Raven's Abyss

Chapter One - Well this is a fine mess...

The night air was cool, not cold, but it was a perfect night for wearing a light sweater. The building I walked into was named The Sapphire Tiger. It was a club that entertained the whole town with it's music, comedy acts, dining experience, and it's famous drinks. I loved their root beer floats and their chicken wing meal deals. The place was always coated in a dim sapphire lighting, except for the lights for the stage in the back, and the furniture was decked out in black leather. All the booths, chairs, and bar stools were dressed to impress. The floor was made out of marble with the colors of blue, swirled with black, and speckled in silver sparkles. The main floor was huge for a club and you could fit two high school gymnasiums in it. Over to the right was the bar which was also large and you could fit about thirty people. The bar top was black granite with the same silver sparkles. This place was always packed on the weekend, but after the scene I walked into made the Sapphire Tiger's future look grim.

              There were bodies strewn all over the club floor. Look, nobody panic, no one is dead, they are just knocked out by gas. Someone decided to put a contaminant through the air ducts. I move over to the first body, I leaned down, and check for a pulse. That is standard procedure, just like this gas mask I am wearing, other federals like me start pouring onto the scene. They are wearing the same gear as I and also surveying the scene before them.

             Okay, so that guy is alive and now I check another body for a pulse, that one is alive, and I check the next body. Sorry, I lied, there is no pulse, and he's dead leaving the body count so far to be one person. Then my colleagues found three more to be dead. One was a middle aged woman and the other two were men in their mid twenties. This was going to be one oddball of a case. Seven out of fifty eight people were found dead by the time the whole room was inspected. A paramedic was called to shuffle out the people who were still alive and yet unconscious. In the meantime we continued inspecting the crime scene. The forensics team was called as soon as we got on the scene, but it wasn't until we were all given the green light that they could start their investigation. The atmosphere in the room was the first thing tested.

              I was standing by the bar and I took my gas mask off. The air check read that it was clean, and the squints had surmised that the gas had dissipated as soon as it had begun. Squints was a nickname for the geeks from the lab. Our department picked it up from some TV crime drama show awhile back and it stuck ever since. Another detective, my partner, was standing by the stairwell located to the right of the stage in the back had called out to me. "Detective Remington! Sir! We found something upstairs and you might want to take a look at it!"

              I made my way towards the back and followed the other detective up the stairs to the second story where the main office was located. Inside the second story was a more intimate club scene. Same decor, with better lighting, a smaller kitchen than downstairs to the right, a handful of dimly lit private booths, and in the back was the main door to the owner of the Sapphire Tiger. The owner's name was Mr. Kelly from the streets of Chicago back east. That is what he told me on one of my past visits here. Everything looked normal until I walked into Mr. Kelly's office. There were papers all over the desk and floor, things were knocked over, and it pretty much looked like a tornado hit. The desk drawers were opened and emptied out onto the floor. I then started eyeballing the walls around the room. The safe in the back was open...and empty.

              The other detective was describing the scene and giving me his theories. He was not as well seasoned as me, and probably has not seen half the things that I've seen in this town. He was a bit shorter than me, not as scruffy looking, brown eyes, medium build, and he was the white collar wearing kind of detective. "Detective Remington, I have also tried calling Mr. Kelly's phone and there is no answer. I think we should go check on him. Ya know...given the situation of what happened?"