Here we go again, another night in the wood of Hillsville, filled with officers, Search dogs and flashes of blue and red, and the noise they're making, ARGH!!!....it's so frustrating, but not as frustrating as our reason for being here, another person gone missing in the woods, that's the fifth time this week, and it's only Friday. We don't know the cause of these sudden disappearances, heck! We don't even know if the victims are alive or not, all we do know is that it's two disappearances and the week before we had three, becoming more frequent. Throughout last week we only had but now were having two weeks' worth of cases happening in only five days. I searched through my brain looking for any odd occurrences this week that might have caused the spike in cases, "there is the power outage we've been having", I said internally, but I quickly dismissed that with a mild shake of the head after citing no connections between it and the case, and besides the higher ups aren't sure if these disappearances are the work of humans or animals, though they are leaning more towards animals, I then recalled what the sixth division's Sargent said, "we are in mating season after all, and male bears tend to be more aggressive during these periods, they'll pounce on anything unlucky enough to step into their territory'', though the idea of it being an animal conflicts with my gut feelings, but in the end, all that does is leave me with the same question, "what could have caused these disappearances?'', i soliloquized.
"Whoat ya should be asking e' why'', a voice announced behind me, as if following the conversation in my mind, it was my partner Billie Butcher, well he was more like a mentor to me, you see Butcher joined us three months ago and hasn't looked back since then, solving twenty-three of the most difficult cases Hillsville had to offer. This will be the twenty-forth case he would be undertaking and maybe the most challenging considering that this particular case has dragged on for five weeks now, which is the longest a case has lasted under him ever since he came. Butcher stands at a commanding height of 6ft2(187cm), dresses in all black shirt and jeans with a trademark black leather trench coat that stretches down all the way to his knees, wears boots a bit larger than his size and wears a really badass eye patch on his right eye(though I don't know the story behind it). It's also important to note his hard full face beard and hardy British accent, he hails from West London in England after all, though he identifies as an American, even calling himself a "GOLDEN CITIZEN", whatever that meant.
"There always ah reason fer every human action, dah whoat ah believe '', Butcher said, "instead dah finding dah whoat, try finding dah why, cause we humans act based on our reasons and reasoning, these two factors drive our every action, and if we deduce our why, then we know whoat's coming and whoat ah do next''.
Butcher took a liking to me for some reason, and even decided to take me under his wing as his partner, I've worked with him in his last twelve cases with this being the thirteenth, and I have to say, working with the fifty-three year old is one of the best experiences I've had as an investigator. "So do you think what we're looking for is human?", I directed the question to Butcher, "ah don't think, ah know it human", Butcher said with emphasis on the "KNOW", "but the higher ups are almost certain that it's the work of animals", I said with a questioning certainty, "screw dah higher ups, they all just a bunch a' cunts, dah only thing they bothered about is what to tell the media in order to cover up dem incompetence", I looked at Butcher with a puzzled face thinking to myself "that can't be true", but Butcher only continued, "yah, ah mean it, pretty much every officer here would rather be watching the Tonight Show than show their asses at dah scene of dah crime", I took a quick look around and noticed the nonchalant attitude each officer was exhibiting, it was like they were only here so that later they could say "we visited the scene of the crime", honestly where's the—Butcher interrupted my stream of thought to say "see that bald guy with dah beard standin next tah dah tree, he's aboh ah say 'let's call it a night guys", Butcher said mimicking an American accent in the last five words of his sentence, "and that cunt with the weird bowl cut standing in the opposite side, well he's aboh ah say, "Thank Jesus, this night is over", the last part said with the same mimicked voice. Then, just as he had described, the bald officer next to the tree walked forward and announced "let's call it a night guys" and the officer with the bowl cut followed with "Thank Jesus, the night is over". I jerked my head backwards and widened my eyes in shock, Butcher then said in a cool composed voice, "told yah".
Butcher had this amazing foresight ability to somehow tell the future, it was nothing superhuman or supernatural or anything, it was just that he was really good at reading a situation and deducing the probable outcome, this was most likely gotten through years of experience (After all he has solved over three thousand five-hundred cases throughout his twenty-nine years as an investigator), it was like he knew what someone was about to do before they did it, and this has helped him both as a person and as an investigator, no one has ever pulled a fast one on ol' Billie Butcher.
I remember when we had a drug trafficking case and Butcher gingerly had a light conversation with a suspect, afterwards he was able to predict/deduce that he was the culprit, he also predicted/deduced where he was headed to, where and when his next shipment of illicit drugs was due, and where his hideout was, all this from a simple conversation, and when I asked how he knew, he just replied in two words, "detective's instincts". This was the answer he always gave whenever I inquired about his foresight abilities, and I expected no different this time when I asked, "how could you tell what they were about to say?", but this time he gave a different answer, "well lad, ah guess you could say ah saw it", this answer didn't sit well with me, but I took it in good faith and said, "well you see really well for someone with one eye", Butcher just replied with a casual smirk and said, "soon you'll be wearing ma eyes lad".
