Ashes

Brian Haner Jr. gazed up at the ceiling not wanting to get off his bed even though he had to. He looked over to the woman sleeping next to him. He had to wake her up. He contemplated leaving her note telling her to lock the door when she left but he couldn’t just leave her in his house. He barely even knew her. He reached over and brushed the hair off her face. She wasn’t as beautiful as he thought she was but the effect of the alcohol and the stress of week had shown him otherwise.

Brian gently tapped her shoulder.

“Hmm,” she said slowly waking up.

“I have to leave,” he started putting on his best apologetic look. “You have to leave too.”

Her eyes widened in anger.

"So that's it?" she asked incredulously. "You just fuck me and ask me to leave?"

"I'm sorry," he said even though there was not one once of remorse in him.

"Save it for someone who cares," she said as she got up to look for her clothes."Asshole."

She gathered the various items which were strewn over the floor and quickly put them on. Before he knew it she was out the door. She didn’t even tell him goodbye and he really didn’t care. He hoped that they would never meet again. He didn’t even know her name.

Getting his cue from her, Brian got up then quickly showered and dressed racing to Ashby Avenue where they were waiting for him.

When he arrived at the scene he flashed his police credentials then got through the police barriers and walked up to his partner Detective Zachary Baker.

“What’s the situation here Zack?” Brian asked.

“We’ve got another one,” he announced. “Female, Caucasian, thirty years old named Rosemarie Thornton. She owned ‘The Thorny Rose’ down on Mason Street.”

“Same perp?” Brian asked.

“Looks to be that way,” Zack stated solemnly.

Brian took a deep breath before making his way to investigate the corpse. He hated this part of his police work. He hated the look and the stench of dead bodies. They still made his stomach churn but he was a professional and no one knew of his weakness.

He followed Zachary to the side door of the house. Brian looked down at the steps and saw the woman covered in a blood stained white sheet. The forensics team had not arrived yet. He was careful not to disturb anything while he lifted the sheet with his glove clad hand to view the body. She lay there in the same clothes she wore to work that day. She looked normal except for the long cut she had across her neck. It looks like she had bled to death. The perpetrator must have severed the carotid.

Brian looked down then noticed a large pool of blood near the victim’s waist. This didn’t look like it had all come from the wound on the neck. Maybe there was another one? He looked around and wondered if anyone had noticed this. They didn’t. The wound wasn’t to her stomach so it must be on her back. He couldn’t turn her around until the forensics people had arrived. He would have to look at that later.

Brian stood then walked over to the woman’s car. He pulled out a flashlight then shone it through the windows. Everything seemed to be where Ms. Thornton had left it. Nothing seemed to be stolen. He put on a fresh pair of gloves then opened the door. It was unlocked. That was strange. Wouldn’t she have locked the car on her way to the house? He pointed the flashlight along the seats and dashboard looking for anything out of the ordinary. He found none. The perp must have used the victim’s keys to get in because the lock wasn’t jimmied. That’s if the perp even went in the car at all. Mrs. Thornton could have just forgotten to lock the door on her way in.

He closed the door not wanting to contaminate the evidence even more. The forensics team had finally arrived. He would let them do a sweep of the car before he drew any conclusions.

After spending an hour investigating the crime scene, Brian was beginning to doubt that this was the work of the same killer as the one from two weeks ago. This one was so clean and calculated. The first killing was messy and the medical examiner found a few hesitation marks on the first victim. This one didn’t seem like there were any. He didn’t rule out the same killer; it could just mean that that he was getting more confident. That prospect frightened him. They could have a serial killer amidst them.