Needle In The Haystack: Chapter One

It was a flurry of activity around the five stories high apartment complex.  The flashing of police lights atop vehicles, the noise of police sirens as more cars approached from down the street, the sound of footsteps rising and falling on the metal stairs as uniformed officers went up and down to the target apartment, and the concerned and curious murmurs from the civilian onlookers.  A group of officers surrounded the white tape securing the perimeter, doing their best to explain what was happening and keep people from blocking the approaching officers who attempted to get into the scene. Many of the officers came in and out, though a group of particular ones stood out near the road as they waited for their superior detectives to arrive.  They had called the homicide detectives in on the notion of it being something that they should see, and so they had received a confirmation stating that they would be there to check it out in a short time. A few minutes had passed, and in the meantime it had started lightly raining, much to the officer’s annoyances as they stood outside waiting still. This was not a familiar part of town and so they worried that perhaps the detectives would overshoot the turn that they needed if someone wasn’t outside the signal them, especially now that it was getting dark and raining, reducing visibility.  Eventually a blue and white car had pulled around the corner, and so the waiting officers set about signaling the car with their waterproof flashlights. The car approached slowly as the driver seemed to notice the car before it pulled into the nearby parking lot of the apartment complex. The waiting police officers, their job now done, moved to go back inside the building to get relief from the rain. After finding a parking space in the dimly lit parking lot the car came to a stop, and with that two doors had opened, releasing two open umbrellas to the outside rain and cold. Two men emerged from behind the umbrellas as they climbed outside the car, allowing the doors to close behind them.  The pair looked up at the apartment complex, noting an entryway where all of the other officers were flooding into.

“It seems there’s a lot of activity going on right now,” The white hedgehog driver spoke as he and his partner started towards the entry way.  He held the umbrella with one hand, using his other hand to prevent his blue hat from flying away on the breeze that was starting to pick up. He wore a white shirt, blue pants, blue and gray boots, and blue gloves in addition to his hat.  The other three pieces of clothing he wore, the ones that stood out about him, was a large blue trench coat that was now billowing in the wind, a navy blue coat over everything else including a hood, and a white and blue mask which covered his face from view, except for the dark blue eyes that peered out from the eyeholes.

“Maybe it’ll be something quick!”  The passenger, a male ferret, said as he stuck his tongue out slightly.  He held his umbrella firmly over his head, as if the thought of getting even slightly wet bothered him.  He glanced over to notice that his partner was staring at him through the mask. “Hey, I don’t mean that in a bad way!”  The ferret defended. “I just meant that maybe it’ll be be something easy, something that won’t require much effort. So maybe we can solve it quick and then be off to do something else, like… bowling!  Bowling is fun! We should go bowling sometime. It’d be fun,” The ferret exclaimed.

A sigh came from the mask.  “Pyro, I do believe we have a job that we need to be doing,” He spoke in a disapproving tone, which made the ferret flinch back slightly with a large grin.  The masked hedgehog turned his attention back to the entryway and was quick to close the umbrella once they were under the roof to prevent it getting caught on anything.  “Though honestly I’m unsure of this myself. On the phone they made it sound like some sort of drug abuser shot himself up one too many times, which would make this a case for the drug desk rather than our own.  If that’s the case then I’m failing to see the perspective on why we needed to be called,” The hedgehog continued.

“Eh, who knows?  Maybe it was some new cops or something and they thought we needed to be called on it,” Pyro said as he put his own umbrella away, though his first impulse was to swing it around once closed, which sent water flying everywhere.  The ferret missed the burning glare that peered out from the mask behind him. He turned his head back a few moments later, oblivious to what he had missed. “So, maybe we can find one of the cops who’s hanging around the scene and find out what’s going on.  Don’tcha think?”

“Naturally,” The masked hedgehog replied before he started up the metal flight of stairs, followed by Pyro.  He didn’t know which apartment they were looking for exactly, though he figured they would look for whichever one had the most amount of police officers hanging around it, or white tape.  They didn’t have to go up too many stairs, however, before a lavender colored owl officer came down quickly to meet them.

