Case 05 - Live Psychics at Night

--- Eireann's Office ---

"Mc Glytch, my office!" The call disconnected.

Eireann stared at her desk phone. The Chief sounded less annoyed at her and more like annoyed at something and about it to make it someone else's problem, hers in this case. It was probably his revenge for all those Code Purple and Code White situations she was triggering him with.

She saved her document, locked her pc, and got up to meet the dragon, or so it felt. At least this one didn't breathe fire. Actually, she was probably being mean to dragons, Zaria had mentioned them before, and insulting a real big fire breathing dragon was probably a bad idea. She wasn't about to ask Zaria to clarify, however.

At his office, she knocked.

"Enter."

"You called for me, Chief?"

"Yes, you know how popular streaming is?" He asked her.

"Well, I know of it, but I never watch it," Eireann admitted, even before she started dating, home was a place mainly for sleep, and she watched movies, or got invited by her sister for dinner.

"Ever heard of 'Cops Live'?" The Chief grumbled.

"Didn't that get cancelled after one of the commenters got shot live?" Eireann remembered hearing about it, it was something that got talked about in the break room. Everyone had been glad that it had happened, since that show went from one district to the next. And theirs would have been next.

"Yes, but it was so popular that they reinstated it, and it was decided to do less risky episodes and add some flavour."

"Why do I feel that the 'flavour' is going to be a struggle?" She was a detective, and everything in her screamed that it was going to be a real pain.

"Because it is going to be. They want to add a psychic to help work on older cases," the Chief groused.

"Ah," that explained why he had called her. "Is it a real psychic as in Code Purple, or a fake one? Because I can think of several old cases that could use some help," Eireann frowned. "Actually, I think I know someone who can do that."

The Chief opened his mouth, then snapped his mouth shut. "Code White?" He finally asked.

"I have seen her use large mirrors to track the idiots during the cursed exhibition case, so I wouldn't be surprised if she could figure out more things."

The Chief was not comfortable with the Otherside, but he was even less happy with those psychics who tried to solve cases. He smirked suddenly, in no way was he going to enjoy this, not at all. "Pick a few not-too-old crime scenes that we need some better evidence from. And if, during the live stream, you 'accidentally' humiliate their psychic, it will stop us and others from having to deal with those fakes again."

Did the chief just order her to shut down the 'Cops Live' flavour operation. "Actually, why are they following a detective? Weren't they supposed to follow the policemen?"

"Too much risk of getting shot at."

"So, give them a case that looks totally boring and hopeless, best case we get new evidence, and if they act too weird, make a call and have them humiliated by calling someone who can actually find things," Erieann summed up. "Actually, Chief, permission to raid the old files? I think there was a case of old dismembered corpses in a factory area or something like that?"

The chief smirked, "I'd love to do that, but the uppers might want to hire her."

"In that case, claim Code White, and she probably has no interest, so it's too expensive or something. I can always ask her to prepare some sort of story of why she can't or doesn't want to."

"Let me check with others for their old cases where there might be more evidence." The Chief turned to his screen, "I think I remember two or three few-year-old cases."

"I will ask around then. And ask how to recognize real psychics, fortune-tellers, or whatever they call themselves."

Superior and subordinate shared grins, live-streaming was already a pain, but then picking fake psychics to do their jobs? Not happening on their watch.

---

"Zaria, tell me about psychics, fortune-tellers, and others that do such things."

"Sure, long or short version?" The floof replied over the phone.

"Short?"

"You don't find them, they find you and tell you what they think you need to know."

"That is too short!"

Zaria's giggle was heard over the phone, "Why don't you tell me why you are asking such a random thing, and I will tell you what fits the situation."

"Getting a live stream team with a psychic to help with old cases," the detective gave the short version as revenge.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously!"

"No real psychic, scryer, fortune-teller, truth-sayer, or diviner would do that. Showing you can do it in public or in a way that can let you get tracked down, is basically painting a sign with 'Shoot me if you want to keep your crimes secret!' on your back." It was obvious what Zaria thought about that. "Each time I was public as one, I got asked for help by one side, while the other side tried to silence me, permanently."

"So, any way to annoy them? I want to make sure we don't get those annoying fakes that act weird and just take up time again."

"I can do that, you know? Those fakes are really hated on the Otherside. They give any real one a despicable reputation. Want me to ask around who wants to give them a lesson?"

