บท 32: Werewolf (part I)
"Werewolves".
According to mythology they are legendary beings that change into a kind of lycanthropic form during full moon nights, having to wait until dawn to return to normal. In some versions they have control of their spirit in modified form and in some versions they don't.
Both versions have a piece of truth behind, however both have a certain degree of distortion compared to reality.
The cause of the existence of these beings among us is unknown. The main theory is that they are a hybrid race, product of the crossing of a normal human and some other species. In the general consensus such abomination must have occurred at some point in history and then this race continues to breed to the present day. This theory has the real basis that when werewolves marry humans and have children, the children also present a certain degree of paranormalism.
The first point where the legend and facts diverge is that werewolves don't necessarily look like wolves during their transformation. This belief probably comes from an episode where they witnessed a transformation and only this particular one was as described. However we, who work in the special cases division, know that a 'werewolf' can transform into anything during a certain period of the month. Some take the form of wolves, others take the form of other known creatures, others take forms we never imagined exist, forms that in no way do justice to the 'wolf' in the word werewolf. The form taken depends on each particular one.
However, this different form from the human form assumed in a particular period of the month is only the same for each person, that is, for each werewolf. The same werewolf cannot change into two different non-human forms. And this is especially good for the department, because we can identify werewolves from their transformed form as well as from the original. One can identify the appearance of a werewolf in its transformed state and one can identify it in its human state, just as one can identify a normal human being.
Unfortunately, if one doesn't know beforehand that a human being is a werewolf, one can hardly verify that it is. By hardly I mean impossible. The only way is to lock it in a room for a month and wait to see if it turns or not, which is not a viable way. The condition isn't detected by blood tests, x-rays or anything like that. As long as it's not transformed, a werewolf is a physically normal human being.
The second point where legend and reality diverge is that werewolves turn during the full moon. I believe this detail must have been introduced into the legend by mere coincidence. Someone witnessed a transformation during a full moon night and must have associated the facts to make their legend sound more 'poetic...' Basically that.
The truth is that the season also varies from person to person, or rather: from werewolf to werewolf. They necessarily transform once a month or so, but each one has its time to transform. If everyone transformed in the same timespan that would be the armageddon.
Thus this detail is similar to the woman's pms: it occurs once a month and each one has it in its own time.
Needless to say, when on its transformed version a werewolf is intensely physically stronger than the average human being. This can be guessed not only by analogy with the legend, but because this is one of the ten races highlighted by the SAD criteria, so one can imagine that it is a dangerous race.
But one fact that goes unnoticed is that even in its human form, the werewolf is also stronger than the typical human being. Physically stronger and with sharper basic instincts such as speed, smell, sight... And the ductu. All the important characteristics found in the other ten races can also somehow be found in the werewolf. They don't have erectism, but they do have a kind of healing: every month, during the time of transformation, they have all the wounds regenerated before and during the transformation. More than that, every wound caused to a werewolf while it is transformed is basically soon regenerated, it is a characteristic that is part of the process of mutation.
This means... They have a kind of monthly sane and their strength is almost always superior to that of ordinary humans, reaching its peak closest to the period of transformation. So a werewolf in its normal human form is comparable to an altered human being.
In order to beat a werewolf it's enough to wound it mortally, but as I said: of course, the best time to do this is far from the period of its transformation. Just as near the time of transformation its body is healthier and it takes less time to regenerate from suffered attacks, the further away from the period of transformation (that is, fifteen days after one and fifteen days before the next) the easier it is to defeat a werewolf.
Speaking of werewolves, after Saturday's shift, there was a rumor that a werewolf had attacked another person. It was Jabes, from the drug division, i.e. the DEA, who broke the news. He was in front of the building talking to Joey and when I got there he was leaving, so I didn't hear directly from him.
But it makes no difference, because Jabes didn't hear it directly from Hank either.
And not even Hank heard directly from anyone trustworthy anyway, because although he was in the homicide division, the incident didn't end in death so this was outside his jurisdiction.
Either way... Joey was telling me about it after Jabes left:
"Looks like it broke into the house through the back door, then went in, made a mess in the kitchen and came out. In the version he heard nobody was hurt, and in the version he heard from the press, the owner of the house was attacked. In both versions it knocked everything down from the kitchen and broke the door in."
"Wait... The version he heard from the press? They're not gonna publish this werewolf story, are they?"
"No... I mean... Yes and no. It's a newspaper of questionable reputation that publishes theories about ufos and the sort. They were the first to come out about it. Obviously we're silencing the most important jounals."
The relief ran down my spine when I leaned back in that pub chair. It'd be an even bigger problem if the press decided to release stories about paranormal beings under investigation.
