hivechap4
Day 2
Balto and Siku quickly found Doc already assembling a small crowd at the old mill, the default place that the canine residents of Nome called their conferences, which, admittedly, happened much too often...
"Ah, Balto and Siku." Doc said, then quickly turned back to another dog, relayin instructions as the dog nodded.
"Doc, we need to see you for a second." Balto said.
"Of course. I'll be right with you."
Balto nodded and turned back to Siku.
"Before we tell him, what do you think it means?" Siku asked.
"Orange fabric... No doubt Marci fought back a little... In the event she would have ripped a part of whatever the attacker was wearing."
"You're saying it was a human?"
"No, no. A human wouldn't be able, let alone know how, to cover its scent from dogs... And I doubt they would bite Marci on the neck."
Balto seemed to ponder on the topic for a second, trying to recall anything else that seemed to pop into his head. Details, places, motives, anything that could lead to finding the murderer. Then... It hit him.
"That fabric... Only three dogs I know of... Well four, counting Jenna that wears a handkerchief around them..."
"Yeah, but orange?" Siku asked.
Balto froze for a second, but his silence was broken by Doc.
"You needed something?"
Balto's mind seemed to wonder at his words, they echoed in his mind, taking a long time to register into his brain as he was purely focused on something else. His hearing seemed to go out, then returned just in time for him to talk and cut off Siku.
"N-nothing at all. False alarm, Haha."
"Come on Balto, I am very busy. I'll talk to you after the address."
"Okay Mister leader sir." Balto stupidly replied. His mind was not in a forward state at the moment, and Doc caught onto this... Though he would ignore it for now.
Balto watched Doc walk away, and then turned his head to Siku, who he found was already staring back at him.
"Balto what the hell was that? You completely lost your head when you were talking to him!" Siku whispered.
"Siku... Jenna is the only one... Come on, hurry." Balto said worried, and ran out of the door.
Doc saw this, and sneered at Balto. He knew that something was left hidden, and Balto acting suspicious didn't help. He tends his gaze to Siku, who was still standing there, watching the door that Balto had sprinted out of.
"Siku? Is there something wrong?" He asked from far off.
Siku replayed his words for a while in her mind, after a while she found herself dumbstruck with her mouth slightly open.
"Nothing... Nothing at all." Siku replied without looking at him.
"Well, alright then." Doc replied, then turned to finally speak to the crowd.
Siku growled for a second, then ran out of the door too, following Balto's scent.
She caught up to him as he quickly cut a corner across an alleyway, but he showed no signs of slowing down as Siku called after him, and this began to anger her.
"Balto? You need to stop and tell me what is going on..." Siku yelled ahead.
He did not pay attention to her at all, and focused on running. They were speeding down Main Street, earning many confused looks from the towns' people.
"Hey, lookie there. The wolf pup has turned the tables and she's chasing Balto now!" He joked.
"Crazy little gal she is." Wilson replied, once again raising – this time a beer - to the two runners.
Siku had enough, before he could turn the final corner; she quickly caught up and knocked him over onto his side. She jumped him and pinned him down with her paws, growling in his face.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Jenna... It's Jenna... It can't be... Not her... Not..." Balto growled back and threw her off of himself, then sprinted off.
Siku sat there confused as ever, but she was not blind... She tied the pieces together and slapped herself for not realizing something so obvious.
Jenna was the only one in town who wore an orange handkerchief...
Balto entered the crime scene, nobody was around yet... But they were on their way right now.
Balto hesitated, but took one good, long whiff of the air and snow around the body... He recognized one...
He panicked and took a step back, breathing heavily and seemingly holding back anger and tears... He did not want to... No he refused to believe Jenna did it...
Just seconds before he was ready to accept that all evidence pointed to her, a thought occurred... She was not wearing it this morning...
"... Yeah it's been gone since yesterday... ... I don't know where it is... ... At least it won't get in the way of us when we..." He remembered.
Siku ran up now behind him.
"Balto we've got to get rid of that cloth."
"Siku wait..."
