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Chapter Four

Officer Mike Barboza stood waiting patiently as Joseph drove up and he entered the cruiser. Mike was around five foot six inches so Joseph would tilt his gaze downward slightly when standing to meet Mike's eyes. Mike smiled as he entered the cruiser and Joseph noticed that his hair had turned completely grey reminding him that Mike was older than himself but also to caution that his hair would be changing soon. Sure Mike was ten years his senior but those years creep up on you fast especially when you least expect them.

"Hey so what's this case you're on?" Mike asked cheerfully as he made himself comfortable.

"This guy goes into a nursing home and kills the security guard..." Joseph said as he drove off towards Shane's neighborhood.

"Jeez why'd he do that?" Mike interrupted.

"Dunno after he killed the guy he went to the bathroom and died himself."

"He died on a toilet?" Mike said and laughed hysterically.

"We found the body but his skull looked like it was smashed in by something heavy and the killer's gun was found in an uncovered drain in the floor. So I'm thinking he was trying to get rid of the weapon and someone came along..." Joseph said and quickly stopped as Mike interjected his thoughts again. It did not bother Joseph because as long as he knew Mike he knew how inquisitive he was and it was something he just had to get used to.

"And finished the job! My only thought is who the hell would attack this guy when he has a gun?"

"That's the big question I have to solve but no leads yet. I was hoping to pass it off as a suicide but it turns out he belongs to certain activist groups that like causing trouble. The theory is: if I can't find the killer and pass it off as suicide then they may start rioting just for the sake they can start a riot and..." Joseph said and deliberately paused so Mike could finish the sentence.

"Yeah but how the hell are you gonna do that? I mean find the killer?" Mike asked, missing his que.

"Well... I'm hoping his place might give me a clue or something else to follow up with. As of right now I'm totally blind on how to proceed. I have some things to try but so far I have nothing. I don't even have a reason why he killed the security guard so far there seems to be no reason why he did it." Joseph sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

"There must be a reason otherwise why did he do it?"

"I dunno I don't see a motive. He shoots the guard then tries to hide the gun, so he wasn't after anyone else." Joseph replied.

"Unless he panicked, maybe he didn't know the guard was going to be there." Mike interjected.

"Nope I saw the surveillance tape, it was definitely deliberate and he patiently waited while the guard was answering a telephone call." Joseph found a parking space and pulled into it. Mike sat there thinking as Joseph got out of the car and Mike grunted at him as he told Mike he would be back.

Joseph approached the building and looked at an intercom panel then found the landlord and pressed the button. He patiently waited about a minute before there was a reply.

"Hollow?" The voice said sounding like it had a Latino masculine accent.

"Detective Namer of Fallen Rivers Police Department. I'm here to see you about one of your tenants, Shane Krong." Joseph said firmly and as loud as possible just to make sure he was clearly heard. The intercom looked really old like something that was created in the 70's so he was not sure how well it worked.

"Oh 'im, I bee right dare." The voice replied with a hint of annoyance. Joseph waited then a small man that was around five feet tall opened the front door and ushered Joseph inside. He looked to be close to sixty years old and he was almost completely bald but the little hair he had left was white colored. He had a thick white mustache and his smile had numerous teeth missing.

"I'm Detective Namer," Joseph said as he showed the man his badge and saw the man lean in close to get a good look at it.

"Jose Rodriguez." He said as he rolled his R while saying his name.

"Do you have a Shane Krong that lives here?" Joseph asked and Jose made a face with the look of disgust and gestured as if he were dropping garbage.

"He no good, terrible tenant who owe me mucho back rent. His place smell like trash bin. I want 'im gone, pronto." Jose said as he led Joseph up some stairs to Shane's apartment and as they neared Joseph smelled a foul odor that was making him feel nauseous.

Jose opened the door of Shane's apartment and the smell of feces made Joseph gag and he stepped away coughing while Jose looked inside and began to swear. Joseph took out a tiny container and rubbed a clear lotion under his nose to block the smell. The police used Vicks VapoRub when investigating crime scenes where noxious odors could make a person sick. Vicks VapoRub would block the smell so they could do their investigation unhindered.

"Hiz azz outta here!!!" Jose screamed as he looked around and Joseph entered and was shocked at what he saw.

"Hold on Jose, this is now a crime scene! I can't have you touch anything until we checked out the scene." Joseph said as he pointed to a body that was lying on a couch covered in blood that was days old.

