A Midwinters Morn Mystery, The End

Just in case I didn’t make it clear – the fences involved are those 6 ft “privacy” fences.

That said:

Friday afternoon Stephen and I head out to the alley through my yard. We’re walking along, heads down as we scan the concrete for signs of blood. We get as far as Moses’ back yard when I see out of the corner of my eye Stephen stopping suddenly.
“Shit.”
I glance up. In front of us, where the alley takes a curve, stands a brown pit bull.
“Stephen, turn around slowly. No sudden moves. Do not, and I repeat, do not run. Walk calmly back to the gate and don’t make eye contact. Keep your head down.” Forget about me, if Stephen gets hurt I’ll never forgive myself. I’ve known this kid since he was in diapers and used to come over to watch my dad work in the garage. “Up grandpa” he’d say, and dad would lift him up onto a stool to watch. My second thought went to the feral kittens in my yard. We’d left the gate open. Intellectually, I knew that the babies would head for the hole under the house where the pit bull couldn’t catch them, but I feared for them anyway. The dog trailed up next to us and I glanced over at him under my lashes. There were letters tattoo on its side, the same kind of gang graffiti I’d seen in other areas of town. A chill went down my back. We reached the gate and went on into the yard, slamming the door behind us. I expelled the breath I’d been holding.
“Well, that was fun.”
We walked through the yard and into the front, discussing theories back and forth. As we stood there I heard barking. Looking up we watched as this ‘little yippy dog’ (that’s what we call it) that lives at a house on the corner chased the pit bull across the street, nipping at its heels. The.pit.bull.was.running.from.a.little.yippy.dog. Stephen and I looked at each other and just started laughing. But you know, we were still smart to be careful. How did we know the pit bull was a coward?
Nothing, there had been no blood in the alley. So here’s our theory. No cats. While it’s true that the cats could have (and do) go over those fences, the lack of blood on the tree and the fact that they didn’t go under the fence as usual pretty much ruled them out. Although they could leap over a spot and land, then jump back, we still didn’t think it was a cat. Dog? Not over the 6 ft fences. Even with a ladder in one spot. So that leaves humans. At least two. We believe a fight broke out in the alley (or even Moses’ yard), they chased each other over the fences (each other would be if there were more than 2), around the cars. One ran toward my ramp - might have fallen or was tackled, either way one fell with a hand outstretched (possibly the hand they had been using to stem the flow of blood from a broken nose) and that hand landed on the ceramic cat (the distance would have been about right for a tall person). He then scrambled up the ramp and off the end, heading towards Gwen’s house. This would also explain the blood going to two different directions. We theorize that a car came down the street, the fight broke up and they split, one up the street, one down.
The police, btw, think it was an animal. Brian, Debbie’s next older son had called them that night after he got home and was told what happened. They were only there for a few minutes, made a cursory look around and then left. Yeah, an animal. Flying dogs. Or maybe that kangaroo.

What do you think?

Yep, that’s right, we don’t know what happened. This is a choose your own adventure. Debbie and the boys could sleep through a tornado, and my bedroom is in the back of the house, with fans blowing. All I know is that my cats had gone a bit nuts somewhere around 11:00 p.m. – I know, because I was on the running track. But I was too tired to get out of bed and see what was bothering them. Now I wish I had. Who knows what I would have seen?