The guy shrugged, and placed them on the counter, picking up the first one and punching a price into the cash register.
The punch of the old-fashioned keys brought Reed out of the semi-fog he’d been in. “You mentioned you don’t have all the editions. Do you have any idea where I can find the rest?”
“Oh, yeah.” Kaiden pulled a pad toward him and jotted down two websites. “If you go on those forums, someone should have the rest for sale. You might have to find multiple sellers, but you’ll be able to locate all of them. By my count, you’re only missing three. I could order them for you myself, but I don’t have time to get to it until tonight, and I’d upcharge them.” He gave Reed a gummy smile.
“That’s all right. I think I can handle it.”
“Make sure to haggle,” Kaiden said, continuing to ring up the comics, all of which were encased in thick plastic sleeves. “Those guys’ll try to get as much out of you as they can.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Kaiden reached for a paper bag and put the pile of comics inside, placing it on the counter. “Eight hundred, fifty-two dollars and nineteen cents.”
Reed stared. “For comics?”
“Like I said, collector’s editions. Near mint condition.”
Wow. Reed blew out a breath. He’d been a kid once. He could appreciate a good comic as much as the next guy. But what was that? A hundred dollars a pop? People paid that? Reed placed his credit card on the counter. It didn’t matter. He needed them.
Outside the shop, he walked quickly to his car, parked just a block up the street. He got in, rolled down the window and tore the bag open, pulling out the comic on top and slipping it from the plastic sleeve.
His eyes moved over the beginning of the story, his heart hammering more and more quickly.
Holy shit.
**********
Reed held the comic book up in front of the room, moving it slowly from left to right so everyone could see it. The whole team was there, including detectives working other cases that happened to be in the office. This was big. And something they’d never seen before. Everyone wanted a front-row seat to this break. “Tribulation,” he said, his blood seeming to course faster as he voiced the name. This was it. The break they’d needed to understand this killer who had the whole city on edge. “It’s a lesser-known title, although a collector’s series among real comic aficionados.” He handed it to Ransom to begin passing around the room. “And it’s our killer’s playbook.”
There was a general murmuring around the room and Sergeant Valenti raised his hand, urging them to be quiet. “There’ll be time for questions afterward,” he told the group. “First, let Detective Davies give you the rundown.”
Reed hitched one hip up, half sitting, half leaning on the corner of the desk. “I’m going to tell you the overall plot. The general concept goes like this.” He leaned forward slightly, “There is no separate Heaven, and there is no separate Hell. At least not apart from the earthly sphere. When the Earth was created it was split into two halves, Heaven and Hell, though both coexist simultaneously, and each interacts with the other.”
“They’re both here,” Ransom added. “Right here. Commingling.”
Reed gave him a small tilt of his chin. Ransom and Pagett had been reading through the comics following Reed, so they were well acquainted with the material and could talk it through. “Some humans are living in Hell, some in Heaven. Those who live in Hell realize where they are, but not all those living in Heaven do. Some wander, unseeing, blind to the demons all around, and blind to the suffering of others.” He paused so they could take that in. “They serve only their own selfish interests. When one is recognized as such—a person who shows proof of his or her blindness by disregarding the pain of those in hell, or furthering it—they must be destroyed.”
Reed twisted his upper body, tapping the board with the three enucleated victims and then picking up another edition of Tribulation and holding the cover up that featured the three men walking in a triangular formation, those begging for help to the sides of them, being ignored. “Holy shit,” someone breathed near the back.
My thoughts exactly.
“And then there are the demons themselves,” Reed continued, “the ones who must fall from power if Heaven is going to reign supreme.”