Too Little Too Late, The Second Murder

[Kryshna]

April 25th, Godric’s Hollow
A week after The First Murder

The English Rains had picked up again in Godric’s Hollow, West Country, England. An occasional lightning strike lit up the streets, followed soon after by the growling of thunder. The streets were slick with rain. It was still early in the evening, so an occasional car passing or pedestrian with an umbrella could be seen on the streets. But it was rare.

But then something completely unexpected happened. Three people appeared out of nowhere just short of the end of the street as a flash of lightning hit. One of them was a man wrapped up in a trench coat to protect himself from the rain. The other two figures, one was wrapped in a heavy, black cloak. The last was being held around the neck by the cloaked figure.

The cloaked one held a wand at the throat of the one that was being held and a slight flash was seen. It then shoved him forward, moving half way down the deserted, rainy street. The captive man stumbled then dropped to his knees, shaking his head. There was a pause before the cloaked one pointed the wand at the man’s heart and spoke in a clean, clear, but dark female voice.

“Crucio.”

The man looked as though he was screaming, but no sound came from his throat. This went on for a good fifteen seconds before he finally fell forward. She lifted him up and waited. Finally, in a broken voice, the man spoke an address.

The woman turned her hooded head upwards. Beside a mailbox with the name Potters written across it, sprung up another mailbox. Along with it came a full other house. On this mailbox was the name Blanchet. The hooded one pulled out a kukri and placed it to the man’s throat, drawing it cleanly across it.

He choked softly as his blood began to poor out around him. She pulled out a large vial, at least a pint, and collected some of his blood before taking his wand from him. She dropped him on the ground, her head twitching within the cloak. She corked the vial and handed it to the other man, tucking the wand within her cloak. She then moved forward to the newly appeared house.

The only living man now on the street moved with her but stayed under the overhang of the house. His face could not be seen because of the hood of the coat. He stayed there as the woman touched the doorknob with her wand. There was a slight glow from the keyhole before the door popped open.

The woman disappeared into the house. Moments later, there was movement of silhouettes from the only lighted window, but it was difficult to make out. In a flash of lightning, a blood splatter hit the lit window, and then the light went out.

A moment later, the woman appeared again, pulling her hood up. In a brief flash of lightning, her face was lit up. It was pale, very pale, with the veins around the edges of the face visible, as if someone had drawn them in there with a dark red pencil. A black cloth mask covered her face from the nose down, and her eyes were those of a feral killer.

Then the hood was up. She pulled out her wand and placed the tip against the open door, so it was on the inside, and it appeared as though it was burning slowly outwards. When she pulled her wand away, it had left a symbol burned into the door.



The man drew his wand and shouted out his words.

“Morsmordre!”

A flash went up into the clouds a second before a lightning flash lit up the dark mark as it was forming in the clouds above the house. The snake moved in the eye of the skull and out the mouth.

As the thunder rolled, less than a second later, across Godric’s Hollow, the two figures were gone.

* * *

It was still raining when the magical authorities arrived at the Blanchet house. A sheet had been placed over the body outside, which had now been identified as Kory Tanaberry, the Secret Keeper of the Blanchet Family. Within the house, in the dinning room, was an even more gruesome sight than the last murder by this person.

The muggle born, Tony Blanchet’s head was placed on the plate at the head of the table, blood spilling out either side of the plate. Even his goblet was filled with his blood, almost as if a sick joke by the murderer. His eyes were rolled up into his head, and a look of horror was across his face. His body was still sitting in the chair, slumped back against the arms and back of the chair. Blood was spilled everywhere around his body. It was a clean cut, straight across the lower portion of the neck.

The woman, Kelly Blanchet, had her stomach sliced open, her organs spilled a bit out around her fallen form. It looked as though she had put up a bit more of a fight, though. Her knuckles were bruised slightly, as if she had been punching something. Her fingertips on her right hand were also bruised, as if she had been gripping a wand tightly and it had been yanked from her hands. Both of their wands were missing.

Outside, there were two sets of footprints, one belonging to a set of size 7 women, another to size 9 men. But it was difficult to tell what type of shoes because the heavy rain was filling them with water and destroying the imprints.
Tony, a muggle born ministry official, had been a strong advocate against the Death Eater’s work. He had been working on getting laws passed against any and all anti-muggle activity, even including practical jokes. Kelly was his very supportive wife and had been working on some charms for protection against the Unforgivable curses. Unfortunately, her research had not yet been completed when the attack happened. They had been close neighbors to the Potter family, their daughter, the only remaining Blanchet, now, was Terri, at school with James, in her 6th year. Kory had been Tony’s best friend growing up and was left as their secret keeper.

