Chapter 2:
Jason arrived at the precinct shortly after nine in the morning. A big bellied man came strutting up to him adjusting his belt. He had just come from the bathroom. “Morning Jay. Sorry to call you in on your day off, but we got a tricky case right up your alley. Hope I didn’t interrupt nothing.”, the big bellied man laughed shaking his whole body. If he had white hair instead of bald, he would have made the perfect Santa Clause.
“Yeah, you did actually. I was in bed with a beautiful woman.” Jason was very agitated for being called in and it showed in his voice. Not only because of the way he left Charlotte, but also because he was off every full moon. He had to be. “Right!”, the big bellied man slapped Jason on the shoulder “That’s a good one Jay. I know you gotta be outta here to make your trip, so we’ll get your input so we can get started and you’ll be on the boat by sundown.”
“Fine Lou, so long as I’m gone by sundown.” Jason didn’t want to argue about where he had been. He understood his partner Lou’s point, Jason hadn’t been with a woman in over a year. Not since he got jilted by his two timing girlfriend at the alter. He had kind of sworn off women, but something about the shy girl in the corner had been like a magnet pulling him in.
Jason had to shake his head to stop his mind wandering back to Charlotte. “What we got?” Jason walked through a crowd of police men toward a white board with pictures on it. Crime Scene photos of a woman who looked like she had been eaten by an animal, but the cuts had been inconsistent with any animal the coroner could find, so it had been ruled a homicide. Jason sighed looking at the pictures. He already knew it wasn’t an animal, yet it was, at least it couldn’t help being one during the full moon.
Lou walked up to the board and took over the meeting, constantly adjusting his pants. He looked like every detective you had ever seen on television. Overweight, bald, in cheap “business” clothes, and bags under his eyes from too much drinking and too much smoking. The most attractive feature about Lou was his smile and rosy cheeks. He really was a jolly, old elf.
“Right.” Lou cleared his throat and looked to Jason “We have a female, age 21, student at the University. She was found by hikers late afternoon and originally suspected to have been a bear attack. However Doc Aubry found a puncture mark in her arm and is suspecting she was drugged. He also says that the marks on the body aren’t consistent with any animal in our neck of the woods. He seems to think that someone wants us to think this little lady was mauled by a bear.”
Jason only half listened to his partner, he knew the murder weapon already and it was a murder. He sat back on a desk trying to focus on the other aspects of the girl’s murder. The who, when, and why. He had the what. Jason turned his head toward a green looking uniform officer as he spoke, “Uh Sergeant, how the doc know it wasn’t an animal. There’s nothing left really.” Jason knew the kid was about to lose his breakfast all over the squad room floor and grabbed a waste basket, shoving it at the young officer just in time. A roar of laughter and “wuss” came from some of the more seasoned officers. Jason glared at them and immediately the room was silent.
He walked to the rookie and patted his back. “You okay kid? Don’t mind these fuckers. Everyone of them has blown chunks at one time or another. Why don’t you head to the john and clean up.” The rookie looked at Jason with the waste basket in his hand mortified. “Uh yes Detective Monroe. Thanks”, he turned on his heels with his head down and began walking toward the bathroom.
“Hey Rookie!,” Jason yelled causing the young man to turn back around. ”Head up kid. Nothing to be ashamed of. The day you get used to the shit and it don’t bother you is the day you retire.” With that he gave a wink and the rookie stood up straight, smiling back before continuing to the bathroom checking his reflection in the mirror, mentally kicking himself.
Despite his young appearance, the officer was into his thirties. Handsome, with round cheeks and bright baby blue eyes. He came from a long line of cops, none of which made detective before forty. Officer Paul Newman, named for his father’s favorite actor and that had been a catalyst for many razzings from his fellow officers. Trying to get a grip on himself, staring at his image in the mirror after splashing some water on his baby face, he inhaled, convictions renewed. His was more determined now with his plan to break the family tradition and this was to be the case he would do it with, even if he did get sick at the first images of the victim.
Jason had watched Office Newman exiting the squad room for a moment before sitting back on the desk. “If you pussies are done picking on the newbie, can we please get back to what the fine people pay us pennies for?” Jason growled to the room, the clamoring snickers halting instantaneously, and Lou continued with his presentation. “We need leads boys. This is a sick fuck if doc is right. If he is wrong, I will have his balls for sending us to look for Yogi the Ripper.” A few men laughed at Lou’s joke, the usual kiss asses who laughed at everything a superior said. “What the fuck you standing around for, go police!” Lou waved his arms around like he was shooing flies and the room cleared out. All except for Jason, who stood and walked toward the coffee maker.
“What’s your thoughts Jay? Doc Aubry right or we on a wild goose chase.” Lou valued his partners intuition more than his own. Jason seemed to have a “sixth sense” at crime scenes. If only Lou knew, Jason did have a special skill for detection. “I need to see it first hand, but” Jason poured the day old coffee into a mug and took a sip pulling a disgusted face. “I think Doc Aubry knows his shit and only a fool would challenge that shifty old fucker.”
