Forsaken of Federal Hill

Continued from Prelude Step Three: The Hunt

Thomas stood at the end of the alley, gun still drawn as both assailants slumped to the ground.

"O'Keefe?" he called as he lowered his gun and took a step towards her, ready to go see if she was alright.

The bullet hit its mark with unerring accuracy and the body dropped. She hadn't known anyone was behind her. What should one do in this situation? Rose's mind raced as Price called out to her. First she had to stop him from coming any further down the alleyway. "Wait! Don't contaminate the scene." Hastily she feigned checking for a pulse on each body even though she knew they were never getting up again. She glanced down at herself covered in blood and sighed. This is gonna take some convincing. "They're both very dead so let's get off the scene and call it in, ok?" Rose walked toward Price. Right when she was close enough to touch him, her knees buckled. He caught her so she didn't crash to the floor and she stared up at him. "I don't feel so great. And I'm covered in blood! Would you please take me back the center so I can wash all this off? I don't think I'd make it on my own..
." Rose put just the right amount of neediness in her voice, playing up her helplessness. Her knees had genuinely buckled, although it had nothing to do with the violence in the alley. The tiny distance she'd been standing away from Price had made her think that maybe...but when he caught her she was sure of it. He was one of theirs. Now to get him to join. A slight smiled tugged at her mouth and she struggled to look like a proper damsel in distress.

Price shoved his gun back into his concealed holster and halted his movement forward, a bit perplexed at her sudden insistence the he stay out of the scene. His eyes widened as she got close enough for him to see the blood all over her front. ”Oh god, are you hurt Rose? he gaped, skipping his typical formalities as he reached out to support her. Price ran a hand around her neck and shoulders where most of the blood seemed to be as his eyebrows knit in worry. O’Keefe always seemed so damn tough, it was hard to imagine what had happened to make her so shaken but it suddenly gave him a very odd sense of protectiveness as he viewed her as a women for a moment, not as a fellow detective.

”Alright, let’s go,” he said glancing back at the scene, his priorities now were making sure she was alright before dealing with whatever aftermath was leftover. Damn, he hated paperwork but discharging his weapon to save her was more than worth the stack of trees he’d have to go through later. Price slipped an arm under her shoulders to help her walk, suddenly aware that he’d never really been that close to his partner before. She felt like a bodybuilder under there, one with some very nice curse. Price diverted his eyes forward, shifting his thoughts back to the professional level and concentrating on leading her out of the alley.

”What the hell happened back there?” he asked as he lead her through the front door of the community center, looking around for a chair to deposit her in.

Rose pointed at a chair near the reception desk and he set her down on it gently. She made a vague gesture to her attire and said, "I don't know. I was doing my run and as I passed the alley I got grabbed from behind. I fought him off, but he wouldn't stop! I think he was trying to rape me! That bastard." She gasped in shock as if just realizing something. "I...killed him, Price! He just wouldn't stop attacking. I didn't know how else to stop him. I wasn't going to let him-" Rose broke off her own sentence and suddenly stood up on shaky legs. Determinedly, she walked toward the women's locker room. "I need to wash up. I'll be back." She hurriedly tore off her running outfit and jumped under the spray. She scrubbed and scrubbed, then got out, dried off and got dressed, emerging from the locker room without Price noticing. Rose stood there and stared at him, remembering what she'd smelled on him when he'd helped her back to the center. He's wolf blooded all right, she thought. How funny, her own partner. Rose knew she couldn't just throw the information at him so she'd keep it...for now. Price suddenly looked up and saw her. His brow furrowed and she wondered what kind of face she was making. "I feel much better, thanks. I mean, I know I'm a cop but that's the first time I've been in that sort of situation." Rose gave a laugh devoid of all humor. "It's ridiculous, right? A fully trained cop being so scared." She searched his face, wondering what she was looking for or hoping to see.

