Love is Merely Madness ~ Book 1 ~ Batman Begins

Chapter 14: Jeepers Creeper

Chapter 14: Jeepers Creeper

"Aw, man! Anyone but her!" Arnold Flass cried as he and his partner observed another possible homicide. Summer Gleeson was lying face down near the marble coffee table, one sharp corner coated in dry blood.

"Gentlemen, welcome," the coroner from their last case was squatting nearby to examine the body closely. She didn't meet their eyes when speaking to them, only continued to write down her observation. "Wish we could've met again in better circumstances, huh?"

"Uh, again?" Flass questioned in furrowed brows. "Have we met?"

"Don't waste your brain cells on me, Flass," the coroner retorted. "I doubt you remember Valentine's Day from all that heavy drinking."

"Hey, I don't drink for breakfast," the detective argued as he snapped a bite of his egg sandwich. "Okay? So why don't you-"

"Shove that hole in the middle of your face and hand the body over to someone more qualified," the coroner recited as she mocked his voice. "Yeah, I know."

"You a gypsy or something?" Flass raised his hands in a defensive manner, keeping his distance. "How did you know what I was going to say?" The coroner rolled her eyes.

"Wow, this is worse than I thought - your temporal lobe is permanently damaged by the number of booze you drink an hour."

"Whatcha say?"

Now she was asking for a fight, and the burly detective wasn't too keen on hearing what she had to say. Before he could challenge her again, Gordon stepped in the middle. His flashing badge silently ceased their argument. They're at a crime scene and currently on duty. Now it was not the time to fight; they needed to either wait or take a walk outside of prying eyes - the alleyway was the best place for violence.

"Did the neighbors find her like this?" Gordon asked an officer.

"Actually one of the interns at GCN did," the officer replied, pointing at the girl who was sobbing into the housekeeper's arms. Neighbors tried to comfort her while they attempted to see what was going on in the apartment. Two officers made sure no one entered the premises without authorization.

"When Summer wasn't answering her phone and didn't show up for the morning news, they sent the girl here. The housekeeper skipped some rooms to let her in with the master key, and then... you know."

"Damn," Flass cursed, snapping a bite of his egg sandwich, its crumbs dropped onto the floor. Gordon glared up at his partner, who received the silent message to step away from the body.

"And nobody outside heard anything unusual?" Gordon asked. "A scream or argument?"

"No, according to the property manager, these rooms are designed to be soundproof to prevent noise complaints." That's what Gordon was afraid of. So much for having an ear witness.

"So as you can see," the coroner read off her findings as she pointed at the marble coffee table, "this nice centerpiece here was her cause of death - severe blunt force trauma to the head."

Gordon kneeled by the body, shifting the red curls away to see the girl's lifeless eyes staring back. He was becoming familiar with that look, something that nobody should be fond of. He blinked the images of his last case away as he examined Summer's split lip and French manicure, noting the dirt caked underneath the tips. Just because this woman loved to dig dirt on people didn't mean she was the gardening type. Flipping her hand back over to take a closer look at the front of her nails, he nearly missed the red smear on her ring finger - that's blood - she had scratched someone. The DNA under each finger was far too consistent to be accidental.