"No... I won't have Jenna executed!" Siku said, then ignoring Balto's remark.
She walked over, froze for a second, and then carefully pulled the ripped piece of cloth from the snow.
"I hope you realize that tampering with evidence of a crime scene is illegal..." A voice came from behind the two.
"Kaltag? Hey man." Balto greeted as he moved I between the two trying to cover Siku from his line of sight.
"Cut it Balto. What are you two doing here?" Kaltag said.
"Just... Checking over the body one more time."
"Uh huh... So what did you-" Kaltag cut off mid sentence as he saw Siku holding a piece of orange cloth in her mouth.
Noticing this, Siku looked down at it for a second, before surprising Balto and Kaltag.
She ate it.
"Siku that's gross." Balto said with a smile, hidden from Kaltag.
"Balto... Was that-"
"No. It wasn't Jenna's. She lost her handkerchief yesterday. It could have been anyone!"
"Then why did Siku eat it..."
"I uh, think I'm going to be sick..." Siku said.
She slowly walked over to the two and eyed them both... She was seeing double.
"Siku are you alright?" Balto asked.
Concerned, he went over and propped Siku into a sitting position. She began pumping from her stomach, ready to barf.
"Ahg! It won't-"
She threw up mid sentence, breakfast, fabric piece and all, just inches from Kaltag's front paws. Balto looked down at it for a second, then back up to Siku. She did not look good...
"Siku?"
"Hey... Hey... Stop STOP YELLING AT ME!" Siku screamed.
She protested a bit, and then fell to the ground, in her own throw up, and fainted.
"Siku!"
"Oh crap what happened to her now!" Kaltag said.
"I don't know!? Go and get-"Balto cut off as he saw Doc and a few others turn a corner.
"Doc! Doc! Siku's hurt or something!" Balto yelled ahead.
Doc quickly sprinted to the three and examined Siku.
"She's fainted, most likely she ingested chemicals of some sort..."
"Yeah, she ate a piece of evidence!" Kaltag blurted out.
Balto growled at him.
"This fabric in her vomit... It's coated with iodine..."
"Doc... I know what you're thinking... But it couldn't be-"
"Jenna? No, of course not. I'd recognize her scent if it were here, plus I have confirmation in my own mind as to her whereabouts last night. You and her were fast asleep as I checked last night."
"Wait... Why were you checking on us?"
"That is not important." Doc quickly replied.
"About Siku.. Her body is reacting to the poisonous Iodine in her system... We need to get her to the vet this instant."
"I'm on it." Balto said.
He carefully picked her up by her neck, not caring that it was stained with her own vomit, but wanted to quickly get her help.
Doc looked back at the scene as Balto sprinted off with Siku. He looked down, then back at Kaltag.
"Son... We've got ourselves a tough one..." He said with a sigh to Kaltag.
Balto reached the doorway of the vets' office and scratched at the door, a familiar sign that the vet always would react to nowadays.
Dr. Osnik thought it very interesting how the town dogs already registered this place as a vet's office, and knew that he was only there to make them better. It was all too often that a dog would either bring another dog or themselves to his door step without a human to guide them. Somehow... They just knew that he'd help them.
Dr. Osnik quickly opened the door and knelt down before even seeing the two. He examined the obviously injured wolf, and instantly recognized it as Siku, the friendly town wolf pup.
"My my, what have we got now."
Balto only whimpered in response.
"Agh, if only you could talk... I need to get off of my lazy ass and finally work on that project I've had in the works since 1923... Procrastination is a terrible thing" he seemed to talk to himself.
"Ah yes. I'll see to it that your friend is up and running in no time." He said as he knelt down and gently picked her up.
Balto barked happily in response, then walked off.
"Hmm... Siku would make a great test subject... No... No. I'll wait until I get a real laboratory." He mentally argued.
(Ha! I just made three references to three different stories in just 6 lines. I win!)
Within an hour, Siku was well and walking. Dr. Osnik bid her goodbye and gave her a treat before closing the door behind her.
She instantly scented out Balto, and ran to find him.
