Fire and Ice

Detective Aaron Bower found the key while looking through the smoldering remains of the basement apartment. It almost went unnoticed, partially hidden as it was beneath the smoldering skeletal remains of the hand that concealed it. The human body was the last of the four he had closely scrutinized. Hardly surprising considering the appearance of the other three; they certainly weren't human, not by any stretch of the imagination. They were misshapen caricatures of human evolution with bulging skulls and bodies better described as animalistic than human. They were the essence of a tortured souls worse nightmare...

The Fire Chief, Andy Peterson walked up behind Aaron after surveying the damage from the fire.

"I'd sure hate to have your job about now, Bower."

The detective raised up from the crouch he had been in and looked Andy straight in the eyes.

"Really? I guess you have your part all figured out then? What caused the fire?"

"Hell if I know. I've only been here a few more minutes than you have. The arson experts have their work cut out for them on this one."

"Did you notice this guys hand, Andy?" asked Bower, pointing down at the human body.

"Yeah, it's impossible of course. Looks like the fire originated there, doesn't it?"

Even though the body was badly charred, it was still identifiable as male. The singed remains of a beard could be made out on his face. His arm was devoid of flesh all the way to the elbow joint. The area where he laid was relatively unscathed by the intense flames that had devoured the rest of the room and the other bodies.

"From his hand?"

"Looks that way, doesn't it?" replied Peterson.

"Boy, I'd sure hate to have your job explaining this one, said Aaron with a chuckle."

"The cause of the fire isn't the big story here, and you know it, Bower. The cause of death isn't debatable either. They burned to death."

"Tell me why the whole building didn't catch on fire then."

"No real mystery there. A basement apartment like this one is usually pretty well sealed having no windows and only one entry door. The floor above is concrete. There're only a few sources for air to get in. A flash fire could conceivably consume all the fresh air faster than it could be replaced and extinguish itself."

Police photographers were shooting the scene as they talked. The medical examiner had arrived and was waiting until they had snap shots of all the bodies before disturbing their positions. She had already given them a cursory glance and approached the fire chief and Detective Bower.

"This some kind of joke, boys?" She asked, looking back and forth between the two men.

Jodie Sinclair was young for a medical examiner. The previous ME was well into his seventies before he finally retired. She was still on the low side of forty but could easily pass for the mid-thirties. Bower had only met her once before.

"You see any boys around here, you kick 'em in the ass," said the Fire Chief smartly.

She ignored him and continued. "If I didn't know better, you would think we were in some horror movie wax museum. Whose idea was this?"

"What do you mean, Miss Sinclair?" asked the detective.

"Please, it's only Miss Sinclair to him," she said, motioning to Peterson with her head. "You can call me Jodie. Did he put you up to this?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, Miss Sinclair," answered Peterson, "there are four dead people laying here. Maybe you should start doing your job and..."

"No, Chief. There is one dead person here. The other three, well I don't know what you would call them. They're about as close to a normal human being as you are, Chief."

"Ok you two." Aaron had to physically move between them. They were practically spitting in each other's faces. "I think they're done recording the scene, Miss... Jodie. Why don't you start with this guy, the human looking one? I'll be right with you."

Aaron grabbed the Fire Chiefs arm and pulled him away from Sinclair as she went to work.

"What the hell is it with you, Andy? You got something against women or what?"

"This ain't no place for a woman! For christ sake, look at how she's dressed!"

Detective Bower looked back at her. Jodie Sinclair was practical if nothing else. She was dressed in black denim jeans, a black, long-sleeved shirt and she wore a New Your Yankee baseball hat over her long braided hair. He thought her appearance quite striking actually, but he wasn't about to tell Peterson that.

"What do you expect, Andy? Think she should be wearing a short, tight skirt and stockings with a low cut, button-up white blouse to top it all off? She would be getting more stares than the three dead freaks then wouldn't she? None of our guys would be doing their job, they'd be too busy watching her."

"Exactly! You know why there are no women in my department, Bower?"

"No, and I can't wait for you to tell me."

