Chapter 88 - What Do We Know?
It was Tuesday when the boys met up again. All of the after school clubs voluntarily took a week break, and most of the students that still remained at Cherryton went straight to their dorms or to the lounging areas.
Bill and Pina sat in a quiet corner of the library, which was mostly empty, waiting for Legosi and Louis.
"Wonder what was so important yesterday that Legosi called off the meeting," Pina spoke into his hand, which propped his face up as he leaned forward onto the table.
"I have no idea. Isn't this, like, the most important thing right now?" Bill blinked.
"It's the most important thing right now! Thank you, Billy!" Pina reached over and scratched one of the carnivore's cute, round ears.
He smiled, murring. "Do you just wanna ask them when they get here?"
"I dunno, isn't that nosy? Well, scratch that, I'm a nosy dude. I'm definitely gonna ask."
"We were supposed to meet yesterday! I know I'm not the best at working, but they can't put it off again."
"Exactly! I'm glad you're on board. Will make things easier if we have to cut those two off."
"Cut them off?"
Pina stuck his tongue out in thought as he realized his wording was a bit extreme. "If they don't quite work out. If it gets to be too much for them, y'know?"
"There's no way we can do this with just us," Bill shook his head.
"It would suck, but I think we can," Pina murmured.
"No one else has..."
"Yeah, well, nobody else is me."
"Easy on the confidence..."
Pina grumbled. "What, so you can hog it all? Carnivores are the ones who have too much..."
"No! So it doesn't get you hurt!"
At that moment, a tall, lanky gray wolf appeared from behind a bookshelf with a small red deer close behind him.
"Ah, the truants arrive," Pina chewed on the pencil he had with him.
Louis sighed. "Sorry about cancelling yesterday, we had some important stuff to do."
"I dropped out of school," Legosi said bluntly as he plopped into a chair across from the two.
"What?" Bill's eyes grew wide.
Pina's face actually had a flicker of concern. "But...what about the investigation?"
"Me and Louis are staying until the end of the school year. Gon-san said it was okay. We just have to catch the killer before then."
"And he knows?!" the young tiger exclaimed.
"Yeah, he knows I'm dropping out. We had to get him to do the paperwork."
"Not that, you idiot! Did you tell him about what we're doing?" Pina could barely keep the exasperation from his voice.
Legosi's ears drooped as he retreated back in his seat. "O-oh. No, he doesn't know about that."
Louis looked between them. "What's wrong with you two?"
Pina gawked at the deer. "What?"
"Why are you acting all weird?"
The sheep blinked, looked over at his boyfriend, and then back at the other two animals. "Weird? I'm being weird? Okay, whatever. Let's just get on with this."
Legosi looked around the table uncomfortably before scooting his chair closer to Louis.
The deer looked to his mate. "Do you think we should..."
"Hm? Should what?"
"Tell them?"
Legosi looked between Louis and the other two in confusion before leaning into his lover and whispering "Tell them what?"
The buck groaned. "What Gon said?"
"Well, Pina already knows, right?"
Pina squinted. "What do I already know?"
"About the...segregation."
Pina sat back, his eyebrows going up. "Oh...when's it going into effect?"
"The end of the school year."
"Huh." Pina looked out the window. "Makes sense that you're dropping out, then..."
Bill gulped. "How bad is it?"
Louis leaned on the table. "No carnivores and herbivores together, period. I assume they'll still have lunch together...It seems like more trouble than it's worth."
"Welp, say goodbye to the drama club forever, I guess," Pina mumbled into his hand. He looked over at Bill, trying to gauge his reaction.
The tiger looked down. "This is a mess..."
Pina placed his hands splayed on the surface of the table. "M-maybe if we catch this murderer, they'll think again about segregation! I mean, if it's just one killer, they'll have to think again about it..." It was different talking about it as an almost definite hypothetical. Now that it was definitely happening, he felt the panic rise.
Louis shook his head. "It's not the carnivores to blame! It's one animal!"
The tiger frowned. "Mm..."
"Um..." Legosi cleared his throat. "Did I...just drop out for no reason then?"
"Of course you didn't! That's a huge might on reversing it!" Louis argued.
Bill circled a claw on the table.
