To love a death Angel (closed)

She simply shrugged and stared out the window.

They will all forget after a while and it will be as it always was before. Me being invisible I guess you could call it. Never was that way with Harry but he was the only one that cared to see me.

And now we were back to the cryptic responses. How did Harry handle her? Probably by just listening. Helen did most the talking in their marriage, so Harry learned how to listen. But listening to Tricia was one thing. Understanding her was another matter.

As he started to the bedroom to get a change of clothes for after the shower, his cellphone rang. It was the Chief.

"Sorry to bother you on your time off, sergeant. But were you present when the funeral home came to pick up that poor girl's body? We can't identify which funeral home from the coroner's handwriting. And he doesn't recall anyone coming to pick up the body. I think the man has been too long on his job."

"He is reaching retirement age," Jason replied. "No, I don't know which funeral home took the body. Sorry, Chief."

"Oh well. We'll find her eventually." Then the Chief hung up. How long would it be before they figured out what Jason had done? He noticed the Chief hadn't said a word about the investigation. Was it their plan to shut him out entirely because of his relationship to Harry Murphy?

Ones like me... Seems we are easy to be invisible to everyone. No one ever really misses someone who doesn't really belong anywhere ya know? I guess still maybe cutting and coloring my hair would be different enough... Right? I mean it's not like I can do what I am supposed to do trapped in here.

She looked to him.

You keep bringing up sleeping in the same bed and all the gentleman stuff... Why?

He didn't know where Taja was going with her train of thought. The change of hair color might work if she was running FROM the bad guys. But she seemed to be running TO the bad guys.

"Being invisible is easy enough. Wiping you from everyone's memory, legally speaking, is my problem. You could make people forget you. But the paper-trail would always remind them you were there." As in the coroner's report, he thought to himself.

"No one wants to be forgotten when they're gone. But when there are killers out there wanting you dead, I don't want to be wasting time explaining away your missing body. Especially to the officers who are supposed to be finding your killers."

"As for the sleeping arrangements, I don't like sleeping on the couch. It's uncomfortable as hell! Oops, sorry. Bad choice of words." He really wasn't sorry. He was irritated. Not necessarily at her, but at everything that had transpired up to that point. He'd yet to have a moment to properly grieve over the loss of Harry.

You act like you are worried about sleeping in the bed with me there. I'll take the couch or just go back home... It's no big deal. It's not like if they were trying to kill me that they stand a chance any more. I'll be fine... I always am.

She sighed and fell silent. She had always said those words to Harry. And now she was still around some freak of nature or life or death whatever hell she didn't even know what she was any more. The more anger she felt from Harry's "replacement" the more alone she felt.

Jason let out a sigh. He didn't want the girl to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in his apartment. He began to see why she had been staying at the old mill and not Harry's place. If Helen had been alive, she would have welcomed her as a daughter, no questions asked. But Harry probably sensed the danger Taja posed. And with Helen's passing, Harry isolated himself when at home. His outgoing side only returned when he was on the street, keeping the peace.

"I'm sorry Taja. My bed is yours for as long as you want to stay. I'm just asking you to share it." He gave her an embarrassed smile, realizing that last sentence hadn't come out right.

Jason turned and walked over to her. Pulling Taja from the windowsill, he gathered her in his arms for a warm hug. The look on her face was priceless. "Don't go," he murmured into her hair. "We'll make this work."

Jason wasn't much of a hugger. But he knew it was what Harry would have done.

Even he felt of innocent muscles tensed. She was not used to affection before but now with what she apparently was it almost seemed to hurt. Doc's voice cut through.

It's just the body getting used to physical contact Taja... The only thing that may always hurt is the hug of a saved innocent. It will take time.

He stood in the doorway with a young child with him. The little boy tried to hide a giggle seeing them hug.

I need Taja to talk with our little neighbor here... It seems he has been home alone for about three days now according to him.

The hug of a saved innocent? That explained Taja's discomfort in the arms of Maria Garcia. But innocent Jason was not. Perhaps it was for the best that Doc had shown up when he did. Looking into her eyes, he'd been tempted to steal a kiss.

The child looked way too young to be left alone for three days. Releasing Taja, Jason turned to the guests in the doorway.

"Hello Doc. Please come in and bring your friend with you." He motioned to the couch. "Have a seat and tell us your problems."

Damned! It looked like he now had an open door policy. Was he going to be doing house-calls next, like Doc used to do?

