It is only ten fifteen but the sun is hot and toasting the path outside the tattoo parlor. A group of officers are now spread across the scene,investigating Steve's murder. A strong built man wearing police uniform queries Harold:
"So you're saying he was a potential rapist?" Detective Jones asks him.
"Yeah, he was a nasty piece of work." Harold looks at another policeman who was putting on gloves.
"He's never been in custody?" The detective asks frowning.
"Yes,but he would be set free all the time."
"Do you know anyone who is close to him that would pay for his releases?"
"No."
"What precinct was he taken to?"
"The one just as you go in town."
"We need to contact them and ask for information on him." Jones tells Connor.
"Can you think of anyone he had beef with?" The Detective directs his gaze from Harold to the dead Steve.
"I think that would be everyone he had met." Harold smiles weakly.
The detective folds his arms over his chest. He hums to Harold's answer. He had asked all the necessary questions; background, family, health, enemies etc. He had covered everything, but why wasn't he satisfied? There had to be a reason why this dead man suddenly died out of the blue when, from the looks of things, he was untouchable,quite literally.
"Uh, J, you might wanna see this." His partner,Connor,calls out for him gagging. Him and the forensic investigator, were kneeling over dead Steve now. They were turning him around while another two evidence officers took photos of the crime scene behind them.
He walks to them. Connor and Carl heave the body over onto its back. The front of his body is covered in blood of course. But what caught Jones eyes was his neck;or rather his throat. He had seen several throat injuries in crime scenes; throat slits,neck asphyxiation, punctured throats, hell, even, sawed throats, but not this.
The front of his neck had been torn off revealing his throat.
...................... ..................... .................... ..................... .............. ................... .............. ..............
"Shit!" Jones winces as blood spills from the wound.
"I know, it looks like there was a fucking clawing party in his throat." Connor shields his mouth from the smell of fermenting blood.
Carl looks at him with a raised eyebrow.
"What! Doesn't that look terrifying to you? It's like some kind of werewolf took out his throat! And it stinks too." Connor stands up.
"Of course it's scary, but I deal with blood everyday, it's just a little tiny shock." Carl digs out a long thin rod of metal and two tweezers from a box. He inserts the rod in the hollow neck and probes it as if searching for something. He stops and withdraws the rod that is dripping with blood.He then grabs the tweezers and uses the two to expand the throat and bends down to get a closer look.
"It's a raw wound, still oozing out blood."
"We can see that." Connor gags and steps back.
Carl sits up and places his devices into a box."Must have been committed, not so long ago." He wipes his sweaty nose from the ungloved part of his hand.
"There are animal fresh marks on his neck too." He points to his neck.
"Told you." Connor says.
"That would explain the brutal killing."
"But there's something else that I find strange." Carl continues.
"What?"Connor asks,moving a bit closer to them.
"There are other bruises and broken bones on his nose and forehead." He bends and touches his nose,that bends slightly.
"His nose was obviously broken manually and the forehead looks like it was bashed by a wide surface."
"Okay." Jones answers.
"But they are older compared to the neck injury." He takes a little flashlight and thin rod and inserts it in the nose. He uses the flashlight to look inside the nose.
"There is clotted blood in here but none around his nose."
"So?" Jones asks.
"So." Carl sighs and stands up." There were two people or one person and animal involved in his death. The first broke his nose and bashed his forehead. The other ripped out his throat not two hours ago."
YOU ARE READING
Simona Davis
FantasyWalter Wilkins stops by an Out o' City petrol station after work and notices a woman being roughly pursued by a drunk. He sprints to save her but encounters a shocking realisation. Ever since that night, Walter's life changed for the worst. Or did i...