Soon after Butcher's last statement, I saw my other colleagues packing up and retreating to their vehicles, I, having none of that vehemently walked forward, "and where do you guys think you're going?", I said in a commanding tone, every one stopped in response to my question and faced me, including the bald officer from earlier, he walked forward, clinched his teethes and smiled awkwardly to face me and said, "Hey...didn't you listen when I said we're done for the night", "but we've only been here for an hour, and Hillsville's crime procedure handbook states that proper investigation is to be carried out on the scene of the crime for at least three hours" I said quoting our code of conduct handbook, "yeah but...…" he said hesitantly, as if shy to say it aloud, then he moved his head closer to mine as I watched his bald head reflect the blue and red lights from the sirens, while he said in a low tone almost as low as a whisper, "you know is 19:46 and the Tonight Show starts by 20:00", I widened my eyes in disbelief after listening to the way he tried to quibble the situation, "but someone went missing tonight and all you care about is the Tonight Show?!", I said furiously, almost raising my voice at him no of course not, but look, it's been a long day for every one and we couldn't find any leads tonight, and you sure as hell know the media will be crowding the station tomorrow mor ning, asking questions and looking for answers, and we got'ta be circumspect about what we make up to feed em, so how about we call it quits tonight, you know get some drinks, watch TV, relax, it is a Friday night after all, and when tomorrow comes we pick up from where we left off, sounds good right?", I could only glare at him with disgust after listening to the casual way he said that rubbish, " I will report this", I impulsively said those words one after the other, "hey now.... we don't have to go that far", he said evasively as if trying to calm my rage, "but you know what, check the numbers , there's only one of you and eleven of us, so in the end it's just going to be your word against ours, and you know I'm the one writing this night's report", his low voice now sounding more threatening and sinister, "so if I report that you weren't performing your duty at the scene of the crime as instructed by our superiors, well then you just might get a sanctioning, and you wouldn't want that now would you, so why don't you take a break tonight, cool off and go catch a smoke or something, alright?", I just froze up after listening to the ultimatum he gave me, just then another officer yelled "hey Tim, its 19:48, if we don't hurry we're going to miss the intro". Tim, the officer with the mirror for a head then glanced at his black wrist watch to confirm the time and said, "Holy shit...! Your right", he then scampered into his car and zoomed off with the others without a care in the world.
I stood there grinding my teeth and clinching my fist in frustration while reflecting on how powerless I was In that situation, that only made me grind harder and clinch tighter at my teeth and fist respectively, Butcher calmly walked up to me and said, "Ah... forget those cunts, we don't need em anyway, we can finish this case just you and me, ok lad?", "you could've helped me out with them you know?" I said transferring my frustration through that question, "how dah hell are you ever gonnah be independent if you expect me to come kiss your ass all dah time, and besides I aint gonnah waste mah precious time on those sorry excuses for Cops, they all just a bunch of losers, CUNTS! Each n' every one of em, BIG CUNTS!"
Butcher had a habit of calling anyone he didn't like "Cunts", whether it'd be a criminal(s), an incompetent officer(s), a coffee shop owner that didn't serve tea, Zeke McGrath, Conservatives, Communists, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, or anyone who got on his nerves, to him they were all classified under the term "Cunts". Continuing with his previous statement, Butcher added, "especially dah Tim with the melon head dah redirects light, and don't get me started on the belly, dah thing's got to be the size of an Orangutan atleast, honestly, I can't believe we have human apes in the twenty-first century, and a stupid one at that, but anyhow, ah finally found a place in this town that serves good tea, even if the place still identifies as a coffee shop, so wah don't we head over there, grab ourselves cup' a Char and brainstorm a bit, sound good now doesn't it?".
I sighed with my eyes closed, cleared my mind of the events that transpired a few moments ago and said, "sure why not, but…", I reversed my head to looked at the crime scene behind me, my body language suggested that us leaving early as well would make us no better that those "cunts"(as Butcher would say), Butcher got the message and said "ah don't worry lad, ah already did some digging up of mah own and ah found ah clue, I'll tell ya all aboh it over a good cup ah tea", "you sure?", said I in reply, "I'm more than sure, trust me lad ah can dig up more in five minutes than those Cunts could in three hurs, so what yah say we head over there?", his statement gave me a sense of relief and reassurance, partly because I knew its true, so I momentarily gave up my sense of methodicalness and said, "fine you win, but only because going with you seems far more productive that staying here for another two hours", Butcher then smirked with his left cheek and gave me a pat on the back ,"that's mah boy, now hop in, I'm driving", said the eye patch wearing figure besides me and so I got into the front passenger's seat of his black antique Rover-P5B, and we drove off.