NORTHCOVIII: Strange Fauna

Racoon



Yesterday morning when I went out to feed the rabbits I noticed some blood on the straw in several places and also up the ramp to the feeder hutch. The blood seemed diluted, not bright red and thick and sticky but kind of like blood in urine, only too colorful for that. It was also on the three senior does, in a stream, almost as if they'd been peed on. I picked them each up and gave them a good look but didn't see anything amiss. I also checked out the senior buck, and he looked fine. The kits are hard to catch without a treat to distract them, so I just observed them all for a while. Everyone seemed fine.

It snowed all day yesterday. This morning there was lots of color on the snow in the rabbit colony. It's orange, though, not red. Clearly not blood. We can't figure out what it is. We didn't notice it when we fed the rabbits yesterday evening, because the snow was still falling and covering everything up. It isn't seeping up from the earth, because we dug down a bit and the snow gets white underneath. It isn't dripping from trees because it's in places incongruent with that theory. http://gardenplotter.com/rospo/blog/2007/01/mystery-in-rabbit-colony.html


The police showed up at Algernon's home about 11:00 that night. Algie was beside herself, or himself or himself was beside herself...anyway....

The call had been made one half hour before. Officers were already at the scene when Detective Langdon arrived with his partner at Algernon's abode.

He was hysterical during his 911 conversation with Emergency Services.

He had led the two cops into the living room and pointed out the corpse, or what was left of it.

A body lay naked on the grayish white carpet. The head and left arm were gone. Just gone. There was blood all over the place. On the carpet, on two walls. There certainly had been a struggle.

Algie was in his robe. There was blood on the robe from top to bottom. Although Algie had washed his face and even shaved just before the officers' arrival, he had left his long earrings on, the ones with the zircon diamonds.

Langdon looked at his partner. Sherry, and they decided that the State Bureau should also be notified.

Mr. Flower, we need to talk down town. And we need that robe. And we have to get you out of here so that the crime scene is left as pure as possible. Mr. Flower?

Algie was just sitting there on the sofa, head in hands, bent over; weeping uncontrollably. Langdon thought: This is not going to be easy. Just then a cat, a huge white fluffy cat came in from the kitchen.

Langdon stooped over to pick up the feline. Have you got a little portable kennel for fluffy here? Algie. Algie you got to look at me. NOW

Algie sat up. Loretta. Ooooooooooh Loretta. Let me have my Loretta.

I cannot do that Algie. NOW WHERE IS THE CAGE?

Behind the buckets in the pantry.

Just then back-up showed up with an ambulance. Following a call to homicide, Langdon released Algie in his robe to the EMT's escorted by back up. I aint gonna get much out of him right now. He knew that Algernon would be checked over at the hospital for any injuries and the robe and slippers would be handed over to forensics.

Langdon found the cage/kennel and deposited the cat in it. He handed it to Officer Lee who would put it in the squad car and take it to Animal Rescue.

Langdon had already worked on six murders in this little nook of South Dakota in the last five years. Every one of them was strange. As if any murder is not strange. It was just that no spouses were responsible for the deaths. No drug dealers. In fact no relatives were found to be suspects in these murders.

And here was 75% of a corpse....wait, what the hell is that ? Langdon said to no one in particular. In the corner covered partly by the front drape was a ...a critter of some sort. And it had a strange glow to it.

Sherry, flip that light switch a sec, will ya?

Sherry turned the main living room lights off, and sure enough the critter glowed orange.

Both Langdon and Sherry of course had their gloves on along with booties to cover their shoes. Forensic finally showed up taking pictures of the body and the room from all angles.

Finally Langdon felt safe enough to examine the critter. Except it was not dead. The raccoon turned suddenly and bit Langdon right on the arm and began running in a panic all over the room, all over the floor and the walls further tracking blood all over the place.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST....Langdon was beside himself. Where in the fuck did a raccoon come from? If those officers who first hit this scene did not shut the goddamn door...

