Chapter 7: Memory Feast
Detective Ray Morrison sat in his unmarked car outside Torrino's Italian restaurant, chain-smoking Marlboros and wondering why his meal ticket hadn't answered his phone in six hours. Vincent was religious about communication—part of what made him such a reliable source of supplemental income for a cop whose gambling debts exceeded his annual salary by a factor of three.
Ray's phone buzzed with a text from his bookie: *Payment overdue. Interest compounding. 48 hours or we visit the wife.*
Ray crushed his cigarette in the overflowing ashtray and dialed Vincent's number again. Straight to voicemail, same as the last dozen times. Something was wrong. Vincent never went dark, especially not when Ray was carrying this much debt.
The detective checked his service weapon—a Glock 19 that had "disappeared" three bullets over the past year, each one used to destroy evidence that might have inconvenienced Vincent's operations. Ray had told himself he was protecting the innocent by keeping drug dealers and human traffickers out of prison, where they'd just be replaced by someone worse. It was easier than admitting he'd sold his badge for thirty pieces of silver and a chance to break even at the track.
Ray's radio crackled: "All units, we have a 10-54 at 1247 Martinez Street, apartment 3B. Multiple fatalities, requesting detectives."
The Martinez address made Ray's blood run cold. That was Vincent's collection building, the place where desperate people went to disappear into the loan shark's ecosystem. If Vincent was dead...
Ray keyed his radio. "Detective Morrison responding. ETA five minutes."
He drove through Gotham's Lower East Side with his emergency lights flashing, his mind racing through damage control scenarios. If Vincent was really dead, Ray needed to secure the loan shark's files before Internal Affairs started asking questions about their relationship. Twenty-three months until retirement, and Ray wasn't about to let a dead criminal ruin his pension.
The Martinez building was surrounded by patrol cars, their red and blue lights painting the grimy brick walls in alternating colors of emergency. Ray badged his way past the perimeter, noting the unusual silence among the uniform officers. Cops dealt with murder scenes regularly, but something about this one had them spooked.
Officer Jenny Blake met him at the building entrance, her usually professional demeanor cracked around the edges. "Detective Morrison? You're gonna want to see this, but... it's not like anything in the manual."
Ray climbed three flights of stairs, each step taking him closer to a scene that would haunt him for the remaining twenty-three months of his career. The door to apartment 3B hung off its hinges, splintered wood scattered across the hallway like broken bones. Inside, the apartment looked like a slaughterhouse designed by a philosophy professor.
Four bodies were arranged in a perfect square around the coffee table, each corpse positioned with mathematical precision. Vincent Torrino's remains were barely recognizable—a desiccated husk that looked like it had been mummified while still alive. Tony Ricci lay in a pool of blood, his chest opened with surgical precision. Bobby Torrino appeared to have been crushed by some impossible force, his body compressed into a shape that violated several laws of physics. Marcus Webb's head was twisted completely around, his lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling while his body faced the floor.
At the center of the arrangement sat a pair of broken scales, their balance arm snapped in half and their weighing pans scattered across the blood-soaked carpet.
"Jesus Christ," Ray whispered, his hand instinctively moving to his service weapon. "What the hell happened here?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Officer Blake replied. "No signs of forced entry except the door, which was blown out from the inside. No shell casings, no bullet holes, no conventional weapons anywhere. It's like..." She paused, searching for words. "Like something just... ate them."
Ray forced himself to approach Vincent's corpse, his stomach churning at the sight. The loan shark's face was frozen in an expression of absolute terror, his mouth opened in a silent scream. But what disturbed Ray most was the absence of blood. Whatever had killed Vincent had drained him completely, leaving only empty skin and brittle bones.
"Where's the family?" Ray asked. "The Martinez woman and her kid?"
"Gone," Blake replied. "Neighbors say they saw them leave around dawn, but nobody knows where they went. There's medical equipment in the bedroom, looks like the kid was seriously ill."