“Detective Trap!  Detective Pyro!” The female officer greeted as she stopped on one of the stairs ahead of them.  Once they had nodded their responses she motioned for them to follow, and with that started back up the stairs.  “I’m sure you’re both wondering why exactly we called you out here based on what we told you over the phone, but I assure you that you’ll get the meaning when you see the body itself.”

“Always a pleasure to see you, Officer Lizen,” The masked detective Trap greeted as he silently followed her up the stairs, almost like a wraith merely floating above the ground rather than touching it.  This was further compounded by the noisy metal clanging produced by Officer Lizen and Pyro as they continued up alongside him. “Do indulge my questions for a moment. My understanding was that this was a simple drug overdose case, which would require no need for us in the homicide department.  Is there something special about the body other than track marks to prove me wrong on that assumption?”

“Like I said, you’re going to need to see the body,” Officer Lizen repeated.  On their way up they finally entered the fourth floor hallway, where other officers parted with nods to allow the three entry.  One door down the hall was marked with tape, and other officers could be seen standing around to guard it. “If I just tell you what it looks like you’re going to write it off as junkie track marks and leave before you actually take a look.”

“So what makes it a murder case if you think it looks like some guy shot himself up?”  Pyro asked in a curious tone as they stopped outside the room. “I mean, if it looks like that, are you sure that’s not what happened?”

Officer Lizen released a bit of an annoyed sigh.  “Did you not just hear what I said? You’re going to have to look and make a verdict on that yourself.  At least try speaking to the examiner. He’s here to gather forensic evidence and examine the body. If you don’t look at the body itself at least speak to him and find out what he has to say because he’s been carefully studying the body ever since we arrived.”

“We can at least speak to the forensics expert.  I suppose we can also check over the body if it’s truly not a simple overdose case,” Trap said as he moved towards the room with Pyro, though he was quick to step out of the way when he saw someone quickly rounding the corner.  Having been in the back Pyro didn’t have this luxury and instead ran into the person, knocking both of them back, though only the ferret fully tumbled backwards onto the floor..

The person Pyro had run into stumbled back with a grunt.  He was a male multi-armed spider, brown in color and with thick green hair that obscured his eyes from view.  He took a moment to straighten himself and his coat before he realized who he had just run into. With that a wide grin broke out across his face.  “Ah, hello, detectives. Exactly who I was hoping to see before I left,” He said with a bit of a chuckling tone to his voice.

“Do tell, examiner,” Trap began after he had stepped around the fallen Pyro, not bothering to offer the partner a hand for the moment.  “Do you personally believe this is something that requires the attention of homicide detectives rather than the drug team? From what I’ve heard so far I’m holding disbelief that this is anything other than an overdose.”

The examiner began laughing, seeming to miss Trap’s eyes of disbelief.  “My dear detective, I think you’ll find this investigation quite to your liking.  Quite to your liking indeed,” He stated as he started to walk past the two detectives before pausing.  “Oh, that reminds me. If you find anything that needs to be examined be sure to bring it by my lab. I saw a few things but I’m supposed to let the detectives see it and make notes before I do any of my post-examining.  I’ll be waiting,” He added before he started off down the hallway. His laughter could be heard as he started going down the stairs. “A very interesting case indeed.”

“I still think he’s really creepy!”  Pyro exclaimed as he finally jumped off the ground and dusted his clothes off.  He wore a bit of a wide eyed expression. “I mean seriously! Did you hear him? Laughing on his way out.  Do you think he was laughing at what’s going on or do you think he just thought of a funny joke?”

“The examiner is certainly odd,” Trap agreed.  “However, we have work that we need to focus on,” He added before he entered the room, followed by his partner.  Once inside he waved to a group of officers, who moved to get out of the way of the detectives. He paused for a moment, reaching inside his blue coat to pull out a pair of purple gloves and two flashlights.  He gave the gloves and one of the flashlights to Pyro, as he felt it was likely they would be needed.