"Madre de la Misericordia." Jose said blessing himself by making the sign of the cross on his head and chest. Joseph walked over to examine the body and saw it was a dog, possibly a pitbull, that had its bones sticking out from it's skin. The animal had been starving but that was not what had killed it. The head of the animal looked the same as when they had found Shane being that it was smashed in but the blood, now dried, was a dirty brown color.

The animal had defecated in numerous places on the carpet but from the look none of it was recent but the dog had been trapped in the apartment for quite some time. The dog had a collar that had a rabies tag in the shape of a heart and the year listed was this year so the shot was recent. This made no sense to Joseph because Shane must have cared about the dog if he took it to the vet yet why leave it here to starve then kill it?

Joseph finished calling in a team to come check out the apartment more thoroughly than he alone would be able to. The dog must have been trying to escape because the place looked wrecked like an animal acting up trying to find a way out. Joseph then noticed one of the windows was smashed and blood covered it.

"Did the dog try and jump out the window?" Joseph said to himself. He began to examine the damaged pane of glass and realized that the damage to the animal was not caused by him trying to jump out this window. Something, or someone else killed the dog then a thought came to his mind. Joseph went and found Jose in his apartment having a heated discussion with his family.

Jose was rapidly shouting in Spanish so Joseph had no idea what he was saying.

"Mr. Rodriguez, does Peter Bassetti live here?" Jose asked as the man quieted when Joseph entered the room.

"No, neva 'eard of 'im." Joseph sighed in disappointment now that his theory might be wrong. If the security guard lived here he may have killed the dog and Shane found out about it and killed him, but that seemed unlikely now.

There was a pin up calendar on the wall and up unto a week ago every day was crossed off. Dates were marked with what Joseph guessed were protests that Shane was going to attend. A number of them were out of state and since a couple looked to last more than a day it made Joseph wonder what kind of work did Shane Do. According to the calendar he was supposed to be away at a protest in the next state the date was labeled "Clean Energy." Joseph finished by taking pictures of the place from the dog crap on the carpet to the dog's body and the smashed window.

Joseph suddenly wondered if the pictures could be used to convince the activist groups that Shane was not the hero they thought he was and if they tried protesting the pictures would discredit them. Hopefully this would make George very happy.

Mike sat in the cruiser and observed several people walk by looking inside the cruiser and he would smile and wave at them. Once they saw him they quickly moved on but Mike was not really interested in them he was watching a group of kids playing nearby and there was a medium size dog. The breed looked to be an airedale terrier with it's brown and black colored fur it's ears folded over and it linked like it had a beard, at least it looked like that to Mike. He and his wife had been wanting a dog but nothing too big or scary because his wife feared large dogs like German Shepherds although Mike always thought shepherds were more medium sized than large, well at least that's what he thought.

The dog was several feet away from the kids and it just stood sitting but Mike saw there was something odd about it. He was not sure what it was but it seemed as if something was wrong with it. If it were a person he'd swear it was drunk but then it made little jerking motions and Mike wondered if it was about to have a seizure. He immediately got out of the car as he saw the animal snarl with its fangs showing as it looked at the kids. The animal wobbled as it took a step towards them and Mike drew his firearm and shouted for the kids to get away.

He had never seen a dog infected with rabies but he could fear the sound of his heart beating rapidly as he pointed his gun at the dog and motioned the kids to get away. A couple screamed and ran away leaving the beast looking at him with what could be confusion mixed with anger and bewilderment. The face of the animal immediately changed and it set its eyes upon Mike and stopped snarling but started to cautiously approach him.

Mike was tempted to lower his weapon but he felt a warning in the back of his mind warning him to be cautious because the dog's behavior was erratic and while it seemed passive even friendly as it approached it could snap at any moment. Mike needed to be ready so he kept his weapon pointed on it.

Shouts from different neighbors as they approached Mike angrily shouting about him yelling at their kids but their protests were cut short as they observed him with his gun trained on the dog and they stood there bewildered. They motioned their children behind them as they watched the standoff between the cop and the dog. They said something but Mike could not make out what they said. He was too focussed on the dog to worry too much about them but he was aware of their presents and indirectly was keeping an eye on them.

"Hey what's going on?" Joseph asked as he approached Mike. Mike motioned for him to be cautious then pointed at the dog.

"I think it has rabies because it's acting very strange." Mike said then the dog let out a howl and dropped to the ground rolling over onto its back leaving its belly exposed as it twisted back and forth.

