
Jim wasn't sure he really wanted to believe that Detective Singh was
really a shaman like the plate on the door said. Truth be told, he
didn't put that much stock in the kind of things that Singh investigated
for the department, but he didn't automatically dismiss him as a crank
the way some of the others who hadn't worked with him did. He knew
better to do that even if he didn't care for what he knew. Facts were
what broke open a case and facts had an unpleasant habit of existing
even if you didn't care from where they stemmed from.
Jim had first encountered Singh just after he had gotten his shield.
Another missing person's case that had started out nine kinds of weird
and had rapidly spiraled downward into stinking gutter ball status
quickly after that. Before he handed it over to Singh at the captain's
insistence he had encountered enough oddities that it had forced him
reevaluate some of what he believed regarding what Singh and others said
about the world. Despite what he knew, he was still finding it
uncomfortable to be around Singh after that and he, in his own way,
didn't want to completely quite accept much of what it was that Singh
did.
Mitch on the other hand had never worked with Singh before and Jim
wondered how his partner was going to handle the next few minutes and if
it was going to leave him on his lonesome for the day while Mitch sorted
it out or not. He reached for the door and slowly opened it. Mitch
followed him in and Jim didn't know whether to pity him or to be
thankful that Mitch clearly not really knowing what to expect behind
this door.
Armin Singh rose up from the chair behind his desk and came around to
meet them. His office was a small shoebox and the man seemed to take up
a lot of what there was with his presence. He was a short, stocky man
with the olive hue of his Mediterranean descent. Unlike Jim and Mitch
who both retained close cropped hair from their days in black and whites
Armin wore his hair in a short graying ponytail and harbored a thick
salt and pepper mustache that bristled under his broad nose.
"Detective Brighton," he said in his deep resonant voice, "I just heard
that you and your partner would be coming to see me. I understand that
the case you are on is veering into my neck of the woods."
"Yeah Singh, it's starting to look like that." He gestured at Mitch with
a head nod. "That's Mitch Travers, my partner."
Mitch leaned in and shook the hand that Mitch offered him.
"Well then, have a seat gentlemen, I suppose that we should get on with
it and get this part out of the way before we get down to the case
details that bring you to me."
The two men took the seats that Singh offered them and he went back to
sit behind his desk. The seats were old scuffed and comfortably cracked
leather. How he was able to shoehorn them into the tiny room was a feat
of absolute creative arrangement in Jim's opinion. He figured that Singh
was probably a wickedly skilled Tetris player if he leaned that way.
"What is it we need to talk about?" Mitch asked.
"Why me of course," Singh said. "I have to get some things straight with
you before we can work together effectively."
"And what might that be?" Mitch asked puzzled about what was that Singh
could mean by that while also not wanting to come out and say it
outright.
"The fact that I am a shaman, that I am a level three Esper and that
yes, the existence of magic and magical beings is real."
Jim sat quietly; he knew right now Mitch was trying to come up with a
way to diplomatically say that he didn't believe Singh and that he
didn't really want to accept that the things he may have heard about
Armin Singh already were true.
"Look," he said finally, "I know a lot of people believe that, but no
disrespect to you. I'm really not one of them," Mitch maintained an even
respectful tone of voice while he tried to answer Singh's statement the
right way and Jim really wished that he could have warned Mitch about
what was coming next. But he couldn't; it was department policy and this
particular policy wasn't chickenshit he thought regretfully.
"Pantra," Singh said quietly. "Would you bring me a cigarette please?"
"Sure thing boss," a diminutive voice chirped from a table against the
wall.
Mitch turned his head at the words and watched as a small winged woman
uncoiled herself from the small cushion she had been lounging on,
unnoticed, over there. She was a little over a foot tall with her hair
hanging in a thick braid down her back. The tip of her braid ended just
between the set of dragonfly wings that extended out horizontally from
her body. She manhandled a cigarette out of the pack lying on the table
and with a high pitched buzzing from the translucent wings flew it over
to Singh.
Singh took the cigarette and thanked her and asked her for a light. The
tiny woman quickly rubbed her palms together producing a faint flash of
light that quickly faded leaving behind a lit cigarette.
