Chapter 94: Investigation

After taking up two adjacent rooms in the hotel Chief Campbell had given them a recommendation for and left their luggage there, Rick and Angela went back to the police station to start working. Right there on the interrogation table were multiple dossiers. Not wasting any time, Rick sat down and opened one.

It was the file of a victim. There was little regarding their identity. Only that they were female, in her twenties and had never given birth from the dismembered torso and half-eaten leg they had found on the crime scene. The woman’s DNA wasn’t in any database and without her hands or head the coroner hadn’t been able to check fingerprints or dental records. The police had checked if anyone matching her description had suddenly gone missing around town but ended up with nothing.

The pictures of the body parts and close-up revealed that the victim had been eaten. Alive. It was obvious from the coloration of the flesh at the wounds. Had the victim been dead there wouldn’t have been any bleeding at all. That meant whatever beast killed the woman was a predator and not a simple scavenger. Hence, the possibility of a human culprit was out.

Picking another file, it revealed much of the same thing. This time however, an identification had been possible. David Collins, 41yo, divorced, lived North of Mackenzie in what could be considered a suburb, no children and of American origin. Moved to Canada in 1993 from Raccoon City.

‘Fucking shit.’ He let out a deep sigh of frustration as a result of the discovery. ‘It might be a coincidence. It’s just one guy.’

Collins was officially a retired man, having inherited from a rich uncle in 93 and decided to live as a recluse. Confirmed hiker and hunter or so said the Police’s notes.

‘Plenty of times to do what the fuck he wanted during the day and could miss for days.’

Living as a recluse, he had little to no contact with his neighbors but was friendly. What was left of his body was discovered three weeks ago in early January but because of the cold it was possible his death may have happened earlier, perhaps in last December.

‘The neighbors said they haven’t seen him in a while when questioned but couldn’t accurately tell when was the last time they saw him. Probably disappeared during the Holidays.’

The injuries this time had marks. Fang marks. Neither the coroner nor the conservation officer were able to tell from what animal they were by. Of the big predator and carnivorous wild game of the region, only the leopard, wolf and bear could take down a human and feed on it. It didn’t match however, the marks were way too big for that.

Whatever killed the victims, it was more than big, it was massive. It brought up a few questions. The first of them was: Where could something so big hide or nest? With temperature far into the twenties (in Farenheit) and perhaps even lower during the nights, the culprit was either cold resistant or had found refuge somewhere, otherwise they would have simply frozen in open air. Most known BOW were badly affected by the cold. The only exception recorded so far were wolves infected with the T-Abyss that Chris and Jessica had encountered in the Italian mountains during Il Veltro resurgence.

The more Rick read, the more the idea of a freak of nature being born was going out the window. Closing the file, he looked at Angela. She was already on her third file.

“Found anything interesting?”

Her blue-green eyes shifted from the papers in hand to him after a bit of delay, probably finishing the paragraph or sentence they were reading.

“Not much. Two unidentified victims so far. Both are male. There were no tracks on any of the scenes because of the snow covering them but from what I can tell of the limbs found… Whatever did this was very big.”

“Hmm… One male, one female on my end. One was identified, the other was a middle aged retiree. One from Raccoon City.” The revelation made Angela frown.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

Rick nodded in agreement. “No. Especially when he was known to be a misanthrope and leaving his home for days to go camping and hiking.”

Angela blinked, realizing that something was wrong with this picture. “I’m sure he didn’t leave the town on foot. He must have taken a vehicle somewhere to get to a trail or a camping spot.”

“I think so too. And yet the police didn’t find anything. He owns a big cabin up North.”

“Then I suppose we need to investigate it and his home.” She put the file she had in hands down and checked briefly the content of the unopened one on the table. “There is no report about those places being searched.”

“Then we’ll have a look once we are done with those.”

This took a couple hours. The first victim found was in October, four months ago and the next in late November. December and January saw an increase in the discovery, a total of six. Either more body parts were missed between the 10th and 12th month of the year and the police and the people became more attentive after the third body or the number of dead increased because something had changed prompting the culprit to kill more.

