“Actually, it’s me,” said Jeff, pointing a finger at himself.
“I was elected by the town people to be the sheriff, but I am a civilian. I wasn’t appointed by the mayor. The mayor has his own investigation team. But it has nothing to do with the town’s residents.”
“That’s a really complicated situation,” said Yuri, then holding her breath. It seemed like an attempt to usurp my position, but, well, I would let this one go. I was thinking the same thing when she said it.
“Ever since the special law was passed requiring citizens to carry portable arms, this separation was inevitable.”
Jeff’s expression became cloudy. It was right then when it happened. The clock on his desk let out a soft tone.
“It’s time,” said Jeff, turning off the alarm as he stood from his desk.
“I need to go on patrol now. I’ll be back in about an hour, if you can wait for me.”
“I’d love to go with you,” I said, standing immediately.
“I hate to have to apologize, but if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather go alone. It’s just that, well, if you can’t take no for an answer then you could bend my arm, as it doesn’t sound like you feel like sitting around waiting for me to come back. But, I would like to talk to you more once I’m done with patrol,” said Jeff getting ready, and then he walked out of the office. Who remained was me, Yuri, Mugi, and a loudly snoring old man. I couldn’t imagine a more boring situation to be stuck in.
I picked up a magazine that was lying nearby. Then, looking closely, I saw that all the books and magazines in the room were law-enforcement related. Just looking at the covers started to give me a headache. Jeff was handsome, but, this got me thinking.
With nothing better to do, I laid down on the couch using Mugi as a pillow, considering taking a little nap.
And then it happened.
“Ladies…,” resounded a gloomy voice, coming from where I wasn’t sure.
I popped up from my horizontal position with no delay. Yuri, who had been reading the news on the reader, looked around confused.
“It’s me. Over here,” a voice said from behind us.
The old man, who until a few moments ago was snoring behind the bullet-proof glass, was now glaring straight at us.
It was this old man who had spoken.
“What are you trying to do?! Don’t scare us like that!” I said, spitting fire. But the old man didn’t seem to hear my reaction.
“You all, you said you were WWWA TCs, huh?” he said, not seeming to hear me.
“So you weren’t asleep. You were eavesdropping on us?” I said, ignoring his question.
“I wasn’t trying to listen, but that’s what I heard,” said the oldster.
“You want to know some things about Landis, right? Leave it to me. I can tell you about the mayor, the owner, the master, all those guys.”
“You have info? You know about the Landis case?”
“What did I just say?!”
“Let’s hear what you’ve got!” I said, walking up to the bullet-proof glass.
“There are conditions…”
“What conditions?”
“I want you to protect me.”
“Protect you? From who?”
“From everyone. I know about everything, so everyone has it out for me. Listen. Until three days ago, I had never had a drop of alcohol in my life. Today I drank so much I got tossed in here. You know why?”
“It’s dangerous, and no one can get you in here?”
“I am happy someone understands.”
“If what you are saying isn’t just some drunken rambling and is the actual truth, I’ll protect you to all ends of the planet,” I told him. “Can you prove it?”
“I guess I am stuck,” said the old man, shaking his head. “If that’s the way it has to be, I’ll give you one juicy tidbit of info. Now come closer and listen up.”
The old man gestured us closer with his hand. I was about to put my ear up to the glass.
But I never was able to hear the valuable secret.
All I heard was the gigantic boom of a huge explosion.
At the same time a shockwave rumbled the floor of the police station.
I was thrown into the air and then rolled across the floor.
“Kei! Outside!” Yuri called in a loud voice. She had avoided being thrown by the shockwave by clinging to the sofa. Mugi’s ear-like matted whiskers were vibrating. The door opened. Smoke and flames billowed into the sheriff’s office. In a flash, Mugi dashed out through the door. Yuri followed. Don’t just leave me here! I hurriedly stood up and started to run.
I made it outside.
In front of me was a pile of mangled metal. I nearly crashed headfirst into it, and almost didn’t stop my feet in time. It was our car. The clunker we’d ridden in from the space port had exploded, and was now nothing but a pile of smoldering steel.
“Who? Who would do such a…” Yuri muttered. That was the essential question.
We heard a shout. It sounded like the cry of an elderly man. It was coming from inside the sheriff’s office!
“Dammit!”
I turned around.
I went back into the sheriff’s office.
“Hu—!”
I stood in shock.
“Aa.”
Yuri was also frozen in mid-step.
The floor of the detention cell had turned to a giant puddle of red. The thick blood slowly spread out across the floor, and in the center of the pool was the old man slumped forward, face down.
Mugi stepped in front of us. Again, he vibrated the fine hair where his ears should be. Without a sound, the bulletproof glass of the cell began to rise up. Yuri and I rushed to the old man’s side.
“His throat…” said Yuri. “It’s been bitten and torn out.”
Yuri was right. The trained eye could tell by looking at the wound. The old man had not been killed by any gun or blade. He was bitten by an unidentified animal, which had proceeded to pull and tear out the flesh.
“But…,” I said, looking around the room. “This room is completely impenetrable.”
There were no windows in the outside walls or ceiling. No holes had opened up anywhere. And this was done by an animal…
Besides Mugi, no animal was that intelligent.