D&C 2.1; Its all in the bite

Its all in the bite

Two things in life which may never be forgiven; being dragged out into the pouring rain, and changes in circumstances made the responsibility yours. I had both of it that day. It was pouring cats and dogs; even the pizza arrived cold while the Commissioner called me to investigate a 217 ( assault with intent to murder. ). I grabbed my overcoat and hopped into the car, blazed down the streets with the siren screeching foul words in high decibels.

"You grabbed me here for a canine fight? Heck! You should be calling the SPCA or K9 if they wanted more dogs?" I told the uniformed officer. In front of me at the abandoned apartment block, were five suspects with the tattoos of gang affiliations and three canines; one bleeding from the bites.

"Right this way, Sir." The officer led me to the third unit down the corridor. He opened the door to showed me the dead body lying there with blood all over. He looked like a gang member to me, but the kids nowadays dressed to looked alike.

"Allen Smith, formerly of Chezz. Dead by multiple wounds; believed to be dog bites." I looked at the officer. He smiled back and told me.

"I had five dogs at home, and was in K9 before I got transferred out." I looked at the name tag; Dicken. I remembered his case; one year ago when he was reprimanded for screw up on a gangland shooting. He was accused of removing evidence, but they gave him a transfer instead due to lack of firm evidence.

"Get Forensics in and then bagged it." I walked back to the suspects and looked them over. I saw Chezz, Fifth Elements and Badasses. Three gangs in one building; that would be bad news for the Commissioner. No wonder the rain came; even the Gods were overwhelmed by this event. Was it peace talk or bring your dog for a walk?

Later I was back in my Precinct. The gangs have arrived to meet their lost kins; but the three factions have stood apart. They all had the hostile looks that the Press to showed on the next news break. I was met by Frank inside; he had on a bullet vest for safety measures.

"Are you overreacting, Frank?' I asked him while I poked at the vest.

"Its five to one that they would shoot soon." It was our internal vice squad side game. They don't pay in cash but doughnuts and coffee. "I intend to be around for my son's wedding."

I smiled. And then I asked that the gang leaders be brought in. I wanted to chat with them altogether; but checked for weapons first. The three leaders were escorted in and placed in my favorite room with two more chairs. I sat on the riveted one.

"Gabriel" He was Chezz, "Asked away any questions?" I looked at Charlie of Fifth Elements and Merlyn of Badasses. They knew the offered to them too.

"No questions? Good, I have a few." I looked to the three. "Who? Why? What made them all stayed under one roof? The rain or was it the dogs?"

Dogs fights were getting popular; it all started with young pups or kittens. Those were the strays and then the bigger snatched off pets. The premier fights were the real nasty ones; the bad dogs versus the nasty dogs. Lately, I was told,m the homeless got dragged in. They were saved from death and given compensation for their pains. But never a murder.

The three leaders were not talking. If I was to leave the room unattended, these three would probably had a dog fight there. I told them to go home but they decided to camped outside in the rain. Such dedication was admirable but I have scumbag in the morgue.

"Dan, talk to me." I was getting impatient. Dan finally spoke up having given me the twenty minutes of silent treatment.

"Twenty five bite marks. Not all are fatal except four, which finally killed him." Dan read from his report. "Bite marks are consistent with two or three predators. Canine in particular. One bite was not; it was human. The one on his neck."

Dan held up some x-rays and enlarged pictures he took. Its showed the bite marks after the body was washed. Dan pointed out to the pictures as he explained.

"Canine bites showed the tear from the fangs," Dan paused and looked at me. "Those are like our teeth which are named as canine, but ours are shorter and less protruding like the dogs; termed for simplicity reference."

"The tear marks gave the wound a bigger tear compared to a human bite." Dan showed the difference. "Note the depth of the wounds. But the human bite was not fatal."

"I took samples of the surrounding areas, for DNA testing from possible saliva marks." Dan picked up another report. "It confirmed my findings. Now we need to match the results to the database."

"Dan, are you telling me, that some one bit him too? Are we talking of vampires?" My last line was more like a joke. Dan did not replied directly. Instead he told me another thing.

"The vampire would regret it. The dead subject had HIV in his blood." That one made my blood coagulate inside me then.

"No reference to anyone living...." Dan muttered and walked away. I took my leave and walked back to my section. The Commissioner was on my back then; asking and having no answers, took his anger on me. I called the K9 units and got my update. They are checking the dogs for their tendency; noted as explained by the team there, these are killer dogs. On my way back, I got a message from Gabriel. He wanted to meet.

We met at the new DiAngelo; the man got his own place, some doors down and still served the bad coffee and hot dogs. Gabriel came alone, and saw down at the table reserved for us. Where else would he safer than a cafe with police protection?

"Allen was playing hooky with them." I liked his term of reference. It sounded like Allen had skipped the Chezz school to play elsewhere. "Its his gambling habits. He dabbled in everything that involved chances."

"We used to play with the dogs, but we stopped at the real fights." I was happy the SPCA was not there. "Allen went on and even bought his own dog."

"Which one?" I asked.

"The dark one, I think it was a Japanese breed; Tosa." I had that checked; The Tosa breed generally weighs from 130 to 200 lb and stand 24.5 to 32 inches Their coat was often red, brindle, or fawn but the one Allen had was dull black. They are breed as fighting dogs. The Tosa was the one with the bleeding wounds.

"Why claimed on him?" I had to know on the reason for the congregation outside the Precinct.

"He's brother. I loved him. And we do not give up on our own." I liked the way Gabriel placed it. I leaned over and whispered to him.

"Me too. But I shared a secret with you. Allen had HIV, and someone took some love bites of him. Thought you would like to know."

I saw Gabriel face went pale but I left him there after I paid for the coffee. It was not comfortable for me to leave with him even though we could be 'brothers in blood'. The message came to my phone from Dan. He got the name of the person's DNA.

"I know." I replied.

The dogs were put to sleep while the punks were booked for illegal gambling. Allen Smith dead was listed as incidental by dog attack. The testimony by all was that he dragged his dog off the arena and later was attacked by the other dogs including his own. It was a dog nature to attack another outside breed when provoked.

I missed Gabriel who had decided to a country tour of his own, leaving his gang to be influenced by the others.

"Rose, that hurts." I reacted to Rose when she nibbled at my fingers. She got up and straddled me.

"Then bite these." She told me that evening.