"Sure, as long as they manage to keep it a secret, and have some excuse to not be available in case any higher ups want to use them."

Zaria made a thoughtful noise, "I guess I should do that, they can't track me, and when they do, they regret it. Most know better than to try to annoy me, and the others learn quickly."

"Sure, I will give you the date, time, and link once I have them," Eireann announced.

"Just a reminder, you are a 'Leader' that means you can 'command'. And also ask for help from others too whenever you want or need, but be aware that there might be a price to pay."

"Like shatter your soul, demand answers, judge you, and such?"

"Yes, lives, sacrifices, and such. You can call the dead too. Order them to tell you their secrets. But they might not like it, a true necromancer will ask them for their opinion, not demand answers," Zaria continued.

"That makes sense. So can you make sure they can't track you? And mention not wanting to be hunted down," Eireann asked her.

"Yes, we can do that."

--- Cops Live Nighttime Stream - Psychic Help ---

"Good evening everyone, this is Julia Porter from 'Cops Live'. We are here at the old 'Gilbert's Fine Metal Factory'. With us is Detective Aireenn Mac Gitch from District 13. Who will inform us of the reason why we are here, at the factory," the reporter announced.

Eireann sighed as the reporter mangled her name, "it's Eireann Mc Glytch, but please call me Detective. It will be easier."

The reporter suppressed a frown at the correction. "As you wish, Detective, what can you tell us about the location and the crime that happened here?"

"I will just give a small overview, I do not wish to influence or cause any preconceptions," she suppressed a smile. "This is an old case, what we call a cold case, actually. We are outside the main factory area, over there in the warehouse, there were pieces of six corpses found. Unfortunately, they were heavily decomposed, and months old. Searching the area yielded more pieces, hidden all over the place, some were in dug holes, others in lockers or machinery. Genetic testing identified an additional five dead. Some knives, saws, and some other suspicious items were collected. The whole factory complex is a huge area with ten kilometres of tunnels, three warehouses, five of what could be called factory installations, one office building, one crew building, and a canteen. The tallest building has ten floors but is over forty metres high. The search was conducted using police dogs, but as you can understand, completely searching this area and determining what is and isn't evidence relevant for this case is hard with all the squatters and trespassers coming and going. We broke up a rave party two days ago when we came to check on the facilities in preparation for this stream."

"Thank you for the quick introduction, so we have a mass murder case, with a lot of dead. Which is the perfect moment to introduce our special guest, one who will help us solve this mystery. Mr Reinōsha, is a psychic and medium. With all the dead, and it being nighttime, we can hopefully receive the help we need to solve this case."

Eireann debated with herself if a normal night shift was better than this farce.

"Thank you, it is my civil duty to help our protectors when they don't know any further. Together, we will find the clues needed to figure out this mystery. The dead will help us find the murderer or murderers," the man announced with a grandiose speech. "Detective, please lead us to the first place where the dead were found."

"That is warehouse two, please follow me." Eireann looked at the setting sun. "Since the sun is setting, we will soon have to use the flashlights and spotlights we brought, unless those interfere with your ability. I think candles are normal for such things?"

"No, I only require myself, such paraphernalia are below my ability." The man spoke with a lot of flair. "I can feel a lot of bad energy from that building over there, that must be where the corpses were found."

"No, actually it is the building to the left of it." Eireann corrected as she checked in the folder she had prepared for this mess. It had floor plans, maps, placement details, a list of identified victims, and a list of suspected weapons.

"There must be something wrong with this building, but we can always return later to check on it. Please lead the way, Detective."

"We are off, out to explore the place where the massacre took place," Julia announced grandly. "Will we find new evidence? Something to help clear the case?"

--- Warehouse 2 ---

It was a huge building. Mostly empty, with corroding shells, old boxes, and random piping lying around. It was the type of warehouse that was capable of loading huge trucks. Also, it was barely lit due to the setting sun. The forensics team quickly set up a few spotlights. For certain reasons, Eireann managed to call in a few favours and got a Code Purple cleared team to follow her.

"There, that large rack, on the top shelf there were two left arms, the row below that held two right arms, the middle shelf had two right legs, and the bottom row we had two left legs. No heads, torsos, or pelvises were found for these victims," Eireann read off her summary.

Julia jumped at the description, "That is a shocking line-up. A murderer like this must be a real psychopath."

"A profile was made, but unfortunately, we are missing any physiological data," Eireann continued. "There are statistical suspicions, but nothing sufficiently certain to narrow down suspects to a useful pool."

