Chapter One: An Unusual Crime Scene
Present Day
Down at the precinct, Detectives Nick Burkhardt and Hank Griffin had been buried up to their necks for hours under mounds of homicide reports, missing person's files, and lists of aggravated assault charges, restraining orders and unpaid parking tickets.
"Damn, I never knew that there were this many stupid people in Portland." Hank sighed, as he finally completed his third last missing persons report.
"Yeah, tell me about it," Nick replied, signing off his last report, "I mean just listen to this, Jacob Twiller, is 25 years old and has a traineeship with Parkrose Auto and Repair. However, being a reasonable person most of the time, is quick to anger and so had assaulted Mr. Botts after Mr. Botts had started to complain about the fact that his car had been sitting in the mechanics for a week and had yet to be fixed."
"I think that Mr. Botts had every right to complain, if my car was stuck at the mechanics for a week I would be in a lot of trouble." Hank said, as he pushed the last of his reports away and then stretched out his arms to relieve some of the tension between his shoulders.
"With our job, totally, you need a car to get to places and people." Nick agreed, as he rubbed his temples, trying to soothe the growing headache that he was getting. "I just hope we get a case soon, I don't think I can take anymore of this paperwork."
Hank looked up at Nick, and indicated to his head this time and said, "Don't suppose you want to go grab some lunch and a coffee? I also have some Tylenol in the car that will help ease the ache a bit."
Nick placed his hands on the desk and met Hanks eyes, "That would be great, thanks."
Both men got up from their seats, put their jackets on and grabbed their wallets and keys. Then they quickly left the precinct before anyone else could load them up with more paperwork, they made a short stop at Hank's car to get the pain medication.
"Here you go; this will fix you right up, hopefully." Hank said as he fished out a little white bottle that had a red label on the front, stating, 'Extra Strength Tylenol Caplets'.
"Jesus Christ, Hank that will definitely knock it right out, thanks." Nick said as he took the bottle from Hank, unscrewed the top and took two caplets out.
"You're welcome," Hank replied, "You have to be in top shape in our line of work. Just the other day I took a peak at the crime rate reports, and Portland is on the rise."
"Are you kidding?" Nick said, swallowing the caplets, "You'd think with us catching criminals on nearly an everyday basis it would be on the low."
"Yeah, well...My guess is people are getting bolder or stupider." Hank replied, shrugging his shoulders, "Maybe both."
"Hmm..." Nick hummed neutrally, "So where do you want to go for lunch?"
"Let's just go to the local cafe that we usually go to on our breaks." Hank replied, "I'm not fussed, it would probably be best in case we get called back for something that's actually exciting."
At the cafe close to the precinct, Nick and Hank took a table near the window and waited patiently for a waitress to come over. It was not long before a waitress wearing a light blue blouse, knee length black skirt and a white apron came over.
"Hello handsome people, what would you like to order today?" The waitress smiled mischievously, her eyes blinking slowly.
"Awe...How are you today Hannah?" Hank asked, leaning forward and smiling broadly.
"I'm perfect now that you two came in." Hannah the waitress laughed brightly, "Catch any criminals lately?"
Nick was shaking his head slowly to himself, trying to contain a smile when Hank replied, "No, just been filling out paperwork."
"Well that sucks," Hannah commented with a fake pout on her face, "So what would you two lovelies like?"
Hank paused a moment as he looked at the menu and said, "Well, I will have a Michigan salad and a Flat White espresso, thanks." Hannah wrote down his order and then turned to Nick and asked him what he was going to have.
"I will have an Italian sandwich with a Cappuccino, thanks Hannah." Nick replied, grinning, glancing at Hank with one eyebrow raised in amusement.
"Not a problem boys," Hannah winked at them, "I'll have that back to you in just a few minutes." Nick and Hank watched Hannah walk away before they started a conversation.
"You do know that she was flirting with you?" Nick asked, smirking light heartedly.
"Hmmm...Yeah, it is just weird though. She's like ten years younger than me." Hank replied shaking his head, whilst Nick laughed quietly.
Soon Hannah was coming back with their orders, "Here you guys go, enjoy my darlings." With a double chorus of 'We will' from Nick and Hank, Hannah went back to work, serving other customers. Digging heartily into their lunches, Nick and Hank enjoyed the sounds of mid-day traffic, people chattering and kids laughing. It was a few minutes before either of them could open their mouths to speak.
