[PREVIEW] Assassin Among Heroes 39

“So, what do you think?”

Nighteye rubbed his chin and stared at the gaping wall, noting the flaking concrete crumbling from its top. The officer frowned and moved to ask again but the hero cut him off. “You said this was the result of a disturbance?” 

“Noise complaint. The neighbors called in 119 and said there was a huge ruckus going on, like a bulldozer was running through this joint. I came in a squad car with another pair, and the door was wide open. We rang the doorbell, but no one answered, which was weird since dispatch told us this place wasn’t abandoned. My partner and I made a judgment call and came in, but then we found this,” he gestured to the wall with a grimace. “This is real fresh, so we called for backup.”

“I see. And the other rooms?”

“Mostly clean, and in a bad way. There was stuff there until recently, and I’d bet my salary this wasn’t a normal moving day. The forensics team is gathering evidence, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this place wasn’t some regular homestead.”

The hero nodded, already anticipating the answer. He’d seen similar patterns far too often not to recognize when a drug den was recently scrubbed. “Mostly?”

“You saw that blood puddle in the front yard, right?” At his confirmation, the officer turned and walked down the hall, to which Nighteye quickly followed. Pushing past forensic investigators and camera-wielding officers, Nighteye noted every detail of the building. He would have preferred Bubble Girl to assist him with note-taking, but she was outside, helping investigation efforts with the rest of the force. Not to mention the press, who started pecking at any scrap of information like vultures. 

“Well, there’s more than one, and these are big ones.” He was led to a small sitting room, and sure enough, two large bloodstains marred the sofa and floor beneath it. Waving the forensic team away for a moment, Nighteye kneeled down and examined the stains with narrowed eyes.

“That is a significant amount of blood, not the result of a little stab or a stray gunshot. Fatal wound?”

“Most likely. But we haven’t found any bodies anywhere in the building. There was a suggestion of knocking down some of the walls, in case they stuffed them inside, but these-”

“Are fresh. The blood hasn’t completely dried and I assume there’s no sign of recently painted walls or loose floorboards yet.” Nighteye finished, eyes never leaving the bloodstain as he attempted to piece the scene together. “Whoever cleaned the house did it in a hurry. They had time to remove incriminating evidence like bodies or anything drug-related, but not enough time to do a thorough clean-up.” He glanced at the gloved forensics officer who stepped away. “Anything else about this blood I should know?”

The gloved policeman hesitated, but a pointed glare from the other officer loosened his tongue. “We haven’t been able to determine the method in which it was spilled, and that’s if we’re lucky. We managed to gather fingerprints from the sofa and the nightstand, but it’ll take time to match them to our database.”

“What about the camera above the front door?”

“There’s a blank spot for a computer on the top floor, first room to the right. The camera was connected to it.”

Nighteye tisked and adjusted his glasses. “Of course. Does the other giant hole in the wall at least provide more clues than what we’ve seen?”