Chapter Text
Two men sat inside a pick up truck as the rain fell over Hometown. Small flashes of light could be seen from the inside the cab as drops of water pitter pattered on the aluminum of the car.
“I swear this lighter has always been finicky, I don’t think it’s ever lit on the first go.” Rudy grumbled.
“Not even when you bought it?” Asgore questioned.
“I never even bought the damn thing, won it during a game of trivia at Paddy's back in college.” Rudy said, still trying to light it, the cigarette between his teeth moved as if to emphasize his words.
“You won a trivia night at Paddy’s bar and all they gave you was a shitty lighter? Sounds like a rough deal to me.” Asgore huffed, looking out the window at the house across the street.
“It wasn’t all bad, I got one of those boot pints of beer and 20 bucks cash.” Rudy said, giving the lighter one final try. It gave a small pitiful flame, that was quickly snuffed out. Rudy looked at the lighter, sighed and pocketed it, rolled out the window and tossed his cigarette out.
“Whatever that stuff’ll kill me anyway.” Rudy said, turning to look at the same house across the street. “You ready big man?”
“Not sure, this is always the hardest part of the job for me.” Asgore responded.
“Want me to do the talking?” Rudy offered.
“I’ll start, gotta get better at this somehow.” Asgore sighed exiting the vehicle in the pouring rain as Rudy followed.
As they approach the house Asgore looks to rudy,
“I know things are hard for you right now, but I need you at the top of your game, your family needs you, and most importantly Dess needs you. I don’t mind a bit of numbing yourself but you better not slip into any of those old habits from back in the day.”
“No need to overreact, it was just one cigarette and I didn’t even smoke it.” Rudy brushed it off, “anyway we're at the door, game faces on.”
Asgore gave the door a reverent knock, just loud enough to be noticeable but not disruptive. After a few moments the door was opened, revealing Mr. Cattenheimer in a white collared shirt, wrinkled and unkempt. He looked at the two detectives with a solemn gaze, an aura of inescapable sadness permeated from it.
“Evening Mr. Cattenheimer.” Asgore said.
“Detectives.” Mr. Cattenheimer acknowledged.
“First off, my partner and I would like to give our condolences to you and your family. In addition, I know this is a lot to ask but could you answer some questions we have concerning your daughter?” Asgore asked “We have reason to expect your daughter’s murder may be connected to the other disappearances.”
Mr. Cattenheimer stared at the two men on his front porch, before giving a slow nod as he gestured wordlessly with his left arm.
“Take a seat in the living room, I’ll let the misses know you’re here.” he said before disappearing into the home.
Cleaning the muck off their shoes the detectives entered the home. The house was dark, silent, and held an air of loss in its halls. As the detectives walked toward the living room Rudy noticed a family picture hanging, crooked and with a thin layer of dust. He hoped in time the family would smile again like they had back then, even if one of them were absent from now on.
As they entered the living room the first thing Asgore noticed was the decor, it reminded him of how his grandma decorated her house. The walls were adorned with antique china (featuring numerous different cats.), paintings of landscapes, and numerous bouquets of flowers. He felt a small sense of pride, knowing that his lessons on how to properly prepare flowers had not fallen onto deaf ears with his children. If circumstances prevented him from completing orders again he was confident Kris and Asriel were up for the task.
“We’re here, and can we make this quick? We have a funeral to finish planning.” Mr. Cattenheilmer said, his wife clinging to his arm.
“Of course sir, we just have a few questions.” Asgore stated, clearing his throat. “Was Catty acting strange in any way leading up to her disappearance?”
“I’ll repeat the same thing I told the officers that came by when she first went missing, the only thing I can think of that would hold any importance was that she was coming home later than usual, but that was due to her taking more shifts at the convenience store.” Mr. Cattenheimer said, exhaustion echoing in his voice. “The officers then assured me that most likely this was just another teen runaway case, like that Bratty girl obviously they were wrong, considering the events two days ago.”
“Did Catty know Bratty? Was there any connection between the two?” Rudy asked.
“Yeah there was always a connection. A positive one? A negative one? I couldn’t tell ya. Those two changed how they felt about each other every 3 days, either best friends or worst enemies. I can tell you though Bratty was not a good influence on our little girl.” Mr. Cattenheimer said.
“Did she pressure her into drinking? Drugs? Or anything like that?” Asgore asked, leaning forward a bit.
“No, she would never do any of that sort of thing.” Mr. Cattenheimer quickly said, “I mean you can ask Toriel, she was there at the church every week. It’s borderline disrespectful that you would even consider that detective.”
“My apologies sir, i’m just trying to cover all my bases.” Asgore says. “Do you know if there’s any personal items of hers that could be useful? Like a diary, planner or anything of that sort.”
“No, she never kept anything like that.” Mrs. Cattenheimer said, “Not for our lack of trying though! She was always a bit scatterbrained, some planning would’ve done her good.”
Sniffles started to erupt from the woman's mouth as tears began flowing down her cheeks.
“Detectives, thank you for stopping by but I believe my wife and I have had enough.” Mr. Cattenheimer said, starting to get up from the chair as his wife held onto his left arm.
“Well thank you Mr. Cattenheim-” Asgore started.
“Sir, one last question. Where was your daughter employed,” Rudy interrupted.
“The convenience store down the street, now please get out of my home.” Mr. Cattenhimer said, sorrow covering his words.
“Thank you for your time sir.” Asgore said leaving the living room as Rudy followed.
-later-
“So I’m assuming we should start with her place of work, interviewing coworkers, management, regular customers?” Rudy asked as they got back into the truck.
