Sons of Liberty: AWOL

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Brand and Kane follow up on the list of names, and make a gruesome discovery.



It was the third apartment they’d been to; this one a hacienda style north of San Luis Obispo. So far, the list that Bobby had given them turned up only empty apartments, most of them barely furnished and feeling unlived in. A knock on the door earned no response, and Kane handed the warrant over to Brand before grabbing the doorknob. He braced one hand against the door and pulled sharply, snapping the jamb like it was made of cheap plastic.

"Watching you do that makes me go all gooey," Brand purred, before pushing the broken door open. A slight smell of decay wafted out and she wrinkled her nose, but also unholstered her gun. "Looks like we might have actually found something on this wild goose chase."

"Blood." Kane said, sniffing the air. He lacked the enhanced sense of Kyle or Logan, but this apartment didn't need them. The thick, coppery smell hung heavily through the air. There were smears on the wall, where someone had dragged their hand along it, leaving behind a thick trail. At least the cooler weather had stopped the flies from swarming. He went left as Brand went right, and ended up in the living room. There was blood splashed everywhere, but no body.

"Brand! I'm clear in here. You got anything?"

Brand scanned the bedroom and bathroom, ensuring they were clear before answering, still on her guard. "Someone's certainly trashed the place. Lots of blood, definite signs of a struggle but no body. Whoever got attacked put up a hell of a fight. We'll need to get forensics in here asap, see if any of this blood belongs to someone we know."

"The amount of blood here... whoever did this pulled the poor bastard apart." Kane said, shaking his head as he went through the rest of the rooms. Most of the carnage seemed to be between the living room and the kitchen, with the attack starting in one of them and moving to the other.

"Plenty of blood, if we're lucky we'll get a tooth or two, maybe a clump of hair with the scalp still attached..." Brand raised her voice as she revisited the bathroom, pulling back the shower curtain and opening the cupboards. "Huh, all of these medications are way out of date and half full, like he stopped taking them. Usual old man stuff, not the sort of thing you get cured of."

"Heart medication, a blood thinner..." He came in and peered over her shoulder. "He couldn't have left them behind if he left. And this blood has been here at least a couple of days. I don't think there's a lot of question about whose blood this is."

"But where is Mr. Mace? He certainly didn't get up and walk out of here to the nearest emergency room. You saw the drag marks." Brand closed the cabinet abruptly. "I'll put out an APB on the local hospitals any way, in case they've got any John Does in their morgues and if we're lucky, forensics will find some of this blood is someone else's. So we're closer, but not by much."

"The only connection is that list of Naslund's little group. Whoever killed him was probably involved in whatever happened to Mace." Kane blew a frustrated sigh out past his lips. "The key thing is why? Did they threaten to expose the rest of them? Or is there something else?"

"And we won't be able to answer any of that until we actually find one of them." Brand's tone echoed his frustration. "I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but I'd kill for a mass grave right now. At least we'd have something to go on."

"You might get your wish. Let's call in the local cops to go over this place while we call the field office. It's time to get this list and descriptions out publicly, and see if we can shake a couple free. They could be anywhere."

"You always know you're at a dead end when it comes to seeking helping from the public," Brand snorted. "But it's not like we've got anything else to go on at this rate."

"Go call it in. I'll make one last sweep." Kane said, and as she left, he pulled out an evidence bag from his pocket. Locating a box of Q-tips in the bathroom, he carefully dabbed three of them full of blood from the congealed puddle, and put them into the bag. He wanted to get the samples to the mansion as fast as possible, just in case there was more going on than it seemed. It didn't feel like a normal terrorist investigation, and that meant stepping outside of the box for help.

"Unfortunately not. I was hoping we might have some partial shoe prints or something in the blood." He straightened up. "Let's check the neighbours. Maybe someone heard something."

"After you." Brand continued to frown, although there was more suspicion to her expression now, before she decided to tuck the incident away for later use. "Let's see how many of them are heavy sleepers who didn't hear a thing."