Sometimes I Hate Being Right

I glare at the two detectives sitting in front of me, sigh and explain the situation. I suspect we are dealing with one of those cases and if we are then there's not much point to investigating things further, however something is different this time around. We've found three corpses in the past month, all share the same MO but they were not drained, they were all beheaded and the strangest part is that all three of them had fake IDs, very good ones, but still fakes, which begs the question of who they really were and why they were killed in a clearly ritual fashion. I do know this is big, and the Commissioner is not making things easy for me. He wants this solved and he wants it solved yesterday. The good news is that at least the media still hasn't picked up the story but when it does...

Without a word I hand them the folder. Sandburg gets to it first, takes a look at a couple of pictures, shakes his head and hands it over to Jim.

"I'm assuming that it's one of yours."

"Looks that way," mutters Sandburg, "you won't catch this killer."

"As long as he, it, whatever doesn't kill again." I tell him... I know why those responsible for those killings are never caught and I'm willing to look the other way as long as they make sure that they are stopped but these cases have brought our solve rate down considerably and I'm not happy about that.

"It may not be that simple this time. This is the work of a headhunter, not a vampire and slayers can't kill humans."

"Then what do you intend to do about it?" I ask.

"Our hands are kind of tied here, you see, we can't interfere but this killer is not a threat to the general population."

"'Not a threat to the general population'? This one has killed three people already, Sandburg!"

"Yes, but it's complicated and you probably don't want to hear about it."

"I know I don't but that's never stopped you before. I used to think Cascade was the most dangerous city in America until your father moved here. I thought things couldn't get any worse and I don't like being wrong."

"Okay, let's just say that there is a whole race of people who can live forever unless they are beheaded... and quite a few of them spend their lives hunting for others of their kind."

"What do you mean 'they can live forever'?"

"Well, some of them are several thousands of years old."

"Which would explain the fake IDs." I say.

"Exactly."

"And what do you propose we do?"

"Well, my guess is that he or she doesn't have a watcher."

"What's a watcher and how do you know our killer doesn't have one?"

"A watcher keeps a chronicle of an Immortal's life, and I suspect our killer doesn't have one because if he did we wouldn't be finding the bodies."

"I don't want to know."

"That's what I told you."

"So, do you think we should try and get him one?" Asks Jim.

"It's going to be difficult if we don't know who we are dealing with and if we don't want to alert them to what we are up to here, but I don't think we have much of a choice here."

"Well, maybe we could call Joe and ask him if they have any missing Immortals who might have settled in Cascade recently. Three heads are more than what we would expect to find if we were dealing with a newbie who just got lucky. Whoever our Immie is, he's probably been doing this for a while, I'd guess at least a few centuries."

"So I guess our next step would be to place a call to Seacouver."

"Seacouver? 'Decapitation capital of the world' Seacouver?" I ask with a sinking feeling. If this is related to what's been happening in Seacouver for years then it is not going to be good.

"Well, yes." Says Sandburg.

"And what will this watcher do?"

"You are really not going to like this."

"I already don't." I growl.

"A watcher would make sure the bodies are never found."

"Great, that's your idea? Get someone to help the killer dispose of the bodies? Maybe the city should offer something like this as a public service! Maybe we could get some convicted felons to help as part of their sentences, maybe we could suggest this as an option for those who have to do some community service and so on! Wouldn't that be a useful solution?!"

"Believe me, we know it's not ideal but that's about the only thing we can do. We can't allow the government to learn about Immortals, it would be a disaster. Besides, Immortals live by their own rules and for the most part they don't see mortals as victims, though some of them see them as tools... and if an Immortal starts attracting too much attention by preying on mortals he or she will be stopped." Says Blair.

"I don't know who our 'victims' here were, Captain, but I can pretty much promise you they weren't innocents. They fought, they lost... that's how they live their lives. We may not approve but unmasking them could unleash a war between mortals and Immortals and that would not be a good thing. We are talking warriors here, not soldiers but warriors who have been fighting for centuries, honing their skills not just for the kill but also the ability to blend in as civilizations rise and fall around them. They may be a tiny minority, but the damage they could inflict would be devastating." Adds Jim.

I shake my head, I knew even before I called them that it was bound to be one of those cases. I may hate being wrong but sometimes I hate being right even more.