"That's some trick," Mitch said dumbstruck. "But she's not real, she
can't be."
"That's five more bucks you owe me Armin," the little woman said.
"And I told you I don't take sucker bets Pantra," he said back to her.
"At least let me prove I'm real to him my way this time, you did promise
I could do it last time," she said.
"No, you know the rules, no holding either one of us to promises made
while drunk. Just do the regular thing and leave it at that."
Pantra made a diminutive pout and swiftly rose into the air. She flew in
front of Mitch's face and hovered there so he could feel the breeze
generated by her wings flowing in a steady stream onto his face.
"Hold out your hand," she said to him.
Mitch, at a loss to do otherwise, silently extended his palm. After he
had done so Pantra flew upright in a slow circle around his head.
Mitch's gaze tried followed her as she did her slow flyby. He flinched
slightly when she zipped out of view to tap his ear in passing and
flicked at his hair as she sped up. She circled him gaining speed and
once she had gone through her routine she spiraled around his forearm
and landed in the palm of his hand. She allowed her wings to fold along
her spine. His hand dropped downward as he felt her weight settle into
his palm.
"Still doubt I'm real Detective Travers?" she asked, her face still
holding a trace of her earlier pout.
"No ma'am," Mitch said hastily.
"Good," she answered. "Cause I was going to do things my way if you did,
even it did tick Armin off."
Pantra unfurled her wings again and quickly buzzed away to land in front
of the miniature chair positioned on the corner of Armin Singh's desk.
She positioned herself in it. Her wings folding around her body like a
thin film and looked over at the two men.
"What was she going to do?" Jim asked Singh. She hadn't said anything
like that when he had met her and Jim was wondering what she had planned
that would work if this demonstration had failed.
"Armin said I could punch the next guy that called me fake in their
balls," Pantra chirped, piping in before Singh could say anything.
Mitch had remained quiet since Pantra had flown over to her chair on the
desk. Jim looked over at his partner and tried to gauge how he was
taking it so far.
"Are you going to be okay with this Detective Travers?" Armin asked him.
"It's...It's a lot to take in is all," Mitch replied in a subdued tone
of voice.
"I expect it is," Singh said. "Someone like me who has had a lifetime of
familiarity with instances like this can sometimes still underestimate
the impact it has on someone who seeing it for the first time."
"How old were you when you found this out," Jim asked. His contact with
Singh had been very brief at the time and he was going to take this
opportunity while Mitch was recovering to get to know the man a little
better since they would be working a little closer together this time
around.
"I was very young. My Esper ability manifested itself before I began
kindergarten and I soon had no problem sensing both human and Fae
thoughts when they were near long before I knew why I could."
"That can't have been easy," Jim said. "But level three is mid range
isn't it? It's not like you hear every single thought all the time."
"No, not quite like that," Singh said. "I, like most Espers block the
majority of others thoughts, but I still have weaknesses that higher
levels are not susceptible to as well."
"It still can't have been easy on you growing up," Jim said.
"On the contrary, it was probably harder on my parents at first. It
drove them crazy how I could always find where they hid gifts. Christmas
and birthdays were never a surprise for me as you may imagine. I grew up
thinking it was normal to hear others thoughts; especially when there
was strong emotion behind them. But when those thoughts came from a Fae,
well that was something extraordinary when that happened."
"How about Pantra?" Mitch said breaking into the conversation. "How long
have you been working with a fai..."
"If you finish that word I will punch you in the nuts," Pantra
interrupted, glaring at Mitch from her chair.
"You'll have to forgive Pantra, Detective Travers," Armin said
soothingly. "She is a Pixie, not a fairy. They are similar in appearance
to those not familiar to them and as you can see Pantra doesn't take too
kindly at being confused with them."
"No shit," Pantra swore. "See how you like being called Tinkerbelle by
clueless people for a few decades."
"Pantra is an officer in this department just as I am," Armin said,
ignoring Pantra's comment. "She has a considerable amount of seniority
over everyone in this room and quite a bit of leeway. Right now she is
assisting me in her official capacity, as she did my predecessor."
