An American Lupine on Coruscant

[Diego Van Derveld]

The night air reached a dank chill on the mid levels of the Ayval district, as the nearby Universalist Temple's bell chimed midnight. To Sezi Murr, it wasn't the best of nights. In fact, she was downright upset. No one could blame her. Men were such dogs. At any case, the one she'd invited up for a nightcap was. Not only did he leave the seat down in the 'fresher...but he'd sort of killed her. Well not technically, but when you're holding half of your spilled entrails in your arms and can't account for where the other half are, you don't exactly consider yourself on a clean bill of health. And no doubt her plush carpet was ruined. That would be the end of her security deposit on this place. Oh well...at least she wouldn't have to worry about that in this life. He was a bit of an animal in the sack, at least. One last good roll in the hay, even if he was a total ass for mutilating her.

She shivered.

He'd left the window open on his way out...and let the night breeze in. The blood loss didn't make her any more cozy.

"C-c....can you at le-east get me a s-smoke?" She was barely able to speak through supple, bloody lips.

On the balcony, a whine was heard, and then the sound of clawed feet. An eternity seemed to pass until there was a thump, when her cigarette pack hit the carpet beside her. In spite of her mortally-wounded situation, she smiled, laughing weakly. Fishing a smoke out with shaky, crimson-stained hands, she lit up, staring upward at the vornskr. He was such an ass, but...

"Good boy."

She exhaled in a plume of white smoke, as her death rattle escaped her lungs...

[Santhia]

*She was walking down the darkened streets of the Ayval district, out for a bit of a hunt. No luck so far, she should have gone to a bar. Ah well. No fun tonight. Maybe she should have stayed on Arcan...

Santhia lifted her eyes, watching ships move slowly through the sky. She honestly hated it here, too crowded for her liking. She sighed and kept walking.*

[Commander Zemil Vymes]

The scene was gruesome, but it wasn't something Vymes hadn't seen before. There was a sense of perpetual jadedness on the city planet, and even in such scenes, you could get a sense of 'Been there, done that' about everything. Rodians tossed into a sausage grinder? Seen it. Gamorrean pushed onto the sonic tram rail? Squishy. Religious fanatic rushing a Hutt with a thermal detonator strapped to his unmentionables? Now that was worth writing home about. This would go down in the books as homicide / organ theft with intent to consume. The fact that some sentients on Coruscant ate other sentients was just another file in a cabinet. Some people were racists. Some were predators. Same sentence usually applied once they were found guilty. Some of the greener recruits were working with Brielle on the corpse, and having a tough go at it. She'd passed out sick bags to the rookies on the way in. Vymes had to hand it to Acaana. She looked a bit mousy, but she'd get waist-deep in the kind of filth that would choke a sarlacc pit.

Walking around the puddles, Vymes glanced around, as the mortal remains of Sezi Murr were numbered, catalogued, or soaked up with a sponge. Already, a lance-corporal was hard at work, running a squeegie over the wall. As Vymes glanced down, he noticed something that caught his eye. Nudging Brielle, he spoke.

"The murderer stuck around to watch her die, at least."

He gestured to two parallel red smears, tracing down from her eyebrows and coming to stop over the now-closed eyelids.

[Kaytor Surna]

Kaytor witnessed the clean up from a roof top away. The work of one of those bloody lupines she guessed. She smirked at the blood and jumped to a different roof top and quickly made her way down to the ground.

The vampyre quickly found a guy hanging out in one of the back allys. Not a safe place to be on a night in Coruscant. She quickly grabed him and pulled him up to the roof top of the building she started on.

"Welcome to your death, human." was the last words that this man would ever hear. He was soon left for dead, lieing on the roof top, bleedinging from two puncture wounds to his neck. Most of his blood was already gone. Little remained and she watched him die.

The body was soon knocked off the top of the building and down onto the crowds below. She looked over the edge as many people scurried out of the way.

"Pathetic."

There were still several officers in the building across the street from her. She was sure the lupine was still near by.

OOC: Sorry if this is closed. delete please if it is.

[Brielle Acaana]

"The first one of you rooks that puke on me will be walking this beat for the rest of thier lives, I swear it! Move over ther--damn!! You almost hit the corpse!! Didnt I already give you a barf bag?! Go over in the corner and stay there until youre finished, or go outside!"