Price stared at his partner in shock, he knew the neighborhood was bad around there but he didn’t think it was that bad that someone would try and rape a woman in broad daylight. She did look really good in those tight jogging pants though, and who knew what went on in the minds of the crazy homeless. It might be a full moon, he thought, the lunatics always came out during the full moon.

Awkwardly putting a hand on her shoulder her tried to calm her down ”It's alright, it was in self defense. You go do what you need to do, I am going to call this in.” Price stood aside so that she could hurry off to clean herself up. His partner who always seemed so cool and collected seemed so shaken, he wondered if there was more to the story than what she was telling. Something more deeper and sinister, did she had a history with these kinds of attacks that made her so easily shaken by them?

Price pulled out his phone and called in the situation to the station, letting them know they should expect two dead bodies and police involvement so thing should be kept quiet. Tension was bad enough between the locals and the force, he didn’t want anything getting too out of hand. Her comments when she returned answered a few of his questions without even having to ask, but he needed to be the supporting partner and not the investigator right now, that he knew for sure. ”We all get shaken some time, I’m just glad you’re alright, O’Keefe. The boys should be here to rope on the scene any moment, is there a soda machine or something where I can get you a drink or anything?” he said, genuinely concerned and trying to figure out what he could do to make her feel better.

Rory pushed his way backward out of the back office opening the door with his butt, and catching it with his foot to slow it closing so it didn't slam. His arms were full with a combination of office work, print outs of some of the pharmaceutical company openings he had been looking at and a copy of Elsevior with a particularly meaty article on string theory he was half way though.

He turned around and dumped his armload on his desk. Turning to see Price and Rose standing in the foyer. The scene didn't make any sense. Rose wasn't working so what was Price doing here? Rose hadn't said anything about coming into the center...what was she doing wet? More importantly she looked shaken. Price was saying something to the same effect. Moving around the desk Rory put his hand on her shoulder deliberately put himself between Price and his sister. Rose? What's going on?

Price looked up at the red haired man who had put himself between him and his partner, feeling a sudden inexplicable protectiveness of her that hadn’t been there before. As he looked from one to the other, he realised why the man had seemed so familiar to him earlier. Standing next to O’Keefe he could seen an undeniable family resemblance that lead him to conclude that this was the twin brother she was always talking about. The man was nothing like he had imagined, he had always thought her brother was a troubled guy who brought nothing but problems for his partner. This guy, looked like he had wandered out of a scifi convention and was about as dangerous looking as a pussy cat. ”She was just attacked in the alley nearby, I think she is just shaken up a little still.” he said, making his possessiveness go away and view the man as help instead of a threat.

Her brother's eyes widened. "Yes, there was a man. We fought. Even after I subdued him, he wouldn't stop. Almost like an animal. And my hair is wet because I was covered in his b-blood. I had to get it off. " Rose put a slight emphasis on the word "animal", knowing Rory would figure out what she meant but hoping it would go over Price's head. "I had to...put him down." God dammit, why did he have to find her at that exact moment?! Everything just became way more complicated. And here she was acting all broken over the death of the rat bastard (she almost snorted in laughter at the accuracy) she had deliberately hunted down to kill. Now the bodies were going to be autopsied and there was going to be an investigation...things were quickly spiraling out of her control. Price wasn't going to just accept that the bodies couldn't be taken to the morgue. He was much too professional for that. Wearily, she sank into a chair and put her head in her hands. And for the first time since Price found her that night, she wasn't acting, she genuinely was distressed over this mess.

Rory nodded his head during his sister's story. Geez, sis. That's horrible. You....you take all the time you need Rory turned to Price Price Rory shook Price's hand with genuine warmth Thank you for being there. Rose tells me what it means to have a partner on the force. I'm glad you were there for her. I'm going to get her some coffee from the back....Price, can you stay with her, or take her wherever she needs to go. I'm a one man show here right now and it doesn't seem right to call a cab for her. Rory got down to eye level with Rose and gave her a knowing look Sis is there anything you need? He whispered in the first tongue Where?