Ray walked through the apartment, his trained eye cataloging details while his corrupt heart calculated risks. If Vincent's files were found, Ray's name would be all over them. Bank deposits, payoff schedules, evidence destruction orders—enough to send him to prison for the rest of his natural life.
But first, he needed to understand what had done this to Vincent. The loan shark had been a predator, surrounded by armed men and protected by corrupt officials. What kind of force could penetrate his security and execute his entire crew with such elaborate precision?
Ray's phone buzzed with a text message from an unknown number: *Detective Raymond Morrison. Badge #4471. Evidence locker access codes. Judge Morrison's nephew. $50,000 in gambling debts. Meeting at warehouse district, midnight. Come alone.*
The message was from his own phone number.
Ray stared at the impossible text, his hands shaking as he read the words that seemed to know his deepest secrets. Someone had accessed his phone, his financial records, his family connections. Someone who knew exactly how much leverage they had over him.
A sound from the bedroom made him look up—the soft beeping of medical equipment, even though the apartment was supposed to be empty. Ray drew his weapon and moved toward the sound, his training overriding his fear.
The bedroom door was ajar, revealing a hospital bed with IV equipment still running. But instead of a sick child, the bed contained a single black envelope sealed with dark red wax. Ray's name was written across the front in elegant script.
Inside the envelope was a photograph of Vincent's warehouse, taken from an impossible angle that suggested the photographer had been floating thirty feet above the building. Written on the back in the same elegant script: *Your turn, Detective. The scales demand balance.*
Ray pocketed the photograph and envelope, his mind racing through escape scenarios. He could run—take his pension and disappear into witness protection before whoever killed Vincent came for him. But running meant abandoning his wife, his kids, his entire life in Gotham. And something told him that whoever had sent the photograph wouldn't be deterred by distance or federal protection.
"Detective Morrison?" Officer Blake's voice carried a note of urgency. "We found something else."
Ray returned to the living room, where Blake was pointing at the coffee table. Carved into the wooden surface with inhuman precision were the words: *When justice fails, judgment comes. R. Morrison: 23 hours remaining.*
Ray's service weapon felt suddenly heavy in his hands. Twenty-three hours until what? Until he joined Vincent's corpse arrangement? Until his own secrets were exposed? Until whatever had killed the loan shark decided to balance the scales with his blood?
His radio crackled again: "Detective Morrison, please respond to headquarters. Captain Hayes wants to see you immediately."
Captain Hayes—another name on Vincent's payroll, another corrupt official who'd sold his integrity for a piece of the action. If Hayes was calling an emergency meeting, it meant word of Vincent's death was spreading through the criminal network like wildfire. Every dirty cop, every bought judge, every corrupt official was about to discover that their protection was gone and their secrets were exposed.
Ray holstered his weapon and headed for the door, his mind already working through contingency plans. He had twenty-three hours to figure out who had killed Vincent and why they'd targeted him next. Twenty-three hours to decide whether to run, fight, or confess his sins and hope for mercy that probably didn't exist.
Behind him, the broken scales caught the light from the overhead fixture, their shattered balance arm pointing toward the ceiling like an accusation made physical. The apartment fell silent except for the distant sound of sirens and the soft whisper of wind through the splintered door.
In the shadows between the buildings, something watched Detective Morrison leave. The Architect had been patient, studying his next target through Vincent's absorbed memories. He knew about the gambling debts, the evidence destruction, the willful blindness that had allowed innocent people to suffer while criminals prospered.
Ray Morrison had twenty-three hours to make peace with his crimes. The Architect would spend those hours deciding whether the detective deserved a quick death or something more... educational.
The scales of justice were broken, but the Architect was learning to build new ones from the bones of the guilty.
**************
Advanced chapters on patre*n
DC : Architect of Vengeance
Xmen : Evolution through Death
patre*n*com/Lord_Meph1sto