Bloody Roses

White walls, the harsh sickening smell of chemicals and the blinding light coming from a single dangling naked bulb. Los Angeles County Morgue was a morbid place. Tyler lent against the cleanly wiped white counter, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his pants. His dark eyes watched as Coroner Robert Sanders walked around the stainless steel autopsy table, glancing over at the still lifeless body of Sally Gardener.

The body didn't look real. The cold dead milky eyes stared up at the stark white ceiling and parted blue lips breathed no life. The wax like flesh was cold and pale, almost as blue as her clouded cadaverous eyes. A white sheet covered her still body from her shoulders all the way down to her ankles. Corpse like feet poked out from under the sheet, small vines of blue veins arisen from the bloodless skin. The one toe was tagged and its nail was a pale chalk white instead of the usual faint pink. She didn't look real, it didn't look real. The doughy ashen skin looked almost rubbery or made out of wax. More like a dummy than a real dead body. A shell. It was just an empty soulless shell of the former Sally Gardener. This wasn't her.

It wasn't the body that made Tyler's stomach churn. It was the god awful smell. It was sickening, the smell of uncooked chicken if you left it in the heat for a few days. The place was cold. A spine chilling atmosphere to the room left the hairs on the back on Tyler's neck stand on end and goosebumps form up his arms. Everything was stainless steel. The coolers, the autopsy table and even the walls were layered with stainless steel sheeting and the floors stainless steel tiles. A stainless steel sink stood just underneath Sally's stone dead feet. It added to the brumid atmosphere.

"Thank you for coming detectives," The Coroner greeted, moving around the table and looking at the two detectives with cold blue eyes.
Banes nodded, "It's fine Robert, lets see what you got then."
The Coroner nodded, motioning towards the still blood speckled side of Sally's head. "The cause of death was in fact the blow to the head, from the size and depth of the wound, I would say it was most likely the blunt end of an axe. Though, I could be wrong. The time of death was around after 1:00 am," The Corner looked up from his notes.
"Mrs Rosemary said she saw the girl come home around 12:30," Banes spoke up before looking at Tyler. "So it was a good half hour before the killer actually killed Sally then. He couldn't have done it as she came through the door."
"The body was in the middle of the room," Tyler recalled, his focused eyes staring straight a head of him and his brows furrowed as his mind turned.
"It had been moved," Banes reminded Tyler. "There were bloody smears on the floor."
Tyler nodded, looking at Banes. "Coming from the direction of the kitchen. The light switch was by the kitchen, so my guess is she returned home drunk, turned on the lights and went to get a glass of water or something else."
Banes nodded, "And the killer struck once the lights were turned on. But would that really take half an hour?"
Tyler nodded, scratching his chin. "Maybe he did knock at the door then."
"With an axe?"
"Good point and I doubt Sally would have let him in either, taking into account that it was dark and she was heavily drunk," Tyler muttered.
"But she was drunk and with all due respect Jack, this is irrelevant to the investigation. I don't see how this will help us fin-"
Tyler held his hand up, "Banes, the more we know about the incident itself, the closer we get to how this criminal works. If this happens again, then we need to know how he does it. Did he know the victim or did he climb through the window?"

Banes sighed, rubbing his face and removing himself from the counter. "Does it matter? By the looks of things, this was a first time thing. If he were to do it again, which would be unlikely, he would be learning from his mistakes. Whatever he did, it obviously didn't end up too well since the whole place was a mess. Sally couldn't have gone straight to the kitchen because stuff was knocked of the shelves on the other side of the room. The girl obviously put up a fight which was why her death wasn't as clean and cut as the killer might have hoped. Sally saw the man before he killed her, she might have turned on the lights at first but that doesn't mean he made the first move while she was in the kitchen. He must have hacked at her a little first while she was still alive because the blood was all up the walls," Banes took a breath, his hands falling behind his sides. "Why he moved the body? Who knows. He probably did it to make more of a scene, it's more effective if the body is in the middle of the room. And maybe it was to connect the body with the rose more-"

"If it helps detective," The Coroner suddenly spoke up. "I tested the blood on the rose. And it didn't match Sally Gardener's."
Tyler looked up at that, staring at the Coroner. "What?" He asked in disbelief. "How could that be? The room was covered in her blood! Who else's would it have been?"
The Coroner sighed, pursing his thin lips together. He was an old man, been working as a Coroner for 25 years now. A soft yet firm voice to go with a soft yet firm face. His skin looked healthy for someone his age, with just a few wrinkles fanning his icy blue eyes and tightening his pale mouth. He had a crooked nose and looked like it had been broken at some point. His hair had thinned down to silvery white wisps smoothed down over his pale spotted head and his eyes were shadowed with dark bags.
"It wasn't just Sally's blood detective. The blood by the door? Some of that was someone else's," The Coroner informed Tyler. "In fact, the blood by the door and the blood on the rose matched."
"Some of it?" Tyler asked, licking his lips.
"Specks of it had been Sally's, my guess is that it was either from his clothes or he left with the murder weapon and hadn't bothered to clean it afterwards. And his own blood," The Coroner shrugged, "Well, he decided to cut himself and put it on the rose himself."
"It might not be the murderer's own blood," Tyler pointed out.
The Coroner shrugged, "Well, I guess that's for you to find out detective. There was an awful lot of blood on that rose I might add."
"Too much for him to have cut himself?" Banes asked.
"Well, not exactly. But it was a lot of blood," The Coroner explained. "This isn't some paper cut we're talking about."
Tyler nodded, "So our murderer will have a deep cut somewhere on his body them?"
The Coroner nodded, "Most likely, yes. And it would be pretty deep too."