Jason began making a fresh pot of coffee and cursing at everyone about being “lazy shits who need to stop waiting” on him to make the coffee. “I ain’t y’alls fucking mommy!” Jason roared as he poured himself a fresh cup, taking a satisfied sip. With two strides, he was at his desk grabbing a set of car keys. Twisting back around to the door, his coffee and keys in his hands, Jason spoke over his shoulder to Lou, “Come on tubby. I ain’t carrying your fat ass to the car.” “Yes Ma’am!” Lou sarcastically replied, grabbing his poorly made camel brown suit jacket.
“Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?” “You did fucker! Now move your gargantuan ass before I bite it!” Jason laughed to himself walking to the car. Lou followed trying to put on his jacket as he walked beginning to wonder if he really had interrupted his partner with a lady. Lou crinkled his face at the thought feeling slightly guilty.
“Give me the keys youngster,” Lou tried to smirk. Stretching his chubby hand out toward Jason, opening and closing his fingers that looked more like little sausages. “Fuck you! You drive like an old lady on her way to church. You can play navigator. You’re slightly less annoying than that GPS voice.” Jason roared with laughter, slipping into the driver’s seat and making a kiss face at the finger Lou was showing him.
It always took Lou a few times to get into the car. It was low to the ground and Lou was big. Big around as well as tall. He looked like he ran five blocks just trying to get in the car and the summer heat with a sports jacket on didn’t help. Lou pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket wiping his face and cursing under his breath.
“All buckled up and ready to go princess? Good.” Jason teased. Without waiting for Lou to answer or buckle up, he sped out of the parking garage toward the crime scene with his partner holding on to the handle above the passenger door for dear life. Lou referred to it as the “Oh Shit” bar because of Jason’s insane driving. He was convinced Jason would kill them both one day.
Jason zipped through the streets, taking the curves too quickly, changing lanes at the last minute. Laughing hysterically at Lou, who cussed and threatened to write him a ticket for reckless driving. “You sound like my Driver’s Ed teacher, old man.” Jason glanced over at his partner, who was sweating like a pig on the way to the slaughterhouse, with a wicked smile on his full lips.
Lou glared at Jason, “Watch the G.D. road you idiot! I know I‘m pretty, but you can‘t kiss me if we both die in this metal death trap!” “You are pretty with your beady, piggy eyes. Just a quick kiss.” Jason teasingly leaned over, one eye on the road, like he was going to kiss his portly partner, who slapped his face. “Stop fucking around and watch where you are going! I’m not gonna die because you want to be a fucking smart ass little shit!” Lou pulled out his handkerchief again, nervously wiping the beads of sweat from his face, glaring at the boisterous laughter filling the car.
“But baby, I love you,” Jason loved to tease the older man who was like a father to him since he joined the force fifteen years ago. “Shut the fuck up. I hate you!” Lou was wheezing, the excitement of Jason’s driving coupled with forty years of smoking and a substantial spare tire around his middle, made the man winded easily. Jason frowned and pouted, “You need to start saying that to Krispy Kreme before those things kill you. When was the last time you saw your dick? Do you even have one?”
Lou tried not to laugh and wagged his eyebrows with a snort, “Hey, when it drags the ground like mine, you have no problem seeing it over a few extra pounds.”
“A few!?”
The two men laughed and Lou slapped Jason on the shoulder. The mutual admiration the two men had for each other was evident to everyone in the precinct. When most tired of their partners and transferred to other departments, Jason and Lou has spent the last fifteen years as a team and were more like family now. Lou had Jason over for dinner with his family, a wife and two girls, every Sunday. Unless of course Sunday was a full moon, when they would go to a day baseball game or play basketball in the driveway before Jason would have to excuse himself for his “moonlight fishing”.
Lou had tried to come out with Jason since he loved fishing and Jason had felt bad about not being able to be completely honest with his friend. His excuse was telling Lou that it was a family ritual, the only time he thought of his father who had died when Jason was just a teenager and it was just him and his old man out there on the water. He could tell that Lou really wanted to fill this spot on the boat and was hurt. Lou thought of Jason as a surrogate son, the son he never had, but Jason couldn’t reveal what was really happening, no matter how much he longed to share the secret with someone.
Jason drove up a long, gravel driveway toward a path that lead into the woods. He knew these woods very well. Coming here once a month to shelter himself from prying eyes who might see. He parked the car, surveying the scene with his eyes quickly before getting out. Lou, oddly fast, was already out of the car and hitching his pants back up that never stayed in place and tossing the jacket back into the car. It was too warm for a coat and they weren’t talking to anyone, so no need for appearances out here in no man’s land.
“You moved fast tubby. Smell doughnuts?”, Jason teased as he slammed the car door, using this joke as an excuse to take a long deep inhale of the air. Lou grumbled, ignoring Jason, and rolled up the sleeves of his Sears button up shirt, that had gotten to be a little snug on the rotund man. “They found her this way Jay.” and Lou crooked his neck toward the path.