Brielle's patience was wearing thin. One of the first cops on the scene had stepped on a pack of cigarettes that had been laying beside the dead woman and now she would have to sort through what he left behind as well as any evidence that the killer had deposited, if any.

You'd think that having lived here all thier lives, these guys would be used to seeing someones' guts spilled.

Not once since she arrived had she looked up or deviated from her work. Weilding a lighted magnifying glass, Brie inched her way along the corpse and the surrounding area. No dog was present in the apartment but she had already collected several animal hairs from the body itself, including a few which had clung stubbornly to the dried blood coating her lips and teeth.

Looks like ol' Sezi girl was trying to eat whatever was eating her.

That Sezi and an unknown male had copulated right before the murder took place was evident and Brie took samples of that, too.
Maybe the guy who had given Sezi her last good time had also brought a dog with him, letting the animal have the sloppy seconds. Who knew? Like Vymes, not too much surprised her any more. But before she was done with Miss Murr, Brielle would know everything about her, including where she preferred to have her hair done and what her favorite sexual posistion was.

She hadnt looked up at the nudge on her arm but nodded to show the commander that she had heard him.

"I noticed that. He or something with him, rips her to shreds but he has the decency to close her eyes? People keep getting stranger all the time."

Clicking off the light to the magnifying glass, Brie stands, easing leg muscles that had been in a squat for the better part of an hour. The hour and a half before that she had been crawling around on her hands and knees. Hands on the small of her back, she stretches backwards and grimaces as the muscles protest the action. Nodding in gesture, Brielle directs Vymes' gaze to the floor.

"Odd that the man didnt leave any bloody footprints. Only the animal."

[Commander Zemil Vymes]

Vymes arched an eyebrow. That didn't add up.

"Are we sure our suspect is humanoid?"

He looked at the telltale crimson blots on the carpet, four-toed, padded paws. But the bloodstains over the eyes were distinctly oval. With the microscope, you could even see the whorls of the fingerprint patterns. Paw pads were more of a scale-like pattern.

"Okay, run what we've got into the species database. Also, cross-check on the fur and semen samples. And get somebody to cross-check on Miss Murr's social habits. What kind of guys did she bring home. What species? And..."

There was a scream, and a few seconds later, a crash, followed by a thud, and the symphonic screams of distant bystanders. Vymes had his gun in hand before he'd allowed the sensory information to linger in his brain, and was across to the open balcony door. A hundred meters across a thoroughfare, an urban overpass was filling up with rubberneckers...the telltale sign of foul play in public places. Whirling around, Vymes was on his way out the front door, minding the pools of blood.

"Get Knobs to bring the cruiser around....we've got trouble!"

[Brielle Acaana]

Yanking her comm unit from its slot on her belt, Brie cranks out the call, her voice sharp and clipped.

"Knobs! Haul that cruiser 'round front and have your piece drawn! The commander is on his way out--meet up with him across the street. We've had a jumper or someone helped another person do a swan dive outta a window!"

Brielle jabs her index finger at two of the rookies who seem unsure of what to do.

"Go on and stick with the Boss but dont get under his feet!"

One of the rooks was still completely useless and was now sitting on the floor, his back against a wall and his face the color of chalk.
That left Acaana two to work with. None of them had actually touched the body yet or had gotten closer than peering over her shoulder at the gutted corpse.

If these boys can make it through the next few minutes, there may be hope for 'em. Lets see how they handle this.

"Alright boys, very slowly and very carefully, lets get Miss Murr in the body bag. I dont want her moved too much so heres what we're gonna do. You two rooks lift her up, one at her shoulders and the other at her ankles and I'll slide the bag under her. Got it? Gloves on? And if you've gotta puke, turn your head! Ready? One....two.....three!"

The young man at the dead woman's ankles was maintaining fairly well though he had the distinct look of wishing he had gone into a job less gory, like boot making or being a baker. The rook at Murr's shoulders however, was turning a pretty shade of green.

"Maybe this will help, rook. If you upchuck, I'll have you named my personal assisstant and you can help me in all of my cases like this."

