Nocturnal

Bryan & Pookie Meet Aggie James

They weren’t officially back on the force yet, but a lead was a lead. Bryan wasn’t going to let a little thing like being fired get in the way of pursuing it.

They’d heard the call come in. A bum had been picked up at Civic Center; a bum carrying a baby. The bum had been injured. Paramedics had brought the bum and baby both to SFGH. When the arresting officer called it in, he described the baby’s blanket as being covered with circles and slashes, occult kind of stuff.

A bum with a baby. Just like Mike Clauser had described.

Most of the cops at SFGH were preoccupied with Erickson’s security. That — combined with the flurry of activity that had blown up surrounding this new Handyman Killer, and with Zou not being around to direct traffic — meant Bryan and Pookie weren’t really on anyone’s radar at the moment.

They stepped off the elevator onto the second floor of the hospital’s main building, far away from the mental health wing. The injured bum was on this floor.

Bryan looked down the hall. It wasn’t hard to spot the right room, because a uniformed officer sat on a chair outside of it.

“Shit,” Bryan said. “Think you can talk your way past this one, Pooks, or is the Force no longer strong with this one?”

A dismissive huff escaped Pookie’s lips. “Nigga, please. Don’t you recognize him? It’s Stuart Hood.”

Bryan did recognize Hood: he was the guy who’d first interviewed Tiffany Hine after Jay Parlar’s death.

“Come on,” Pookie said. “I’ll talk my way in there. Let’s see if Daddy really has lost his touch, or if the SWAT boys were just a fluke.”

They started walking. Bryan hadn’t made it ten steps before he slowed, then stopped — a new smell. A strong yet faint scent, cut with the normal hospital odors of medicine and disinfectant.

He knew that smell … it was a lot like the odor from Rex Deprovdechuk’s house. Similar, yet subtly unique. The baby or the bum, or both, were Zeds.

“Bryan,” Pookie said. “You okay? You’re stumbling a little.”

Bryan blinked, shook his head. “Yeah, fine.” He’d have to learn to control this stuff. What if he ran into one of those basement critters and they had some stink that made him lose focus? Losing focus against something like that bear creature could get him killed.

Pookie put his hand on Bryan’s shoulder. “You sure?”

Bryan took a breath, gave his head and shoulders a quick shake. “Yeah, I’m good.”

He followed Pookie to the room.

“Stuart Hood!” Pookie said. “Good to see you again.”

Hood looked up and gave Pookie a wide smile. “Inspector Chang.”

“Hell, call me Pookie. Hey, did you hear that Zou reinstated us?”

Hood looked from Pookie to Bryan, then back again. “No, I hadn’t heard that. That’s great news, congrats.”

“Gracias,” Pookie said. “And we’re back on a case that’s related to what Tiffany Hine saw. You remember her?”

“The werewolf lady?”

Pookie snapped his fingers. “That’s the one.” He tilted his head toward the door. “We got an ID on the bum who had the baby?”

Hood nodded. “Prints came back already. The guy’s name is Aggie James. A few minor drug possession charges but he doesn’t have any priors of note. No permanent address. Witnesses said he came out of the subway tunnels. I heard the docs say he has a concussion, but it doesn’t sound like anything major.”

“What about the baby,” Bryan said. “Is it his?”

Hood shrugged. “No idea. No ID on the baby yet. Kid’s in the maternity ward.”

Pookie pulled out his notepad, sketched out the same triangle-and-circle symbol Bryan had first drawn, then held it up so Hood could see.

“Was this the symbol on the blanket?”

Stuart looked, then nodded. “Yeah. The blanket’s in there with him. Ambulance brought him right here, so his personal effects haven’t been processed yet. I was told this might be a kidnapping, so someone has to watch him.”

“We need in that room,” Pookie said. “Just a few minutes. You mind?”

Stuart shook his head, then stood and opened the door to let Bryan and Pookie enter. Inside, a black man lay in a hospital bed. Blankets covered him up to his chest. He had a white bandage wrapped around his head. Handcuffs kept his left hand locked to the bed’s frame.

Bryan waited for the fluttery sensation in his chest, but it didn’t come. The man in the bed was just that — a man.

There was a cart against the wall. Pookie walked to it and picked up a clear evidence bag holding a blanket. “Symbols all over it,” he said. “Take a look at this.” He tossed it to Bryan.

Bryan caught it. Even wrapped in the plastic, the smell was nearly overwhelming. The scent seemed to fill up his brain. Just like at Rex’s house, the odor made him want to do something — except now that urge was a hundred times more powerful, maybe a thousand times. Bryan handed the blanket back to Pookie.

The smell wasn’t just coming from the blanket. Bryan checked out the cart. On it were bags containing the bum’s clothes and one holding some kind of knit purse. They all had that powerful odor.

Bryan walked to the hospital bed and leaned in. The bum had the scent on him as well, but not as strong.