"You know, I wonder just how many Wesen are actually out there." Hank said, starting up a strange to ordinary people conversation.
"As much as I find that topic interesting, I'd hate to know." Nick replied, grinning at Hank, thinking back to all the different kinds of Wesen that they had already encountered, only to know that there were probably more than that in the world. Nick was certain that he and Hank both shared a dislike of Hexenbiests, especially one named Adalind Schade. Hank somehow seemed to be on the same wavelength as Nick and he too, thought back to when Adalind had sexually (he shuddered at the thought) removed Nick's Grimm powers by turning herself into Juliette and tricking him, leaving him defenceless. Pushing those disturbing thoughts aside, Hank moved on to more pleasant ones; like how Nick secretly enjoys being a Grimm again and that celebration party that had been held at Monroe's house and where everyone pretty much got drunk. Hank chuckled silently to himself, that night had been a good one.
"Isn't it nice to be yourself again?" Hank commented, as he took a sip from his Flat White espresso.
Nick looked up from his Cappuccino that he was nursing in both hands on the table and smirked, "Yep, I'd hate to be ordinary, heaven forbid that ever happens again."
Hank glanced at Nick knowingly and stated, "Well, as long as something like you losing your Grimm powers does not come along again, I'm happy. In fact I'm as cool as a cucumber."
Nick chuckled and grins then grimaces, "I agree whole-heartedly with you."
"Hank, I never got around to asking you before," Nick said changing the subject, "but what did you think when you first saw a Wesen woge?" Nick asked curious, clutching his coffee tightly before taking a sip from the delicious drink.
"Well at first I was rather stunned - then I thought I was going out of my mind. However, when you mentioned that I wasn't crazy, it was like I was in front of this massive jigsaw puzzle and I had no idea how big it was or where all the pieces went." Hank replied, closing his eyes trying to call forth the thoughts he had had. "I disbelieved the evidence of my eyes; I stared intently for hours, screwing up my eye muscles against any possible intrusion of light or irrelevant image. It really started to get to me." Hank reopened his eyes and looked steadily at Nick, who looked intently back. "But when I actually saw Monroe change, Rosalee and Budd too...I stared and while I did, knowledge came to me; the knowledge that follows a recognition of fact - of concrete experience bringing with it a widening both of the universe and of the individual understanding of it."
"That's some deep stuff." Nick commented stunned, all it took to get over it all so quick was an epiphany. "Those moments you speak of though, they are wholly vital to normal human beings excepting this sort of thing. For a moment the recogniser is a god, who can actually say 'I am' without a doubt." Hank only laughed joyfully in response, nodding.
Checking his phone to see the time, Nick stared for a short moment, before stating, "Right, lunch break is over. It's time to go back to our cluttered desk." He then grabbed his wallet, pulled out some money and went to the counter to pay for their lunches.
"Well then, we'd better get back to the precinct," Hank replied, "We might have a case."
As both Nick and Hank were walking back into the precinct heading towards their shared desk, Sergeant Wu swooped around the corner, making both men jump.
"Don't sit down; there's been a bizarre murder at Trillium Lake." Wu said imperiously, "The call just came in, have fun guys."
"Guess we better make our way over to the crime scene then." Nick said nodding thankfully at Wu, "Come on Hank, are you coming Wu?"
"No, no. I'm out on this one," Wu replied smiling, "the Captain wants me to finish up an assault violation case that's been sitting in the draw for a week."
"Don't worry Wu, we will tell you all the gory details later." Hank promised, "You can count on that."
When Nick and Hank arrived at the scene, they were greeted by the Park Ranger, "Hello detectives, my name is Thomas Brown. I would say good day to you, but I don't think that would be appropriate - given the circumstances." Park Ranger Brown paused in which he heaved a heavy sigh, "Trillium Lake," he continued, "beautiful as always, it's a real tragedy."
"Who found the body?" Nick asked as they walked closer to the body that was sprawled on the ground, the leaves touching the body had curled in on themselves and appeared to be frozen.
"That would be Mrs Wendell; she was out walking her dogs when she happened across the body." Mr. Brown replied, pointing to the old lady that was getting her blood pressure checked at the ambulance truck.
