Chapter 6

Friday, 6 p.m.

The townhall was filled with basically all the people of the little district – except, of course, the ones that had died in the last 24 hours. Every last bit of news had made it around and gossip of all sorts was being spread. Aliens, moon people, and republicans were all being made responsible for the apparent murder and disappearing of three neighbors.

A lot of glances were shot in the direction of Theresa when she arrived accompanied by the Leuchtenberg couple. Whispers started anew and Hannibal put a hand on her shoulder, demonstrating that he was protecting her. Some people came up to Theresa to express her condolences, but these people stammered and stocked. The news that Mr. Noakes had been abusing his daughter had also spread and most were wondering if they should actually express their condolences or whether Theresa was glad about the circumstances. Some rumors occupied the idea that it had been Theresa; but she had an airtight alibi and the notion of her being so ruthless were quickly scrapped. Besides, everyone apparently knew that she was not a fan of dogs, and she was the last person they would have thought to kidnap shelter dogs for such a gruesome display.

"May I please have your attention," an agent in suit and tie calmed down the townhall. Will had been looking around worriedly, but he had not spotted Jack Crawford anywhere. There were several police officers in uniform and several men in suits and ties – probably the back-up from Carson City who were more equipped and better trained to deal with homicide cases of such nature.

"I believe that everyone hear has heard about the events that have taken place yesterday. I am also sure that a lot of false information has been spread. Due to the circumstances and the fact that this is a rather small community, we have decided to play with open cards and ask for your full cooperation."

Will had a look at Hannibal. His husband did not return the look but stared interestedly to the front. Will knew that the police never played with open cards. Either they were very confused and desperate, or they hoped that the murderer – if he was among the neighbors – would make a mistake when the entire district was cooperating. And everyone would be cooperating. The FBI from Carson City must know that such a small suburb had the best gossip and the cruelest neighbors. If someone did not fit in or if someone did something obtrusive or seemed to hide something – the town would find out. This was probably the strategy of the police right now, and knowing Mrs. Sarandon, Will was sure this would play out. This meant that he and Hannibal would have to give as much detail as possible – without giving away too much or too little.

"We have established an approximate timeline of all the events," the FBI agent said. Will knew that they would give facts but not the alibis they had gotten. He was still worried about the fact that he had no alibi for the any of the murders. He hoped that they had obtained the photo of the radar trap which would show him return to the suburbs after six in the evening.

"In the very late night from Wednesday to Thursday," the FBI agent started and began a power point presentation, "Mr. Greyson and Mr. Kale were having a drink together. We have heard that this is no seldom occurrence as the two men had been hunting friends. Due to unknown reasons, an argument took place and Mr. Greyson was strangled to death. Mr. Greyson must have resisted as we found Mr. Kale's DNA in fingernail scrapings. Mr. Kale then most certainly fled the crime scene, packed things together from his house and fled by car." He put up a picture of the burnt car near the parking lot near the forest. There were gasps around the room. This piece of news had not been well known yet. "His car was found burnt near the forest, but several hundred yards from his house. We assume he did not want to burn his car in front of his house which would have attracted attention. We also do not know why he burned his car in the first place. We have been searching the forest for him." The FBI agent breathed deeply and pulled up the next slide. "In the forest we found a sort of altar with lit candles, religious objects, and the clothes of Mr. Harris." More gasps and surprised shrieks. The image showed photos of the moon scattered around a tree. Runes were scrapped into the tree bark and graveyard candles had burnt down. There were several objects that no one could identify. But it looked like a ritual of a cult.

"Oh my god!" they heard exclaim several neighbors.

"What a freak!"

Mrs. Sarandon turned around to Theresa who sat several rows behind her. "Did he ever rape you, too?"

"What, no!" Theresa answered in visible shock. Her voice was croaky and she could barely get any sound out.

Hannibal patted her shoulder. "Don't listen to them," he whispered into her ear.

When the townhall had quieted down, the FBI agent continued. "Mr. Harris has been missing since last night. He did not come to work today, and his house is abandoned."

"Did he take drugs?" somebody shouted.

The FBI agent hesitated and searched for eye contact with his colleagues. Eventually he nodded. "We found mushrooms at his place."

Then, he continued, "these were events of the night from Wednesday to Thursday. Now to the night from Thursday to today. At 8 p.m. in the evening, someone broke into the animal shelter run by Mrs. Surrey in Surak Street. They destroyed the camera and kidnapped five of the dogs and let others out of their cages as well. Not all of them have been found yet by the police. At around 11.30 p.m. did Ms. Noakes return from the teacher's conference with Mr. Leuchtenberg who had given her a lift. Together they found the door of her father's home unlocked." He pulled up a photo from the crime scene. More gasps of horror were heard.

This was unusual, Will thought. Usually, the police would never show murder scenes, let alone such violent ones. They were probably observing our reactions.

"The five dogs from the animal shelter were found in Mr. Noakes living room. They were… feasting on the inner remains of Mr. Noakes."

Will had a look at Theresa. She had sunken her head. He also put a hand on her shoulder. It must be too much for her, not only seeing her father brutally taken apart and feasted on by dogs, but now the entire town saw that image as well. A lot of people turned around to her, but no one said anything.

