"Here we have Noa, Corton, and Sirguey."
Enid placed the laptop in front of everyone, an Instagram profile filling the screen, a photo of a young man holding a hunting rifle. He wasn't important; what mattered were the three men surrounding him, three older men, one wearing a baseball cap, one smoking, and another with overly long hair.
"So these three victims knew each other?" (Ajax)
"More than knowing each other, they were a hunting group, quite a recurring one." (Enid)
Enid's fingers moved down the keyboard, and there was another photo, now with four people posing with a deer at their feet: Noa, Corton, Sirguey, and David, who was proudly holding his Winchester rifle on his shoulder.
"So that's the connection. I tried to find some social media profiles for any of them, but I couldn't find anything." (William)
William gave Enid an affectionate smile. Apparently, social media was Enid's territory. She spent a lot of time on it, more than William would have liked.
"How did you find them?" (Divina)
Divina also began searching through the profile photos.
"Ahem..."
Enid cleared her throat and smiled with some pride.
"Apparently none of the group had social media accounts, they were elderly gentlemen, but Nao has a son our age. A few days ago I saw him at Veleta, wearing the same leather cap as his father." (Enid)
"He is handsome, Scott Hedar." (Divina)
Divina selected one of the most recent photos, in which the young Scott attended his father's funeral and posted a selfie with a dedication. I remember how he used to take me hunting when I was younger, my happy moments.
"It's strange, they looked very close in these photos, but the last photo of the group was three years ago, then there's nothing, just photos of Scott." (Yoko)
Yoko was a little more thorough, reviewing the photos one by one, and the last one was from three years ago, which was strange.
"The police found no connection between the victims because the group disbanded three years ago, enough time for most people to forget about the group." (Ajax)
"We have to take into account that the police are looking for a bear, a wild animal, not a murderer, so it's normal that they weren't so thorough when looking for something to connect them." (William)
"According to the police, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time." (Divina)
"Hey, I think we have the unknown gentleman." (Yoko)
Yoko enlarged the last photo of the group. In it, none of them looked dressed for hunting. The six members of the group are in a bar, sitting at a round table, each holding a glass of beer.
"From left to right, we have Noa, Corton, Sirguey, Sam, and David. This must be the unknown gentleman."
Yoko's finger pointed to the last man in the photo. It wasn't Scott. He was part of the group, a hunter dressed in a black bearskin coat.
"Now we have a face, we just need a name." (William)
"The coat is nice, it matches the cap." (Enid)
Enid's words sparked an idea in William's mind, and he quickly began searching through the drawers of his desk.
"What are you looking for?" (Ajax)
"This!" (William)
"A key ring?" (Ajax)
"A keyring made from a bear's claw was found at the scene where the body was discovered. Each of them had an item made from a part of a bear." (William)
"Noa had a cap, the unknown gentleman had a coat." (William)
"David's gun holster looks like it's made of animal skin." (Yoko)
"Sam seems to have a new knife sheath." (Divina)
Divina enlarged the photo as much as she could. Sam's waist had a new sheath for his hunting knife. Apparently, it was his favourite, as in every photo with a freshly hunted animal, he held it proudly.
"Sirguey doesn't seem to have anything." (Ajax)
"It may have been a small accessory that can't be seen in the photo, like the key ring Will found. We have five out of six, so we can assume he definitely had one." (Enid)
"Now let's try to link it to the Black Demon rumour. We have a black-furred animal in all three versions: in Jericho's rumour, in Nevermore's, and according to witnesses, what attacked David was a bear as black as night." (William)
"They believe that David and his hunting party caught the black demon three years ago and took its skin, just like in the rumour." (Ajax)
"We'll simply check if any of them had a stroke of luck since Scott uploaded the last photo until now." (Divina)
Each of them took out their phones, Enid took William's laptop, and William took out his tablet, which he used to look at photos of the unusual beasts he had hunted, when it came time to capture his version in an oil painting. There he had stored the most recent ones, the three-coloured centipedes he had hunted several days ago.
"I found something, Noa. She survived a collision with a deer a couple of kilometres away from Jericho. The local newspapers called it a miracle. The front of the car was completely destroyed, but Noa was unharmed." (Enid)
Enid was the first to find something that could be considered a stroke of good luck for someone in David's group.
"I've got something. Sam won a raffle for a new truck. He only had to buy one ticket to win." (Yoko)
"Nothing from Sirguey." (Ajax)
"I didn't find anything from Corton either." (Divina)
"What about you, Will? Did you find anything?" (Ajax)
"I think I found the name of the unknown gentleman." (William)
William held up his tablet screen for everyone to see. An article from a local news site announced the winner of the lottery jackpot, Renee Byers, who was the same person who appeared with the other five members of David's hunting group.
30 minutes later - William's New Study.
"To recap, David and his group have this hunting party, they encounter the black demon, kill it, skin it, and each of them keeps an object made from its body, just as the legend dictates." (William)
"For reasons unknown to us, the group split up three years ago, leaving behind a final photo of them all in a bar. In the following years, each of them had a moment of great luck: one won the lottery, another miraculously survived a car crash." (William)
"Some time later, three years to be exact, each of them died and were partially devoured by a wild bear." (William)
"David miraculously survives the attack despite his serious injuries and is hospitalised." (William)
"To find out exactly what happened three years ago, we need to talk to someone who was there." (William)
"David?" (Ajax)
"I don't think that's going to be possible. David died four days ago. His injuries weren't the problem; the problem was an unknown poison in his system. The doctors believe it came from the animal that attacked him." (Divina)
"How do you know that?" (Yoko)
About thirty minutes had passed since the group of friends had begun to investigate the case of the man-eating bear. William's pizza had completely disappeared, and even Ajax's gift doughnuts had been devoured. He only got two.
Divina had to leave the group. She had received a call from her parents. They had to discuss something regarding her studies.
"I called the hospital, and the manager may have mistakenly believed that I was her daughter."
Divina sat down next to Enid and Yoko on the soft carpet, but not before taking off her black shoes.
"If it's a wild beast, can't you just track its scent in your wolf form, Will?" (Enid)
"I already tried that, but the scent suddenly disappears, or more accurately, it changes and then I lose it." (William)
"If it's a wild beast, it must find its prey somehow. An experienced hunter camouflages his scent with deer urine and things like that." (William)
"Do you think David and his group would do things like that?" (Ajax)
"It's most likely. I heard that David was an experienced hunter. He had hunted other bears that attacked humans before, so I have no doubt that he would have taught his previous group." (William)
"Then it's simple!" (Yoko)
Everyone turned to look at Yoko, who was taking some blood from a glass bottle.
"Blood, a small cut when shaving, a nosebleed, or even an insect bite, that must have led the bear to its targets." (Yoko)
"Blood, since the Bear doesn't know that David is dead, a little of his blood would be enough to lure him to a specific place, and even if he realises it's a trap, he'll come." (William)
"Three years of waiting to start hunting, he must have a very important reason for it." (William)
"On another note, if this is an official document, shouldn't there be photos of the bodies and such?" (Ajax)
Ajax was curious; there were no such photos on William's board. He had seen his oil paintings and knew that blood did not bother him.
"Enid can't stand that kind of thing, and I don't find it pleasant either. They're in the third drawer of my desk, in a red folder. I'll throw them away after the police catch the Bear." (William)
"You can take a look if you're curious." (William)
Divina, Yoko, and Ajax took out the folder, glanced at it, and quickly closed it again.
"Enough." (Ajax)
"I shouldn't have seen that." (Yoko)
"How disgusting." (Divina)
(I should go to the morgue for some of David's blood... or I could hire someone to do it for me.) (William)