The Woo-Woo Squad

Reedsy #522, No One Will Believe You, 2026 Sep 18

Prompt #5: Write about a character who notices something others cannot—or refuse—to see

THE WOO-WOO SQUAD

Detective Samantha Keats looked down at the body of Detective Frank Vandercleef. Vandercleef had been interviewing a suspect in Interview Room Two, when he’d been murdered. He’d been garrotted.  Keats knew that death by garrotte took two or three minutes. After no more than thirty seconds Vandercleef would have been unconscious, unable to fight his attacker. 

She looked behind her at the body of Vince Caprio, pushed against the wall behind the door. Also garrotted.

Two dead in a closed room that only had two people in it.

She looked around the room. It was just an interview room—the same as every other interview room in the building. There were four metal chairs, two on each side, and a metal table bolted to the floor. There were two cameras in the room—the wide angle camera used to capture the entire room, one close-up camera focussed on the interviewee. The cameras hadn’t been tampered with, as far as she could tell.  There were no ceiling panels or windows, and only one door with a small rectangle glass at shoulder height, undamaged. The only anomaly were the dead bodies of Vandercleef and Caprio. 

What the hell had happened here?

She looked at Vandercleef. His face was mottled and swollen, petechial hemorrhages in both eyes, and of course the ligature mark across his throat. She could see deep gouges at the front of his throat where he’d raked at the garrotte.  She turned to look at Caprio’s body, which showed the same signs of strangulation.  

Death by garrotte in a closed interview room.

How had this happened?  

That was why she was here—to find out the how.

She left the interview room, and moved down the hall to the video observation room. She found the tech—whose name tag identified her as A. C. Cole (Ava)—and asked her to set up Vandercleef’s interview with Vince Caprio. As the tech cued up the video, Keats sat down in front of the terminal.  

She watched as two officers escorted Vince Caprio into the interview room, directed him to one of the chairs farthest from the door, and left him. Keats watched as he sat back, arms crossed, and waited. Two minutes and fourteen seconds later, Vandercleef entered the room carrying a beige file folder. Before he sat down, she saw it.

“Stop the tape,” she said. Ava did as instructed. “Rewind fifteen seconds.” Cole rewound. “Now, play at half speed.” She did. 

Keats could see the slight shimmer in the air follow Vandercleef into the room.  

“Again.”

Ava played it again. Keats could see the shimmer. She noted the time in her notebook.  

“Okay, play it at regular speed, please.”

Keats watched as Vandercleef sat down, and opened his file folder. Before he said anything his eyes bulged and he began clawing at his throat. The attack took less than two minutes.

“Stop.” The recording stopped.

Keats was horrified. She’d never watched someone she knew die so horribly. She scrubbed at her face. “Okay, start.”

Keats watched as the suspect, Vince Caprio stood up, yelled “What the fuck!” and backed himself in the corner as far away from a struggling Vandercleef as he could get. 

Caprio’s eyes were huge, his head turning from side to side trying to see what was in the room with him. Keats watched as Caprio scuttled towards the door, his back to the wall, not looking at Vandercleef’s body. His eyes darted around, as he said over and over, “I’m cool, I’m cool. No problem with me. I’m cool.”

He’d raised an arm to start banging on the door, but before he could land a blow, the same thing happened to him. In two minutes, Vince Caprio was as dead as Frank Vandercleef.  

“Start it again,” she said, “half speed.”

This time, Keats followed the shimmer roam around the room. She watched as it killed Vandercleef, then Caprio. Then it waited. “Regular speed,” she said. She watched as the file Vandercleef had set on the table levitated and disappeared. Then she saw it move to the door. Then she heard the banging—loud, insistent banging on the door. She watched as the door flew open, only to stop because Caprio’s body was blocking the door. A uniform officer shoved the door open, surveyed the room and stepped out. Keats watched as the closing door stopped, and the shimmer disappeared into the hall. 

Keats knew the camera kept recording for almost two more hours because no one thought to stop it. She leaned back, watching the mayhem continue in Interview Room Two.

“It was Detective Weatherby.”

Keats turned to look at the AV tech, who was standing beside her. She squinted. “Detective Weatherby wasn’t there.”

“He was.” The tech paused. “Just not all of him.”

Keats looked at her, then at her name tag. “Tell me what you saw, A. C. Cole.”

Instead of answering, she looked at Keats. “You saw something, too, right?”

Keats thought for a moment. Saying she saw a shimmer was probably career suicide. No one wanted to work with someone who “saw” things. But she had seen something. She decided. “A shimmer, a disruption in the light and air in that room. I could see it moving around the room.”

Ava nodded. “That was Detective Weatherby.” She looked at the screen continuing to broadcast the interview room as it was processed as a murder scene. “I could see most of him. He was just … see through? Like a ghost in a movie. I could see the wall behind him. But it was definitely him.”

Keats looked at the woman skeptically. “You’re not lying to me, are you A. C. Cole?”

Ava shook her head. “I’m not.”

Keats looked at her and crossed her arms. “Then why can you see him and I can’t?”

“You can, too, just not all of him.”