All there work was too little, too late.

[Rutger Kilborn]

In setting up his miniature "command center" at the hotel room, Rutger included among his equipment a police scanner. Although he wasn't always used to using muggle devices, he found this one to be particularly useful, as it allowed him to monitor the radio communications of muggle law enforcement for any signs of suspicious activity which might fit Kryshna's M.O.

It was still early in the evening, and Rutger was sitting in the lounge area, setting up maps while the police scanner ran. So far it had all seemed rather routine and trivial, until he heard an officer reporting that there was a "strangely shaped cloud in the sky" and what appeared to be a body outside.

Immediately, Rutger dropped what he was doing and ran into Alana's adjoining room. "We have to go. Now. I think she struck again... some place called Godric's Hollow."

[Alana Kalb]

Alana was sitting on her bed absent mindedly brushing her hair. Rutger was setting up in the room that joined their bedrooms together, and Alana thought it was a one person job, so she hadn't bothered to help him. Plus, it was early and Alana wasn't really a morning person, especially not now with the murders and her sleep being affected by it. She sometimes woke up later to make sure Rutger was sleeping, and it was always hard for Alana to get back to sleep ater waking up.

Sighing, she went to the dresser the hotel room provided and stared at the shirts she had packed in there. She wasn't entirely happy with the light pink blouse; it was just one of those days where she wasn't sure how she wanted to dress. Her train of thought was broken when Rutger ran into the room. Alana jumped, not expecting him to do that.

"For the love of Merlin, Rutger! Don't just barge--" She stopped talking when he told her he thought Kryshna had killed someone again.
"What? Are you sure?" Alana asked, following him out of her room. It was a stupid question, since Alana knew Rutger wasn't one to mess around. That was Alana's thing, but even she wouldn't joke about something like this.

"It's a good thing they sent us when they did. Do you know where Godric's Hollow is?" For growing up in London, Alana never went there. She had heard of it, but none of her friends growing up lived there, so she never went.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger was taken aback by the way she yelled at him, and he stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. The truth was, he had burst into her room without a second thought, and now that she had called him on it, he felt a little embarrassed. Yes, it was important, but she could have been getting changed in there, and he hadn't even bothered to consider that. Sometimes, as horrible as it sounded, Rutger sort of forgot that she was a woman. Well, maybe he didn't forget exactly... but he didn't always think about the full implications of that fact.

"I'm sorry... I should have knocked," he said. He would try to make a mental note to knock the next time he needed her.

But he quickly snapped back to attention and turned to go back to the work area. "I found it on a map," he said, walking over to the table, and pointing at a spot on a map. "It might be risky trying to apparate there, but I don't think we have a choice. We need to get there before the muggle authorities swarm the place. They might destroy evidence without realizing it."

[Alana Kalb]

Alana picked up on Rutger's embarrassment and felt bad for yelling at him. She had her reasons to, but it would have been easy for her to control herself and calmly tell him. Obviously, today wasn't a calm day for Alana. She should have known that when she couldn't pick the right outfit; that was always a sure sign, to Alana at least, that something was going to happen that day, and it always put Alana on edge, although she tried to never show it.

"Right, since they don't know what they're looking at." Alana agreed, and looked at the spot on the map he had pointed to. It was too far to walk, and thankfully a portkey would be impossible since no one had set one up. There were papers strewn all over the table, but Alana ignored that fact and resisted the urge to organize them.

"Rutger...I'm sorry I yelled." Alana said, still feeling guilty. That probably wasn't the first thing on Rutger's mind now, but Alana felt the need to say it then, always afraid of what would happen when they went and investigated.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger shook his head at her apology. "No... you were quite right. I shouldn't have just burst in like that. I just... I got excited and I forgot. It doesn't matter now, I'll try to be better about that in the future. But we should go now... Hopefully if we concentrate on this spot on the map, we can apparate there. Even if we're seen, I'm sure the British Ministry will be sending Obliviators."

Still, he was a little worried about the possibility of splinching, so he held his hand out to her. "We should do it together, so we have a better chance of getting there."