"It's because women get men killed, that's why. Every man on the planet thinks it's his own personal assignment to protect a woman on the job. They forget about their own safety and get careless because they're to preoccupied looking out for the Miss Sinclair's of the world."

"That's not the woman's fault. Look, you just get your team in here and see if you can determine the cause of this mess. I don't want you bothering Sinclair. She's got the toughest job of the three of us, trying to figure out what those things are."

The Fire Chief gave Aaron a disgusted look and stalked away. Bower had never realized that the Chief had it in so bad for women. He walked back to where the ME was and waited for her to finish speaking into her recorder as she examined the body.

"...appears to have been burned clean by a high intensity flame. The bones are still intact and something is clenched in the subjects skinless hand." Jodie looked up at Aaron as she turned her recorder off. "Did you see this detective?"

"Look, I'm sorry about Peterson, he... has issues."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm used to male pig dogs. I had three Brothers. What working woman isn't?"

"Still..."

"Forget it, it's his problem, not ours. Did you notice there's something in this guy's hand? It looks kind of like..."

"A key. I think it's an old skeleton key, at least that's what it looks like."

"Give me a hand turning him over, would you, Detective?"

"It's Aaron, Aaron Bower, remember? We met a few weeks ago, the body in the park?"

"I remember you no problem, it's the names that give me a fit. I was hoping I would hear someone call your name before I had to ask. Sorry."

Aaron laughed it off good-naturedly. "Did you find out what happened to the wino?"

"He choked to death on his own vomit. There were five joggers running through the park that day, but you know that don't you?"

"Yeah, we questioned them all. One of them had phoned it in."

"Two of them were doctors," said Sinclair. "Either one of them could have saved that man. They didn't even try."

"Sad, isn't it? Guess they were afraid of catching something."

Bower squatted down and together they turned the body over. The fleshless arm flopped to the side and the hand holding the key landed palm up. The ME already had surgical gloves on so she reached for the key. She pried it loose from the skeletal grip but immediately dropped it to the floor.

"Yikes!"

"Damn! You ok, Jodie? I can't believe it's still that hot."

"It's not," she said.

"I didn't notice before, but it's still glowing, I can see why you dropped it."

"But it's not hot I'm telling you!" Sinclair was blowing on her hand and staring intently at the glowing key. "It's freezing cold. I couldn't hang on to it, it sent a numbing chill straight up my arm."

"You're pulling my leg. How can that be?"

"Beats me! You bag it, it's your evidence."

"But it'll melt the bag!"

"No, it won't, Abrams. Look at my gloves. You see any burn holes?"

"It's Aaron."

"Oh yeah, Aaron, sorry."

Bower took a pen out of his shirt pocket and maneuvered the tip into the round end of the skeleton key. He expected to see a puff of smoke and hear the sizzle of melting plastic but nothing happened. The thing actually seemed to pulse softly with a life of its own.

He carefully scooped it up with his pen and held it in the dim light coming through the door so he could see it better. As he did, he accidentally tipped his pen slightly so that the key slid down the barrel of it, touching his finger. It was almost like an electrical shock. He cursed and quickly dropped it to the floor again.

"What is this bullshit? If anything, that key should be hot."

"Detective, Bower?"

Two men had arrived unnoticed and stood right behind Bower. A third stood over by the door and was collecting the police photographer's cameras. All three were dressed in identical black business suits. Sinclair started whistling the Twilight Zone theme music and glanced at Aaron as he stood up.

"Who are you," asked Bower, facing the one who had spoken.

The man didn't respond other than reaching in his suit's breast pocket and retrieving a sealed letter that he then handed to Aaron. The detective noticed the police commissioner's seal on the corner of it right away. He opened it and read the contents silently.

Jodi stuffed a white cloth she was holding in her back pocket and peeled off her surgical gloves. "Well? What's it say, Aaron? Is it some kind of invitation to join the secret society of black suited men?" asked Sinclair.

He folded the letter and put it in his back pocket. "It say's Mr. Smith here is authorized to take over this investigation. It's straight from the Commissioner's desk, even has her signature. I can't believe he got something so official looking from her this quick."

