Side Story #1 - Colt - Page 27

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At length, Alice's examination reverted to merely petting the dog up and down his torso, and she raised her voice back up above a whisper.

"Well, nothing seems to be broken," she said, "which is good. The bump on his leg is fairly bad, though, and it's clearly causing him quite a bit of pain. I could give him something for it, but in this case, I'd say the pain is actually helping prevent him from moving around too much and exacerbating his condition. I'll keep checking in on him periodically if you don't mind, but right now, there's no reason that I can see why he won't make a full recovery in two or three weeks. In a few days, I suspect he will hardly even be limping, anymore."

"That's good," said Colt. He was glad that his own assessment of Brick's health had been somewhat accurate.

"Yep. He seems bit exhausted as well, but I think that's from overexertion. For now, just make sure he's eating, drinking, sleeping, and pooping as normal. His body will take care of the rest."

"Okay." Colt paused. Now for the real questions. "Do you have any idea what happened to him?"

Alice turned to look at him and bobbed her head a little. "I think he got into a fight. The bruise on his leg is the only serious wound he has, but there are a few other signs that he was involved in some kind of struggle."

She'd piqued his curiosity. "Like what?" said Colt.

"Well, I noticed that one of his claws is bent and that there are a few small tufts of fur missing from his coat. Also, one of his front teeth appears to be slightly chipped. And of course, he's quite dirty, which suggests that he was running around outside a lot. His paws are especially so. There's even dried mud in between his toes."

"Can you tell who or what he got into a fight with?"

She took another moment to think. "Difficult to say. All the dirt and mud might imply that the struggle took place out here in the woods, and the missing fur might suggest that another animal was trying to bite or swipe at him and just didn't land any clean hits." And she shut her mouth, but it looked like she still had more to say.

Colt had to urge her on. "...But?"

"But... fights between animals--particularly ones where a wild animal is involved--usually leave larger traces behind. Blood. Bite marks. Claw marks. Or things like quills, in the case of porcupines. Maybe a bit of torn fur caught between the teeth. Yet I found none of these things. It could just be that this big fella here is quite the slippery fighter, but I don't know..."

"Hmm."

"And the bruise on his leg is a little strange, too," she continued. "Animals don't typically create that kind of localized blunt force impact. With them, it tends to be more widely dispersed. If they do cause blunt force trauma, it's usually via secondary means. Like when they're wrestling for control and then one of them throws the other to the ground--or against a wall or tree, maybe. This impact looks more like it was caused by a single, relatively small but heavy object."

Holy shit. Truthfully, Colt had been a bit skeptical about Alice's actual expertise here, but she was beginning to impress him. Maybe there was more to her than just her religion, after all. "So it might've been a person who attacked him, is what you're telling me."

Alice expression became strained. "I hate to jump to that kind of conclusion. Committing violence against any animal is a serious crime, excepting only in the case of self-defense. But this guy here seems pretty docile. I highly doubt he would attack anyone without provocation."

"A small but heavy object sounds like a weapon to me," said Colt, "so unless he was attacked by a chimp or something, then I don't see how it could've been anything other than a person."

"I... don't disagree, necessarily. But it's also possible that the object in question was simply a rock and that he fell on it during the struggle."

Colt was doubtful, but he didn't say so. She didn't have the full context of what else had happened last night like he did. She might've been able to help him puzzle this out better if she did, but there was no way in hell he was going to tell her about it. Even if he was somehow able to leave out the part where he'd killed two men and buried them in the woods, it would be rather difficult to explain how he'd come to learn of the home invasion.

This was fine. He supposed he'd gotten all the help he could from her. In fact, perhaps this was better. If she had obtained proof of animal abuse, Alice would probably feel obligated to report it, and that would undoubtedly complicate things for him.

"Alright." Colt stood up. "I guess the only the only thing that matter is that he's okay. Thanks for taking a look at him."

"Oh, of course. It was my pleasure."

He moved toward the kids to start gathering them up again. "Give me a minute to get ready, and I'll take you back to your church."

"Ah--that's not--actually, I'd kind of like to stay and keep observing him for a while longer. If you don't mind, of course."

He'd just picked Thomas up, and now he stopped and turned.

She wanted to stay? Seriously?

He didn't really want her to, quite frankly. She was just going to distract him from the investigation. But he couldn't think of a good excuse to refuse her after she'd been so nice as to come all the way here.

Dammit.

"...Are you sure?" said Colt. "There's not much to do around here, you know. It'll be pretty boring."

She gave him one of her perfect smiles and stepped closer to tickle Thomas' nose. "I highly doubt that."

Well, shit.

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