Chapter 21 Dead Rat
Author's Note. I am indebted to Gman64 for pointing out that in this AU Sirius Black is still alive and a wanted fugitive. Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.
Jane broke off dictating to the Quick Quill as Big John walked into the cramped cubby that served as their shared office. She really hoped that this wasn't something else. She was one report away from being able to book off and go home. It had been one more long hard shift in a succession of them. She was well past the point where the overtime pay was any consolation.
"Sorry, Jane." Big John rumbled. "We got one."
Jane bit down on all the things that she could have said, stood up and checked to make sure she had everything. Then she checked again. It was easy to make stupid mistakes when you were tired.
"What have we got?" She said. They were headed for the front entrance, not the Portkeys, so it was at least local.
"Dead body." Big John replied briefly.
"What the Hell?" Jane said irritably. "Hitwizards all take the day off?"
"They pushed it up to us. They think it's a Death Eater." Big John said, sounding no better pleased than she was.
MLE was having to deal with a lot of things, including the fallout from the Fall of Voldemort. The policy of pushing those investigations up to the Auror Corps instead of leaving them to the local Hitwizards had come out of some very nasty surprises around those dead bodies. There had been Death Eaters who didn't have the Dark Mark and who were in consequence very much alive. That meant those dead Death Eaters might yield clues that would lead to living ones.
That also made for a lot of false alarms. Jane hoped this was one of those false alarms. Then they could wrap this up quickly and see the end of this shift.
They took the Floo to the scene, a small magical enclave in West London, mostly rooms to let and a small pub. A ward around the scene kept the gawkers at bay. It let Jane and Big John through, sensing the badges on their wands.
Big John said, "Jane, this is Jim Albumin, cursebreaker. Jim, my rook, Jane Twelvetrees."
"Pleasure." They said simultaneously.
"Jim, what have you got?" Big John said, getting to business.
"Pretty nasty." Albumin added. "The usual run of wards that you see if someone has something to hide, plus this."
He flicked his wand into the doorway and away again instantly. An evil-looking jagged blade slashed across the doorway, then vanished again. "Triggered by anyone with a badge trying to enter. The Hitwizard was lucky, if you can call it that. He put his shoulder to the door instead of using his wand. He's in St. Mungo's with a big chunk taken out of his shoulder, but he'll recover."
"How long to make safe?" Big John asked.
"A few minutes." Albumin replied. "They've got the landlord over there if you want to talk to him."
The landlord had been the one who reported the body, and he didn't strike Jane as being very diligent or careful about his tenants. In fact, he pretty clearly did not want to be. The answer to such questions as the identity of his tenant or how he got paid added up to no idea, and cash. His sole interest was in having the body removed so that he could rent the rooms again. Interrogation of the neighbors yielded no more of any use, either. It wasn't the sort of neighborhood that encouraged back stoop conversation.
Albumin waved them over and said, "Made safe to enter. Detailed check of the interior will take quite a bit longer."
"That's all right, Jim. We'll be careful. We spot anything, we'll give you a shout."
At Jane's puzzled look, Big John elaborated. "People with something to hide put the traps on windows and doors. Traps inside are more likely to hurt you than an intruder. We need to watch for Portkeys, though."
They went through the rooms, wands at the ready. It didn't take long to clear the place. The smell was coming from the small living room. There was the body of a man lying face down on the floor. There was no doubt that he was dead and had been for quite a while.
Jane watched as Big John went methodically to work. The wand on the floor floated up and set itself to one side. He then cast a quick succession of diagnostic spells. Jane recognized most of them, but a couple were new to her. She made a mental note to ask about them, later. For now, she kept her wand ready, alert to back up her partner. When it came to Death Eaters, dead was no guarantee of harmless. Whoever it was had certainly been a Death Eater.
The Dark Mark was burned bone deep into his arm. The hand on that arm lacked a finger. The hand of the other arm was missing altogether, though there was an outline shaped like a hand where the arm ended, scorched into the floorboards. Both it and the Dark Mark showed traces of the same powerful dark wizardry. Jane made the connection. Voldemort's work.
"All right." Big John said. "Lets see who you are, then."
He flicked his wand and cast Wingardium Leviosa. The body floated up and turned over so that they could see the man's face. It reminded Jane of nothing so much as a rat. Certainly he had not led a healthy life. The pale pinched look of his face said that he had not seen the sun nor lived well in a long time. The out-sized front teeth in the narrow mouth were yellow and stained.
Big John stared down at the face of the dead man for a long moment. Then the spell broke and the body slammed back down onto the floorboards. His face set in an expression of grim angry recognition.
"Snap me wand and call me a bloody muggle." He said, still staring down at the dead man's face. Jane was shocked, not so much at the foul language itself but that Big John would use it in front of her. Scrupulously avoiding that was one of his few concessions to her gender.
"I don't recognize him, Big John." Jane said carefully. Every Auror knew the faces of the Death Eaters, both the dead and the living. Especially the living. They were attainted outlaws, to be killed on sight. They had nothing to lose and everyone's hand against them.
"No, you wouldn't, Jane." He said, still staring down at the man's face. "Far as I knew, he'd been dead for years. That is Peter Pettigrew. He was the victim in the Sirius Black murder case. Him and twelve innocent muggles."
