It was a cloudy day in San Francisco, Caroline and Jason were back into Dr. Nguyen’s apartment again, with Erika, Jeremy and Detective Raymond Marcus. Detective Monica Jamerson was not available, though.

 

The apartment still reeked of the stench that typically came with the unclean presence. But even as Jason and Caroline tried they could not easily locate where the stench came from - it felt like it was all over the place.

 

“Don’t take too long. I’m supposed to meet up with Monica in an hour and a half. ” Detective Marcus told them when they entered the apartment: “And try not to leave too much mark or damage anything, we may need to declare this a crime scene later.”

 

“Noted. ” Erika handed pairs of plastic gloves, disposable shoe covers and hair nets to Caroline and Jason, “Just treat it like a real crime scene then - to save us the trouble.”

 

“What is Detective Jamerson working on now?” Jeremy asked, “She has been pulling late nights all week ”

 

“Yeah, aren’t we all.” Detective Marcus shook his head with a wry smile: “Grave defilings and religious site desecration, if you can even believe that. Mostly in various religious cemeteries and sites. No one died but surely pissed a whole lotta people off.”

 

“Has anyone been here since the day she disappeared?” Erika asked when she entered the apartment: “Something felt… different.”

 

“Yes. ” Detective Marcus answered: “We searched the place a bit after the discovery of the hand - we figured if some people wanted to hurt Dr. Nguyen or even have her killed, she must have had something important hiding in her apartment or her storage units.”

 

“Did you find anything?” Erika was sweeping through the now empty shelves, “Or anything missing?”

 

“I can send you a list of the evidence.” Detective Marcus nodded: “And see if you can recognize anything, let me know.”

 

“I wish you would’ve given me that sooner.” Erika checked her phone and confirmed the list of evidence, “Who’s handling the case?”

 

“Unfortunately, not us anymore. If it was us we definitely would’ve asked you. But the Feds took over a while back.” Detective Marcus sighed and said: “They said something about this case being high risk and not suitable for a local police station to handle.”

 

“Yeah well. Big talk from the guys that lost ten thousand guns this year.” Erika scoffed.

 

“Please, Erika, not in front of the civilians.” Detective Marcus’s facial expression did not match his words as he winked at Erika and Jeremy: “But yeah, that’s the reason we’re here to take a look at her apartment. If Dr. Nguyen missed one more payment and this remains not a crime scene the landlord will have the right to put this apartment up on the market.”

 

“Why haven’t the feds declared this a crime scene?” Caroline asked from the bathroom.

 

“I don’t know what to tell ya.” Detective Marcus shook his head.

 

Jason let out a long exhale, then he concentrated his Xuanli on his eyes, just like he did in the precinct a few days back.

 

A black shadow appeared in his sight - it climbed into the apartment through the window and dropped down from the ceiling. Then the shadow floated towards the fridge, and performed a movement that looked like it opened the fridge door and put something inside.

 

“I’ll check the fridge.” Jason then walked straight to the fridge and pulled on its door.

 

The door did not open, even when the force Jason used actually moved the entire fridge forward a little.

 

“Try again? ” Detective Marcus noticed Jason’s action, so he walked by to Jason’s side and asked.

 

Jason tried again, then Detective Marcus pulled with him, but neither attempts were successful. The fridge’s position was moved by quite a bit, yet the doors were still unaffected.

 

“This is weird.” Detective Marcus knocked on the fridge door: “No one metioned this in the notes. I wonder why.”

 

“Umm... guys? Raymond?” Erika asked: “Did no one see Dr. Nguyen’s jewelry? Especially the one with a piece of sarira?”

 

“Sarira? What is that?” Detective Marcus asked.

 

“It’s a piece of bone or stone from the bodies of great Buddhist monks after cremation.” Jeremy went by Erika’s side and looked at her phone screen: “Dr. Nguyen was a Buddhist and she treasured it a lot. Her mother got it from Tibet and she really treasured it quite a lot.”

 

“Yeah. Can you double check?” Detective Marcus tried to open the fridge by himself a few times and he started panting: “What the hell is this?”

 

“Caroline? Need your help here.” Jason called at the direction of the bathroom.

 

“Coming.” Caroline came out from Dr. Nguyen’s bathroom holding a small garbage bin: “And Jason, I think you need to take a look at this as well - something odd about this one.”

 

Both Jason and Caroline had their hands on the edge of the fridge door, and without making it too obvious, both of them tried to use their Xuanli to help them exert more force. And the moment their Xuanli was focused on their hands and palms, something from within the fridge reacted badly to it and started smoking.

 

Caroline and Jason’s eyes met, and before Detective Marcus could say anything, they poured their Xuanli onto the fridge door.

 

A faint scream came out from the fridge, and the light in the apartment flickered. The next instant fridge door flew from its hinge in a loud bang and smoke through the room, almost hitting Detective Marcus.

 

A concentrated foul and rotten smell coming from inside of the fridge hit both Caroline and Jason the moment the door opened. Headache, dizziness, severe disgust and drumming from the ears all happened at the same time to both of them and brought them to their knees, retching and shaking.

 

“Holy shit, what’s happening?” Erika and Jeremy rushed to Caroline and Jason’s side and helped them stand up: “Are you Okay?”

 

“Just a second.” Jason spoke through his teeth and walked to the side, took out his flask and took a huge gulp. Caroline was right beside him and just did the same.

 

“Woah, drinking on the job huh? Slow down there.” Jeremy joked.

 

“Aaaah, yikes. That fucking smell almost killed me.” Caroline put down her flask after a few seconds of drinking and exhaled in relief, the fruit wine inside not only refueled her and Jason’s Xuanli, but also helped relieve the terrible sensations induced by the smell.

 

“Smell? What smell?” Erika frowned: “I didn’t smell anything?”

 

“Guys, we need to call this in.” Detective Marcus said, pointing at the fridge: “This is a crime scene now.”

 

It was a full fridge of bones, from what Caroline and Jason could tell, there were at least a few pieces of human ribs and shin bones inside.