The Life of the Wife

Chapter two

CHAPTER TWO

DET. MORRIS

*please note this chapter is in the point of view of someone else, so dont get confused!

I pushed myself to the limit when it came to working out at the gym, when i thought i was going to collapse from exhaustion id keep pushing five minutes more. When i placed a foot onto the ground off the treadmill my bones almost forgot to work, but i balanced myself with my other foot. Walking felt like almost alien to my body after running in one spot. I dragged my tired body into the shower and burst the hot water to my sweaty skin, the water felt amazing; every drop so hot it almost felt like an enjoyable burn.
i wiped the steam from the mirror and looked at myself; i was getting old; so many wrinkles on my tan, thirty-two year old face. I applied brown eyeliner to my water line matching my chocolate coloured eyes. i smiled to myself a smile i could only explain as my mothers smile; content.
it was a normal day at the precinct, I mostly did paperwork which I didn't mind; it kept me busy and I didn't have to go out and do field work. After a really bad string of murders almost ten years ago it was hard to see a dead body in person. I was only young and thought I could handle it but when the fortieth body was dragged out of what could be best described as a hole in the ground I was best friends with my bucket. Bodies were just thrown in like rubbish on trash day in a home built cave on the mans property where he raised his family. After it was over I was a regular patient for the precinct psychiatrist. I'd finally got better and found myself a nice desk job, helping other detectives with their cases from behind the tape. I was good at my job. I was worried the new Captain would take away my kushy lifestyle and give me an ultimatum; work the entire job; or find a new career, which I wasn't sure if I was ready for yet.
My fears came to life when she stumbled in. The young woman couldn't have been more than twenty and she was in terrible condition; her skin was bruised so bad it almost looked black and her face was swollen and had cuts all over. Her ripped clothes were covered in dry and fresh blood so we knew it was worse underneath. Her words trembled and crackled but they were clear: 'help me, I'm being tortured.'

We called the ambulance and because I was the one that caught her fall I was the one immediately put on the case. There was no time to argue. She moaned in pain throughout the drive to the hospital, falling in and out of consciousness.
'Do you know what happened to her?' The medic in the back with me was softly searching her body for any major wounds as well as dressing the obvious ones.
'She has said a few things, but nothing too concrete. I'm supposed to question her when she's more alert.' I tried not to mumble my words and sound confident. It had been a while since I'd been in a situation like this, I didn't want to show my fear.

The hospital smelled like bleach and sanitiser. They wheeled her into a room and I sat in an old waiting room. The coffee was stale and the seats were cold and uncomfortable but I seen it as an opportunity to pre write some questions. Just writing them down was nerve racking. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I checked the caller I.d, it was Marian, my wife.
'I heard you got a case! I'm so happy!' She almost screamed with excitement, she never understood why it took me this long to get over something that happened a decade ago, for an openly minded gay woman, she seemed pretty close minded about my post traumatic stress.
'Marian, I didn't want to do this and now I'm stuck in the middle of it! I want to call the captain and get jerry on this one. He is better with this kind of thing.'
'Frieda rose Morris you stop that insecurity right now and step up to the plate; this is your time to shine!' I hated when she used my whole name, but she was right, maybe I was just too used to desk work, maybe I was ready.
We exchanged our love after she convinced me to stick with it and I hung up the phone just in time for the doctor to tell me that Amelia, the young girl was ready to be spoken to.
The room was just a cubicle with a thick blue curtain for the door. Amelia was already in tears but when she looked up at me her face lit up with relief. She wiped a tear and took a deep breath; so did I. This was going to be stressful for both of us.
'Hello Amelia, I am detective Morris, and I'm here to ask you a few questions about what's happened, are you okay to talk?' I think that came out well, confident even.
'Yes. I want to get this bastard that did this to me, and everyone else he hurt!' She scowled with so much hatred, it scared me a little. Wait, there was more victims?
'What do you mean everyone else? There is other people?'
'When he kidnapped me I was with an umm... Friend, and he took us both. But he was harder on her, she couldn't stand it as long as I could, she just, gave up.' She didn't have to say the actual words. She had died.
'What was her name? What kind of friend was she to you?' She thought about this for a minute, she looked like she was thinking too hard, creating more tears to swell up in her pale green eyes.
'We were selling ourselves on the street, I had only met her a few times before. She told me her name was Candy.' She burst to tears And I tried to console her by pushing her dirty blonde hair away from her wet face and tucking it behind her ear.
'Can you tell me about the man who took you? And where it was?' I had a bad feeling about this case, I needed to know everything.
'He is young, can't be more than twenty five. He has terrible brown hair that's probably as long as yours.' I felt my bob cut, not passing my shoulders.
'He is totally crazy! He would keep reading me passages from a bible or something, he kept calling me an abomination, and filthy. I thought I was going to die!'
My muscles tensed and I felt that all too familiar sickness in the pit of my stomach.
'Did he ask you to call him anything?' My words felt heavy and hard to push from my tightened throat.
'Yes. He told me to call him the corrector.'