Taja knelt down by the child silently watching him. The little boy studied her back just as intently till doc spoke.

Tell her what you told me.

Mommy boyfriend an ass... Him and sissy mean... Then mommy went out too.

She looked to doc.

File missing persons... No darkness screams to me yet. Boy should stay with you. As should the cat.

She turned back to Jason and tried to smile. She held no need to kill anyone yet.

Goodbye doc and new friend Leland. Jason and I... I suspect have more to discuss. Please lock the door on your way out.

Jason smiled back. He was assuming no darkness was screaming to Taja meant that the victim was still alive. And he hoped to keep her that way. Kidnap victims had short life expectancies. So the quicker they found the mother, the better.

"Shall we go, partner? I'll drive and you play navigator. After all, I assume you know where the boy's mother is."

That might have seemed like a pretty big assumption, but so far she hadn't steered him wrong. He'd call for backup along the way and hope she was right. After all, he'd look foolish calling for backup if there was no crime.

No... I don't... There was no previous victim to taint them.

She sighed looking to him.

The darkened path has just begun for them... It has not changed required existence... Yet.

Jason's shoulders slumped a bit. It didn't sound like she was giving him the positive response he wanted to hear. But he kept walking out the door, down the hallway, and towards the street and his car. Maybe there was still some way of using Taja's gift.

"So let me get this straight. The only way you can clearly see where the victim is, is for them to die? And your vision gets clearer, the closer to death they are? So, as the boy's mother starts to die, we have to use that darkness to reach her before she actually reaches death? Is that what you're saying?"

He didn't like the thought of randomly driving around the city, waiting for the location of the mother to become clearer in Taja's head. And he certainly didn't want to arrive too late, because he would have more than one body to deal with. The mother of course. And then her killers, as Taja would take old-style vengeance on them.

I... I dont know... This is all new to me too ya know.

She sighed.

The guy upstairs was different than this. He had already dead victims. Whoever this is has not crossed that dark line yet so... I have no screaming darkness. I wish I did believe me. That kid doesn't need to end up like I did as a kid.

"Whoever this is has not crossed that dark line yet so... I have no screaming darkness. I wish I did believe me."

"No, you don't want to wish you did, Taja," Jason replied softly. "Because that would mean the person had killed before. You never want to wish that they'd' killed before so that you could find them now."

Arriving at his car, Jason paused to ask, "Are you at least able to tell whether the mother is close by or far away? I'd hate to start driving if I'm driving away from the scene of the crime."

I can't tell anything about her... But whoever he is he hasn't ever killed anyone before so I can't really get anything on anyone.

She was angry she felt helpless.

Jason placed a hand on Taja's arm. "Calm yourself. We'll get the kidnapper and save the mother."

He then pulled out his cellphone and called the precinct. Sgt Davis answered.

"Hey Davis, I have a possible kidnapping that needs investigating. The son of the victim is staying with Doc Marten in the apartment next to mine. He hasn't seen his mother for three days, so it's past the 24 hours needed to be reported. You might want to get detectives over there to talk to the two of them and then go to the boy's apartment to search for clues."

"You know, the chief is already on our case because you're solving crimes on your off-time. What are you trying to do, make us look bad?" Davis laughed to temper his comments.

"What can I say? Trouble seems to find me, even when I'm on leave," Jason replied.

"And while we're investigating this kidnapping, what will you be doing?"

"Investigating the crime from a different angle. Taking a path that the chief would probably call crazy."

"You're beginning to sound as vague as Harry, God rest his soul. The detectives are on their way."

"The more eyes and legs on the ground, the better," Jason told Taja as he hung up. "But since you're supposed to be dead, let's not be standing here when the detectives arrive. Let's go for a drive around town. Maybe something will come to you."

Fine let's go.

She nodded and headed with him to the car.

I wish I could do more. Harry should have trained you. I wish he had been able to.

Pulling out into traffic, Jason decided to drive around the block in ever larger circles, hoping to notice something. And hoping Taja would sense something.

"So what training was Harry supposed to give me? Some means of deciphering some of the things you say? Some effective way of using your visions to prevent the crime rather than avenge the crime? I mean, what is the devil's or Hades' plan here?" He had to remind himself that the devil and Hades weren't the same being. And probably had different goals for Taja.

"Logically speaking, Hades would want more souls. Which means he has no problem with innocents being killed. As far as I can tell, you're here just to add to the tally by killing the killers, sending them to Hades as well."