"Rabies?" Joseph said incredulously but his opinion changed as he saw the dog begin to bear its teeth and drool dripped from its mouth but it was not a foam like you would expect a dog with rabies to have.

"Can you call animal control? I'll keep you covered." Mike said and Joseph took out his phone and searched his emergency contacts for Animal Control. The dog fought to try and stand upright as it continued in the direction of Joseph and Mike. The neighbors quickly quieted as they began to realize what was going on.

The animal suddenly lunged at Joseph and a second later the deafening sound of Mike discharging his firearm and the dog dropped like a bag of rocks. Joseph raised his hands to shield himself from the animal's attack and it took him a few seconds to recover. His ears were ringing so it took him a second before he realized Mike was talking to him and Joseph asked him to repeat what he said.

"I asked if you are OK?" Mike said this time a little louder and Joseph adjusted his suit before answering.

"Yeah just shooken up because I was not expecting that."

"Well I tried to warn you." Mike said smugly.

"Let's get you back to the station because I have a clean up crew coming." Joseph said and began to tell Mike the tale of What he found in Shane's apartment. A couple of the neighbors approached the dog to look at it even though they cautioned them to keep away from the animal's carcass.

"You guys carrying bazookas or somethin'?" One of the onlookers asked as he approached them.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked him

"What the hell did you do? That dog doesn't have a head anymore."

"What?" Both Mike and Joseph said at the same time and walked over to the carcass to examine it. The head of the animal looked as if someone had struck a tomato with a mallard. The skull was completely smashed. Joseph saw the chest area and saw a bullet hole from where Mike had shot it.

"How the hell did that happen? I used a 9mm no way I could have done that." Mike said.

"Mike, the way this dog looked is exactly how the dog in the apartment looks. Not to mention the body has a bullet hole on the chest area so you never hit its head and when it dropped there was no way near enough force to leave the head like that." Joseph said.

"We've been talking here for a few minutes, did you see any of the parents around here do that?" Mike questioned.

"No and if a parent did do that then why would they be asking us what happened?"

"What the hell is going on?" Mike asked.

"I dunno, this doesn't make sense." Joseph said. Mike noticed the team had arrived to check out Shane's apartment and he walked over to direct them as Joseph bent down and took a pen from his suit to examine what remained of the dog.

"Is this related?" Another officer was asking Mike as he directed them to the dog he shot.

"Possibly, I shot this dog thinking it had rabies and when we got close to examine it; it looked the same as the dog inside."

"See if the animal belonged to a neighbor and can we piece the skull back together to get an idea if this officiers bullet somehow did this or something else." Joseph said cleaning off the pen

"What are you thinking?" Mike asked Joseph as the other officer walked off to carry out his duties.

"Sniper maybe? Someone targeting dogs." Joseph said skeptically as he tried to piece together what may have happened.

"Not even a sniper bullet could have done that much damage."

"I dunno, I heard they are pretty powerful and they could destroy a human skull just like the dog here."

"How could a sniper do all this?" Mike asked.

"This is just a theory but it might work... So Shane Krong goes to the nursing home to kill the security guard for some reason. A sniper that has something against Krong follows him and when he sees Krong trying to hide his gun he takes a shot and kills him. Then he could have been hired to kill Krong but earlier when he tried his dog was trying to break through the window because he sensed the sniper. Fearing detection the sniper kills the dog and Shane places his beloved pet on the couch. Maybe he's had run ins with the security guard and thinks he was involved in his dog's killing..." Joseph said but Mike looked skeptically at him."

"Why kill this dog?"

"To throw us off the case in case he thinks we might find some evidence linking the sniper to the murder." Joseph said.

"Wasn't this Shane guy sitting on a toilet in a bathroom stall? How did his body get placed there? Could the sniper have been able to shoot into the stall from a window in the bathroom?"

"I'm going back to the crime scene to get a better look, just in case." Joseph said and he heard Mike mumble about Susan getting upset that this was taking this long. Joseph had his own doubts about his theory because if there was a sniper, then why kill a dead dog? Mike had finished him off and if he shot the dog it could be surmised that a sniper was involved. Instead of hiding that fact it would make it more obvious. Joseph knew he was grasping at straws here and he was allowing his mind to entertain fantasies rather than logically looking at the evidence.

He was rushing to be rid of this case and it was stopping him from being objective. To him it should have been a murder/ suicide yet the evidence was not holding up. He had to stop and try to think clearly by not letting the pressures he was feeling interfere with finding the truth.