"Gon-san said...a lot of other animals are dropping out," Legosi added.
"Yeah. One of them is my roommate," Pina revealed. "You're probably the only carnivore to drop out, though."
"Wait, your roommate is dropping out?" his boyfriend blinked.
"Yeah. Wish I could get your ass in that room now but soon it'll be even more illegal."
"So...it'll never happen."
Pina put a hand on Bill's arm. "There's always later, bud." He shifted his focus back to the matter at hand. "Okay, so: Bill and I looked over those links Kai sent us."
"And?" Louis raised a brow.
"It was really boring! None of these guys are interesting at all!"
Bill groaned. "We had to wait for some of them to follow us back, though. That was super annoying."
"Oh yeah, Tao had a locked account for some reason, even though he's the most boring man in the world. 'Oh look at me, I'm gonna post the fiftieth selfie of myself wearing a snapback this week. I really hope a girl sucks me off soon!' Fuck, man." Pina laughed to himself. "Also Bill is already friends with Aoba, and we talked about it and we don't really think it could be him."
"Why's that?" Louis asked.
Bill spoke up. "Because he's a bird. No bird did this, they kill differently."
Pina nodded. "Yeah, we looked over the sparse details the public could get for these murders, but it was clear that a mouth filled with teeth was responsible."
The feline nodded. "Makes me feel sick just thinkin' about it..."
"Oh yeah. Uh, Bill already followed Els, so we looked at her account. Nothing on there to point us to anything, though." Pina folded his hands on the table, staring at them.
Louis looked to the side. "Who else?"
"Well, we were able to find pretty solid proof that most of the carnivores couldn't have killed Els that night. Carnivores are prone to being nocturnal, after all." Pina flicked at his horn as he spoke. "The only ones that don't have any activity posted during that time are Tao, Riz, and Juno. Of course, Juno is still unlikely, but we still checked. Also, Riz seems to barely post on his page anyway, so I'm not sure how much that says."
Louis leaned forward. "So, who are our main suspects?"
The other herbivore bit his lip. "Realistically? Tao and Riz. They're both carnivores that are capable of something like that."
"Riz and Tem were friends..." Legosi, who had remained quiet, finally spoke up.
"What?" Bill looked up.
Legosi looked up to meet all of their eyes. "Riz and Tem were friends. They spent a lot of time around one another. They always looked happy..."
Pina brought a finger to his chin. "...Shit. You really think Riz did it?"
"NO!" Everyone jumped.
"What do you mean?" Louis asked.
"H-how could he kill his own friend? Th-that's...wrong!" Legosi held his head in his hands.
"And if you had given into your instincts and ate Louis?" Pina asked.
The wolf blinked, fur bristled. "Wh...I-I didn't even know him that well back then! And it was only one time!"
Pina and Bill blinked and stared wide eyed at the wolf.
Louis looked at them. "...It was one time."
The wooly animal blinked. "Uh, wow. I didn't even know about that. I just meant...in general. Huh..."
Bill scratched his cheek. "What if you had eaten Louis..."
Legosi shook his head. "I-I didn't! When I realized it was him I snapped out of it and ran away!"
Pina suddenly reached out and grabbed Bill's hand under the table. If even Legosi almost fell prey to his instincts...Bill must not be doing so bad. I've never even noticed him wanting to eat me, after all, even if he is wrestling with it.
Bill squeezed his hand. "Then there would have been two murderers..."
"This isn't about me!" the wolf exclaimed. An angry 'SHHHHH!' could be heard across the library. Legosi slunk back down in his chair.
Louis tapped his chin. "Down to Tao and Riz..."
"Seems like it." Pina looked over to Legosi with sudden sympathy. "Legosi, we're just saying that Riz being friends with Tem doesn't mean he didn't do it. Anything is possible. Even Tao could have done it, even though anyone who looks at his Beastbook would think he's just an average high schooler."
Legosi simply nodded, looking down at the table. "I...I just...don't know what I'll do if it is Riz. I'm just...furious thinking about it."
"Because they were friends?" Louis asked.
"He had...a responsibility...and...if he killed again..." Legosi's brows were now furrowed and his teeth started to bare.
"Again?" Louis blinked.
"Els of course!"
