~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Judy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Alright Ms. White, let's go back to just before the brawl broke out." Judy was glad to be out of the club. Nick had been right; it was too much for her first murder case. The stink alone had shattered her shiny idea of what a murder scene would look like. She already knew she would be having nightmares about the awkward stiff poses the corpses had taken. There was no dignity in death, no honor in leaving this world, just gruesome cold reality. Caught up in her thoughts, the mostly naked gazelle leaned close to Judy's face.
"Yalright in there? You kind zoned out on me." The gazelle's breasts dangled freely from her chest, hardly concealed behind bright pink star shaped pasties. Judy sighed and picked up her jotter and carrot shaped pen.
"Sorry about that, I was just thinking of the crime scene. Why don't we instead start with who was where in the bar, and then we'll work on a timeline." The gazelle leaned back into a more comfortable position against the ambulance.
"Sure...besides myself there were three king cobras sitting to the right of the stage at a round table, they had been there all night. Two nice alligators were sitting front and center, very generous boys…there was a fox and a swan at another round table, I remember them very well…they were so well dressed. A horse, or maybe a mule was sitting at the bar. He's a regular, our bartender probably knows him. To the left of the stage at another round table were the three Doberman. The owner doesn't like me talking to them, but they're there all the time. They're always nice to me. Three cats were sitting really close to the Doberman, in the back left corner at a separate table. Aside from our waitress Lacy and the bartender, that's all of us."
Judy had a small sketch of the bar, a sort of rectangle with a half circle in the top middle part for the stage with numbers in different locations. Below the sketch she had started a list with the numbers corresponding to the sketch and the described position of the club-goers. The task had taken her mind off of the sticky bloody scene in the club.
"Alright, so these people were there all night until the brawl?"
"Everyone except the cats had been there for an hour or more, the cats came in while I was facing away from the crowd and were all seated by the time I turned back around. That was just before the fight." Judy's nose twitched, as it often did when she felt suspicious. In this case, it was fairly obvious.
"So you're saying the cats came in just before the fight? Did they start it?" The gazelle nodded.
"I think so. They threw the first swing anyways. Or swipe. God…" For the first time the gazelle's voice broke. Judy just noticed that there were streaks of blood striping the woman as if someone had tried to clean her off before giving up and wrapping up in her towel. Judy put a paw on the gazelle's knee.
"Take your time. We just want to know what happened." The gazelle squeezed her eyes shut before opening them wide and wiping her eye.
"Before the cat…one of the cobras tried to attack Lacy for some reason. Our bouncer, Jack, grabbed her and was escorting her out when the Doberman got killed. The cobra bit Jack when that happened and that's really when everything went to shit."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Nick~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nick grudgingly reentered the club. Officer Cong hadn't moved since Nick had seen him last, still sketching out the details and arrangement of bodies in his notebook. Nick checked which sections had already been sketched before carefully beginning to look for identification on the bodies. All of the Doberman, cobras, alligators and the buffalo had identification of some sort, driver's licenses or club memberships. The cats were different though...neither of them carried identification. The cats and dogs each seemed to be dressed similar to their companions. The Cats were dressed in fresh red and white converse now speckled with blood, red black and blue jackets with high collars and jeans. The Doberman both wore tight fitting black suits with matching black ties and shiny gold cufflinks and matching tie bars. One of the Doberman had been stabbed through the eye with some sort of knife or a fork maybe...the device was buried to the hilt in the victims' eye, he couldn't clearly make out what exactly the object was, forensics would have to take on that one. The other Doberman's throat had been slashed open. Judging by the multiple lacerations of varying depths he guessed one of the cats had done him in that way. The cats, for their part, were killed with throats torn, necks broken, again all fairly typical.
Having taken a good look at the victims and sent their personal information (as much as was available anyways) to central for processing, he started looking into the details of the scene itself. The alligators had been sitting in front of the stage; they were unlikely to have started anything. One of the cobras had been taken by the bouncer so it was possible that had started the brawl, but their drinks were empty and unbothered by the struggle mere feet away from them. The other two cobras were lying near the other alligator rather than by the counterpart. Judging that one of the two alligators was slumped over the bar bounding the strip stage, he found it more likely the cobras joined the fray opportunistically rather than provocatively. Nick didn't take any notes, all of this he committed to memory. Years on the streets had developed his mind into a powerful tool; taking notes simply slowed him down. Judy would take all of the notes they would need. Nick moved over to the buffalo's corpse.
The giant animal's hooves were clamped around the neck of the cobra in an iron-like death grip, which is probably why the cobra hadn't bled to death. The bleeding hadn't stopped its head from being torn in half, so it was a moot point anyways. Best guess is that the bouncer wouldn't have started the fight, only tried to break it up. So the cobra had tried to start something with…who exactly? Nick stood up and looked around. The alligators were in the wrong place for the bouncer to have drug or been drug this far left of the stage, there had to be something or someone else for the snake to be there. Nick sauntered over to the where the cats and dogs were lying.
Nick had a healthy suspicion this would be the winner since the two species had always held violent animosity towards each other. The cats not having any ID was suspicious, but the near the corners of the club a table had been overturned, scattering several shot glasses and an empty milk bottle was a convincing argument that the brawl had definitely started here. Either the Doberman had shoved it or the cats had flipped it. Nick noticed something on the wall behind where he thought the cats had been sitting. It looked like something white had been thrown across the wall. The color had faded but near the floor the stain still held a pale color...another job for forensics. Nick took a closer look at the two Doberman. The suits they wore were nice, but the cufflinks and tie bars…those were positively unique. From his time on the streets Nick knew how to size up a mark, and these guys said two things with their appearance: I've got money, and don't fuck with me. Kind of a NFL vibe in all honesty, these would be hard passes for him and Finnick. He deftly plucked the less bloody tie bar from the skewered corpse and examined it. It had a button on it with a stylized letter that he knew all too well. From his back pocket he pulled a small plastic evidence bag (trick he learned from Judy) and deposited the bagged tie bar back into his pocket before saying goodbye to Officer Cong and leaving the club for good this time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Nick & Judy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nick joined Judy as she finished interviewing the gazelle. The notes on her notebook looked thick to say the least.
"After the cobra bit Jack everyone went after everyone. I saw another cat and dog go down not even seconds before the first Doberman had hit the ground, one of the alligators had been killed where he was sitting, he didn't even know…" As Judy was busy writing in her notepad, Nick couldn't help think she was compartmentalizing rather well given the shock she had just had. And in this case she was overcompensating with note taking.
"Wait a second. You're saying two teenage cats were able to get the jump on three adult Doberman Pinschers? That doesn't sound possible." The gazelle looked rather confused for a moment.
"Oh! Yes, there were three cats, not two." Judy glanced at Nick.
"Nope, there are only two cat corpses in there. It looks like we may yet have two survivors." Judy was grinning when the gazelle spoke, now she was positively beaming.
"Not just survivors Nick. I think that cat may have been the instigator."