“Yeah, we should start there. We also should follow up on Bratty, I mean 3 girls all around the same age going missing? All three in addition being dismissed initially as run away teens? Something feels off about this.” Asgore explained turning the ignition and starting to drive.
“I’ll reach out to officers in charge of Bratty’s case, see if I can get any information on her.” Rudy offered.
“Perfect, I just got a message from the forensic pathologist, said autopsy on Catty’s done and he has some findings. I can handle that while you talk to the Officers.” Asgore suggested.
“Sounds like a plan.” Rudy agreed. “Just be careful with the pathologist, I’ve heard some weird things about the dude.”
“Oh trust me I’ll be fine, we will go way back.” Asgore reassured
-later-
Asgore entered into the morgue, the sterile atmosphere putting him slightly on edge as the fluorescent lights hummed above him. Not seeing anyone in the room he called out,
“Hello? Dr. Gaster? I’m here.”
“Ah, detective Asgore, so glad you could make it. How are you today?” The doctor answered, rising from behind Catty’s body lying on the cadaver tray.
“I’ve been better, we just got back from meeting with the Cattenheimers. Not that I don’t enjoy the small talk but you requested me here, may I ask why?”
“Well I have some findings that I thought might pique your interest, although I must preface this isn’t good news old friend.” the Doctor answered.
“Yeah, you mentioned it in the message.” Asgore said, taking his coat off and hanging it on the rack, letting out a sigh. “What are we looking at?” he spoke as he made his way towards the doctor.
“Well in simplistic terms she was drugged and placed in the box which was then promptly thrown into the lake. But what caught my eye, and what prompted me to request your presence was the toxicology report.” The doctor stated, walking around Catty’s body, lying still under the white tarp, and to his desk and booting up his computer.
Asgore made his way over, stopping to glance at the silhouette of a child who will never return home, never feel the loving embrace of her parents, never hear the words “I love you” or “I miss you again.” Feeling himself start to get emotional he turned away, reminding himself of the job he had to do, for hometown and especially for Rudy.
“Would you like me to disclose what my team and I found?” Gaster asked
“Yeah please, uh give me the run down, in simple terms of course. You know I don’t have the noggin for this kind of thing like you.” Asgore replied with a slight, uncomfortable chuckle.
“Ah not to worry Asgore, I still remember helping you pass your basic forensics courses when you were being trained.” Gaster stated, the permanent grin affixed to his face seeming to add a sense of humour to the mad doctor. “Now getting back to our business, her blood tested positive for several controlled substances. The main two being trichloromethane and an opiate derived from papaver somniferum-”
“Trichloromethane? What's that? Some kind of methamphetamine?” Asgore questioned.
“No, it’s more common moniker is chloroform.” Gaster answered
“I still after all these years have no clue why you feel the need to overcomplicate your speech, just say chloroform.” Asgore replied
“I don’t get out much, as you know, and the social interactions I usually participate in are with academically equal colleagues and yourself. “ Gaster explained
“Well whatever, we’re getting off track. So you're saying she was drugged with morphine, sedated with chloroform and dumped into the river. Not to be rude but I don’t see why this needed to be a discussion, it seems pretty basic for this kind of thing.” Asgore responded
“You’re wrong about the timeline.” Gaster bluntly stated “The opiate in her system is days older than the rest of the substances and additionally bone wear and tear and muscle degradation is conclusive with long term use, meaning she was a user.”
“Shocker, teenage girl going behind her parents' backs, but again why does this have to do with me?” Asgore asked
“This opiate, as I mentioned before, is not derived from synthetic means, it's natural. Coming from the papa-”
“Yeah yeah, the red poppy flower. Any botanist worth their salt knows about it.” Asgore said, a realization slowly washing over his face, “Why did you request me? It wasn’t because of that was it? Did you tell anyone?” Asgore said, panic finding his voice.
“Yes this is why I wished to talk with you, and no I haven’t told anyone. I wished to talk with you due to the fact the only person I know that had any involvement with naturally derived opiates in this area was-” Gaster started
“Don’t say another word, you don’t know who's listening. I’ll ask around and see what I can find.” Asgore interrupted. “Now, is there anything else?”
“Yes, one final thing. We’ve got photographs of the symbols tattooed along her spine, although due to the infection we’re still in the dark as to their meaning but if you and Rudy would like to take a crack at it I can give you some copies.” the doctor offered.
“That’d be great, and uh, “ Asgore stopped. “I’m sorry for being so short with you, it’s just ,you know how I get when it comes to that being brought up.”
“It’s perfectly understandable, apologies for not being more delicate with the matter.” Gaster replied.
“Thanks Gaster, I’ll keep you in the loop when I can, and stop by for Sunday dinner sometime, Toriel’s making butterscotch pie and I’m sure Asriel would wanna pick your brain for science stuff and Kris probably wants to know what a dead body looks like.” Asgore said, attempting to alleviate the heaviness of their conversation.
“If my work permits me I shall attend.” Gaster agreed.
-Elsewhere-
The moon shines brightly upon the forest, the beams of silver light dance around the branches of the numerous trees. A soft wind rustles the leaves, breaking the contemplative silence. A figure walks through these woods, seamlessly blending with the undergrowth as it slinks between trees like it’s lived there its whole life. Eventually it made its way to a clearing, where the light of the moon revealed its form. Grinning with an unnerving grin, it looked towards its target. A small inconspicuous fallout shelter, seemingly abandoned. Making its way towards its dwelling it could hear faint sounds of banging on the walls, a vain attempt to call for S.O.S. in morse code. This didn’t anger it, quite the opposite,
He loved when they thought they had a chance, and the one he served agreed.