Deplume

The blood on the track was still wet when Deplume arrived on the scene. A small crowd gathered to watch.

"Any one of these people take this in?"

"No one has come forward yet."

"Is this all there is?”

“It’s all that we have been able to find so far, sir.”

“Fuck.”

Deplume knelt down and poked at it. His face bent slightly. He looked up at the sky, and then looked back down at his watch.

“Bag it now.”

Deplume stared at it for another minute and then walked towards the assembled herd who were being kept back by cops and strands of yellow tape. He automatically filed away some of the more interesting faces he saw in the crowd as they each craned their desperate, fleshy necks, trying to get a better glean at it. He then turned and double-skipped down the steel stairs, and made a bee line for the pastry shop he’d seen five minutes earlier. Rudy Nedelhause was fast on his heels.

“Man, shit, Deplume, that's some fucked-up shit back there, ain’t it?”

“No doubt about that.”

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Whatdaya think about it? You know, 'bout what we saw, back there, on the tracks?”

“It’s fucked up, that’s what I think. You want a coffee?”

“Ca-Coffee? Uh sure, why not.”

“Two.” Deplume flashed up the requisite two-digit peace sign and then looked back at Rudy, who seemed slightly tweezed.

“How do you like your coffee Rudy?”

“Uh, regular style, uh no, shit, I’m sorry, with some milk, a little milk, but just a little.”

“Didya get that my man? He said to add just a little milk.” Deplume held his thumb and index finger an inch a part to show him. “Black is fine for the other one.”

“Sir, do you think we’ll find the, you know, the rest of it?”

“Fuck No. We never do.”

“Man. This is some freaky-ass-shit sir.”

“Yep, it sure is.”

“How sick do you have to be to…”

“Sick.”

The man behind the counter palms off the two coffees to Deplume, one oblivion black and the other cloudy, just the way Rudy likes his. Deplume pushes a five-dollar bill across the glass. The man smiles, emitting a ‘thank you’ in monotone, like he’s supposed to do.

“No need to thank me, thank you. The change is yours.”

Twenty-eight cents.

“Thanks for the coffee sir.”

“No Rudy, good morning to you. Get your game face on, it’s going to be a long day.”