Among the trees.
He parked the car outside the area and started walking until he reached the spot. It was some minutes until he got to the place surrounded by the yellow tape. The police had made a 20 meters perimeter surrounding the place where they'd found the body, using the trees as posts to hold the yellow tape. An officer held the line up to let Ryusuke through. He walked to where the coroner was finishing his work.
"Not a nice way to wake up on a Sunday at all." His partner, inspector Grover, was yawning widely, holding a cup of coffee on his hand. "Why can't they take a break on the weekend like the rest of the town?"
"Did you just wake up, Wally? What were you doing all night?" Knowing his habits, probably on some pub again until they kicked him out, pissed like a sailor.
"Having fun, if you must know. You should try it some time, it'll take the stick you have implanted instead of a spine."
Wallace Grover was a man in his forties with a sour sense of humour and a cinical view at life and people. He had been in homicides long enough to find his job boring and uneventful at best so he had taken to drinking and hooking at pubs to up liven up his empty house and existence. After his first divorce, he had sworn married life was not suited for him. After his second one, he had seriously considered celibacy, a thought that lasted a couple of hours until the next pretty girl walked by. His views were probably very much biased by the pensions he had to pay them. All his exes at least agreed on something; that it was impossible to live with him. So, each of them in turn had taken off with a male of their preference, leaving him to arrange the paperwork and alimony. You could tell what had prompted his behaviour when you knew where he came from.
It still didn't change the fact that it was impossible to live or work with him. Ryusuke was a young detective with a knack at getting the job done. He had good instincts when it came to crime, he could tell how it was done and catch his prey in little time. Therefore, he was paired with the most experienced officer of the division, something none of them liked at all. The hard working young man disliked the loose style of life of the older man and likewise the more mature guy despised stuck up little twerps who thought themselves smarter only because they'd had a lucky strike. They were definitely not friends.
Right now, they were facing the place where the last victim was lying, a woman sprawled face up on the ground, gutted and cut to pieces.
"What do we have this time, Colin?" Ryusuke asked, forgetting Wally for the time being.
"Victim number seven, if we ignore the other two odd ones. Female, early thirties--"
"I'd give her 29. She looks like she's been around," interrupted Wally.
"As I was saying," Colin said, starting to get annoyed, "she has the same injuries as the other victims. The abdomen was the first opened. Died of the injuries there. Then came the other cuts and of course, the animals eating the remains. Same as the rest, no leads."
"Time of death?"
"Can't tell until the full autopsy but I'd say this one hasn't been lying more than 24 hours."
"Any ID on her?"
"She wasn't carrying any purse or anything. Judging by her clothes, I'd say she was dressed for indoors. She's either a local resident or was carried from her home without changing by someone."
"Great. Take a picture of her and we'll show it around, see if we can find anyone who can recognize her. We're lucky this one kept her face intact, although I would've advised her to do something with her nose. Makes for an ugly profile." Wally looked at the face sideways.
"Who found her?" This was addressed at large.
"Some teenagers playing football happened to shoot the ball away and found instead this little present awaiting when they came to pick it up. You can see the lunch of one of them over there, "Wally pointed to a place some feet away that the policemen were avoiding to step into. "At least he had the decency to avoid ruining the crime scene."
"Thanks, Colin." Ignoring Wally's nasty comments, he went to do his job.
First, he interviewed the teenagers. The one who first found the body was still shaky and nauseated, probably the one who had thrown up. He asked all the formal questions and got normal responses for them. None of them had seen anyone around the place, it was quiet, nice for a game, they thought they were alone. That is, until they found the corpse lying in the middle of a cluster of trees. Then they had called the police right away. After making an officer get their statements down, he went to investigate the surrounding area. He knew the police probably did it when they first arrived but he had to make sure. Presently, Wally joined him, his cup of coffee already vanished.
"So, did you get anything out of them beside whinings?"
"They gave their statements. And why do you have to be so nasty about everything? They just found a dead body, it's not something nice for anyone."
