Elysium Dreams

Seventeen

The cot was about the most uncomfortable thing I had ever laid on. It didn't matter though, now that I was out of the game, I could sleep, at least for a while. I wasn't exactly as good at the occupation as Xavier, but then I didn't think many people were.

My dreams were fitful. I dreamed of Agent Gentry. Her skinless body staring at me. I hadn't been the last to see her alive, but I had been close. Had she been in the room when we were making notes on the suspects? I couldn't remember. I rolled over again and sleep sucked me down one more time.

Agent Gentry wasn't there this time. It was Nyleena. My life support had been skinned alive and stood before me. Her eyes held accusations. That woke me up again. I sat up, my shoeless feet brushing the concrete floor. I felt the chill seep into them. The eyes, Nyleena's beautiful stormy colored eyes had been staring at me. The others hadn't had eyes. They had fallen out or been plucked out.

"Rise and shine," Gabriel's voice came to me, echoing down the long hallway.

"Have Xavier check on the eyes," I shouted out to him.

"Ok, why?"

"Were they cut out? Torn out? I don't remember him making notes about the eyes."

"They fell out once the eyelids were removed."

"I get that, but what happened after they fell out? Eyes will heat and explode in the sockets, but they still leave a trace. So what happened to the eyes?"

"I'll ask. In the meantime, look at this," he slid a picture through the bars.

"It's cigar ash," I told him.

"You think?" He frowned.

"Pretty sure. Cigarettes make a mess, but the ash is lighter in both texture and color. Cigar ash tends to be thicker, chunkier. This looks like cigar ash that has been spread out somehow."

"Spread out?"

"Check shoes," I said testily.

"You think someone stepped on it?"

"You are a smoker, have you never smoked a cigar?"

"Nope, never even thought about it. They smell."

"Well then," I shrugged. "Cigar ash falls in clumps and tends to stay that way. So either it was stepped on or something interfered with it on the ground. We did not find ash at any of the other scenes."

"We know. We don't know why there is some at this scene."

"Are we sure it belongs to our scene? What if it was deposited there the day before?"

"Would it still be there?"

"I do not know. I don't know what happens to cigar ash in snow."

"I don't see why not, you know everything else," Gabriel grinned at me.

"Don't be ridiculous," I frowned at him.

"What's wrong?"

"I dreamed it was Nyleena," I told him.

"Oh," Gabriel seemed to think for a few minutes. His face aged as I watched. "I guess it's a good thing she is in Missouri."

"I suppose," I shrugged. "So, check the eyes and talk to Dr. Ericson. He smokes cigars, the good ones by the smell of them."

"Eyes, Ericson, cigars, got it," Gabriel seemed to pull a chair out of thin air. "The reporter is willing to drop charges if you give an interview and an on-air apology."