Wraith

Chapter 2 - Dead Men Tell Strange Tales

Chapter 2 – Dead Men Tell Strange Tales

Ten minutes. Ten minutes of absolute shock and silence, apart from the wailing sobs of Mrs. Asherton. Mr. Asherton cried as well, though his sorrow was expressed in a mostly silent stream of tears as he choked on the air. A parent should never outlive their children, and these two had just lost their only son. For the most part, Redcliffe stood in the background of the living room, letting Chancer and Houseman handle the situation.

"I'm sorry John," Chief Houseman said, for probably the twelfth time, "I know it's a lot to take in, but these Agents need to ask you a few questions. It's to catch the bastard that did this to your boy."

"Of course," John Asherton nodded after a few seconds, taking a while to actually recognize the words, "What do they need to know?"

"Sir, can you think of anybody that would want to hurt your son?" Redcliffe asked gently.

"N— no," he shook his head, "Our son was a good boy, he got along with people."

"John..." his wife began, before falling silent.

Mr. Asherton drew a long breath, before continuing. "There was a break-in at his apartment about two weeks back. Warren didn't say much about it, but he was pretty stressed out."

"Is that all, sir?" Redcliffe asked.

"That's all," he nodded, "Agent, my son was a good man. He didn't deserve this. You're going to find the animal that did this, right?"

"We're doing our best to, sir," Redcliffe nodded, "We'll keep you informed as the investigation progresses."

Redcliffe and Chancer stepped out, heading to the door as Houseman had a final few words with the parents.

"Think it's connected?" Redcliffe asked quietly as they exited, moving towards the SUV parked in the driveway.

Chancer only shrugged, fishing the keys from her pocket and unlocking the car.

"It's worth looking into at least," he continued as Houseman followed, moving for one of the back doors now, not even trying for the driver's seat, "Chief Houseman, have a pair of your men head to Asherton's apartment and lock it down, but tell them not to touch anything."

"Will do."

As the Chief pulled out his phone, making the call to dispatch officers, Redcliffe opened his PDA and entered a few more notes into his personal casefile of the information that they'd learned. Chaser had already copied hers down in a small notepad carried on her person, but Redcliffe preferred to go digital.

"Houseman, did Warren file a police report about the theft?" Redcliffe asked once the call had been made, not looking up from the PDA.

"Not to my knowledge, no," he shook his head, "We don't get much trouble in a small town like this; or at least we didn't before this Wraith business. What do you think was stolen?"

"We generally don't like to speculate until we're on the scene," Redcliffe explained after Chancer failed to reply, "Any presumptions could distract us from the investigation. Once we're on site, we'll see what we find, and what we don't find."

"What you don't find?"

"I'll explain later, let's just take care of the press briefing first."

His phone buzzed inside his jacket pocket, and he heard Chancer's go off as well. He retrieved his, reading out the update to his partner.

"Rosie has something for us. She wants us to drop by before the briefing; apparently something doesn't add up in her initial findings."

"Something wrong?" Houseman asked.