“So let’s see what’s going on here,” Pyro commented as he looked around.  It was a small living room space, decorated with simple furniture. On the other side of the room in front of the hallway was the figure of a male leopard.  The corpse had not been created long ago, it seemed, as it had yet to start decomposing and there was a lack of a smell. He had collapsed face first onto the wooden floor, not too far from a slightly large red stain.  The blood was no longer wet and had dried quite some time ago but had left a stain on the wooden flooring. “Oh. Looks like there’s our guy.”

“Obviously so,” Trap stated as he circled around the furniture to approach the leopard, making sure to step around the stain so his footprints wouldn’t cover it.  Behind the detectives the rustle of paper was heard, along with the sound of someone clearing their voice.

“The guy’s name was Dalens,” Officer Lizen stated from behind as she looked over the papers in her hand, which caught the attention of the detectives for a brief moment.  “Says here that he didn’t have an official job at this time. I wonder how he was paying for this apartment in that case. These rooms aren’t amazing but they’re nice enough that I imagine they would cost a little bit of money.”

Trap had begun examining the body as he listened to Officer Lizen listing off information.  He saw nothing of interest on the man’s back, and so he made sure his blue gloves were on tight before he rolled the leopard over onto his back.  A spark of recognition flashed through his eyes as he noticed the man’s face, and so the hedgehog detective released a bit of a dark chuckle. “9th Street.  What do you know.”

“9th Street…”  Officer Lizen repeated before she snapped her fingers as she observed his face.  “Infamous drug dealer. That’s how he was paying for the apartment. Why did he suddenly turn up dead?”

“Did he overdose on his own stuff?  Pretty sure most dealers use their own products,” Pyro commented before he noticed Trap was staring at him with narrowed eyes.  “Most dealers. Most. Not the same thing as all,” The ferret clarified.

“It wasn’t an overdose.  Not on simple drug abuse,” Trap commented once his attention was back on the leopard.  He had started using his fingers to move around patches of fur that had been displaced on the man’s neck and arms, uncovering many marks of injection.  Only a few seemed old and small enough to suggest drug abuse while the others were as fresh as the body was, and seemed a bit jagged. The needles had been shoved in and pulled out forcefully without a care for being gentle.

“Huh.  O-kay then.  I don’t figure a junkie would shoot themselves like that, and so forcefully,” Pyro commented as he observed the body alongside Trap.  “In the neck? Really?”

“And now you guys can see why I said you needed to see the body before you dismissed the case as a job for someone else,” Officer Lizen commented.  “Anyway, as the experts here, do you have any idea who would want a drug dealer dead, or do you have any guesses?”

“Hm…  My assumption is a rival drug dealer or some vigilante-type who thought this would be a good idea,” Trap replied as he stood up, seemingly in one swift movement that almost appeared to be floating.  He motioned for Pyro to check around the living room as he started focusing his attention on the hallway and the three doors located inside it. “However, I will state that I haven’t seen a criminal murder done this way.”

“Maybe it’s one of those super assassins from the movies!”  Pyro exclaimed from across the room before he held his hands up as if he was holding a pair of syringes.  “You know, the ones with the fancy know-how and the crazy assassinations.”

“Pyro, those things are only in the movie-  Or rather, they’re not here. Besides, if this was a very talented hired assassin they would go after the biggest hit in town, not a cheap drug dealer,” Trap commented as he glided down the hallway.  “Now will you focus on our job?”

“I’m looking, I’m looking,” Pyro called back as he continued to search the room, looking carefully for any signs or clues that would need to be noticed.  He paused once he heard the sound of something rolling across the floor. “Did you kick something across the floor?” He asked.

Trap bent down to see what he had just stepped on.  “It’s a plastic syringe,” He called out as Pyro came over to see what his partner had found.  “There’s no needle, nothing inside- hm, wait. There’s a piece of paper,” He stated as he set about getting the roll of paper outside.  He opened it, noting that there was a note written inside.

