PREYS AND PREDATORS

Chapter 4

In the picture a man Ronald who worked along with us in the department laid flatly on the surface with the face upward and his brawny arms close to his sides. His mouth gaped and his eyes were unshut, fixed in a spot like it should be in a picture. There was a bloody bullet hole in the midpoint of his forehead. I needed no forensic scientist to know it was a bullet penetration.

Moreover down to the neck a cut was seen in a horizontal line, though some thick blood prevented me from eyeing it entirely I had an inkling of the cut extension.

"Oh my. When was this?"My face questioning.

"Two days ago,thursday evening."Andre answered in a nutshell as he poured me some stout in a pint glass.

"What time?"I took a gulp of it.

"We don't know for sure."He likewise asked Andre for some.

"Then how sure are you he died on thursday evening?"I was quick to ask.

Wick shrugged and took a sip."Well,we all saw him thursday morning and afternoon till he walked out of the door. No one saw him on friday. Later in the day his corpse was found. Plus the forensic scientist predicted his death didn't happen long before."

"Could have seen his ghost."I pointed out inaudibly.

He sniggered at that. But I wasn't joking.

Wick sensed it."A mail man found the body and phoned the cops."He sipped,with eyes still pinned on me.

"And don't you think the mail man is a suspect?"

"At first hell yeah and I brought him for questioning. God, he's as skinny as hell. Briefly after I brought up the case, describing Roland's body and all that he was pretty disgusted. Threw up twice in my office and suddenly became ill and sick.

At the start I thought that was a reason to be suspicious but people around had one or two things to say about him. Easy-going was one. Some called him Mr Donut since that's what he mostly eats or perhaps could afford. All things considered I don't think he did it. He was pretty much half dead himself and had no access to arms."

"So who could've done this?"I returned my gaze to the pictures.

He went on."While the questioning happened the mail man blurted out something. According to him a day before he found the corpse he sighted two young men in a glimpse possibly in their twenties entering Roland's car in a haste and zoomed off after."

Two questions popped in my mind at once."How did he know it was Roland's car? Were they friends?"

"Nope. Just the good mornings and good evenings were involved, besides everyone knew Roland in the neighborhood. He's, you know the gentlemanly sort of guy."

"Mr Easy-going caught the boys whisk into Roland's car and didn't suspect anything. I can't help but take that as a reason to have suspicions myself."

"Well I don't think there's need to. He had known Roland to be a detective for decades and sometimes caught him running after some jailbirds. He thought the young boys were one of those malefactors but in this case outwitted him and took his car. Which makes sense but how they unlocked the door got me thinking."

"Well if truly they killed they could have taken his car keys with them."

"I thought so too."

"Still we are not sure they are the culprits. Could be a coincidence."

"Speak for yourself. I don't believe in that s**t. If it's any comfort the mail man added that he saw some kind of tatoo on their arms with the figure of a horn."

That very moment past terror long buried returned. I shot him a glance as my eyes widened in recollection at the sound of last word and I had my suspicions."The red horn?"

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