[Alana Kalb]

Alana smiled in response to him justifying her yelling at him. She liked when she was right, but what woman didn't like being told that? Alana wasn't as concerned with being seen, she just wanted to get there and wave the muggle investigators off so her and Rutger could do their job. Being caught was one thing in Alana's life she never worried about, and she had many talks with her parents about being more careful. She never truly learned her lesson.

Alana took Rutger's hand and smiled at him.
"I've done this before; I won't lose a leg or anything." She said with a laugh, but realised Rutger probably wouldn't find any humor in this, unlike Alana who could relax so easily. "Right then," Alana said after clearing her throat, "let's go."

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger was distracted for a split second by the strange thought that her hand was surprisingly soft and small in his own large, calloused one. But the thought was gone as quickly as it had come, and he stared down at the map, focusing on the little area called Godric's Hollow.

After a moment, they both disappeared, and reappeared in a small residential neighborhood. There were already muggle police cars and other vehicles swarming the area with flashing red lights and squealing sirens. Muggles were running everywhere and didn't seem to notice two people appearing out of thin air.

Rutger turned to Alana. "All right, let's go."

Glancing around, he could spot the muggle officer who appeared to be in charge. He was barking orders at the others, and they were running away frantically to do whatever they were told. Rutger straightened his jacket, then marched over to the officer with Alana in tow.

"Hello, Officer," he said in a brusque tone. "We're with a private agency in Germany, and we believe this incident is related to a series of killings we've been tracking for several years now. We're going to need you to call your men back, so that we can conduct our investigation."

[Alana Kalb]

It was a little hard for Alana to keep up with Rutger. He was walked quickly to get to the muggle officer, as she would expect him to, but Alana's boots had a bit of a heel on them. Not exactly the most sensible shoes to wear to a crime scene, but Rutger had caught Alana off guard, so she had no time to change them.

As she followed, she looked around to make sure no one had seen them, but everyone seemed so busy. Alana was amazed at how many people were around. She was used to there only being a few people, and she would know them all, for the most part. She found herself staying close to Rutger when she caught up to him, afraid one of the muggles would start yelling at her for standing around. She wouldn't be able to deal with that.

Alana nodded as Rutger was explaining everything. She would take her ID out to show the officer, who didn't seem convinced, like she had seen in muggle movies but decided against it. The officer wouldn't understand it, and Alana didn't want to alert any of the muggles as to what they really were.

"Sir, if you would please leave," Alana said, rephrasing Rutger's request to get the point across, "you and your men may touch something that is crucial without realizing it, and my partner and I have a lot of experience with this. We know what to look for, while you do not." She sounded a lot ruder than she would have wanted to, but she wanted to get the point across.

[Rutger Kilborn]

The officer looked as if he was about to start fighting them, but something about the expression on Rutger's face stopped him. "This is highly irregular," he said. "I'm going to have to clear this with my superiors..."

Rutger's jaw set. Usually, when this happened back home, he knew the right people to refer them to so that they could have their precious "clearance." But he wasn't on his own turf anymore, and this put him at a distinct disadvantage.

"Officer, I'm going to have to insist you call your men back immediately. We are dealing with an extremely dangerous individual here, who has been responsible for killings all across Europe. Now, call your men back, and I am sure someone will arrive soon with the clearance that you need."

The officer hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly. "All right. I'll call them back. But don't think I won't be calling this in."

He picked up a horn-like device that magnified his voice and called out to the officers that were swarming the house to get back to their vehicles immediately. It took a few minutes for all of the officers to vacate the scene, and Rutger shot Alana a look. It was obvious that he was anxious to get in that house.

Soon enough, everyone was out of the house, and Rutger nodded at the officer. "Thank you. We do appreciate your help."

Before the man could respond, however, Rutger was already heading up to the house.

[Alana Kalb]

Alana watched as the officers left the house. They seemed to be moving too slowly, like they really weren't in a hurry to allow Rutger and Alana investigate. She knew they were moving as fast as they could, and she also assumed that it was Rutger's anticipation to get inside the house that Alana was feeling, and thus she was experiencing it, too.

Alana had planned to let the man give a "you're welcome" if he was nice enough, which Alana didn't percieve him to be after she and Rutger practically kicked him off the investigation, but she wasn't going to let Rutger get too far ahead. She felt as if it was going to be a long investigation, and Alana didn't want to wear her feet out now. She kept thinking about her shoes not being right.