“Does that say anything or is it just a piece of paper?”  Pyro asked as he attempted to peer over Trap’s shoulder to view the paper.

“I’ll force a new judgement day.  ...That’s what it says,” Trap said before he paused for a few moments.  He was silent for a bit longer before he started chuckling, something that eventually got louder until he was fully laughing.  Pyro moved back slightly from his partner. “A brave vigilante then. We’ll see about that.”

“Do you think that’s a sort of catchphrase?  Do you think it relates to the victim in some way?  Something that’s said somewhere on the street? Some kind of group thing?”  Pyro asked, though he couldn’t get an answer yet as Trap continued laughing before he started quieting down.

“It’s nothing on the streets,” Trap replied through his quiet chuckling as he put the paper back inside the syringe.  He decided to hold into it, deciding that they would take it to the examiner later to see if he could find any sort of residue of substances inside the syringe itself.  “Have we found anything else?”

“Nope, but I don’t think we’ve searched every place yet,” Pyro said as he started off down the hallway.  “Hey, do you want me to check out the side doors here or should I check out the room at the end? Does it matter?”

“Obviously every room needs to be checked, so I would say you need to check out however many of those you wish.  I’ll search the ones that you don’t go into,” Trap stated, now having finally stopped laughing. He silently glided down the hallway after Pyro, noting that the ferret was stopping at the first door.

“I can look at these two doors,” Pyro said as he pointed to the door he stood in front of and the door next to it.  He cracked the door open slightly, noticing that it seemed to be a bathroom judging by the look of it. “Hey, Trap? Do you think it’s worth it to check out the bathroom?”

“It’s worth it to check every place.  There could be something hidden in any room, and we wouldn’t want to miss anything,” Trap stated as he continued on down the hallway, intending to check the door at the end if Pyro was going to check the earlier two.

Pyro headed inside the bathroom before he immediately stuck his head back out in the hallway.  “I think someone was smoking a little something in here. It smells pretty weird,” The ferret called out so his partner could hear him.

“We’ll call the drug team in to look for his stash after we’re finished here in that case,” Trap called back as he stopped at the last door.  “First, we need to finish searching for our own clues about the homicide case before we do that.”

“Alright, if you say so,” Pyro replied before he continued his search of the bathroom.  Other than the smell he hadn’t found anything yet, but he was determined to give it a good search before he moved on to the next room.

Trap entered the room he had stopped at, and paused when he took notice of the state that the bedroom was in.  Furniture was overturned, lamps were knocked off of tables, covers and blankets had been thrown around the room, muddy footprints littered the carpet, and the window was open letting in the cold night breeze.  The detective carefully looked about the room before he entered, making sure to avoid the muddy footprints so he wouldn’t contaminate them with his own shoes. “Pyro, I found where the killer attacked our victim.  Seems they climbed in through the window.”

The ferret could be heard quickly approaching before he appeared in the doorway.  He did pause long enough to see the footprints, and so he also entered the room as carefully as he possibly could.  “So if he was attacked in here how did the guy wind up in the living room? Did he get dragged in there?”

Trap observed the bed, noting that various drops of dried blood could be seen.  Likely from the injection sites seen on the body. “Collapsed. I figure he was attacked in here while sleeping, there was a struggle, and then he managed to make it to the living room before he collapsed.  I don’t believe the killer would have dragged the body in such an obvious place. Judging from the note they seem to have a bit of bravado but I doubt they stuck around long enough to drag him around.”

Pyro glanced out back into the hallway.  He had a view of the hallway, and from here he could see that the other officers had left.  Perhaps they had gone back outside to get out of the way of the detectives. Upon seeing this the ferret turned back to Trap.  “Have you figured anything else out? The other officers left if you think we need to check over the living room and kitchen area over again now that they’re not in the way.”

“We still need to search this room,” Trap stated before he glanced near the window.  A pair of discarded shoes sat at the bottom of it, the soles covered in mud. Whoever had worn them must have discarded them after making all of the muddy footprints, though to make sure Trap took one shoe to compare it against the prints along the floor and the victim’s shoes.