Keats could almost get her head around that. But not quite. It was too … too … weird. Her training officer had told her that there was “weird shit” that happened—stuff that needed to be passed on to Thirteen Squad. Keats looked at Ava. “So,” she started, “if you could see him in the interview room, you could follow him on camera, right?”

Ava nodded, and sat down at her terminal. Keats rolled her chair over. Together they tracked Detective Weatherby move unseen through the police station.  

Keats looked at Ava. “How does he do it?” she asked, looking back at the screen where Ava traced his progress with her finger. As she switched from one camera to another, Keats saw that Weatherby was heading towards the men’s locker room. Just before he entered, she could see him—not just the shimmer, all of him, but, like Ava had said, he was transparent.  

“I can see him!” she said.

“His magic is wearing off.”

Keats looked at her. “Magic?”XXXXX

Ava nodded. “I think so.” Then she shrugged. “That’s what I think of it as.”

They said nothing, waiting for Weatherby to exit the locker room.  

They both looked up as a man entered the AV room. Keats recognized him as Captain Moe Jacobs. While not her captain, she knew he was in charge of the Woo-Woo Squad—Thirteen Squad. “Detective Keats” he said. “What have we got?”

Keats and Ava looked at each other. “Uh,” started Keats, looking at him uncertainly. “Two dead—one officer and one civilian. Closed room. There’s video.”

“Anything I should know about the video,” he asked Keats.

This was where the rubber met the road—tell him that she and Ava both saw a senior detective murder a fellow detective and a suspect he was interviewing? But that said-senior detective was invisible. Or just say that it was a mystery that she couldn’t explain. She looked at Ava, gave her a short nod, and looked back at the Captain, and told him what they had seen.  

“You both saw him?”

Keats spoke up. “Detective Weatherby, yes. I could only see the shimmer, but A. C. Cole could see him enough to identify him. Just before he entered the locker room, I could see him as well.”

Jacobs considered what she had said. “Short term spell,” and nodded. “Do you know where he is now?”

They both shook their heads, but Keats spoke up. “Captain, Weatherby was Frank’s partner. They worked together every shift.”

Jacobs nodded slowly. “I know Detective.” He took a deep breath, and looked at the women. “Okay, I’ll take it from here. Thank you both very much for being honest with me. I’ll ask that you don’t mention what you discovered. If anyone asks, you’re still investigating.”  

The two women watched as he turned on his heel, and left the room, both wondering what they had gotten themselves into.

*****

“Captain Jacobs wants to see you in his office,” said her sergeant. “Now.”

Keats wasn’t surprised, but she’d been dreading the summons. She got up and walked to his office, knocking when she arrived.

“Come in and close the door behind you.”

She entered and closed the door, She saw was Ava already there. They were both standing, Jacobs leaning against the front of his desk, ankles crossed, Ava standing awkwardly, her hands clasped in front of her.

He looked from Keats to Ava. “Detective Bryan Weatherby was arrested for the murder of Detective Frank Vandercleef and Vince Caprio.”  

Keats looked at the captain, her brows furrowed. “I don’t understand. No one saw him enter or leave the interview room. He didn’t appear on camera.” She paused. “Not really. How can he be charged?”

“We searched his locker and found the file Frank had with him, and the garrotte.”

“Without probable cause?” she asked.

“Thirteen Squad has special powers when supernatural forces are involved in a crime.”

Keats and Ava looked at each other. “Magic?” asked Keats.

“Yes.” He looked at the women. “There’s a lot of magic in the world. That’s why we have Squad Thirteen—to use the law to control its use.”

“Do you know why Weatherby killed Frank?” asked Keats.

“Weatherby was taking money from Caprio and his people. They were using invisibility to pull off heists. Weatherby knew what they were doing, and demanded money. Frank found out. That’s why he was interviewing Caprio.”

Ava spoke up, “Was Detective Weatherby using a cloaking spell?”

Jacobs nodded. “He was.” Then he changed tack. “What do you know about incantations, Ms. Cole?”

She shrugged. “My grannie had the sight. She said that you can only make yourself invisible if you have The Words. She never used the word spell, she just called them The Words. She had a book.”

Jacobs nodded, and turned to Keats. “Any supernatural leanings in your family, Detective Keats?”

Keats shook her head. “No. Not really. Just me.” Jacobs nodded for her to continue. “I can sometimes sense or see shimmers in the landscape. Like I saw today on the recording from the interview room.”

Jacobs was nodding his head. “That’s it?”

Keats nodded. “Yes, sir.”

He paused a moment to think. “Okay,” he said, “This is what’s going to happen. I’m transferring you both to Thirteen Squad. Effective immediately.” Keats and Ava looked at each other. “You both appear to have the skill sets that we need.” He looked at Keats. “We will give you additional training, to help hone your skills.” He turned to Ava. “I would like you to help Detective Keats in some of this training.”

Ava looked confused. She looked from Keats to Jacobs. “I’m not an officer, I’m just a tech,” she said.

“I understand,” said Jacobs. “But, you have special abilities that are invaluable to the squad, and the police service. We can have you in the field as a civilian specialist—like when you go to a crime scene to record the evidence. Same premise, different skills.” He looked at both of them. “Any questions?”

Both women shook their heads. 

They had no idea what was waiting for them on the Woo-Woo Squad.