"Let me see and feel the area." Mr Reinōsha made his entry. He raised his arms and closed his eyes. His face showed a clear indication of concentration. "Come, you have not been forgotten, show yourself to us, speak to us."

Eireann realized something. Zaria and the others had a presence, something that this man was lacking. He was there, but even those rats felt like more than he did. She wondered what was going on. Humans, or maybe it was normal people, felt completely different from special humans and beings maybe? Her sample size was still small. That cat had seemed pretty normal too, but there had been something about her that had set her apart.

Actually, Isabelle had felt differently too. Her niece was normal, though. Or was she? She would have to ask Zaria. Now she was getting paranoid.

Especially since they started watching them, or rather her. There were more and more of them arriving, too.

"Five dead, there were more women?" The mystic, psychic, medium, or something, asked.

Eireann checked her victim list, "No, there were only male body parts found in this place."

"And the other places?" The 'something' inquired.

"All male body parts in this area."

"Are you indicating that there should be female victims as well?" Julia asked.

"Yes, there is female energy around here."

Eireann looked at the female members of the forensics team, Julia, and then herself.

"Here were the dead, but the living escaped, they went that way," he pointed towards a large door at the back.

"According to the information, that leads to the primary smelter. It is connected to the ore and coal warehouse, and this place was meant for finished products. Actually, why is the smelter connected to a warehouse for finished products?" To the detective, that made no sense.

"I feel something suspicious from the area there," he announced.

"We need a light over there," Eireann told the forensics, who quickly started moving the spotlight and the small generator.

"Is this the chance for the next clue in this case? A chance to solve this mystery?" Julia was in her element.

"Detective?" One of the members of the forensics team called out.

"I see them," Eireann confirmed.

"See what?"

The redhead simply pointed up.

The camerawoman panned up.

"Bats?" Julia sounded disgusted.

Eireann had a weird feeling about this, especially since they were circling above her.

"They are coming, this is a sign," the mystic announced.

To the red-headed detective, this felt oddly familiar. She pulled out her phone and walked off to make a call. "Excuse me, I need to ask someone about bats."

She was not surprised when her target picked up after the second ring, since she had spread the word to her friends and acquaintances.

"Yes, ma chérie?" Cécile's voice came through the phone.

"What can you tell me about bats?" she asked her smallest lover, mated, bonded, or whatever she was called. She was still confused about what to call it.

"You are one of mine, they will follow you, I am not sure how much they will obey you compared to me or a true vampire. However, you are a Leader, my chosen one, my kin, my love."

Eireann blushed at the direct strike to her heart, "I love you too. I will try something once I need to." She spoke to the ancient one. "Thank you."

"Whom will we find? What will await us?" The camera team was in their element.

"I feel that this was an important place," the psychic announced.

"We have illuminated the smelter area," one of the security team announced. They were there for security and to help the forensics team. There had been a team doing a quick survey concerning the stability of the factory.

"This place was dangerous."

Eireann frowned, then pulled out her phone again. She researched the facility some more. "I think I found it, there was an accident in the neighbouring smelter, there were five dead workers. Close, but not it."

"The bats are following us!" The camerawoman announced.

"It is a sign!" Mr. Reinōsha announced.

"Don't worry about them," Eireann confirmed. She turned towards the bats, "if you want to follow us, go up and stay out of the way for now, I hope you enjoy the show," she waved them up to the roof.

The swarm did as she asked them to.

The detective sighed, "You, here, go and get whatever bats eat, some Walmart or something that is still open, probably has a live feed section."

"Yes?" The forensic hesitated for a moment. "Is this part of that rat whisperer thing I heard about?" The tech whispered. That story was very popular, and had spread around, especially since a rat had visited a police station.

"Yes," Eireann sighed, "I have an in with bats, it seems."

"Since when?" The forensic asked while they were out of range of the camera, and the mystic was saying something about the smelters being the cause of pain and suffering.

Eireann looked around and smiled, "I am dating a vampire elder."

"Does he suck your blood? Wait, the café owner with the jaguar is a vampire? It does fit her."

"No, she is a cat, after all, nothing but a jaguar for a cat."

"You are two timing someone from the Otherside?"

"No, they are perfectly aware of everything that happens."

"Two?"

"Three, actually."

"What?" The forensic seemed in awe, "I had trouble dating one, and you date three at once? Aren't they all supposed to be possessive?"