We were at Marina's having a beer after the shift. It was just me and Joey. We went there because it was raining a little, so we went in. It had already stopped raining, but now we were at the important part of the conversation.
"When was the last time the press got into a case we worked on? Last year? The one before?"
"June 6th last year, Lieutenant. There was the suspicion that Chancellor was in Sproustown."
"Oh, yeah! That time was a disaster!" Chancellor was the codename of a mysterious character famous in the mob world. He's a big shot related to the worldwide Deluxes trafficking. Ironically, when it all ended, we found out he wasn't even involved in that case to begin with...
I hit my ashes in the ashtray and took another sip of my wine.
"But at least that time there was only one case. Now it's all happening at the same time, which indicates that everything is connected... First the long-haired guy we saw at the Johnson house runs away... Then those three masked guys break into the office and take the invitation... Then a serial killer comes along, bites people in the back, kills Sanford and Gerald and is still at loose... And now this werewolf case."
"You forgot about the case of the poison sent to Emma."
"Uh? But hadn't you decided yourself that Galloway sent it?"
I had implied, yes, that Chapman's friend was related to that robbery case. At first I must admit it was just a hunch, since the chocolate having been sent by her boyfriend was what made most sense. Then this little suspicion gained a little more credibility as I stopped to think about it: Emma was the only one to saw the three guys responsible for the SAD robbery on Monday, and right after that she receives a poisoned chocolate. The most likely hypothesis is that someone had thought about eliminating her because they knew she could infer something unwanted from what she saw during that fight.
And who else but the mysterious Richard Galloway to be monitoring her movements? I mean... He came out of nowhere. In my vision he works for one of Sproustown's great Deluxes negotiators and is approaching her so that he can get his eyes on SAD's activities. So when he sees his secrets are threatened, he can star thinking about doing something about it.
And as you can see, that the assassination attempts ceased after Crane came back to her senses and we talked to her about it and she revealed she didn't know any information linking one of them to any underworld figure. Whoever planned the murder realized he no longer needed to silence Crane, because she didn't know what he assumed she knew.
Of course Joey didn't believe me, so I wasn't gonna keep pushing it. I just opened my wallet again and lit another cigarette.
"And last of all..." I Completed, "here is also the case of the black man of Friday. You said he knocked you down with a piece of a stick?"
Joey nodded affirmatively. He was still a little disappointed with his performance last week.
"And you didn't see it?"
Joey shrugged.
He took something out of nowhere" We didn't know he was carrying anything until the moment I fell. When I saw it I already had tripped and came to the ground.
What happened was that the two guys we captured the other night, Pierre and Bad Boy, had contributed to the interrogation. According to their information, they'd been personally hired by a man who decided not to identify himself and according to description he was black, bald, tall and excessively thin. This guy claimed to be working for other bloke named Verde. That's what the guy from the underworld called himself. They also revealed the whereabouts of Alexander Sprohic, brother of Jeffrey Sprohic, who was still hiding in a wooden house at the Filliard Summit. By Friday Joey and Crane had been sent there for an ambush, but they got beaten by a paranormal being, who was more than coincidentally black, bald, tall, and excessively thin. The one who knocked Joey down with a piece of wood.
Additionally the paranormal duo captured at Filliard Summit gave us the very names with which the leaders of the Deluxes trafficking are known at Sproustown: they are Verde, the Dragon and Wilkinson. Among these Verde was the one who hired the two of them to simulate the robbery at Cooper's house.
Pierre and Bad Boy's testimony did yield some useful information and at least one of the things they spilled out was confirmed true so they ended up being taken to Silverbay's prison instead of Arena's as agreed.
But unfortunately Friday's event didn't turn out as expected. Joey and Crane got beat by that black guy and he ran off with Sprohic.
"How the heck do you not realize he's carrying something like a stick? Well... It's too late now. Whatever Alexander Sprohic knew about the Deluxes's trafficking... That information is lost forever."
"Do you think so, Lieutenant? We might still find him, mightn't we? Or is there really no hope?"
"If we ever find Alexander Sprohic, I believe it's going to be a body, Joey. You know how these mobsters are..."
Joey seemed more and more guilty about his mistake... It wasn't his fault if the guy he happened to fight so well... ...But he had just tried to make a joke of my theory about Galloway so it was gratifying to let him get down for at least that moment.
"Either way... We have too many open cases. It's time to go solve one of those cases, don1t you think?" I looked at the clock, "at least one of them can be solved right now."
"Huh?" He made an inquiring expression like he didn't know what I was talking about.
"Oh, come on, Joey. We all know who our werewolf guy is."
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