Tyler nodded, removing himself from the counter. "Is that all?" He asked the Coroner who shook his head.
"Not exactly detective," The Coroner replied and Tyler raised an eyebrow. The Coroner walked round the table, approaching the body and folding back the sheets a little to expose her arm. He motioned towards her bloodless wrist, "There are a few small bruises and scratches around this one wrist. This could be from a result of someone yanking a bracelet or bangle off with force. From the scratches, I'd say it maybe has loose beads or charms."
Banes nodded. "Thanks Robert, you've been a big help," He thanked The Coroner, tipping his hat a little as he turned to leave.
Tyler nodded at the Coroner, following Banes out of the morgue.

The sun was setting and the sky had turned to a watercolour of splashed faded reds. The heat was cooling, yet, Tyler could still feel it radiating on the back of his neck and causing his shirt to cling to his clammy back. The morgue had been cold and chilled, the heat outside was like walking into an open oven. The streets were crowded with milling people walking home from work, some would recognize Banes and Tyler from the newspaper and would either smile sweetly at them or hurry past.

Tyler climbed into the passenger seat of the car while Banes took the wheel, sitting into the soft leather chair and feeling the stuffy humid heat stick to his skin. The car was even worse; A metal body sitting in the blazing LA heat. Tyler wiped his brow, staring out ahead of him at the sun baked street. He watched the heat radiate in the distance, shimmering little waves reflecting off the road.
"So, are we going to Howard Jones' house next?" Tyler asked, removing his hat and smoothing down his thick dark hair before placing it back on his head.
Banes shook his head, "No, we're going there tomorrow. I've got to run a few errands and Howard's house is at least an hour's drive away. I'll drop you off at home," Banes explained and Tyler nodded, rolling down the window and not asking anymore questions.

Tyler walked through the front door of his house, finally removing his hat and tweed jacket before walking through the hallway. Feeling relieved from the feverous heat and relaxed from such a tiring day at work.
"Diana?" He called, "Honey, I'm home."
Tyler walked through to the kitchen, placing his coat and hat on the table and the smell of lamb pie filled his nose. Diana stood by the hob, her lush long brown hair swept up into a tight bun. She was wearing her favourite floral green dress which came just bellow her knees and slimmed down towards her waist.
"I was just making you some dinner, did you find anything on that case?" She asked him, not looking up from her cooking.
Tyler loosened his tie, walking over to his wife and wrapping his arms around her slim waist. He kissed her neck softly, causing her to look up from what she was doing and turn to face him, smiling sweetly.
"We think we've got our guy, well, Detective Banes thinks we have him," Tyler muttered against the satin soft skin of her neck.
"Mhmm, are the two of you still not getting on then?" She asked him.
"No," Tyler said, resting his chin on her head, being able to smell her fresh shampoo and sweet perfume. "It's just because he's more experienced and the man is just months away from retirement. He doesn't think I'm that cut out for the homicide desk."
Diana turned round so Tyler could see her face. She had soft features, a small chin, fine lips and thin slightly arched eyebrows. Diana had huge olive green eyes, matching well with her sun kissed skin from hours of working in the garden and dark curly hair that was normally down just past her shoulders if it was not tightened into a bun.

"How do you know it isn't the guy who did it?" She asked him, straightening out his collar a little and wrapping her arms around his neck.
Tyler shook his head, "I have a hunch. They were dating, he loved her but she didn't love him back. The parents say he was spineless and couldn't stick up for himself while Banes is saying he had the guts to slice his own girlfriend up. Now who am I going to believe? Her parents would have known the boy more. Banes is just assuming because of his past cases."
"And you're denying him because you have a hunch?" Diana smiled, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know Diana, Banes is on the right track I guess. I mean, we have no other suspects and hardly any evidence. This is a murderer who left us nothing but a flower and a bloody mess, I guess Howard is our only hope."
"Give Banes a chance. He's your new partner, remember how it was when you started off on the burglary desk? It took weeks for you and Malcolm to finally get along with each other. And he was no where near as welcoming as Banes has been."
Tyler snorted, "I could hardly call him welcoming Diana, the first thing he said to me when we were assigned as partners was, "Dozens of cases solved in all departments, the LAPD's finest detective and this is the partner they give me?", he wasn't very friendly," Tyler sighed.
"But he was the finest detective around and he is rather clever. And you don't agree with him about Howard?"
Tyler shook his head, "I don't know until we see him tomorrow."
"How about now?" She asked.
"Right now? I don't think it was him."