"So, did Harry ever figure out how to use your gift to save a life rather than take one? We saved a life earlier today. I count that as a win for the two of us. But I hated that we prevented a killing only because the killer had killed before. Hades wants more dead for the underworld. I don't!"

At that point, Jason's cellphone rang. It was Detective Robinson sending a picture and details of the missing woman. Her name was Sue Ling, a recent immigrant from Taiwan. Now he had a face and a name to work with. He passed his cellphone to Taja so she could see the woman's image.

"Does her face or name give you any help?"

They don't want innocents. Even they understand that there is a certain flow to existence that cannot be damaged. When a darkness enters a person making them kill it does not always follow that flow. In fact many seek to damage or destroy that flow allowing a chaos that none of the beings of life or death want but. Hades and the rest of the council of Hell and the Archangel Michael are the only ones with the unique balance to do anything about it.

She shrugged.

Darkness killing darkness. That way the other side keeps their hands and wings clean.

She stared at the picture the name repeating in her mind getting nothing but her own anger at the silence.

Damn it give me something you pathetic "Gods"

She roared in frustrated rage.

Startled by her outburst, Jason almost lost control of the car.

"Easy, girl! Sometimes in criminal investigations, a little patience is necessary. Of course, I have no right to talk, since I'm the least patient person around. As for gods, I pray to one, but for the most part assume I'm on my own until I see a sign otherwise."

Jason constantly scanned the streets, hoping to see Sue Ling alive and well. Kidnap victims had escaped their kidnappers in the past. Or perhaps she had sustained a head injury and forgotten where she was.

Robinson had indicated signs of a struggle in her apartment. He also mentioned they were bringing in the dogs to hunt for a trail. But that would only work if she'd been dragged somewhere local and not thrown in a van and taken elsewhere.

"Getting back to the training Harry was supposed to give me, what did that entail?"

I don't know... Them killing us sort of shifted everything. Did you all ever find the ones who killed us?

She chewed at her bottom lip confused aggravated and a little sad.

"That unfortunately is out of my hands. At least officially. The Chief feels my friendship with Harry would make my investigation of his and your murder a conflict of interest. Plus he feels it would color my judgement to investigate the death of someone I was so close to. So he's assigned your murders to other detectives to solve. I'm not even supposed to ask them about the investigation."

"Once we locate Mrs. Ling and solve her case, I'll need to get you together with a sketch artist to get a proper description of your murderers. But it can't be the police sketch artist because...........well, because you're supposed to be dead. It will have to be an artist off the force who owes me a favor. And then I'll have to find a clever way of getting those sketches to the detectives on your case without explaining where they came from."

Then Jason's cellphone rang again. It was Detective Robinson.

"Sue Ling is in this country illegally. Which probably means she was smuggled in by the Chinese Mob. And it probably means she wasn't able to pay for the passage. Which is the reason why we think they may have kidnapped her. Either for the sex slave trade or as hostage until a benefactor of hers comes up with the money. But right now, it's just a theory. We've got our sources in Chinatown looking into it. I'll keep you updated."

"Thanks Joe," Jason replied, before hanging up. Chinatown? That was a little out of his jurisdiction. He couldn't go over there anyhow. Not without stepping on the feet of the detectives already on the case. So he continued to drive around the neighborhood with Taja, hoping her visions would become clearer.

What if I change how I look?

She shrugged.

"For what purpose?" Jason asked while still focusing on the sidewalks on either side for anyone who looked like Sue Ling. What he was about to suggest, the Chief would call a bad idea. But he needed to know if Taja was willing to risk her life again.

"Just about everyone thinks you're dead, including the people who killed you and Harry. If you change your appearance, it might ensure those who killed you and Harry might not recognize you. On the other hand, that might make it harder to find them. They've killed a cop. Which under normal circumstances, might force them to go underground or flee the city. The thing that might keep them here is the possibility there's a witness to the killing of Sgt. Harry Murphy. If they see you and recognize you as the woman they thought they'd killed along with Harry, they'll have to come out of hiding to come after you. I know I'm asking a lot, because what I'm suggesting is that you be bait to draw your killers out into the open."

Jason glanced over at Taja, trying to gauge her reaction.

They may not remember me anyways. Let's just do it okay... I change my looks and go to the police.

She shrugged. She had no real idea that the way everyone else remembered her looking was ready different than how she looked.