"You don't mind if I confirm this do you, Mr. Smith?"

"I expect you to. Then I expect you'll get out of our way and forget all about this one," he answered.

Bower dialed the commissioner on his cell phone. She confirmed what the note had said and told him to cooperate with the men. He asked who they were but she just hung up on him.

"Well?" Sinclair inquired again. "What did she say? What are we supposed to do now?"

"Seems Smith is in charge here. What is it you wanted us to do, Smith?"

"I want you to get out, and take all these people with you. My men will take it from here. Make sure no one removes any evidence when they leave."

"Look's like the big guy at the door is taking care of that all by himself."

The man he had indicated was pulling the film from the police cameras and exposing it to the light. He then carelessly tossed the cameras back to the men and made them leave. The fire chief was just being ejected from the building and was putting up a fuss until the big man whispered something in his ear. Andy's face went red and he stormed out the door. Bower and Sinclair left the burned out basement right behind him.

The fire engine crews were scurrying around like scared rabbits, picking up the equipment and loading it into their trucks. Andy was barking orders so furiously you would have thought they were going to put out a fire instead of just leaving one. He spotted Detective Bower and made a beeline toward him.

"Aaron! What the hell is wrong with that woman, letting these guys take over like this? Who the hell does she think...?"

"That's enough Andy! It's obvious it was someone higher up than Commissioner Andrews, there's no way she would hand over an investigation otherwise. I can't say that I'm all that upset about it actually."

"Aw come on, Aaron, where's your sense of adventure. Do you realize what's laying in there on the floor?" asked Sinclair.

"No, I don't know what's laying in there on the floor, and I don't think I want to know."

"They could be aliens or...."

"Oh for christ sake lady!" spat the Chief.

"Well what do you think they are, Chief?" asked the Medical Examiner. "I don't know about you but the last time I checked, human beings don't have tails that long. And most of us only have thirty-two teeth; except when we get old like you and only have ten or twelve left. Those things have about eighty sharp pointy teeth."

Aaron barely stifled a laugh. The Fire Chief turned an even deeper shade of red.

"I don't have to take this shit, not from you, Miss Sinclair," he said jabbing his finger at her, "not from nobody!" He turned to the detective. "I'm out of here, Bower. I don't want anything more to do with this. You hear me?" The Fire Chief got in his cruiser and sped away.

"Wow. The Chief's kind of got a temper doesn't he?"

"You sure didn't help much, Jodi. He's really not so bad once you get to know him."

"I may never know. Anyway, what do you really think about that mess in there? I wish I had gotten a chance to spend some time with the other bodies."

"I would be careful what I wish for if I were you. Whatever those things are in there, I don't think you could ever close the book on them. They belong in a circus side show if you ask me."

"That's it? Three bodies that look like nothing that has ever been seen on this planet and all you can think of is going to a Circus?"

"Besides, it's out of our hands now. It's not like we have any proof of what we've seen either."

"There were at least ten or fifteen fire fighters and cops who saw what was in there."

"The Commissioner want's this kept quiet. I just do my job."

Jodi Sinclair couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Aaron, something happened in there that defies explanation. We can't simply ignore it. We are public servants, not programmed robots. I don't get paid to bury my head in the sand. And I have all the proof I need."

"What do you mean?" Asked Bower.

Sinclair reached into her back pocket retrieving the white cloth she had put there while Aaron was talking to Mr. Smith.

"You didn't?" asked Bower.

"I did." said Jodie.

She unfolded the cloth revealing the key she had taken from the skeletal hand of the dead man inside the basement apartment...

*****

Authors note: Terrible ending eh? So sorry. Of course, this is not the end. This story is one of a series of "Key" related stories I have been working on for a few years. They will all be tied together eventually. If I ever get off my ass and write a book, this subject will be one of them.

I have one other 'Chapter' already posted from a while back. Leavings - part one and Leavings - part 2.

This story would precede Leavings and would actually be where one of the main characters had just traveled from, (Geneva, New York) and perhaps even where the story begins...