By once upon a time . . .
Ø ø : Early morning and called to investigate a multiple murder & suicide «first reports» It was November and the kind of wintercold thought lost to childhood : blu’black a.m.=sky with low sodia that ran around residentials and parallined roads, but all equalling one thing : inhabitance And rain «past tense» : it had rained and the rain remained : pooled and puddled and doubly=triply reflected from the head–, tail– & flashing lights : that kind of morning with curtains twitching / neighbours peering, although none came out : odd, except for that cold! Unmoving, hung : sharp and bitter
To one side of the house stood a uniform slashing : hot piss steaming cold Cordon : under & through I was wearing standard issue, meaning suit : longcoat and scarf [very much non-S.I. and somewhat lessened the effect, but : that cold again!] Briefed at the door Inside and into the front room via a hallway carpeted with thick plastic : antimacassar for the floor «had one ourselves for a time» and
Scene : Two rooms, open plan & connected by an arch «knocked through» Leather sofa pressed against the wall : ornamental fireplace : oversized mirror above aforesaid, landscape orient reflecting the white walls & window : an illusory effect of space «read that in a magazine» : occasional table in the centre : spattered trail of claret : light brown pile : really more of a burgundy, leading up to a twisted & distorted body forced into a chair and draped over a table in the adjoining room : pile actually more akin to something called buff «same magazine» : fun=fact being the same buff used as the more often thought to be white squares on a professional chessboard[1] : said claret orburgundy already dark & dry, indicating passage=of=time : otherwise, clear table and showroom appearance of both rooms, the latter of which looked out onto and via highly polished & glazed sliderdoors : a kempt «archaism» garden : all trimtrab lawn and herb=ay=shus borders centrepieced by a child’s body with limbs skewangled + torsioned collum [Lat.] + notaprettysightatall
Additional commentary w/r/t the above : a lingering and recent smell of lavender, but chemical=like as though sprayed or infused and yet no evidence of such found : scorch marks on ceiling nr. light fixture : although again, no other signs of burnout &/or recent discardment : large TV unit in position where likely to catch glare «incomprehensible» and remote hanging on apt=hook at the side of the unit Also, a strong sense of unresolved tension «intuition : comes with experience»
Ø ø : Forensics’d started setting up outside, but : grim=thing Cursory look round the kitchen, all seeming well with not a thing outtaplace : lemony=scent I ordered uniform «the pisser» to go through the bins as punishment : there’s always something there Back to the hall & up the stairs, same buff all the way : bland tastes, although I’m not normally one to judge Into the bathroom and
Scene : Door’d been forced and bigger than ‘mione with roomy shower cubicle, deep=moulded basin «pulchritudinous plumbing» ingenious storage solutions «those marvellous Swedes» and the oblig’t’ry body in the bath More wine, of course : Roman style[2] but oddly marbled and a nauseating yellow Facial disposition not to be remembered ‘cept in dreams Observation : marks on both arms indicated pressure either prior to or during extinction : see also puddles plashed on the floor : all suggestive of possibly not the obvious Jury was literally out on that ‘tho
Next up was the landing, long ‘n’ wide and empty space Above, a hang=ladder : Jacob’s stairway to the heavens or, in this case : the attic and
Scene : Found : sacking, from which had been extricated one [1] cat, deceased, later found to be with . . . : well «with» Said sacking had been firmly fixed with strongrope intent and attic all=locked=up Not an animal lover myself, but who could even and why ? Little else of int’rest up there save for the usual and the common [dust & boxes, questionable content + antiquated, outdated amalgams fit only for storage : who expects to need all these things anyway ?] and with the other rooms being empty : extensive searches conducted and finding traces of not much but the voyeurism that goes with invading another person’s home will-I nill-I But bringing us to and then
Scene : The garden and forensics had finished up Not as bad as you might think, but still pretty bad and that’s me without a family Aptjectives might include : sprawled, bedragged, torque=&=twisted ; impacted on impact but painless ? No : «examiner’s opinion and mine»
Facts In The Case
Four [4] bodies : but see also
| Of the total | three [3] human | one [1] feline [but see sub] |
| Of the human | two [2] adult | one [1] child |
| Of the adult | one [1] male | one [1] female |
| Of the child | one [1] male | |
| Of the feline | one [1] female [pregnant] | |
| Of the unborn felines | impossible to know but a good estimate being three to five [3-5] |
Adult female (x) found in downstairs front room, likely killed in one part and moved to another [cf. the claret[3], supr.] Cause of death either heavy blow to the head or subsequent blood loss following aforesaid Quite clear & pretty obvious what happened really «read the report»
Male child (y) found in garden Cause of death, trauma following fall from a=height Evidentially [i.e. it was QED’d] forced from the window rather than attempted the unthinkable, but all things must be considered Condition of clothing «torn» : mark– & bruising/s on skin «brutish» : disarray of room and with particular emphasis on the adj.-window area with articles around damaged and upturned
Adult male (z) found in bath Cause of death, blood loss following –letting Presented as suicide, although in-situ evidence and the post-mortem showed this to be unlikely : I mean, found in locked bathroom, securable only from the outside with no realistic means of in-/egress : there is, for example, a small window but barely big enough to fit a head through and besides, said window would only open partway : come on, this isn’t Poetry !
Feline found in attic Cause of death, starvation via containment within sack Odd thing being that for endpoint of starvation to occur alongside (x), (y) and (z) some serious malice=a’forethought must have been executed or else : bloody big coincidence Regardless, no clues as to who put the cat into the bag
Time of deaths of the above : estimated to be concurrent, or all happening within the space of around ten minutes and certainly less Perpetrators of the above : unidentified Circumstances and crime scene investigations inconclusive
Miscellaneous Findings & Comments
Charcoal residue on horizontal surfaces throughout the house Origins unknown
Rotting smell, the source of which was discovered to be one Clupea harengus, 6 & ½ inches in length, strongly cured and unaccountably found lodged within the trap below the kitchen sink
Markings on certain walls that corresponded to fingernails being dragged with some force and likely to result in severe stresses : indeed, traces of blood were found No DNA matches to any of the victims and to date, no link to any other person or persons has been made : all ape=related lines of enquiry proving «fruitless»
Scrawled on the wall : Why wait ‘til nineteeneightyfive? We might not even be alive
Meaning : nonsensical as to be irrelevant
Coda
Such curious, weird & ugly scenes I retired a year later, nightmares recurring «to be expected» Nothing in the way of closure : case made inactive : «cold» : with no answers forthcoming Good news [of a sort] there being no known close &/or surviving relatives of (x) (y) and (z) : astonishing for all that and strange mercies, really Take what comfort you can and y’ gets what y’ given
Ø ø Almost forgot Much later in the day and still that cold ! : but more bearable during hours of the light [or is it just me ?] Bare sky : the sun unhaloed within pale clouds : crisp I was the only first responder left : everyone else fresh=facers, undrawn, clear of head & light of heart and one young recruit asked me «Why the long face Inspector ?»
Wouldn’t you like to know son : wouldn’t you like to know ?
*
[1] The other [i.e., “black”] being dark green
[2] Although, fallacious : or so I’ve been told
[3] Or burg’, yes I know. Whichever
JL Bogenschneider has had work published most recently in The Flexible Persona, Flash Journal, The Fractured Nuance and Ambit, with future credits pending in PANK.
