By sarah elizabeth
Detective Bixby kneels next to the broken glass. He lifts a tear-shaped shard in his callused fingers. Is it the shape of a tear or half of a broken heart? Either way, it reminds him of the woman he loves. The woman he lost… or, more accurately, never had.
With a mournful sigh, he slips the shard into a clear baggie and stands. He steps over the corpse and addresses the local beat cop, sliding the evidence onto a tray. “This is all you found?”
“Yes, sir.” The beat shifts from one foot to the other. “I received a call that the alarm had been tripped.”
Bixby pulls the latex gloves from his hands. “And the museum security?”
“No one was here except for him.” He nervously nods toward the corpse.
“Do we know who he is?”
“Alexander Flawn.” The cop flips through his pocket-sized notebook. “He’s the antiques guy at the museum here. Authenticates things.”
“Relics, you mean?” Bixby corrects.
“Yes, sir. I suppose so.”
Bixby peers down at the broken glass, dirt, and pottery not yet collected. “And what missing relic was he authenticating? I’m assuming that’s the motive?”
The beat cop nods. “That’s the theory. It was a tooth of Stephen the Martyr.”
Bixby peers at the nervous rookie. “From the New Testament?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And this museum claimed to have it?”
The cop takes a deep breath and moves a step closer to Detective Bixby, lowering his voice. “It’s been on display for years. That’s what’s odd, isn’t it? After all this time, the authenticity is called into question, and the one person who can authenticate it is murdered.”
Bixby smirks. “Nice work, um…”
“Brian,” the beat cop offers, then corrects, “Officer Shoals.”
Bixby steps over the corpse and past Brian, studying the door jamb. “Unfortunate name. Shoals. Morbid, really, being named after a grave. And what happened here?”
Brian follows Bixby and leans forward, studying the gash in the doorway. “Looks like someone took a sword to the door.”
“In your experience, Shoals, is it common for antiquity thieves to use swords on doors?”
Brian’s eyes narrow at the senior detective. “No, sir. My experience actually has nothing to do with antiquities or homicides or swords. Usually, it’s hookers and misdemeanor drug possession. I’m way out of my league here, sir.”
Bixby returns his attention to the door jamb. “Yes, Shoals, I think you might be. I think we all might be.”
Bixby walks back to the evidence gathered, studying the various baggies. Brian is quick on his heels, keeping his little notebook ready. “What do you think, sir?”
Bixby continues to study the evidence tray. “I think you underestimate yourself, Brian.”
“Sir?”
“Your insights are worthwhile.” Bixby doesn’t remove his gaze from the bagged objects. An ancient story told to him by an amazing woman… a mute woman… continues to haunt him. Ade and her daughter may have been deaf and mute, but he’s never learned so much from anyone as he did from their case. He can’t shake the way Adeline looked at him. The way her thin fingers clung to her coffee. Black and bitter, the way her life had become.
“Any idea where the tooth is now?” Bixby asks as he crosses to look out the shattered window.
“That’s the thing, sir.” Brian trails after him. “It looks like the specialist was killed specifically to steal a priceless artifact.”
Bixby shakes his head. It can’t be. It just can’t be. “This glass looks like it was broken from the inside, doesn’t it?”
Brian peers at the floor and then at the broken glass on the grounds outside the window. “Yes, sir, it actually does.”
“You’ll make a decent detective one day, Shoals—”
“Thank you, sir!”
“—if you keep an open mind.”
“What do you mean, sir?” Brian asks.
Bixby’s sigh is heavy, weighing the air with conspiracy. “What do you know about Greek mythology?”
“Greek mythology, sir? What does that have to do with this?”
Bixby turns to the beat cop. “Greek mythology. Jason and the Argonauts.”
Brian shrugs, still not making the connection. Bixby looks back out the window in time to see an ancient skeleton warrior slip behind a tree. “This wasn’t the tooth of a martyr. It was the tooth of a dragon.”
“But… but, sir, the tooth isn’t here. How can you know who it belongs to? And a dragon, sir? They aren’t real.”
The skeleton peeks out from behind the tree. Its eyeless gaze turns to Bixby, who offers the living relic a slow nod of understanding. Lifting its ancient sword, the skeleton turns from the detective and runs off into the shadows.
Bixby faces the beat cop. “I knew a woman once. A mute woman, but a professor of mythology before her daughter was born.”
“A mute?”
“I learned a great deal from her. Mostly, always expect the impossible.” Bixby starts toward the door. He had seen the dirt, the planter, the case. Evidently, the corpse had an inkling of what they were dealing with as well. It was never Stephen’s tooth. It was a tooth from the quest of Jason the Argonaut. Plant a dragon’s tooth, and a skeleton warrior will grow. Ade had taught him that. She had taught him a lot. Everything worthwhile, really.
“I don’t understand, sir. What woman? What happened here?” Brian fumbles after him.
Bixby stops and faces the curious beat cop. “You did the right thing calling it in, but it’s nothing more than an accidental, work related death. As for the woman… well, that’s another story. You’ve done well. If you ever need a referral, Officer Shoals, you send them to me.”
Bixby walks out the door, leaving Brian amid the artifacts and evidence and corpse. He steps into the cold dark night, thinking of Ade and wishing he’d never gone into homicide… but then he’d never have met the love he’d never have, and he’d never know an artifact could be the killer.
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massively awesome!
Excellent! I enjoyed the Greek myth tie-in.
“Plant a dragon’s tooth and a skeleton warrior will grow”-very fun idea for a story!