FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 50 ~~~~~

"Well, this is a fine mess and a half..." Kira muttered to herself as she remained standing in the hallway of a local hospital waiting for the doctors to finish.

She and Freddie had gotten a call from the precinct of two teens found gravely injured in a forest, several hours away from the city. No one was sure why they were there at first until Kira saw Alastor there to make a report with an officer at the front desk.

The reason?

A babysitter he had hired had not only put his daughter out on the porch after bringing a stranger into their home but also because of acts of debauchery (his words) in the spare bedroom but also tried to steal jewelry that belonged to his deceased wife.

He hadn't even known about the attempted theft until after he returned home from bringing the belongings back to the teens thinking that teens would do stupid shit. Thankfully he had the jewelry back because a civilian who knew the family ended up rescuing the little girl and tossing out the teens in question. Alastor even had video proof of it stored on the Cloud through his phone.

Those teens in question were the same ones who were now in the hospital because they had been shot while hiding out in a forest. A forest that many people go to for hiking and camping, mainly in the summer and fall, but also would have the occasional hunter. Illegal of course, as the teens were shot with a hunting rifle. At least from what could be extracted from the boy's shattered knee. He was a football player, Josh Lucroy, but now, with one knee shattered and his left shoulder in a similar state, he'd never play again.

The girl was a different matter entirely.

Emma .

While most of her injuries were minor in comparison to that of the young man. A fractured ankle, and a graze on her thigh. Her face was another story altogether.

Her cheek was blown out by a stray bullet. She was lucky to be alive.

Or at least that was the narrative they had until both were awake and coherent enough to speak or write for themselves.

Kira was waiting to hear from the doctors when Freddie came over with a grave look on his face. "We found something."

"Do you mean a clue as to why those kids were out there?"

"No," he said. "Something else. Come on, you need to see this for yourself."

That something else was a body. Tucked away in a cave, the body of a somewhat obese man with thinning dark hair, was completely naked and skewered on a spit over a long-dead fire. Like roasting a hog on an open flame.

"Some officers found it when combing the forest for any clues," Freddie said when she saw the remains, the body was already beginning to rot.

"Do we know who his name is?"

Freddie pulled out his notebook and flipped through the pages to get to his related notes. "Yeah, Paul Bennington. From what we could find he's pretty notorious on certain forums, spouting a lot of... homophobic and racist stuff." He added with a bit of hesitance given Kira's personal life.

"Charming," her tone was flat as she looked at the body. "Anything else I should know?"

"Still looking into it, currently searching his home. He lives in an apartment in the lower part of Toronto."

Kira looked back at the body, something about this was off. "Anything from the corpse missing?"

"Yeah, whoever did this had an axe to grind with the victim." Liam Chen stated as he and his team looked over the crime scene, taking pictures and leaving cards of what might be important evidence. "His uh... his manhood is missing. All of it."