<hr/><div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/a4/Flatbush.png)</div><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Charlie Flatbush<br/><strong>Faction:</strong>Law Dogs (3)<br/><strong>Date:</strong>May 18th, 1876<br/><strong>Time of Day:</strong>Afternoon<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Deadman's Rest<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Avery Burnam; CLOSED<br/><hr/><br/>“Well, if you listen to the soiled doves - half the men in Gomorra deserve the nickname.  We’re all a pack of dogs.  Some mangier than others,” said Charlie with a grin.  He gave a little, playful howl - but the sound echoed in the catacombs, reverberating off of stone and packed dirt, and came back sounding like a dozen howls back.  The cheer faded off of Charlie’s face, and he grimaced.<br/><br/>“I hate this place.”<br/><br/>He broke apart but not too far as the hunt continued - there was plenty to look through, and while they had to share a lantern, that didn’t mean their eyes had to be in the same place.  He grimaced and dipped his head, searching for something they’d missed on the first sweep.   “Y’know - my first time investigating a murder - was this poor little dove named… “  He frowned, thoughtful.  “Mariah, I think.  Was a while now.  I’d just given up minin’ and I’d been a law dog maybe three months less’n Hunter.  And we’re looking at this girl all hacked and cut up.  Feller went to town on her with a camp knife.  And I - twisted my guts all up, y’know?  I’d been with her not a week prior, and she was sweet and she<em>barely</em>spoke English.  I was lookin’ at the body the whole time, just couldn’t take my eyes off of it.  And J.P. - I asked him what we were lookin’ for, and J.P. says ‘We ain’t.’   Now I’m like - ‘come again?  Why we here if we ain’t lookin’ for something, and J.P. tells me - ‘you got your mind made up, you ain’t gonna see nothin’.  Gotta look with soft eyes.  Look for questions, not answers.”<br/><br/>He scratched his head, and then hopped as some bit of dried meat scraped under his foot.  “And I’m sittin’ there and the only thing I could think was - ‘why’d someone want to kill this sweet girl?’  And I’m trying to picture … what kind of monster’d want to put a knife into this girl?  Cut her face, and her breasts, and her nethers.  Must have been so terrified - in so much pain - “  He shook his head.  “Got to thinkin’ it must have been some john, fallen in love, couldn’t stand to see her spreadin’ her legs for other men.  Jealousy.”  He knelt down by one of the doors, dipping his head to look under the simple planks that passed as beds, his nose wrinkling at one of the unemptied pails of feces.<br/><br/>“Turns out - wasn’t a man that was jealous.  Was one of the girls she worked with.  I was askin’ J.P. who mighta been fallin’ for her, who mighta brought her gifts - and Hunter finds out there’s this fella ‘Chino had been sweet on her.  But before that he was sweet on another girl.  I wasn’t even thinkin’ coulda been a girl.  Too angry.  Too violent.  But Hunter goes right up to her room and starts tossing drawers open.  Finds the knife not fifteen minutes later.  Still got blood dried on it.  She starts hollerin’ about how he loved her, he said he was going to marry<em>her</em>- confessed to the whole thing not ten minutes later.”<br/><br/>He shook his head.  “Never would have pinned it on a saloon girl, if it was me.  Couldn’t even imagine it.”  He shook his head, then his gaze lifted and turned when Avery called him over.  “Don’t think so.  Can’t get a horse to cross a bridge in this town - how you gonna get a bear to do it?  And I think folk would have seen it.”  He rubbed his jaw.  He stepped in as well - there wasn’t much different inside of the cell than there had been in the others - except deep scratches in the stone, long marks that cut an inch, two inches into the walls themselves.<br/><br/>“Well… maybe.  Bear’d fill up this whole room, though.  Wouldn’t even have space to turn around.”  He frowned.  He brushed his fingers over older, smaller cuts in the stone - shallower than some of the larger cuts.  “Got… bigger though.  Maybe a … bear cub?  These are bigger than a baby bear.  Maybe… “  He shook his head.  “Whatever it was, it was definitely gettin’<em>bigger.</em>”<br/><br/>He frowned, and rubbed at his forehead.  “You want to see the treatment room?”  He nodded towards the hall.  “Wasn’t any bodies in there.  Just where the doctor was… experimenting.”