True Self

"True Self" is a crime story told in the first person of a Detective Sharon Hayes, "Styx" to her loved ones, and just "Hayes" for everyone else. There aren't a lot of people who call her "Styx". Hayes has a knack for investigating and solving crime. She gets "hunches". Her "hunches" are uncanny instincts that usually lead to some break-through in an investigation. Her record of successfully concluding investigations in the Central Bronx Precinct's Vice Squad has just earned her a transfer to the Homicide Squad, a challenge she dives into on her very first case: the murder of Juan Julio Santiago, a female impersonator and recovering alcoholic. Hayes' instincts quickly lead her to discovering that there are ten ostensibly unrelated murders which are, in fact, related to each other. She is able to convince the squad and its Lieutenant, Dave Speers, that each of the murders appears to be different because they are actually scripted for a series of pornographic "snuff" films. She works with an exceptionally experienced team to run down leads and build a strong case which upholds her theory - while being threatened by an anonymous correspondent and knocked around and sexually assaulted by her own husband. Hayes is complicated. The story culminates in her abduction by the very people she is investigating. She is close to becoming a star in her own "snuff" recording when she receives help from an old friend...and a new one. Her troubles are not over, however, as she experiences more threats while she is in the hospital recovering from her trauma. As these experiences take her between life and death, we get a glimpse of the world she returns to between lives. It is a blissful garden of delights, at least until the moment where she is hauled back to her place and time by the talented medical team resuscitating her. "True Self" is a story of motives and outcomes. Or "Cause and Effect", if you prefer. It is one distinct story contained in the larger reality of reincarnations. It is a story frozen in a single location and time amongst universes of such. It is a story that provokes thought. Contemplation. Perhaps a shift in beliefs.