"Mrs Wendell has high blood pressure?" Hank asked as he observed the distraught woman and her beloved dogs.
"Yeah, stresses out real easy." The Park Ranger replied, "Poor old bird nearly had a heart-attack when she found him." It was at this time that Hank kneeled down next to the body to get a closer look.
"Who is the victim, do you know?" Nick asked as he walked around the crime scene, frowning as he did so.
"We were able to pull his wallet from his pants pocket; it was practically lying on the ground. This is Mr. Peterson." Ranger Brown replied, as he frowned down at the body, "However, I am at a loss," stated Mr. Brown, moving his arms so that his hands rested on his hips.
"Why is that?" Hank asked intrigued, as they moved a little away from the body.
"It's just, I've never seen a body that looks like this one does, not that I've seen many bodies mind you." Park Ranger Brown said, still frowning confused.
"Looking at him, he does look a little odd." Hank said and crouched down next to the body again, "He looks as though he was frozen to death, as you can see the frostbite around his ears and his finger tips."
"Don't you want to take a closer look at the body, Detective Burkhardt?" The Park Ranger asked, looking at strangely.
"Not at the moment, everyone's first instinct is to ignore the big picture and head directly to the body or the central area where the crime occurred," Nick replied, glancing at the Park Ranger, and continuing his observation of the surrounding area. "But that kind of tunnel vision," Nick spoke again, "can lead you to misread the case. And if you rush in, you risk contaminating or destroying crucial evidence."
Mr. Brown looked shocked at such an assessment and turned to Hank, who looked up at him and said, "You can learn a lot about a body by looking at it, but you can learn a lot more by observing the areas around the body. For example, there might be shoe prints in the dirt or blood on the surrounding plants, that sort of thing."
"That's truly amazing; well I'll leave you two to it then." Mr. Brown said, before walking back to his Jeep.
"Do you see where the suspect entered the scene?" Hank asked Nick, coming over to stand beside him as the body of Mr. Peterson was being loaded up into a van to be taken away to be examined by a forensic pathologist.
"It's strange, no footprints, only the boots that belong to our victim. I don't think this was a normal homicide Hank." Nick replied, putting his hands on his hips.
"You think it's Wesen?" Hank asked, curious.
"It has to be something that doesn't have shoes or anything really, there are no tracks, the birds are dead quiet and our victim appeared to have frostbite, but there was no snow last night or this morning," Nick sighed, "I guess we will be visiting Monroe this afternoon."
Back at the precinct, Nick and Hank had finished their work for the day when, Hank's phone rang, "Hello, June...Oh yes that's right...Yep I'll see you there...bye." Hank looked up at Nick from his phone and was about to apologize for not being able to come with him to Monroe's house, for he had a date that he had forgotten all about until the phone rang.
"It's fine, don't worry about it," Nick said, reading Hank's mind, "You go have fun with June, I'll fill you in later."
"Thanks Nick," Hank managed to say before he was disappearing out of the precinct, to go have his second date with his new girlfriend. Fifteen minutes later Nick arrived at Monroe's house, where Rosalee was serving dinner and welcomed Nick to join them.
"So what's new?" Monroe asked, after swallowing some peas.
"Well, I have this very bizarre case. The suspect doesn't have limbs for all I can tell; no tracks in the dirt except for the victim's and the victim appeared to have frostbite." Nick replied, before he started to chew on his corn kernels.
"How else did the victim appear?" Rosalee asked, intrigued as she cut up her potatoes.
"I'd say he looked to be frozen in a state of fear, his eyes were wide open, mouth open in a terrifying scream and he was very pale and cold." Nick said thinking, "It's weird that the victim was so cold since he had only been dead around three hours."
"I just need you to clarify one thing, was the surrounding plants tinged with frost or just the body?" Monroe asked, as he finished his dinner.
"Only the body and the leaves touching the body were covered in little bits of frost, why?" Nick asked interested, "Do you know what kind of Wesen did this?
"It wasn't Wesen." Monroe replied, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds, then reopening them, "It sounds like we have a Verlorene Seele in town."
Author's Note: A huge thank you to those who reviewed, it meant so much and it encouraged me to crank out this chapter even though I am sick with the flu. Hope you enjoyed it!