"Wow, that was great! All you had to do was look at him and he gave in. Muggles are strange things, aren't they?" Alana said to Rutger as soon as she caught up with him. She took a deep breath before entering the house, mentally preparing herself for what she was going to see.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger stopped at the front door for a moment, staring at the symbol on the door. If he'd had any doubts at all that Kryshna was responsible for this, that damnable symbol would have erased those doubts. It was getting to the point where he saw that symbol in his dreams; that is, when he actually slept. It haunted him.

"He gave up a little too easily, actually," Rutger said distractedly. "I cant say I have great confidence in the local muggle authorities. I hope the Ministry's better. For all he knew, we could have been the killers, coming to clean up after ourselves and destroy evidence."

He sighed again. He wished they had gotten here soon enough to catch Kryshna, but it was clear that they were too late. Again.

He didn't say a word as he pushed the doors open and stepped into the house.

Rutger gave the impression to most people as a cold, unemotional man. And while that might have been true with his personal life, he was actually very passionate about his job, because he did care about people. So a sight like the one that greeted him inside the house was painful to see, even for him. In fact, his reaction to the carnage was purely visceral. The bottom seemed to drop out of his stomach, and for a split second he feared he was going to be sick. He stood, frozen in place, and squeezed his eyes shut while he counted to ten.

"Merlin, I hate her," he mumbled.

Then he opened his eyes and forced himself to concentrate on the work he had to do. The only way he could deal with this kind of horror was to let it take over for 10 seconds, then focus on the task at hand.

[Angelique St. Clare]

(In the interest of moving things along...)

Angelique had heard the call on her own police scanner, but it took her a few minutes to get ready and to contact a few other people to meet her there, including the Leviners and a couple of Obliviators. When she arrived, she saw all the muggle officers standing by their cars, as if they weren't quite sure what to do with themselves.

Approaching a man who looked like he was in charge, Angelique flashed a badge at him. "Hello, I'm from a private agency in London in charge of violent crimes. I have reason to believe that this is related to a case I've been working on--"

"That's what the other guy said, although he said he was from Germany," the officer interrupted. "Are you the one supposed to give clearance? I wasn't sure what to do... he seemed so authoritative.... I just backed down."

"What?" Angelique said, puzzled. "Are you telling me you just let some guy walk in there?"

"Two people, actually. A man and a woman. They said they were from Germany... and that someone would show up to give clearance..."

Angelique sighed. She had nothing against muggles, but sometimes they could be so dense... "All right, you stay back. I'm going in to check on these people. If you have any questions about whether I have clearance, I need you to call Captain Goodwin and tell him Angelique St. Clare was here."

Annoyed, she left the officer and walked up to the house. Whomever these people were, they had not bothered to clear away the Dark Mark before entering, so she paused to wave her wand at it before stepping into the house.

She didn't even look at the carnage--couldn't look at it. Instead, she focused on the two strangers who were walking around the house, examining what they saw.

"OK, give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you two in Azkaban right now," she said, pointing her wand at the man.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger was kneeling on the floor next to one of the bodies, examining the woman's hands. She had put up quite a fight, he could tell, and the realization made him ache for her. She had suffered, she had feared for her life. She had known what was coming and tried to prevent it.

He sighed lightly and began to examine her fingernails, to see if she had perhaps scratched at her killer, leaving behind some kind of physical evidence. But before he could find anything, a loud voice rang out in the eerie silence.

Rutger got to his feet and turned around to face the woman, who was aiming a wand in his direction. Clearly a witch, and one who thought herself of some authority. Her accent was curious... not British, but American, from the sound of it. He frowned for a moment, trying to remember the name of the Head Auror that Minister Corrigan had mentioned in his communications.

"Ms... St. Clare, I presume?" he said, trying to sound polite. "I am Rutger Kilborn, and this is my partner, Alana Kalb. We've been sent from the German Ministry to take over this case."

[Alana Kalb]

Alana was walking around the body that Rutger was examining, trying to look for things he might not have seen right away since he was preoccupied with looking for clues on the body. Even though Alana had been to countless other crime scenes and she knew what Kryshna was capable of, this had to be one of the worst. Alana couldn't bring herself to look at the woman for any longer than a minute without feeling both sick and an immense amount of pity.

Alana looked up when the woman spoke and bit her tongue to stop her from giving the "you know why we're here" speech, and let Rutger do the talking. She didn't want to say anything that would put herself and Rutger in an even worse looking position with the woman.