"I think it is an attraction issue, they are drawn to me, respect each other, and seem to have an understanding. Now, go and get the worms or whatever you can find," she handed the technician fifty dollars to go shopping.

"Yes!" the forensic ran off.

Eireann followed the medium, reporter, and camerawoman to the next smelter. The structure looked partially melted, there were still traces of the accident that had happened almost eight years ago.

She was followed by an ever-increasing swarm of bats. A few stood out to her, they had red eyes and were larger.

"I cannot feel any more bodies," the psychic announced as they entered the large factory where the police had broken up the rave after he had circled the whole area four times.

"This is the area where we broke up a rave, there is naturally a chance that every bit of evidence was removed or destroyed here."

"The chi of the living has disrupted the energy of the dead, it will be impossible to find something," the psychic lamented.

Eireann felt that, despite only taking three hours, the medium was out of energy, Julia looked less motivated as well. Maybe it was time for her to act. She clapped her hands, hard.

"Quiet!"

That had been different, but the chittering of bats instantly stopped, as did the whispers of the forensic, security, and streaming teams.

"You there," she pointed at one of the different bats, "we are looking for corpse parts and other evidence from the murder case. In short, tools and dead meat. Do you know anything or know someone who knows?"

The bat fluttered over to another large bat, that one seemed calmer somehow. It chittered at the human woman.

"I ordered someone to get you food; if you show me something worthy, I will hand it over." The detective raised her arm. The larger bat dropped and fluttered over, it hung itself off the sleeve.

"So, which way?"

"You speak bat?" Julia asked as she and the camerawoman came over.

"What? Of course, I don't, but animals are pretty good at pointing this way or that way. Or leading you, some are better than some pantomimes I have seen."

"Really?"

"And in this case, we have a whole swarm to show us the way," Eireann smirked, something that her lovers watching the stream found very hot. "Lead the way," she ordered.

The large bat chittered, and the swarm flew towards a spot at the end of the large factory space, they lined the path as they hung from everything that was available.

A few circled around a spot in the corner.

"Up or down?" the detective asked.

The bat pointed down.

"We got ground sonar?" Eireann asked the forensics team.

"One moment."

Ten minutes later, they watched as the sonar registered something beneath the concrete.

This was something that surprised them, there was a suspicious blip in the concrete.

"Thank you, got anything else to show me?"

There was another chitter.

The swarm lined another path.

"This is a first for 'Cops Live', we have seen police dogs in action before, this is the first time we have seen bats help out in an investigation! What else will they show us under the guidance of Detective Mc Glitch?" Julia announced, suddenly full of energy.

"No choice but to follow them, since I don't speak bat, but I can always ask, and we can try to figure it out. So what will we find?"

The bat went limp, only hanging on with one leg.

"I guess more body parts," the detective remembered her Mr Rat interpretations.

"This is fascinating, is this common?"

"No, I only started recently," the detective told the eager reporter.

The bat chittered angrily at the camerawoman.

"You are shining the light directly," Eireann chided.

"Oops, sorry."

They approached the many machines that Eireann could not recognize. The swarm circled one of them. "Is there a hole or something to look inside?"

The forensics did their own swarming of the large chunk of metal.

The bat kept pointing with a wing.

"Hey, this place looks welded, it is less even than the rest of the machine and the patches are made from a different metal," one of the technicians pointed out.

"We don't have cutting equipment, but we can drill a sealed hole for a borescope."

"Do it."

"What is a poroscope?" Julia asked, since she had no idea what they meant.

"Can you explain and show it to the team?" Eireann asked the forensic.

"Sure, a borescope is an inspection camera, a mini camera that can be bent and has a light source, it is perfect for inspecting small spaces. Or to look around corners. If you follow me, then I can show you one."

The bat made a chitter that sounded approving.

"While they do that, got anything else for us to find?"

The bats spread out over the other machines.

"That is going to take a while," The detective felt tired, despite the night being less eventful than her usual night shifts.

"Detective, I got welding here as well." "This one was welded shut, too."

"Any other spots we can check now?" The redhead wanted to know from the bat.

The live stream stretched out, as the bats led them to another building, down a tunnel, into the trees nearby, and into a murky pond outside the edge of the area.

It took two more hours to visit all indicated sites, the medium made a lot of noise but couldn't find anything to add properly.

