The End of The World Detective: Supernatural Sleuths Series, #1

By Shantnu Tiwari

The Apocalypse May Have Happened But Crime Hasn't Gone Away

 

The world as we know it ended when demons from another dimension invaded and butchered more than half the Earth's population. Humanity is barely surviving.

 

And yet they find time to commit murder.

 

The End of the World Detective: The world may have ended but that doesn't mean Agent Elric will let you get away with murder.

 

4 stories :

 

This Girl Wasn't Killed by a Demon – Elric believes a dead girl was killed by humans, not demons.

 

The Demon Didn't Rob That Bank – Did demons really rob a bank, or is sometime trying to fool the army police?

 

The Ghost Highway To Scotland – While hunting a dangerous demon, Elric comes across a mysterious highway haunted by the dead.

 

Jane Doe, Killed by Evil Humans – Someone used a demon attack to cover up a murder. But before Elric can investigate, he is attacked by demons.

 

 

Part of the Supernatural Sleuths Series

 

These detectives don't deal with normal cases. No missing cats and cheating husbands. Only demons who want to rip them apart, dead people who want to solve their own murders and gods who play with them like puppets. Books in the series:

 

Book 1: The Defeated Detective: Royce loses every case he takes. Also, he ends up being killed a lot and must often dig his way out of the grave before he can solve any crime.

 

Book 2: The Mad Detective: Malk is a homeless boy who sees old horrors that shouldn't exist. And when they murder innocents in our world, he must bring the monsters to justice. If he can.

 

Book 3: The End of The World Detective: The apocalypse may have happened but crime hasn't gone away. Elric will make sure that people don't use the apocalypse as an excuse to get away with murder.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shantnu Tiwari
• Release date: Jun 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393859536

Book preview

The world as we know it ended when demons from another dimension invaded and butchered more than half the Earth’s population. Humanity is barely surviving.

---

And yet they find time to commit murder.

---

The End of the World Detective: The world may have ended but that doesn’t mean Agent Elric will let you get away with murder.

This Girl Wasn’t Killed by a Demon

An End of the World Detective Story

This Girl Wasn’t Killed by a Demon

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Elric is hunting a demon when he comes across a dead girl. Clearly murdered.

---

Someone clearly hoped this murder would be disguised as a demon attack. But they made a mistake.

---

Elric will not let a killer get away.

1

Ilooked down at the tracks. They belonged to a woman. The footsteps seemed to be getting closer, which meant she was staggering.

And then there was the blood. It seemed to be increasing with each footstep. Clearly, she was bleeding.

I looked at the windswept field. It was brown and dirty as far as the eyes could see. No grass, no plants, no trees, nothing. Just miles of plain dead land. Brown dirt as far as the eye could see.

This had once been one of the most fertile regions of England. Now it was just a desert. The creatures had been here. They had destroyed everything.

For now, it meant there was no place to hide. So where was the girl?

How did I know it was a girl? Just a guess, based on intuition. The feet looked feminine. As was the style of walking. Again, nothing scientific, just a hunch. But the hunch had never been wrong.

And at one point, the footsteps just stopped. In a pool of blood.

And nothing for miles around. Except for the empty and dry wind, blowing cold air in my face. Air that smelt like a storm was coming.

Could a wild animal have taken her?

Nope. They would have left marks. And blood and body parts.

What about them? Those things?

Again, no. They liked to play with their food which left a lot of gore and blood.

I turned to Kernel. Can you see anything, buddy?

She sniffed at the blood then ran away. Went east first, then north, finally came back to me.

Did you see anything, girl?

Her expression told me she had. I followed her. About half a mile away, I saw it clearly.

Jeep tracks.

How the hell had I missed them? I looked at the ground carefully. As in, my nose touching the dirt careful.

No doubt, someone had taken some effort to clear the foot marks. But they hadn’t or couldn’t wipe the Jeep’s marks. Or they didn’t care. If I didn’t have Kernel I would never have found them.