"Sirius Black. The one who escaped from Azkaban. The one who was never caught. That Sirius Black." Jane said. You didn't need to be an Auror to know that name. Well, so much for any hope of wrapping this up quickly.
"The very same." Big John replied heavily. "Now that I think about it, Dumbledore pushed to get the case reopened a few times. Never went anywhere because there wasn't any evidence, not to mention that no one wanted to poke that dragon. The last time was just before the escape. Never thought about that, but now I do wonder if there was a connection."
He set himself like a man going into something that was going to hurt - a lot. "Bag and tag his wand, Jane. Under your name, not mine. My name can't be on any of this."
He shook his head slowly and his mouth set into a hard line. "No, not even that. I hate to do this, Jane. A man should clean up his own mess and atone for his own mistakes. I can't. All I can do is pass it on to someone who can. This is not my case any more. You're the Lead on this, Auror Twelvetrees. What do you want done?"
Jane paused for a long moment, realizing that she had just been told that her probationary time was done. "Why is that?"
"I was the lead investigator on the Sirius Black case. Twas my first big case, the one that made my reputation."
Jane looked back at him in shock. She had never thought of Big John as old, but he looked every day of his many hard years now.
"A last word of advice, Jane. Don't make the mistakes I made. Don't assume. Sometimes what's obvious really is. Sometimes it isn't. Where this bastard is concerned, don't assume one damned thing. Don't let yourself be played the way I was."
Jane bit her lip and thought for a minute. This was going to be her first independent case, and there wasn't going to be a bigger one. As far as the whole Magical world knew, Sirius Black had been the Death Eater who had betrayed the Potter family to Voldemort and committed mass murder, starting with Peter Pettigrew. On the evidence they had just stumbled onto, the whole Magical world was wrong. With the players involved here ... No. She was going to do this by the book and be damned to the politics.
Under her name … no, she was going go one better. "Mr. Albumin!"
Albumin poked his head in though the door, and said curiously, "What's up, Big John?"
Big John shook his head sadly. "I'm just the subordinate, Jim. She's the Lead."
Albumin wasn't an Auror, but a civilian specialist. Jane swept her gaze around the filthy cluttered little room and started a mental list of what needed doing to make this magic tight. "I will want a detailed report from you on the wards and traps on this scene, with your opinion on who cast them if that is possible."
"That's going to take a while, Miss. I've got a lot else to do." He said in a foot dragging tone.
"That's Auror Twelvetrees to you, Mr. Albumin. Whatever else you are doing is less important than this. Take the Floo back to the Barn and tell them I want the Forensic Magic Squad out here as quick as kiss your hand." She snapped.
"Well, Auror, I don't know. They'll have had a long day already." He said in that same foot-dragging tone.
She gave him a cold look. "Haven't we all. You tell them that I'm reopening the Sirius Black case for significant new evidence and see if that doesn't put some dragon blood in their wand. Notify the Deputy Chief of Investigations and tell him where the scene is and that I'll be here."
Albumin looked gobsmacked, staring at her. Jane jabbed a thumb at the body on the floor. "That is the body of the marked Death Eater Peter Pettigrew. Get a bloody move on."
Albumin added urgency to gobsmacked and left hurriedly. Jane heard his footsteps as he hurried out to the pub where the Floo was.
"If you like, I can tell the Hitwizards to detain the neighbours and the landlord for questioning." Big John said. It was a suggestion, not an order framed as such, as it might have been an hour ago.
"Please do, Big John. Have them get statements from all of them. They can say this was a Death Eater. Might shake something loose." Jane said.
Releasing information was the Lead's decision. The norm for this sort of neighbourhood was to not tell the Aurors the time of day. The implication that they might have knowingly given shelter or succor to an attainted outlaw, and thereby be liable to share his fate, might be enough of a lever to pry some mouths open.
The niggling little fact that he would have died very shortly after being proclaimed an outlaw she would trust the Hitwizards to not bother mentioning. If the Deputy Chief didn't like that decision, he could replace her as Lead. He'd probably do that anyway. Someone experienced would probably inherit this one, but while she had the job she was going to do it as Big John had trained her to do.
Big John left. Jane stood still, looking slowly around the room. The locks, bar and lethal trap on the door said that it didn't get much if any use. No fireplace, so no Floo. Apparation made noise. Portkey didn't, and was easier and safer besides. Pettigrew's non-existent housekeeping skills made it a little easier. On the small sideboard there was a small statuette of a garden gnome, and there were fingermarks in the dust around it.
Pretty good bet. She thought. She made note to call it to the attention of the FMS wizards first thing so it didn't get activated by accident. Merlin knew where that thing might take you, or what welcome you'd get if you weren't a Death Eater.
Big John came back in and said, "That's started, then."
He looked down at the body, and set his jaw. "There's next of kin that will need to be notified. In fairness, I should do that."
"Pettigrew had family?" Jane asked.
"Not that I know of. I'm talking about Sirius Black's family. He has a godson." Big John replied. "I think I should be the one to tell Harry Potter that I was the one that put his godfather in Azkaban for a murder he didn't commit. I'm not looking forward to that."