Jason trusted his nose though and it told him to head the opposite way.
“Anyone check this way?” Jason pointed up the gravel driveway. “Why the hell would they look there? The body was found over here.” Lou rubbed the bridge of his nose, overloaded by his partner’s odd behavior at times. “Because there is one way in and one way out and if Doc is right, a car would have to have been this way. But I’m sure you knew that, Columbo, and were just testing me,” Jason smirked and proceeded up the gravel driveway, appearing to be looking around, but he was really following the strange scent. Lou growled at his own stupidity, trotting up toward Jason, who was already several yards ahead. “Yeah, that was it. Wait for me. I am lead on this junior.” “Sure thing boss, but don’t pass out on me. I ain’t giving you mouth to mouth, even if it is real pretty.”
Jason eyed Lou suspiciously as the older man approached, panting and wheezing, streams of sweat dripping from his brow. Lou bent over once he caught up to Jason, his face ruddy and placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Jason stopped walking and placed a hand on his friend’s back. “You gonna be alright?” There was an air of genuine concern to his voice as he looked around to see Lou’s face, who waved the former off and stood up right. “Don’t worry about me, Jay. I can still kick your ass, even if I sweat more than a fat girl in a candy shop.” The two men shared a brief laugh, slowly proceeding forward. Jason intentionally kept his pace slower, for Lou, and the older man appreciated it even if he acted offended outwardly.
Jason kept all his senses on alert as he traced the out of place scent with long, deep inhales, overly expensive cologne mixed with something more animalistic and musky. At the end of the gravel road, was an access point to the highway. Normally only for the local loggers, it hadn’t been used in months since the factory had shut down for their summer hiatus, but there where even Lou could see were fresh tire tracks. Jason bent down and could hear his partner already on the phone back to the precinct. He couldn’t help but smirk, as Lou cussed under his breath about not following up on the obvious first before calling Jason in to take a look, even if the curses were barely above a whisper, Lou not wanting to hear the smartass comments from Jason.
Jason turned his full attention back to the tracks, fresh and from newer high end tires. The tracks had to belong to an expensive car and this with the scent Jay had been picking up, lead him to believe that someone with a lot of money had been in the middle of nowhere. That could only mean trouble, rich people don’t like getting dirty and the woods is nothing but dirt and animal shit.
Jason heard Lou slam his phone shut and come waddling closer to him. He peeked up with a smug expression and Lou narrowed his eyes, “Shut the fuck up Sherlock! I don’t wanna fucking hear it from you.” Jason shrugged his shoulders, opening his hands palms up, feigning and innocent expression. “I didn’t say a word.” He barely got the sentence out without laughing which got him a slap up the back of his head.
Jason stood up, rubbing the back of his head, shooting daggers back at Lou who was now laughing. As he dusted his hands off on his pants, he caught a glimpse of something a few yards ahead. With a trepidatious, but alert step, he entered the high weeds, walking back in the direction toward the highway and slowly approached the glittering object. Lou, who despised snakes, chose to stay on the gravel path despite the chicken clucks from his younger partner, and lit up a cigarette.
Jason knelt down, taking a pen out of his shirt pocket to push the object around, lacing the chain of the pen to lift it up. Dangling from the end was a silver necklace with the name “Natalie” in fluid, cursive letters. The clasp of the chain had been snapped and Jason suspected this necklace belonged to the young woman in the morgue and had been violently snatched from her neck. Unfortunately for her attacker it was silver, fortunately for the police there should be some nice DNA laying around here and someone will have some explaining to do about their new Natalie scar.
“Hey Lou, got a necklace over here. What’s the vic’s name? I think there is some blood too. The tech guys should sweep around here.” Lou took a long drag off his cigarette, exhaling in a long, steady stream, “Natalie Marshall.“ he replied, rubbing a stray piece of tobacco off his tongue as he spoke. “Name on the necklace is Natalie. What’s the odd’s?” There was an air of sarcasm in his answer as Jason placed the necklace back down, standing up to look toward the highway.
“I think she was trying to make a run for it.” He was speaking more to himself than to Lou and glanced back down at the ground, kneeling beside what appeared to be a small, bare foot print. “Without her running shoes too. Tech needs to make a mold of this and no god damn three ring circus trekking through here like a heard of elephants destroying everything.” Jason screamed this last bit back to his partner, who seemed bored and just wanted to go back to the car to cool off from the noonday heat.
“Hey Fatty! You hear me or has the fat spread to your ears.” Jason began walking back, being careful to take the same path he had in and not disturb the scene further.
“I heard you. God Damn, who’s the senior detective here!” Lou growled, stomping back toward the car when he saw Jason coming back to the access road. “You are the senior dick. No argument there,” Jason snapped back, the heat beginning to get to him as well. Not to mention the pull the moon already had on him, primed to release his animalistic nature as soon as it was high in the heavens. He was usually a grouch around this time and Lou normally teased about it being Jay’s time of the month. If only Lou knew, you should never tease a werewolf.
