"I can't believe I actually agreed to this…" Weiss muttered, a light blush appearing on her face.
"Well, it's either that, sleeping on the ground or in the bed of a complete stranger." the hidden cat faunus whispered to her teammate, while in front of them their rather gracious host, pulled out the bed from under the couch and then proceeded to put multiple thin blankets on it.
"And I don't think Ruby of all people would be thinking about...that. You know." Both girls blushed at the implication but quickly shook the thought off. When Ruby mentioned that the whole team slept together in one bed, Weiss and inwardly Blake as well might have overreacted a little bit. Only Yang immediately understood what her sister meant and was non-plussed with the situation. She and Ruby had slept together in the past before. Granted they were kids at the time, but that didn't mean much for Ruby. The blond also wasn't too worried about Weiss or Blake "corrupting" her sister. Sure Blake enjoyed some rather mature literature, but Yang was definitely worse personality wise than the Faunus. As for Weiss, she was...Weiss.
"Alright." Sarah got up from the couch, after placing the last blanket, to at least make it somewhat comfortable to sleep on it. "I'm gonna look for the pillows and the other blankets now. Be back in five." the brunette announced, quickly heading towards her room. Team RWBY was left behind with the TV muted, as only commercials were shown at this very moment. Ruby placed herself on the couch, already doing Sarah's work. The rest were a little bit more careful, as each of them sat down, now that they all had space for themselves.
"So, any of you gonna change?" Yang asked, looking down at her own clothes.
"I think that would be counterproductive." Blake pointed out. "Besides, as Huntresses we won't always have the luxury of changing clothes or even brushing our teeth. I think it would be best if we get adjusted to that fact as soon as possible."
"Well, while I agree with you on the matter of clothes, I think we should at least use what is given to us and do some basic personal hygiene." Weiss opined to the matter.
"I don't think Sarah has four spare toothbrushes, though." Ruby pointed out, lying down on the couch.
"Personally, I think she has done more than enough for us already." The hidden Faunus stated her opinion. "We shouldn't use more of her generosity than we already have. Tomorrow, we should get into contact with Beacon as soon as possible."
"Yeah. They're probably going to search the entire Emerald Forest for us after we suddenly went dark." Yang stated, looking at the television. "I hope they don't have us listed as MIA already. Don't wanna give our families a heart attack, you know?"
"Yeah…" Blake quietly agreed, thinking about her own family. Weiss didn't comment on the issue, as a family was a rather sour subject for her. Luckily for her and Blake, no one else had anything to say about this and their conversation went mostly to the TV-Show and the various animals that were shown. About ten minutes later their hostess Sarah joined them on the couch, having everything prepared and even found a bag of unopened chips in her room. She mostly kept to herself and enjoyed the program on TV and mostly only spoke if one of the other girls asked her a question. However, all five of them were tired from the day, four because of their recent mission and one because she was mentally exhausted from blocking out the unfortunate experience of the day and tending four guests at once. Sarah asked if anyone needed a toothbrush, but they all declined. Soon enough the lights went out and everyone retired for the day.
XXX
Despite his name, Detective Coldwell enjoyed the cold just as much as a plant enjoyed an inferno going on right next to it. Sadly criminals could care less whether it was or cold. When they fucked shit up, they just fucked shit up. Right now, he was standing in the middle of the street, next to the North Graveyard bus stop. If there wasn't something like proper procedures, the police would have been able to dump the corpse right then and there.
Bad jokes aside, the situation was quite serious. The entire street was closed thanks to the murder, at least it looked like it had been murder, happening. Police tape was wrapped around poles, which had been placed on the streets, while the front lights, as well as the blue lights and street lights, made the entire area visible to the human eye. Still, even with all of this, the forensic guys searched the entire area with flashlights in order to hopefully not miss a possibly crucial piece of evidence.
The good Detective, a lengthy man in his fifties, with short gray hair growing out of his skull carefully approached the dead body. He was overall dressed in black with heavy boots and a coat keeping his body temperatures at reasonable levels. The old man had seen many corpses in his days as a detective, but this one definitely took the cake. Not that it was the most gruesome corpse he had ever found, hell no, but the poor sap was special in his own way. The man had been clean cut in half! From down his crotch to all the way up to the skull. It kind of reminded the detective of those Japanese Cartoons, which his niece loved to watch. Blood was covering the entire area around the body, having leaked out of the
"Holy Macaroni! What the shit happened?!" the old man exclaimed, upon seeing the dead body. One of the younger police officers approached, looking a bit pale.
"S-sir. We...uh….we...that is...well...I...think…"
"Calm down, officer. Take a deep breath and tell me what you know." If Coldwell wouldn't be used to the sight of gruesome crime scenes, he would probably be panicking as well.
The policeman followed the advice of the detective, before giving his report. "Sir, well..." The officer sighed. "Sorry, sir. This is all, a lot to take in."
