So Ivan wasn't exactly claustrophobic. Not really. He'd been in the underground- including tightly cramped tunnels. Idly, he wondered what ever happened to Xena the Snake Lady. He'd met a lot of strange folk in his short few years on the job. He loved Danya. But even so, he felt a twinge thinking of Zoya. She had been....something. Someone from another life. He put the memory away.
But anyway, he was in a police station and not with family. And he could just feel the air pressure changing. He remembered the weight of the concrete, earth and stone above him in the tunnels. And he helt the same thing above. Heaviness. Weight. Mass.
And part of him wanted to run home to his family. Just be with them.
He has a job to do. Intuition wasn't evidence. So he would stay. But he found he didnt have anything to add. I just couldnt find any words to interject. He was sure that would change. But for now, he said nothing.
Dorian nodded. Good. He wouldn't have to epxlain to her why and how she wouldn't ever find the body much less the man. Doria smiled "A cold case -- missing person. His family is looking for him back in Italy, but like his father he's gone missing. Must run in the family. Running away from responsibilities and all." Dorian didn't have to worry about the missing person's case, they had come to Moscow looking, but they had nothing to offer him. His credit cards were not in use, his person hasn't been seen. He just sort of disappeared. Moscow was a place you could do that.
They didn't know he was dust on the wind -- there was no body, no evidence left, and this snow would wash away anything that may have lingered at the scene. But Dorian knew Nox was careful. Knew there was nothing to see, and Sage had cleaned up the rest. There would be nothing to find. And there was no guilt for the coverup -- there never had been. This was why Dorian was a cop in the first place. He was the bridge between the Atharim and the government. He hid what he had to and he did both jobs. It was hard getting out of that habit but he stilll did it.
Marisol nodded at the explanation. It wasn’t an odd one. She hasn’t cared about Pirrozi so much. She was more concerned about Rachel Shale. But that was enough for now. Ivan had been quiet since he had talked on the phone. It was something Marisol had noticed. Ivan had made a call. Dorian, like her, had sent a couple of texts. She was willing to guess that Ivan probably had a family - maybe a wife and kids - and had them on his mind now. Dorian - maybe he didn’t so much. She didn’t know. It wasn’t really her business, but it was hard not to notice things when it was your life’s work.
”Well, we have our caffeine and snacks if we so wish. Going to be stuck here, so might as well get back to work.” she said with a smile, trying to keep her spirits high. ”Comference room will be more comfortable than working around my desk.”
Marisol led the detectives to the conference room and let them know that she would get all the evidence and return giving the pair a chance to get settled. She did so promptly, and set the evidence on the table in the room before moving to the whiteboard in the room.
”Okay - a recap to see if I got this right. Things we know: the victim was being stalked by a creature called an ijiraq,” as she spoke, she wrote the information on the white board in a neat hand. It was more for her benefit than the other detectives. She was a visual person. ”Things we might know but aren’t sure of. The victim was a channeler which is what attracted the ijiraq to him. Channeling would account for the condition of the apartment. And what we don’t know: how the victim died (maybe the ijiraq killed him, he channeled himself to death, or a combination of both). Could be other things too. We don’t know how to find the ijiraq. And,” she turned towards them, not writing the next part on the board. ”Im not really sure what we do when we find it. I’m assuming we can’t place it under arrest - so it will have to be eliminated.” she didn’t like thinking of it that way, but it was likely the truth. She had been a normal cop for so long it was hard to think about. Still she colored her words with a smile that said her comment about arresting it had been a joke. She turned towards Ivan. ”You said it could be frozen and shattered, but it resists magic right? Means it will be difficult to magically freeze, correct?” she turned back to the board. ”Did I miss anything or make any stupid assumptions?” this was all very new to her. She thought she was taking it well though.
With a bag of chips in hand Dorian sighed. It wasn't exactly what he was hoping for but beggers couldn't be choosers. "They aren't immune to magic. I'm pretty sure they can be stopped with it, It's just hard to hit them because they can evaporate into nothingness before you react. But finding them it's a needle in the hay stack."
Dorian was out of his depths it wasn't his job to hunt monsters. He still was a cop. This was new for him as well. How did you hunt a monster tht was virtually invisible. "I think the most we can do declare it not a murder. As far as the case goes. He over channeled, not sure it matters if its a monster or himself. We have the paranoia bit covered. But we don't hunt and kill monsters. We arrest humans, we handle the weird, solve the case. But we are still not hunters and killers." That was his take on the job. They were training on the weird to understand -- not to hunt monsters.
Ivan snagged a bag of chips and a coke as they walked into the conference room. The detectives hand was clear and concise. And ultimately felt like it led to a dead end. He left his chips and drink on the table and got up, standing close to the board, thinking. He looked af Vega and Marisol. Something nagged at him and he found his head shaking slightly. "There are lots of channelers these days. At least, a lot who have come out. And yet...we've not seen an increase in odd deaths that bear hallmarks of ijiraq
He paused, his thoughts forming almost as he spoke. "If these were merely ijiraq feedings based on available channlers, we'd see more of these. We don't" He felt a measure of certainty in his gut. Yeah yeah, he knew good detective work was to not go off of hunches. And he tried not to. But this felt right It fit the facts. "If ijiraq are killers....and they can be controlled, then there is a better than likely probability that this was a hit. That it was sent to kill him."
He turned around, ready for doubt and raised his hand. I'm not saying we eliminate other possibilities. But if you have a city of available prey and invisible tigers and and yet we dont hear of tiger attacks on the increase, it seems to tell you this tiger was sent to that prey. And.... he smiled and raised an eyebrow. "It gives us a glad to chase down. Rather than treat this like a random attack, we can view this as a targetted murder. An assassination even.
He looked at Vega and Marisol. "That's the angle I think we should chase down. Why would someone want this guy dead.
Dorian sat down in a chair. This was all very meh. They had good ideas. "So you think that someone has some means of controlling an ancient creature no one's heard of and the Atharim only know of because of the singular device that is currently lost with the form Regus of the Atharim, that controls them, is out there, and someone used said ancient device to send an incorporeal entity after a man as an assassin? I won't stop you from looking but the means of controling an Ijiraq is few and far between. I can almost guarantee you even the Atharim only know of one, and that's only because Aria told Nox what was controling the one sent after the Ascendancy. And to my knowledge Nox and Oriena have not had any luck finding that tablet. And when the Wicked Truth is involved I'm more inclined to say this was a feeding gone wrong. I think the bigger question is why did the Ijira leave a burnt body behind. Because as you said, there should be more bodies if that's how a normal kill goes -- which I'm not saying it is, but my gut says that's not how it looks. I more or less imagine there is nothing left after a complete feeding. Why leave behind a body when you can leave behind a pile of ash and blow it away in the wind?"