Who murdered Mr.Plantak?-Part 1

Part 1

"It's human!" shouted Branimir with obvious terror in his voice. He froze with disbelief in his eyes.

"That skull...it's human..." he whispered as he was slowly backing up from the cause of his fear. It was as if he was trying to erase what he was looking at by changing the place where he was standing. Then he froze again and mumbled something.

"What is it now?" asked his buddies with laughter appearing in the corner of their mouths thinking he was kidding with them. Who could blame them? A few seconds ago, suddenly he left his beer and just walked away from the front of the little store where they were hanging out, joking, drinking beer. They hadn't noticed the big black Croatian Sheepdog that came with something hanging from his mouth moments ago, as Branimir did.

"What is it?" they repeated with suspicion and curiosity when their friend didn't respond to their question. Branimir was silent once again, standing in front of the dog. They couldn't quite see what he was looking at, but as their interest grew rapidly, they decided to walk up to him.

"If this is some kind of a joke, I swear, you are buying us beer the whole next week!" said Zvonimir jokingly as they were coming closer to Branimir. When they saw what he was looking at, their smile washed away. Josip almost threw up, while Zvonimir's hand lightly let go of the beer, causing it to smash in pieces. For them time froze. But, that loud noise woke Branimir up from a hypnotized like state and he immediately took his phone out of his pocket. He called the police.

* * *

"Gentlemen!" yelled a man.

Ladislav and Domagoj turned around. They saw a man in shorts and sneakers a few feet behind them.

"Please, stay where you are. Wait for me!" the man continued. They stopped walking.
"He is definitely not dressed for this forest", thought Domagoj. "What does he want from us?" thought Ladislav as they were waiting for the man to catch up with them.

"Thank you! Listen, could you look inside that cabin in the woods there?" he asked and pointed to the wooden cabin deeper in the forest, where the grass was tall and filled with snakes and other wild animals.

"See, I'd do it myself, but I'm not dressed properly," he said and bowed his head, looking at his shorts and sneakers. They all looked at his outfit. While he was dressed really fashionable, the outfit wasn't designed for the challenges this forest would have for it.

Ladislav and Domagoj were visibly unsure if they would do what the man had asked them. You could practically read the confusion and, I would dare to say, fear of this strange man on their faces. Domagoj decided to break the awkward silence that spread through the forest like a wildfire.

"May I ask who you are? And, why do you want us to search this cabin?" he asked the man, hoping to find more information about this weird request. Domagoj and Ladislav were now looking directly in his eyes, waiting for his response. The man hesitated for a few moments, but when he saw there was no way they were going to do anything without a response, he said "Okay...listen, I'm a police officer from the police station in Rijeka. I'm here on duty...I'm not from here; this is the first time I'm here. Since I didn't know how dirty this forest actually is, I didn't dress well..." he said and looked down, as if he felt really foolish because of his mistake. "Do you know what happened earlier this week? The reason-I'm here?"

Domagoj and Ladislav looked at each other with an expression that would translate to "Do you know what he is talking about? I haven't the slightest idea." They replied with a simple "No" hoping that a short answer would keep the man talking.

"Well, a local dog, that is mostly seen wandering around this forest, brought a skull to a local store, that's down there...in the village," the officer said with confidence seen in his gesture. He pointed towards Lovran, a small town on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.

"And now...we are searching the forest for the rest of the body," he continued.

Even though Domagoj and Ladislav were still a little suspicious, Ladislav said: "Alright, we'll help you. We will search the cabin for a body."

As he finished the sentence, he and Domagoj stepped deeper into the forest. The grass was really hard to walk through. They were in front of the cabin. You could see it was really old, and that weather had really worn it out. The doors were opened slightly. They entered.

On the right, there was a simple kitchen made out of a tiny fridge, a stove and a sink with a tap. Right next to it, there was a bed, with no sheets, no mattress and not even a pillow. And then, there it was, on the left side of the doors, lying on the floor in an expensive tuxedo was what appeared to be a body with no head.