"Mr. Noakes had been killed between 8.30 p.m. and 10 o'clock. We assume that the killer drove on the direct way from the animal shelter to his house."

They got that wrong, Will thought. But it also meant that there probably had not been any traffic cameras that had caught his little jaunt in Mr. Kale's car.

"There were no signs of break-and-entry at Mr. Noakes' house. However, I was informed that this district is so quiet that it is not an estranged idea to open the door to unknown people. We do also not exclude that Mr. Noakes knew his killer. Anyway, the killer got access to Mr. Noakes' house and somehow they ended up in the living room. We assume that the killer then attacked Mr. Noakes who defended himself with a bottle of wine." The power point presentation now showed an arrow pointing to the glass shards of a broken bottle.

Now Hannibal knew how Will had obtained the injury at his elbow. They had not talked about the events of last night yet as they had not had any minute in which they had dared to.

"Mr. Noakes, however, seemed to have been stabbed, opened with a knife, and his entrails were fed to the dogs."

Theresa bent over as if she needed to vomit. But nothing came out of her, not even a sound.

It was quite some time until the townhall had calmed down. Theresa had her hands on her face and did not look up. Both Will and Hannibal petted her back.

"Where does Theresa stay?" one neighbor asked.

"She's staying with us. For now," Will said.

"Theresa, don't you rather want to stay with me?" Mrs. Rodriguez asked. "After what your father did to you, you might need a woman to look after you. And not…"

"Excuse me?" Hannibal said. "Just because I am an older, white man does not mean I am a rapist."

The following was a mixture of murmurs and discussions, mainly consisting of Mrs. Rodriguez defending herself, "I did not mean that", and Mr. Kerrington saying, "the Leuchtenbergs are such nice men", and Mrs. Surrey intervening with, "they are gay anyway".

Will just sighed. Despite the suburbs accepting them as a gay couple, this is what it had come down to.

"Gilbert and Bill have been very kind to me," Theresa finally sobbed. "I want to stay with them. For now." She then started crying out loud which led the neighbors to sink into an embarrassing silence.

The FBI agent continued. "We have spoken with a lot of you already and we might approach some of you in the next couple of days. We are counting on your full operation and would kindly ask you not to jump to any conclusions or spread rumors. Please let us do our jobs. If you have seen anything or have any vital information – of relevance to these events – please let us know."

He stopped the presentation, and it seemed as if the gathering was thus concluded.

"What about our BBQ tomorrow?" Mr. Rodriguez asked.

"Well, we obviously can't do that now, can we?" Mrs. Surrey said.

There were rumoring voices before Mr. Carrington said out loud, "why not?" There was more muttering. "The Leuchtenbergs have surely already prepared the meat and everyone else has bought their supplies, too. It would be a shame to let it go to waste. And it will be a good way to bring us closer together."

"But what if the murderer is among us?" someone asked.

No one dared to answer that question.

"But we can at least remember Mr. Greyson. He was a poor victim."

"And we can do it for Theresa."

Theresa buried her face deeper in her hands.

"We should try to remember Mr. Greyson. And we should try to distract Theresa," someone else said. There were more agreeing voices now.

"Theresa, what do you say?" Mrs. Sarandon said loudly.

"Whatever," the poor woman sobbed.

"I think it will be good for all of us," Hannibal chimed in. "It reminds us that we should cherish life and it will distract us from these gruesome events of the last two nights."

There was more agreement.

The rest of the townhall meeting ended up in chattering and Hannibal and Will guided Theresa out who was having a full out mental breakdown right now. They were intercepted by the FBI agent who had been holding the meeting.

"Miss Noakes, I am very sorry about what happened… about everything that happened. May I have a word with you? I know that you have already spoken to the local police, but I would like to speak with you in person."

Theresa nodded. Hannibal handed her a handkerchief for her running nose.

"Would you mind accompanying me to your house? Then you can also pick up some clothes," the agent said with a professional voice that was soft enough but direct. "I will then bring her back to your house," he added to Will and Hannibal. "I am very grateful to see that this small community is holding together in such difficult times."

Hannibal and Will nodded. Hannibal patted Theresa gently one last time on the shoulder and the two husbands walked home in silence. Once they had arrived home, they shared a kiss. "Let us make sure there are no listening devices or camera," Will said. He knew it was paranoia, but better be safe than sorry. Hannibal agreed and they spent the next hour searching for any sort of police equipment. They only stopped when Theresa was returned by the police.

Back in their house, they sat down together. "Are you hungry, Theresa?" Hannibal asked.

She shook her head.

"You haven't eaten all day," Will reminded her. "How about we order a pizza? I am not sure whether Hannibal is in the mood for cooking, and he needs to prepare some of the meat for tomorrow."

"I can help," Theresa offered.

"You need to distract yourself, Theresa. How about we take out Chester together and go for a walk? When we come back, the pizza will have arrived, and Gilbert will have prepared the meat that needs to be soaked in sauce and spices overnight."

"We are preparing a lot of different meats and some of it requires special preparation the day before," Hannibal explained.

Theresa finally nodded. "I am not good with dogs though," she said, but in the end, she even petted Chester.