Brielle grins as she slides the bag 'neath the body. Teeth clenched in taut determination, the one rook's coloring was returning to normal and she nodded her approval as they settled the dead chic into the bag. Grabbing the opposing zippers, Brie quickly closes the bag and steps back, pulling her latex gloves off with a snap.

"Good work, guys. Take her on down. The meat wagon should already be there waiting."

Walking out onto the balconey, she looks down across the street. Three cruisers had responded to the purported jumper, Knob's included and thier rotating flashing lights lit up the darkness. Her muscles were still aching but she needed to gather up her pouch and make her way down and over to where Vymes was. She knew he would want her to take a look around, just in case something fishy had gone on. Stepping back inside the apartment, she looks at the lone rookie propped against the wall.

"You planning on spending the night here, 'cause Im leaving now."

[Kaytor Surna]

Kaytor watched from the building as the cops showed up. Several on foot and alot more by transports. She smiled at the chaos and lept to a different building. She knew what kind of case this would be.

"This doesn't make any sense. The man has no blood in him. Where between the top of the building and the ground did he loose that much blood?'

She shook her head at how ignorent humans could be at times.

Kaytor about an hour after she knocked the guy off, she left the buildings and headed down to the street. She started walking back towards where she knocked him off to see how much damage they had done.

[Diego Van Derveld]

It occurred to Diego as he watched a Twi'Leki pole dancer, that he had a bit of grime under his fingernails. It never registered that it was but one iota of Sezi Murr's mortal remains. He would have to take the extra moment to ponder the act of ending her life, and balancing it in someone else's moral scales. He excused himself from the show, entering the bar's restroom. He wasn't in there five seconds, before leaving the premises completely.

No, it wasn't that a dead girl weighed on his concience. It was simple uncleanliness, and he abhored it. It was a peculiar paradox when one considered eating meals without the use of utensils or hands, or further, the act of violent predation. In a distinctly survivalistic view of such a thing, it had a cleanliness and purity all its own. No artificial colors or flavors. No preservatives. In the wild, there was no monosodium glutimate.

Another paradox, is that Coruscant was a jungle. Towers of durasteel stood instead of virgin-growth hardwood forests. Bright colors were neon store signs, instead of flora and fauna. Even the water was fluoridated. It was, Diego decided, the smallest of rebellions. Who would miss Sezi Murr, aside from a handful of those she crossed paths with in a given day? She was a slut in a low-rent apartment, in a minimum wage job.

Diego entered a grocery store, some time later. Antibacterial soap was a cheap, but necessary commodity.

[Dae Jinn]

Daetana was across the street, when she picked up a familar scent through the grime and stench of Coruscant. She looked up, seeing him walk out of the grocery store. A sly grin crossed her face, very briefly. He had tried to kill her before, maybe now she would return the favor?
She made her way slowly through the crowded streets, her scent masked slightly by the mass of people surrounding her. She followed her "prey", keeping a short distance behind and stay on the opposite side of the street. For now, anyway.

[Corporal Nobei Knobs]

The car that Vymes and Knobs were in pulled up through a crowd of … well, about eight. Evidently, the falling corpse was a daily occurrence, and citizens of Coruscant hadn’t thought much of it. Even those huddled around the mangled body were already beginning to loose interest in it, now that the brutality was over. Nobei tutted to himself quietly, as he clambered out of the speeder onto the pavement, shooing away a few of the spectators. He hadn’t said a word to Vymes yet out of the line of discussion to do with the unusual occurrences in the night, and only did so at this point:

“All seems a bit out of the ordinary…”

Well, in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t. But of course to have two such bloody deaths in one night, in such a close vicinity suggested either a) cult activity, b) an escaped killer or c) someone trying to keep the ‘boys’ busy. Whatever the case, they had been taken in by the killings already, as numerous officers had been dispatched to sweep the surrounding area.

“All right, all right! Just move out of the way, Coruscant Watch here, come on now- NO NO! I said move, that’s right, out… SHOO!”

The people shuffled away after some protesting, allowing the Corporal to get a good look at the victim – at which his face twisted into a disgusted grimace.

“Oh my.”

Bringing a handkerchief to his nose, he knelt down and pulled on a rubber glove with a twang. Carefully, he lifted away the collar of the victim to see the only traces of blood, around two incisions.

“Hmn.”