The critter got caught in the drapes and Langdon tore the curtains down and used it as a net to capture the animal. At least we got pix before the damn chaos. Animal Rescue was called immediately. Now even they would have to get involved personally. Langdon had one of the officers watch over the 'package' until they got there. And the detective of course now had a stake in Animal Rescue since tests would let him know if he was in danger of some virus or even rabies.

Meanwhile Langdon, now wrapped in a bandage given him by one of his cops, took a closer look at the corpse. The head had not been taken off by a saw or other implement. That was for sure. Samson the chain smoking coroner was approaching the body at the same time.

No tools here, said Samson. He turned the body over and examined the shoulder and the neck from a different angle. This appears to have been bit off, pointing to the shoulder with the missing arm. Lang look here, teeth marks. And look at the neck. Shredded. I mean, no human being did this!!!

Was there anybody else here. I mean somebody phoned this in to 911.

Yeah, a boyfriend who lives here. But he was in shock. I mean I could get nothing out of him but wailing. He was taken to the hospital for observation with an escort and psych will have a look at him. I will get there tomorrow morning. Sam, is there any clue as to the size of these teeth? You know, the teeth of the perp or perps?

Well I need to get the body back to the morgue so I can get a better look...hell I want a CT on this one for sure. But they are smaller teeth, a lot of gnawing.

About the size of some raccoons dentures you think?

As he arose from the body, Langdon saw something on the carpet. Tire marks from the front door. Feint marks like from a wagon or something.

HOW THE HELL DID I EVER END UP IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE ANYWAY?

Meanwhile back on the old road....

Frank somehow awoke on the side of the road next to his car. What the hell am I doing here? It was the middle of the night. This was on the old road where he had pulled over the car.

Well this has got to be good. This is a dream. It has to be a dream.

He managed to get up and he carefully examined himself as best he could in front of his headlights. Nothing. Just the dirt from the road where he had been lying. Yeah, same suit. Doors all shut on the car. Keys in his pocket.

Self satisfaction went by the way side real fast. The wood was not more than fifty feet from the edge of the road where he stood. Eyes were peering at him through the trees; so many he could not count them. They moved as he moved. Slowly he moved around to the driver's side and pulled out his keys.

He dropped them. Where the hell are they. His heart began to pound and he felt the perspiration right on his head and neck. He wiped his brow with his handkerchief.

Now let's just calm down a minute, Frank thought. Or did he say it aloud? Frank was not sure of one goddamnable thing. All of a sudden, as he looked down for the keys again, his sight was lost. Just like that. He got down on his knees and felt around for the keys. Nada. Nothing. Breathing became very hard for this man and suddenly he was paralyzed.

He heard rustling from the wood, THEY WERE COMING FOR HIM......

Langdon went right from the scene of the murder to his office. Pierre had helped set it up to cover all of eastern South Dakota. He had scoffed of course, just seeing the entire complex of state and county offices as a give away to NORTHCO. But what the hell did he know, anyway? Besides, now he had more tech at his disposal, more underlings, hell...more power than he ever would have had if he had stayed in the big city. Fourteen thousand people is not a big city of course, but everything is relative.

Turns out that Animal Protection might end up being more important that CSI, thought Langdon; at least in the early hours following this murder. And he knew damn well that the early hours usually were the most important in solving any case. Although CSI certainly found semen on the couch as well as the walls (?), DNA testing would not be accomplished for a couple of weeks, if he were lucky.

But the critter had his stomach pumped and that bad boy had certainly munched on the corpse. The cat was clean as he suspected. No rabies was discovered but Langdon was not out of the woods on that threat either since raccoons can carry a number of bacterial or viral diseases. But the only evil symptom he felt at that point was a headache and a thirst from some bad whiskey.

The shrink at the hospital refused his attempt to interview Algernon. According to Dr. Koch, the suspect just kept throwing up in a pail singing I Could Have Danced All Night. The single strangest behavior Koch had seen in his fifteen years as a psychiatrist.

If you think that is strange, I have a raccoon you should meet, thought Langdon.