Bill scratched his cheek. "Um...But what do you mean responsibility?"
Legosi turned his head to the tiger, gesturing to him and then himself as he spoke. "You should get it, Bill! We both, as carnivores, have a responsibility to our herbivore friends and...lovers. We'll never eat them!"
"You know some people can't help their instincts..." Bill muttered. "As bad as it is."
"Then he should have turned himself in!"
"He's a high schooler! Why would he?" Louis asked. "He's probably scared of prison!"
Legosi drug his nails against the wooden table, leaving deep grooves. "I don't care. I'll never forgive him!"
Pina watched the whole thing with wide eyes. "Uh..."
Louis shook his head. "We don't even know if he did it."
The sheep blinked and held his head up again. "Yeah, we don't know. Plus, you need to get your ideology out of this if you're going to catch him. Different animals think differently than you do. Accept that."
Bill gulped. "That might be hard for him."
Legosi looked down at what he did to the table and jumped up slightly. "O-oh! Oh..."
Louis grabbed his arm. "Calm down. You're freaking out."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The wolf heard his heart racing. He tried to take a few deep breaths to calm down. All these strong feelings, were they always there?
"We still don't know if it's Riz," Louis repeated.
"Yeah. Could be Tao. And could be that we're completely off the mark." Pina brought his hands up to his horns, tapping his nails on them.
"We don't know until we do some real investigating," the deer sighed.
"Exactly, deer boy." The other herbivore crossed his arms and leaned back. "That's just the thing...what to do...what to do..."
"What to do..." Bill scratched his chin.
If it hadn't sunk in before, it did now with these boys. They were just fumbling around in the dark with this thing.
Louis tapped his fingers on the table. "Hm..."
Pina spoke again. "Well, we need to find out where they each live, and see how far away it is from the murder site. I think that's our next move."
"Uh...how do we do that?" Bill asked.
"How do you think? All that shit's kept in the records. Legosi, you're in nice with principal Gon. Maybe you could use that to snoop around?"
Legosi immediately shook his head. "N-no! I couldn't do that!"
Pina sighed. "Then we'll do it without you."
"Gon has been nothing but kind..." Louis mumbled.
"Are you implying he'll just divulge this information to us if we asked?" Pina questioned.
"As if," the cervid scoffed.
"Exactly. So, we go get it in secret. Or we could go snooping around the dorms, but like I've said before, that's probably more risky."
Bill sighed. "I knew this wouldn't be easy.."
"Of course not. But we all agreed to do this anyway." Pina looked around the table, noting the downward gazes. "Right?"
Bill grabbed his hand. "I mean...there's a reason detectives do this kind of stuff for a living..."
"Well, the cops aren't doing shit and I'm not rich enough to hire a PI. I'm doing this with or without you guys."
"And why are you so determined again?" Bill asked. "It doesn't have to be you!"
Pina turned to the tiger, brows furrowed. "Then who?"
"I-I dunno! Someone other than you! You could get hurt!"
Louis blinked. Were these Bill's true feelings on the matter all along?
"And weren't you the one that was going to protect me?" Pina asked.
"But what if it is Riz...he could really hurt you!" the feline argued.
"Not if it's the two of us!" The sheep looked to the others. "...Or the four of us! Plus, you could let me put nails through that bat...just a suggestion."
Bill rubbed his eyes with his fingers. "I just think we should reconsider."
Pina brought a hand up to his brow and rubbed it, eyes closed in frustration. "What...what is your...reconsideration?"
"Let's just live our lives as teens! You only have a year left, then we can get out of here."
Louis leaned forward. "But the school will be completely segregated because of one animal."
Pina nodded quickly. "Yeah! Remember, if we pull this off we could undo the segregation ruling!"
Legosi looked from Bill to the two herbivores, completely split between both opinions.
Bill shook his head. "But would it?!"
Pina sighed. "It's better than nothing!" The sheep switched gears. "Have you really just been going along with this the whole time, Bill? Did you never want to avenge Tem and Els?"
"At first I wanted to...but now that we're deeper into it, I realized how crazy this is!"
Louis blinked. "Bill..."
The tiger shook his head. "We could get hurt! Did you guys even discuss what we'd do when we caught the killer?"