“Well, that explains where the footprints came from,” Pyro commented.  “Since they’re near the window I guess those probably belonged to the attacker.  Are those men’s shoes or women’s?”

“Men’s shoes.  They seem a bit too large to be a woman’s shoes,” Trap replied before he set the shoes back down where he’d found them after comparing.  “We’ll gather those up to take them to the examiner after we finish here. There’s still one room left, isn’t there?”

“Ah, that’s right,” Pyro said before he quickly exited the room, still careful to avoid running over the footprints.  Trap remained in the bedroom, knowing that Pyro would do a fine job of investigating the room by himself, if there was anything to be found inside.

“Find anything?”  Trap called after Pyro as he carefully searched around the rest of the bedroom before he came back to where he had begun.  He moved over towards the window, still being careful to avoid the footprints as he looked out in the window, taking note of the fact that there was no fire escape immediately close to that particular room.

“It looks like some kind of storage room,” Pyro called back before the sound of shuffling was heard.  He was likely moving a few things around to check in the room. “I don’t see anything right now but I’ll keep looking.  It’s extremely dusty, though. It doesn’t look like anyone been in here in a while.”

“Keep looking for a little while and then if you still haven’t found anything you can come out and we’ll gather things up before heading back to the station to go speak with the examiner,” Trap called.  With that the conversations stopped for a moment, and a good amount of minutes later Pyro returned, seeming to have not found anything while he searched the last room.

“Hey, Trap, I didn’t really find anything that I think is worth a note.  Mostly just old clothes and papers and stuff,” Pyro said as he entered the bedroom again, though he paused once he took notice of his detective partner standing in place, very still and quiet at that.  “Trap? You listening to me?”

“The killer came in from here,”  Trap spoke out quietly as he moved by the window, almost as if he was talking to himself rather than Pyro.

“Uh, yeah.  You knew that already,” Pyro said to Trap, noting that the detective did not seem to acknowledge his partner.  Trap instead started approaching Pyro, but he stopped in front of the bed, moving almost as if he was grappling with someone invisible.  Pyro backed up slightly, though he thought he realized what he thought was happening. He had seen Trap do this a few times before on other cases.  Through his eyes, it almost looked like Trap was reenacting what had happened between the attacker and the victim. He was never able to get an explanation as to why from Trap, but it did always seem to help the masked detective figure out exactly what had happened.

“The victim was woken and was able to get out of the bed where a struggle happened, knocking over the furniture as they moved around the room,” Trap continued.  With that he moved around the room, still seeming to be in a fight with whatever invisible force he had imagined up. Eventually he started moving towards Pyro, almost seeming to stumble as he walked along.

Pyro merely stepped back into the hallway and out of Trap’s way, though as the masked detective walked by the ferret thought he saw a glimpse of purple in the hedgehog’s eyes rather than his normal blue.  Still, Pyro thought he had perhaps imagined it as Trap continued past him. He followed his partner, who continued his odd walk. “And then what happened?” Pyro asked, though he knew Trap wasn’t listening to him in a moment like this.

Trap continued down the rest of the hallway, and once he had reached the spot where the red stain was he broke out into a violent coughing fit, one so strong that Pyro briefly wondered if his partner was having a sort of asthma attack.  He finally stopped coughing before he spoke again. “He vomited,” Trap said as he continued his odd walk forward before he clutched his neck and fell to the floor himself next to the leopard, rather oddly falling in the same position that the body had first been discovered in.  “And he died here,” Trap seemed to finish before he rolled over onto his back. He sat up and stood up from there, glancing over at Pyro who seemed to wear a mix of a confused and concerned expression. “I believe our victim was poisoned if he vomited, though we’ll need the medical examiner to confirm that,” The masked detective said, acting as if his odd actions had not been out of the ordinary.

