Being a cop in a city like Las Pegasus isn’t something for the faint of heart. This is my city, and I love it, but like everything in this world of ours, it has its flaws and it has its dark side. There is a dark side to this city, and might I reiterate every city, that the local politicians and even the Princesses themselves would see hidden from the public eye, but then again, I suppose it’s that dark side that keeps saps like us out of the unemployment line. Anywho, this story isn’t about me. That’s all just my two-cents, for whatever it matters. Anyway…
I remember that day in the March of 1947 like it was yesterday. It was your typical day in the city of Las Pegasus; the sun was high in the sky, the turquoise blue ocean came in at a low tide, and the streets had bustled with their usual vigor of residents and tourists. They all hustled and bustled and climbed all over each other without a care in Equestria. Why? Because that’s what we’re here for. That’s what the police are for. And as for me? I’d recently made the promotion to Captain, and boy how I’d be regretting that after that day.
I had hoped it would be an easy day for me as I walked down the hallways towards my office and subsequently entered into it. I sat down at my old desk and pulled my long overdue paperwork from its drawers as well as a pen from the breast pocket on my neatly ironed uniform shirt. For what was probably the first time in my entire life, a smile spread across my face as I rejoiced at being able to just sit down and fill out my precious paperwork. I was able to tune the outside world out as my ink pen raced over the officially formatted forms in front of me and, as a matter of fact, I recall I had actually gotten so into it that I was no less than startled when the phone on my desk rang.
Before the third ring could complete, I sighed in frustration and no less than threw my ink pen down. This stuff is never going to get done, I remember thinking to myself and then reached over to answer the phone. “Captain Star speaking,” I said as I reached for my pen hoping, praying that I could get at least that first form finished. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. It never works out that way. That’s because when the pony on the other end spoke to me and told me what he had to tell me the ink pen in my hoof fell back to the desk.
“Er yes,” the voice on the other line had begun, “Captain Star, this is Officer Arrow, badge number 1779. Sorry to contact you on such short notice sir, but I think there’s something you’ll want to see on East Celestia Cadenza Avenue. A body, sir.”
I shot to my hooves and nearly dropped the phone in the process. “Where exactly on Cadenza?” I demanded and started to prepare myself for a much needed workout.
“Across from the cemetery sir. I’m ranking officer for the moment, but otherwise I’ve got nothing but a bunch of rooks working crowd control. Requesting a superior, sir.”
“Right. On my way now.” I slammed the phone down and briskly poked my head into the dispatch office that sat right next to our briefing room and command post. “Captain Star here. Show me as in service and moving to the situation out on East Celestia Cadenza.”
I don’t even recall what the mare inside the dispatch office had replied to me because I put my hoof down and booked it out of that place as quickly as I could. This wasn’t the first body to show up on a street in Las Pegasus, of course, but because of the ghastly almost poetic location of the body I couldn’t help but have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Celestia Cadenza Avenue was only a block or so away from the department, so I told myself that if I ran all the way I could be there within a couple of minutes. Everything from the time I started my run to the crime scene until the time I actually arrived is all a blank, but I do recall that my mind was the only thing running faster than my hooves. As I ran to the scene I recall that I asked myself, aloud, “It can’t be him can it? Oh, please Celestia don’t let it be him.”
As sure as Princess Celestia will raise the sun, I found myself at the scene in what only felt like a matter of moments. Of course, I don’t suppose you really grasp time when you don’t focus on it. I was terribly out of breath having sprinted the whole way, but at least I had arrived promptly. Still, it might have been a good idea if I laid off the blueberry scones.
My police instinct kicked in after that moment and I resolved to observe the scene around me. From my point of view it was your typical murder scene, if there was such a thing. A large group of curious passerby ponies surrounded the scene which itself was blocked off by yellow caution tape, surrounded by police vehicles and guarded by the aforementioned rookie police officers. Other than the usual sights and sounds of the surrounding city and of the crime scene itself, I couldn’t make anything significant out so I pressed forward. You’d be surprised at how much just looking at the outside of a crime scene can uncover simply because somepony was sloppy. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with this scene, and I had seen that before so it only made me more apprehensive.
I pushed through the crowd of civilians standing between me and my objective and only muttered “Move along” and “Nothing to see here” once or twice. I didn’t really care what they did as long as they stayed out of my way. What is the appeal anyway? It’s never about them… Anyway, finally, I was able to push through them all and get to the front of the line where a skinny, rather nervous looking pegasus colt stood behind the line.
“Sir!” he greeted and started to fumble with the tape so that he could lift it up for me.
I beat him to it and pulled it up over my head and slid beneath it. “At ease. Keep an eye on the crowd for me. Nopony gets through and try to keep reporters away from the front of the line,” I offered a few quick tips to him and then asked, “So where is the body?” It wasn’t out there in plain view, thank Celestia.
He merely pointed down a dark, dank alleyway that was a few paces over to my right. At the end of said alley, I could make out the figures of other police figures as well as the flashes of a camera; there was no doubt that what I was looking for was at the end of that alley. As I turned away from the young officer and walked down it, I nearly gagged as the scent of the garbage mixed with the smell of what I could only assume to be decomposing flesh hit me like a speeding train. At that point, I wasn’t sure what I hated most about that crime scene; the smell, the pit it left in my stomach, the questions and fear it kept alive in my brain, or the location in which it had taken place. Suddenly, this all seemed like something out of a bad detective novel and oh, I just wanted it to end.
