I do not own Homsetuck.
Hope everyone enjoys my story.
Thunder rolled in the distance as drops of rain began to descend from the heavens upon the darkened city of Skaia. A murky gloom covered the city, it was the kind of night where a biting wet chill sapped away any and all warmth. When babies that were tucked away safely into their cribs cried for no reason. Where dogs barked endlessly at invisible strangers and shadows lurking on nearby walls, the kind of night when unspeakable affairs happened in the cover of darkness.
An unmarked black car pulled up to a cordoned off police block. A lone officer stood by watching the police line, pacing the small entrance of the alleyway. Without warning, the car door of the driver side opened and blond man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, stepped out while tugging on a red trench coat in an effort to shield himself from the wind. When he looked up to the sky, rain drops fell onto his sun-glasses. While sunglasses at night would seem odd on any other human being, for him they were an extension of his identity, as ordinary for him as a uniform for the everyday police officer. The lone officer approached the fidgeting policem watching over the freshly stretched crime scene tape. The policeman was busy staring up at the sky, his back turned to the approaching stranger, when he was tapped on the shoulder by the newly arrived officer. At that moment thunder boomed across the sky causing the officer to jump, either in fright or from the unexpected touch of the new comer. A flash of the man's gold badge, barely illuminated by the old rusty street lamps, seemed to calm the officer who nodded curtly upon seeing it, and moved aside while lifting the tape for the new arrival.
"Down the alley. You can't miss it, Detective," stammered the officer. His eyes following the man in the red trench coat until he disappeared into the darkness of the alley.
The detective promptly strode down the alley, unhindered by the darkness and the now pouring rain. He came upon a tent at the far end of the alley, which had been hastily erected to cover the body. Outside the tent, under its canopy, stood a stout, heavy-set middle aged police officer, was nervously smoking a cigarette, while looking at his watch. Upon noticing the detective he flicked the cigarette away, straightened himself, and lifted his plastic covered hat in greeting.
"Detective Dave Strider. I should have known they were going to send you. Been hearing some interesting things about you." The officer shot him a grand smile and extended a hand. "Good things." He added seeing Dave raise an eyebrow.
Dave shook the hand while a cold grin slowly spread across his face, "Officer Ace Dick, good to see you again. Heard some interesting things about you, myself. Talk of the amazing 'truffle shuffle' you performed on bar tables during the last holiday party are still circulating around the precinct."
Ace chuckled and smirked, "It's a shame the Spades Murder took up all your time and couldn't be there to see it for yourself. Heard you pulled four all nighters, in a row, to crack that case, and caught the guy with his pants down. Even though there were thought to be more than one killer." Ace cooly regarded the detective before him and added, "The Chief's always favored you, gifting you with the most interesting cases," he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"It doesn't matter what you heard. I may have solved some big cases and impressed the right people, but maybe/it could be that lady luck just has a thing for me." Dave stated as he came to stand beside the officer. Neither of them looked at each other.
Ace shrugged, "I wouldn't exactly call it luck. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you always were ahead of everyone in the academy. Personally, I would have cracked that case in half the time with just one evening of 'rigorous interrogation'." He boasted, cracking his knuckles loudly.
Dave resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Academy is long behind us, and we have more pressing matters at hand. Just show me the stiff, it's late and I want to get this over and done with."
Ace's smile vanished and was replaced with a grimace. "The crime unit has this case pretty much wrapped up with a nice little bow. I don't know why they sent you, but, given the circumstances, I guess it makes sense. There are some peculiar parts in this case, some of which might need your insight. The victim is a, well, let's say it would be better to show you and then getting into the details." Ace said as he moved into the tent, motioning for Dave to follow as he held the flap open for him.
A strange feeling washed over Dave as he entered the tent. He tried to shake it off as he moved closer to the body. There were three other people crammed into the already small tent, all huddled around the body and speaking in hushed tones. They seemed spooked. Dave had never seen a forensics team so shaken around/by a dead body. Most of the team had departed/left, probably to take evidence they had recovered back to their lab to be studied. There was something off about how the forensics team was working, something that he couldn't explain. The tension in the tent was thick enough to cut with a dull knife. Ace approached one of the forensics workers who was taking notes and spoke a few words. The man then motioned for his team to leave, allowing Dave space so he could begin his investigation.
Dave inhaled and took a long look at the body. The body was face down, sprawled out like a rag doll with its legs twisted at odd angles. The pants and black shirt on the body were nearly ripped to shreds, and everything around the body was soaked in an ugly brown liquid. Dave flinched at the sight of two giant bull-like horns, colored like candy corn, protruded from its short black hair. Horns? Fucking horns? Dave grabbed a pair of latex gloves from one of his pockets and tugged them on. He lifted the pant legs to reveal prosthetics, made of some kind of carbon-metal composite. That would explain the odd contortion, Dave thought, making a mental note. Kneeling near the head, he grasped one of the horns and pulled, just to make sure he knew what he was dealing with, he took a good look at the thing's face and where horns met skull. The horns were real, without a doubt, this thing was a troll. Dave studied the creature's ashen face before carefully placing the head back down. The face was contorted in pain and smeared with more of the sticky brown substance.
"What is this, shit?"
Taking a moment to compose himself after a brief wave of nausea, Dave continued with his investigation. A closer look revealed that the brown liquid was seeping from the head wound and various cuts and scrapes along the troll's face and body. No, they bleed brown...
He stood and walked around the body trying to see if there was anything else that seemed odd around the trolls body. Dave stood, hovering over the body, studying every aspect of its form in comparison to the pavement and objects around it. He took out a small notebook and began to take notes of his observations.
