Killer Bay

Open Wounds

A/N: I live!!!!!! (For now, sorry for the long hiatus, I just couldn't find it in me to write for a while).

Somewhere in Jazz Town...

"Hey Adalet, I'm sorry about this. I remembered I had to buy some whiskey, but I totally forgot to fill the car with gas," Frank sweats nervously as they trudged up another hill.

"You really need to stop with all the drinking," Adalet scolded, "it's not doing you any good!"

"Yeah, I know, you sound like Yann," he messed his left temple, "I really should cut down on the whiskey, otherwise my stomach is gonna strike against me."

"Gather up! Up the hill! Union victory! Union victory!" a man dressed as a Union Officer commanded, "I, Colonel Dexter Blade, on this day in 1863, will take the battle to the Confederates and win the Battle of Pacific Bay!"

"Colonel Dexter Blade? Union? Confederates? Oh crap, Adalet. We just travelled back in time to the American Civil War!" Frank cried as the colonel marched off.

"Ahh... somehow I don't think that's it, Frank," Adalet deadpanned.

"Oh, of course, Adalet. People can't travel back in time, that's just absurd. It must be a historical reenactment show!" he replies looking around the field, "jeez, I never understood why people get the urge to dress up and reenact old historic battles!"

"Thank you, thank you all for coming! My name is Joe Stanford and I will play the role of Colonel Dexter Blade! Today is the grand finale, the day the Colonel prevails!" Joe, the officer that had just seen addressed the men and women gathered before him, "on this day he said to his troops: "I, Colonel Dexter Blade, will lead the Union to glory! May God strike me down if He chooses otherwise!"

BOOOOM!

Everyone flinched as the explosion of a canon rang through the air. Adalet and Frank ducked down in fear as they heard the cannonball hit its target with a sickening SPLAT!

"What the... !" Frank cried as they straightened up, "uh oh. Either they've got amazing special effects, or..."

"Or we'd better have a look around the battlefield and assess the damage!" Adalet finished for him.

Frank and Adalet walked further onto the battlefield and over to where Joe's body had landed. Half of the man's torso had been blown off by the cannonball which was laying in the grass beside him. Adalet also found a torn tissue on the ground outside of the hole that Joe had landed in.

"Well, I'll be! This Joe Stanford guy got blown up!" Frank exclaims, "I bet this wasn't part of the script!"

"We better get that body to autopsy," Adalet says pulling out her phone, "I hope Roxie enjoys construction games!"

"What else did you pick up, a torn tissue? Well if you think it's linked to the death, we might as well try and fix it, see what it says," he shrugged, "and that's the cannonball that blew the victim away! There was something written on it, looks like someone wanted to deliver a message. Well, that rules out the accidental death! You just found the murder weapon, Adalet!"

"First order of business: retrieve the message!" she responds.

"I hear you loud and clear, Adalet. I'll get the powder kit!" he said jogging back towards the car.

Once Frank had returned with her case, Adalet set to work on recovering the missing message from the cannonball. She dusted the still warm ball and the carbon clung to the engravings on it. She blew away all the excess powder and showed her partner the message on the ball.