Chapter 6

Friday, 7 a.m.

Hannibal and Will did not want to let Theresa know that they had a second bed upstairs. After some discussion they agreed that Will would sleep in the bed with Theresa by his side and Hannibal would sleep on the couch. The word "sleep" was farfetched anyway as none of them could find any sleep that night. When they had gotten into the night clothes and Theresa was wearing an oversized shirt of Hannibal's, she commented on the bandage around Will's elbow. Hannibal looked surprised at the sight and then worried. Will explained he cut himself while preparing a meal. He had the knife on the kitchen counter and picked up something that had fallen down and when he got up again, he accidentally streaked the knife. Theresa did not ask any further and lay down.

After endless tossing and turning throughout the next hours, Theresa eventually got up and had a shower. Will lent her some clothes that weren't even too big since Theresa was rather tall for a woman. Will showered after her while Hannibal prepared toast for breakfast. Theresa sat at the table and stared at the dog playing with a plastic bone in the living room part of the American kitchen-dining room-living room-room.

"Would you like to go and pet him?" Hannibal asked, following her glance.

Theresa shook her head. "I'm not really an animal person. I like turtles though. I find them calming."

She then stared at the toast that Hannibal put on her plate. "You are not hungry, are you?"

She shook her head.

He sighed and sat down. "How do you feel?"

Theresa shrugged.

"How do you feel about your father's death? He hurt you all your life." He watched her. "Are you relieved?"

She looked up. Bingo. "Did he deserve that? Did he deserve being eaten by dogs? Does anyone deserve that?"

"He was a cruel man who abused you. If anyone deserves such an end, then him."

"But are we allowed to judge what he deserves and what not?"

"Who do you think is more appropriate to judge him? Our juridical system? God?"

Theresa snorted. "There is no God and our juridical system is a joke. What do you think would have happened if I had turned to the police years ago? When I had been underage, I would have just ended up in an orphanage. When my mum died, he would have made me look like a nutcase."

"Then maybe you should just be glad that in the end, he got his punishment."

"I wish I could have done it myself," Theresa said silently and was shocked about her own words.

"That is a natural reaction, Theresa. You don't have to feel bad for a person who did not care about your wellbeing. You don't have to feel bad for wishing bad things upon a person or cherishing that something bad has happened to him."

Theresa nodded.

Will had returned from the shower, but before Hannibal could leave to the bathroom, there was a knock at the door. Will opened and was surprised to see the police officer from yesterday evening. He looked as if he had worked through the night.

"Officer, what can I do for you?"

The man in his late-30s was surprised to find Theresa at the kitchen table.

"We have taken her in. She's all alone and a hostel isn't the right place for her now," Will explained.

"That is very kind of you," the officer responded. He hesitated and then asked, "Mr. Leuchtenberg, you are working at the animal shelter, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"The dogs we found at the crime scene… they are the dogs from the shelter."

"I'm sorry what? Can I see them?"

"All in good time." The police officer raised his hands to calm Will down. "We had called Mrs. Surrey to the crime scene later this night to calm down the dogs. She recognized them. A patrol was sent to the animal shelter, and it appears that there was a break in."

"Oh my god," Will played shocked. "I was the last person to leave yesterday. But I swear I locked everything."

"You did, don't worry, Mr. Leuchtenberg. We had a look at the surveillance camera. You left around six o'clock and the break in was two hours later. There are police officer at the scene. The dogs have been brought back there. Our pathologist would like to confirm that the dogs have eaten the interior of Mr. Noakes but–" The officer stopped talking when Theresa gave a little shriek.

Hannibal stood up and gave her a little hug. "It's going to be alright," he said and patted her back.

"I'm sorry," the police officer apologized and continued in a lower voice that could, however, still be heard by Hannibal and Theresa. "Mrs. Surrey was against this action. She said that the dogs were traumatized enough and should not be cut open."

"Understandable," Will said. He did not want to show too much enthusiasm. If they did not confirm whether or not the dogs had indeed eaten all the organs, then there were no organs missing.

"I wanted to inform you before you went to work today," the police officer explained his early visit. "However, I also wanted to ask you when was the last time that you saw Mr. Greyson or Mr. Kale."

"The hunters that live down the road?"

The officer nodded.

"That must have been three weeks ago at the local BBQ."

"I saw Mr. Greyson less than two weeks ago. He had asked me to bring a letter to the post office for him and I agreed. That was also the first day I gave Theresa a lift to school," Hannibal added. "Is he alright?"

The officer sighed. "The whole district will know soon enough anyway. But Mr. Greyson is dead, and Mr. Kale is missing."

He stared into the face of three absolutely perplex people. Two of them were acting very well.

"Tonight at 6 p.m. there will be a gathering for all the neighbors in this district," the police officer explained. "We will gather in the town hall and the police will make announcements. We would like you to refrain from participating in any gossip. Until then."

The police officer wanted to leave but Theresa turned around. "What about my things? My clothes?" she asked.

"You can come by later. There will always be an officer at the scene right now. We are also expecting a homicide unit from Carson City. Our officers here are not trained with such brutal murders."

"Murders? Plural?" Theresa asked.

The police officer sighed. He should not have said that. "Actually no. The death of Mr. Greyson is treated as manslaughter, not murder. Please refrain from any gossip." He left before he would spill any more beans.

"Are you sure you want to go to work?" Hannibal asked and got up.

Theresa nodded.

After Hannibal had had a shower and Will had convinced Theresa to take at least a few bites of the toast, Hannibal and Theresa left for school while Will headed to the animal shelter. He knew how Theresa's day would go: condolences and being lost in her own spiral of thought. They would need to get her out of that later. Then he remembered that the poor woman had already retreated to her own mind before the events of last night. He pitied her. She had endured so much pain. And now she was fighting with her own feelings, denying herself the Schadenfreude about her tormentor having found a gruesome end. It would be difficult for her to leave it all behind. The best she could do would be to start a new life in a city far from here.

When he arrived at the animal shelter, he found two police cars and the same yellow tape that was also decorating the Noakes' house now. And probably also the one of Mr. Greyson and Mr. Kale. And soon that of Mr. Harris as well. He wondered how they would fit his disappearance into the story.

Will spent the day solacing Mrs. Surrey, his boss, and caressing the pets. The dogs that had feasted on Mr. Noakes had to be cleaned and he supported Mrs. Surrey in her opinion that they should not be opened to take their stomach contents. She suggested to take their fecal matter, but the pathologist explained that it would do little good. There was, however, not much doubt in the eyes of the police that the dogs had indeed eaten the entrails although they were not sure about how much of damage the actual murderer had done. Dogs would not eat a dead body, and someone must have done first the break-and-entry into the animal shelter, brought the dogs all the way to Mr. Noakes' house, gotten entry without forcing it, killed him and cutting him open so that the dogs would actually feed on him. That seemed very cruel put in words and Mrs. Surrey would not stop crying for twenty minutes when she listened to this possible course of events.

At five in the afternoon, Mrs. Surrey and Will returned to the suburbs. They needed to be back in time for the townhall gathering. Will passed Mr. Noakes' house and saw two more cars having appeared. Those were no police cars, but obviously belonged to the homicide unit in Carson City. Will's stomach turned around. What if Jack Crawford actually turned up here by coincidence? What if he was at the townhall meeting this evening? Should Hannibal and he not go? They could pretend that it would upset Theresa and keep her home. Or would that be even more suspicious? They also needed to know what the police knew and whether they could somehow connect all the things that happened.