Beyond The Chaos Gate

1 DARK OMENS-3

Garret's Arrival

FBI AGENT WILLIAM GARRET arrived in the town of Holden at the request of the chief of police, Chief Harold Smite. Garret pulled up into the smallish parking lot of the equally small police precinct of the quaint little town of Holden.

Garret was recently assigned to Holden to assist with the multiple murder case of this morning. It was almost five pm now, with just time enough to settle into the town, and the precinct, and find a place to stay, and a good bar in which to unwind.

He went straight in to meet the Chief, and get himself squared away. Shaking the hand of the somewhat overstuffed police chief, he reflected that all cop bosses looked and acted alike.

"Special Agent William Garret, FBI," Garret said. "I understand that you have an unusual case for me?"

"You bet. A three-person family murder, involving capitation and strange symbols left behind," Smite replied. "These are the first murders in Holden in twenty years, and the first multiple murder ever."

They spent the next few moments discussing the strange details of the case. After Garret had met with chief Smite, he headed straight to the forensics lab to get up to speed on the analysis of all the available clues and evidence.

Police Detective Crawford arrived at the lab at the same time as Garret. He began to fill Garret in on the case, as he understood it.

"The killer or killers broke into the Saxon residence using a crowbar," Detective Crawford said. "The lab guys believe that this occurred at around six this morning, based on the cooling gradient of the bodies."

"Nobody heard or saw anything?" Garret asked. "I thought that the Saxon house is located in the middle of a housing HOA community. There should have been lots of eyes and ears around at that time of day, or don't the elderly in this town share the early rising gene?"

"Yeah, there were plenty of elderly dog walkers," Crawford admitted. "But the truth is that most of them don't have the sharpest eyes. Also, the gas sniffer indicates that a gaseous mixture of chloroform and ether filled the house. There probably wasn't much activity outside of the house, and the family was likely unconscious while they were beheaded, so no big sounds."

"I take it that a blood test is being conducted to verify that they were incapacitated by the gas?" Garret asked. "I would hate to think that any of them were conscious while they got their heads cut off."

"Yes, the blood tests have been ordered," Crawford said. "The theory is that they were gassed before the break-in, probably using the air ventilation to access the victims."

"So, let me get this straight," Garret ordered. "Nobody knows whether one or multiple persons committed the murders, and nobody knows what they did with the heads of the victims, right?"

"That is correct, but it is not the weirdest part of it," Crawford replied. "The criminalists found some sort of unknown fungus growing on and in the victims' bodies. It had the effects of a very aggressive flesh-eating bacterium, and the bodies had to be incinerated to avoid any possible contagion in the community."

"I don't know if you know this, but bodies are one of the biggest sources of evidence," Garret joked. "I feel like I am swimming in a very shallow pool here."

Crawford grinned and nodded in agreement, and indicated the way to see the coroner for any autopsy information gleaned from the bodies, before their disposal. In just a moment, Garret was pumping the Coroner for the information.

Dr. Owens validated and expounded on the information that Crawford had already provided. He said that the fungus was the most puzzling aspect of the case. There was no indication of where the fungi came from, and as far as the local scientific community could tell, it was of a species that was entirely unknown. It was also the strangest, and most mobile, weird variety of fungus that any of them had ever seen.

Garret realized that it was a sort of case he has never dealt with before. The decapitation of the Saxon family and the apparently ritualistic layout of the crime scene suggested something sinister at play, beyond the horrible but mundane motivations of the typical psychotic murderer.

After about ten minutes of incessant babble, essentially composed of questions by Garret, and several different responses that amounted to "I don't know," Garret had enough and said his goodbyes to the Coroner and Detective.

A few moments later, he had successfully checked into the Motel 6. He only had two choices, the motel, or Ellen's Bed and Breakfast down the street. He didn't think he could deal with the inquisitive nature of an elderly or even middle-aged female owner of a residential property, so he decided on the motel.

When he had inquired of the motel clerk for a good bar to get a drink, the clerk had just laughed and pointed across the road at the Starlight's End. "That is your one and only choice of bars in this town," the clerk stated. "It is a good thing that it is a decent bar because it is the only one we have."

Since he was pointed in the right direction, it did not take him long to amble across the pavement and enter the bar's festive door. The sight of one beautiful blonde bartender and four customers who were all sitting at the same table greeted him.

He ordered a neat Scotch from the girl and turned down her suggestion that he try the private label mead that the bar had available. The four customers indicated by voice and gesture that they wanted him to join them, and so, with Scotch in hand, he did exactly that.

It turned out that the four men were an interesting bunch. The loudest one was someone named Wilber, who apparently was the host of a local conspiracy radio program. Oscar was a local biologist, who worked at the local water treatment plant in the lab as both a biologist and a water chemist.

Jonny was just a car salesman, but he had a sardonic wit and was especially self-deprecating when he mentioned that he sold used cars. The quiet one was named Ian. He didn't really talk that much, but his friends loudly proclaimed that he was the town's resident psychic.

All four of the men and the bartending woman had traces of that Southern drawl that passes for an accent in East Texas. Ian and the woman had only a hint of the drawl. Oscar and Wilber had shed most of the accent, probably due to educational travels or intentional modifications. Jonny had a thick accent, indicating that he probably had been a resident of this small town continuously since birth.

When they found out that Garret was an FBI agent, they made the connection with the murders earlier that day, and Wilber seemed to be very conversant with all the details of the case. Apparently, being a radio host included having confidential sources, both on and off the police force.

"It is almost certainly a ritual murder case," Wilber proclaimed. "The only question is who or what is the ritual supposed to be about, and who the heck did it?"

"Those are the issues that we are seeking to answer," Garret admitted. "But tonight is just about drinking."

The conversation went on for a couple of hours before Wilber made his excuses and left the bar to host his nightly talk show. Shortly after that, Garret decided to call it a day.

He did find out some interesting things. It seemed likely that Garret might find Ian, Oscar, and even Wilber useful in solving the case.

It turned out that Ian had contributed to police cases in the past, and he thought that he had made contact with the responsible party by psychic means. Oscar was as close to a science geek as this town had, and he might be useful for analysis of substances and materials related to the case. Even Wilber might be a useful source of speculation of the 'thinking outside the box' variety.

They were a friendly bunch, even Ian in his quiet way. It may not be so bad to be stuck in this little town for a short while, with a few familiar faces to talk to about things.

After saying his farewells, he made his way to the motel, and in a matter of a few moments, he had settled into the comfortable chair that the motel provided, and was waiting for Wilber to begin his show.