“Clearly not by everyone,” Vera said quietly. “A lot of folks think there’s a cache of precious gemstones buried in these woods. Buried by…well, you know…” Vera didn’t like to think of the first murder she covered as a reporter for the Herald. It happened not long ago, and the killer boasted of hiding getaway money in the forest outside town. The rumor persisted among the residents. Most discounted the possibility, but there was enough danger and romance in the rumors that folks would take an excursion to dig randomly in the hopes of striking it rich.
Ms. Brocket certainly wasn’t one of those creatures doing the digging. She’d just had the bad luck of coming across the opened pit that caused the original searchers to flee the scene…because sticking out of the dirt was the unmistakable shape of a creature’s paw.
“Well, hell,” Orville said, staring down at the grave. “This is going to make for a long night.”
“Maybe the body is old,” Ms. Brocket offered hopefully. “Maybe it’s not a murder at all, but just a creature died long ago and buried way out…here…” She trailed off, for there was no reason for a creature to be disposed of in such a manner.
“It’s not old,” Orville countered. “Not with that smell.”
Vera had to agree, for the odor of decay suggested a very recent death. “It’s wrapped in something. A bedsheet, maybe. We’ll need shovels to get the body out so it can be examined. And look, the ground here has been disturbed. If this were an old grave, the soil would be packed down from weather and rain and time, except for the places where the shovel turned it over. But this dirt is loose and soft. It was dug up and turned not long ago, before the treasure hunters came.”
Orville pawed at the ground, grunting in agreement. “We’ll have to send for Dr. Brodhead,” he said. “He’ll be able to tell us more about the creature and the time of death.”
“Oh, how horrible,” Ms. Brocket was saying, turning her head away. “Some poor creature…”
“Sorry you were the one to discover it, ma’am,” Orville said gruffly. “But you did the right thing to tell the police immediately. Now why don’t you go on home for the night. If I’ve got any more questions for you, I’ll stop by tomorrow and ask.”
“Thanks, Deputy Braun,” she said, obviously happy to be leaving the grisly scene.
Vera cleared her throat then, the sound coming out very much like “cough-fidential.”
“Oh, right,” Orville said. “And I must ask you, Ms. Brocket, not to tell anyone details of this scene until I or Chief Meade say it’s ok. In the interests of justice, and for the sake of this creature’s family, we don’t want to say too much before we’ve got all the facts.”
The deer nodded, her eyes big and serious. Vera suspected that she’d pour out at least part of the story to all and sundry, but then again, there weren’t that many details to reveal at the moment. For example, they couldn’t even be sure of what species the victim was.
The moment Cassia Brocket left, another creature arrived. Vera looked over her shoulder, expecting Chief Meade, eager to appear involved in the town’s latest crime. But instead, she saw a rangy, lean figure with an unmistakable air of mystery…
No, wait, she thought. That’s just the fedora. “Mr. Marvel!” she said. “Whatever brought you out here? Shouldn’t you be signing books?”
“Sign books?” he asked. “And miss the real excitement? I heard the words dead body and I knew I was needed. So!” He rubbed his paws together. “What have we got, Officer?”
“This is Deputy Braun,” Vera explained. “We’re lucky he was at the bookstore and could come to the crime scene so quickly.”
“Sure, sure,” Bradley said. “No one wants a crime scene to be tampered with. Say, it looks like a freshly dug grave here. The body looks to be wrapped in something, a bedsheet perhaps. Can’t tell from here what species the poor bastard was.”
As the wolf leaned over the open pit, Vera exchanged a glance with Orville, who just mouthed the words Captain Obvious.
Then Bradley pulled back sharply, waving a paw in front of his nose. “Whooo-whee, that’s some stench. Wolves are highly sensitive to smells, you know.”
“And what does your nose tell you about the victim?” Orville asked.
“Um…just that they’re real dead. You’ll have to exhume the body.”
“That’s usually the procedure,” Orville replied. “But first…” He moved to the grave and leaned down over one end of the wrapped body. He tugged at the shroud covering the features of the victim. “I have to learn who or what this is.”
With a deft tug, he flicked the cloth away from the body. Vera held up the lantern in her paw to give them a better view.
But she couldn’t see any details of the face, and it took her a long moment to understand why…then all the disturbing details coalesced.
“It’s been beheaded!” Orville shouted, dropping the corner of the cloth in his surprise, mercifully hiding the gruesome truth. “Who could have done such a thing?”
Vera shook her head mutely, unable to answer. There was something very, very wrong here. Not just finding a body in the woods, but one so mutilated!
“Dr. Brodhead is going to have his work cut out for him,” she whispered at last. And his work would be vital, because they’d need every tiny detail they could find to piece this crime together.
“This creature didn’t die by accident!” Bradley declared.
Orville looked up at the author and frowned, but then apparently decided that shock had made the wolf momentarily idiotic.
“It’s unlikely to be an accident,” he conceded.
“Well, one thing is obvious,” said the wolf, after stating any number of very obvious things. “These woods are dangerous. And this sight has shocked poor Miss Vixen to the core.”
“Vera?” asked Orville. “You all right?”
“Of course I’m all right,” she said briskly. “I was just thinking of whether the beheading was the actual method of