They asked Nicole and Robert, who turned out to be Officer Moore and Officer Thompson respectively, for a map of the area. They already had one with pins on it to indicate where the remains were found. It pointed to a mountainous area 10 miles square. All were found either at the bottom or not very high up. A hundred to three hundreds in altitude at best. To Rick, it pointed to a lab under the mountain and something had escaped from it.

Chief Campbell came to tell them the coroner was here and he led them to the morgue to have a look at the most recent victim’s remains. Rick picked the genesis from the SUV to try and find if there were traces of viral agent.

After a quick introduction and some questions regarding the victim, Rick found traces of the T-virus in the well preserved limbs. The sigh he let out was one full of meaning that nobody failed to understand.

“It’s not good, isn’t it?” Chief Campbell’s tone had a bit of vain hope in it.

Rick gave him a small shake of the head. “No, it isn’t. You did well to contact us, Chief, because we are needed here.”

“What does that entail? For the town’s folk?”

“First thing first is to not create panic.” Angela spoke up. “Since so far the attacks happened far outside the town, there is no reason to think people are in immediate danger. As far as they should know, we haven’t determined yet what killed the victims and we’re still searching. What we can and should tell them is that it’s more hostile than a bear and they should avoid going up North.”

“I can do that, although at this time of the year there are always a few people going hunting. They’re used to taking down bears.”

“Then it’s on them.” Rick interjected coldly. “Anyone combing back needs to be detained on the spot and examined for any wounds or possible infection. They are to be arrested if they refuse.”

Campbell frowned. “Isn’t it a bit much?”

“No,” Angela shut him down. “The T-virus is very, very virulent. A town of a hundred thousand people fell within a week. A town like Mackenzie?” She shook her head instead of being explicit, which made the Chief of Police pale.

“Anyone arrested should be quarantined. A simple exchange of fluid could infect you.” Rick added. “Anyone scratching their skin because it’s itchy, with a high fever or with part of their body necrosing are to immediately be quarantined too. I honestly believe there won’t be anyone being infected coming back into town. Our killer is far too big and strong to let its prey escape from what those remains tell us.”

Angela had more to say. “If you have a secure secondary water source for the town, use it. Ration the water if you have to.”

“We have snow.” The coroner answered and while it sounded like a joke, he was utterly serious. He had understood that their water supply, the river, could be contaminated and it would be a disaster if it was.

“Then you’re in luck. Issue a statement. A simple dead animal contaminating the water source is a good enough excuse.” Rick suggested.

The visit was cut short then. Rick and Angela went back to the first floor of the precinct and asked for the address of David Collins. Officer Moore got with them to lead the way. Apparently Campbell assigned her to assist them since she was the newest recruit.

The house was average. Two stories high made of sturdy wood. Exactly like all the others in the area. Without the exact address it would have taken time to find it among its many, many clones.

Rick took the lead and reached the door first. He didn’t kick it open. Instead, his hand reached inside one of his pouches at his back and pulled up a set of lockpicking tools. Angela and Nicole’s expressions display surprise.

“I’m not sure that’s very legal.” The latter commented.

“It isn’t.” Rick answered and began working.

“Does the BSAA—”

“No, we're not taught how to lockpick.” Angela interjected.

“It’s an important skill to have. If you ever find yourself locked outside your house or car with the keys inside. It’s also useful when you’re in hostile territory. Of course, you shouldn’t do that during an investigation as whatever you find after it will not be usable in court. In our case however…”

“The owner is dead without any known family and he’s not a suspect.” Angela filled it.

“Jackpot.” Rick congratulated both Angela for her answer but also himself for having the door in the limited time he had challenged himself with. He tucked back his tools inside his pouch and stepped into the house. “Ever conducted a search like this Moore?”

The woman entered after Angela. “Can’t say I have. We rarely have homes to investigate around here. Mostly, it’s noise disturbance, disputes between townspeople and sometimes theft. Mundane things.”

“Well… Rule number one. Look but don’t touch. If you do need to touch something make sure you’re wearing gloves.”

She gave Rick a flat look. “I may be a rookie but I was trained in how to proceed.”