"How old is she?" Mitch asked. Jim let him take over the conversation.
Mitch had slipped into his role as an investigator and if it helped
bring him along mentally with this new aspect of how things were, then
Jim was all for that; he didn't need his partner sidelined for the rest
of the day over this.
"She's actually quite young. Only a couple hundred years old I think.
She's never actually told me," Singh answered.
"And I fail to see how it's any of your business either way," Pantra
said. But her voice had grown more playful now and no longer held that
mild irritated tone it had before.
"Is she immortal then?" Mitch asked.
"No, I'm not," Pantra said in response. "All Fae just have long lives
now. We used to be nearly immortal centuries ago, but not anymore. We're
born, we age and we die same as you. We just take longer to do it is
all. Anything else you want to ask me that I've already answered a few
hundred times?" Mitch said no and looked slightly uncomfortable.
"Now Pantra you know this is part of the job, even if it is irritating
to you. So be nice," Armin chided her. Pantra rolled her eyes a bit and
apologized to Mitch.
"I will say that she is quite effective in demonstrating that what you
say is true," Mitch commented. He was leaning back in the chair now.
From what Jim could tell he was rolling with the surprise of meeting
Pantra better than Jim had.
"The truth is Detective Travers is that what myself, Pantra and others
like us do in the department has been going on under the nose of the
general population for centuries. And we tend to keep it that way if we
can."
"Can I tell this next part boss?" Pantra chirped from her chair.
"Be our guest," Armin said slyly.
Pantra glared at him. "I told you no damned Disney quotes. This is a
mouse free zone. You're breaking the rules Armin."
"And you're being hyper-sensitive Pantra. Just continue if you would."
Jim heard the pixie murmur something unintelligible under her breath
that he was fairly certain was not at all charitable toward all things
Disney.
"Most people think that we are made up like you did a few moments ago,"
she began after she had composed herself for a moment. "But the truth is
this wasn't always the case. Except for some misconceptions everything
that references us that you might have heard is real for the most part."
"With the exceptions of what certain filmmakers have to say that is,"
Pantra let a little bit of anger into her high voice with that last part
and then continued. "Now almost from the beginning we Fae were part and
parcel of your people's lives, for good and bad. But it didn't stay that
way. Not after we lost access most of the magic in the world."
"What happened to it?" Mitch asked.
"It just started to drain away. Slowly at first, then faster. More and
more of it just started draining away until those who were aware of it
finally noticed it happening," she answered.
"Some think its ebbing was part of the natural cycle and maybe that is
true, but we don't really know for sure. Regardless how it started,
centuries ago magic began to rapidly recede in strength until it
gradually faded away almost altogether. You have no idea how devastating
that was, you don't want to know. The Fae records of that time are
horrific. Real blood curdling stuff to read. Every living thing had some
level of access to magic then, even humans. Now your people didn't
depend on it the same way we Fae do. But your kind did use it mostly as
a tool and without it being available your race still dwindled down to
only about ten thousand people."
"Your people nearly went extinct but they came through the change better
than others though. Most of the creatures that truly depended on it like
Pixies and other smaller breeds nearly died out and saw their
populations dwindle in relation to that fading. Some larger Fae died out
completely. Eventually we became what we are now. Remnants of a past
that most of your people think of as nothing more than their ancestor's
mythology," she said.
"For the most part the ones that survived into the modern world are
bound by the Concord," Armin added gravely. "The Concord is an agreement
with those Fae that remain and those of our race. Its sole purpose is to
preserve those few remaining Fae, like Pantra, intact and to keep us
safe from them as well. Most of the Fae races now avoid human contact
and have grown to prefer being considered mythology; but they also have
those among them that require...intervention... for their actions."
"And that's where I come in," Pantra said.
"Yes you do," Armin said. "Law enforcement across the globe has been
integrating Fae into their ranks for over a hundred years now. Not many
at first, but their numbers are growing. Pantra is an invaluable member
of our department when her...special skills...are needed. Don't let her
size fool you she is far more capable than most people think."
