Nevermore

It was a cold, rainy morning when I walked into the dark Las Pegasus apartment, the air smelling of drying blood. I adjusted my raincoat and looked around. Two stallions in lab coats were discussing something in the small cramped hallway that led into the bedroom from the kitchen, where I was. A stallion, looking a bit worse for wear and a bit sick, leaned against a wall groaning. He was dressed in a blue policecolt's uniform, his short, pointed beard slightly grey at the end.

"Sergeant Bassline?" I asked, walking up to him.

He looked up and nodded. "Inspector Raven? We've been expecting you. Now someone else can deal with the body and I can go outside before I vomit." He pushed past me and went out the door.

I walked into the hallway the two stallions in lab coats were. They looked at me and one of them, a younger unicorn with crimson hair and piercing blue eyes, smiled at me. "Hello, Inspector! Pleased you could make it so soon. My name is Theorem and this stallion is my partner Bones." Bones, a light blue Pegasus, had dark brown hair and green eyes, and he looked somewhat imposing. He nodded, the stern look on his face lightening into a slight smirk. Theorem got on his hind legs for a second and clapped his hooves together twice. "I'm so excited! I've never met an actual National Detective before! Any questions before we show you the deceased?"

I wanted to ask why the hell this young fresh faced stallion was so damn bubbly when there was a dead body in the next room. "When was the body found?" I asked.

"This morning, at approximately 4:45, a cleaning mare for the apartments walked in and saw his body." he says quickly and professionally. "She said there was no smell of decay or the lingering smell of blood that would mean the death had happened less than two hours before, so we believe the murder" Murder? "happened less than an hour and a half before she found Mr. Wave."

I nodded. "What did Mr. Wave do?"

Bones looked up. "He was the founder of a casino called the King's Head down on the strip." he said in a strangely soft voice for such an imposing colt. "Always treated employees and customers with complete respect. Except perhaps whoever killed him."

Theorem nodded energetically. "Quite right, Bones. Now then, would you like to see the deceased?" he asked. I nodded, and they led me into the large bedroom chamber.

The first thing I noticed in the room was the messiness. The sheets on the bed had been practically torn off and flung all over the room, cabinets and dressers were overturned, and there were a few hoof-shaped holes in the walls. There was a struggle, alright. The body lay in the center of the room, a pool of dark red, drying blood formed under his body. He was at some point a Pegasus, but where his wings were were just two bloody stumps. His barrel had three stab wounds in it, most likely the cause of death, and his side had several more that had no blood on the fur around them. Postmortem. I had apparently said those thoughts aloud, for Theorem nodded.

"Yes, quite a struggle. We suspect the killer attacked him while he was getting ready to sleep, but he saw the killer and tried, obviously in vain, to wrench the knife away from him or her. And then he was knocked to the floor and stabbed in the chest three times. Have you ever seen Pulp Fiction?" I nodded. He got on his hind legs again, this time in a kneeling postion, and did a stabbing motion similar to the famous 'adrenaline' scene in that movie. "That was the death blow. The killer then turned the body over, cut off the wings, and stabbed him several more times, maybe to throw us off of the cause of death." Theorem looks at the ceiling and stands back up. "Unlucky for the killer, whoever it was left the knife in the bathroom over there, maybe as they were washing off the blood and getting the wings into whatever container they were using for it."

Bones nodded in agreement. "We think it was a first time killer, because he made several mistakes. Not getting the jump on Mr. Wave, leaving the murder weapon, and taking a trophy for what seems like a simple revenge killing."

Theorem smiles. "If we can get even a partial hoof print on the knife, we can crucify the motherbucker in court." Bones looked at him with a look that said 'Did you just say that?'

I nodded. "Okay, get a meat wagon here and we'll get the body to the local ENDA department. We need a full autopsy. And you two are gonna be in charge of it since you already know most of the details." I did a small salute to them. "Goodbye gentlemen, see you at the morgue."

Theorem and Bones waved bye and Theorem pulled a small cellular phone out of his lab coat. He dialed a number as I started to walk out of the apartment. "Yes, Las Pegasus ENDA? Dr. Theorem here. We need a meat wag- I mean, an ambulance to the crime scene in the apartment block on..."

His voice drowned out as I closed the door behind me. This was gonna be a long week, I could already tell. My name is Raven Nevermore, and I'm an agent of the Equestrian National Detective Agency. This was only the start of a very disturbing case.