“You know, you’re just as creepy as that examiner sometimes,” Pyro commented as he attempted to ignore what had just happened, knowing that he wouldn’t get a explanation as he never had when Trap had done this before.  He noticed that Trap was staring at him with deep blue eyes. His normal eye color. Perhaps the ferret had merely imagined the purple. “Well, is there anything else that we need to do now that we’ve searched the place?  I think we only found the syringe and the shoes, right? Speaking of which…” Pyro turned to head back down the hallway and go grab the muddy shoes that they intended to take with them.

“For now I think that’s everything,” Trap called after him.  “We’ll tell someone to get the drug team in here to investigate and then we’ll head back off to the station to deliver what we’ve found.  Afterwards we’ll call it a night for today. However, I do want to come back and investigate that window.”

“Why the window?”  Pyro asked as he joined his partner back in the living room, now carefully carrying the shoes to avoid getting any of the mud on his clothes.  “Did you notice something special about it?”

“It’s dark so I can’t tell exactly, but I believe I noticed that the fire exit isn’t near it,” Trap replied as the pair started towards the door to exit the apartment.  “If that’s the case, I wonder how the killer managed to get to that window. I want to come back when it’s not dark to observe a bit better.”

“Okay then, we’ll throw that on the list for tomorrow.  Maybe the examiner will have some stuff ready for us too.  Could take care of two things in one trip in that case,” Pyro said as they exited the room.  They were met by Officer Lizen, who approached them when she noticed that they were leaving the apartment room.

“Did someone trip?  I heard a bang,” The owl questioned, to which Trap raised an index finger slightly to indicate himself.  “Well, did you find anything kind of clues or anything that the station can use to start the investigation on what’s happened?”

“We found the syringe that you saw, and we found shoes that don’t belong to the victim.  We find them important because we found a group of muddy footprints and the muddy shoes match those prints,” Trap explained as Pyro held up the shoes.  “Other than that we haven’t seen much, though we intend to return tomorrow and investigate again when we have a better light.”

The female officer nodded in response.  “Alright, have a safe trip on the way back to the station.  I think it’s still raining out there.”

“Indeed,” Trap spoke before he started down the hallway with his partner, though he paused momentarily.  “Ah, that’s right. You need to call the drug team in there to investigate at one point as well, if you don’t mind.  Pyro smelled that someone had been smoking something in the background so perhaps they can find his stash and deal with it accordingly,” He added before he continued back on his way.

“Alright, I’ll give them a call once we have everything secured.  See you later,” Officer Lizen called after them before she turned to speak with one of the other officers.  Trap waved back as he continued walking, followed closely by Pyro as they descended the metal stairs. They had taken their umbrellas back from the officers that held on to them while they were in the crime scene, and they opened these as soon as they had made it back to the outside entryway to the apartment building.  The rain had gotten quite a bit heavier in the meantime, and made quite a noise as it fell atop the open umbrellas. Pyro was careful to hold the shoes underneath the umbrella so they wouldn’t get soaked and possibly destroy evidence. Trap lifted his shoulders slightly as he walked, enough to keep his coat from dragging along the wet pavement.  The two detectives went back to their car, and once they had gotten inside the masked detective set about getting the car running before he started backing them out of the parking lot. Pyro reached over to turn on the radio, not content with the normal sounds of the car and the rain.

“After we head back to the station and deliver what we found, can you drive me home?  I mean, you’re the one driving the car and I don’t really want to have to walk in the rain.  That’d be annoying,” Pyro said as he moved his head slightly to the quiet music that was playing.  The ferret felt as if Trap had glanced over at him, though he knew that the masked detective would never take his view off of the road.

“That’s exactly what we do every time I’m driving,” Trap said, with a hint of annoyance in his tone.  He kept his eyes on the road the entire time, also making sure to drive a bit slower than he normally would to avoid making the car slip on the wet roads and pavement as the rain continued.  “Plans for tomorrow are to go back to the apartment, mostly to inspect the outside and the window. I’d like to know how exactly the killer managed to get into a fourth floor window if what I saw was correct and the fire escape isn’t remotely close.”

