After finishing up at the scene Devlin headed back to the station to compile notes and fill out his reports. It was barely 8 a.m. He parked and made his way inside, hanging his hat and overcoat on a communal rack just next to the bullpen.

His desk stood out next to his fellow officers; no picture frames or decorations, just a file basket and his typewriter. His stationary was stored in a drawer as well as finished reports. He retrieved a blank copy and started clacking away when another Detective approached his desk with a coffee mug in hand.

"Mornin' Brígh!" A far too cheerful man in his 50's with a messy mop of grey hair called out. Somehow Detective Jim Appleton always looked perpetually disheveled, unprofessional, and in general, clueless. Despite this he had the highest closing rate in Kansas City and was Devlin's close friend and mentor. Appleton rubbed his stubbled chin while he leaned against Dev's desk and set down a second mug of coffee Devlin hadn't seen.

"Thanks Appleton. Did you dress in the dark this morning? I don't understand how your wife lets you leave the house looking like that." Dev chuckled.

"Oooh Beth doesn't mind how I leave as long as I come home looking roughly the same." Appleton sipped at his coffee. "I heard you got the bloody mess this morning. Anything?" He offered his hand to look over the report. Dev held it out and Appleton whistled through his teeth. "Well, can't say I'm not happy to not be on this one, but, you always manage to land a collar on these strange cases. If you need any help, I'll be right over here." Appleton wandered over to his own desk, just as unkempt and messy as its owner. He put his feet up and sipped the coffee.

"Appleton, get your feet off the desk, if the Captain were to see you he'd have a conniption fit." As if summoned, Captain Tobias Townshend appeared in his office doorway.

"Appleton, get your feet off that desk!" Jim sloshed coffee on an already stained shirt as he moved to comply. "Brígh, my office! Bring me your report." Dev whacked Appleton mockingly on his wrist as he passed by. Captain Townshend's office was full of commendations, trophies, awards and plaques, as well as the very smartly dressed Captain. Always at odds with Appleton's appearance, the Captain was polar opposite. Not a hair out of place nor a crease in his shirt. He had been a great beat cop, an even better Detective, and now was in line to live up to his reputation as Captain. He was Appleton's partner at one point. He motioned for Dev to sit down and held out his hand for the report.

The Captain scanned over the report with a weather eye and handed back the report. "Did you get the contact information for the night guards?"

Dev nodded. "I plan to visit the morgue to collect Doctor Kaine's report as well as the book mentioned in the report. Then I would go speak to security guards to get their statements."

"Not a lot to go on Detective. I'm worried that this will end up a cold case. I want you to do your due diligence and if there are still no leads, I want you to cease your investigation."

"Sir?!" Dev was shocked.

"I don't want one of my top Detectives wasting his time on a John Doe with," the Captain reached up and touched a Crucifix on a chain around his neck, "such unsavory details surrounding it. I know that in the past you have excelled in these particular types of cases, but this one already seems as if it will divert you from your other cases. Understood? Dismissed."

Dev just nodded and walked slowly out the door.

-

Dev sat in the hospital parking lot, a smoking cigarette hanging out the window. The drive over from the station to the morgue has passed by without him noticing. Drop the case? So soon? It was like the Captain was either worried about the case or was being pressured into ordering Dev to leave it. Neither of which sat well. A highly decorated office being afraid of a strange and difficult case felt wrong, Dev relished the weird ones. It gave him the opportunity to really challenge his mind to connect the evidence. And if someone above the Captain wanted the case closed and the Captain caved, it meant he was being manipulated. Whether politically or financially, the ulterior motives implicated were more disturbing than the possibility of the Captain losing his edge. His cigarette had gone out.

Dev sighed, lit another cigarette and closed his eyes. He was looking at the crime scene in his mind's eye, going over ever inch, every tiny shred of possible evidence. Bloody floor. Victim nailed to the ceiling. And, nothing? He rubbed his temples, trying to massage away the beginnings of a head ache.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Not enough clues. He needed to talk to Doctor Kaine. He got out of the car and finished his cigarette. As he closed the door, hairs on the back of his neck stood up. It felt like he was being watched. Dev stiffened but tried to act like he didn't feel it. He straightened his overcoat and rolled his neck, trying to look around for his stalker. He started walking down the ramp to the morgue reassuring himself that he had imagined the feeling and that he had just gotten himself worked up because of the order to drop the case. He approached the door of the Medical Examiner's office and looked back over his shoulder before entering. No one there, nothing sinister at the top of the ramp. Shaking his head, he went inside.

