ANGEL BLUE [1]

LEAD 4: riddle me this

Unknown:
You cannot see me, hear me, or touch me.
I lie behind the stars and alter what is real.
I am what you really fear.
Close your eyes and I come near. What am I?

      I sit in front of the bowl of Miso containing not only Sam’s lunch, but the missing hand of Dianne Hemming. Snag sits opposite me with his chin resting on his forearms. He’s in his lab coat with no trace of any festive hats, his eyes flick up to me and then back down to the hand. Snag’s unusually quiet, mainly because my father was called down to the morgue.

      “I’ve seen a many strange things in my long career, but having a boiled hand is certainly a first,” Snag says. As my phone vibrates on my lap again, he taps his gloved fingers again the cuffs of his lab coat as if he’s drumming to a beat of a song. “I think you want to answer that, Akira.”

      I sink lower in my seat, I already know the answer to the riddle the killer previously asked, but there is no way I’d speak it aloud with my father in the room. Dad rubs his stubbly chin and turns his attention between me and Snag, he can’t see what we can.

Unknown:
A nightmare for some.
For others, as a saviour I come.
My hands, cold and bleak.
It’s the warm hearts they seek.

I ignore the message and watch Snag rotate the hand in the broth under the light. He lifts a hair from the puckered flesh and places it on a slide. He hands it to Joseph to send to trace. We continue to look at the hand until Dad finally throws his arms in the air, exasperated.

“Can you both stop that?” he shouts.

“What?” Snag and I reply in unison.

“That,” Dad folds his arms. “What did you call me down here for, Snag? It’s been five years since I’ve stepped foot in the lab and the morgue, it must be important for you to withhold information on the phone.”

“I want to tell you that your daughter is a genius, an undermined genius might I add,” Snag comments and continues to turn the hand. “What you need to realise is that the medication will not work. You and I both know that, stop trying to avoid the inevitable.”

Unknown:
A genius succeeds his hundredth try.
A fool fails his first.
Who is the real genius?

      I get the understanding that Snag’s referring to the whispers in my mind. Can he hear them too? Can he see those creatures like I could? Snag continues to rotate the hand until he hears Dad exhale loudly―is Dad like me?  

      “Akira,” Snag addresses me. “The note we retrieved from Dianne Hemming’s throat was a list of known creatures that are currently running  around Manhattan. After you mapped where the bodies of the officers showed up, I pieced together the fact that this killer is meticulously placing the corpses on bordering territories. You see, a Night Crawler can’t trespass into Vrykokolas grounds―for human bodies to show up is indeed a crime within its self to these beasts.”

      “Snag,” Dad warns.

      “The other note, written in disjointed letters and such, was a riddle but you figured that out a while ago. I can tell by the lack of emotion on your face that you’re being taunted, your mind is indeed going to be stretched to its limits. The killer targeted you for a reason because he knows how your mind words. To the untrained eye, you’re simply a teenager,” Snag leans back in his chair, “but to my eyes, you are much more.”

      “Snag,” Dad says again.

      “Agent Ping-Pong informed me that you were at the diner this morning with your desk friend and you had it happen to you again, the whispers. Just like at the crime scene of Dianne Hemming’s, you didn’t see the creatures but you heard them. This triggered your mind to become more astute, to be aware of your surroundings, every breath the people took as they walked past you,” Snag’s tone is different, rather dark and ominous. “It’s a gift, Akira―a rare gift that I’ve only seen three times before.”