As I pressed further into the alley, almost at the end, I could finally make out the outline of a being on the cold, wet ground. I took my last few steps to join the group that surrounded the body and tried my best not to look down at it until I absolutely had to. I remember an intense wave of relief flooded over me when the crime scene photographer flashed his camera two or three more times and a nearby police officer covered the remains back up. I joined the officer that was closest to me and engaged him, “Star here. You the one that called?”
“Yes sir,” he nodded and looked back down at the covered body.
“What’ve we got?”
“If you’ll follow me sir,” he stepped closer to the body and then used his own hooves to pull the cover down to the being’s hind legs. I heaved a deep breath, almost a gag as I observed the beaten and mutilated corpse of a once beautiful mare that was laid out before me. “As you can see for yourself,” he began, “bruising and trauma to most of the body, particularly up here around the face. Cuts on the neck. Severed limbs. Some kind of lacerations on the chest. Stab wounds maybe?” He scratched his forehead and then adjusted his utility belt, “They informed me that someone from the coroner’s office should be en route. They’ll be able to tell you more sir.”
I merely nodded my head as I listened and assessed all of the damage that had been done to the mare. “Do we have a positive ID on her?” I remember that I had to practically force my eyes away from her mangled corpse.
“Well,” he sighed, “none yet sir. She did have those saddlebags in her possession.” I followed his hoof with my gaze to discover a dirty, yet rather expensive looking pair of saddlebags laid out on the ground not far from their suspected former owner. “We decided it best not to touch them. You know how the detectives get when they find out we’ve played with their toys.”
I think I maybe huffed, at what I really don’t know, and then I observed the scene around me one more time. I still tried not to look at the disgusting remains. “Speaking of which, where are the detectives? I figured they would have beat me here.”
“We tried to get a hold of DB sir, but dispatch says that our guys are preoccupied with another case right now.” My heart jumped into my throat when I heard that and I must have looked mortified, because he was quick to lay it out for me. “Word is that it’s apparently a robbery gone wrong is all. Multiple casualties. Detectives are doing their thing and should be right over. You could requisition some from another city division. County maybe?”
I merely shook my head and continued to observe the scene before me. It had been messy, really messy, and if it was anything remotely along the lines of what I had expected, it would be a whole lot messier outside of the crime scene. “I’m not doing all of that paperwork,” I remembered all of that that I still had left to do and I wasn’t about to add any more to the stack. Suddenly, a new, radical idea popped into my head. It’d surely get me fried, it almost always did, but maybe it was our best shot and maybe it they would lay off me after they realized just who I had called in again. “I suppose I could… hum. Nah. No. Never mind.” I pushed the idea from my head and quietly observed her body. It always got a little easier the longer you were there.
Officer Arrow gulped and shifted on his legs uncomfortably. “Sir?” he asked quietly, “Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?” I looked over at him and then back at the body. There was nothing I could do for her at the moment; my whole presence was nothing more than a formality really, and the poor lady had already been exposed enough, so I used my magic to drape the cloth back over her remains. Afterwards, I then gave my full attention back to the officer.
“Do you think it’s… him? Do you think it’s the Black Zinnia Murderer?”
“I… I don’t know. I hope and pray that it isn’t, but…” I sighed and nodded, “all of the evidence is here.” It worried me, yes, but justice was a mistress that waited for no one, and I wasn’t about to wait around for her. A decision had to be made and an order had to be handed down on my end. That radical idea I had had earlier came rushing back into my mind and this time with enough force that I decided to act on it.
“We can’t wait for the detectives.”
“Sir?”
“You heard me. We can’t wait for the detectives. Valuable evidence is wasting away here and it’s only a matter of time before the press, or the weather patrol, gets creative.” The sky was overcast that day when I looked up at it; clouds everywhere. It made the alley darker and colder than it normally would be I was sure. “We need to get a hold of somepony now.”
“But who is there to call sir?”
“The best damned detective in this whole city.”
“Wait…” the color drained from his face, “You don’t mean… her?” He knew what it would mean to do something as crazy as what I was suggesting even though, like I said, this wouldn’t be the first time. Besides, everyone who wasn’t a fresh rook knew her.
“You’re damn right I do. Get to the nearest phone and get her on the horn right away. Waste no time.”
“But… but sir, high command will…” He was right, they’d flip. They always did.
“Screw high command. If they want to drag me in front of the chief or the board, let them. That’s my problem to deal with, not yours. Make the call. That’s an order.”
“Understood sir,” he nodded his head and took off at a gallop towards the street.
“Arrow!” I had called after him, “One more thing!”
He skidded to a halt and turned around, “Sir?”
“She’s a busy mare. Make sure to tell her it’s a favor from me, and if she needs convincing you convince her.”
Officer Arrow nodded and turned back to his gallop. I watched him round the corner and disappear out of sight, no doubt on the way to the nearest payphone or police callbox. Once I was alone with the deceased, I heaved a sigh and lifted the sheet to get one more close-up look at the mare. I had told that officer that I didn’t know if this was the Black Zinnia, but that was a boldfaced lie. The destroyed beauty, the unheard of brutality of the murder, the poetic and humiliating mutilation and dump site, that sick feeling in my stomach, and the LPPD caught with its pants down all told me exactly what I had suspected all along. The Black Zinnia was back, and it was going to take more than just a few streetwise cops to solve his latest murder. As I covered the body back up, I hadn’t much to say other than I was glad I knew the best private eye in the whole city.