There were a few shards of glass left in the mirror. Her left eye stared at her, pupil dilated in fear. Her skin was covered in goose bumps. She pulled a towel off the wall and wrapped her hand with it, trying to ignore her growing sense of panic and the growing uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. Again something caught her attention; this time, the mirror. It had been punched out in the center, but not with a fist. The wood behind it was stamped with two footprints, like someone had kicked it in. But how could someone kick it in using both feet? Marcia thought about it for a second, and then leaned over, carefully placing both hands on the towel to avoid cutting herself on more glass.
It would have to be like this, she reasoned. To break the mirror with her feet, she would have to do it like this; like a goat, or a horse, or a… she glanced at the man’s ears. Like a donkey. It was completely crazy, she knew, but this man had obviously been in a state of dementia when he died. What other explanation could there be for the fake ears, the foot prints, the…the… standing up, she knew there was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, she squatted down next to the man, once again lifting his shirt, forcing herself to face what had scared her in the first place. Pulling down his pants a little, Marcia looped her index finger around it and pulled, and from his pants emerged just what she expected… and feared. Brown, about seven inches long, not fully formed but already with a long tassel on the end. It was incredibly realistic, but still, she reasoned, it must be a prosthetic like the ears. This man was clearly very deprived, some sort of maniac fetishist. What sort of freak actually wanted to be a donkey?
Marcia’s stomach suddenly cramped again. The thought of this whole case was disgusting… she could picture the man, with his fake ears and tail, braying and hawing while another man mounted him from behind. Walking out of the room, she sat on the edge of the man’s bed, pulling out her cell phone to call another detective. She couldn’t do this case alone; it was just too weird, and she really didn’t feel well.