The Angel of Zero City: Part 5

An urban-fantasy novella. It is an untold story between the chapters of its parent book: The Gauntlet of Maltese.

The Drawings

 

 

The prescient building used to be a 30’s cement factory until the city bought it fifty years ago and renovated it. Inside were unpainted brick walls and exposed steel girders. The homicide division got the largest floor, with cathedral ceilings, industrial windows, and thick concrete pillars.

“I’d be a bad detective if I overlooked this,” Joseph whispered, staring at his computer.

“Practicing romantic lines?” Finlay asked.

“What? No, come here,” the detective replied. Solving puzzles and burying himself in cases were what he was most confident in, so after this afternoon at The Park he was happy to dive back into it.

Finlay leaned over and looked at a photo of a strange drawing on Joseph’s computer, of a hand with an eye in its palm. “This photo was taken at a homicide scene months ago, George’s old apartment in East Uptown,” Joseph said. “His body had no signs of death or struggle either, and this morning I saw the same symbol in the alleyway.”

“Coincidence?” Finlay asked.

“Well … I don’t know. Look at the way it’s drawn. Does it look like it was drawn by the same person?” Joseph pulled up a photo of the drawing from today’s crime scene.

“It does kinda, but let me play Devil’s advocate: there weren’t any reports about hand-eye symbols at the other crime scenes. That first case, the greasy guy in a bathtub, had nothing about this…. But then again, the guys at the scene didn’t know to look for it.” Finlay was now rubbing his chin in thought. “It’d be nice to know what it meant.”

“I’ve looked up the symbol’s description.” Joseph clicked to an open web browser and began to read, “The hamsa is a sign of protection in many societies, believed to provide defense against the evil eye. In Islam it is known as the hand of Fatima. Levantine Christians call it the hand of Mary, and Jews refer to it as the hand of Miriam, sister of Moses. The hamsa, Romanized as khamsa, is an Arabic word that literally means ‘five.’”

“Well that’s kind of useless,” Finlay sighed, rolling his eyes and taking a sip of scotch coffee.

“Do me a favor would ya?” Joseph asked, printing out a photo of the drawing from this morning. “Talk to whoever was investigating the other cases and ask them if they noticed this symbol. If you have to, check out the scenes yourself.”

“Why me!? What are you gonna do?” Finlay whined.

“Well, firstly you have a car, so you’ll get this done faster. And secondly … I have a date tonight.”

Author's Note

This is a 19 part story. All of which are completed and are expected to be posted.