Friday 6 September 2019
Once the four get together and cautiously share information, they speculate about the possibility of a second cat. Looking again at the claw marks at the airport seems like a good idea, but by now it’s about four on Friday morning; they agree to meet later in the day. The body of the cat is left in the back of Juan’s borrowed car, on the basis that it’ll be stolen soon (“hey dude, free car”).
(9 October 2019)
Juan crashes at Natasha’s place; she works some magic before retiring.
Once everyone’s had some sleep, Jesus reports in to let the community leaders know that while the immediate problem may be over there seems to be more behind it. He also cobbles together an electrified net launcher.
As Natasha’s about to leave the school for the day, one of the other teachers tells her there’s a protest about biology teaching, focused mostly on her. She borrows some clothes from lost property and drives out in mild disguise; nobody tries to stop her, though she is being filmed on phones.
At the airport, Jesus stays groundside ready to provide a distraction, Juan (having bought appropriate props) goes in as a cleaner, and Ruth drives Natasha in the style of a minor celebrity (“hey, weren’t you on that show? With that guy?”). The claw marks are on one of the cargo buildings, used mostly by FedEx to trans-ship between planes and trucks.
Natasha works a vision of the event. This was at 23.17 on Monday, and involved a Chevy Silverado with a cage in the back; a man and a woman got out, lifted the somewhat dopey panther (the man straining, the woman not), and got it to swipe at the building. There’s no trace of magic. The tyre tracks Ruth found are consistent with that vehicle (as well as some other similar trucks).
As Juan has been talking with the FedEx workers, there’s been mention of “Miguel”, who hasn’t turned up for his last few shifts. He’s been fired, of course, but some people seem to be worried about him. Juan picks out a familiar scent among the aviation fuel and other smells, and follows it to a drainage ditch by Taxiway Q, where there’s a body in FedEx uniform. Natasha and Ruth follow, and Natasha and Ruth conduct a thorough hands-off examination. The body’s three or four days dead (Natasha puts time of death at 23.03 on Monday), and has clearly been the victim of an animal attack; wounds are consistent with the panther. However, he didn’t die here, the actual cause of death looks like exsanguination, and some of the claw marks are detectably post-mortem. Ruth, who seems to know quite a bit about these things, finds the remains of puncture marks on the neck.
Ruth and Natasha report the body… and spend the next six hours being interviewed by airport security guards, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and some TSA screeners who didn’t want to miss out on the action. Juan does a cleaning shift, and doesn’t learn much, though none of the cleaners has suddenly vanished in the last week.