At that moment, another roll of thunder was heard and the rain increased in it's intensity. The dull tapping giving way to a louder rhythm on the tent. Through the cracks rain-water dripped in began to dilute the blood that surrounded the body. Yet, there seemed to be no end to the blood seeping from the troll's massive head wound. Clearly, the cause of death was trauma to the head and body from the long fall resulting in a harsh impact with the asphalt. Darker shades of gray covered its face and arms. Stepping back, Dave returned, speechless, to Ace's side.
After a moment of silence Dave finally found his words. "Great. So, what's a fucking troll doing up here? What do we know besides the fact we have a fucking dead troll on our hands?" He asked warily, finally removing his gaze from the body.
"Still think lady luck has the hots for you?" Ace joked, giving Dave a smug smile. "I guess you could call it a one way affair."
"Just answer the question." Dave snapped, feeling his temper rising.
"We don't know why it was up here. Might have been a squatter, probably hiding from something either up here or down there. The body was discovered by a late night drunk. He was assured that he was far too intoxicated to have seen what he'd seen. He was convinced that it was a costume party gone wrong. As for what we do know, as you can see, the troll suffered from trauma to the head as well as multiple abrasions along the arms, torso, and face." Said Ace as he kneeled near the body and began to point out certain areas.
"The troll died on impact after falling from the eleventh floor, at least, that's the coroner's preliminary assessment. Scrapes and the large wound to his head are likely from hitting the fire escape. Even the prosthetic legs are pretty twisted and broken. Rather nasty to deal with. Clean-up crew is having a field day. We've been requested that we get the stiff to the morgue as soon as possible for a full autopsy."
"Any identification on him?" Dave quarried.
Ace shook his head. "Nothing on the body, even if there was I wouldn't know what they would be. They never come up topside, they're not supposed to, and yet here he is. You ought check out the apartment now. The team that worked the site for clues haven't found signs of a struggle. Seems like the fool musta been in a big hurry to die, I've never seen glass spread out so far."
"What do you mean, glass?"
Ace Dick sighed, "Shattered glass from the window the troll jumped out of."
"So you think it committed suicide by running through a glass window?"
Ace shrugged, "Trollicide?"
Dave gave him a hard look as he walked out from under the protection of the canopy, to look up at the gaping window the troll jumped out of. He called back, "I'm done here. Show me the apartment." It's going to be a long night.
Ace escorted Dave to the eleventh floor of the apartment complex. On the elevator ride up, Ace filled Dave in on what they thought transpired in the apartment. "The apartment's pretty clean. In terms of living conditions, it's hard to believe that this apartment even belonged to the troll. As I was saying before, we think it might have been a squatter that somehow managed to get a key. The door was locked from the inside and the key was found inside the apartment, on a table. No sign of a struggle or forced entry. The apartment looks to be pre-furnished and spotless, but after a closer look we saw that most of it's covered in dust. There's no electricity, bed, clothes, food cutlery, or even a TV. The people who own the apartment are out of town, and have been for the last five months, according to the office manager. We have their contact information, their current address and phone numbers. They should be easy to get a hold of during the day if you need them." Ace handed Dave a sheet of paper with the written/contact information. "We found some prints and will send them to the lab for analysis." Ace let Dave into the apartment, which was lit by several portable battery operated lamps. "Told you this case was all wrapped up. I guess the boss needed ya to sort out the smaller details. I'd say it was just a suicide. There might be some nitty gritty/minor details, but those are for you to write up nice and neat," Ace huffed.
"Yet, this is the peculiar part," Dave walked straight towards the gaping window and leaned in to inspect the frame further. "Trolls are rumored to be batshit crazy, so why not jump off the a roof? What would possess anyone to commit suicide by running through the glass like a bull on crack? And to even be able to break through glass, no less."
"Didn't you see the size of its horns?"
Dave turned away and glanced at the scene before him. The apartment, like Ace described, was showroom clean. The furnishings seemed only to be for necessity rather than enjoyment. Dave never would have believed anything had taken place here if it wasn't for the shattered window. He continued to walk around the small room, yet his attention was continuously drawn to the window, and the floor length curtains blowing softly in the breeze.
"Another thing. We don't know what the troll was doing in this apartment when it clearly looks like it had fuckall reason to be here."
Ace squirmed, "Fucker's dead on the street. At this point, I couldn't give a rat's ass about a dead troll. Why does the force even need to get involved? It's a waste time and resources trying to figure out this shit. No offense to you, sir, but, that was the reason you were called in." Ace's face tightened to a mocking grin. "I'm just glad my hands will be clean of this case after tonight. No fucking nutcase job for this officer
Ace took a seat on the couch and idly glanced at Dave still staring at the window. "We'll sort out the details, it'll just take time. By 'we' I mean you. Want some solid advice? Just admit that it's suicide and save yourself the headache."
"It may be my job, but you are also expected to do yours." Dave responded, not bothering to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "Until this case is solved I want you/you're at my beck and call. If I say jump you say how high." Dave stated.
Ace, surprised by Dave's audacity, nodded in compliance. Whether he would admit to agreeing to Dave's terms, later, was besides the point.
Scanning the apartment once more, Dave took a minute to take in everything, tuning all other distractions out. Something didn't feel right. Perhaps he'd find out more after questioning the landlord, but in the mean time Ace's words had a ring of truth. Trolls were a rare occurrence above ground, reaching near mythical status. Seeing one for first time, and a dead one at that, disturbed him more than he wanted to admit. It would be easy to just say it was suicide, he mulled that thought over again in his head. Believing he had seen all he needed to for the night, Dave decided it was time to clear his head. Before Ace could even get up from the couch, Dave was in the elevator and down to his car as fast as he could manage. Driving off into the night trying hard not to think about what the heck the chief had gotten him into, and whether he really wanted to be a part of it.