Chapter 97
“Oh my god. Are they okay?” at the door of the morgue, Caroline said to Jason after he told her about what he encountered at his parents’ house.
“I can’t tell. They looked okay but really tired, so I just asked Mack to drive them to the inn.” Jason shook his head: “And then I just came immediately - something about this and the Prime Royals Hotel just smelled too dangerous.”
“Yeah, I have the same feeling.” Caroline frowned.
“You guys can come in now. Sorry for the wait.” Erika and Jeremy opened the door to let Caroline and Jason in, “Just procedure - we had to sweep the room just in case there is some secretive or infectious stuff.”
“Hey, totally understand. My ex from college was a med student.” Jason smiled and went into the room with Caroline, and not far from the door, the same chained corpse that he and Caroline pulled from the wall in the Prime Royals Hotel was lying on an operating table with white cloth on its side. The corpse was emitting cold mist because it was just pulled from one of the frozen chambers
“Okay, what do you want to do?” Erika asked with arms crossed: “If this thing is as dangerous as you said, we for sure cannot let anyone touch it. And we certainly cannot let the Captain send the corpse to other precincts.”
“Well, the first thing is the coins inside.” Caroline asked Jason: “I don’t think anyone should touch it. Let’s try and see if we can sense something?”
“Okay, I’ll do it?” Jason asked.
“You’re the one more spectrally in-tune.” Caroline shrugged.
Jason took a deep breath, then concentrated his Xuanli and power of mind and will on his eyes.
His sight seemed to have pierced through some shallow layer of the corpse, and he could see something that looked like floating thick black liquid slowly flowing inside of the body. And with just this simple sight, Jason felt a bolt of cold and dark energy shot from the body onto his eyes and through his eyes straight towards his head.
A bright wave of silver energy exploded from Jason’s eyes - his self defence mechanism was triggered. The bolt of dark energy was dispersed and burned up in mid air, but Jason still almost fell on his back. The energy explosion also knocked back some small items on the floor and on tables near him, which startled Erika and Jeremy quite a bit.
“What happened!?” Caroline was just quick enough to hold onto Jason and stop him from completely falling on the ground: “You okay?”
“The corpse, it has something really dark inside.” Jason coughed heavily and wiped away a few drops of blood at the corner of his eyes, “I’m not sure we can handle it. If it got out, I don’t think either of us will be able to stop it.”
“Holy shit!” Jeremy had his back against the wall: “What the hell? What do you mean by something really dark inside?”
“I don’t know what it is. ” Jason coughed and stood up straight, “This thing needs to be locked up and nobody should touch it, and we need to ask Boss for help. This thing is just… too dark for any of us to handle.”
“Okay. We will keep it locked up. ” Erika nodded while still shaking: “I’ll tell Captain, no one should even get close to this.”
“Can you guys do anything? It’s like having a time bomb here.” Jeremy asked: “If there’s something that dangerous inside, I’d assume it’s not safe even if we lock it up right?”
“I’m calling Boss right now.” Jason picked up his phone and dialed Jianmen’s number.
“What’s going on here?” Detective Raymond Marcuse and Monica Jamerson came into the morgue: “Erika, Jeremy, we kinda need your help there. There are two new murder scenes that need your help. ”
“Yeah, sorry. Detectives, we need a minute here.” Erika stood before Caroline and Jason: “We’ll be there as soon as we can, but we’re kinda working on something here and we need some time.”
“Hmm, why are you guys looking at that thing? Final look before it got shipped off?” Detective Raymond Marcus asked.
“What? I thought it was still undecided.” Jeremy asked, with a nervous high pitched voice: “When!? We can’t move it!”
“I think sometime this week, might be as soon as the day after tomorrow. ” Detective Monica Jamerson shrugged: “I heard the 57th precinct want to take it - their lead forensic scientist is pretty interested in this body. They have some decades old case around the Prime Royals Hotel and they want to take a look at it.”
“What? They want to take a look at decade old cases? Why?” Erika narrowed her eyes and almost yelled.
“Don’t know. Don’t care. Maybe they’re fans of the haunted hotel. ” Detective Marcus also shrugged: “But whatever you guys are doing here, be quick. We’ve got crime scenes and we need your help there.”
“What does your Boss say?” Erika turned to Jason and asked: “Is he gonna come? You got injured, he should be on his way.”
“I’m here. I’m here.” Jianmen’s voice suddenly came from barely outside the room.
“What? Who the hell are you?!” Detective Marcus and Jamerson stared at Jianmen suspiciously and asked.
“I am the consultant - to your paranormal consultants.” Jianmen effortlessly squeezed into the morgue and took a look at the body on the operating table: “I am no expert, but your consultants called me so here I am.”
“Thank god Boss.” Caroline told Jianmen: “I thought you weren’t coming because you were doing something?”
“I was. It’s kind of a nasty and twistedly nasty business. I need to go back as soon as possible. ” Jianmen took a look at Jason’s head and eyes, sighed in relief then rushed to the side of the operating table with a frown: “And from what I’ve heard. This may just be too dangerous for you two. And Jason, remember to take a shower and have a nice sleep when you get back.”
“And what do you think? Is it dangerous? Is it safe to be kept here?” Caroline asked.
“I think… that you are safe for now. Unless you do something stupid.” Jianmen examined the body for a short while, then took out a wooden coin and stuffed it inside the corpse’s mouth: “Yeah, my advice, don’t move this body for up to 1 week. It’d be better if you put it under the sun during the whole process.”
“We can’t do any of that.” Detective Marcus raised his voice: “And what reason do you have for this kind of suggestion?”
“Yeah. Sorry, but I really, really have no time to explain. Just please don’t move this corpse anywhere. And don’t remove that coin from the mouth. ” Jianmen clapped his hands, seemingly casting an innocuous spell. Then he patted on both Caroline and Jason’s shoulders and walked straight out of the morgue’s door: “If you’re gonna move the body someplace else, at least wait a week! And Caroline, Jason, be careful of the body. Try to find traces of the Doctor if possible. But don’t directly engage with this body. I’ll help you when I finished dealing with this… thing”
“What the hell are you talking about - ” when Detective Marcus and Jamerson tried to chase Jianmen, they found that Jianmen already disappeared.
“Okay, explain yourselves. Who the hell is that? And why would we listen to him?” Detective Marcus asked Caroline and Jason loudly.
“Detectives, what are you doing here?” the Captain walked up to the door to the morgue: “We’ve got two murders scenes that need our attention.”
“Yes. We were just trying to help Erika and Jeremy wrap up their business here - they’re trying to do some last minute research before it got shipped to the 57th precinct.” Detective Jamerson told the captain.
“Ah, don’t worry about it. I can delay the move until next week if you two really want to take a look at it. ” the Captain looked at Erika and Jeremy with curiosity: “But now, please lock it up and get to the crime scenes.”
“Really? That’s … really great. Thank you!” Erika and Jeremy exchanged looks and then stared at Caroline and Jason: “Let’s lock it up and deal with it later. You guys are free for the rest of the week right?”
“Yeah, sure. Just nobody touches it until we are confident it is safe.” Caroline nodded.