Elysium Dreams

Six

                  

Two hours later and all of us were back at the crime scene.  Lucas and I had already seen it.  However, someone had put a rope, a stake, and a hammer on the ground.  I frowned at them.

"You are so not hanging me upside down," I told them.

"You're the right build," Xavier told me.

"Uh, and Doctor, what if it causes an aneurism to burst in my brain?"  I pointed out.

"That's your concern?  An aneurism?  Really?"  Xavier laughed.

"Serial killers I can see, aneurisms I cannot," I told him.

"We aren't hanging you," Gabriel told me.  "Someone left these here while we were gone.  During a shift change of the state police."

"That's disturbing," Xavier answered.

"You're telling me," I said.  "But does that sound like something our killer would do?"

"Not really," Lucas said.  "As a matter of fact, I'd say it was very out of character for him."

"So a fan?"  I said.

"But whose?"  Gabriel gave me a pointed look.

"Hey, I haven't heard from mine for a while, not since Christmas," I said.

"Yes, but it is hard to rule him out," Lucas said.

"True, this is theatrical enough for him," I admitted.  "But it's terribly cold, would he follow me to Alaska?"

"I think he'd follow you anywhere, but this doesn't strike me as him," Lucas knelt down.

Xavier knelt with him, pulling on a pair of gloves, he picked up the rope.  For several minutes we were all very quiet.  Xavier moved every piece around, examined them one by one.  Finally he dropped it all and stood up, pulling the gloves off.

"My guess, teenagers," he said.

"Why?"  Gabriel asked.

"There's part of a joint under the pile and most of it smells like pot," Xavier answered.  "If I had to bet, I'd say some stoned teenagers got the idea after watching the news last night and dumped these things afterwards."

"Drugs definitely do not sound like either our killer or Ace's fan," Lucas said staring at the rope.

"What do we do with it then?"  I asked.

"We have it sent to the lab and processed," Gabriel said giving me a dumb look.

"Ok," I looked around.

The pristine snow was no longer pristine.  A few animals had dared to venture into the area.  I wasn't a master tracker nor could I identify the tracks, but that wasn't really the point.  The point was that I had been right.  With the Pine-Sol body safely tucked away at the morgue and the smell dissipating, the animals were coming back.

I pointed.  Lucas caught the gesture and stared through the evergreens and the few struggling non-evergreens.  His eyes found the tracks and locked onto them.

"Moose," he said after several minutes.

"Really?"  I had seen a moose in the zoo, but never up close and personal outside a cage.

"Really," Lucas's eyes continued to stare into the abyss of the snowy wilderness.

"What's on your mind?"  Gabriel asked him.

"I just hate when she's right," Lucas gave him a smirk.

"We all do, but that's bullshit, you have something on your mind," Gabriel was trying to see where he was looking.