The man seemed to sense their presence. His eyelids fluttered open and he slowly turned his head to look at them. “You … cops?”

Pookie sighed. “I gotta remember to turn off that neon sign above my head. Hello, Mister James. I’m Inspector Chang. This is Inspector Clauser.”

Bryan nodded once. “How you feeling, Mister James?”

The man blinked slowly, as if it hurt to move even his eyelids. “I’m alive,” he said. “Where’s my baby?”

“Here in the hospital,” Pookie said. “He’s fine. You claim he’s your baby?”

Aggie stared first at Pookie, then at Bryan.

“He is,” Aggie said. “Bring me my boy or I’ll sue your asses.”

Pookie shook his head. “Child Protective Services has to verify the child’s identity.”

Aggie tried to sit up. He seemed surprised to find he could barely move his left hand. He looked at the handcuff holding him in place, then lurched so suddenly the bed rattled. “No! Don’t you chain me, don’t you chain me!”

Chain me. A strange way to describe a handcuff.

Aggie’s wide eyes stayed fixed on his restrained wrist. “Lemme go,” he said in a thin whisper. “Bring me the boy and lemme go.”

“We can’t,” Bryan said. “Mister James, tell me why you drew those pictures on the blanket.”

“I didn’t draw them. Lemme go, don’t chain me, please, lemme go before Hillary finds out I failed.”

Bryan looked at Pookie, who shrugged.

“Hillary,” Bryan said. “Is Hillary the baby’s mother?”

Aggie shook his head violently. His breathing grew more and more rapid. “Mommy is a monster.”

Bryan felt a cool sensation in his chest and stomach. The baby, the bum, monsters, they were all connected, all a part of Bryan’s past.

“A monster,” Bryan said. “That why you drew those pictures on the blanket? To save the baby from the monster?”

“I said I didn’t draw the pictures! Lemme go. Don’t let them take me back into the tunnels. Lemme go goddamit!”

Pookie leaned in. “Tunnels? Where? Tell us more.”

Aggie shook his head. “Don’t remember. Don’t take me back to the white room. Lemme go. Lemme go.”

The room door opened. Stuart Hood leaned in. “Guys, just letting you know I’m out of here. Dispatch said Zou is pulling all security from the hospital. I’m supposed to clear out right away.”

“Clear out?” Pookie said. “Who’s your relief?”

Hood shrugged. “Someone’s coming soon, I guess. I don’t know, man, I was told to get out of here pronto. The SWAT team is pulling out as well. Later.”

Hood shut the door, leaving Bryan and Pookie alone with Aggie James.

“Pooks, something is wrong.”

“Really? Was your first clue Zou wants to leave a child-napper unguarded, or was it that she put a friggin’ SWAT team on Erickson and now she thinks he’s fine and dandy on his own?”

Pookie’s cell phone rang. He looked at it, then held up the phone so Bryan could see the caller ID:

CHIEF AMY ZOU

Bryan nodded.

Pookie answered. “Good evening, Chief. What’s up?”

Pookie listened, nodded. “I see.” He listened some more. “Sounds nasty. No, actually, I don’t know where Bryan is, but I’ll find him and bring him. Yes, Chief. Okay.”

Pookie put the phone away. “Zou said there’s a third Handyman killing. Two bodies in the Fort Mason Tunnel.”

“I know that place,” Bryan said. It was an abandoned train tunnel cut under Fort Mason. It had been closed off and boarded up for years, but people still got in there all the time. No lights, no traffic — the perfect place to drag in a victim and do what you pleased. A new serial killer, a crime-scene location that made sense … yet it didn’t feel right. “Did she say if we were reinstated to active duty?”

Pookie shook his head. “She didn’t mention it.”

Two people in the SFGH complex were involved with Marie’s Children: Jebediah Erickson and Aggie James. Zou had suddenly ordered that they be left unguarded.

And it was dark outside. Dark, and getting darker.

“Pooks, I think Zou’s been compromised. That or she was setting this up all along.”

“You think Marie’s Children are coming?”

Bryan nodded. “Yeah, and fast. Got a handcuff key? We have to get Aggie out of here.”

Pookie nodded, produced a key from his pocket. Bryan unlocked Aggie’s handcuff from the bed frame. Aggie’s eyes seemed to light up, then fill with betrayal when Bryan clicked the open link on his own wrist.

“Get up, Mister James,” Bryan said. “Come with me if you want to live.”

Pookie helped the man out of the bed. “Where are you taking him?”

“I’ll lock him in Jessup’s car for now,” Bryan said. “I have to get something out of there. Can you get up to Erickson’s room?”

Pookie nodded. “Just hurry the hell back. I just made an executive decision — you can handle all the monster shit.”

Bryan put a hand around Aggie’s waist and guided the confused, weak man out into the hall.