Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency Year Four:
Case File No. 42-198
AMBER LOVE 01-MAR-2021 Find out how all this began. Catch up on Year One, Year Two, Year Three, and Year Four cases at the Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency.
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Where We Left Off:
Gus brought me a mouse for Valentine’s Day; and thankfully, the Butler took care of the release.
Dead After Dawn:
Another night where I was awoken by the sound of Gus prancing and making happy cries. It was just after 2am. I never heard the commotion downstairs at the mouse hot spot behind The Cook’s favorite chair. Another mouse. That meant I had to slither out of bed and deal with it.
Somehow, I functioned at a reasonably alert state considering I had taken a powerful allergy pill before I went to sleep. I grabbed the jar for mouse containment and closed off the bedroom. The doors don’t actually close properly so I pull them slightly ajar. If you close them all the way, you can only open them from the outside which means I would trap myself inside my bedroom.
I didn’t know Oliver was trying to come in either. He doesn’t make a sound during the mousing activities. I know he can be loud too. I’ve heard him yell for food. I didn’t know he was waiting on the other side of the door to the stairs.
Gus did the same movements as the night of the 13th. He went under the bed, around the clothes drying rack to the desk, around the room divider, through the fort and back under the bed. It was almost an hour later before I got the mouse away from the growling inspector.
Gus released the perp near the deep closet (referenced in past mousecapades). My yoga bag is in front of this closet door because it opens randomly on its own. The bag is almost as long as the width of the door, but not quite enough to block the gap completely. The mouse ran right into the side of my yoga bag – SMACK – with Gus’ meaty murder mitten slapping it. The critter turned and could have made it to the gap under the door, but this time I reached down and grabbed it.
The little fucker grabbed back. Its claws wrapped around my skin and it bit down like a cookie-cutter shark not willing to let go freely. I’m pretty sure it took a chunk of my skin as I put my whole fist inside the glass prison cell. I expected it to look like something from a horror movie, but it looked like a regular mouse although it was covered in cat spit.
Outside in the pitch darkness, the ice and sleet pelted the house and roadways. People in New Jersey had lost electrical power. I was not going to get dressed and walk through the icy mess to release the perp. He would have to wait until morning. I put the mouse transport unit outside on the balcony in the cold overnight. Gus didn’t want to leave it alone. He kept insisting on standing guard. I had to pick him up and carry him inside. Oliver was right there by the balcony door when I was carrying Gus in. He must have known what was happening and went up the other stairs to meet us.
I overslept and barely had time to check on the mouse. I slowly opened the lid because I didn’t want a suddenly energetic rodent to burst out at me. It wasn’t moving, but it was breathing and its eyes were open. I checked the time again. It was 7:48am. I wouldn’t have time to release it and get back to my desk for 8am meditation. I put the lid back on and told the little fighter to wait just a little bit longer.
I almost missed meditation class. I logged in right at eight and we did fourteen minutes of lower body focus with longer exhales. My mind wasn’t there. My mind was wondering if the perp was going to survive its prison confinement.
I got distracted then. The internet went down and it took me a few more minutes until I put on socks and went to retrieve the mouse. It was too late.
The critter’s big black eyes were now closed. It rested still on its side and it’s midsection no longer moved in and out with breath.
I’m 83% through Dr. Lyle’s HowDunIt Forensics book. I’ve already finished the chapters on body examination and identification. The current firearms chapter isn’t applicable in this case, but those earlier chapters could be.
The deceased had pink hands and feet. The musculature was stronger than average. Without blood tests, I can’t prove that it is for a fact one of the protein and anabolic enhanced critters, but it is likely given the interaction I had while it was living. As previously stated, the eyes were large, shiny, and black. The ears were oval. The anterior side was completely white; the dorsal side was brown. The tail was intact. There were no obvious injuries although the deceased was coated from the neck to the hind end in feline saliva. The known cause of death was suffocation (mechanism: entrapment) leading to asphyxia (lack of oxygen). There was approximately a thirty minute gap in which the victim could have been saved from 0748 to 0817.
Case Findings:
The mouse was captured by Gus on the main floor of the estate. The suspect was given an opportunity to escape but was recaptured and injured a human. The mouse was put into a containment cell with the plan to transport the critter across the border after the ice storm. The imprisoned rodent expired before release, TOD declared 0817 in the morning of 16-Feb-2021.
Case Status: Closed
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.