“Yeah, I getcha.  I getcha,” Pyro said as he leaned back in his chair.  He released a slightly loud yawn, enough to make Trap’s ears fold underneath his headwear.  “It’s getting kind of late actually,” The ferret referred to the car’s digital clock.

“Indeed,” Trap said as he continued the drive towards the police station.  It was on the other side of town from the apartment complex, so it would take a tad bit of driving, unfortunately made a bit longer by needing to drive slowly.  “However, I still intend to visit the station first. The examiner can get to work on reviewing what we brought him and then we can head home to get some sleep for tomorrow.”

“Alright, that works fine with me,” Pyro said before an idea crossed his mind.  A thin grin found its way across his face. “But what happens if I fall asleep on the way there?  I’m getting pretty tired, you know.”

“Hm?  Then I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

“But what if I don’t want to?”  The ferret countered, still with a grin.  Trap verbally paused for a moment as he continued driving, and Pyro was sure he could imagine a grin hidden under his partner’s white and blue mask.  Pyro was sure that Trap understood the joke.

“I’ll drag you inside and prop you up on something, so we can pretend that we look at least somewhat professional.  Using tape to hold your eyes open is optional.”

“And then we admit to the examiner that I fell asleep all unprofessional like?”

“No, I’ll tell him that we hit the bar on the way back to the station and that you were flying higher than a plane before passing out after getting drunk,” Trap said before he started chuckling, satisfied with his own sarcastic humor.

Pyro started to comment, but instead found himself bursting into laughter at Trap’s sarcastic reply while the masked detective continued chuckling himself.  “You know, your sarcasm comes in really handy when it’s time to make a joke.”

Trap continued chuckling until he finally calmed down.  “We’ll get there soon,” He said, referring to how far away the police station was.  Pyro understood what he meant and, now out of conversation ideas, turned to look out the window, watching the various cars and signs passing by with mild curiosity.  Leaning back in his chair the ferret yawned again, and started to doze a bit as he silently watched things pass by. Trap said nothing for the rest of the drive, and so the only sounds were the sounds of the rain on the car roof, and the quiet background noise of the radio as it continued playing its music.

The two detectives continued the drive across the city, with Trap listening to the quiet music of the radio and Pyro having officially dozed off.  Before too long Trap turned the car into the police station’s parking lot, noticing that quite a few of the lights were still on inside the building.  He parked the car before he removed the keys and opened his car door, once again sticking his umbrella out before him to avoid getting wet.

“I suppose everyone’s working late on the latest case,” Trap commented before he started to get out of the car, though he stopped once he took notice of Pyro slumping in his chair.  “Hey, Pyro. Are you awake?” When he didn’t get a response and instead heard a quiet snoring from the ferret, he realized that his partner had fallen asleep during the rest of the drive.  Trap paused momentarily to grab the second umbrella before he got out of the car and looped around to Pyro’s side of the vehicle. He opened the second umbrella before he opened the door, and snapped his fingers near the ferret’s ear.  Pyro was startled awake by the noise, and looked around quickly to realize where he was before he gave his partner a bewildered look, who merely responded by handing the second umbrella over. “Professional attitudes,” The masked detective commented before he stepped away to allow Pyro to get out of the car.

“Professional attitudes?  You do know that everyone in the station is pretty wacky and that examiner is the prime example of that, right?”  Pyro asked as he climbed out of the car, once again making sure to shield the shoes that they had collected with the umbrella.  The two detectives started off towards the station, moving a bit quickly to get out of the cold wind as soon as possible.

“I’m well aware,” The masked detective stated as they entered the station and crossed through one of the nearby hallways.  Eventually the two encountered a large gray door, which Trap gave a knock to before they entered. The door opened up into a large and quiet lab area, which had various kinds of equipment and cabinets around the room and the walls.  A very large video screen decorated one of the walls while a long table set in the middle of the room, with a large light overhead and a tray of surgical tools next to it. The strange examiner seemed to be studying something in a microscope, though his other arms were working to move things on shelves and write something down in a file next to his workspace.  “We finished our investigation,” Trap called out to the examiner, who immediately swiveled in his chair with a giggling chuckle.