"They'll get over it. By tomorrow it'll be a great story to tell at school. Their social status will increase, they've become the interesting eyewitnesses of the most important case in the nation. Surely some little shock as that won't stop them from sharing their experience with the world, especially the press."
"You don't have to say it like that."
"Why not tell the truth as it is? Don't be so prudish. Those kids won't be shy in front of the cameras. We'll probably have to clean after them. God, I hate dealing with the press." Wally said angrily.
Ryusuke didn't answer to this. He didn't want to deal with them either but he wasn't going to admit to sharing anything with Wally right now. They kept on walking among the trees, looking for any indication of human activity that could give them some clue of where had the killer gone or come from. They found the same as every other time, nothing.
"This is useless. I don't know who the bastard is but I give it to him he can cover up his trail." Wally stopped on the spot and massaged his forehead.
"Tired already? You need to work out." Ryusuke told him looking at his bulging stomach.
"Shuddup. Hangover." He kept on massaging his temples with both hands. Ryusuke was about to make a comment on his way of life, and probably be rejected with sneering comments like every other time, when he heard a noise like crushed leaves under someone's feet.
Wally's hands stopped and he became alert. Ryusuke put his finger on his lips, then made signs for each of them to round the place from different sides. Wally nodded understanding. Both men pulled out their guns and walked cautiously surrounding the group of trees from where the sound had come. They heard another sound, like something being kicked out of the ground.
"Stop!" They both shouted, jumping into the clearing.
It was empty. They made a quick sweep of the entire place and found nothing, no traces of any activity either.
"What the hell was that?" Wally asked, lowering his gun. All that could be heard were the noises of the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees and insects buzzing around. He went farther into the other side of the clearing.
"I don't know. Perhaps an animal." Ryusuke had lowered his gun also and was looking at the ground to see if he could find any indications. He was looking around a very large tree with branches that begun at 3 metres above the ground.
"Well, fuck those animals! They can go play around another time. So where are the little devils? They were noisy enough earlier." Wally shouted from afar. His head was killing him and it made him angry.
"Back to their caves and trees? Leave the department for wildlife to take care of that. I'm also tired of running around nothing. Auch!" He clasped his neck.
"What is it?" Asked Wally as he was making his way back to where he was.
"Something stung me. I think it was a wasp." He was massaging his neck.
"Looks like this place is full of them. Do you hear those sounds?" He was looking up nervously, trying to figure out where was their nest.
"Yeah. Let's get out of here. We still need to check up on the identity of the woman and I want to get it over soon." Ryusuke started walking to the place where the police line was set up.
"I couldn't agree more with you. I want to get out of here." Wally walked rapidly out of the place and walked briskly past Ryusuke.
"What's the matter? You don't like insects?" Ryusuke asked when he caught up with him.
"I hate bugs!" He said, still walking fast. "And why do you want to go so fast? Do you have some place to be?" He asked maliciously.
"As a matter of fact, I do. Meilin came back today and we were planning on spending all day together."
"And then a dead body came to ruin your idyllic plans. Too bad. By the way, say hello to her for me. And tell her to help you loosen up. Or better yet, I'll tell her on the wedding day." He mused.
"You're not invited." Ryusuke stated firmly.
"But I'm really a cheerful guest. I can liven up any place." He tried to convince him.
"After you get drunk, I can pretty well imagine that." He shook his head. "It'll be a simple ceremony, only family and friends, and you're neither."
"You break my heart, lad." He put his hand to his chest mocking pain.
"What heart?"
"Well, I once had a heart and it broke. So I think you can say I have a broken heart." He said, thoughtfully.
Ryusuke snorted. At times it almost seemed to be possible to be on good terms with Wally. Until the next time he got drunk, that is. And he wouldn't risk ruining his wedding just for the possibility of getting along with a bitter man. Meilin didn't like him anyway, so it was easy not to invite him. Maybe he wouldn't mention he had sent his regards to her either.
They reached the scene of the crime just as Colin was looking for them to hand them the polaroid he'd taken of the woman and they set out with it to start asking around the neighbourhood, a job that would take up the rest of the afternoon.