The morgue was always chilly. There were three examination tables, two of which had bodies covered by sheets in that same hospital shade of green that every hospital seemed to adopt. On the walls were doors to 12 cold lockers, over half of them had little identification placards on them with names of the deceased. Doctor Kaine was seated on a stool on the far side of the room hunched over the countertop filling out a report. He had half a sandwich in one hand and a pencil in the other. Dev cleared his throat to get the good doctor's attention.

"I see you have arrived for my report." Doctor Kaine said without looking up from the report. He took a bite of his sandwich and filled out another part of the form. "It's on the little rolling desk at the head of exam table three. As well as the book. If you'll give me a few moments, I will have finished this report and will be at your beck and call." He took another bite of his sandwich. Dev approached exam table three and went over the report. 'The only visible wound on the cadaver is one 12 inch laceration on posterior thoracic region. Inside wound, an 8x4x1 inch book was found wrapped in plastic.'

Only wound? Dev pulled the sheet back to look at the wrists and hands of the body. No cuts or stabs. Not even a bruise. How had he been stuck to the ceiling?

"I see you are confused." Doctor Kaine said from right behind him.

"Do you have to sneak up on people in the morgue, Doc? Or is it just for fun?" Dev asked, clutching his chest mockingly. Kaine just smiled wryly.

"It's about the only fun I can have down here." His smile disappeared and he reached for the report. "At the scene I'm sure you noticed that the victim was affixed to the ceiling in a certain manner, crucifixion. While you were questioning the manager and foreman, Jeffrey and I went to work removing the victim. He was held in place not by nails or fasteners as you have seen, but by straps strategically placed at his ankles and wrists, as well as one around his waist and neck. The lack of bruising at each site indicates that there was no struggle. He was hung postmortem. I have also come to the conclusion that the cut on his back was done postmortem as well. I believe this man was dead before he ever arrived at the steel mill."

"Have you worked out a cause of death?"

"No. His heart appears to have been healthy before death, as well as his other organs. From my experience, this man didn't medically die."

"Meaning?"

"He just ceased living." Doctor Kaine gave Dev a moment to let that sink in.

"But... But that doesn't make any sense. What are you putting in your report as cause of death? He just gave up?" Doctor Kaine pursed his lips.

"No, Detective, currently the cause of death is listed as Unknown. Then there is the matter of how he was hung from the ceiling, but that is for a detective to figure out, not a doctor." Dev steps away from the examination table in shock. So everything in that room had been staged. Nothing was as it seemed.

"And the blood?"

"I am also inclined to believe that it is not your John Doe's blood."

Dev's head was spinning, the earlier headache returning. So many questions. "Who in their right mind finds a dead body or kills a man, then takes him to a public place to affix said body to the ceiling and then dumps a gallon or two of someone or something else's blood around the room? Do you know how hard it would be to lift and attach a body to a ceiling? This means there had to be more than one killer. Can I even call them a killer yet?" Dev trails off, his thoughts losing coherency.

"Detective. Whoever did this did not have their mind right. To try to apply logic to this particular scenario is to flirt with madness." Doctor Kaine hands Dev an evidence bag with the small book in it. "Perhaps there will be some insight here?" Dev accepted the book and thanked the doctor. In a haze he made his way back to his car and throws his overcoat and the book into the front seat.

He retrieves a cigarette and struggles to light it with shaking hands. His hackles rise again. He jumps into the driver's seat and speeds away. A few miles away he pulls over on the side of the road and tries to calm his mind. In the corner of his eye, he sees the little book. It is bound in black leather and if it weren't for the conditions of its discovery, it would just be a book. Unassuming. Unimportant.

He picks it up and looks over the outer bindings. No markings, no title. Some plain stitching around the edges of the covers holding it together. No more than a hundred pages probably. It looked more like a nice diary not entirely dissimilar from the notebook he carried in his daily life. He steels himself and flips the cover open. The pages look like they were wet and dried many times, the texture doesn't quite feel like paper. He skims through it, seeing strange circles and markings throughout. On the first page is only one word - "NUMEN"