"I know." Coldwell nodded. "Take your time. It's natural to be distraught after seeing...this." the detective gestured to the cut in half corpse.
"Yeah….alright. Sir, the victim is a Mathew Dawson, 33 years old. We found multiple business cards from Hesob Constructions, so we assume he works there."
"Judging by the suit, he worked at one of their offices." The detective mumbled. "Such a shame. That one looks pretty neat. Anything else about the victim?"
The officer shook his head. "Not really. His iPhone malfunctioned because it fell into the puddle over there, so we couldn't contact any possible relatives or co-workers. Forensics have it in one of their bags if you want to take a look at it. They said there's a possibility we might recover almost all of the data. One of them said it happened to him one time and he learned a few tricks through the internet."
"Good to hear. Any witnesses?"
The officer pulled down his cap. "Just one, but we're not sure about her story. She was drunk and on drugs when we questioned her." The officer took out his notepad and looked at his notes. "Her name is Liliana Stones, a prostitute. Between begging us for money and alcohol, she claimed to have seen a woman in a red outfit and a white animal mask. The woman had a sword with her and then cut Mr. Dawson in half. The ambulance arrived afterward and the paramedics brought her to the Mother Hospital. We...uh….hope to get accurate testimony, after her recovery."
"Hmm." The detective frowned and looked over to the corpse once more. "To her credit, it actually looks like he was cut in half in one full swing, but by a sword? Looks more like heavy machinery was involved."
"You have an idea, sir?"
"A theory, yes. I'm pretty sure Mr. Dawson died not here, but somewhere where heavy machinery is used. A factory that uses huge blades for example to cut materials. It would explain why he looks so perfectly cut."
"Well, then I have to disappoint you, Coldwell."
The detective and the police officer turned towards the new voice. It came from an old man in his sixties, wearing a brown jacket and heavy pants to shield himself from the cold. The man also wore a small pair of glasses, a hat and white rubber gloves."
"Doctor Steward. It's been a while." Coldwell greeted the court physician with a nod. "And what's wrong with my theory?"
"Simple, my good detective. The amount of blood around the body. Given that, it is still liquefied and the sheer quantity of it, the man had to be killed here and nowhere else. Unless it turns out that the blood is false and someone just brought some red colored water with them, but I highly doubt that."
The detective crossed his arms, annoyed. "And there goes my theory. Still doctor, I have to ask, is there something out there that can cut a human cleanly in half and is it transportable?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." the doctor said with a shrug. "I have never had a corpse in a state like this. Something that apparently cut the victim in half. Not only does it need to be reasonably sharp, but you also need put enough into the swing to cut through the body. After all, this is not only meat you're cutting through, but also a lot of bones. They're more durable than most people believe."
"Thanks for the info doctor. Anything else outstanding?" the detective furiously took notes on his own little notepad.
"Other than it is fascinating to see a spine being cut open right in the middle? Excuse me, in my line of work, some of us tend to make rather distasteful jokes. As for the time of death, I advise you to go with the witness' testimony. The cold temperatures make it hard to estimate the time, so we're open from one to five hours ago." The doctor explained.
The detective turned back to the officer. "When did the phone call came in?"
"About an hour ago. We arrived here ten minutes later and secured the perimeter."
"Hmm, at least an hour." Coldwell mused. "I assume the witness called the police?"
"That's correct, sir. From what we heard, she was rather frantic and sometimes not understandable. But we got the message. To be honest, no one really believed the report to be true, until we saw it ourselves. Pranksters, kids, drunks...they all call the line daily, but we're required to head out anyway. This was one of those rare cases, where something actually happened. Can't say I'm happy about it, but it is what it is." The officer rubbed his arms a little during his speech, in order to keep himself warm.
"Mhm. What about the witness? Do we have any information on her?"
"Ms. Stones? I personally arrested her a few times for drug possession. She doesn't have a real job and has been a prostitute for years now. If memory serves right, she's somewhere in her late only thing I know about her personal life is that she had an abusive father. Her mother died when she was five. I can only imagine the kind of childhood she had."
"Definitely not pretty." the detective agreed. "Anything else?"
"Not on hand. I can send you her profile and everything else we have on her later."
"Much appreciated. By the way, are there any cameras nearby?"
"Uh…" the officer looked around. "Well there's only the graveyard, so...ah! The supermarket down the road. It is only a stretch, but maybe our killer passed the building and got caught on one of the outside ones."
"It's a stretch, but maybe we get lucky." the detective sighed. "Did you find any evidence that might give us a lead?"
"Some thrown away cigarettes, a can of bear, a small softball, but honestly? Anyone could have thrown that stuff into the bushes. But we've only been here for an hour and admittedly most of us have been rather distracted by the corpse, sir. You know...because."
"Yeah…" the detective trailed off. "Well, I don't think we'll have this one solved by Christmas. Better cancel your plans, officer."
The man sighed, holding his head low. "My wife is going to kill me."