She ran around a few buildings, and found that the crime scene... Was no more. Marci's body was now gone.
"Huh..." She wondered.
"Hey, Siku! You're okay now?" Balto said from behind.
"Yeah... He just had to pump some fluids into my body to neutralize the... Iodine? What was iodine on the fabric piece for?"
"We're way ahead of you, Siku. Come now, it's getting late... Doc had his crew peacefully store Marci's body for burial."
"That means... They've found out the killer?"
"Not exactly..."
"But..."
"No buts. Now come on home... Kodi and Jenna are already there waiting for us. Well deal with this in the morning."
"Fine. I can't believe I was nearly poisoned..."
"I can't believe you tried to conceal evidence by eating it..." Balto replied with a laugh.
"You seem in a good mood."
"Yeah... They eliminated Jenna as a suspect, because she was confirmed to have been with Dixie and Sylvie last night."
"Hey... Speaking of them." Siku said.
She pointed her muzzle over to the Pomeranian and the afghan hound who were walking down alley towards the town hall.
"Must be going to a party. I'm kinda glad Jenna isn't with them right now... I've got a bad feeling."
"You're paranoid." Siku said with a smile.
"Have to be." Balto replied.
Soon, Balto and Siku returned home, just in time to say goodbye to the sun for the day as its last remaining rays of sunlight broke free from the overcast above. All four of the canines rested in this room, Balto not wanting Kodi and Siku to walk home this late, and admittedly, Siku, not wanting to leave during the night. All four huddled together in one big snugly bunch of tired canines, as the freezing Alaskan air grew colder and consumed their body heat.
Four hours later, 11PM
Dixie and Sylvie were walking home alone... They were drunk, no doubt about that, and only chose to leave early from the party because they had to be somewhere early the next day. The two always stuck together, with Sylvie no longer having the slightest reason to be annoyed by the Pomeranian, what with Steele no longer part of her every sentence…
The two were more or less oblivious to the murder that took place last night... In this very alleyway... But one of them knew something... They were being watched, by a being shrouded in darkness across the alleyway. A dead zone of sorts, where no light from the town or the moon shone, and all that could be seen were the reflections of deadly eyes peering into the two wonderers.
"Hey what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be with-" Dixie spoke first.
She was cut off by a loud growl... The same attacker instantly tore into Sylvie's side and ripped a bit of her fur off. She screamed a terrible sound, same as Dixie... The attacker quickly killed off the tiny annoying Pomeranian, by nearly biting her entire small head off in one bite. Sylvie tried to run, but found that a large chunk of her upper muscle had been ripped out, preventing her from running. She continued trying to limp away on three legs... Pleading the attacker not to kill her off...
She hears a low chuckle as her attacker closes in on her. Trickery felt the attacker jump onto her back, and prepares for the worst... But... Something different happened. She felt him ram his cock into her... Not only was she bleeding to death, unable to stand on one of her legs, but she was being forcefully raped at the same time. She screamed into the night, wondering why nobody was around to help.
She felt a mix of feelings, she was bleeding out, and also felt pleasure from the rapist.
She fainted of blood loss and her attacker continued with her dead body for another half hour, not caring the slightest that he was raping a, now dead, female.
The attacker was not finished with his deed, seemingly going on instinct, he began to skin the two dogs... Slowly ripping skin from flesh, leaving a red and white pulp of bloody mass. After he finished off skinning the larger of the two, he left them hanging in the alleyway by their tail as a marker.
Nobody would be there to help, and nobody would have been able to help. The two bloody carcasses that used to be known as Dixie and Sylvie, were now hanging from a low post in the same dark alleyway, left as a sort of trophy for him.
He stood back slightly and admired his handy work, but noticed a flaw. His seed was dripping down the body of the larger dog... No doubt he wouldn't get away with this much longer if they had his DNA everywhere on the body... He took one step towards the hanging bodies, ready to do something about it, before he heard crunches in the snow from around the corner.
With a short growl, he turned and disappeared into the night.
Aha! So the killer has been revealed as Male… What other clues lie at the description of the killings?