[Brielle Acaana]

Vymes hadnt paged her--yet. He would though and all too soon. Brielle made her escape from the apartment of Sezi Murr as quickly as she could, her leather pouch with its contents of samples and evidence, safely at her side.

A quick stop at the station to shove all this crap in the 'frig, then Im off for the night!.

Slinging the Watch speeder into it's marked spot in the garage, Brielle hops out and grabs at the pouch, tucking it under one arm. With long, hurried strides she enters the lab through her office, punching the "play" button on her messages. Turning the volume up, Brie opens the lab door and empties the pouch's contents into the cooler as she listens to the machine rattling off the numerous recordings left for her. Luckily none were pressing and needed her attention tonight and she swiftly closed the refrigerator door, pausing only on an afterthought to snap a padlock on it.

Just in case.

Locking the lab up behind her, Brielle glances at the clock on her office wall and jots down the time of her departure then skips out of the station quickly, before anyone can stop her. In the sublevel garage she slides into the drivers' seat of her older model speeder and darts off to her small one room apartment two blocks from the stationhouse. Using her remote, the garage door opens and she drives her speeder in, shutting off the engine. Stepping out onto the street, the door slides shut behind her as she comms a taxi to pick her up.


And if I wasnt waiting for a cab, they'd be so thick around me I couldnt stir'em with a stick.

After waiting several minutes, one finally idles up to her curb and she climbs in the back seat, snapping off the desired address. A raised eyebrow is the only response but Brielle pays the cabbie no mind, wanting only to soak in a tub so long and deep that you could almost swim in it.

The taxi keeps climbing through the lanes of traffic until it finally levels off on one of the highest and comes to a rest at the entrance alcove of one of the most expensive penthouses. Paying the driver and adding the tip, Brielle climbs out and grins as the security door slides open, an impeccably dressed butler gesturing her inside.

"Miss Brielle, its been too long since you were last here! Your parents are in thier bedroom. Shall I let them know you've arrived?"

[Commander Zemil Vymes]

The scene was that of a waning morbid circus as Vymes and Knobs arrived at the scene, across from Miss Murr's apartment.

"Alright, stand back, stand back. Watch business."

The rubberneckers cleared, allowing room for Vymes and Knobs to approach the mangled corpse. By the garb the stiff was wearing, it didn't take a sociologist's degree to surmise that he was homeless. It also didn't take a biology major to surmise that by the shape of his now-smashed skull, he wasn't among the living. But...

"What the hell?"

Vymes stooped, examining the body.

"Nobbei, we don't have a gang of blood-transfusing hijackers on record, do we? A fall like this, and we should need a pressure hose to get the red off the street. Look here..."

Aside from cephalic fluid from the man's exposed brain, the pavement showed no tell-tale ichor of a bloody head trauma. Furthermore, he'd seen more blanched faces on postcards from Hoth.

"Man falls a few dozen stories, cracks his head on the way down, and doesn't bleed a drop."

Vymes tilted the man's head gingerly to the side, and noticed the punctures.

"There's your murder weapon...whatever the hell did those."

Two neat perforations stared up at Vymes and Knobs. Even in these, there was no tell-tale reddish hue. Two murders within less than an hour of each other, less than 100 meters of each other. And in methodology, couldn't be more different.

[Diego Van Derveld]

Diego walked along the walkway to the nearest vertical tram, melting into a sea of commuters as they made their way to various destinations in the district. As he approached the tram, he slowed up, watching the vehicle as he let others pass. Slowly, the tram began to fill, approaching its full carrying capacity. Daetana was close. As easily as she'd found him, he had done likewise. She radiated. The tram quickly loaded, and just as the attendant was about to close off the door, Diego stepped aboard, pressing back a few window passengers. Sighing, the attendant lost his patience, closing the door immediately behind him. There was barely enough room to turn around inside, and Diego politely waved a hand against the glass, bidding his stalker "goodbye". She'd have to wait for the next verti-tram, if she wanted to continue this game.

[Dae Jinn]

Dae caught sight of Diego waving and grinned, giving him the middle finger in return. She didn't know if he saw, and didn't care. She had to find a way to follow him.
She disappeared into the crowd, not bothering to wait for the next tram. She would find another way...