[ WP ] The last words of anyone as they die are prophetic , and always come true : tell the story of a professional Prophecy Detective .

Detective McAfee bent over the corpse, pushed the head to its other side with a gloved hand. `` Did someone hear his last words?'' 
 
 The officer held a kleenex over his nose to hide the stench. `` One neighbor heard them. She heard a scream in this apartment, followed by the body falling to the floor, and then the shout.'' 
 
 McAfee gestured, as if to say *well? * 
 
 `` The man said,'The winds will take him, and then the Calvian rocks.''' 
 
 `` Sheesh,'' McAfee said, sighing. `` They just get more and more cryptic.'' 
 
 The officer led McAfee over to a coffee table in the apartment. Meanwhile the crime scene investigators deposited a knife into a plastic bag, collected DNA samples while wearing rubber gloves. `` Do you know what it means?'' the officer asked. 
 
 `` Ca n't say yet.'' McAfee found the coffee he'd set down, sighing that he'd left a brown ring on the oak of the end table. `` When the death rattle prophecies started, they were very specific. The first one predicted that president Shin Zhin would resign, even included the year. We all know about that one. I heard one prophecy where a man predicted his own mother-in-law's stroke, by name. Now they're cryptic, in vague language. They still come true, but we have to do a lot of interpreting.'The winds will take you, and then the rocks.' Who's *him*?'' 
 
 `` I do n't know,'' the officer said, looking down at the body. `` This was a crime of passion. The wife shot him twice, shot herself once. There's no reason this man would have had any man on his mind at that point.'' 
 
 McAfee sipped his coffee. `` That's the thing. The prophecies are n't necessarily about someone the person knows.'' 
 
 `` *The winds will take you. * A death?'' 
 
 McAfee nodded. `` If it sounds remotely foreboding, it means a death. Most of these predict deaths, or tragedies in some way.'' 
 
 `` Calvin rocks,'' the officer said. `` The silver cliffs northwest of town.'' 
 
 `` Yeah,'' McAfee. `` That much is clear.'' But *'' him'' *? Who was `` he''? There were ten million people in the city, half of them men. McAfee wrote the words down on his pocket pad while he still had them fresh in his mind and went back to the downtown office. 
 
 Erris, still at his desk, read them with eyebrows raised. `` You think we should plant someone at the Calvian cliff? That's a popular suicide spot. Three last year.'' 
 
 `` Could n't hurt.'' McAfee shrugged. `` But I'm not thinking suicide. *The wind will take him*? It sounds like it's out of the person's control. It sounds like an accident.'' 
 
 `` Well, then,'' Erris said, handing McAfee the paper back. `` If it's going to be an accident I do n't want to be posted there. Take it to the Lieutenant, see if we can get one of the new interns to patrol over there.'' 
 
 `` Real nice.'' Still, McAfee had to admit he would feel safer if someone would be posted at the cliffs. 
 
 The Lieutenant was talking on the phone when McAfee found his office. `` No, honey. Ca n't do lunch today.'' He held a finger up to McAfee, who handed him the paper. The Lieutenant read it with all his attention. `` Sure, honey. Eggs, bread, milk, barbecue sauce. I'll remember. Eggs and bread. And milk. What was the fourth thing? Okay. Love you.'' He hung up. `` *The winds will take him, and then the Calvin rocks*? You take this to Erris?'' 
 
 McAfee nodded. `` He thinks suicide.'' 
 
 The Lieutenant leaned back in his chair. `` Yeah, my first thought too. You wan na stake out there? Just watch it for a couple of days?'' 
 
 `` Not exactly.'' McAfee sat down. `` I do n't think it's a suicide. I think it's an accident. *The winds will take him. * Sounds like however it happens, it's out of his control.'' 
 
 `` Mm,'' the Lieutenant said, sipping coffee out of a generic white mug. `` You think it's another self-fulfilling prophecy? I send someone down there, somehow *they* end up being the ones who die?'' 
 
 McAfee shrugged. `` That's how Paul Lucas went. You remember?'' 
 
 `` Of course. What were the prophetic words? *You, running from your doom, will find it. * Then Lucas got spooked, left the prophecy division, requested a transfer to traffic. Where he got hit by a drunk driver during a routine stop.'' 
 
 McAfee nodded. `` Maybe we send someone down there looking for suicides, and the wind takes them.'' 
 
 `` Sure,'' the Lieutenant nodded. `` We have to be careful. Just have someone check out the cliffs, though, would you? Just to make sure they're structurally sound. An accident could be anything. A rock falling from under someone's feet.'' 
 
 Just then, someone tapped at the door. In walked a suited man, the local gambling magnate Darren Wynn. He was a supporter of the prophetic crimes division, having long decided to get on the good side of the law when it came to his casinos. 
 
 `` Lieutenant,'' he said. `` Detective McAfee. Sorry to barge in. I was hoping for only a moment of the Lieutenant's time.'' 
 