“Training and putting it into action are two different things but I was rude and you have my apologies for that.” His words sounded more like a formality than sincere.

Rick immediately looked around and noticed that nothing was out of the ordinary. For all intent and purpose, David Collins seemed to have been a real retiree enjoying life. A few hunting trophies on the walls, a few pelts here and there. Nothing that said ‘Umbrella scientist, living a lie and secretly working on world ending viruses and bio-organic weapons.’

He checked a side room. A small office with one bookshelf, a desk, a computer and some painting on the walls. The books revealed nothing beyond Collins’ taste for sci-fi. No books about biology, nothing academic, they were just regular entertaining books that any random person having reading as a hobby would have in their home.

By professionalism and paranoia, Rick looked at it from every angle just to be sure there wasn’t a hidden mechanism or a secret passage behind it. It was his standard when dealing with anything related to Umbrella or Raccoon City.

As expected there was no such a thing. That prompted him to move to the desk. The drawers ended up clear. No important or suspicious letter or document nor any hidden bottom. It was the computer’s turn next but the session was locked and without the password he couldn’t get in. With no family pictures or even pictures at all on the desk or around the room and with the paintings being of random landscape, he doubted he could find a clue.

After sighing and thinking the search had been mostly a waste of time, Rick changed his mind when his foot stepped on the wood floor and made it creak loudly. He stopped on the spot and pushed down a few more times to confirm what he heard. Crouching down, he knocked on the wood and it sounded hollow.

Drawing a knife from his boot he searched for a recess on the floor and found one. Using the blade as a lever he removed a ten inches square piece of wood, seamlessly integrated, and found a safe with a rotary combination lock. A very old model, reminding him of the ones he encountered in Spencer Mansion and the R.P.D. precinct.

Glueing his ear against the metal he began to turn the lock to the left slowly. Focusing on his hearing, he was easily able to listen to the cogs and pins moving as clear as day. Within a minute he found the last correct number and opened the safe.

What was inside was a bit of a disappointment. Some rolls of American Dollars, a glock 17 with two boxes of 9mm and the most important of all a USB drive. Light footsteps echoed from outside the office which he recognized as belonging to Angela. Taking the entirety of the safe’s content into his hand he stood up.

“Ri— Oh, you're there. I wasn’t su—” Angela stopped talking when she saw what he had in hand.

“Found this in a secret safe.” He tossed her the USB drive. “We’ll have to check on this back in the station. What about you and Moore?”

“Hidden stairs leading to a basement. The door's locked.”

Rick moved from behind the desk and approached Angela who led him to the living room. There, an ugly carpet was rolled up to the side while a huge square hole with an open lid was right where the carpet used to be.

“I found some marks on the floor, as if something small kept knocking on the wood out of nowhere. It turned out it was the bolt holding the ring handle to lift the lid.”

Rick nodded and praised her. “Good Job.” He looked down at the stairs. Through the darkness, he saw a metallic door but not the heavy kind. “Interested in lockpicking now?”

“Very much, yes.” Angela confessed.

“I’ll teach you once we’re back or you can ask Jugs or Rachel.”

Rick dismantled the gun, removing the magazine, the one loaded bullet and the top of it. The parts and the money were laid on the couch and he climbed down the stairs. Not bothering with his flashlight, he pulled out his lockpicking tool again.

Soon enough, the door was unlocked, opened and stepped through. Beyond it looked like a panic room. Monitors displaying some hidden camera feed around and inside the property but also somewhere else. On one side was a rack of military weapons. No small caliber in sight. .357, .44 and even .50 for all types of firearms, ranging from simple revolver to sniper rifle.

Angela used her flashlight to find the light switch and turned it on “That’s a bit much for hunting.”

Rick was grateful that the lights on the ceiling were low energy, he would have been blind for a bit otherwise.

“A bit much, yes. It’s more evidence that the man was involved in something not really legal.” Thinking of updating O’Brian and contacting Annette to know if she knew any David Collins, he took a lever-action rifle with one hand and the sniper rifle with the other. “Let’s get everything out and catalogue it.”

Following his lead, Angela picked up the guns.