Detective Archer Finn wrinkled his nose at the stench. Burning flesh smelt more like a barbeque gone wrong, very wrong in this case. When you were a detective like him and you worked such cases, you learnt to forsake barbeques entirely. He stared at the charred corpse of a human according to cursory examinations from the medical examiner, Amanda Brown, a name not suited for a person who spent most of her time cutting up dead bodies. He looked at the broken window then the carpet and then finally allowed himself to critically look at her.
The "her" was shaking like a leaf on the floor where she remained persistently rooted and had refused to respond despite the fervent attempts by Archer's partner, Detective Rukelle Savanna to get her to talk. She wore a neon pink lace nightgown which made him wonder if she was expecting someone for some steamy action under the sheets. Did he run away like a coward who couldn't protect her?
Archer mentally slapped himself to get back to the task at hand but not before he allowed himself to get entranced by her hair. It was extraordinarily white and curly and stretched down to her sweaty back. It was beautiful and his body was betraying him by responding. He imagined white hair pooled on his pillow. Another mental slap. Archer chided himself to get back to work.
Crime scene techs swarmed the entire apartment which was very flamboyantly decorated. Everything seemed neon; even the walls were painted neon green as though she was having trouble with her sight or she simply wanted everything to stand out. The M.E hovered over the body doing countless prelims. Archer walked over to the M.E and played the friend card so that he could get exclusive access to the preliminary deductions.
"Unofficially, the victim appears to be a female. The hair's been singed off but basing on the general amount of tissue and general appearance I would bet that on further testing, my findings won't be much different."
"Age? Time and cause of death?" Archer asked
"Age ranges from 18-24 but my bet is around 20. For time and cause of death, I will need to do more tests. But ofcourse all this is unofficial and is subject to change." Amanda said as her crew got ready to take the charred remains to the van that was waiting outside.
Archer walked to Rukelle and they split the tasks at hand. One, was interrogating the shell shocked owner of the apartment turned crematorium whom Archer soon learned from his partner that she was Dr. Emilia Gardiner, a behavioral psychologist who worked in the state referral hospital in a grande state building that was a major waste of tax payers' money. Task number two, was getting eye witness reports from the neighbours on how the body got there. Personally Archer was hoping to find a nosy old neighbor who had binoculars specifically for spying on the "neon themed " doctor.
Archer lost the coin toss so he got to interrogate Dr. Emilia. This would be fun. As Rukelle left to get the witness reports, Archer prepared himself for battle.
He introduced himself to her and she merely stared ahead at where the body used to be. Not a grunt of recognition. Just...... nothing. They should teach interrogating shell shocked women as a topic in the police academy because he didn't know what to do at this point.
"Emilia?" she faced him and he immediately regretted it. She had a hollow blank but crystalline blue stare. The same stare he saw in the mirror every morning. Archer was overwhelmed and turned away.
"It can't be him because I killed him." she choked out the words. She was shaking violently again. This caught Archer's attention. Archer was worried she would get a seizure.
"What do you mean?" he replied and just like that she clammed up. Something skittered over her face and she squared her shoulders lifted her chin in an open act of defiance.
"What happened here?" Archer asked, trying a different approach. He busied himself with getting out his notebook and squiggling lines in his notebook because the doctor didn't seem to be in the talking mood. If she was going to be stubborn, Archer was ready to prove that he was willing to be more stubborn.
Archer was about to raise the white flag when Emilia started, "I–I was asleep on the bed and I-I heard a sound–"
"Let me get you a glass of water." Archer said and he walked to the kitchen. He picked a glass from the ones that were drying in a rack and filled it with water from the tap. He came back and found Emilia rocking herself on the chair.
She knocked back the water like one does with whiskey and continued, "When I came to check, I found...it. I ran to the window to check and I saw a black sedan turning down the road."
"Did you see the number plates?" Archer asked as he turned a new page in his notebook. This time he was prepared to write down something useful.
"No, the car was gone before I made out any of the numbers." Emilia said.
Archer took out a card from his pocket and pushed it into Emilia's shaking hands. He was surprised she didn't drop it entirely.
He stood up to leave and was stopped by a disturbance outside. There was shouting coming from outside the doctor's apartment. Archer drew his gun and prepared to open fire.
A tall dark haired man with the worst haircut Archer had seen burst in and ran immediately towards the doctor and Archer was immediately and unreasonably angered by the way they embraced each other. He was a married man after all and therefore he shouldn't feel this way. Mrs. Finn probably wouldn't care as long as she got money for her shopping sprees in Spain and wherever else became famous according to celebrities.
A sturdy looking woman came in a few moments later. Her voluptuous breasts stretched her immaculate dress and her shiny brown shoulder length hair was stunning. She looked like a modern day farm woman. The kind that moved around with short sticks to smack kids around that went astray. She could pass for a high school chaperone or headmistress. The farm woman was followed by a man who resembled the dark haired guy. Only difference was that he was more mascular and an inch taller. He probably gymed a lot but in this day and age, his muscle could have been attributed to a healthy doze of steroids. They formed a mini conference in the living room and from the looks of it Emilia wasn't staying here tonight. She was cajoled into packing an overnight bag and leaving.
Emilia went to her room and returned with a stuffed black overnight bag. She did the unthinkable by hugging Archer. Archer did his best to hide the shock that paralysed his features. He also did his best not to smile like a goofy teenager.
He was even more surprised as he read the note she had stuffed in his back pocket that simply read in a girlish scroll.
Elaine Barker, 2010, Mattapan,
YOU ARE READING
Perfect Imperfections
Mystery / Thriller|UNDER HEAVY EDITING | 1 of 27 parts fully edited Eight years ago, a twenty year old girl vanished from her best friend's birthday party at a seemingly luxurious hotel. The whole town of Mattapan looked for her for three weeks but after that.... not...