"We incapacitate him and gather our evidence and bring it to the police," Pina stated, matter-of-factly.
His boyfriend furrowed his brows. "You want to fight him?!"
"Well, ideally we'd catch him off guard. Or Louis just points his gun at him."
"This is crazy," Bill shook his head more. "We didn't think this through."
Legosi looked over at the tiger. It was strange hearing this sort of thing from Bill. Wasn't Pina the voice of reason here? But then again... The wolf sat there and stewed, deep in thought.
"Fine! I'm not forcing you to do this, Bill!" Pina snapped.
"You shouldn't do this either is what I'm saying!" the tiger argued.
Pina stared at his clenched fists on the table, then he stood up. "You know what? I'm sick of you covering for the carnivores. See ya." The sheep turned heel and stormed off.
Bill put his head in his hands. "Agh...that's not what I wanted..."
Legosi's ears folded as he looked at the tiger. It was strange recalling the animosity he once felt toward him. "Have you ever fought with him before?"
The feline shook his head. "No..."
Louis rubbed his eyes. "Damn it, Bill, why didn't you voice your concerns earlier?"
Bill stuttered, trying to find his words.
"Maybe he didn't think about it until now," Legosi suggested.
Bill sighed. "I don't know. I always had doubts. We're teenagers! People make a living off of this stuff! How could we ever solve a murder?!"
Louis frowned. "Like Pina said: Who else will?"
The feline scratched his cheek more. "If we let it go there's less chances of someone getting hurt, though..."
"Unless there's another murder," Legosi's voice was monotone.
"But one of us could end up dead!" Bill exclaimed.
The deer looked at him. "That's the risk we're taking to save others."
Legosi turned to him again. "Bill...are you afraid of dying or getting hurt?"
"I'm afraid of Pina dying or getting hurt!"
"He's going to do this regardless of your feelings. He joined the drama club for it. It's your job now to protect him."
Bill sighed loudly. "Maybe I can convince him otherwise..."
Legosi said nothing, but looked over to Louis with bugged out eyes that said 'yeah, right'.
Louis put his head on the table. "You're really not helping, Bill. If you were going to do this you should have done it earlier. We have two suspects now!"
Legosi nodded. "We're almost done. Turning back now would be pointless. If it turns out neither of them did it, then we should probably quit."
Bill leaned on the table. "I just don't know, guys..."
"Coming from the guy that goes to the Black Market..." Legosi mumbled.
The cat looked up. "Excuse me?"
Louis put a hand on his mate's. "Legosi. Don't start anything."
Bill huffed. "I got over that."
"Hm?" Legosi perked up. "Over what?"
"Ever since I got with Pina, I haven't gone back..."
Legosi blinked. "Is that...safe? I mean, since you know what meat tastes like..."
Bill put his head in his arms. "...I want to eat him so badly."
Louis looked at him and swallowed. "I knew it."
Legosi's fur bristled. "Bill..."
The tiger swallowed. "..."
The wolf ventured further. "Have you...talked about it?"
"He knows."
Legosi fell silent. How was it with Louis in the beginning? The horrible night at the fountain, and the stray craving here and there. He would think of Louis as his prey sometimes, but that was the extent. Perhaps he had an easier time because he never tasted meat? Or perhaps he just loved Louis so much it became a nonissue. Maybe Bill jumping straight to a sexual relationship affected it? Hesimply sat there, transfixed by his own thoughts.
Louis sighed. "Have you ever even tried?"
Bill shook his head.
The wolf snapped out of his disassociation. "Well...that's good. Have you tried anything to help with it?"
The tiger shook his head. "Other than pushing it back."
"Well, maybe after all of this, we can talk about it? Me and Louis did a few things to help with that..." Legosi looked thoughtfully at the deer. "Although...we had more of a problem with him wanting me to eat him than the other way around..."
Bill's eyes bulged. "Do you think he wants me to eat him?"
Louis shook his head. "You didn't ask when he found out you wanted to eat him?"
The tiger gulped. "No..."
Louis took a deep breath. "Bill."
The cat got up. "I'm...going somewhere else!"
"...Bye," Legosi sighed, looking back at Louis.
And with that, the cat left.
Louis groaned. "This couldn't have gone more wrong."
