As Above, So Below

"What lies with our souls, but the echoes of The Blind Kings?

-the man who sees the Kings."

-Entry in the black diary of D.C Houston

The long ride up to Dr. Takinama's office was rather uneventful. James had asked his usual battery of questions, " what time did you discover Dr. Takinama's body?" where were you before the body was found?" Do you know of anyone who may have had a vendetta against Dr. Takinama?"All of which were answered in a standard fashion.

James had felt Brian was very forthcoming, apparently he had been in his office until about 2am the evening of Dr. Takinama's murder, he had several admission essays to look over for the new class of institute recruits coming in for the newest semester of higher learning and was quickly running out of time to do so. Brian had stopped by Dr. Takinama's office on his way out, it wasn't unheard of for Dr. Takinama to stay after hours multiple times a week, working on his experiments and inventions. When Brian had gotten to Dr. Takinama's office he had found the door ajar, and Dr. Takinama laying in the doorway with a knife in his rib cage, and several deep lacerations across his face, arms, chest and neck. Brian stated that he didn't stick around and check for any vital signs before calling the cops.

None of this unnerved James. His time on the force left him unfazed by the violence in Avalon city. He had witnessed how brutal the underbelly of the city could be first hand, when he and his old partner Luke Morris busted an old Decimal den down in the Bowery, run by this skinny rat faced kid name Skreecher. Skreecher was clearly working for the criminal godfather of Avalon city, The Librarian. The Librarian was elusive, he had kept his identity concealed so well that people often considered him a myth. That was until the street drug Decimal entered the veins and blood stream of Avalon.

The thought of the Bowery bust made Jame's skin crawl. It was that bust that James felt, got his partner murdered in cold blood. it wasn't long after Skreecher was sentenced, that Jame's partner of 5 years was found decapitated and flayed in his upper west side apartment. To this very day James had never felt such sorrow. Luke was like a brother to James, they had been raised together in a community center ran by Luke's parents down in the Bowery. Luke's dad was the local pastor, Father Declan Morris and his mother was a local elementary school teacher named Martha. James had moved to the community center with his mother soon after his father had been arrested for aggravated assault and possession. James had started drinking heavily after Luke's death. Anything to numb that memory.

He felt himself tearing up at the thought of Luke. he knew he had to shake it off, For fucks sake he had a job to do, it wasn't exactly a good time to go soft.

DING!

The elevator chimed. "Perfect timing, " James muttered under his breath, " snap the fuck out of this."

The elevator doors opened out into a small hallway that led directly into Dr. Takinama's office. It was perfectly clear to James the moment that he stepped off the elevator, that Brian's account of the crime scene was pretty damn accurate. Yet the thing that stood out most to James was the distinct lack of blood. This was something he had run across before, at Luke's own crime scene. During that investigation, it was determined that the weapon used was a heated Vibroblade, a weapon made for the exact reason that it allowed for instant cauterizing of wounds, a very handy tools in hospitals.

This was not the case here. Someone had taken their time to clean it all up. every last drop.

" Ballsy," James thought, his eyes scanning the office. " Wonder why he felt like he had so much time to clean up. Not a single drop of blood anywhere in here, from what I can see."

Jame's eye caught something. A small black, folded piece of paper tucked under the hour hand of Dr. Takinama's grandfather clock.

James reached for the paper, and quickly unfolded it. the piece of paper had white lettering on a black background, most of which was faded away, but James was able to make out a few letters: Kings.

Kings.

That word lingered in Jame's mind. Dug itself in its crevices and stuck, like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth.

James needed more. More information, more witnesses, more people to talk to. Hell even one fucking name would be nice. He was left with nothing but a scrap of crumpled paper with the word kings scratched all over it.

" Brian, do you happen to know of anyone who may have been close to Dr. Takinama, someone who knew him personally outside of work?"James asked forcefully.

" Well," Brian thought. " honestly, other than his estranged husband Dietrich Tillman, I cant think of a single person who may have interacted with him outside of work. He was always a very private individual, none of us even knew until 2 months ago, that he and Dietrich were having problems, and it wasn't until last Wednesday that we found out Yoshi was actually living here at the institute."

"Wait....Dietrich Tillman, as in Doc Tillman the medical examiner?" James asked. His voice filled with wonder and curiosity. If Brian was talking about the same man that he thought he was, James knew him well. Doc was the M.E assigned to the autopsy of Luke, where he found large amounts of Decimal in Luke's system, and a Nano bot tap embedded in his brain stem. Someone had not only murdered Luke, but had stolen his life, his memories and is now selling them in pill form.

" Yeah! Well I'm pretty sure its the same person. I vaguely recall Yoshi telling me that Dietrich was an M.E." Brain said, his words filled with a mixture of finite confidence and a pinch of uninsured caution.

" Good, that makes talking to him a whole lot easier."