The one forensic that Eireann sent off returned with several stacks of boxes filled with maggots, crickets, and worms. Watching the bats eat the insects creeped out Julia, but Eireann, who had seen maggot infested corpses or rats chewing on bodies, was far more relaxed.

"And tonight's 'Cops Live' did something special, we have found evidence for a so-called cold case."

The welded shut machines had proven themselves containing body parts in various stages of decomposition, mummification, and infestation with multiple sorts of growths.

The forensics had a field day with the interesting way of finding evidence.

--- Forensics and Technicians Teams ---

Due to the machines and searchlights, a lot of power lines and cables were laid out, for simplicity reasons, some of those were hung.

Those hung cables were proving themselves to be really popular.

"Feels creepy."

"Nah, I really prefer them to leeches, that time we had that dirty pond in that old mansion? I had three of those suckers."

"True, but they are staring and chittering."

"Normal bats have bad eyes, I think? I mean, they use echolocation to navigate."

"So small ones are normal, and the larger ones with red eyes, they’re creepy fuckers."

The last one speaking had one of the creepy fuckers launch itself into her face, and small ones latch onto the hair.

"And they understand you, sorry for my colleague, but can you release her? I need her to work."

---

"There is a bat on your head."

"And no mosquitoes or other bugs."

"Oh, you are right."

"This makes me want to hire them for next time we are at a farm, or an older crime scene, imagine not having to deal with all those flies."

"Hire bats ... On one hand, the flies are evidence, but cleaning out all of them would be nice. I hate those buggers, always creepily rubbing their legs, flying into your face, running all over everything, and buzzing around."

"Think a 'cleaning bat squad' would get approved?"

"We can always ask, and Detective Mc Glytch seems to be fine with them."

---

"Rat whisperer, bats as informants, what is next?"

"Remember that dog kennel case?"

"Right, I heard she had a dog listen to her too, actually what happened to it?"

"I have no idea."

"Wait, guys, not so many on one cable, you will topple that searchlight!"

"They don't seem to listen to you."

"Shut up, help me span another cable for them."

---

"Who is a cute little bat? Yes, you are."

Two of the policemen, who had arrived to secure the site now that new evidence was found, were talking.

"Weren't you trying to date her?"

"Like I am going to date a girl that is feeding a big fat maggot to a bat with a smile on her face."

---

"Detective Mc Glytch?"

"Yes?"

"I need some help, I think that they want me to pick up that rusted pipe or something."

"Have we found new evidence? What is the story behind the piece of metal?" Julia was all over the place, clearly happy with the feedback from the stream, but it was clear that she was getting tired.

Eireann followed the forensic to a piece of metal pipe, she poked the bat that migrated to her shoulder, "so, what is the story here?"

"Squeak!"

"I have no idea what you mean."

"Chitter"

"Can you get someone to mime it?"

What followed was a skit of one bat poking another with a tiny branch, and the other bat falling over, pretending to be dead.

"Seems we got ourselves a murder weapon."

"Considering the wear, we probably won't get any traces off the pipe, but we might be able to match the size and length to some wounds," the tech lamented.

"This is incredible, the bats managed to explain what it was used for. This is a YouTube moment if there ever was one. Everyone, please note that the whole 'Cops Live' stream is copyrighted," Julia reminded the viewers.

One of the stream team quickly approached Julia and showed her a tablet.

"Our viewers are correct, it wouldn't be right to just copyright this without any benefits to the actors. Especially since Detective Mc Glytch paid for their services. Please wait a moment while I call the Project Leader."

Eireann watched the reporter walk off to make a phone call, "I guess you won't be shown worldwide for free."

"Chitter~"

Julia returned soon, "we are willing to pay you in live feed for 100 dollar worth."

"Squeak!"

"I think that means that they agree," Eireann translated.

"Sounds good."

---

Around three in the morning, the site was declared explored by the bats, the nearest Walmarts and Tescos were out of live feed, and everyone was tired.

"Usually the forensic team does most of the work, but since I was the only one able to deal with our informants, it was a different experience for me," Eireann told the camera.

"This was Detective Eireann Mc Glytch from Precinct 13. I am Julia Porter from Cops Live. Remember, in two days, on Thursday, we are having a day stream, and make sure to watch us."

It was a perfect show-off between an Otherside Detective and a Fake Psychic. Naturally, the Otherside Detective won.

It was a landslide victory, and all it cost Eireann was 50 dollars.