“I take it the crime scene was plenty enough to your liking if you didn’t immediately return,” The examiner commented.  Though his eyes were covered by his thick hair he still seemed to see and follow every movement that Trap and Pyro made as they approached.  “To the topic at hand, I’ve yet to produce information for you. I’ve been examining a few notes that I took back at the scene as well as samples but I haven’t produced solid information that you could reliably use in your investigation just yet.”

“It’s late and it’s going to be hard to work at full attention,” Trap commented before he and Pyro set their findings down on the counter next to the examiner, who immediately took interest in observing the two objects.  “This is all that we managed to find after searching the apartment, other than the body and a series of footprints that belong to the shoes here. Yes, I did match the shoes to the muddy footprints and I matched them against the victim.  They fit the footprints, but they don’t fit the victim’s feet. They’re smaller than what the victim wore.”

The examiner used two of his gloved hands to begin carefully observing the objects before he noticed the note inside the syringe.  He took the piece of paper out to read what was written on the note. “Is this all that you found?” He asked as he began chuckling again, apparently just as amused at the note as Trap had been.

“For now, yes.  That’s all we were able to find at the crime scene, other than things I’m sure you already saw yourself,” Trap replied.  “I’m assuming you’ve already taken any pictures and necessary samples while you were visiting the scene yourself earlier.  I’m sure we’ll have more as the investigation continues, however.”

“Thank you, detectives,” The examiner stated as he turned back to the microscope, still chuckling.  “I’ll give you a call or send a message once I have results. When that happens you can come over when you have the time and I’ll let you know what I’ve found.”

“That will work fine for us.  We’ll see you tomorrow then,” Trap stated before he departed the area alongside Pyro.  The partners left the station soon afterward before they went back to their car to get back on the road.

“Off to my house then,” Pyro stated once they had pulled out of the parking lot.  He turned his head to glance over at Trap, who once again had his eyes locked firmly on the road ahead of them.  The rain still continued to fall in its steady pace. “Sounds like we might actually be dealing with someone who knows what they’re doing playing the strings instead of someone who’s just gonna get caught by the others while we’re sleeping for the night.”

“Perhaps.  It does get boring after a while to deal with cases where there’s quite a bit of evidence to be found and the criminal is captured in a little less than a few hours.”

“But that’s our job, Trap.”

“I’m aware.  However, I miss the early days of when I was new to this job and everything was stressful excitement and and quite the adrenaline rush.”

“You like the rush, don’t you?”

“Guilty as charged.  It makes the hunt that much more interesting and entertaining,” Trap replied with a bit of a chuckle to his voice.

“Ha, now you sound like a bloodthirsty hound hunting his next piece of dinner.”

“Well?  You can’t say you don’t enjoy that part of the job yourself sometimes,” Trap commented before he started to fall silent.  He was out of ideas to continue the conversation with, and on top of that he was beginning to find himself tired. He decided that it would be easier to focus on driving rather than trying to talk and listen to his partner at the same time if he was starting to lose a bit of focus.  Pyro also became quiet, realizing that Trap was starting to get tired himself and that it was probably difficult to speak and drive at the same time in that state.

The two detectives didn’t speak again to each other aside from a few small sentences here and there throughout the rest of the drive.  They had soon arrived at Pyro’s house where the male ferret had climbed out of the car before saying goodbye to his partner and heading inside his home.  Trap left the driveway soon after that and was back on the road, driving a few blocks down to head to his own home. He drove his car into the garage before he getting out and heading inside the building.  After changing into something that he planned to sleep in he set about getting himself ready for bed, though he let his mind wander around his thoughts, thinking over what they had found so far and what kind of case they would be working soon if the killer was not caught overnight.

“Someone who uses needles to kill someone…”  The white hedgehog muttered to himself before a smirk broke out across his face.  “This is going to be an interesting person to track down,” He added quietly before he broke out into a laugh.  He continued laughing even as he turned the lights off to go to bed.