Happy Accidents

Chapter 33: Trails

They were both woken by the sound of ringing cell phones at god-awful hours as always. Individually answering with groggy greetings, it wasn't long before they were both up and getting ready for the day, already discussing case details.

"They said the body was found in New Town?" Sakura asked as she ran a brush through her hair, doing her best to make sure the tangles were out. "That's a low-crime area. Isn't it mostly just bars and clubs?"

"Yeah. This one's especially garish. Small localized bomb in the vic's jacket, just large enough to kill one person, but not enough to be truly destructive." He frowned. "I hate dealing with bomb-related attacks," he mused.

Sakura could understand that. Bombs could mean so many things; it could be a protest on behalf of something from the bomber, and bombs tended to leave very little evidence. To top it off, bombers were usually cowards who preferred to watch at a distance, which made them especially difficult to track sometimes.

That... and it could sometimes mean organizations bigger than just one or two people.

"Yeah, I get what you mean. That kind of bomb sounds like something an expert would make, though. Aren't most bombs larger-scale, intended to make more of a scene? This sounds more like someone being shot or stabbed in nature, except the preferred method for this guy is to blow his target to smithereens." That was the other thing Sakura hated. Finding evidence from a corpse was incredibly difficult when they were in a thousand different pieces.

"Yeah. Or it's being used to obscure evidence. It's clever, and I hate it." Oh, boy. This was going to be one hell of a case for them to deal with. Sakura could already tell that much.

Without much delay, they were in one vehicle and on their way, Sakura taking the time to tie her hair up in a small ponytail so she could work better at the scene. He helped to grab one of her large bags and carry it over, ducking past the tape and leaving her to investigate while he started talking to the officers who'd responded to the scene. Information gathering was always the first step.

"What do we have?" He asked, approaching one of the uniformed officers.

"Witnesses saw the victim walking to his car when the bomb went off. It wasn't small enough to do any damage or harm anyone, but it was undoubtedly a bomb."

"Bomb squad's already taken fragments?" He asked curiously.

"No, the fragments were too small to be recovered without damaging the remains. They cleared the area and ensured that there was no other danger to your people but figured it was best to leave the fragments' retrieval to the medical examiner. We're already going to be short on evidence in that respect."

Sasuke smirked. "Don't worry too much. I'm confident Dr. Haruno could solve a crime with a tooth and a magnifying glass." Perhaps a bit far-fetched of a scenario, but he wouldn't put it past her. The things she'd figured out on cases were impeccable. She truly was the greatest asset when it came to solving the kinds of cases they dealt with.

"So, any idea what he was doing all the way out here?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, the approximate length of the femur and the shape of what I have left of the pelvis indicates the victim was in his twenties. That's not to say they were or weren't female in terms of the social construct of gender, though. What have they found in the car thus far?" She asked as she was still examining what she could find.

"Appears to be women's clothes, makeup bags, false lashes, wigs, nylons, and..." Sasuke frowned, lifting what appeared to be a wooden arm. "Looks like someone had tried to smash what was in the car."

"Oh, now I get it," she said nonchalantly. "That's a puppet arm, like from a marionette." Their vic had to be some kind of performer if that was the case. The womens' clothes made sense; they were too small to have fit their target, but the way they were made, they likely belonged to the various marionettes.