Pantra had settled back into her chair now that she was finished
speaking for the moment. She had reached into a shot glass next to her
and fished out a sunflower seed that she was busy snacking on at the
moment.
"So why bring us into this?" Mitch asked. "Why would the lieutenant
think that either of us would need to know something like this?"
"I would say, in all likelihood, Detective Travers, that the lieutenant
suspects that the wave of missing persons that your department has been
plagued with recently is possibly related to something that falls into
my bailiwick and that your current case is likely to provide the link
that connects them," Armin said.
Mitch looked over at Jim. Of all of the possible reasons that could have
been considered by them for any of their cases and especially their
latest one, anything relating to what Armin Singh was introduced him to
was not even on the far edge of their radar.
"Now that we have this out of the way, why don't you bring me up to
speed on what you have so far?" Singh asked. Mitch nodded and handed
over the files.
As Singh perused them, Jim started filling him in. He went over the
details of yesterday's investigation of Cecil Barnes's home and
considering that this was Singh; Jim had no trepidation about telling
the shaman about the strange footprints Mitch had found and where they
went to. Singh cocked his head toward Pantra when Mitch took over that
part of the conversation and remained quiet while he described picking
up the trail and how abruptly it ended.
"You said you felt you were being watched, Detective Travers. Are you
certain of that?" Singh asked.
"As certain as I am that your friend is sitting in that chair on your
desk," Mitch replied. "Why? Do you have any thoughts about that?"
"Not at the moment," said Singh, "but I would like to see this area
sooner rather than later. And what else has your investigation
uncovered?"
While Jim was going over the final details of their interviews after the
search of the house, Mitch got a text from forensics and excused himself
to go downstairs and see what they had for them. While he did that, Jim
finished bringing Singh and Pantra current with the Barnes case and
started moving into the details of what they had for the second
disappearance that Lieutenant Clayton had hit them with this morning.
He was just finishing up when Mitch came back. So far, there wasn't much
to show for the effort forensics had put into it. The only fingerprints
that they could find on the pages of the journal were those of a single
person. And given that they matched the majority of prints taken in the
house they felt fairly confident that they all belonged to Cecil Barnes.
Mitch mentioned that he had put in a request with Maxintell for any
copies of his prints that they would have on file. Jim just shrugged at
that part. That was mostly all they could do. Barnes had no record of
his prints in the system and if there were none in the company database
then there was nothing else they could do to establish a definitive
match short of Barnes himself turning up.
Jim asked if they had made much progress with the transcription of the
notebooks contents and was disappointed to hear that it wasn't ready
yet. With so little evidence available thus far he was looking at that
as a means of shedding some much needed light on what was going on in
Barnes's house and where they might direct their inquiries now that the
physical evidence was becoming a little thin on the ground.
Mitch did mention one thing that sounded a little off; though it may not
be much. As he went over the update the lab had for him when he went
down there to speak to them, he mentioned that they had pointed out that
the prints on the most recent pages of the notebook were slightly
different from those on the earlier pages.
At first Jim thought that might indicate a second person they could
place at the scene. Perhaps the same one who had left the footprints in
the damp earth behind the house, but Mitch told him that, even with the
discrepancy, the lab was certain they were all from Cecil's fingertips.
When he asked why the lab rats said they were different, Mitch told him
it was just a minor thing. The sizes of some of the prints were smaller
on the last few pages they told him. Probably the result of him only
lightly touching the pages and not leaving a full sized print. When Jim
asked Singh and Pantra for their thoughts on the matter they didn't have
anything and Singh suggested that they table this tidbit of information
for now.
Jim agreed and suggested that they should go to see the witness of this
new disappearance first and afterward they would take them to examine
the area around Barnes's house.
As Singh rose and reached for his coat and umbrella, Pantra finished up
her seed and flew over to perch on his shoulder.
"So how would you like to dress for today Pantra?" Singh asked her.
"I think I'll go for a shimmer for now," she said as she faded from
sight. "I want to conserve what energy I have in case we need it later,"
the disembodied voice said as they walked from the room.
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Lizbeth
- 31.03.2021
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