 `` That's fine, Mr. Wynn,'' the Lieutenant said. `` We're done here.'' The Lieutenant seemed eager to get McAfee out the door, but all McAfee could do was oblige. 
 
 That night, McAfee went to the cliffs, careful to watch every step. There was a rusted guardrail there, but when he shook it it seemed steady. He read the park sign that detailed the history of the Calvian cliffs, how once there had been a waterfall that fell all the way from the top. *And now only bodies fall from the top*, he thought. 
 
 Otherwise, everything seemed sound. There were no visitors to the Calvian cliffs at night. They had a spooky reputation amongst the locals, especially after the suicides started happening. A few people claimed they were haunted, and some urban legends grew about the cliffs. The opening to the bay *was* far below, McAfee saw. *We must be as high as a skyscraper. Anyone who falls will definitely die. * 
 
 But he found his car and drove home in safety. 
 
 Each death rattle prophecy had come true, usually within twenty four to forty eight hours. It had been only going on for a year or so, but the prophecies had been so accurate that the police created its own division. It was n't easy work. Erris and McAfee only managed to stop one out of every five prophecies, and usually at the point where the prophecies were about to come true. But as they grew more cryptic, the prophecies became more difficult to prevent. In Lucas' case, trying to prevent them only made the prophecy come true. *I should have someone posted on the Calvian cliffs, * he thought. *Self-fulfilling prophecy or not. Someone could die, and I do n't want to say I did nothing about it. * 
 
 He stopped by the cliffs again on the way to work the next morning. A mother let her child stand on the middle rung of the guardrail, but only so long as the child held her hand. The site of the kid living his feet made McAfee almost lose his breakfast, but when he warned them about getting too close to the edge, the mother was so scared they left the cliffs entirely. As she left she eyed his *Prophetic Division* badge, and started running back to her car. It made him feel like a shunned sorcerer. 
 
 The Lieutenant was n't in that morning, but Erris had received a report of another death rattle prophecy that morning. Someone had died of a stroke, but not before shouting some new strange phrase. Erris handed the message to McAfee before the detective had a chance to sit down. 
 
 `` *Those who stand against the winds will fall, *'' he read. `` More about the winds?'' 
 
 Erris nodded. `` A double prophecy. This shit is *going down today. * We need to have men at those cliffs, because we're running out of time.'' 
 
 McAfee could n't help but agree. In the end it was him and Erris who took the duty, standing there all day. Finally they taped off the most dangerous section of the Calvian cliffs. Afternoon came, then evening. McAfee checked his watch. 
 
 `` We're on thirty-six hours here. Apparently whatever happens here, it happens tonight.'' 
 
 Erris nodded. `` If it did n't, it would be the first prophecy not to come true.'' 
 
 `` Does it feel windy to you?'' McAfee asked, looking down at the city lights across the bay. 
 
 `` Not particularly,'' Erris said. `` But I'd watch for sudden gusts anyway. This is n't like being at sea level.'' 
 
 It was dark and Erris and McAfee were discussing who should go home to sleep first while the other person watched the cliffs when the Lieutenant arrived, looking pale. He drove nigh up to the edge, where Erris and McAfee were standing, and left his car. He walked to the guardrail. Leaned over. McAfee was about to help him off when the Lieutenant started vomiting over the edge. 
 
 `` Christ, Lieutenant,'' Erris said. `` What's wrong?'' 
 
 The Lieutenant wiped himself from his sleeve. `` Nothing's happened yet? I saw it was taped off.'' 
 
 `` Cautionary,'' McAfee said. `` Lieutenant, you look bad. You need to go to the hospital?'' 
 
 The Lieutenant walked to his car. `` This ai n't physical. You guys should go home. I think I know what the prophecy means. There's no preventing it. But we do n't all have to die here.'' 
 
 Erris and McAfee exchanged a worried look. `` You know what the prophecy means?'' Erris asked. 
 
 Some lights appeared from the road -- a pair, and then two pair. `` Go!'' The Lieutenant yelled. `` Christ, just go. You do n't have to die here.'' 
 
 `` We're gon na help you,'' McAfee said. `` No one has to die here.'' 
 
 The cars -- there were three of them by now -- rode right through the tape, onto the grass on the side of the road. Trapped the officers on the cliff. 
 
 One car door opened, then another. One suited figure approached, followed by more henchmen, each with guns drawn. 
 
 `` Darren Wynn,'' McAfee said. 
 
 `` Detective McAfee,'' Wynn nodded. `` I did n't think I'd see the whole prophecy division here. Go home, guys. This is between us and the Lieutenant.'' 
 
 Erris drew his gun. `` No. All of you drop your weapons -- all of you! I've got my barrel straight at Wynn's head, and if anyone one of you so much as hesitates to drop his weapon, I'll kill him.'' 
 
 McAfee held his hand up, trying to calm the situation. The henchmen just looked at Wynn, who smiled. `` No, Detective. I'm afraid we'll have to ask you to drop *your* weapon.'' 
 
 **CONT'D in reply** 
 
 