I went through the scene in my head one more time. A mile out of Waterbeach, I had seen the woman’s tracks going out into the wilderness. No one went into the wild anymore. Not unless they were stupid or they had an troop of armed soldiers. The wild had not just starving animals, but creatures from hell that liked playing with their food, which was almost always human. No one left the few remaining cities nowadays. Even the army preferred to stay inside the town borders.

And yet this woman had deliberately left a well-guarded town, which was right behind her, and decided to walk into the wild. Maybe she was just suicidal?

Except for the blood. She was bleeding. If she was injured, why not seek help in the town? Unless of course, if her attacker was right behind her.

And so I had foolishly decided to follow the tracks. They led for more than a mile. Whoever the woman was, she was tough. Walking a mile while bleeding, escaping from whoever was after her.

My guess was, she couldn’t walk anymore and just collapsed. And her attacker picked her up, careful to wipe any footprints. And he took her back to where she had been running from.

No doubt I was too late. It was hard to say how old the footprints were, but the blood was starting to dry. At least a few hours.

Kernel also looked worried, but for different reasons. There was a dark storm coming. And in the storm were the creatures. Things from hell, people called them. Me, I didn’t believe in hell. And I wasn’t scared of those damn things either. Had fought them many times, beaten them back to where the hell they came from.

But it was a losing war. There were only so many of us humans, while those things seemed to be infinite.

The storm was getting closer, which meant anyone out here was demon food. Unless they were willing to fight. The town of Waterbeach would be safer, it would have proper defences.

Decision time. Fight or flight?

I hadn’t eaten lunch. I didn’t like fighting the forces of hell on an empty stomach. And besides, I was sure by now the girl had been killed by person or persons unknown. I had a murder to solve. To hell with demons, a sacred human life had been taken, and it sure as hell wasn’t demons.

2

Iwalked into the town. It looked…empty.

For one, there was no army presence. Even the smallest town had someone, even if it was one retiree in his sixties who had served in the home guard forty years ago.

There were defence positions, anti-aircraft guns and an energy field, but no soldiers. The energy field looked automatic.

I walked through the field. It was only supposed to stop the creatures.

The town also looked empty. Where was everyone?

After a few minutes of walking, I found a large number of cars parked outside the church, so decided to go in, asking Kernel to wait outside. There was a religious session going on. Wait, no. It was a funeral.

There was a sealed coffin at the front, and a priest was giving a sermon. He looked up to see me.

Welcome, stranger. We will be finished in a few minutes and then get back to you.

Take your time, father. In the meantime, may I ask whose funeral it is?

Young Janice. Only twenty-two years old.

Did young Janice happen to die in the last few hours?

The priest put down his Bible and lowered his glasses. Correct, sir.

He tried to go back to his sermon, but I interrupted him. Mind if I see the body?

The whole church, about 50 people, turned to look at me now. Some were clearly offended. As in, who is this outsider messing with our business?

I wouldn’t mind sir, but I was told she had been ripped apart by zombie like creatures, so she isn’t to be looked at.

And you wouldn’t mind if I checked, would you?

A young man jumped up and blocked my way. He seemed to be barely in his teens. And who the hell are you to barge in here?

I’m with the Army. Agent Elric.

The boy clearly thought he was tough. Oh yeah? Army dog, are you?

He may have been the toughest boy in town, but his 5 foot 9 body had nothing on me. I grabbed him by the collar and lifted him in the air like a little child.

Yes, I am. And I can bark as well. Want me to show you?

Enough!

A really old man got up. Easily in his eighties. And he was wearing an old school uniform. Back from when the army actually fought wars with other humans.

I am Colonel Armstrong. Local Defence Force. Can I see an id, please?

I showed it to him. Agent Elric, Military Intelligence? Well, you outrank me, sir.

He turned to the priest. "An Agent has complete authority in