Killer Bay

The Root of All Evil

"Hey there, Adalet," Frank slid in behind his partner crouched down so that her chair hid most of him from view, "got an investigation going on? I need to lay low, Andrea's looking for me . . ."

"Ah, Frank, there you are!" Andrea appeared behind him, "you really think I would have forgotten about your community service time?!"

"I'm a cop, Andrea," he responded, "you can't get more community service than that."

"Yes you can, and it's called cleaning up the garbage! Don't make me get you your court order!" she threatened.

"Ahh . . . Am I forgetting something?" Adalet asked confused by the conversation.

"I told him not to drink in court, Adalet, but of course he wouldn't listen! Community service is an appropriate punishment," Andrea smirked, "I'm sorry, Adalet, but could you keep an eye on him for the time being? The order is to clean up the Swamp Forest."

"Sure!" she grinned, "some fresh air might do him some good!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever . . ." Frank grumbled, "come on Adalet, let's go take a walk in that stupid forest."

After a few minutes walk . . .

"Damn, why does it have to be me?!" Frank growls slapping yet another fly on his neck, "I hate forests, they're crawling with bloody insects that won't budge when you scream at them! Bloody community service . . ."

Adalet just laughed at her partner. She had come prepared and had out on bug spray on her own body and Dean and Hunter's furs.

"Oh, yeah, you can laugh, Adalet, but you know my Gold Stag is sacred to me! No one touches it, not even the Judge!" he swore, "wait, there's something weird with that big plant over there . . . Looks like we're gonna clean more than just garbage in here!"

The cops neared the strange plant Frank had spotted and gasped at what they saw. There was a dead woman inside the plant and from the slight movements of the leaves, it was eating her body. Adalet managed to spot a set of dog tags near the base of the plant because the sunlight was reflecting off of the metal, and Dean and Hunter found a torn card a few feet away.

"What the hell happened here, Adalet? We have to take that body out of that plant!" Frank exclaimed rushing to help her.

Between the two of them, they slowly pulled the poor woman's body out of the giant carnivorous plant. Her feet hit the ground and they dragged her to the side and gently laid her down on her back.

"How exactly does one end up eaten by a giant plant?!" he cried.

"Not by an accident!" Adalet replies, "let's take the victim to Roxie, she'll tell us exactly how that poor girl got murdered."

"Our victim's uniform screams military," he remarks nodding at the camo gear, "but she has no ID."

"Actually, I picked up these," she jingled the dog tags.

"Oh, you actually found some ID, Adalet? A pair of dog tags? Not bad, not bad," he nodded approvingly, "let's just see if you can manage to make them readable, or they'll be useless."

"And there's some kind of card there, looks torn up . . ." she picked up one of the pieces, "some tape oughta help that."

"What the hell would a card like that do in a place like this?" he wonders, "you're right Adalet, you'd better fix it."

"How about this leaf?" she points at the giant plant leaf.

"But I ain't touching this monster of a plant again, Adalet," he drew the line, "so if you want to take a look at the leaf you picked up, you're doing it!"