"We thought you would have been informed about it before now. We have been following these cases closely for a while now." Alana added, putting on a friendly smile. Alana didn't want to try to make any enemies, especially since they would most likely be working closely for a while.

[Angelique St. Clare]

She might have received a memo. But her desk was so piled high with new memos that she might have missed this one. Still, she was annoyed, and being annoyed was the only thing that kept her from having to take in the horror of the scene that lay before her.

"I was not informed of this," she said angrily. "This is my case, I am the head auror here, and therefore, I am in charge. You can't just waltz in here and announce you're taking over. There's protocol. Do you have some kind of paperwork proving who you are?"

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger was getting annoyed, too, but he was doing his best not to show it. He knew perfectly well that he was going to have to be working with this woman, at least to some extent, for the duration of their time here. The last thing he wanted was for there to be tension between them.

"Were you not told?" he said, his brow furrowed. "The German minister arranged it with your Minister... Corrigan, I believe his name is. We were supposed to report to you tomorrow... But when we heard about this, we needed to come and investigate immediately. I--er, my partner and I--have been chasing this killer across Europe, and we are the foremost authorities... Let me see if I have a copy..."

He kept breaking his chain of thought, which was one of the things that tended to drive people crazy about him. But it had occurred to him that he might not have removed the memo from Minister Corrigan from his coat pocket.

And sure enough, there it was; a little crinkled, perhaps, but clear and intact. He produced the letter and handed it to her. "You are welcome, of course, to remain on scene and assist with the investigation, and we will certainly keep you informed of any developments... But really, we must resume our investigation, if you don't mind."

[Alana Kalb]

Alana felt bad for waltzing in to the crime scene and taking over, especially since the woman seemed to have no idea that this was going to happen, but Rutger was right; he and Alana were the experts, for lack of a better word, on these murders, so they had every right to be there, and after all, it wasn't their fault the woman didn't have any word of it.

Alana felt better when Rutger had the paper with him saying they were authorized to take over the investigation. Alana didn't think that she take being an assistant in the case, and not investigating everything herself.

"We're very sorry about this, Ms St. Clare, but you must understand." Alana said. She didn't know how else to apologize to someone after just taking their case away, but she assumed that was the nicest way she could put it. She waited for the letter to be read, and hoped everything would go smoothly, although something told her it probably wouldn't.

[Angelique St. Clare]

Actually, Angelique was relieved. As she stared down at the memo that the man had handed her, she felt like a weight was being lifted from her. She hated this case. It made her sick, gave her nightmares, and she honestly wanted it to go away. She knew that wasn't professional, and usually she was stronger than this... but this case disturbed her, almost as much as the other murder case had--the one which was being handled by Kate and Grayson.

So if these people wanted to handle it, she was more than content to step back and let them do it. Not that she was all that eager to tell them so.

"OK," she said at last, looking up from the note and folding it neatly (something she did without even thinking). "It seems that you have things in order... I'm going to confirm this with Vincent... er, Minister Corrigan, but in the meantime, carry on with your investigation. But if you're going to be working with us here in the British Ministry, you're going to have to check in with me periodically and give me regular reports. And I want a full briefing on the case when you arrive at the Ministry tomorrow. Also, I have two MLE officers on the way, they'll help you gather evidence and clean the scene. They can tell you about the previous murder."

She took a breath and walked out quickly, trying to look like she was angry instead of relieved. She stood outside and leaned against the wall next to the door. The MLE officers and the Obliviators would be arriving next, and she wanted to stay close by to give them instructions.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger watched her go, then shot Alana a look. "That was easier than it could have been," he commented.

He wasn't sure about allowing these MLE officers help with the investigation of the crime scene. He was the sort of man who felt he needed to be part of every little part of the investigation. If there was something he didn't see that was cleaned up or moved by someone else, that might be a piece of evidence that would be overlooked and forgotten. He really only trusted Alana with evidence, and that was a trust that had taken time to build.

He knelt down again, resuming his examination and scraping some residue from the dead woman's fingernails. Merlin, he was tired. He felt it deep down in his bones; it not the kind of exhaustion that could be relieved with sleep, even if he could actually get any. This was the kind of tired that penetrated deep into his soul. This case.... it possessed him. He had to solve it, he had to catch Kryshna, or he would go mad with the effort.