Rose nodded her head and mumbled. Got is sis. No cream He shot a thankful smile at Price and got up and went to the back room presumably to get her some coffee.

Rose was messed up, but not from the guy that attacked her. That was hunting- but why is her partner here? He must have messed things up somehow, now she was spinning a web of lies that she worried she would be caught in.

Rory picked up his phone and called Echo, told her what he needed and the urgency while he poured out the cheap coffee into a cup. Wasn't sure this was the answer the would want, but it is a solution she is getting considering he couldn't really talk with Price around.

Meanwhile…

This was her chance. Rory would be so proud of her. She was going to make Rose’s problem go away. Rose was tough and she had important things to do both in the pack and the real world. Echo was glad she could help.
Price had given them a very small window of opportunity to work in since his care for his partner’s immediate well being had over shadowed securing a couple of no good stiffs while the coroner arrived. Echo just had to get there first.

She parked around the corner and walked down the street looking turning into the alleyway’s far side. She ducked behind one of the dumpsters and went to work. Taking off her backpack she pulled out the disposable jumpsuit and booties, slipping them over her clothes. Her hair was already done up in a hairnet under a big Rastafarian hat. It was too late now, but she double checked the rest of her inventory. Duffle-bag, check, hatchet, check, plastic bottle, check, trash bags, check, moist naps, check.

The alleyway stunk of blood and shit, and it was dark. Like, screaming at the TV don't go down that way to the dumb teenager because you KNOW that is where the axe-murderer is dark. She walked down the alley way stepping around the first body. That wasn’t it. Picking her way down she saw what was left of the twisted form of the Beshliu, its arm nearly torn off from the trauma to its neck. She rolled out the duffle bag and set to work pulling the arm away from the body and raising the hatchet severing the arm at the ball joint with a clean blow. Into the bag went the arm. She went to work on the other appendages butchering them each in turn and tossing them in the duffle. She then slammed the hatchet into the things torso. She scooted the duffle next to the body and then using the leverage of the hatchet to roll it into the bag. Reaching back into the backpack she pulled out a heavy duty trash bag and put it around the end of the duffle. She dragged the duffle over next to one of the dumpsters. Taking out a second and a third trash bag she double then triple bagged the duffle. She then reached into the dumpster and pulled out one of the other bags and let it fall on top of the bag she had left. That should take care of any immediate search of the area. She pulled out the plastic bottle and started squirting. She sprayed it over where the body had been, adding more gore to the scene as blood flew from the bottle and splattered on the asphalt alley and brick wall.
Back behind the far dumpster she pulled off the jumpsuit and booties and shoved them in the bag along with her gloves on top of the other hardware she had brought. She wiped off her hands and face with a moist nap for good measure.

Donning a genuine smile of pure joy she stepped out into the street, and soon melted in with the other pedestrians. She had helped Rose. Rose would be so happy that she didn’t’ have to worry. Now all she had to do was go burn this backpacks contents and let Rory know so they could retrieve the body before trash pick up tomorrow.

If O’Keefe’s brother hadn’t protectively put himself between them, Price might have reached out and put a comforting arm around his partner. It was for the better, because that kind of behaviour was very unprofessional and he didn’t know if his normally tough partner would appreciate it all. He did think her animal metaphors about the man were a touch over the top, sure the two bums were sickos wanting to rape a woman but her wording just seemed a little off.

”Do you want me to stay here with you O’Keefe or go out and meet the boys when they get here? They are going to need to take a statement from both of us.” Price was aware that she certainly had emotional support from her brother at the moment but he was having a hard time just walking away on her while she was upset. He was busy looking at her so he only caught a little of the conversation, but his head whipped around when Rory seemed to say something in a strange other language. After the other man walked off he directed his partner to a chair and helped her sit down. ”If you need to put in for a few days off, I’ll pull extra duty I don’t mind.”